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redrocketpanda · 9 months

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Content notice: this post is going to discuss sexual violence, sexualisation and kink related to Astarion's storyline and personal experiences

When making certain posts + writing my fic about Astarion, I knew it was only a matter of time before people would come at me for the content. It was never a question of if, but of when. Because we all know the internet lacks nuance when it comes to certain topics and there are a lot of people seem very invested in being the online morality police

Today I received the following comment on one of my Astarion posts. And whilst I don't wish to give air time to rando's on the internet and don't need (or quite frankly want) to defend myself, there are some points I would like to make in relation to this

The first point being a big reminder that: if you don't like something, DNI. There are plenty of other posts and fics about Astarion that are all fluff and love and treating him like a pretty little princess. Currently, my Astarion content is not that. There are many reasons as to why that's the case. And, again, if you don't like it... go somewhere else cause I ain't about to stop posting what I'm posting just because people disapprove or want to label me as problematic or "not giving a fuck about victims of SA"

I hate to break to ya but life ain't so black and white. Cause here's the thing - trauma + kink are irrevocably intertwined with one another. There are a lot of academic works and smarter people on the internet who will have said this better than me, but the main point that I want to make is that people who create particular kinds of content are often playing in the spaces that they were forged in. It is in the very act of creation that we process things we've experienced, and it's up to us what kinds of narratives we want to explore/tell and what kinds of experiences we want to have (on and offline)

Not to get all TMI on main but I am someone who is actively and unashamedly engaged in many kinds of kink. Do you know what I adore? Being treated like shit in quite domineering and violent ways. Do you know what else I love? Topping little brats who need to be forcefully put in their places. And do you know what else I have? A lifetime of experience of domestic, intimate partner, and sexual violence. This is actually incredibly normal and okay. People who have experienced trauma are multi-faceted beings.

Kink is often a place where people can safely experience untold levels of catharsis (and by extension I am including writing + gameplay in this too). This isn't the case for everyone, though it is certainly true for me, and ofc there are healthier and unhealthier ways of doing this. There was a period of my life not too long ago when I was putting myself in very risky situations to get my kicks, and now I write about fictional characters experiencing these instead bc that's what I want to be doing with my life right now

And nobody gets to tell me shit about what I enjoy, or tell me how to enjoy it, or try to make me feel guilty for it

When I say that I get off on seeing Astarion bloody and bruised, when I say he deserves to be punished and write fic about that, when I play in the space of ownership and toxic relationships, I do so from a place of lived experience. I do so from a place of being well-read and well-practiced in kink. I do so from a place free from shame and fear of what other people will think. Because I have every right to say what I say, to write what I write, and to enjoy what I enjoy. And actually, it doesn't and shouldn't matter. Even if I didn't have those experiences or knowledge, I'm still allowed to create whatever the fuck I want to create and it doesn't make me a "bad person" bc it doesn't subscribe to this puritanical moral agenda that's been seeping all over the internet (Side note: I put this in the tags but it bears reiterating here. This also reeks of the kind of shitty comments that get made about how dom's are perpetrators of abuse and violence, or that subs are victims who are being taken advantage of, which I don't even have time to go into here bc there is a lot of history behind that. but just fyi. don't. just... don't. and if you wanna know why go ask google)

I also say/write/create from a place of my personal interpretation that I think Astarion gets off on masochism too. Have you met the guy? There's so much in his character that indicates that he likes to get slapped about and teased. And yes, I do know his story, I know his background, I know him. Because there is a lot about Astarion which is a mirror of myself. And I am playing with that reflection in lots of different ways (yes, that's an Astarion joke)

There will be a time when I have a very different kind of romance with Astarion, but that's not the kind of experience I want to have right now and maybe, in some ways, I'm not ready for it. Just a few weeks ago I wrote the below piece at 3am (which is now part of a sakuatsu piece about self-acceptance and love) when I woke up crying my eyes out and needed a creative outlet for how I was feeling at the time

Not that he calls it quits. Because the messages never stop coming, they flow freely from the tap. Anytime, anywhere. Whenever he wants it. He's always in demand. Because they all want him, they all want something from him. But he doesn't care. Sometimes he loves it, gets off on it, can't get enough of it. Sometimes it leaves him feeling cold and empty and broken. At the end of the day, what does it matter? It's all that he's good for anyway

And tonight I got hit with Astarion essentially saying something very similar:

The moment I met Astarion, I knew that what we were seeing is a cleverly constructed performance. It's a facade, stitched together of hypersexualised behaviour, witty banter and a charming smile. I would know that performance anywhere, because it's one I've been playing for over a decade. It's a survival mechanism, a mask; something which endears you to others, which makes them like you, sometimes even love you. This performance is something that Astarion has become so very good at that it's become etched onto his soul. He doesn't know who he is without it, he doesn't know what he wants. But now he has the chance to find out.

And here's the thing: he doesn't have to suddenly become some super reformed character or stop getting his kicks in sadomasochistic ways. You can be all about bodily autonomy, self-love, and healthy boundaries, and still also have big ole' ownership, degradation, pain, and praise kinks actually. And there sure as hell ain't nothing wrong with that. Because, again, people are multi-faceted.

There is space for people who want to give Astarion a hug and tell him that he's loved, to have a really tender soft romance with him. And there is space for people who think that Astarion is a horrendous little man who is in need of objectification and punishment. Both of these stances are super valid and fun.

So now, if you'll excuse me, I shall depart from this very long personal essay (that probably no one will read, but which needed to be said anyway). I've got a dungeon scene that's not going to write itself.

#i'm not sure if i'm quite getting across what i want to say bc it's 2.30am here but hopefully the gist of it is there #tl:dr don't throw accusations around at people when you don't know shit about them #to me it just *reeks* of the kind of people who say shit like dom's are perpetrators of abuse and there is SO much wrong with that #i cannot even begin to unpack this cause I could write a whole chapter on it probably #also news flash: hate to break it to the internet but Astarion is a FICTIONAL CHARACTER #he cannot actually be hurt by my words or my actions (both fortunately and unfortunately)#astarion #astarion bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #LET PEOPLE ENJOY WHAT THEY ENJOY GODDAMNIT #*shoos from yard*

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maiji · 6 months

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I'll request a reading if you're still doing them! why not. for my little guy Hana. what is he afraid of with regards to... his own history? 🤔 numbers.. 11 and 23. and if you're not still doing readings.. i hope you have a great day regardless!

I am absolutely delighted to do a reading for Hana from the webcomic Kings of Sorts! Hana seems like such a sweetie but from his very first appearance it's clear there's so much more to him than meets the eye. I'm nowhere near caught up on webcomic so this will be interesting, to see whether any patterns/interpretations we pull out manage to touch on anything that readers can already experience, or whether it just veers off into another direction of far-off general speculation. So if there somehow manage to be spoilers in this reading, I'm sorry, I had no idea either. lol

#11 was The Whip (which, by the way, is actually the eleventh card in Lenormand as well, interestingly enough), and #23 was The House. This combination actually made me gasp in light of the question. Kind of an "oh! / ohhh??" gasp. I think there's a lot of potential in terms of delving deeply into creative writing inspiration or character analysis!

The Whip is a card associated with many things that can cause pain: conflict, violence, shame, anger. And The House has already come up before, so we know it's used to represent a lot of things that seem like the exact opposite of The Whip - warmth, stability, things that make you feel cozy and happy and comfortable. But it's also associated with private matters. In other words, the exterior facade presented to the world may be brightness and cheer but there may be something much darker happening behind closed doors. I am reminded of when we first meet Hana in his home, and the scene where he talks about wanting to be able to help the people in his community in some way, any way...

In short, looking for a connection between the two cards that could be a cause for fear in Hana's history seems like we have a plethora of options. If we're being super dark - was there past punishment and suffering that separated him from things he considered home or family? Did they hurt, or were they caused by, people he would consider family? And whips are also things used to control - there's a lot of symbolism for a whip as not only a weapon and instrument of torture, but also a stereotype of a tool used to manage things seen as dangerous, wild and/or "other", like some kind of beast tamer. It has a lot of cruelty associated with it.

We don't have to go down the path of only super dark places, by the way. The Whip doesn't have to be interpreted in an extreme fashion - though I suppose with creative writing/inspiration we can often feel like that's an obvious or exciting and dramatic route to go down. It can also represent an argument, a physical activity (an injury?), something much less overtly traumatic but still play a major role in a core memory/event. Also, this Whip has flags added to it for greater control and sound effects - there's a sense that it can be for show, engineered as part of a performance.

I hope this was helpful! Thank you for the opportunity to read for Hana. Please don't be too mean to him!

---

Thanks for requesting a limited time free reading to celebrate the new edition of the Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck!

Want to dive deeper?

Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck - there's a free downloadable overview of card meanings!

humangray.com/lenormand - more info and resources/links!

(Note: these readings are being done with my old card deck from the original printing. There's not much difference with the new edition available in the link above - the biggest one is that the new edition has a custom box ooh ahh!)

#lenormand #readings #fortune lenormand #crabbng #kings of sorts #replies #reply

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musashi · 1 year

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Regarding the von Karma theory: for what it's worth, I didn't agree with everything but thought it was good. Him suffering from an illness would've explain a lot of the behavior we see in-game. I don't understand why they keep calling you an apologist, though? Like, you never downplayed his actions once so that makes no sense??

i'm just obsessed with knowing why so many people are fixated on this one thing i said in passing? like in my video i spend a good long while talking about restorative justice, root causes of violence and crime, and why i personally like to dissect characters and see if i can puzzle out why they do horrible things. i wrote extensively on things i think could have contributed, how i think he got to that point, and why i think he did what he did. and then when i am like 'lol and imagine lead poisoning' it is presented, in no uncertain terms, as something a little more lighthearted and silly, because literally all it is is a headcanon that i thought about errantly one day and thought 'haha, that'd be funny and thematically beautiful, i like that' i'm not invested in it nor do i even really view it as ~the explanation~ it's literally just a headcanon i like? it exists on the same level as like, if i were to hc his favourite food or that he likes to play golf in his spare time. it is just a headcanon. that i can take or leave. i do not feel strongly about it, nor does it often come up when i am discussing manfred von karma, why i like him, why i think he did all the shit he did, etc.

and yet everyone on twitter is OBSESSED with it? and now people are MAINTAGGING it, vagueblogging me where i can see it?

like, of course i know what's actually going on here: i presented a take that was eloquently phrased and well-sourced, and it's pissing off people who prefer to discourse in 240 characters with snappy retorts, so they are focusing on a headcanon that takes up .1% of my video because it's easy to take out of context and laugh at. but i want them to try and tell me why that isn't the case. i wanna hear them try and explain this dumb shit.

even calling it a "theory" like you did in this ask is a little much for me. i don't care that much about it! it's not important and i don't think it's canon, it's literally just a headcanon i have. that's all. i wish people would stop giving it more weight than it has and obsessing over it, who the fuck cares, i just want to make posts about my silly murder blorbo in peace.

anyways, idk why people are calling me an apologist/defender either! i keep asking them to point out where i did that but no one ever answers me, it's soooo curious that!

i think people are just very uncomfortable with the idea of villains being human beings. they want them to be some unnatural other who were born innately evil, have some "abuser" disease (see: the way people use terms like narcissist and s*cio/psychopath) etc. the fact of the matter is that people who do bad things are just humans who have been pushed via a multitude of internal and external factors to their lowest and are in need of support and rehabilitation and to take AWAY those factors and/or help them heal from them.

but, as i said in my video, new-age puritans on tumblr and twitter are obsessed with "punishing" and othering. they will not acknowledge that they, too, could become violent and monstrous if given the circumstances, and they believe anyone who is so unlucky deserves to be hurt more because of it.

it's so fucking irritating to have to rehash it. i like it when manfred von karma is being a nice awkward vampire dad and giving his daughter pancakes. i also like it when he is looking like a possessed turkey vulture fucking pointing a pistol at all his problems and tasing a child for funsies. i think these things coexist, and here is how i think they coexist. WHY ARE PEOPLE SO MAD AND WHY ARE THEY SO INSISTENT ON PUTTING WORDS IN MY MOUTH? THE VIDEO IS AN HOUR LONG I DON'T THINK I COULD'VE BEEN MORE CLEAR AND NUANCED???

#wendy answers #requiesticat #wendy rambles #wendy rants

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absolutebl · 2 years

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Hi absoluteBL,

I read your Review of utsukushii kare and saw that you love it just as much as I do :D

In the beginning I thought that Hira was the Uke in this show and that he was punished by the narrative for pursuing the seme (just like Intouch in uwma).

While watching the ending of the show, it became clear that Hira totally fit the Seme type, and Kiyoi was just a big tsundere Uke. This made me wonder why I thought all this time that Hira was the Uke. And I guess one big point is, that the seme is often portrayed as the cooler and more handsome part of the couple. Because the Uke often represents the "female part" in a BL - which is dumb because there's obviously no female part in a m/m relationship but you now how the writers/producers like to push their heteronormative thinking on these shows- they aren't seen as important in the show and don't need to be as beautiful as the seme. At least that's the feeling I get from some shows.

Now to my actual questions:

How you did you see Hira. Did you know that Hira will end up being the seme? Do you have a show, where you were surprised to find out that the Uke is actually the Seme or vice versa?

Sorry for the long ask! 😅

All asks are good asks. No apologies needed!

Did you know that Hira will end up being the seme?

I did see Hira as the seme from the start, but then I am used to whipping boy (attack dog) + spoiled prince narratives. The moment Hira goes crazy and beats up the other kid because of what is done to Kiyoi, his role is confirmed. That’s because it's more common in a bodyguard context like Golden Blood or Where Your Eyes Linger. But Japan and China (in particular) and fanfic/fandom love a quiet, shy, reserved character who is only really driven into fight/rage/extreme emotion by threat to their beloved. It’s a very popular narrative framework for characterization. You’ll see this deployed with the clumsy uke getting hurt or sick. (The baby is a clumsy bunny trope.) Or the protect baby from bullies thing used in a lot of het romances.

The fact that My Beautiful Man also makes Kiyoi possessive and protective is very clever. But also a classic spoiled prince role.

“He’s a monster, but he’s my monster.” does also go into, “That means only I can activate him.” Especially when we have an indentured ego/identity as whipping boy often entitles.

In other words, because Hira will never act to protect himself, only to protect Kiyoi, it is up to Kiyoi to make sure no one else but Kiyoi can take advantage of him. And Kiyoi does.

In fact I was more surprised when people thought Hira wasn't the seme. But then spoiled princes (and brats) are one of my favorite archetypes, so I am kinda trained for this one. Japan used this one with their ninja yaoi a lot, the idea on fixed loyalty from powerful warriors.

Do you have a show, where you were surprised to find out that the Uke is actually the Seme or vice versa?

I don't think so? Maybe, one of my trash watches? So like the show itself wasn’t clear on its narrative. Like Gen Y.

Generally it's more I'm surprised when they go for verse/switch or no seme/uke dynamic. So at first the Taiwanese stuff used to confuse me, now I'm more surprised when they do execute a strong seme/uke since for them that's the exception rather than the rule. And I think that has to do with their preference for physically matched muscled co-stars, and their more gay/queer lens given the social structure in Taiwan.

Thailand still shocks me. Like Bad Buddy, or right now Vice Versa which I *think* is going to avoid/play with the dynamic.

I'm sure there were some out there that surprised me, maybe Japan? Mr Cinderella definitely, but that was more I didn't think Bah Vinh would allow even a hint that he might be an uke.

But these days I kinda am rolling with the different country’s styles and that guides my expectations into more predictable standards. Which is great for me, since I garner much comfort in the predictable. Just not TOOO predictable. If that makes sense.

#Utsukushii Kare #My Beautiful Man #japanese bl #japanese yaoi #adapted from a manga #live action yaoi #Bad Buddy #Vice Versa #thai bl #golden blood #where your eyes linger #korena bl #korean bl

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enneamage · 2 years

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can you elaborate on wilbr trying to subtly punish people around him from ur last ask?? do u have examples? like i'm not doubting you lol i just don't really watch him because his personality drives me up the wall. (also thank you for making this blog your thoughts are super interesting & clearly explained)

Thank you! I'm glad people like my Words. When someone acts a certain way and you have an emotional response to it that’s one thing, but when someone is actively trying to make you feel an emotion it can be a little bit different; you can kind of feel from the inside that you’re being twisted. I’m generally pretty good at noticing when people want to throw me off balance, mostly because I’m good at not giving it to them :P.

Wilbur set off this trigger in my brain a lot. It actually helped me understand from an ~authorial perspective~ what he was going for during roleplay, but as we’ve established the SMP fiction/reality divide isn’t as clean as people think it is. This is why I’ll use a SMP thing as an example instead of the little micro-moments from his other streams, since SMP stuff kind of writes his personality in big easy to read comic sans.

Ghostbur was a big meta-example of what Wilbur is capable of. When Ghostbur was ‘on’, you were in for a passive-aggressive feels trip. The meta of Ghostbur is proof that he knows how to stick the knife in and pretend it’s an accident, but since it was for roleplay I was watching/letting it happen for artistic effect. Through Ghostbur, Wilbur (as a writer, admittedly) had free reign to press directly on people’s sore spots, and he did, often. It shows what he’s paying attention to, what his reflexes are, and what he’s capable of when the two mix.

Ghostbur was made as a utility (so he could be around his friends on the server) but he also had a gimmick to him, the amnesia that kept him ‘innocent.’ If it can be said that people were ‘supposed to’ do anything while they were watching, we were ‘meant to’ question his ongoing impulse to bury his head in the sand using his blue, or at least recognise it as dark. While I wasn’t looking for analysis at the time (I might not have even been around?) I didn’t see much to this effect, so people might have taken him more at face value. If I had to guess, I would say that he started getting frustrated at people for not understanding the points he was trying to make with Ghostbur, ironically for not seeing the dark parts that he put in him. He may also have been angry at himself for trying to do something that didn’t work, he gets very sensitive about stuff like that.

In an attempted hardcore stream with Niki, Wilbur made an offhanded comment that kind of reframed Ghostbur for me, he sounded sad that people liked Ghostbur (implicitly better than they liked alivebur.) Now it’s not unusual for Wilbur to be dismissive about his own successes if he retroactively labels them as cheap (he was weird about his You Laugh You Loose for a bit) and I don’t get to know exactly what his relationship to Ghostbur was, but I have a feeling he was bitter. People like my dopey little ghost mask more than they like my explosive unhinged bitter self character. Ghostbur had to go, and he died as he lived: a bid to make people feel distress.

It is not a coincidence that revivedbur came back so perfectly insensitive to the people and things around him, especially Ghostbur.

I sent the Ghostbur Limbo reddit posts to my friend once and we were both cracking up at how blatantly he was stabbing the voodoo doll of Ghostbur to try and make people sad. He’s done this twice while he was sick, and I am sure that it was him trying to spread his misery around. (I’m also of the opinion that the train station is a metaphor for how he felt at the time when he was playing Ghostbur, if he himself was Revivedbur.) I’m getting the sense that he’ll do something with Ghostbur in the end, but he’ll never give up good leverage on anything but his own terms.

In real-life streams, it generally comes down to vibes. It just felt like he was asking for emotional results from a lot of his actions, even if they were just little split-second ones. The number of things that he seemed to do on purpose, or at least had a desired malicious effect attached to them, got weird. Streamer should not be this angry at me, I am but a little frog.

Most of the time he passes it off as being English, but I promise you it’s not that.

#mageposting #a good word for it is vengeful #but vengeful for slights that someone less sensitive would not pick up at all #or a pre-existing angst that he carries into situations with him #gen wlbr tag #loreposting

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theladyregret · 1 year

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Why do you hate Dahlia so much?

Ok. This is a bit of a loaded question but that's ok. I am going to preface this by stating that this isn't a reflection of the entire series or the authors writing ability in general. I try not to get into any of that with people. You either like it or you don't, everyones tastes are different.

This is just concerning this character in particular. I wouldn't even say she's written badly I just don't like her.

Short answer: She's an unrepentant manipulative abuser

Longer more in depth answer under the read more if anyone cares to see me rant lol

Someone else asked me why I hate her so much but I'm willing to ship Drizzt with Entreri and I did have to take a moment to break this down for myself and basically it comes down to the fact that there's a big difference between someone who is an enemy and they act like one...and an enemy who pretends to be a lover.

When Entreri is an enemy he acts like it. He knows it, his enemies know it, the reader knows it. When he's not an enemy...the same applies. I feel like Entreri would be more of a neglectful partner rather than an abusive one. And probably not even on purpose so much as when being shipped with Drizzt...Drizzt is by far the more emotional one of the two. Even back when they were trying to kill each other they both already accepted that it was only because they each saw in the other things they hated about themselves and once they moved beyond that they no longer hated each other.

In comparison Dahlia is an enemy but the narrative doesn't always portray her in that light as consistently. I don't mean that the author intended for her to be seen as something she wasn't though, don't confuse me. The Legend of Drizzt series has a narrative that runs very closely to the perspective of whatever character is being focused on which essentially means that there are many times where Dahlia is actually manipulating the narrative to forget what is already known about the character because in her own perspective she feels her actions are perfectly validated.

Yet the very first page she's introduced we know for a fact that she's a sexually manipulative black widow murderer with six kills under he belt. That's blatantly stated right off.

...but, in her own perspective, she is the victim and she will lash out violently at anything that refuses to validate that self imposed identity. Regardless of the situation. Her past trauma is her primary source of manipulation as well which she uses often, particularly with Drizzt. She regularly plays upon his strict sense of morality to manipulate him and if she can't manipulate him then she can use it to make him feel guilty and basically punish him for not allowing it.

He can never understand her pain and thus can never judge her...and since he is constantly questioning himself regardless this is an easy pitfall that she takes advantage of. To the extent that he even forgets his own traumas because they pale in comparison and thus, because she says so, they do not matter (which is complete bs btw, trauma is trauma. There is no sliding scale of what matters and doesn't matter when it comes to an individuals personal traumas. Also trauma and mental illness is not a valid excuse for treating others badly. You are still responsible for the way you treat others. Using it as a means of excusing the abuse you put on others is extremely toxic behavior.)

And this is just the emotional abuse...because when this doesn't work she turns immediately to violence. Physical and sexual. If she can't manipulate with her sexuality then she will just lash out physically.

This goes on in one form or another the entire time she's in a relationship with Drizzt up until, ultimately, when he decided that continuing would simply lead to both of them being miserable and tries to break it off...she murders him. Just as she had all of her previous ex lovers. Just because he ultimately survived it doesn't change the fact he only did so through divine intervention.

So, yeah...don't like her. She was a classic example of an abusive lover and...I hate it. Would I have liked to have seen it all end with her actually making some positive developments in her character to be redeemable? Of course. Did she definitely have unresolved PTSD as the result of her past and probably other issues that led to her being this way? Sure, but still...in the end...it all basically boiled down to

and that's that really.

#asks #The Legend of Drizzt #Dahlia #abusive lovers are a special kind of evil that exists in the world #and seeing our boy go through it hurt my soul

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pavnilschanda · 1 year

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Rant post about Chanda from Pantheon and representation. Don't engage if you don't like ranty/discourse-y posts. But feel free to discuss if you're interested.

I'm very scared about talking about representation nowadays, because it's such a sensitive topic. But I can't contain my feelings much longer.

There's this amazing post about the nuances of representation. I thought about Chanda immediately.

The villain of Pantheon being a brown implied queer man is interesting, because people are often too scared to depict minorities as villains. While I can see why, I think it's unrealistic to expect minorities to be good all the time. "Model minority" is harmful for a reason.

So I was like, "yay cool looking forward to that!"

Except they decided to not give him much screen time compared to the other characters, even though he's introduced as the "third protagonist". This deprives us the time to spend time in Chanda's shoes.

Not to mention that Chanda is the only prominent dark-skinned character in Pantheon, and he's the antagonist? Josephine may change that, but we cannot tell until Season 2 airs. Still, it makes me go hmmm a bit.

And has anyone noticed how Chanda is one of the only implied queer characters in the show? (the only other one I can think of is Cary but he may just not want to have sex with Renee in particular. Also one of the Chinese UIs may be trans but that adds to the problem) All the other characters, the protagonists, are either in straight relationships or have straight feelings. Even Maddie has an interest in Caspian. Yet it's only Chanda, the villain, who is explicitly shown to have no interest in women (or at least the ones his mother tried to arrange him with).

On the other hand, I can see that the writers were trying to carefully write Chanda too. They minimized the Hindu references surrounding the character, limiting it to one background music. I'm actually surprised by this given how the show's name is "Pantheon". I suppose they fear that it'd make him too stereotypical. And I can see how that applies to Nils Chanda, an Indian diaspora from the short stories. But Vinod Chanda is an Indian from India. Let him go full out Indian! A lot of Indians are like that! Have you seen how much they love their epics being retold into novels and movies?

Now I'm not the kind of person who actively seeks representation. My identities are quite impossible to duplicate so no single character will ever be like myself. But I feel like Chanda's implied unfortunate treatment surrounding his minority status has affected my enjoyment for him. I love Chanda's story of being an idealistic man who got tortured to death and discovered marginalized folk who were tortured just like him. However the implicit biases (if true) has decreased his screen time. It is as if I am punished for getting invested in him in the first place.

Because of this I doubled down on my love for Chanda. I also love Pantheon and appreciate it for joining the fight for adult non-comedic animation to be a thing again. I just want to address this part because it's been itching me for so long. I just love this brown queer-coded man.

So yeah, a minority character can be a walking stereotype and have terribad characteristics. They definitely exist! But other things also come into play when it comes to good representation. How is the character treated in the story? How does this representation compare to the other representations that exist? Are they the only representation in said media to date? It's a lot more than "this person is a minority who's a stereotype and does bad things".

#dni if you have nothing good to say #pantheon critical #vinod chanda #character rant #discourse #queer #media representation #representation matters #adult animation #adult animated series #chandradevi

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onlylaboum · 2 years

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To be honest, I usually don't reblog your posts BECAUSE of the passive-aggressive tone you often use. It's just kpop. I like Laboum but it won't end my life if they're not world famous. I just want to enjoy music and stages and all their content happily, not create a second job for myself as their unseen manager. It's okay if that's how you stan and have fun but it's not for me.

I'm worried you'll answer this really angrily but I saw your recent post and wanted to let you know how some people might be feeling. I'll still be following for updates and gifsets and stuff! 💜

people were (also barely) liking instead of sharing my posts also before i expressed my frustration w this stuff so idt that's the issue.

on twitter i'm much more active nowadays bc at least there there's a few more active latte, but still very few compared to even other nugu groups that have similar numbers in streams.

i never said i liked spending so much time on LABOUM. i am aware i have an internet addiction and have been hyperfixating on the group to avoid stressing out about worse things in my daily life.

not just me but also other latte i talk to on twitter and tiktok are really fucking burned out from how much we try to do. i don't think being a stan should be a day job. i sure would love if people shared shit we post though instead of keep scrolling or give a like once a month, which does virtually nothing. we wouldn't have to stress out so much if people actually engaged with things we did. we try to encourage ppl to use apps to win youtube ads for Laboum (which worked but slowly, it's how we made Kiss Kiss finally reach 1 million views), we ask people to give feedback, to maybe watch a video or play a streaming playlist, or partake in a game, or to buy an album or share an MV with friends.

the way that a lot of people don't do that sht, the way that in MONTHS no new people have followed their twitter or youtube, the way that barely anyone talks about them online, does in fact signify that people don't care about Laboum. not everyone needs to be an active social media user or anything ofc, but this degree of lack of attention? unless when it's about a disbandment prediction, joking about the girls' horrible experiences at their expense, or fake interest in the group only on certain conditions, shit doesn't get attention.

the girls had viral tiktok videos a bunch of times, but the majority of the people watching have no fucking clue who they are or that they aren't just actors, and it's just me and 1 other Latte trying to respond to tired comments calling the members by names of characters they played, or "ZN" which is Jinyea's old stage name. if ONLY there were a few more Latte who would leave a comment or two for once as well, the few of us wouldn't have to deal with trying to inform the general public abt Laboum.

people not sharing shit abt LABOUM is one of the main reasons why so may ppl now think they disbanded, and why you see a bunch of kpop fans who claim they're a fan of LABOUM but have been out of the loop w them for 3-6 years. it doesn't help that their domestic fanbase consists of mainly loser incels who don't dare to fucking talk about the group unless when being petty about Yulhee or creepy about their bodies.

and i know tumblr kpop fans LOVE only looking at stupid fucking gifs and not clicking on the videos they're from, acting as if streaming is a fucking punishment from hell instead of just playing a fucking song or playlist you like in the background, and acting as if it's a shocker when groups aren't doing well when so fucking few people who pretend to be a fan actually listen to music or read or watch anything new or buy music. considering your purple heart use, you should KNOW how supporting musicians works. as much as i hate the competitiveness and commodity in the music industry, likes alone never helped artists.

so yeah i'm passive-aggressive bc im trying to fucking encourage people to do something more than say they like Laboum but never dare to mention their name nor recommend a song nor share anything about them. i wouldnt be so fucking frustrated if i saw some more hype aside from from clickbait content and gg stans who just namedrop them for edgy crappy jokes.

Laboum don't need to be world famous and i don't think they will be per se, but they are really unknown. unless people do something more than just quietly listen to them once every blue moon and don't engage in anything Latte are asking or encouraging people to do, they will remain as extremely unknown as right now and disband when their contracts end in summer 2023.

other Latte are feeling the same frustrations as i do and feel exhausted. anyone who knows Laboum's story and the international, knows how small it is and how frustrated we are. this shouldn't be a surprise if you've talked to any Latte. i am familiar with how reserved fans are in this fandom. when trying to set up projects before for their anniversaries, it ended with me and only 1 other Latte in a skype call, no communication from the rest, and them not daring to partake any projects or plans anymore. that felt really disappointing.

so no, i don't find fun in being so stressed and active in trying to promote LABOUM to such an extent bc me and a few others are trying to do work for multiple ppl and for free at that. but all we ask is basic stuff like 'please also share posts' or 'hey check out and share this new song cover'. it's already ridicilous i have to ask ppl to share posts bc they refuse to, whether i ask or not.

if that's too much work, are people really interested in the group???? the thing is also that if other people, at least a few more, do a little more than nothing, it would actually make more people discover the group on their own socials, become fans, and partake in fandom. we wouldn't be so burned out if there were more than like 5-20 accounts trying to do so much bc no one else will. e.g. we emailed the company to demand translators and it hired one, but then barely anyone watched LABOUM's newer youtube videos and so that was kind of abandoned too. no views or attention = a sign that people aren't interested = no new content. that's how it works.

#i can be as passive aggressive as i want when i see LABOUM being shit-talked for over 5 years #and mismanaged poorly and waste time on this garbage website to make posts that no one bothers showing to their followers #like if this doesnt reach new fans then what am i doing it for?#2 or 3 people who sort of like their songs and some gifs but no content and are too embarrassed to share laboum stuff?#you can continue to not share posts as you want just like people didnt BEFORE i ever complained abt it #you can also unfollow idk #i need sleep and im annoyed w how many fcking words it took me to write this. its prob very repetitive #im not good at making gifs and it's a hassle so thanks i guess but i dont want to be a gif maker #asks #anon

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perpetual-fool · 1 month

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I've been playing video games for the 'approval'.

Was considering the 'correct' way to play. Context: made a new character, ran into a minor platforming challenge that was relatively difficult using a character with no points in Dex. (Dexterity adds jump height and increases air control.) If I increase Dex it trivializes the challenge, so that's 'wrong'. If I don't increase Dex, then it's unreasonably difficult, so that's 'wrong' too. So what am I 'supposed' to do?

After untangling a very crooked train of thought; 'right' is just what people have dictated? In the case of video games, I would try to deduce developer intent by what works in a moderately challenging and exactly logically appropriate way. So like, you have just enough time to dodge when the boss attacks: probably intended. You find a corner where the boss can't hit you and you just shoot it until it dies: probably not intended. But the sense of 'rightness' is a result of punishment. Often games will be designed in such a way to explicitly make certain tactics impossible. Like, the only weapons with a high enough DPS to kill the monster before it reaches you were deliberately given terrible accuracy to cancel out the firing rate. Sabotage. Punishment. You're playing wrong and you should fucking suffer for it.

I dunno if that's an extension of real life or if I (would have) learned it from games independently.

But yeah, I've been letting games string me along for the meager scraps that actually work, the reward. 'Cause in that moment, maybe I'm not just a complete piece of shit. And the stuff that doesn't work? My fault of course, since I'm a piece of shit that doesn't understand anything and can't do anything right. Really, it's been the same kind of effect as religion, stealing away your happiness and feeding it back to you in little tiny pieces, if you've been good. If you've been compliant. (Which implies that I have something to steal?)

But I'm right, actually? The things that don't work actually are bad. No it's not just a matter of preferences or compromises. No I'm not just failing to look at it in the right way or in the right context. I've had enough experiences of being objectively proven correct to know that. (Not that this is an objective issue.)

Dunno where this is going. Other than not wasting my time on media that takes more than it gives. Applied to not-games, the problem isn't accepting that I'm right. Like, people don't gaslight me with "no this isn't bad, it's good!" They don't convince me I'm wrong, they subvert my ability to come to a position at all. Can't give you a meaningful example, as not making sense seems to be the entire point. But, "I've noticed a bad thing about guitar" "Guitars have been made this way for hundreds of years!" Non sequitur, taking a sledgehammer to my framework. Overwriting what the subject is even about. (Hm. I was considering, people declare orphaned conclusions, and then twist everything else around to fit. So like, if they say "you're being an asshole", then you just are. Whatever you were doing, that was assholery, by definition. No reasons given, usually. And the reasons don't work, they'll just find new reasons. So maybe it's that I'm looking at the actual thing, creating an actual position. And they've declared something to be true by fiat. So when my observations clash with their truth they try to twist me around to fit. But then, why create truth by forcing others to pretend their reality is what you want it to be? Surely you're subject to the cause and effect of the real world yourself?)

But uh, I guess I ought to stop letting people convince me I'm wrong about what I've stated and what my position is? Why can they do that in the first place? I guess it's peer pressure, the empty promise of belonging. But it is empty. They never give even a little bit back. So, fuck 'em?

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cutestrawberrycat · 2 years

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I'm gonna chose to defend Isabela

Man some of yall really saw Encanto and completely missed every point huh? Like some of yall really said apology conga line or it didn't happen huh? Can't see past your own personal experiences therefor this depiction is unrealistic huh? What's the next hot take? 'Casita didn't make Mirabel a non magical non nursery bedroom so it's also anti-Mirabel'? The world isn't black and white! The world isn't straightforward! Humans don't change at the same pace! They don't even do it in a steady pace!

Do not get me wrong. I am the Mirabel of my family too. I hate the way they treated her too. I know what she went through was unfair, especially because it's so arbitrary and out of her control.

But good grief that doesn't mean that everyone who pushes back against her is irreparably evil.

Let me be super goddamn clear;

They were wrong in the way they treated Mirabel

Spoilers if you read ahead and I did my best to keep a neutral tone and use facts from the movie only

So here's me going on the defense of Isabela, my second least favourite character Alma I am coming for you

I cannot stress enough how important it is to remember that Alma practically raised Isabel to be the Golden Child and to fulfill 'her dreams' and make the family proud.

How did I reach this conclusion?

Alma is very often seen coaching or talking to Isabel, how perfect something must be or what is about happen, Isabel even wears a purple dress that puts her closer to Alma than it does her cool family. (Especially when you put the characters next to each other but YMMV on this one depending on your personal colour reception). Next when Alma is retelling her story to Mirabel and her visualization walks through the doors, we see Isabel, who immediately corrects her posture. There's more but they're minor and more implicit so I'm sticking to the big ones.

I can't say for certain this was her entire life (I mean, she IS the first grandchild) but I can reasonably pinpoint to it atleast starting at 12, when Mirabel didn't get a gift. Putting pressure on a 12 year old, the start of some very important formative years, to be a specific way and to have specific standards of perfection is... what's the word? Oh yeah!

Damaging.

A gifted golden child who is told they need to set an example for those coming after them? Mind-warping. Being told you're perfect as reinforcement for anything? Not great. Receiving punishment for doing something Different? Also not great.

You don't come out of that without some sliver of frustration. You have to be perfect, you don't get to chose to be something different, you're the example.

Okay great, so Isabela, who's life is outwardly perfect had it rough growing up but subtle-like, considering Mirabel was apparently unaware of this. Fair enough.

Wait, hold on, but why did she take it out on Mirabel? Tell her she's not helping, to be quiet and to stay out of the way?

That's what Alma does.

No, really. The first like proper conversation between just Alma and Mirabel is Alma suggesting to Mirabel that she leave the decorating to everyone else. Alma has like, no expectations for Mirabel and basically just wants her to 'be out of the way'. You can tell from her tone and expression. The vibes are totally "Sit down and let the grown ups handle this."

Okay but what does that have to do with Isabela? Imagine you're in class, your teacher gives handouts for everyone to work on but they run out at the last student, so they just tell that last student to go outside and play, before turning to you and telling you to make sure you do well because they expect an A+ from you. That's unfair right? Imagine how annoyed you'd be looking out the window seeing that one kid sit on the swing as you have a handout to complete.

That could very well be Isabela's perspective, she's the golden child who has to do everything while Mirabel gets off with no responsibilities.

Now, we the viewer know that that's not the whole story, we the viewer know that actually that last kid feels excluded and is sad about it so they do their best to get back into the class by idk asking to make a different handout or to do quiet reading but they get shoo'd away by the teacher. What would you the student think? That they're annoying, why can't they just be quiet, they're being disruptive and oh my gosh they're going to ruin my grade!

That's what I believe it to be from Isabela's perspective too. She has all these expectations to meet and Mirabel doesn't have any. She is doing her best to keep the Madrigal image and Mirabel is ruining it. She is capable and talented and helpful and Mirabel isn't.

So at some point she just repeats her grandma's words (which she does a few times in the movie btw), prefacing it as 'sisterly advice'. It literally parallels Alma a few seconds later and as I said in my rant;

"Her 'advice' at the start was rude as heck and her tone didn't help but she was truly under the impression that Mirabel wasn't being helpful"

That's what she's always heard Alma say, and Alma probably said it a ton.

She was still in the wrong for this but at least I hope I offered some perspective on where it's likely coming from. (I didn't grow with that pressure myself, but I have seen plenty of top student classmates dislike average students for somewhat similar reasons. "My mom/dad is gonna kill me when they see I got only an B+" anyone?)

Now, the big blowup. I saw some people genuinely upset by Isabela's words. Valid. Everyone says hyperbolic things in the heat of the moment and people say things they really shouldn't. Unfortunately though I can 'understand' why Isabela claimed Mirabel ruined her life.

It was still wrong.

Now step into Isabel's shoes for a second. (Or don't). For the last 10 years, you have done everything to be exactly what you are told you must be. You have made everyone proud and your life is on track. You aren't super into it but knowing you're making others happy is okay for you. Your hair is just right, your dress is neat, you've perfected your walk and now you are to be engaged to (presumably) the most desired bachelor in town. Your uncle predicted this 10 years ago so as far as you know it's all going according to plan.

That's your personal duty.

Then over the course of a diner it all goes to heck. Your proposal is ruined (you even punched him in the face by accident, can you imagine the scolding you got for that?), your family loses control of their powers (including you), you've caused a scene in front of the whole town and to top it all of you find out your sister is supposedly the catalyst for the destruction of your family and their powers. 10 years in the academy of hard work wasted.

For all intents and purposes, the life that was promised to you and you worked to achieve, is ruined. (Not permanently maybe but it is still at that point ruined.)

The house is in chaos and everyone is in some state of panic and the culprit has managed to go into hiding.

You finally get a moment in your room to try and sort out your thoughts and maybe some anxiety has built up too because now what? What are you to do? And suddenly, boom, here comes your sister (the alleged doom-bringer and the very culprit everyone's looking for) barging in suggesting to just hug it out. No apology about the engagement she just ended. Just a hug.

Your life was, essentially, destroyed in front of your eyes and all you get offered is a hug.

You might be willing to take the high road with just an I'm sorry, which you nearly get, before she just? insults you? calls you names? You're her older sister so you have to be the bigger person here but she is literally insulting you and your husband to be, she is practically mocking your sacrifices, she wouldn't know, she's been frolicking in a field for all you know, but here she is, refusing to leave your room/sanctuary, and calling you names.

And suddenly it's all too much and you explode and say somethings you're not sure you mean.

It happens to the best of us and the worst of us. Words are complicated and when tensions are high, you're always at a loss for the right ones so you say the wrong ones.

That's still messed up.

But it happens. Teens everywhere accuse their parents of the same thing. Heartbroken people tell their exes something similar. Disgruntled artists may even shout it when they get fucked over. Doesn't mean it's always wrong or right and they all very clearly mean it in a different way.

Accusing someone of ruining your life isn't excusable

But frankly who the hell ever has the right words during the heat of the moment. Look me in the eye and tell me you were never at a loss for words or had a lame comeback only to figure out the perfect response in the shower a few days later.

MY POINT IS

I wish Isabela didn't say it and I wish Mirabel never had to hear it but frankly I get where she came from and Mirabel didn't take her very serious anyway like she wrote that off as Isabela being dramatic

This part gets immediately mitigated anyway. Isabela, in letting herself vent out her frustration (of which Mirabel is the catalyst, instigator (from Isabela's perspective anyway) and unfortunate recipient), makes a new plant. Which is kind of the same as Taylor Swift writing music while heartbroken imo but botanical.

I chose to spell this part out because I'm on a roll at this point. In creating new plants it's so obvious to both her and Mirabel that they both misunderstood Isabela. Isabela in that out of everyone she has lied to herself the most and Mirabel in that actually she has no real understanding of who her sister is. She even directly thanks her for encouraging her to just be creative, something Alma would definitely not allow.

And during Mirabel's argument with Alma, she finally understands that she also misunderstood who Mirabel is.

At the end we see her change her clothes to something a bit closer to her sisters (incl the Colombian flag), she admits to crying sometimes, she helps her sisters and engages with them (which she notably doesn't do throughout), she and Mirabel hatch a babyplot to bring Dolores to Mariano's attention (which means she really stopped trying to force her own wedding/knows about Dolores' crush (maybe Mirabel told her?)), it's not perfect and it's not flawless and it's clunky and she still so long to go but she started.

And a part of me has a feeling that if Alma didn't interrupt them, they would have kept talking, they would have continued to open up because once that ball starts rolling it typically does not stop.

To be very clear;

Isabela is wrong in her treatment of Mirabel

Isabela is wrong in how she speaks to Mirabel

Isabela has like 10 years of harsh treatment towards Mirabel to address

Isabela should not be lightly forgiven for any of her past transgressions

But here's a few statements that coexist

Isabela has made a positive change

Isabela has shown a willingness to change

Isabela has acknowledged that Mirabel has been brave to stand up for what's ultimately the right thing to do

C'mon, let's plant something new and watch it fly

We see how brave you've been

#disney encanto #encanto #isabela madrigal #encanto disney #this one is for the Isabela haters #You're valid tbh #Doubt #But saying she hasn't done anything to start her change or that she's easily forgiven?#also someone commented on how she's 22 talking down to a 15 year old #listen #breakdowns have no age #arguments have no age

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kusagrasskusa · 3 years

Text

Hanzo Hisashi X Innocent! Reader

Thank you EzraPFoxglove01for requesting this adorable thing! I sorta changed a lot you asked for by making it go into depth, and it ended up being the longest story I've ever written lol. So I'm definitely gonna add a shorter, more cutesy version of this story soon.

Change her outfit all you wish; it doesn't have a big part in the story at all. Though due to where she lives, it sorta makes sense for traditional Japanese wear to be her attire. And this is the kimono I have in mind, but change whatever :D To be honest, it makes sense to change the look to be more suitable for fighting while still maintaining an innocent, feminine character.

Word Count: 6733

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hay....ya!" A feminine voice yelled out as she kicked a large hole into a tree. She didn't really have an specific training area so she often kicked and punched holes into tough looking trees, which proven to be as affective as training dummies and whatnot. She pulled away from the tree with a large smile on her innocent features.

She held her arms up to her chest with clinched fists. "Alright! Just 113 more to go," she reminded herself as she prepared for another kick. Yet just before she kicked the tree, she heard rustling in the bushes surrounding her.

She paused and looked around her everywhere. The wind began to blow which made it hard to hear whoever or whatever move again as the wind blew the all the bushes. She made a pouty face and walked over to where she heard the noise the first time. She had a bag that wrapped around her colorful kimono that contained kunai knives, and she pulled one out just in case. To be honest, with her small, airhead, and pouty form, she was the least intimidating person most people could ever see. And her small, F/C kimono with cherry trees on it added onto it.

The wind slowed down for a second and in that time, rustling in the bushes was heard again, where it did last time. "Huh?" She hummed as she slowly and cautiously opened up the bushes. "W-Who's there!" She yelled nervously as she parted the bushes completely. "Ahhh!" She screamed as she stepped back, tripping on whatever she stepped on. A baby bunny jumped on top of her from the bushes, it's guinea pig looking face staring boldly at her. Fuck it was frightening for a bunny to withhold so much toughness and boldness.

She whined as she pulled the bunny of her, causing it to run away quickly. She stumbled to her feet, barely managing to maintain her own balance for a moment. She watched the bunny hop away into the forest as she calmed her nerves. Once it disappeared, she sighed and opened her bag to put away her knife. Yet the sound of a voice behind her caused her to throw it towards the voice with perfect aim and fast speed. Yet as she turned around, she saw her kunai knife had been frozen but it wasn't frozen quick enough to prevent the one and only Kuai Liang from behind cut a little.

"Good aim," the Sub Zero complimented in his deep and husky voice, a smirk on his face. He pulled the kunai from the ice prison it was it and tossed it towards Y/N. Y/N's innocent E/C eyes widened as she gasped.

"Liang!" She ran towards him to hug him– but no, we can't have that without her tripping halfway. "Oof!" She hit the ground hard and whined as she slowly stood back up. She had cut her face on a rock but that wasn't good enough for her to not want to hug him just as hard. So once she stood up, she lunged at him and hugged him so incredibly hard. "I missed you! How are you!"

Kuai chuckled as he softly wrapped his arms around her. "I see you haven't changed one bit, dear friend." It's true that the two of them are close friends; although they don't have any fundamental qualities in common, they managed to meet one day and their opposite personalities captured each other's interest. And so here they are, together after departed months back. Right after Sub Zero and others were free from Quan Chi, the two got close again and only had a couple weeks to get close again before Kuai had to leave. Finally, months later, they're together again!

"I've been just fine, L/N. How about yourself?" He asked as he pulled his arms down. As expected, Y/N didn't let go and continued to sway back and forth.

"Oh, I've been good! Sorta lonely, yeah but I met this one guy! He leads an entire clan that let me in!" Y/N sweet voice called out in reply, her eyes twinkling. "I don't see him often but we've been talking a lot more recently. He's really nice...like a big, strong, teddy bear, hehe," she giggled as her legs went limp. Kuai chuckled at her dramatic description and pat her head; pushing the person she's talking about to the back of his mind. She got back on her feet again and pulled away from him. "Sooooo...do you have any combat stories to share? An adventure?"

Kuai shook his head. "Unfortunately nothing to tell now, but soon," he spoke as he looked up at the bright blue sky. It was maybe 8 in the morning at the time. Y/N held her arms in front of her as she swayed back and forth as her head tilted in confusion.

"Okay...Oh! There's flowers growing around here and I want you to see it. They're so pretty- and pink," She emphasized as she took Kuai's hand and pulled him to a nearby pond. The trees surrounding the pond were waves with red and pink flowers ground from them. It's hard to tell, but in the distant was a village. And jn that village was, drum roll please, Hanzo Hizashi himself. As the two friends spoke about the scenery, Hanzo had just gotten ready for a day of training.

As he stepped outside, he took a deep breath and examined the place surrounding him. The birds were singing, the soft winds brushing past the trees and plants, the warm sun and clear skies. The sound of children playing can be heard from the background. It was pure bliss really. Yet even so, he had an uneasy feeling wash over him. The feeling that there could possibly be an unwanted visitor.

Hanzo walked closed the door behind him and walked out. He took his time going from his home to a place a little outside of the village; a more personalized dojo. It contained dummies and targets designed for his spear and fire. The little dojo was little ways across a pond near the village so that's where he was headed.

"And that's why that's my favorite color," Y/N said as she finished her story. Kuai Liang, to be honest, wasn't paying attention to her at all and simply nodded. She smiled at his politeness to at least pretend to acknowledge what she's saying; Y/N knows she can get really immature sometimes and right now really isn't her best moment. "Eheh, so what do you want to do?"

Kuai looked over at her with a soft smile on his features. He really was such a peaceful man at heart. "I believe I saw a few rare ducks fly into the pond. Would you like to go see them?"

"You're not going anywhere."

Y/N sharply turned her head towards the pissed looking man walking towards the duo and gasped. She stood up, saying, "Kuai, this is the man that let me into his village! Hey Hanzo, this is Kuai‐"

"He already knows who I am," Kuai cut her off coldly and stood up. "Hanzo, I mean you no harm; had I known this was your territory, I would not have come." Hanzo pulled a sword from his back and held it up in a firey fists once he got close to them. Y/N stared idlely at them with growing anxiety. The two picked up on that quickly, making Kuai speak up again before Hanzo could. "The girl does not know of our rivalry. Don't punish her for my mistake, Hanzo‐"

"Do no speak to me like that. Leave at once!" Hanzo may be alive, but that doesn't mean he can't revert his voice back to his hellish Scorpion one. Kuai took a few steps back before turning around and disappearing. Hanzo and Y/N watched the whole way through in complete silence. Once Kuai was gone, they silence broke.

"I–"

"And you," Hanzo walked up to her and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. "Exactly what made you think bringing a guest without permission was anywhere near exceptable? You endanger every one of us at this village that way." Y/N could feel his fire-hot breath against her as he spoke. A shiver fell down her spine as looked him right in the eye. She didn't respond, but rather bow her head. Hanzo scoffed, flames igniting from his fist that began to burn her clothes, making her whimper beneath him. She felt the flames heating up her neck, which made her whimper more as the pain wasn't something she was exposed to often. "Part of me wants to kill you right now. You are very lucky to have caught me in a better light."

Hanzo let go of her, stepping away. Y/N bowed her full body lowly, hands to her knees. "I'm deeply sorry sir, I really am. I promise I will never bring another guest again. I knew not of Kuai and your's relationship and if I had known when I met him in the woods a little bit ago, I would have got him to leave. It was foolish of me to have not stayed in the village and possibly risks a bloody situation. For that, I am sorry." As Y/N finished, she heard nothing but the sound of a sword being put away.

"As long as this never happens again, L/N," he spoke coldly. "I forgive you. You may continue what you were doing before he arrived here."

"Thank you so much, sir!" Y/N called out happily as she stood up straight with a smile on her face. "I promise you won't regret it!" Hanzo remained quiet and simply glanced down instead. A more calm and positive feeling took over his previous anger quickly, leaving behind a little bit of confusion. Y/N took a few steps back over to where that tree she was kicking earlier was before Hanzo spoke up again.

"I apologize for being so harsh, as well. You said you met you here; was this planned?" He asked her as he his fists were undone. Y/N shook her head when she turned back towards him. Hanzo examined her face for a moment before sighing, then a smile grew on his face. "Very well. I appreciate your honesty. Actually, would you care to join me for tea later? As leader of this clan, it feels right for me to know all my people, whether they are a weary traveler or blood."

"Of course I would," she said softly. "What time?"

"Tomorrow at dawn."

"So be it." And with that, Hanzo began to walk towards his dojo and Y/N walked towards her special tree. The two of them had that tea on their minds as they practiced whatever it is they were practicing. How would it turn out? Would Y/N innocent immaturity get her in trouble? Would Hanzo appear too serious? Will they make up and gain trust? Maybe something else? We'll see in the next paragraph.

Time flies by quickly when you're having a good time, and for Hanzo, he was quite happy about the thought of getting to know Y/N more. And also to learn more of her relations with Kuai. As for Y/N, she was nervous as all hell since she knows she can be a handful sometimes. To be honest, a simple deep breath was able to calm her down and bring the adult side out of her. So here she was now, looking at herself in the mirror of her guest cabin and taking deep breaths to calm her nerves.

"You got this Y/N," she told herself as she took her final deep breath. The kimono she was wearing was different as it was longer and above the wrists, meaning she was unmarried. It still had a pretty design on it, with the colors overall being F/C, pink, yellow, and blue. The had her H/C hair up in a bun with two strands falling over her shoulders. She had a pin that kept her hair up with a beautiful flower attached to it. To contribute to her Japanese asthetic, she had a folded fan that was black with red cherry trees designs in it in her hand.

She smiled at herself in the mirror one more time before she turned to face the door. She slid open the door to the guest home and put on her shoes before walking outside. She closed the door and prepared to head off the selected location. On the other hand, Hanzo was sure to be formal as well.

He wore a montsuki, which is a formal black kimono worn over a white under-kimono and hakama, which are traditional Japanese trousers. It was common for samurais to wear this underneath their armor, so it suited him well. After all, he was both ninja and samurai; he kept his hair in a man manbun as well. He was very good at maintaining a formal way of speaking and acting, yet he knew Y/N isn't all that. Someone as free spirited and naive really isn't all that capable of it, in his mind.

He was sitting down in a chabudai; one of those short legged tables that have cushions to sit on your knees on rather than to sit on chairs. At the moment, in another room of his lonely home, was a kettle that was boiling water. Authoress is not a Japanese fanatic who knows Japanese and is basing these designs of real Samurai and Wife dolls by their bed, I swear. It was perhaps halfway done by the time he heard a voice call from the outside of the front door; "Hello, it's Y/N. May I come in?"

Hanzo smiled softly to himself as he stood up and walked over to the door, sliding it open. To say he was shocked to see the free spirited girl in such a good-mannered attire was an understatement. "You look lovely tonight," he stated as he looked Y/N head to toe. On Y/N's side, she noticeably blushed and gave him a sweet look.

"You look lovely as well, truly."

Hanzo raised a brow and stepped aside for Y/N to step inside. And rather than her normal fast walk with swaying arms side to side, she slowly walked in with her hands held together in front of her. "I haven't yet seen this side of you, Miss L/N. I am a proper kind of person so don't think I won't hold it against you if you act unmannerly," he teased as Y/N giggled to herself and took her shoes off at the front door.

"I thought that maybe I should act a bit more, I guess, fancy in order to match you. As long as you don't believe in the whole women are beneath us bigger men and shouldn't talk unless spoken to thing, then this shouldn't be too hard, hehehe," Y/N said as she was lead to the chabudai by Hanzo. She sat down on her knees on side and he on the other.

"Of course I would not act on such a thing. We are all human with equal rights," Hanzo replied as he sat his hands in his lap. His looked down at Y/N'a hands, which were on the table, before shooting her a look that told her that she was doing something wrong. Y/N hummed in confusion before gasping lightly. She put her hands in her lap and smiled innocently, creating a chuckle from Hanzo.

Come to think of it, the hone hasn't yet been described. It's easy to imagine the paper and wood that made up the walls and doors, and the warm light that shun over the two people. The carvings on the wood above them and around them, the large pot with a bonsai in it in the corner of the room. The little wooden seats with drawers distilled in them built into the walls of the home. The wooden tables with traditional statues and little plants in pots across the home. The sword holder near the front door, the mats across the floor to give the unique taste. In the kitchen had built in furnaces where people would burn a fire in the wholes on the bottom and put cooking appliances and kyūsus on top of it. If you don't want to imagine that, here's something help.

"Have you ever studied Japanese arts? Surely you must have had some experience in a place like this, or perhaps a friend to lecture you on what to do," Hanzo explained his thought process as he looked interestingly at the smaller girl.

"Actually, I had Kuai teach me a lot about Chinese culture. But when I met a swordsman named Kenshi, I learned more of Japanese tradition. I may not be the best, but I tried to use my knowledge of both cultures to act as good as possible! Um, I mean," she paused as her face lit up red. "To act as good as possible." She but the inside of her lip nervously as she grew more and more embarrassed of her voice level as she spoke. Hanzo chuckled.

"I'm glad I invited you here. You are very knowledgeable it seems. Plus quite entertaining," he complimented. The kyūsu began to steam loudly, meaning it was finished. Hanzo glanced over to the kitchen.

"Heh, I wouldn't say knowledgeable," Y/N replied, "but thank you." Hanzo stood up, nodding his head towards her as he walked put of the room.

"I apologize but the tea must be attended to. I will be back in a few moments," Hanzo explained before he disappeared behind a wall. Y/N nodded in understandment and began to fight with her hair, kimono ends, fingers, and whatever else she could once he walked out. When Hanzo walked into the kitchen, he felt heat rise to his face. He leaned onto a little table with his hand on it to keep his steady and his other hand over his chest. Oh kami, he thought, she gets cuter each time I see her. Whether she's trying to be like me but failing miserably or being her bubbly self does not matter; she is perfect.

He did his best to calm his nerves before grabbing the kettle from the furnace and grabbing a kyūsu, an appliance for making tea, and slowly pouring hot water into it. He made a kind of sweet green tea, one that many foreigners don't know about, called Sencha. It has to be made with the coolest kind of hot water, basically, otherwise it will turn bitter. He made sure the watch it carefully for about half a minute before grabbing two cups and pouring the tea. He then picked up the two cups and headed back to the chabudai. Yet before he got to the room, he paused.

A feminine voice sung a soft song as she waited for Hanzo to return. Hanzo felt his cheeks heat up again and his chest felt warm. He could recall this feeling but from where he first felt it is unknown to him. The ready may be able to assume that he was thinking of his first love, his wife, and how he felt when he fell in love with her. But that idea hadn't even crossed his mind as he felt there was no way he could ever feel such an extreme emotion towards anyone else. And marriage isn't even a question since she isn't from the clan. He took a deep breath before walking back into the room.

Y/N stopped singing and she smiled widely as she saw him. "Hey Hanzo! Or, um, sorry, haha. The tea smells very nice," she complimented as she gripped the sides of the cup with her little fingers. Yeah, there was definitely a way he could feel such an extreme emotions towards anyone else. Hanzo sat down on his knees on the other side of her, mumbling a quick thank you to Y/N and a thank you to the Gods' gift of tonight. And in his mind, a thank you for what to him felt like a gift from the Gods' to end his grief from his early wife.

"Mm! This is really good!" Y/N gasped after tasting it. "This is the best tea I've ever had!" Her eyes were wide in awe and her expression showing her impressment. Hanzo chuckled at her adorable reaction as he took a sip of his wom drink. It's been maybe 8 minutes since Y/N got there and she already forgot to remain all traditional and civil. It was adorable to him; she was so precious really.

And throughout the night, the two of them talked and laughed and jokes and got close. They remained at the chabudai most of the night, aside from when Y/N asked for a tour. She adored the bonsais, scenery that can be seen from outside the window, paintings around the home, and everything. She was so naive but to Hanzo, that wasn't particularly a bad thing. It made her all the more fun to be around. And because of how great of a night they were having, they even agreed to meet up the next day.

"Excuse me, Miss Y/N," Hanzo said as he stood up from the chabudai. "I will be back in one moment. Please help yourself to more tea if you'd like."

"I will," Y/N responded sweetly. Oh, on a side note, Y/N completely forgot about the traditional thing completely so don't expect her to stay put in the few minutes Hanzo was gone. Actually, by the time Hanzo came back, Y/N had her head in her arms on the table her body slowly rising and falling with the rhythm of her breaths. Hanzo couldn't help but find himself smiling down at her. He got that warm feeling in his chest again though it was different this time. It wasn't as unfamiliar as before. He knew what it was; it was love slowly blossoming.

He sighed softly before picking up the sleeping girl's tired form and carrying her against his chest. She shifted a little bit in his grasp and ended up being hudled against him more, making that warn feeling in Hanzo's chest grow more. Such a sweet, innocent creature. He slid open his door and brought her back to her guest home, where he laid her in bed and brought her hair down from its updo in order for it to not be as bad of a mess tomorrow. He kissed her forehead and then left to sleep in his own bed until the next morning.

The next day was the same as the previous. And then the day after that, and the day after that day, and so forth. But one day was a particularly cold day and a cold blanket of snow began to cover the land. Y/N was at Hanzo's place, watching the snow fall through an open window with her E/C eyes wide in amazement at the beauty. Hanzo was standing behind her with two cups of tea in his hand.

"Would you care for a drink?" He asked, making Y/N turn around.

"Thank you, Hanzo!" She said as she took the drink from him and took a big sip. It tasted sweet, as it was the tea she had when she came over for the first time. "Say, I sorta wish we could have gone outside today. I noticed that you like to fight in that place by the pond a lot; which is really great to watch! You're so strong, hehe. But you've never actually seen me fight before," she explained right before she took a sip of tea. "Y'know, I'm painfully aware that people view me as an immature, innocent, naive girl who isn't the most aware of her surroundings. But I think you'll be impressed to see what I can do," she said confidently as she hummed.

Hanzo took a sip from his tea and nodded. "Perhaps. When it gets warmer out, I'd love to watch what you can do," he replied with an extra caring tone with his voice. He caught onto his tone quickly and blushed a little bit. "But there is something we can do outside," he started.

"What is it?" Y/N asked, standing up.

"Well, there's a hotspring nearby. We can swim in there if you'd like. However be sure to dress in something not too revealing if you would like to."

"There is? I'd love to!" She exclaimed as she bounced up and down. "I'll dmgi get dressed now," she eagered on as she put her shoes back on before leaving. Hanzo grabbed her up of tea and brought it to the kitchen. It's a shape it would go to waste, but he can always make more. He returned to his bedroom to grab something to put on while swimming but please, just imagine what he'd wear to swim. Traditional swimwear is too nasty to be used in this book, but swimming trunks are too modern. As for Y/N, considering she never had a particular home or culture, it made sense for her to just wear a full body suit she could have gotten from anywhere in Earthrealm.

Of course, the both of them were sure to bathe before hopping into the hot spring. Well, Hanzo slowly got in whereas Y/N jumped in without any care. It was warm, shocker there.

"Ahh...Thank the Elder Gods for getting me here before I froze to death," Y/N shuddered as chills ran up her spine. Though those chills were disappearing as the warmth of the hot spring washer over her soon enough. Hanzo rested his body against the large rocks around the hot spring and found a seat-like area. Y/N swam around happily and sung to herself.

Oh, one thing worth mentioning for the sake of the next paragraph is that Y/N had a necklace around her neck. Hanzo had never noticed it before as it was always under her kimono or shirt. However that necklace had a great significance go it; she was told that with that necklace, she would be able to find her parents who seemed to have lost her at birth. That necklace was the only thing that remained of them and hopefully destiny was kind enough to help her find her parents.

"Kyaa–" shrieked as a splashing sound was heard. Hanzo stopped daydreaming and looked over at Y/N, who's hair covered he face and arm frantically tried to keep her body floating. She quickly pushed her hair out of her face and whined over and over again worried. Hanzo instinctively swam over there as fast as possible, grabbing ahold of her gently yet sturdy. "Where is it!" She cried out, feeling her body and looking around the waters.

"Where is what?" Hanzo asked in his husky voice that was now in a confused tone.

"My necklace! I can't find my necklace!" She replied worriedly, tears swelling in her eyes. Hanzo looked at the tears forming and felt his whole body shiver woman's his heart drop. "I can't see it anywhere!" Hanzo began to swim towards the rock formation he was against earlier, making Y/N cry out, "wait!"

"Y/N," Hanzo sternly spoke. "I will find your necklace and return it. Worry not, please, dear friend," he reassured, taking her hand in his. She shook nervously and wiped her tears. Slowly, she nodded which told Hanzo he could swim away now. And so he did; he headed towards the stop where she cried out and with one deep breath, he went underwater. He had to hold his nose for warm waters were very dangerous to go under as dangerous fungi grow in hot waters. Yet even so, he swam to the bottom of the hot spring using one hand to stir around to look for the necklace.

Y/N waited on the rocks, sniffing and whimpering. She hasn't told Hanzo the origin of the necklace, but he could tell it was important to her. When she was little, she was handed the necklace and was told it would help her find her missing mother as long as she stayed pure. What that means is that Y/N had to remain free from murder, theft, and other ways of sin. Not only that, but she could not ever preform certain adult actions as then she would never find her parents (I say that because Y/N never had a parent figure to teach her what nono stuff is), which is her number one goal in life. She grew up going from city to city, state to state, country to country, and even had been in Outworld before. She grew up with so many cultures and had never found someone that was like her in any way. It felt like she didn't have an identity as she had nothing to trace her orgins to.

Splash! Hanzo took a deep breath of air as he finally reached the surface again, with a silver necklace with a S/F/C gem inside it that's carved to show an unknown design. "Is this your necklace?" He asked as he held it up. Y/N gasped, lunging back into the water and swimming towards Hanzo. Once she got up to him, she wrapped her arms around his muscular figure and cried.

"You found it! Thank you so much!" She cried out happily, pressing her body against him. Hanzo blushed at the sudden affection and slipped the necklace back onto her. He adjusted the back of of it so it wouldn't fall off her so easily again. "I love Hanzo... You're the best friend I've ever had... I really mean it," she whimpered out. Hanzo began to swim towards the rock formation again and once he did, Y/N let go of him.

"I appreciate it, Y/N. I love you as well, you're the closest friend I've ever had," he said back to her with a warm smile on his features. Y/N smiled back at him before examining her unharmed necklace.

"Hmm... Ever since I could remember, I would move from every country in the world to another. I've been to Paris, Beijing, New York, London, Los Angeles, a few different places in Mexico and Colombia, Holland, Tokyo, Osaka, and many more. I was carried from place to place by various of adoptive mothers, and each of them left a bit of their culture and identity with me by the time I left.

"But I had one that was a fortune teller and psychic. She was incapable kf having kids and didn't want to go through the trouble of raising one, so she took me, an 11 year old girl. She gasped when she saw me and took me in immediately. Before I left her, she gave me this necklace. "Y/N," she said, "you have the potential to see your real parents again. Train, grow stronger, read, grow smarter, listen, grow wiser. Stray away from the evil in the world and remain pure from your soul to your body. This is how you'll find your mother.""

Y/N paused and looked up at the larger male. He seemed intrigued with her story and made sure to listen carefully to her every word. So she continued, "as I grew older and began to travel on my own, I thought of her words every single hour of every day. I had no reason to live as I ever did was travel and meet new people, only to leave and never see them again. Just knowing who I really was became my only reason for existing. To this day, I bet the relief of meeting my real mom will feel like being deaf and hearing music, or being blind and seeing color, or being able to walk again after being paralyzed. But now," she paused.

Y/N smiled and looked up at Hanzo. "It's strange to feel so in place, so correct. I-I know I never felt this way about any place before! But I really think that as long as you're around, my chances of meeting my mom are good! Just being with you gives me hope for the next day, truly. It's like being with you is my reason to exist."

Hanzo closed his eyes and smiled back at her. He wrapped his arms around and embraced her warmly, his head being filled with nothing but pure bliss. Y/N hugged back tightly, feeling just as happy as he is right now.

And just as soon as it came, the day was over and the two had to return home and sleep. But this particular night, their dreams were better than usual. And two days later, the snow had cleared up and the ground was dry! That meant Y/N could go train today! Unfortunately, with her absent-mindedness, she forgot she wanted Hanzo to watch her so she remained in private as she kicked thicc ass trees down in two strong kicks and crushed stones into bits by simply punching it once.

"Hai...ya!" She called out as she forcefully brought her first to a stone celler that was abandoned randomly in the woods. But hey, no one was using it, so who's gonna cry about it being broken? The impact of her punch brought a giant circular impact onto the wall, and bits and pieces of it fell down. "Hehehe! 22 more to go!" She thought out loud as she pulled her fist back again. She wasn't alone in these woods, no, as there was a particular ninja/samurai person thing, idk, watching from the nearby bush. Not to be creepy of course! He was on his way to his dojo but heard noises, and discovered it was her after checking it out.

And d a m n. If Y/N saw his shocked face the first time he saw her punch the wall with that much force and endurance, she would laugh and tease him about it for a long time. He didn't expect her to be so quick in her movements and to cause such force. Like, a short little bebe in a pink, cutesy kimono with cherry blossoms being able to cause a fucking massacre to the wall? How could you blame him?

"Hmm... that reminds me!" Y/N exclaimed as she spun around to look at Hanzo. "I told you that you should watch me train! Is that what you were doing?"

Hanzo blushed heavily and was unfortunately incapable of hiding it in the direct daylight. "Indeed, Y/N. This is truly a wonderful sight to see," he replied as he looked away for a moment. Y/N gasped and ran towards him. He took a few steps back when he noticed how close she gotten, which caused him to get a little bit more flustered.

"You're sick? You're face is all red, Y/N whined as she pulled Hanzo closer. "You should be inside, mister, getting better! Not out here watching me fight when it's colder out here! Let's go bring you inside," he said as she grabbed his muscular arm and held it close. She turned towards the village of the Shirai Ryu and began walking towards it, pulling Hanzo along. How bold.

Hanzo but his bottom lightly and remained as flustered as before. "There really is no need, Y/N," he replied back.

"You're being quite irresponsible for a ninja, y'know," Y/N replied as she continued to walk him home. Hanzo sighed and just let her pull him along. He knew she would question him if he told her he wasn't sick so he choose into except it.

"Thank you for your concern," he replied lowly. Y/N giggled proudly and nodded.

"The best for you!" They arrived to the pathways of the village and began their walk. There was a few pedestrians walking by, including a dad and daughter and a separate woman. "I'll make you some tea and you can go to bed, okay?" Hanzo nodded, smirking to himself about how funny the situation really is.

"How caring," Hanzo spoke as they arrived at his home. The got inside and took their shoes off at the front door.

"Of course," she replied before heading towards the kitchen to make tea. Hanzo wasn't sick but he's been tired lately and what's wrong with sleeping in for one day? When he got the tea, it no doubt tasted way too bitter as Y/N doesn't really know what she's doing to be honest. But hey, it's the thought that counts.

Hanzo lied in bed, with an empty cup by his side and an small girl on the other. She sat on the bed, talking to him quietly about a bunch of random things until she said something strange. "To be honest, I know this is weird, but it almost feels like we're married sometimes. I mean, we're together all the time and have a very close friendship. You let me drag you in here and give you bitter tea even though you didn't want to. That's really nice, hehe," she giggled as she looked over at Hanzo. Her eyes shun something different from simply joy this time. Instead, it showed rather care. And potentially something more.

Hanzo felt a shiver go down his spine as he looked deep into Y/N's eyes. Emhe had to examine them to ensure that he wasn't just crazy or actually sick, but no, it looked like she really did care about him more than a friend. After all these months, it was officially, wasn't it? It was mutual. Hanzo smiled as he sat up on the bed. Y/N's cheeks lit up a little bit as he stared down at her with that look.

"Sometimes it really does feel like that, does it not? I can see as a good pair to be truthful. What about you?" Hanzo asked softly. Y/N cheeks flushed pink and her expression softened.

"I agree, definitely. I mean, how can I not, heh heh. You've been there from the very beginning and I've always seen you as this big, strong teddy bear of sorta. So sweet, so nice, so caring," she replied. Hanzo leaned in, making Y/N want to lean in too. And slowly, the pair came together and finally...they kissed. It was soft, tender, and it felt like it was meant to happen. Y/N's face turned red and Hanzo's tense emotions he felt disappeared immediately.

Heh, you know what? To be honest, they lady next door was known to be crazy about losing her baby girl a very long time ago. They had matching necklaces that were bought from a village far away from their's years ago when the Shirai Ryu was attacked by Quan Chi's forces. She escaped and went into hiding, and then found a man to marry to. Her child was named Y/N L/N, and whether she's not fully Japanese or fully related into the Japanese clan, she is blood and therefore she is capable of being the love of Hanzo Hisashi. Maybe the two of them will meet some day, huh?

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat x reader #mk x reader #mk9 #mk11 #mk10 #mkx mortal kombat x #mkx #mkxl #scorpion #scorpion x reader #innocent reader #hanzo x reader #hanzo hisashi #hanzo hisashi x reader

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mgsapphire · 3 years

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Ethics and morality... and how they're not the same...

Weird title, and I don't even know if I'll properly approach this one with all the topics I wish to this discuss in today's The Devil Judge essay, because a lot of things peaked my interest, I was debating on doing a separate post for each subject, but I'll do them all in here:

Starting simple

I know we're only 4 episodes in, but I want to break down the things that I often look for in a new show:

Cinematography

Soundtrack

Character building

Plot devices

Social commentary (sometimes)

Of course, these are things most people would consider basics, but I find that a lot of TV shows don't have enough balance in them. Also, cinematography and soundtrack are pretty up there for me because when a plot gets slow, or something like that, I stay for those two (biggest example: King Eternal Monarch).

The soundtrack in The Devil Judge is amazing and the cinematography can be a character of its own. They really get me hooked and are used as tools to properly tell a story. And I'll get into that further down this post.

The onlooker will never understand the actor

Experience is your best friend not only applies to job hunting, but it's true in the real world too. You can't truly weigh in on something unless you've experienced it yourself, you can give it your judgment and everything, but when bad things happen to someone, you'll never truly understand their pain. Am I bringing up because of the difference of mind in Judge Kang and Judge Kim's opinions? On how the public treated the minister's son? No. I'm talking about a very specific scene, where the cinematography told me to think that way and not the dialogue (it's that easy for my mind to be swayed). In episode 3, when the rich are about to dine right after the foundation's commercial for a better future, we see this aerial shot:

What's interesting about this? The seclusion and the enclosed feeling it conveys as a counterpart to the poverty shots we were just shown. Yet, these are the people making ads for a better future, what do they know?

They live comfortably behind concrete walls with no windows to see what goes on apart from the bubble they live in. This idea is further enforced at the party in episode 4, where they're not even a part of the donations, and watch and mock from afar as spectators. Yet, these people call the shots. They even call it commenting, as if they were watching the pain of others on TV.

The intriguing personality and the duality it encites

Now, this was a costume and wardrobe decision, but it was also very well thought of:

Judge Kim wears white and Judge Kang wears black. One is morally perceived by viewers of the show as morally good and the other is perceived as morally dubious at best. However, besides the costume and wardrobe thought put into this, we also have to think about the delivery of this scene and how it may further affect my detailing of this section. Judge Kang brings down the coats, and hangs over the coat to Judge Kim, he's the one who is making that annotation: You're pure, I'm tainted. This can have one of two interpretations:

Either Judge Kang believes Judge Kim to be pure and innocent due to his status as a rookie in the field

Or he believes Judge Kim to be morally white and himself morally black as he's looking at his brother's face and not at Judge Kim's heart.

Because most of the back story we're unveiling is through Judge Kim's perception, there's also an inherit bias we're having as well, because in Judge Kim narrative, he believes he's doing what's right and believes Judge Kang to be evil. In being served information about Judge Kang through Judge Kim's eyes, our bias is inherently skewed.

Another thing is that, when they put on the coat, they're standing in front of the other, as if the producers of this series are telling us they're two sides of the same coin.

The duality is made in more deceitful ways, which include:

A difference of classes that implies one has suffered while the other has not.

A difference of experience that implies one is more tainted while the other is pure.

A difference of age that implies one is a sly fox while the other one is is bunny about to be eaten.

A difference of temper that makes one erratic and the other logical.

Power dynamics

This one, in this one I could make a whole thesis based on just a couple of scenes in the drama. And you know I have to mention it: director Jung being the puppeteer.

It may not be as unexpected at first, nevertheless it brings forward a lot of things I've wished to touch upon for quite some time now. A woman being a puppeteer of an old man in the portrayed dystopia that The Devil Judge is painting makes much more sense than more common demonstrations of these dynamics where it's either a:

A man of power being controlled by a bigger man of power.

A man of power being controlled by a seemingly man of a lower status.

A woman being controlled by a man of power.

Although, there's nothing wrong with those power dynamics, and if they were to be used, a message could also be conveyed, this one in particular works as a megaphone.

A subversion of power in such a way can be interpreted as a true indication of the weak overcoming the powerful. Why? It is not that woman are naturally weaker than men, but that in society, patriarchy has been a big factor in taking voice away from women in order to give it to men.

In order for Director Jung to achieve her purposes, it's smarter for her to do it under the pretense that an old rich man in power is the one calling the shots.

This is better exemplified by her stance when the old man tries to excuse his behavior, and what her moral compass is. I'm not saying I agree with her unethical conduct, but that her morality is directly impacted by the perception of the public of her as a weak woman:

Just because a dog bites a human does the person get dirty?

This is telling on how she perceives the actions of the old man in gropping the waitress. She didn't do anything wrong, even if you touched her, you are the dirty one.

While she's evil, it's a refreshing and deep evil.

The public's opinion and how there's actually logic in the show's portrayal

The public opinion can make or break a person, even if it's not on a public trial like this. While "cancel culture" barely works in today's society, a person's reputation is forever tainted. The show does tell that, but it also exhibits the scary downside of it, by showing how easily it was to make people accept flaggelation as a fitting punishment.

There are many experiments that have tried to test the effect of societal pressure on an individual's decision and the effect of the authority's enforcement of power in the outcome of these decisions. Furthermore, theories based on analysis of human behavior not necessarily relying on experiments can also help break this down. What do I mean? Here's a small attempt at explaining:

Milgram Experiment on Authority: which measured the individual willingness to carry out actions that go against their conscience due to an authority's approval.

Argument from Authority; The idea that people are more likely to use an authority's opinion on something as an argument for their reason. This is often seen in science, where trusted authorities have done the research and offer it to the public. In here, authority bias also plays a role, as we often believe, at first, that an authority must be right.

Moral disengagement: basically speaking, because this is evil or bad, I'm not part of it and I most probably am not actively participating in it. One may disengage by moral justification, which means that before engaging in something that has been previously perceived as immoral, I'm changing my stance on it based on what I tell myself to be logical arguments. This particular form of moral disengagement is very effective in changing the public opinion. I'll be touching on another form further down this post.

Other factors played a part, but these ones in particular came to mind when public flagelation as a form of corporeal punishment was wildly accepted. First, an authority is the one telling them it's correct, to go ahead. Secondly, another authority (the minister) had previously shown approval to such unusual punishment. Thirdly, they are not the ones to be engaging directly in the act, and even if they were, it would be acceptable because an authority has told them so. They may even believe the punishment to be a necessary evil for the greater good.

In fact, the minister's son was actually correct when pleading his case, they were accepting it because it wouldn't affect them directly.

Regarding the cinematographic descent of the public opinion regarding the situation can better be exemplified by the old man we've seen through the episodes.

Does suffering justify misdeeds?

Today I came along the difference between excuse and reason. You may give a reason for your behavior, but it doesn't excuse it.

Not because I've suffered through shit, means I have to make you suffer too.

I may explain myself, but it's on the other side to excuse me.

Why I hate the unreliable narrator and why I love it so much

This story has been told mostly through the eyes of Judge Kim and what he hears and sees regarding Judge Kang, if anything, the narrative is very close to that of the narrative we've seen in The Great Gatsby. An enigmatic man is being narrated to us from the eye of a man who hasn't known him for a long time.

How is that an unreliable narrator? The narrator has their own set of bias and moral standards which function as lenses through which they see the world.

Another way of putting it would be the way teenage romances are often written in a first person narrative where either of the two teenagers is the narrator, so the author can sell to us something as simple as offering a pack of gum as the most romantic act on earth. We're perceiving interactions through rose tainted glasses.

In this case, we're seeing the interactions through Judge Kim's eyes who doesn't trust Judge Kang from the get go due to his own preset bias.

The narrative becomes even more unreliable as we're not exactly sure if what Judge Kang disclosed himself is a fact.

The reason why I love this narrative is because it leaves a lot of space to make simple plot twists to a narrative and make them seem grand, and can elongate a story without making it obvious.

The reason why I hate it is because sometimes, in tv shows mostly, we as viewers can see the other side of the story and grow increasingly frustrated with the main character's prejudice and misunderstandings (I'm looking at you my beloved Beyond Evil).

Also, because I have to wait for a long time before I actually have a clear picture of it.

#kdrama #kdramas #kdrama recommendations #analysis #rant #the devil judge #got7 #park jinyoung #ji sung #kdrama meta #kdrama quotes #kdrama analysis #meta #the great gatsby #kim min jung #please dont let this flop

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the-cult-of-russo · 3 years

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okokokokok so I'm watching season 2 of the punisher and I legit do not think I can finish bc I Don't Like seeing this billy bc like. he should be getting help but they made him a bad guy and like yeah. they did it for the plot but BrOoOoO me no likey ugh

I won't lie, unhinged Billy fascinates me as a writer. He's so dramatic and chaotic too, like the heist scene and stuff and I love it. I love writing him that way too, it's really fun. Like as a fictional character, his mind is so interesting and hopping into that version of Billy is a trip.

But like on a real level, it was painful to watch and the whole thing with Krista made me so fucking pissed lmao

You guys know I have so many issues with canon and if you guys want me to get fully into it, I could make a whole ass essay length post about it with my thoughts 😂

But despite that, I was really kinda hoping for some kind of redemption arc, even just a little. But no.

Season 2 was weird for me because as someone on the way to becoming a clinical psychologist, season 2 Billy was really interesting and Ben played him so fucking good. Like holy shit. But it was uncomfortable to watch for me and so much of it pissed me off. Like the boy is riddled with trauma and shit and his fucking psychologist was taking advantage of him and stuff and I just... 😑

I'm gonna drop a bomb on you guys right now 'cause I don't think I've ever told you this...

I've never watched the last episode.

I know what happens and I've seen gifs and pictures and stuff but I couldn't ever bring myself to watch that episode because it made me so fucking sad knowing what happens. I spoiled the show for myself by accident which is how I found out what happens and then I was like nahhhh, I'm good.

I also don't know the full story, 'cause like I've only seen this on someone else's post once and I might be remembering this wrong, but Ben wasn't happy with Billy's original last line and either came up with or asked them to change it to what it ended up being. Like I said, I might be remembering this wrong and you guys are more into Ben than I am, I'm a Billy girl lmao, but like I'm sure it was something to do with alluding to him feeling some level of guilt? Just something small because the original line was that shit. Like I know I've seen that quote from an interview somewhere or something on someone's post.

I don't know what his last lines are cause I never watched it. I'm not sure I want to know honestly.

There's a lot of canon bullshit regarding Billy that really pisses me off which is why I prefer AU things and I've made my own version of Billy where he doesn't betray Frank and can actually get a happy ending.

The thing with media is, they often like to use mental illness and trauma for the villains. It makes them 'scarier', right? Oooh, the unhinged bad guy. And that's something that's always bugged me. As someone with serious mental health issues, someone with family who have very severe mental health issues and someone who wants to treat and help people with severe mental health issues, the media portrayal of these things are so harmful, especially to people with certain illnesses where there is already stigma surrounding it.

And I get it, they do it for the plot and all of that, but it's a trope that needs looking into more. Someone doing bad shit because of trauma or mental illness, someone who maybe doesn't really fully comprehend their actions or isn't in their right mind, is a lot less scary to me than a completely fine and mentally well person choosing to do the same things without a care.

Don't get me wrong, it can be interesting to watch these things and in some cases when done tastefully it can be done well. But more often than not, they just slap a bad guy with trauma or mental illness and that's just the reason for their actions.

Honestly, I'm going off on a tangent here. Like I said, I could make a huge ass post about my thoughts on Billy and the canon bullshit and another about this specific issue in the media. I'm gonna stop here because this post is long enough lmao

The short version of this is;

As a writer and future clinical psychologist, season 2 Billy fascinates me and I enjoy diving into his head (I explore it in my multi chap fic that's coming soon that I wrote with @blanchedelioncourt ) but on a fundamental level, it made me really uncomfortable and sad to watch someone who clearly needs help just get manipulated and not get the help they need. The treatment of him is just explained as 'oh well, he did really bad things so he doesn't deserve help' and I don't like that. I don't like that Dinah harasses him in the hospital, I don't like the way fucking Krista manipulates him. I don't like any of it. So while that version of Billy is interesting to me and being in his head and writing him fascinates me, the canon bullshit is painful to watch.

#billy russo x reader #billy russo #the punisher #billy russo imagine #billy russo headcanons #Thalia speaks

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toshiirou · 3 years

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I don't see how the Hylian can be considered white when there are elements of Japanese culture sprinkled around, the Sheikah especially are heavily inspired by Japanese culture.

I mean you sort of started on the answer. The Sheikah are heavily inspired by japanese culture, but they're not 'hylians'. They have a hidden, seperate village, a seperate history, different clothes, and more often enough different physical features. And the sheikah are a servile class to the crown.

And by that metric I can also say that hylians are heavily inspired by European culture - but I honestly think they're inspired by the "medieval" (european) aesthetic instead because there's very little to hylian culture and the monarchy seems to be the biggest part of it.

When I talk about the ethnic role hylians play in the story I am talking about their narrative role. And they are constantly and consistently elevated by the narrative as being the most favoured race in hyrule. For example:

Hylians are favoured by the goddesses. In sksw they were protected by the goddes when no other race was.

In alttp there was a rumour that Hylians have pointed ears so as to hear the messagess of the goddesses.

In tfh the player is let into the palace on account of his physical features - including his pointed ears. Another boy is rejected from the palace and they mock his physical features, explicitly his round ears. The meta of tloz has non-hylian humans that are seen by their rounded ears.

The hero is always hylian. I think maybe in the very first zelda he was a 'traveller from elsewhere' which matters little since there's just humans and monsters. Even in instances where the hero is from outside of hyrule proper like in TP or oot, they're hylian by some quirk of fate.

The royal family are always holding or trusted with some special power - such as the triforce, lightforce, or "sealing power".

They (the royal family) are narratively treated as the natural, correct rulers of the land. When another ruler comes to take power, this is narratively punished by that ruler being evil. And the reversal of evil is always fixed by the rightful hylian rulers retaking the throne. This is in alttp, albw, oot, mc, and so on.

I mean in all the games dealing with hyrule, the castle, and hylians, are physically centred. Other 'races' exists along the periphery, even the ones that are monarchs in their own right. This is a disease of the fantasy genre where whenever humans or 'basically humans' and the 'other races' exist, the humans become the default stand in for the reader. They are 'like us' as the main, dominant race that all the protagonists or princesses come from and 'everyone else' live on the fringes. It is so incredibly easy for this to be racially coded that it happens by default wether or not that is the intention.

And this is the same narrative that exists irl for whiteness. I can't speak for japan specifically as I'm not japanese but colourism exists along similar lines in parts of asia that dont have a white population, where paleness becomes the standard of most desired, prettiest, high class, etc. As loz is a global franchise it's not incorrect to say that hylians are a stand in for whiteness. I think there's few places that haven't been exposed to the cultural exports of the US and the 'west', or the colonial practices of europeans.

[What I am NOT saying is that Japanese people are basically white. Unlike anime where the characters are explicitly or implicitly Japanese, tloz is set in a fictional universe with fictional races. This is why I'm talking about coding.]

It also wouldn't be incorrect to use them as an allegory for an imperialist nation, where they stand in for the people of that nation.

Plus I don't believe the gerudo ARE south asians or north africans or whatever themselves, I just believe that real life racism and orientalism has contributed to their coding. Hylians are white coded. They serve the same role narratively that white people ascribe to themselves socially.

Also nintendo couldn't bear having a brown princess so much to the point that they whitewashed tetra in her magic transformation. You simply can't be the goddesses' chosen without being white and/or as pale as possible, apparently.

But still. You are very free to substitute white-looking or white as I've used it in my original post on the gerudo for 'pale' or 'light skinned' and you'll find that the points remain largely the same.

#txt #ask #i hope that's a satisfying answer #and people with knowledge on the subject are more than free to join in #i'm not trying to be eurocentric #but it's disingenuous to act like asia has no concept or colourism or doesnt consider whiteness as superior when i know that this is true #gerudo tag

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ouyangzizhensdad · 4 years

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Please please do write the post about wwx not being dumb/oblivious. Those posts were just funny at first but somehow it's now become accepted fact. Meanwhile whether cql or mdzs wwx is a very competent, savvy protagonist who's actually pretty observant! It's getting pretty tiring to see him reduced to genki oblivous magical girl (not that I don't like those, it's just wwx is not one).

Hey anon!

I do plan on writing a more elaborate meta post exploring what arguments there are in the novel to support my wwx is not dumb/oblivious agenda.

But for now I just want to address one factor I think plays a big part in shaping the fandom’s perception of wwx as oblivious/dumb, regardless of how wwx was actually written in the novel. That is, the creative liberties taken by (or forced onto) the cql production team, which have had in my opinion two consequences: 1) cql does not manage to establish how quick-witted and savvy wwx is, which is compounded by the fact that it chose to play the troublemaker persona straight 2) the fact that wwx and lwj’s relationship is entirely subtext actually ends up making wwx look oblivious (at least to people applying a queer reading/bl-danmei reading to their interactions--people who are obvious to or choose to ignore the subtext certainly wouldn’t come to the same conclusions).

So, the first issue. In the novel, wwx’s intelligence is more of a focal point in the narrative because it is a crucial part of the dramatic irony/tragedy of his death: as a result it cannot help being more important to the themes of the novel. After all, he is ultimately hunted down because of and killed by his inventions. The man created an entirely new field of cultivation! In cql, this is somewhat lost due to the fact that he does not invent modao nor does he create the yin hufu, and his death is more of a suicide than a sacrifice (i am still not over the fact that he throws the yin hufu at the crowd to let them wage war over it? that’s the complete thematic opposite of his death in the novel...).

The novel, as well, is better at establishing that wwx’s antics are generally not because he’s just being a troublemaker, but that they are a way in which he garners information, gets people to act the way he needs them to or misdirect them. For instance, in cql, when lwj destroys wwx’s (well, nhs’s) spring book in the library, wwx looks genuinely pained and affronted--in the novel, it is clearly shown that, when wwx realized lwj intended to bring the spring book to lqr, he intentionally made him angry so that he would destroy the evidence himself. the point of the prank was also to not only get a reaction out of lwj, but also (reading btw the lines) wwx’s way of trying to leave a lasting impression on lwj now that his punishment was over. Differently put, while wwx can do directionless pranks, more often than not, they have an underlying meaning/goal instead of just being for Attention(TM) in general. In contrast, the web series is full of missed opportunities in terms of characterisation, and is so from the very beginning (I find extremely disappointing how they decided to adapt the mo mansion and dafan mountain arcs because of how important they are to establishing wwx’s character for the readers/viewers. Through these arcs, we get acquainted with the way he thinks and deduces information, and how he uses people’s perceptions of him and others to his advantage. If you can only read English, @pumpkinpaix‘s translation of the first few chapters might help get a better sense of the nuances).

I’m not saying that wwx is portrayed as dumb in cql: but that his characterization is a lot more fuzzy and inconsistent, and that his intelligence is utilized mostly when wwx goes into his detective mode. As a result, I do feel like it undermines how analytical wwx is in all aspects of his life, making it easy to see him as, you know, someone who’s, like, half-smart, half-super-dumb.

As for issue #2, part of it boils down to the fact that most of the obstacles to wangxian’s relationship had to be erased due to censorship. There no longer is homophobia/internalized homophobia to motivate moments of denial or internal conflict; there is no longer the phoenix mountain kiss to explain lwj’s reluctance to respond to wwx’s flirting after his rebirth (as I explored in one of my other meta post); there is no longer lwj’s failed confession and lwj’s mistaken belief that wwx knows of his feelings, etc. These vectors of tension help contextualise and explain why it takes so long for wwx to realize lwj’s feelings towards him (but let’s not forget that he does: after jinlintai, he starts to realize that lwj treats him especially well, which becomes a certainty after the second siege). the cql production team had no choice but to take these elements away.

that being said, by adding new or by changing moments to support the subtext and to please (bl-danmei) fans, the show actually takes away even more vectors of tension/misunderstanding between wwx and lwj, and makes wwx’s crush seem even more obvious and straight-forward. Take for instance the mo mansion arc. In the novel, wwx sees the Lan disciples’ white robes and has this moment of reflection that he recognizes the robes, and sees danger in the fact that the Lan sect is involved, thinking he should leave but knowing he can’t until he resolves the curse. in cql, we get a slow-pan flash-back of wwx’s first encounter with lwj, leaving him clearly emotional. The novel sets up the association as: white robes -> Lan Sect (subtext, Lan Zhan) -> orthodox/sticklers to rules/people i’ve met in my previous life who disapproved of modao -> danger! In cql, we have instead: whites robes -> Lan Zhan -> emotional reaction/I miss him. That fact is further driven home when wwx starts playing wuji on a blade of grass, ending with a soulfully whispered “lan zhan”. In terms of subtext, it sure lays it on thick: wwx does look like he has a big crush on lwj! But that destroys a big source of tension between them at the beginning: when wwx is summoned into mxy’s body, he thinks lwj hates him and disapproves of his methods and wants to bring him to gusu to punish him. That’s why he wants to run away at first, why he doesn’t disclose his identity to him and why it takes him a moment to understand lwj’s intentions. cql does not do a great job of setting that up. And the changes they make to the events of wwx’s first life, including changes to the timeline through which we are introduced to what happened in the past, makes it even more difficult to see how wwx could have misunderstood lwj’s intentions or his own feelings (again, in a queer or danmei-bl reading of the subtext). They go on a mission together! Spend a lot of time working together toward a similar goal!Lwj calls him his zhiji (”soulmate” as is often translated)! Lwj literally tries to save him from dying! The last thing wwx would remember when he wakes up in mxy’s body would be lwj holding onto his hand and screaming his name when he let go! Again, it does great for the subtext--but it makes it really difficult to understand why wwx would misunderstand lwj’s intentions and feelings, and it makes his own feelings toward lwj seem quite obvious.

Overall, the changes in the themes, genre, events, narrative timeline, characterisation and much more in adapting mdzs into cql have been an important influence explaining why the fandom has this vision of wwx as dumb/oblivious. It reminds me of the way some people on tumblr like to talk about Mr. Darcy as “shy” and “awkward” based on the movie pride and prejudice 2005, which totally misses the point of Mr Darcy and his character as portrayed by Jane Austen--but, if people have only or mainly engaged with this specific adaptation, it is not necessarily surprising that they hold this frankly misguided interpretation due to the choices made by the film production team.

In contrast, in the novel, we are shown a lot to help us understand why wwx comes to the wrong conclusions or might not understand his own feelings and reactions. But that’s for all for another post!

#Anonymous #mdzs meta #or mdzs rant? it's not very coherent for meta #my agenda: wwx is not dumb #cql #excuse my english i don't feel like editing this post yet #okay some minor edits done to make it more readable but more edits might follow

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