205 posts
Latest Posts by airfleck - Page 3
OK BUT SOMEONE NEEDS TO TALK ABOUT THIS
IT ABSOLUTELY DROPPED MY JAW THE SECOND HE SAID THAT OH MY GOOOODDD
Speaking of the Sailor Moon manga, I've been thinking about the thing with Haruka and Usagi in the manga, and I think it makes more sense to me when I remember that Naoko has said Haruka is her "ideal woman" and she's also stated that Mamoru is her "ideal man" and definitely means it in a romantic sense.
Usagi is the character the reader is supposed to project on (and who Naoko has indicate she projects herself onto), and I think the whole thing suddenly makes a sort of sense when you look at it through the lens of something we often see, which is experiencing a queer fantasy but in a "safe" way where all "fault" is removed from you for that fantasy (like in Dracula, etc). Naoko wanted to explore kissing and being attracted to what she considered the "ideal woman", either for her readers or herself (or both), but OBVIOUSLY Usagi can't cheat on her boyfriend, that would be bad! So hey, Usagi is clearly attracted to Haruka, but she doesn't actually know she's a girl at first soooo! And also the cool lesbian kisses Usagi out of nowhere, so hey, Usagi didn't do anything wrong, it wasn't consensual or anything! And sure, she thinks about the kiss afterwards and even dreams about it and dreams about Haruka in both "feminine form" AND "masculine" form but it's okay, that's also not cheating, it just kind of happened. She gets Haruka telling her that gender doesn't matter and leaning towards her seductively and she gets to swoon a little and maybe actually considers receiving a kiss, but she gets interrupted. And now she can go back to Mamoru no harm, no foul, she (and the readers) got to live the fantasy but she didn't cheat on her guy or do anything wrong, it's cool.
This obviously doesn't make it good writing, as it makes Haruka come off like a horrible person and completely disregards Michiru and plays into some stereotypes, but I do kind of understand why it was this way when I think of it through that lens.
I don't think Naoko was thinking of what it said about Haruka and Michiru at all. I think Naoko put exploring that fantasy (while absolving Usag and (thus the reader) of all responsibility) above all. And is that progressive or good? No, but I can sympathize with wanting to live out that fantasy. Maybe Naoko didn't want to face her own feelings and fantasies, or she understood her readers wouldn't want to, so they get to live out their fantasy this way.
Notably, she's also a fan of Takarazuka and based Haruka off that, which is very commonly how female fans experiencing the thrill of being attracted to a woman but hey she's playing a "male role" so does it really count? They get to experience that attraction is a "safe" way and then go home, put that attraction in its box, and resume their lives without having to face and unpack those kind of feelings they don't want to deal with. It's just a fantasy, it doesn't "count", but you can always go back to swooning over the hot girl. because she's sticking around and continuing to be hot and protective of and devoted to you.
It's a very 90s approach, but I kind of get it.
You can love a character & still admit when they’re wrong. I love Nanami but can acknowledge her flaws (she has none) & can hold her accountable for her wrongdoings (she's never done anything wrong in her life) & call her out for her actions (which are always correct)
i don’t think I’m ever going to get over this line
characters whose philosophy is “if i cannot be wanted, i will be needed and if i cannot be needed, let me be used until there’s nothing left of me.” thank you for everyone’s attention. falls off stage and dies
Hiromu Arakawa’s genius is obvious throughout all of FMA but her first and biggest leap of genius was in how she crafted her protagonist.
Arakawa realized the burgeoning youth of the early 2000s wasnt interested in another plucky spry optimistic young shonen protag. Instead she gave us a short ugly egotistical asshole smarter-than-you atheist with so much money and power that people could no longer best him in arguments by telling him “dude shut up ur literally like 12″
Five pages in we’re told Edward’s famous and rich and powerful. Five more pages and he’s calling some girl stupid for thinking God exists. Five more pages and he’s proven right. Five more and he’s kicked an evil priest’s teeth in. And no one can tell his mom on him.
Hiromu Arakawa figured out the dream of every edgy young weeb discovering internet arguments for the first time and she cast them an idol made of gold.
Lament for Vax’ildan
because when I saw that Icarus painting I had to 👀
✨painted in procreate on ipad pro / do not repost
✨ inspired by Lament for Icarus by Herbert James Draper
someday, together
something of a redraw of this from 4 years ago and a complimentary piece to my cg one ^^
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![[Utena] A Single Perpetual Motion Machine](https://64.media.tumblr.com/7a62b9aa0f65ecee800b11d80420870f/385aa6c13dfe5033-9f/s500x750/f9d7e46cac32bab12d790850ab1265a94b9d8aa0.png)
Watching Utena I really like how in every episode Utena's like. Anthy can you please just cheat on me I don't have time to duel I need to pass my 8th grade geometry test
far from prudish but just got blazed porn of someone's pussy spread out so hard and up close like it's a map of the polish-lithuanian commonwealth and I'm king and grand duke sigismund II augustus inspecting his lands to plot defense against the swedes
when I first watched utena I noted how peculiar it was that people depicted in their coffins were always curled up in a fetal position instead of the typical coffin position of lying on their back with their hands crossed over. it just hit me now that it probably has to do with the egg speech given at the start of the student council sequences. the one inside the coffin shows the chick that died without breaking the shell, or being born. the coffin shows the safety of eternity at the cost of never growing or changing. the coffin is the egg that doesn't crack. the juxtaposition of the egg (new life and potential) and the coffin (death and stasis). the ending of Utena is open-ended, as Anthy has emerged from her coffin and has cracked the shell of the egg/her world, and now she's creating a life of her own. the coffin seems eternal but it can be escaped, that's why they aren't posed as if already dead. oh my god
Hi PLEASE go off about how the districts in The Hunger Games work. Thank you. 😘
ahaha OKAY!!
so I think the big issue with other YA dystopia that tried to emulate the hunger games was that it didn't grasp why the districts actually existed, and how the enforcement of their division actually served to benefit the capitol and weaken any resistance. tbh I didn't really think too deeply about this aspect of it until recently when i was watching someone on youtube's deep-dive into the divergent series and was struck by how stupid that series's idea of factions were. they're based primarily on personality traits, and not only that but they have a system where everyone has to be manually sorted into those factions? which is just way too much effort for a system so arbitrary that doesn't actually serve a logical purpose in maintaining a totalitarian regime.
meanwhile the hunger games's districts make complete sense; the capitol never had to corral people or even do much of anything other than draw some borders and then enforce said borders, and they did so logically based on preexisting socio-economic systems. district 12 is a mining district because it's located in appalachia, which is already an industrial mining area. by dividing panem based on available resources, the capitol can very easily maintain its control by forcing each individual district to be dependent on the capitol's allocation of said resources. no other districts can independently trade goods with one another, so if any district wants to receive everything it needs to survive, it has to stay in the capitol's good graces. if district four pisses them off, the capitol can just say "okay, good luck heating your homes this winter" and there's nothing district four can do about it. naturally this leads to certain districts receiving special treatment; district one supplies luxury goods for the capitol and as a result is allowed a level of wealth and comfort not afforded to other districts, which 1) motivates them to maintain the status quo to continue benefiting from it, 2) gives them a sense of pride and superiority to other districts that alienates them from others, and 3) breeds resentment for certain districts among the poorer ones, creating further division with minimal effort on the capitol's part. even if it's in everyone's best interests to unite and fight together, why would district 12 give a shit that district 1 is also suffering under the same regime? their families don't have to worry about putting food on the table.
and then the failed rebellion happens, district 13 is seemingly wiped off the map, and the capitol comes up with the hunger games, which is a pretty genius idea for a punishment that also serves to strengthen its power. "we destroyed district 13 and we have the power to destroy you, too, but all we're demanding of you is two of your children per year, and we're gracious enough to provide them a chance at survival." (i've seen shitty YA dystopias that have similar selection processes for whatever arbitrary system they establish where NO ONE who is selected comes back, which is insane and doesn't work because without that sliver of hope, no one who's being subjugated has anything to lose.)
and while every district is forced to sacrifice at least one child, some districts have a better chance of bringing a child home alive than others, which gives them the "privilege" of seeing selection for the games as something honorable. "yes, you might die, but you've had the resources to train for this your whole life, and if you win you'll bring more glory to our district, just like all the ones who came before you who now live in the victors' village" (and of course the more tributes who win in a certain district, the more aspirational being a tribute becomes, because you have plenty of examples of winners who now live in even more luxury than before; meanwhile district 12's victors' village is technically 'luxurious' but its only occupant is miserable and lonely and his life is hardly any better than the rest of them). and with this sense of competition comes even more division, because why would i see district 2 as my ally when their tribute, who i was forced to watch cave in my child's head with a rock, is now here on their mandatory victory tour celebrating the fact that they did so? sure, they still lost one kid, but they could have lost two like the rest of us.
so tl;dr the districts are a very logical, surprisingly simple aspect of the capitol's totalitarian rule: there's no arbitrary sorting system they have to create, it's based on the control of basic resources humans require to survive, it's relatively easy to enforce both through physical borders and a systemic "divide-and-conquer" approach appealing to human emotion. it's very believable as it merely takes real socio-economic disparity and class conflict to its most extreme.
(also this isn't related to the districts but other YA dystopia tends to portray their protagonists as "special" or "different" and that's why they're capable of taking down the system, but katniss is very explicitly Not Special. she's skilled in a way that makes perfect sense given her upbringing, but she's not overpowered; she wins because the pieces just so happen to fall into place in just the right way that allows her to win. the spark of rebellion she ignites by forcing the capitol to allow both her and peeta to win happens because she's intelligent, sure, but also because these poison berries happen to be available. it's a mundane victory made significant through circumstances where she happens to be the Right Person at the Right Time.)
obligatory "idk if this made any fucking sense lmao" bookend
i always thought that scene in the taz balance finale where merle reconnects with pan and casts zone of truth to burn away the hunger was kind of a tongue in cheek moment where clint casts his signature spell and griffin as the dm humors him by given it a huge affect. like fun but not too noteworthy. but i literally just realized what a phenomenal moment it really was. because the hunger is nihilism. it's hopelessness and pessimism. but the zone of truth dispels all lies and dishonesty. they cant exist under its spell. and that's what nihilism is. a lie. and so when merle cast zone of truth he burned away the lie of hopelessness and if you don't think that's the best thing ever i don't know what to tell you.
in the sunlit garden, holding hands / because i’ve never forgotten our promise, i’ve come all this way at last
everyone in Revolutionary Girl Utena that hates Anthy is just "God that hot sad bitch with the turbo autism should die" like what's your problem bromeo
cast your votes!!
