#so subtle and nuanced

[jakebogarts]

柄本 佑 || 「光る君へ」 (2024) · 第二十五回 「決意」 ​​​

[homunculus-argument]

The whole "no gendered pronouns" thing is probably the most commonly known/brought up fun fact of the finnish language, but there's more to it. There's a pronoun distinction of human/nonhuman, and while many dialects don't bother with the hän-pronoun at all, and simply refer to both humans, animals, and inanimate objects as "se", wherever the human pronoun is used, it also encompasses any and all creatures that the speaker considers sufficiently sapient or sentient to be considered "a person". This covers gods and goddesses, humanoid supernatural creatures (with a distinct That Is Not A Person exception for zombies), aliens, and occasionally pets. Everyone knows someone who refers to their dog as "hän".

But the plural "they" also has a distinction of hän/se, with the same logic as he/him - who/whom, making a distinction between "they" who are people, and "they" that are either animals or objects. The dialects that don't use the human pronoun don't make this distinction either, but if someone is clearly speaking in formal finnish that refers to people as hän, but uses "ne" instead of "he" when referring to people, it's a very understated but nonetheless clear way of implying that those people are not people.

So finnish has:

They (singular, person pronoun) They (plural, of people) They (plural, inanimate/non-sentient/degoratory)

[breadandlottery]

Subtlety <3

[goosensuch]

ur all crazy for believing that Buck denying his feelings for Eddie means he doesn’t have feelings for Eddie.

I know this sounds counter intuitive. but I think if they were telling the audience that Buck loves Eddie as a friend, he would be reacting very differently to Eddie leaving.

in the context of the episode, buck spends the whole time talking about eddie and processing that eddie is gone. We saw the reactions eddies friends and collegues had to his departure, they are happy for him. buck cannot be.

Furthermore, so far in the season, his entire arc is losing Eddie. If the show was working towards buck and tommy getting back together, his feelings for tommy would have been raised at least once. instead, for the whole three episodes, buck is freaking out over Eddie leaving.

My point being, narratively speaking, buck’s arc is about Eddie, not about Tommy.

Now yes, buck and Tommy did hook up. But they hooked up in Eddie’s house, and 1/2 conversations we saw them have was about Eddie. Eddie looms like a fridged wife over their hook up and the narrative. and now we get to the denial.

The show is textually introducing the concept of Buck being in love with Eddie. This needs to be done because while a lot of fans are seeing the chemistry between the characters, there’s an epistemic gap that needs to be bridged to where the show itself can make their relationship into Plot.

We are starting thus, with their dynamic as codependent best friends. It would be boring to have Buck wake up one morning and simply come to the conclusion that he is in love with Eddie. This realisation has to come from a level of conflict in the story. Buck has to change in some way, grow or evolve in order to reach this conclusion. So, this episode was the set up to begin that growth. The idea of him being in love with Eddie is introduced, and he vehemently denies it.

BUT the denial is rather weak.

“You live in his house” - “it’s not his house, he’s a renter”

“You have feelings for him” - “he’s straight, plus I don’t have to sleep with everyone I have feelings for.”

In the scene with Tommy, he doesn’t even say that he’s not in love with Eddie, he is flustered, gives excuses, then lashes out because the conversation is uncomfortable.

In the grander scheme, the textual confirmation that Tommy broke up with Buck because he saw Eddie as competition adds more credence to Buck and Eddie being the end game couple here, not Buck and Tommy. We don’t see any of Tommy’s interior world, his thoughts or feelings. If this was about Tommy’s insecurities, it would be established that way. When it is raised in this latest episode, Buck would have gone “no girl, I don’t like him I liked you, why did u break up with me over that?” And we would get a scene of them deepening their bond and discussing their insecurities.

Instead, Buck lashes out in discomfort, pushes Tommy away again, and then goes to Maddie. His main take away from his conversation with Tommy is him being in love with Eddie. If it was about Tommy, the conversation would focus on how Buck hurt Tommy, how he feels guilty and needs to make amends. While this does come up, the focus of the conversation is the Eddie thing. Again, Buck denies his feelings, using Eddie’s heterosexuality as a shield. Maddies reaction here is more interesting to me. Her calling into question Buck’s feelings towards Eddie, as someone close to Buck, is confirmation to me that buck is not a reliable narrator of his own emotions at the moment. She has seen his journey to discovering his sexuality, and understands that he is sometimes clueless to the obvious things in front of him. Her calmly calling into question how he feels is the first time he is given space to consider this reality.

Once again, if it was about Tommy, the Eddie thing would be discussed as something Tommy said, why he might think that. But the main focus is on whether Buck is in love with Eddie or not.

On a separate note, Buck is baking again. He’s not baking over his break up with Tommy, he’s baking over his loss of Eddie. This parallel, showing bucks feelings for Tommy as equivalent to his feelings for Eddie, by showing him coping with their loss in the same way, is honest to god textual evidence that buddie is going canon. Yes it’s a small detail but I think an important one.

Buck isn’t even aware that he’s doing it, he’s absentmindedly baking from the moment Eddie leaving becomes real. Much like he’s unaware of how he feels about Eddie. He’s coping the same way out of instinct.

While his words speak to one reality, his actions speak to another. There is a very clear line being drawn between how Buck is reacting to Eddie leaving, and how everyone else is feeling. Textually introducing Buck being in love with Eddie with a denial of this does not necessitate Buck not being in love with Eddie. It speaks to an arc beginning. If the arc was Buck and Tommy being getting back together, Buck would be focused on their hook up and conversation, not on whether he’s hypothetically in love with his straight best friend.

[turnaboutfix]

"This 'kid' I know"

The nod to Maya in AA4! It's! Pretty much the same in Japanese--but with a touch more nuance.

Apollo/Odoroki:

"Bideo disuku no keesu ga uzu takaku tsumiage rareteiru."

"Video disk cases are piled high."

(English Localization: "A swaying, spiraling stack of DVD cases.")

Apollo/Odoroki:

"「Oo Edo Senshi Tonosaman」 「Tonosaman・Hei!」"

"「Great Edo Warrior Tonosaman」 「Tonosaman・The Third!」"

(EL: ""The Steel Samurai", "The Nickel Samurai"…")

Apollo/Odoroki:

"「Koedo Kenshi Himesaman」 「Dendou Dendoushi Samansaman」"

"「Little Edo Swordsman Himesaman*」 「Electric Evangelist Samansaman」"

(EL: ""The Pink Princess", "The Zappy Samurai: Electric Bugaboo"…")

"Himesama" means princess, and adding an "n" makes it sound like a superhero. "Samansaman" does the same thing with "Sama," the most respectful title one can have. See my analysis for the Steel Samurai in Japanese for more on this.

Apollo/Odoroki:

"Kodomo muke no 《hiiroo mono》 de ume tsukusareteiru."

"It's nothing but 《hero stuff》 for children."

(EL: "They're all children's action hero shows…")

"Souiu no ga sukina ko ga ite ne. Dondon okutte kureru nda."

"There's this kid who likes this sort of thing. [She*] keeps sending these to me."

(EL: "This 'kid' I know keeps sending them to me.")

So, the word Phoenix uses to allude to Maya is "子", "Ko", and it has 11 definitions.

I'm not showing them all because they're not all relevant. But it's odd to call her a kid if she's 26 during the time this game takes place, right? Not in this case! "Ko" can mean different things in different contexts, and you can even see above that "Ko" can mean "young woman". It's not uncommon to hear adults addressed this way--as long as they are not older than the speaker, or a man of the same age if the speaker is a man as well. "Ko" also has the nuance of endearment. Endearment is why Phoenix addresses Maya with the "-chan" honorific, even when she's nearly thirty years old.

*And to address the asterisk, Japanese often omits subjects if it's clear from the context. With that quirk of the Japanese language, and the many meanings of "Ko", it helps Phoenix be vague about who he's talking about to Apollo.

Apollo/Odoroki:

"Heee‥‥. Shinrui no okosan desu ka?"

"Eeehh....? Are they the child of a relative?"

(EL: "Huh. Like a niece or nephew?")

"....Maa. Sonna youna mono ka na."

"....Well. I guess it's something like that."

(EL: "…Something like that.")

Apollo/Odoroki:

"Sugoi ryou desukedo‥‥ Kanemochi no ko nan desu ne."

"It's a huge amount... This kid must be rich."

(EL: "Quite the collection. This kid's parents must be really generous with their allowance.")

Apollo/Odoroki:

"(Naruhodou-san, kodomo ni sukareru you ni wa mienaikedo na)"

"(Naruhodou-san doesn't look like the type that children would like.)"

(EL: "(Funny, Mr. Wright doesn't seem the type that kids would like.)")

It's important to point out that Apollo uses the word, "子供", "Kodomo" here, which is the word that only means "child", so he's convinced that Phoenix is talking about a literal child.

Nope, it's our Best Gorl Maya.

[thoughtfulchaos773]

Subtext. Carmy pays attention to Sydney as soon as she enters his view. He always has.

She's blurred in this shot, but watch Carmy. He doesn't even finish the second 'yeah' before his eyes land on her- he already notices that Sydney is here. She is dressed nicely, and he needs to focus on her.

Very subtle, but once Sydney turns around, the camera pans to the center and is focused shot when Sydney turns around- his perspective that once he gets her attention, his eyes are only for Sydney?

Let's skip when she says good morning- subtext- between the lines- the acting. Carmy has dreamy eyes, and words slow down as he gets a good look at Sydney- his second no is almost breathless- there's a pause before he gives her a compliment.

Carmy- I think we get all this body language from Sydney because we're in Carmy's point of view- he's paying attention to her monotone- thanks and her resignation as she takes off her bow.

We know this because of the look on his face when she asks him, "How about you? Did you answer?

He takes a moment to catch up to what she asked him, blinking as if he's coming back to the present moment.

His thoughts were somewhere else.

They cut this really fast so we dont see his expression had changed to one of openness when he tells her she looks nice- to a pondering frown as he's watching her remove her bow. He has been staring at her like that the entire time, feeling sad as she quickly takes off the items he had been noticing.

Subtext for me? I think he hopes she will explain why she is so dressed up. Perhaps he is thinking she was on a date? He knows she was out with someone.

Throughout the season, underneath everything being said and done- we're seeing that Carmy is still paying attention to Syd. Still focused on her (not the restaurant but her!) Even with the misdirection of Claire.

I will provide screenshots of this man's disappointment. They deliberately do not show his face change as he watches her take off what he noticed she was wearing; it’s a small reaction.

Marcus' words earlier in 3x03 about paying attention - he also says when someone pays attention- like really pays attention, it's something special. The subtext tells us what Carmy and Sydney have, always paying attention to each other - the message is that the relationship is special and we should be paying attention to this thing between them.

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Look I am all for trauma-fueled deeply unhealthy relationships between male leads but I feel compelled to say (with absolutely no malice) that that is not what is happening in Squid Game. In-ho is being deliberately manipulative in every instance in which he interacts with Gi-hun. He doesn't refrain from killing him at the end because he can't bring himself to shoot him, but because the whole point of playing in the games is centered around breaking Gi-hun down mentally. And while In-ho is certainly deeply invested in doing this to Gi-hun, his framing at the end of Episode 7 is intended to serve as a wake-up call: for as nice and understanding as this guy has made himself seem, almost everything we see from him is a lie. He was never going to have a change of heart. To fail to recognize that is to make the same mistake Gi-hun did, but even more willfully since we actually know In-ho is the Frontman. And that's exactly what the show wants us to do!

From the beginning, Gi-hun has served as the audience stand-in. We empathize with him, we root for him, we share his beliefs in the possibility of change. But we are given information he doesn't have; we know that In-ho is the Frontman. And even though we know this, we know this guy is able to shoot his own brother, we want to like him! We want to believe in him, to think that maybe something about Gi-hun or the reality of the games can change his mind! And the show weaponizes this intentionally. Through his character, the show does to us what In-ho himself does to Gi-hun: punishes us for our optimism. It wants us to feel silly for ever believing that In-ho would change, just as In-ho's point is that Gi-hun should have known the games would end the same.

So for as much as I usually love reading doomed yearning into character dynamics, I don't think it works here. In-ho doesn't have any particular love for Gi-hun--the show just wants you to believe he might.

[alexiethymia]

Yor Briar, Yor, and Yor-san

I was reading an excellent post about the nuance in the original japanese and now I thought I’d take a crack at what this means for Loid (although other people have already made an excellent analysis on this).

Loid has only called her Yor Briar in the beginning and when he was suspecting her of playing him. But Fiona’s insistence on her full name, Yor Briar, and her notice of Loid’s seemingly stubborn refusal to use it seems to me that Loid had always previously referred to assets by their full name. It could also be pragmatic in that he knows Fiona wants the ‘role’ of his wife hence her stubborn insistence of using Yor’s maiden name, so he uses Yor-san to counter Fiona’s way of delegitimizing Yor’s role. But I don’t think Loid can sense the real reason for Fiona’s insistence, so while in his view Fiona may be acting unprofessionally, generally speaking, I think Loid would be the one acting unprofessionally in constantly using ‘Yor-san’ to refer to his ‘wife’ to his WISE colleagues especially if he didn’t use to do that before (which yeah it’s hard to imagine him addressing his other marks that way).

Although the audience knows that Fiona is acting far from being professional, with Loid’s limited knowledge of her feelings, wouldn’t she actually have a point in referring to Yor as YOR BRIAR in a working setting? Because isn’t that all she was supposed to be? An asset or a tool? And yet Loid seems annoyed by that and insists on humanizing her by calling her, Yor-san.

Now someone might say, that’s nothing to make a big deal about. It would have been a big deal had he referred to her as ‘just’ Yor without the honorific. Because using someone’s name without honorifics is supposed to connote a deeper sort of intimacy. But that’s the thing. It would have been a forced intimacy for show. ‘Yor’ is his mode of address when he’s putting on a show of being a loving husband, complete with that <fake> Loid Forger voice. Yor is what he calls her around her colleagues or his colleagues (Nightfall undercover as Fiona at the hospital) to present how they’re a completely ordinary, close and loving family. In a way, it’s a subtle cue to Yor as well that they’re in ‘family’ mode now or ‘husband-and-wife’ mode. Yor denotes her as being a mask.

Which is actually why Yor-san is perfect. If Yor Briar is her as an asset, Yor is her as a mask, then Yor-san is her as a partner. He’s used women to get to his goal before. The only thing different now is Anya and the fact that on some level he is also working together with Yor. Had he actually succeeded in his first honeytrap attempt with Yor when he thought she had fallen in love with him, I imagine that he might have started treating Yor the same way he did his other assets before. But thank goodness it didn’t succeed, and in my view, he ended up falling into the trap instead.

Yor-san is perfect because it parallels the way Yor calls him. It’s perfect because it conveys the perfect level of intimacy. They’re not actually a lovey-dovey couple as ‘Yor’ would imply, but unfortunately for Nightfall, she’s also not just ‘YOR BRIAR’ another tool to him. It’s perfect because it conveys respect which Loid has a healthy amount of for Yor. If he can help it, he doesn’t like using her. And Nightfall is right to be worried that this comfortable mode of address of Loid’s is bleeding over to Twilight as if to blur the two. Loid is supposed to be an entirely different person or character so what does it mean that Twilight also calls his wife the same way Loid does? ‘Yor-san’ and ‘Loid-san’ are partners in a lot of ways. Yor-san is whom he can let down his guard down around, and someone this perfectionist spy can ask help from and rely on.

So what about Yuri Briar? He doesn’t know the true nature of Yor and Loid’s arrangement. Shouldn’t he be calling her Yor in front of him to keep up the ruse? Again, I think part of it is pragmatic. He doesn’t want to further aggravate the siscon. But especially in light of Chapter 86 and Volume 10’s inner cover, I think (at least unconsciously) it’s because Yuri is family. I notice that Twilight hasn’t even kept up the Loid persona as much in front of Yuri anymore (which tbf can’t blame him cause how do you even react to Yuri) but it’s not as if Yuri is someone to be underestimated. Some way or the other, even if he doesn’t fully realize it, I think Twilight is starting to treat Yuri like how Yor treats him or at the very least he can’t treat him like any other enemy or bystander because he’s someone important to Yor. Which again as CH 86 would show, Fiona has already noticed, and Twilight himself is angry at himself about. I don’t think Twilight has realized any sort of feelings for Yor yet, but I guess to Fiona, his mode of address for her is and has always been telling.

It’s actually interesting to think that perhaps it’s when he’s calling her ‘Yor-san’ that he’s most like himself - like Loid, Twilight and the boy before there was Twilight all at once - with her.

[hurlumerlu]

The idea of Kant only being into Bison sexually is so funny to me. "Yeah I just want to get into this guy's pants, which is why I tenderly and solemnly kiss him on the forehead when I could go for a french kiss that would put this show on the road." He is sooooo stupid for his little hitman what are you talking about

[hyperfixations-and-hecticness]

‘You’ve done more for me in a few days then Poseidon’s done for me my whole life’ im never gonna be normal about this ever they’re so soulmate coded

[steveharrington]

i’m being so completely serious when i say this: stranger things could have been so good if it was written by the s1 & 2 gossip girl writers

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Compound Fracture

YA thriller set in rural West Virginia

follows an autistic trans boy who survives being almost killed by the Sheriff’s son after a party, and accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him when he tries to get back at him

and is pulled head-first back into the 100 year old feud between his & the sheriff’s families, that began when his great-great grandfather was executed after inciting a miner’s rebellion, the grandfather whose ghost has started to haunt him

community & family & socialist revolution

aro-questioning MC

arc from netgalley, out september 3

[buildoblivion]

listen im not touching the ‘who’s a better actor’ discourse with a 20ft pole but I think Jensen gets to show Dean in more depth and Jared get full on possessed by other people

[makotonaegiunderstander]

something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.

“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”

[mawrblaidddrwg]

I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh lord

And I've been waiting for this moment, for all my life, oh lord

Can you feel it coming in the air tonight? Oh lord, oh lord

Sons of the Saiyans

[lightbulb-warning]

Same person that said your art style scratches the inside of my head (I used the wrong your in the original ask smh)

I wanted to also say how much I love how you draw Shuichi <3 It's perfect, people have already complimented how you draw Kokichi (perfect, as well) so I thought how you draw Shuichi deserves some love as well

ive been looking through my drawing folders and have come to the conclusion that your definition of "perfect shuichi" equals to "stressed out of his mind", which i find hilarious /lh

i fucking love shuichi i find him to be such a compelling character. *puts this in your pocket when you're not looking*