#well. it is what it is...

[covetkisses]

by the time kamen rider geats finished syndication in 2023, i remember feeling so many things. it was my first season of rider that i watched in real time, so i got to experience the highs and the lows of not knowing what comes next and i got to react to what was happening with hundreds of other people at the time. i didn't really live blog my experience, but by the end i had the motivation to do something i hadn't done in years-- i wanted to make an oc as a response to the series, and that oc ended up becoming cordelia león.

this post by all means is not meant to be a total master post of thoughts that i have with my sweet girl. but i wanted to make it to get a few important ideas across that may or may not be found in the oc google doc that i am working on for her. and to get this out the way too-- i found myself in various stages of grief and frustration while making cori because i really wanted her to mean something to those willing to listen. i wanted her to leave an impression that would speak to those who may have had similar experiences consuming geats, or perhaps kamen rider as a whole. sometimes the peak of these frustrations grew as recently as gavv's syndication, with the jellyfish character and other similar motifs of acceptance and unconditional love. this will definitely be a moment for me to be like i(we) did it first, and not only hold myself up but the people around me who have been nothing but supportive throughout my creative process.

to put things plainly, i did not think geats was a flawless season. as much as i loved it, there were too many things that i felt like were incomplete, rushed, or could have been resolved or explored more carefully. this was especially so with kurama neon, who i believe ended up suffering a lot due to how bloated geats was and was not allowed the proper screen time to explore the depths of her nuanced situations (eg. the abuse and manipulation she had with her parents, and identity issues). cori was made to a foil first and foremost, and eventually as i developed her wanted cori to have chemistry and impact with the rest of the crew.

this will be a "short" documentation of what i can to introduce people to cori and eventually the whole way i decided to reimagine geats.

for starters, cori is a mixed girl from hawai'i who had a normal upbringing on a small island, up until her mother got diagnosed with cancer. this change in her life caused her to act up, as she no longer had the comfort of her small island, and surfing to help her through this change and loss. from there she was uprooted a few more times, and eventually lost her father too to health issues he was too afraid to speak of. living with her extended family on her father's side exposed her to abuse and neglect because of how her existence was viewed as unnatural and the like; she was a threat to maintaining the lineage and traditions. i will spare the details, but it was enough to push her to run away and pursue a career of marine biology in japan.

from there she meets ukiyo ace (prior to the events of geats) and forms a friendship with him that eventually turns into an affection. ace was the first person to make her feel wanted and accepted in a long time, and given that this was before his celebrity wish, did not have the pressures of the DGP or his Star of the Stars of the Stars status to bog her down. eventually i wanted there to be consequences to ace's wishes, as a response to the fact i didn't like how easily things fell into place for ace. and soon enough, cori would become a player for the DGP, as most people who encounter ace end up being dragged into that world.

exposing her to that world began to warp the idea, and the love she had for him. she wasn't sure what truth to believe, especially if he was living a double life. and then when his wish is made, she is further isolated from him. did anything she do with him matter? how significant was she truly? and more importantly, did she matter to him at all?

she already had to deal with the conception of being stupid (or a "bimbo”), and undeserving of the few opportunities she had by the people in power (professors, managers, some DGP staff) around her. that, and her original home was a small island with a population of less than 7,000 persons. she knew everyone, everyone knew her, and the law of the land was to help everyone you could out, because everyone was family. compare that to japan, where the fast pace of it all doesn't guarantee she will be meeting the same people she runs into every day. her presence in people's lives has no meaning, despite her best attempts to be seen by people whom she wants to connect to.

these ideas are then reinforced by her own sponsor, who was made to be a satire of "toxic shippers" within fandom. cori was picked for the dgp season to be an accessory to ace, and thereby removed of her autonomy despite being a very skillful, if not masterful tactician. none of her feats are truly recognized unless they end up making ace look cooler.

cori, already battling depression and the like, is also battling the concept of her reality when her memories are constantly being changed or erased due to the nature of the DGP. alas, this also ends up influencing the relationships she builds with others, more particularly neon, as the stresses of the world unconventionally and unintentionally inform the way people react with cori. neon for instance, assumes throughout all the times she vents or spends time with cori, that she could never truly understand her pain and pursuit of love and happiness. she also assumes that cori would judge her for the things she has done to try and achieve it. i really wanted them to be foils, because they ultimately have pretty similar wishes.

and given that her love revolves around ukiyo ace, it's messy, it's very very messy. LOL.

it isn't until the the jamato takeover that chirami decides to call cori back for a redemption / chance to have her wish granted. he does this in attempts to boost their ratings and keep control of the situation despite that being very much not the case. much like neon, keiwa and michinaga, cori gets a chance to confront her sponsor, who has been meaning to punish or get back at cori for consistently embarrassing her throughout her performances in the dgp. it's ultimately a rigged game, cori's determined thinking allows her to defeat her sponsor, but at the cost of her life. this was a match that was televised, so everyone understood the poor hand of cards cori was dealt not just in the match, but consistently in her dgp career.

her relationship with michinaga and keiwa are more up in the air because i had less problems with their writing than i did with others. i will say michinaga has been rather cruel to cori in her attempts to connect to him though, but ultimately cori's attempt to help dgp players survive their DGP season mirrors michinaga's attempts to "save" riders by liberating them from being players-- to cease the role of kamen riders to begin with.

keiwa and cori relate to each other because they both end up feeling as tools of the DGP. in reality, everyone recruited to play a role in the DGP is a tool, but the lengths in which they were used to be entertainment are deeply impactful, and i hope that cori's death is one to help haunt the narrative and the characters.

throughout cori's life she has consistently felt like an outsider, and she wasn't just looking for love, but acceptance from the people around her. she wants to connect with people, which is something i make a point to write within her relationships and dynamics with the geats cast. unfortunately, that is not something so easily given to her, and cori dies knowing that she had no place in the world.

those who know me also know that i love to explore social problems from our world, within fiction. so in addition to those narrative problems in geats, here are some other things i wanted to explore with cori.

being a foreigner in japan / xenophobia : i would argue that this is less in your face than i think it is, mostly because this point bleeds into the following point

stereotypes and fighting majority perceptions of yourself : cori's hot, i don't know how else to put it other than bluntly. LOL. but this overview is what informs people's (both fictional and real) initial perception and impression of her, which often works against her. that and, if anything the beauty standards in Japan are wildly different. because of that, people do not allow themselves to see cori for the empathetic and intelligent girl that she is, feeding into this cycle of isolation that she experiences throughout geats.

jellyfish theme : i decided to give cori a jellyfish theme for a few reasons. for one, it is an aquatic animal, making it stand out among the land dwelling animals chosen for other characters in geats. thematically, it further shows how different and isolated she is. when in captivity, they require very specific conditions and care to survive. secondly, jellyfish can be argued to be barely registered or recognized as "alive". i also wanted to tie her in with a little mermaid theme, not just for her desperate need to be part of a world or people's she knows she cannot belong to, but to put emphasis on the love she feels for ace (i want to be clear as well, that it is up to the audience to decide if this love is one sided or not).

a performer made to fight : cori was not built for fighting, and this shows in her fighting style that is rhythmic and dance like in nature. that, and she dances and performs with animals at her day job in the aquarium. she loves the art of life, and too wants to be accepted the way art is in the world around her. and of course, she is better meant to strategize the situations she is in, rather than fighting her way through brute force like others within the DGP. in contrast, ace is a fighter made to perform.

and those are just some of the basic ideas that i have for her !! i encourage any criticisms or commentary, so feel to leave them here or in my inbox. thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this nonsense, and thank you to everyone who was willing to support me here.

stay tuned for the in depth document that i have in the works for her, that will detail her backstory and other stuff within her place in the narrative (including how i aim to shift roles that characters like tsumuri had, etc).

[bookwyrminspiration]

sometimes a theme recurs in your work without your permission. and sometimes it reaches a threshold where you're like. well now i think this is saying something about me against my will. don't know what though

[bonesandthebees]

one of the most infuriating things about becoming an adult is when you realize that it actually is 10x easier to solve problems by making a phone call vs literally any other communication method

[blorboresidue]

one time I used the ben affleck smoking reaction image in the family group chat and my mom replied with the funniest possible response which was: "mommy doesn't know who the guy is???" and that phrase has not left my brain since. I'll see blorbos on my dash that I don't recognize and I'll be like well it seems mommy doesn't know who the guy is.

[maidenvault]

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

[shinynewmemories]

The Hunger Games has the FUNNIEST arranged marriage of all time btw. Katniss realizes she'll have to marry Peeta and she's obviously upset so Haymitch tries to comfort her by saying "you could do a lot worse" and Katniss is like "well DUH of course I could do worse than Peeta he's the best & handsomest person on the face of the planet but that's not the POINT I want to be able to choose for MYSELF". Then she goes and chooses Peeta anyway lol. Comedy gold I tell you

[1960z]

I know I’m not the first person to say this but fandom’s seeming need to shove any character dynamic into some kind of familial role (siblings, father-son, mother-daughter etc) increasingly feels just as stifling and dismissive of platonic love as making every relationship romantic does.

I dunno man do you view all of your close friends as siblings cause I sure don’t. and I definitely don’t think of them as parents

[infizero-draws]

drawing deltarune every day until chapter 3&4 drop ✨(day 101)

childhood sweethearts

[miniaturecatmentality]

guys I just found the greatest video on the internet

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Finally caught up with Apothecary Diaries. I can't believe they gave Maomao a gun.

[strawberry-macchiato]

"I am a person. You are not."

"I'm not her. I'm not. I'm me."

Day 3/100 // print

[bookwyrminspiration]

I can behave normally around books

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[soaked-doors]

MS4 law vs. law student sabo who’s drowning themself in the university fountain first

[shinelikethunder]

if you're aware of the Vulture article on Neil Gaiman, there's not much i can add; if you aren't and you go looking, my only advice is that if you hit a point where you're wondering if you should bail, do so, because the details of his behavior only get more vile as it goes along.

however, one thing i WILL say is to be on the lookout for smear campaigns against the sources and/or the journalist, Lila Shapiro, in the coming weeks and months. i cannot stress enough how brave this article is. if there's one thing more hazardous to your reputation than blowing up a rich and influential serial predator in the entertainment industry, it's making the church of scientology look bad, and she's managed to do both in one stroke. remember Lila Shapiro's name, and be extremely skeptical if it suddenly turns up later this year as the target of some slimy allegation.

-

(reblogs are enabled again for the time being; please try to behave yourselves. this post is a heads-up, not an open mic night for your tangential hot takes or your personal feelings about gaiman's work. furthermore, tumblr's resident TERF circle-jerk is disrespectfully invited to piss off and take a long walk off a short fucking dock.)