bitchoftruth

[bitchoftruth]

[redacted] (for @norcani)

[bitchoftruth]

wondering if you have any particular thoughts on Beato's foot worship fixation as it pertains to Battler accepting her - been turning over thoughts recently about it mirroring the importance placed on Kinzo's toe polydactyly as sign of the headship, which in turn relates to Sayo's guilt complex over inadvertently being Kinzo-like insofar as she has been pursuing incestuous romance (completely unfair on herself as this is I think it comes through pretty strongly in 2 that she wishes her love were more 'pure') as well as her projecting the role of Kinzo onto Battler as one who can inherit the headship from her, 'tame' her, or else be conquered and punished by her as a surrogate

oh for sure - i know the topic of sayo's polydactyly tying her to kinzo in a way she's deeply uncomfortable with has been brought up by a few replies/asks on this blog before, i think mainly here and in the replies of this post - it's very significant both to the ways in which she feels connected to kinzo in a way that disgusts her and the heavy intersex metaphor of her character (being made to undergo a strictly cosmetic surgery as an infant that she was never told about until she was nearly an adult and was done at the same time as the genital surgery which had permanent consequences to her sexual & reproductive function), which impacts her view on her own sexuality and relationship with womanhood

beatrice has a number of interactions with battler that are overtly sexual and yet do not involve "having sex" in any traditional sense of the term - telling him to lick her shoes, walking him around a party completely naked on a chain. notably, she only seems to really engage sexually with battler on terms that humiliate, degrade, and objectify him (going as far as to call him furniture at the end of episode 2, with beatrice's understanding of furniture as something that can be loved and lusted after but is incapable of reciprocating or having any say in he matter). every overtly sexual interaction between beatrice and battler is structured To Make Battler Feel Bad And Subhuman. in this way, engaging sexually with beatrice is only possible if battler degrades himself, makes himself less than human. it is disgusting and humiliating to love beatrice. you debase yourself if you love beatrice. this is the story she tells in writing this way, consciously or not

i haven't thought too much yet about the foot thing as it pertains to her desire to be accepted by battler specifically. i'm a little bit of two minds about this - beatrice herself either has or does not have polydactyly (/scars from removing an extra toe), and i think either reading is potentially interesting re: her telling battler to kiss her feet etc

if beatrice does have evidence of polydactyly, she dares battler to see it, understand its implications, debase himself and, in the process, learn the truth of beatrice and disgrace himself further with what it means for beatrice to have the extra toe matching the family head's. it is a gamble to get instantly caught, comparable to shannon sitting passively while battler goes to grope her breasts

if beatrice doesn't, it's symbolic of beatrice as The Perfect Woman sayo wishes she was. beatrice is beautiful, confident, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, able to be sexually forward - and has "perfect" five-toed feet, which she flaunts to battler, and, notably, kanon at one point, as if to rub her superiority over him in his face. literally, for that matter.

either is interesting to me and really strongly highlights sayo's own sense of inferiority surrounding her body. i kind of like that i don't really know which it is, because both possibilities are very potent in their own right

i think the notion that she sees battler as capable of either "taming" her or becoming subordinate to her is interesting - i feel like it speaks to their developing relationship as rivals really speaks to this. her "love letter" to battler is a competitive game with a winner and a loser and their lives on the line. she wants to subjugate him or Be subjugated by him. this is romance. this is what love is. beatrice of course has been given a lot of healthy ideas about love due to her normal and beneficial life circumstances and upbringing

[bitchoftruth]

you and i

[bitchoftruth]

Ianthe moment

[bitchoftruth]

it's something i'm still getting my thoughts together on to write something longform about, but umineko's ring motif is most prominent in four places, and in each of those places it symbolizes an imposition of a role onto someone or an outright violation of their autonomy as a person:

-george giving shannon an engagement ring is something shannon does want, but necessarily forces the societal roles of "wife" and "mother" upon her, which she is incapable of fulfilling. this is the only path to her love being seen as "legitimate" - having an older guy decide the rest of her life for her. the ring is a symbol of love, but also of this imposed role. george tells shannon she can reject the proposal, but regardless of how she answers, he does order her to take the ring.

-lion's successor's ring, cast in the same mold as beatrice's ring, demonstrates kinzo's understanding that lion is a separate individual from his daughter beatrice, but also imposes upon lion the role of Future Head of the Family, and, implicitly, the one who will bring kinzo's absolution without even being aware of it. as the silver to beatrice's gold, lion is the "replacement child" and kinzo's second chance at being a decent father to someone. lion is, without even being told, cast as a kind of second kuwadorian beatrice, and the ring symbolizes this imposition.

-kinzo giving sayo the head's ring while she's wearing beatrice's dress is so overt in this regard it hardly even feels worth elaborating on. kinzo casts sayo as beatrice in a repetition of his own past crimes and bestows the headship upon sayo as he sobs his apologies to her dead mother. sayo is very clear that she can tell he is not talking to her, and seems to be barely inside her own body for a lot of that scene because she's so deeply confused and uncomfortable with what is going on and who she is supposed to be in that moment. the ring is maybe not the most prominent symbol of the role imposition in that scene, but in conjunction with the dress and kinzo falling to his knees, it emphasizes a lot of marriage imagery surrounding that whole scene, which in turn stresses the depth of kinzo repeating the sin of turning daughter into mother.

-erika putting the wedding ring on battler's finger is also so overt that i barely feel like i need to say more but. the extremely on the nose sexual assault metaphor in placing the ring on battler's finger will turn him into, as far as erika is concerned, an object. he is, in that section, a prize to be won by erika, and she repeatedly talks about violating and humiliating him once they are married. the ring is the symbol of battler's defeat and subsequently being made to play the role of "erika's trophy." it's hard not to think about natsuhi being taken into the family under the pretense of being a trophy kinzo won for krauss, and what a nightmare that marriage has been for natsuhi. umineko has a lot to say about the role marriage imposes upon women, as noted by battler being half-jokingly referred to as the "bride" at one point in ep6 by chiester 410 iirc

three out of four of these have really obvious associations with marriage/wedding imagery, and as for lion's ring i think based on precedent you could easily argue that the ring alone is sufficient subtext at that point. we do meet lion in a chapel

[bitchoftruth]

bro i fucking hate having to break up my thoughts on bluesky!!!!!!!!!!!!! aaaah!!!!!!!!

[bitchoftruth]

Rika Furude Trading Figures by Max Factory, from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

[bitchoftruth]

hi all, still not around because of technical problems with my connection and tumblr hating eachother, but the mangagamer licensing survey is out if you want to fill it in with your ryukishi vn of your choice (or something else)

as for me im semi-active on bluesky and will post some thoughts on the onikakushi drama cd soon probably (tried to post some stuff here but...... well :) ) maybe once i move the internet issue will resolve itself since it was ok where i last lived but until then im over there

[bitchoftruth]

Problematic Femslash Ship Tournament - Round 2

Satorika - Satoko Houjou x Rika Furude (Higurashi When They Cry Franchise) VS. Remiflan - Remilia Scarlet x Flandre Scarlet (Touhou Project)

Info and propaganda under cut! This will not be spoiler-free.

Problematic elements for Satorika:

They're elementary-aged children bodily, Rika is significantly mentally older due to time loop, in later seasons Satoko gains magic powers, gets angry with Rika for wanting to move away, and uses her new powers to punish Rika by orchestrating her painful death over hundreds of time loops.

Problematic elements for Remiflan:

They are sisters! Scarlet has allegedly never left the mansion so she is very sheltered which could be seen as problematic also

--

Propaganda for Satorika:

Satoko and Rika started living alone together because of their complicated home situations. They supported each other in their most dire times of need and were best friends. When she gains witch powers, Satoko becomes yandere. They fight to the death but even after all is done, they still care for each other.

Propaganda for Remiflan:

They're sisters! They're vampires! They kill people! Touhou!

[bitchoftruth]

GOD I JUST AM TRYING TO UPLOAD AN AUDIO CLIP OF RIKA IT JUST WONT UPLOAD AAAH

[bitchoftruth]

this site is truly unuseable without vpn, in theory its still my favorite social media site but until i change isps catch me on norcani.bsky.social i guess bc im tired

[bitchoftruth]

this site is truly unuseable without vpn, in theory its still my favorite social media site but until i change isps catch me on norcani.bsky.social i guess bc im tired

[bitchoftruth]

this site is truly unuseable without vpn, in theory its still my favorite social media site but until i change isps catch me on norcani.bsky.social i guess bc im tired

[bitchoftruth]

this site is truly unuseable without vpn, in theory its still my favorite social media site but until i change isps catch me on norcani.bsky.social i guess bc im tired

[bitchoftruth]

absolutely destroys me that ange spends so much time in the story of umineko being annoyed with featherine and not wanting to engage with her role as a reader, not understanding the love between writer and reader and being frustrated with being asked to participate in that. and then, ultimately, deciding to become a writer herself. to share her heart with the world in whatever way feels right, after everything

especially a children's book author. after everything her life has been, who knows better than ushiromiya ange the ways a story can impact the life of a child? she was denied the story of the single truth, she was told a thousand stories about her family, her world was warped by the stories she was given and the stories that were kept from her. maria's stories - and her interpretations of them - are one of the closest ways she's able to cling to any kind of warm feelings towards her extended family

so of course she writes fantastical adventures for children, full of love and whimsy. the adventures of sakutarou very blatantly honors the legacy of maria and her stories! it's her finally understanding how maria chose happiness and choosing to believe in maria's stories to be the second person that makes them real - and to find thousands of other people to believe in them and give those stories power, too

she spends so much of umineko fighting and fighting against stories, rejecting all magic as useless delusion and pursuing the single truth, and only in the end is she able to realize how ridiculous it is to even believe that absolute truth exists let alone holds inherent power over the stories we tell ourselves and one another about the world

of course she would become a writer. of course of course after hating stories and getting pissed off at featherine and being annoyed at being asked to act as an active reader, the conclusion of her character arc is to make stories herself. in a story about storytelling, about the raw, soul-baring love inherent to writing any story worth reading, of course that's how they show she has finally come to understand what everyone was trying to tell her. UGH

[bitchoftruth]

[bitchoftruth]

I said I would post more about vns that arent ryukishi related and then dissappeared so here are the vns I read recently. Besides ONE, all of them are free, and also besides ONE, all of them I would recommend.

I want to highlight finding cinderalla specifically because while it wasn't my favorite I feel like the right eudience would love it. It's a single player werewolf game, you have an action per night trying to find the princess who is trying to kill you while trying to get one of the others to date you. The assassin princess is randomized so there is quite a bit of replay value. I love the art, it's very fluid and expressive. Ultimately for me personally the humor and writing didn't really live up to the rest of it but I still completed a few pts of it.

I also would highly recommend shut in vampire its a very cute yuri chatsim (juriel best girl). End of An Obsession is a sorta sequel to It gets so lonely here which I loved. Obsession did't quite hit the same highs for me but worth playing.