guraiuna

[guraiuna]

Hetbait kind of goes harder than queerbait sometimes. Queerbait you understand that the creators very rarely could do it even if they wanted to so implication and suggestion was better and safer than being explicit. Hetbait though there's no such justifiable reason they just want to fuck with you.

[guraiuna]

Reached out to a biologist to request some info about an extinct species of freshwater shrimp and the email she sent in response was not only lovely and helpful but also kind of poetry to me? People who study invertebrates are actually the most hopeful and compassionate scientists that we have.

[guraiuna]

I think in the same way there's a 90/10 rule with horror and comedy (horror works best when it's 90% horror and 10% comedy and vice versa) there's a 90/10 rule for some relationships in fiction that's like. Wholesome and fucked up. A good friendship is at its most compelling when it's also 10% a bit fucked up. Fucked up relationship is at its most compelling when there's at least 10% of something actually sweet and substantive within. Do you get me

[guraiuna]

this... is not going to work... is it...?

Oh Akane, you're so desperate to save everyone, you don't even see the contradiction in your own words...

[guraiuna]

Oh how I love when 2 of my hyperfixations use the same elements

[guraiuna]

lottie!!

[guraiuna]

At this point the Tsaritsa should be thrilled when her Harbingers come back, with or without gnosis like

"Oh, you didn't–

*looks at smudged notes in palm*

1. Get yourself killed–

2. Erased yourself from Irminsul & the collective memory–

3. Sacrificed yourself to spite the Shade of Death ???

Wow, congrats.

Oh you didn't bring the gnosis? Who tf cares about that; I thank myself I'm not left only with Pierro..."

[guraiuna]

The dragons gotta be one of the best things that came out of Natlan ngl

"... did the bright light that fills their eyes once shine from our?" such a bitter-sweet line. to realise that the beings you've been fighting and opposing to all this time are in fact just like you.

[guraiuna]

my favorite pastime is typing out a whole post and then saying “who cares” then deleting it

[guraiuna]

I realised my problem with Mavuika's bike is not that it's a bike. I think it's cool she has a bike (i like bikes, hence my confusion with my disdain for hers) but rather I don't like the design of the bike???

It's so tacky idk. It reminds me of those bikers that try to much. Actually no, it reminds me of monster trucks.

It would have been so much better if the design was only hinting at a bike. Maybe even hinting at her being an architect.

For example Chasca's design is all over the place but her gun's design is so fluid and sleek idk. I like her gun better than her lol.

Why couldn't Mavuika's bike be more like Chasca's gun?! 😭

[guraiuna]

"...surfaced from the very botton of the river of souls..."

can't help but wonder if this is supposed to be a nod to Pandora's box

[guraiuna]

Ok but that's such a sweet take on names

[guraiuna]

To me it feels like whenever Genshin tries to do Nakama Power TM, it flops story wise.

[guraiuna]

“Natlan’s story sucked” and “Natlan is overhated” are two sentences that can and should coexist btw

[guraiuna]

i get the Skirk hype but my Childe and Arlecchino focus is unmatched like

can we talk about FINALLY getting a direct comparison to how he was before vs how he is now

just look at this goober

im SO happy he was a brat. we knew that already but seeing it hit different. he clearly came to respect people around him more, including Skirk, but didn't completely change the attitude, it lingers.

he reflects on the past, gulps it down

and he can smile about it in front of her

look. going from misinformed disdain to open discussion of something like this with her means so much.

i finally realised what instantly hooked me about Arlecchino when her quest came out: it's her knowing from experience what behaviour constitutes entitlement vs what is a sign of a person mistreated and misguided since childhood.

it's her seeing this brat and going "he has much to learn, but he's talanted and more importantly ambitious, able to back his convictions up with actions". it's the knowledge of what's important to preserve and protect in people, even if it's partially coming as a coping mechanism.

it's the refusal to give up on those who were deemed defective.

[guraiuna]

So much of the angst over Traumatized Child Protagonists centers around responsibility, I think.

There's this idea that it's Unfair and Unjust for the protagonists to have had to suffer, fight evil, etc., in a particular way because they're children. Because of this, the narrative or the authority figures or, heck, the entire genre is treated as corrupt, and as having betrayed and victimized the children.

And sometimes that's fair and true! Sometimes it's actually part of the text. Sometimes it wasn't intended as part of the text but it probably should have been. But these criticisms of child-hero stories end up dismissing a few very important facts:

It is in fact universally the case that, for good to prevail, suffering has to be endured and evil has to be fought by people who had nothing to do with the problems, no culpability in them, and no responsibility other than Being In The Right Place At The Right Time. That's a responsibility that has to be accepted regardless. That's what heroism is.

This is unfair no matter who the hero is, but accepting an unfair burden is different than having it thrust upon you. (See: Frodo Ring-Bearer.)

Children and teenagers ARE, in fact, in possession of enough agency to take on such responsibilities of their own free will. They can also be the only people in The Right Place to accomplish a particular good -- just like adults -- without this meaning they're forced into it.

Children have a DESIRE FOR and a RIGHT TO stories where people of their own age and state of life are heroic!

TL;DR, choosing to do the job that's in front of you even when you could walk away -- to accept responsibilities you wouldn't have to shoulder in a just world -- is heroism, not victimization, and children are and want to be capable of that choice, just as adults are. Flattening all Child Heroes into victims takes that capacity away from them.

[guraiuna]