pan-magi

[pan-magi]

calling all magi fans!

so from what i've seen, there hasn't been an alma torran week done on tumblr. i've seen it as a prompt in broader magi week events but nothing specifically for that arc, so i'm seriously thinking of hosting one this summer!!

i'm super obsessed with alma torran and all the characters and lore, but there's so much MORE i want to see. for other characters in magi, i can turn to fan media if i want to see more of them, but because of the lack of alma torran related media (ESPECIALLY fanfiction), i can't really do that...

here's an interest check google form, please fill it out if you see this! hopefully this post gains enough traction for me to make a follow up regarding this event :3

i'm sure there's lots of other people who love this arc as much as me and want to see more fan work of it, so, please share this post with any other magi fans you know! i know this is spoiler territory for a lot of people in the fandom but i mean, you can block tags on tumblr 🤷🏽‍♂️ plus the arc has been published for 10+ years in the manga sooo...

thanks so much for reading, and like i said, PLS SHARE!!!! once again, thank you~~ ♡♡

(look at this. national treasure of an arc. okay now i'm done for real.)

[pan-magi]

I finished the mother related posts I wanted for this year, and I didn't have much time to do something bigger, so instead I did something silly and quick. I messed around with filters and had some fun with it. I tried to capture how Titus and Hakuryuu view their mothers. So, Scheherazade is distorted and distanced and Gyokuen is fuck no.

I hope everyone has a Happy Mother's Day. And if your mother is shit... I hope you have a happy, mother-free day!

I'll be with my mom giving her a silly card. Whatever the plans (as a mother or not), treat yourself!

[pan-magi]

Magoi, Physical Strength and its Relation to Women in Magi

I'm happy Ohtaka offers us women who are physically strong in Magi. I'm not even talking about Morgiana being physically the strongest out of the main trio. That's largely due to being Fanalis and having a race deemed physically stronger while also making them be the enslaved race is another can of worms entirely. I've spent too much time in school reading racist documents from slave owners. By which I mean not enough because familiarizing with racist language is a good thing. Before getting into the meat of this topic, a tangent rundown: Black slaves would be referred to as stronger, with durable bodies in a fetishizing way that promoted the idea that they could withstand more abuse and hard labor. I am not the best person to talk about it, and that is not the topic I'm tackling today, but it should be noted still anyway.

I do love Morgiana being the brawn, but it's not a flawless writing decision.

No, what I mean is out of the magicians -- the class of characters who reasonably focus their skill set on magic over beating someone in a fist or weapon fight -- the most notable exceptions to that are women, with Myers and Arba.

As explained (yay school arcs giving free natural exposition dumps), the Rukh and magoi produced is being suppressed to not put extra strain on the physical body if it cannot take it. This does make sense and stays consistent throughout. Aladdin relies on the outward Rukh from his powers as a magi and is surprised his actual output comes up with little. Judar, on the Dark Continent, and Al-Thamen (minus Arba), face the same realization.

I think it works to show the athletic magicians, who recognize they can get more power and utility outside their magical prowess, are two women. Even if Arba lost her powers as magi, she'll likely still be one of the strongest because she's shown repeatedly throughout the Alma Tran arc to care and keep up with her prime swordsmanship skills. That would in turn help her as a strong magician. But, putting a brief hold on Arba to talk about Myers.

She, with a military background, is the one to show her students relying on magical strength when it puts strain on the body isn't the most well rounded routine. This is not something she is only doing for herself, but also for the students who are deemed the most in need to catch up. (Honestly, her drills sound like an ableist gym class nightmare but it fits with the military background.) And I'll like to think if a disabled magician enrolled she'll be more willing and kind to think of an appropriate solution than the average drill sergeant or Physical Ed teacher.

She is proud of her students that do succeed. When talking in the stands during the Titus and Aladdin fight, she is a little smug (/affectionate) when confirming she taught her students beyond magic and into martial skills. I ultimately like that she is a teacher where most of that pride is in her students. Compared to our other case study in Arba.

Point is, she can very likely kick several people's asses, and she doesn't need to electrocute someone to do it.

Then there is Arba. The strongest swordsman from Alma Tran according to a lot of people. This includes herself because she's a bad bitch and she knows it. She takes great pride in her physical strength more so than her nothing to laugh at powers as a magician and magi. Arba specifically uses her way to stay immortal and strong (possessing her children... whyy?) in order to maintain the physical strength she's used to.

People greatly underestimate her due to her being a magician. By people, I mean Hakuryuu and Judar. The poor, poor fools. They think nerfing her magic and already nerfing the rest of Al-Thamen before hand will make her an easy target. An helpless old lady that's easy to take care of.

Hahahahaha.

YOU THINK?

Arba's biggest pride, in comparison to Myers, is for herself, and she takes a lot of joy from catching the boys off guard with it. Her methods of preservation (again, possession, whyyy?), are also aided by the fact that Hakuei, and Hakuryuu if she succeeded with him, are Metal Vessel users and would be in athletic shape. She raised her children so fucked up, but they would suit her needs. Bleck.

Something else I find interesting, but doesn't quite fit with this theme, is that it's the spirit and Rukh in a person that makes them a magician or not. Though neither of her kids are magicians, when she takes over their body she retains her status as a magi. (I will note that both Hakuryuu and Hakuei are mentioned to have a high amount of magoi that may come from Gyokuen. It's brought up with Hakuryuu a few times for being able to have two djinn, and Hakuei has a massive household and imagined it's true for her too.)

On top of that, the one that beats Arba in a physical fight is Morgiana. Hakuryuu does a good job showing her up and proving he has started to move on from the trauma she caused; Yunan would have won if Arba's strength as an immortal wasn't overpowering, and Aladdin draws her to a magic stalemate while also giving her a headache of reminding her of Solomon.

Morgiana is the one to make her reconsider her pride on physical strength and melee skills. I love that for her. There is still emphasis on it being because she's a Fanalis along with her training, which eh. But she wouldn't have been able to do it without her training either.

A sidenote and briefly touching on the Fanalis. I do like the on average lower magoi levels don't have a clear bias based on gender. Morgiana can easily overextend herself with her household vessel, but so can Masrur and he only uses it in short bursts. Mu's djinn equip is the same way. Myron is the one who is shown to not have it be such a toll on her. You'd think the "obvious" character where it won't be a problem will be the King's Candidate. No, it's his sister.

There's a little sketch in the inside cover of one of the Magi volumes (it is in packing hell and I cannot check where exactly but that sounds right) that show the contrast. It's the trio (Aladdin, Morgiana, and Alibaba), with standard RPG stat bars. Aladdin's MP is maxed out, with low physical attack -- I don't remember what the stat was called -- and Morgiana was basically the inverse of that. (Alibaba had an average spread.) It was adorable, and I wanted to end this on a cute note. So, there you go ^^.

Lady magicians can kick your ass. And so can the other women in Magi too.

[pan-magi]

Hi folks! I've been thinking how my Magi manga collection is once more waiting in a lonely box. I'll be moving again soon so that's fine. I can find scans online, there's a few places I know. I also have the main series on my computer. I want my hard copies of the manga though!

A part of the reason is because it is easier to search manga panels for my post edits with a physical copy even if I end up using a screencap I find online. It makes post I want to make even slower. That leads me to the actual reason I am making this post! Pick a topic from my drafts you would like to see before late this summer! I can't promise my brain will cooperate and that I will be able to finish the one people pick first. I will do my best though! My problem rn is I keep dawdling with my drafts and I think picking one to focus on will help.

Powerful women. Pretty straight forward, mostly about the balance of physical strength and magoi with talking about the ladies. Will be short and sweet (shorter comparatively for me at least).

Ugo and his Glasses. The one with the most hang up in concerns to the 'I need to find the specific manga panels I want' mentioned above. It has been mostly complete for almost two years. If you squint it can be an essay on disability representation but it is much more accurate to say it is the rambles of myself as someone who also wears glasses than a bigger thesis. I promise it will be interesting though!

My religious trauma/indoctrination essay for Alma Tran. See this post. The one that I've hardly started on, and the one that I may not finish this summer if it wins because it will be HEFTY. I wrote an introduction to it already, which I will probably rewrite, and it's a few large paragraphs already. The benefit on this one in terms of time is that because the original post is a photoset I feel no need to edit more pictures and I can focus on writing.

I want to try to get one of my analysis posts like this done before I move, which a tentative date on that is mid-summer/July. But that is something I have much less control over and will be one of the bigger moves I've ever done (mostly how far away I'm moving but also stuff simply out of my control like house selling and moving with my family to make it easier). I can make no guarantees but I will try my best.

[pan-magi]

Titus Swag for Trans Day of Visibility

[pan-magi]

pfp set (200x200) for Jafar 4/?

Free to use.

[pan-magi]

Would you believe I have more thoughts on motherhood in Magi? I could wait for Mother's Day to come around again but where's the fun in that? This is the other idea I had along with the Scheherazade one.

This is a bit different lens. I want to talk about how Aladdin, Morgiana, Alibaba, and Hakuryuu react to Aum Madura trying to bewitch them and how that speaks to how they've processed not having a (good) mother.

First is Aladdin, who is the one to break out fastest. The kid never met met his mother. Don't get me wrong, I love Sheba to bits, but you can't really miss someone you never really had. He's like an adopted kid that was taken in early on and grew up in a decent environment. There is no empty void to be filled because it was filled up again since before he could remember. Ugo was avoidant and anxious to be close to Aladdin, but he was ultimately good at being there for his friends' kid.

However! Aladdin does have memories of Sheba through the rukh and Solomon's Wisdom. This is the second reason the magic ends up failing with Aladdin. He may not have met either of his parents, but he knows unquestionably that he was loved. He knows that Sheba gave everything up for him. On top of that, he is well aware that what she would have wanted for him is to live his best life, in his own way. Seeing an incarnation of her that tries to tempt him to give it all up and be a shielded little boy is the opposite of how Aladdin has come to understand his parents.

Next up is Morgiana. She's taken pretty hard at first through no fault of her own. Similar to Aladdin, she has no memories biological mother. When we see Morgiana's vision, there is no real discernable features to make out. The difference for the rest of the comparisons between them is stark. Morgiana grew up in a highly abusive environment as a slave and has no memories of what her mother was like. She could have been a wonderful mother... that Morgiana never got to meet to determine if that was the case.

She has a deep longing for a mother she never got to experience. Something to help the pain she felt all those years. The journey she is currently on is one searching for closure with going to the Dark Continent. Maybe there is a chance to find something she lost, so she could close the book and gain solace while moving forward. Morgiana is, unfortunately, one of the most vulnerable to Aum Madura. Someone seeking guidance in her life, someone who was abused and looking for comfort and answers. That active searching, and doing, is what gets Morgiana out of it. When Aladdin tells her to think of someone who passed on their wishes, she thinks of Goltas. The promise to return to her homeland and gain her closure, from her own actions and not a passing fleeting dream in a web of lies.

Alibaba gets hit pretty hard too. He's one of the two that has memories of his mother, and unlike with Hakuryuu, they are good memories. He lost her when he was young. He, Cassim, and Mariam were left on the streets alone fending for themselves at a too young age. He then met his father, and despite being the most powerful man in the land, he was the one that left them in that shit scenario. Alibaba has a hole in his heart different from Aladdin and Morgiana. He knows what he has lost. Not the idea or memory of his mother. His mother. He remembers the warm hugs, the care she gave him and her adopted children. Similar to Aladdin, he knows that what she would have wanted was for him to live to his best ability and that he is strong.

Then there is Hakuryuu. Every time I rewatch or read the story again, I wonder how obvious the Gyokuen reveal is. It does a good job on focusing Hakuryuu's grief on his brothers. Up until this point, he has avoided bringing her up at all. Morgiana, as someone who is good at reading the boy's reactions, at first thinks that his mother must have died too, and Hakuryuu has just avoided the subject. Looking back at it, I cannot go in blind. It just is so painfully obvious to me because I already know that Gyokuen is a piece of shit. I do not remember my first reaction to the episode, so I cannot say if it is only easy in hindsight.

Right, back on track. Hakuryuu, unlike anyone else, knows his mother and also despises her with a burning passion. He has dedicated his life to taking her down. He is a traumatized child ready to lash out. Because of all of this, Aum Madura's ploy backfires in the worst way. The problem with Hakuryuu is that he does not understand that people have different responses to an abusive authority figure. He knows his response is to defend himself and strike back. That is his reality. If someone hurts you then the answer is to refuse to work with them and fight back, obviously.

Hakuryuu is taken aback and a little ashamed when Morgiana tells him that she took orders under duress and for her own security. Sometimes people listen to others they may not trust or else are are forced to listen to. He does know this; Morgiana did tell him about his past as a slave. The kid needs the reality check though. His problem is Hakuryuu started to process his trauma but he's only at the point where he can acknowledge his circumstances and judges everyone else accordingly based what he would do. The pirate children who are causing a ruckus and risking their lives to protect an obvious abuser? Who would fall to that ploy? Morgiana and Alibaba remind him that sometimes kids are conditioned to listen to authority figures. (Alibaba because he loved his mother and will trust her judgment when doing stuff she asked. Morgiana from being forced to as a slave.) He's not immune from victim blaming the kids. It does not really go away when Orba confronts him later.

I don't really have a good conclusion to this. I do like my interpretation of it showing how their different maternal-related trauma manifests (either orphans or abuse). Magi comments (or at least Aum Madura does) that it's a sign the others have grown up and don't need a mother. I don't like that as much? Kids aren't suddenly adults because they've learned to be self-sufficient. It means they are tough and self-sufficient children and that's it. Hakuryuu being more caught up in his trauma, and thus does not meet that qualifications doesn't sit right with me even more. There are fucked up adults that still are dealing with their built up shit and his name is Sinbad. Needing parents or wanting to be dependent on them isn't immaturity. It doesn't really annoy me as much as this final note makes it seem, yet I might as well comment on the statement made within the story itself.

Thanks for reading.

[pan-magi]

Woo, another nothing update post, lol.

I wrote this out and it became too long and unwieldy. So, this is my second attempt to try and summarize it XD. A while ago I posted an hiatus for the summer 2023 and this is about the same vibes but different at the same time. Before it was because moving and tumblr being addicting. This time is because tumblr is getting too addicting again but also I simply need a fuller wholesale break from social media. Here is the gist of it:

World has gone to shit. My security net is only my family. I need to form a better IRL and local community to have something more to fall back on if needed. Needed or not it will be nice either way.

If I cannot manage that before I can move (yay more moving >:( ) to a less conservative area then at least get my head in a better mental state. I'm not in a bad place, but I'm not in a good place either. If something doesn't go right this year then I can easily see things getting worse quickly.

tumblr is it's same addictive self I bemoaned before. The problem before was getting too caught up on the dopamine rush of seeing notes and working on things taking up too much of my free time. This time it's trying to put myself in a good mood and staying on until I find something that puts me in a better mood. If I don't I just waste over an hour and am in a worse mood at the failure. Not tumblr's fault, it is where my headspace is at currently though.

This is how I am planning to work through this hiatus. Tumblr is good for me in small doses. I may have to rip off the Band-Aid and not come on at all if this does not work out.

Give myself weekends only to whatever I want to work on or browse at the time. For this blog, work on drafts and analysis that have sat in there for months (a couple I think for over a year, eek). Post them when they are ready.

This is what I try to do already, but it is hard. I need to commit more so I am thinking limiting to my computer only and giving myself a timer. I only tried mobile for a grand total of a day or two before knowing that constantly in my face was a bad thing.

Asks have been off here for a while. They will remain such, and I will turn off most other ways to reach out. Replying to my posts and everything on the post side will be the same. I won't be able to consistently respond, so everything else is off.

It's very easy that there won't be a noticeable difference at first since I have been slow on posting here (maybe every few weeks), yet I have no idea if I will disappear online and if that will be best for me. Maybe I will have new gifs done if inspiration really hits me, but after the about half dozen posts I have drafted are done I do not see me coming up with more for a while. I have thoughts on Magi, I always do, but concentrating on them has been difficult for my favorite show </3.

This will be until late summer, maybe early fall. That is a long time. I hope I can manage it because social media (so for me, tumblr) has become a time sink and mood regulator. I adore you all, but I can do better for myself until I can properly manage my tumblr time again.

To everyone, take care of yourselves. You are amazing.

Now, I need to go touch grass /affectionate

[pan-magi]

The first ending for Magi is Yubi Bouenkyou or "Finger Telescope." When I hear the phrase I've always think of a closed hand with all the fingers down, like forming a tube. The art I've seen for Magi characters have it represented by an okay sign with only the thumb and pointer finger touching. (One I think of from the top of my head is the chapter cover for David, but I am not in the mood to hunt that down).

I think it is probably a regional thing if I had to guess. I've also just been really curious.

Let the poll run for a week. Why not lol. Thank you for the participation.

[pan-magi]

The last time I checked Crunchyroll (idk sometime last year) they had Adventures of Sinbad. Now, going through a free trial and giving myself a month to catch up with my anime watch list -- at least a bit -- you are telling me it is no longer there???

That's like, 30% of the reason I went through with this. It's been ages </3.

I don't have it like I do for the main series. I was looking forward to not jump through hoops. I looked it up and apparently streaming rights belong to Netflix now? Last time I checked there (it's been forever, I've only used my family's account) it was taken down months ago.

I am sad. I want to beat a Sinbad doll to cool off. I don't have one. I do have a Judar doll though.

[pan-magi]

Happy New Year, Magi fandom! The last year was a bit slow for me, but I'm still happy with what I managed to get out. Some of the longer drafts I had got done! *shoves the rest of them under the rug*

I'm not here about that though. I'm here to celebrate Kougyoku being the empress of my blog. Her djinn equip gifset had the most notes. A few from after the new year because I am late but she had a decent lead.

Yay for magical girl Kougyoku~

Happy New Year and take care of yourselves out there.

[pan-magi]

Judar is an adult who will take on a teenage rebellion outlook every day for the rest of his life. Honestly, good for him.

[pan-magi]

Happy Halloween ~ '24 Edition

[pan-magi]

Happy 15th Anniversary Magi~ Magi Appreciation 9/9

That's a wrap. Wish I had a bunch of Yunan in SnB but otherwise I'm happy with all the ones I've included.

🎊🎉

[pan-magi]

pfp set (200x200) for Jafar 3/?

Free to use.

[pan-magi]

Happy 15th Anniversary Magi~ Magi Appreciation 8/9 (?)

🎊🎉

[pan-magi]

Happy 15th Anniversary Magi~ Magi Appreciation 7/9 (?)

AKA I had an excess of manga panels with the magi under varying levels of (severe) distress.

🎊🎉