vistkitww

[seasaltmemories]

I posted 3,536 times in 2022

85 posts created (2%)

3,451 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@staroftara

@xivu-arath

@a-weird-rusted-android

@dixdafne

@posterchild010

I tagged 1,013 of my posts in 2022

#penguindrum - 169 posts

#seasalt talks - 69 posts

#princess tutu - 48 posts

#revolutionary girl utena - 47 posts

#fruits basket - 45 posts

#kingdom hearts - 34 posts

#berserk - 32 posts

#arcane - 32 posts

#ahiru - 30 posts

#arc v - 30 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#and recently i've gotten to come across stories that actually have a variety of different couples and was so stunned that we could actually

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Thinking about the parallels between Ringo and Kanba

While their direct interactions in the narrative are limited, by the end of the story their arcs mirror each other in similar ways.

First off, out of the main four, they are the most active protagonists, Ringo drives much of the first half of the story with her plans to seduce Tabuki while Kanba's fall from grace ends up fueling the climax, in contrast to Shouma and Himari's passivity and fatalism, they are the ones who chase after love as described in the Frozen Heart scene, when faced with their family failing apart, they choose to get their hands dirty and do whatever they can to save them

Not only does this drive them towards criminal and unethical behavior though, it also gives them both a tendency for delusion. Ringo believes that following Momoka's planned future means her parents will get back together. Kanba thinks bombing a subway will save his terminally ill sister. The more obviously futile their path becomes, the more they cling to their fantastical beliefs, bc realizing the truth is beyond their emotional capacity, in fact it takes again the more passive yet kind and morally-focused half of the quartet to ground them, often through a personal sacrifice

Yet as prone to danger as this activeness makes them, it also provides them a bit of fluidity to the most common notions of the nuclear family, even while they long for that traditional structure. Both Himari and Kanba are adopted into the Takakura family, yet Kanba still keeps his ties to the Natsume family. Some of this can be attributed to Masako's pursuit of him, but it is telling that for all his ruthlessness, when he discovers Mario is also possessed by the Penguin hat/terminally ill, he gives up on retrieving Momoka's diary. While he prioritizes the Takakura's he still extends his protective man of house role to Masako and Mario, even taking a bullet for the former and risking his entire goal of saving Himari

Meanwhile not only does Ringo learn to carry on Momoka's legacy in a less destructive way, but she becomes just as part of the Takakura household as the siblings themselves. It is telling that she first meets and befriends Himari as opposed to her love interest, Shouma. Being a part of the Takakura meal times provides Ringo the familial love she so desperately craves, and even with faced the impact of the Takakura parent's actions, she still chooses to align herself with them, even by the end choosing to take on a punishment herself for the Takakura's sake. While she does open up to meeting her father's new wife and kids, she chooses to be with the Takakura's just as much as the siblings chose to be with each other

Their fluidity and strong-wills might also explain how the two of them are able to interrupt the Princess of the Crystal's usual rituals. Multiple times, Kanba is allowed to linger in her realm and interact privately one on one with her, even going so far as to enter it through his own volition, rather than wait to be summoned. In contrast, not only does Ringo reject being eject from the Princess' realm but is able to fight back and even incapacitates her. Shouma can do little more whine and receive orders. Himari is an unknowing vessel. But Kanba and Ringo defy even a supernatural, semi-force of nature.

It's fitting they're both identified with the symbol of fire. Kanba is asked if he will burn himself until he is nothing but ash for Himari's safety. Ringo goes on to take on the flames of punishment for her during the finale. Perhaps they both possess a scorpion's heart, capable of poison and causing immense harm towards others, but also able to rekindle that selfishness into selflessness under the right circumstances

44 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

#4

No thoughts, brain has been replaced with a penguin

53 notes - Posted March 23, 2022

#3

Hot Take: but as a fanfic writer I hate the attitude that the only way to transformative engage with a work through the written media is through fanfic

People go on and on about how fanfiction gives mythology back to the masses and other really flowery pretentious things but like even before commercial IP existed, artist’s works weren’t just in response to one singular thing

Yes Paradise Lost uses Biblical figures, but honestly what it is more in conversation with than the Bible itself is with epics like the Odyssey, Aeneid, Beowulf, or even Milton’s own experience with the English Civil War. He wanted to create a modern epic for the English language and his culture specifically, the Biblical backdrop was just equivalent mythological base that those other works used

Yes the Aeneid is a commissioned sequel to an already popular work, but the most powerful connections to Homer comes through Virgil’s original characters like Dido. Rather than plop down just any already established "delaying seductress" like Calypso or Circe, he crafts a sympathetic and compelling figure that humanizes Rome's greatest enemy and gives complexity and conflict to Aeneas' fated conquest

Ppl argue for the end of copyright by saying we can get queer Harry Potter and Star Wars adaptations quicker but like why must we be so tied to fundamentally limited texts? Why cant we use those works as springboards for how we think about wizarding schools and space mystics without feeling beholdened to play in another creator's world

For example this video recounts all of New Hope purely by using footage from Lucas' influence. Yet despite this unavoidable lineage, Stars Wars is not Flash Gordon or Kurosawa fanfiction. It stands on the shoulder of giants and wears its influences on its sleave but it is able to go to incredible far off galaxies by being an original project

Transformative media is about more than just namedropping an iconic character or retelling a story from a different POV. Literature and media is always in conversation whether you want it to be or not. Dont think the only way to comment on your latest passion is to demurely play with your dolls in the creator's shadows

62 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

#2

For those of y’all familiar with Hold Me Now, the amazing editor Nekokitkat has put out a Princess Tutu AMV to rival it

68 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Didn’t notice until I rewatched Penguindrum with a friend, but in both Kanba and Himari’s flashback episodes (5 and 9 respectively) one of their parents guards them from a flying/falling mirror.  My first response was to see this as a way the show was planting the symbol of broken glass, considering both the child broiler and the finale rely on that imagery.  But on top of getting your brain to connect shards of glass with pain/sacrifice, i think those moments go further in characterizing how Kanba and Himari became the people they are at the start of the series.

In episode 5, Kanba was chasing after his father during a typhoon, while he tried to get Himari to a hospital, since no ambulances were available.  When the mirror comes flying, not only does his father immediately shield him from the blow, but soon afterwards he gets up again and instructs Kanba to follow him.  The next morning, when Himari is safe in the hospital, their father tells Kanba, “No storm lsts forever; but you can’t protect the people you love if you just wait for it to pass.”  This is also the first episode we see Kanba take jobs with the Kiga Group and promise to do anything to keep the family together.

In episode 9, Himari gets in a fight with her mother over not getting the right ribbon she needed for her audition.  During the altercation, a mirror falls and before it can hit Himari, her mother takes the blow instead.  In the hospital, they learn that she will be scarred for life.  Himari is overwhelmed with guilt, but when her mother wakes up, her only response is to be relieved that Himari wasn’t hurt or scarred either, especially if she is to be an idol someday.  Himari is visibly shaken by this unconditional forgiveness in the face of such a mistake.  In fact this episode is the first time in the series we see her act anything beyond the ever-cheerful, precious little sister.

Separately I gathered that these were formative experiences for the two.  But on closer inspection it is painfully obvious not just how deeply this affects their present day coping mechanisms (Kanaba the ever-strong provider who will bear every hardship, no matter the cost; Himari, the ever-patient saint who never complains and smiles even up to her dying breath) but also how gendered these responses on.  They learned each behavior from the parent that shared their gender, and it adds another way the Takakura is desperately trying to replicate the structure of a nuclear family, despite how incompatible it is with their needs.

We see these mechanisms come to a head several times.  During Tabuki’s little death game, Kanba risks losing his hand to keep Himari alive, while she steels herself to jump to her death with a smile to protect him in return.  While in the Kiga base, Himari begs Kanba to leave.  Yet Kanba swears to burn the world to ash because Himari is his world.  Once he leaves, Himari prays to have every good thing taken from her in exchange for Kanba being saved from a life of crime.

It is only during the finale, that any sort of resolution comes.  Himari for once expresses all the pain her life of tragedy has caused her, baring her soul for the world to see.  And Kanba similarly gives into all the burden he has bared and has to be taken care of and protected in turn.

112 notes - Posted March 15, 2022

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