#a lot of fans tend to downplay characters if they’re literally not as OP as gojo or have specific traits or skillsets

[lavenderjewels]

I love Higuruma. Not just because he’s so willing to help Yuuji and the others (and because he’s hot), but he’s a character with particular traits that I’ve appreciated throughout JJK. The constant adapting and learning that can be seen with Mahito, strengthening his own capabilities that aren’t inherently offensive or overwhelmingly powerful like Tengen with barriers or Nobara being Mahito’s natural enemy, etc. It’s not like there aren’t interesting aspects to characters that are overwhelmingly powerful like Sukuna or Gojo, but it’s gratifying to see characters who aren’t still find ways to make just as much of an impact and work with others to do so. It’s no wonder Sukuna admires him, while giving far less thought to characters that could arguably be considered more powerful or destructive.

[ashdumpsterpile]

Ohmygod YES Susan Pevensie is awesome please talk to me about Susan i want to know everything you have to say

Literally THANK YOU for asking me this bc Susan Pevensie is a character I never get asked about and I have So Many Opinions.

I'm going to start by saying that Susan used to be my least favorite character in the series. This goes for the books and the movies. Some of it was for personal reasons--she reminds me of a couple of annoying ppl I know irl--but it was also bc I watched Prince Caspian which shoehorned her into a relationship with Caspian which I hated.

HOWEVER. I ended up rethinking this position after interacting with Susan fans and realizing that there are so many wonderful things to love about her!

(putting under the cut bc this got long)

Things Ash Loves About Susan Pevensie

Aight I'm not going to do a formal analysis yet on her, but instead rant about some of the unrelated things I adore about Susan Pevensie.

Susan the Archer

Look we all love archery here. I don't have anything more to say.

Okay, I actually do have more to say. I love the fact that Susan is a complete badass with the bow. You get the general impression that she's one of the royals in charge of public relations, traditions, foreign policy, etc. and yet she's the most competent archer in the series. One of the few things I liked about the movies is how they didn't downplay this. They actually let her be a badass and show off her skills.

Also the part where she kicks Trumpkin's ass was awesome.

Susan the Gentle

Susan being the most passive Pevensie was something I definitely underappreciated as a teenager. I think my non-ability to see past "I'm not like other girls" narrative and the combination of Susan being described as the most traditionally feminine woman in the Narnia series is what initially turned me off from her.

HOWEVER, now it's one of my favorite attributes! I love that Susan is a badass and the most beautiful woman in Narnia. She has hair down to her feet, every man and woman in the kingdom want to fuck her, and she's still a fucking badass who will not hesitate to kick your ass.

Susan the Sister

Most of my thoughts of Susan as an older sister mostly stem from my own personal headcanons, but she is an awesome sister to her siblings. She's Peter's voice of reason, Edmund's sass partner, and Lucy's big sister.

Susan the Mom-Friend

She is a literal mother-figure for Corin.

"[...] the most beautiful lady he had ever seen rose from her place and threw her arms round him and kissed him, saying: "Oh Corin, Corin, how could you? And thou and I such close friends ever since thy mother died. [...]"

-The Horse and His Boy, 33-34

Most everything I have to say about this ventures into headcanon territory, but I love the idea of Susan basically adopting Corin after his mom dies. The way she trusts Cor--who she thinks is Corin in this chapter--is really sweet and I wish we could've seen more of that relationship.

Susan the Flawed

Something I notice from the fandom is a lot of people who hate Susan tend to because of her flaws. On the other hand, most Susan stans like to wave away these flaws and blame C.S. Lewis for being misogynistic or Aslan for being a "cruel god" and ignore the fact that she is a deeply flawed person.

Susan gets something of a "reverse redemption arc" in The Chronicles of Narnia. This makes her not only a fascinating foil to Edmund--as both are analytical, logical people--but an interesting character by herself.

She starts out in TWW as very skeptical of Narnia and it's whole deal and also very condescending to Lucy throughout. She ultimately does admit that Lucy was right and does get on board with the whole prophecy at the same time Peter does, and ends the book being crowned "the Gentle Queen."

In The Horse and His Boy, she has a very interesting dynamic with Edmund and in even more interesting relationship with Rabadash. They don't even interact on-page with each other, but it's highly implied that she was interested in him when he was a guest in Narnia. His behavior obviously changed when she visited him in Tashbaan, but you have to wonder what their dynamic was like before for her to travel all the way to his home when relations between the countries were strained at best.

Prince Caspian is where the cracks start showing through. Susan has lived an entire life as an adult in Narnia, gets thrown back to England with her siblings, and is yet again in Narnia as a child. This book is what really emphasizes her one fatal flaw: convenience.

(Put a pin in that thought, I'll get back to it.)

Susan denies once again that Lucy saw something that the rest of them can't seen. She continues this narrative until every other sibling finally acknowledges Lucy in the right and only then does she apologize.

The last mention of Susan is in The Last Battle, where all of her flaws rise up against her in the worst way possible. I have a lot of controversial opinions on this that I'm going to address later, but I just want to say that Susan's reverse-redemption arc is something I actually like about her.

(There is also evidence that Susan does get a full redemption arc, just as Edmund and Eustace did, but C.S. Lewis was pretty much done with The Chronicles of Narnia at the point and instead encouraged fans to write their own version of how that went down.)

Okay, back to convenience being Susan's fatal flaw. So the one thing that comes up time and time again in the series is that Susan is very focused on material comforts. I believe it's implied that she's vain, and it's canonical that her own personal comfort spurs her to make decisions.

"[...] I really believed it was him — he, I mean — yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him tonight, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I'd let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and — and — oh, I don't know [...]"

Prince Caspian, 81

Prince Caspian has the strongest examples of Susan doing this, but certainly there's evidence elsewhere. There are a lot of fans who are distressed by this, claiming that Aslan and the others are too hard on her and shouldn't judge.

Honestly, I like that she's written with this flaw. Not only is it very relatable--(my own personal comfort and convenience is something I highly prioritize too)--but it humanizes a character who otherwise is ridiculously op and basically the Helen of Troy of the series. It may sound like I'm using this as an excuse to rant, but I really wouldn't have her any other way.

Susan As Portrayed by Anna Popplewell

Movie!Susan is a fucking delight.

She's sarcastic and badass and awesome and I could spend hours heaping praise on Anna's acting and her portrayal of Susan, but I can already tell that this post is going to be long so, I'll just stop here.

(10/10 want to be stabbed by her tho.)

Personal Headcanons

Let's talk about my fanon thoughts. I have many.

Susan is Aro

There's canonical evidence for this! Susan is a character who is heavily pursued by suitors everywhere, and even lets herself be courted by many of them, but chooses not to settle down. Even when she gets back to England and is described as only having interest in parties and material things, boys aren't mentioned.

I like to think that in The Horse in His Boy Susan was interested in Rabadash at first because he was a brilliant conversationalist. Nothing she says about him implies romantic interest, before and after she realizes the truth of his intentions.

Susan and Edmund Were Best Friends

This might be my love for The Horse and His Boy showing itself, but I think Susan and Edmund were thrown into circumstances where they interacted the most with each other.

Edmund is the ruler in charge of politics. Susan is the ruler in charge of Cair Paravel's public image. I imagine they spent time as ambassadors to other countries and planning royal functions.

They're also the most level-headed and logical out of their siblings, so they probably found a lot in common.

Susan Fancast

I literally just said I loved Anna's potrayal of Susan's (and I love what they gave us of older Susan too in LWW!), but I read the books in 2008 and my parents didn't let me see the movies bc I was like...nine years old and they thought it would be too scary.

So I had to headcanon my own interpretations.

Queen Susan the Gentle:

For some reason Merlin wasn't too scary for me to watch and I fell in love with Katie McGrath in like. Two episodes so. (On an unrelated note, I also fancast Bradley James as Peter at the time.)

Anyway, fanon Susan is basically Morgana Pendragon pre-evil arc. Sassy as hell, hot as fuck, and can kick your ass.

Unpopular Opinions

Yeah, feel free to skip this part if having controversial fandom opinions is a deal breaker for you.

The Problem With Susan Isn't Actually A Problem

I'm about to start so much discourse in the Narnia fandom, but C.S. Lewis's choices with her in The Last Battle weren't misogynistic. Bear in mind, I'm not saying that all of his writing choices in the series were A++ or excusing away certain racist/sexiest bits, but it's honestly baffling to me that people are so up in arms over Susan's exclusion in the final book.

So the part that everyone loses their shit over is as follows:

"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"

"Oh Susan!" said Jill, "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up."

"Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."

The Last Battle, 83-84

There's a lot to unpack here and I first want to say that everyone's opinion on this part, no matter how different than mine, is valid. I'm going to be quoting some other ppl's opinions on here and by no means am I bashing them. I just want to address my feelings on the matter and the best way to do that is to cite the thoughts of ppl who have opposing ideas.

Here are some arguments on Tumblr I've heard regarding "The Problem of Susan":

"How about we talk about what might have happened if Narnia hadn't deserted Susan? [...] What if we didn't tell Susan she had to go grow up in her own world and then shame and punish her for doing just that? She was told to walk away and she went. She did not try to stay a child all her life, wishing for something she had been told she couldn't have again."

"Narnia is filled with metaphors (often not very subtle ones) that are supposed to teach us how to be, and the most glaring one for any young girl to absorb is that it's okay to be a girl like Lucy, unthreatening and cheerful and valiant and faithful, but to be a girl like Susan gets you punished - in fact, you aren't just punished, you're destroyed."

"why do we call it ‘the problem’ where’s the problem about a young woman dealing with her trauma and choosing her own path, actively making the choice to keep living and to stay and to carve a life out in England when her siblings couldn’t? what is the problem about susan forgetting to somehow cope with what she’s experienced? why is it ‘the problem of susan’ that she recontextualised her faith?"

And then there's JK Rowling who said this:

There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex. I have a big problem with that.

It's weird how I'm still finding new ways to hate JKR in the year 2021. Again, there is absolutely zero implication that Susan had sex when she came back to England. ZERO. Did she actually read the books? IDK. If someone shares this opinion pls reply with actual canonical evidence.

Back on topic, I'm a firm believer of death of the author and interpreting art via your own experiences. Which is why I'm also going to share my own interpretation by saying y'all are wrong.

Susan Pevensie was not abandoned by Narnia. She was not barred from Narnia because she is traditionally feminine or because she "owned her sexuality" (another opinion I didn't have time to condense down for this post) or because she recontextualized her faith or even because she deserved to be punished.

I also fail to see how Susan recontexualized her faith, as the entire point of it all is that she has none. Bringing this back to Susan's fatal flaw (personal convenience/material comforts), her prioritizing herself over her own faith is the reason she is "no longer a friend of Narnia." Not...whatever fanon y'all are imposing on her character.

Susan is not being punished for liking lipstick and looking pretty. Susan's not even being punished. Y'all read Neil Gaiman's The Problem of Susan and forgot it wasn't canon.

There are many reasons Susan is not in Aslan's Country (one of them being that she's not actually dead yet), but the main one has to do with this:

"[...] But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 215-216

Yeah, okay that's why Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia. The implication when the Pevensies are told that they can no longer enter Narnia is that they are to find Aslan in other places. Susan doesn't do this, instead choosing to focus her life on material things. It isn't the lipstick, it's that she only wants the lipstick.

Susan Had Sex In The Books

Oh and not in the context y'all are thinking. (Again, there are no implications that Susan was barred from Narnia for having sex or that she had sex when she came back to England.)

So there's actual canonical evidence that Susan and Rabadash had a sexual relationship. Sort of.

"What think you? We have been in this city fully three weeks. Have you yet settled in your mind whether you will marry this dark-faced lover of yours, this Prince Rabadash, or no?"

-The Horse and His Boy, 35

Edmund calls Rabadash her lover. Not her suitor. I don't know if the word had a different meaning in 1954, but it feels like C.S. Lewis is saying that they're fucking. I'm not really happy with the idea of Susan sleeping with an abuser, but really proud of her for Getting Some as a woman born in a time period where having premarital sex was a big no-no.

This also invalidates the weird opinion going on that Susan was barred from Narnia because she had sex.

Suspian Is The Worst

I haven't really talked about Movie!Susan much, but as long as we're talking unpopular opinions, it's worth noting that I hate Suspian. Some of it is the "Susan is Aro" headcanon screaming inside of me, but it's also the fact that it's written poorly, does nothing interesting for either character and generally comes across as awkward.

I feel like they were trying to make Prince Caspian sexy and relevant to teens. It came across as super heteronormative and unnecessary.

It also gets really really weird bc the next movie then gives Caspian and Edmund mad chemistry and we're all just like........ok.

Final Thoughts

Susan may not be my favorite character in the series, but she's grown on me over the years. I have many issues with fanon interpretations of her--which definately fueled some of my disdain for her initally--and I don't identify as a Susan Apologist.

I do however adore Susan and have many headcanons for her not mentioned here. I love reading fanfic, writing fanfic and meta, and generally having conversations about her and would love to talk more about it.

I welcome criticism (CONSTRUCTIVE) and conversation on all of my opinions and observations. Please drop into my inbox. <3

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Episode 8: “See You When You Get Back”

And with this episode, we’re officially 2 out of 23 volumes into the story, which at this point really spells out that we’re in for the long haul with this reboot, lol.

This episode was a bit more low-key than some of the other ones, but it did a wonderful job of showing how things have developed since the first episode, and it’s just warm and cozy from start to finish.

Thoughts under the cut [plus spoilers for the whole manga]

After how the last episode shuffled things about a bit in order to adapt chapters 10 and 12 together, this one finishes off volume 2 by adapting chapter 11.

This is another interesting situation where the reboot is technically doing the same thing as the 2001 anime, which also spent a whole episode on chapter 11, but both adaptations do it in notably different ways.

It’s been a while since I actually watched the 2001 anime so I might be forgetting stuff, but I vaguely remember that almost the first half of that adaptation’s episode was spent on entirely original material, before they got around to doing a fairly 1:1 adaptation of chapter 11. I’m pretty sure it involved a whole extended sequence of Uo and Hana coming over to help clean Shigure’s house, while we also get comedy stuff happening with Shigure’s editor [has she even been mentioned in the reboot yet? I can’t even remember when exactly she’s first mentioned in the manga, honestly].

On the flip side, the reboot version sticks much more strictly to the events of chapter 11 from start to finish, and instead of making up entirely new material to fill out the episode, it just individually adds little bits and pieces to every scene from chapter 11 so that it takes up the whole episode. It might be a bit divisive for some people, but in contrast to how the 2001 anime opted to have it’s original material be as comedy-oriented as possible, I really prefer how the reboot takes the opportunity to flesh out existing material from the manga.

Right from the start of the episode, the pre-OP scene with Tohru, Hana, and Uo is basically just elaborating on and actually showing what was hinted at in the manga, with Tohru deciding not to burden her friends over the holidays by staying with them. There was also more emphasis early on with Tohru being peppy in a really forced way to hide her underlying sadness, and we actually get to see her asking Shigure if she can stay at his house over the holidays, whereas in the manga it’s just casually mentioned as something she asked him off-screen. We also get a whole scene after Yuki and Kyo go back home where they’re watching TV with Tohru and being all protective and making sure she’s eating properly, and Uo calls her to see how she’s doing.

I just really like how all of those sorts of original scenes and details they add just flesh out what was already in the manga, and just make the whole flow of events more fleshed out. In particular I like how this episode drives home Uo and Hana’s concern and protectiveness of Tohru home even more than the manga did. We also got some little glimpses of both of their families, which was really cool [especially since, as I’ll talk about later, it looks like both of their backstory parts will get adapted later in this first season]

I was hoping we’d see more of the whole zodiac banquet and the dance, but oh well. At least we got a look at the room it takes place in, with all the chairs arranged in a circle.

We at least got to see Haru for the first time properly. Which was also in the manga so it’s not exactly noteworthy, but still. It’s nice that we’re getting a look at him right before his intro episode.

They didn’t really add any new scenes or anything with him, but I did like how they had Hatori point out that it’s really confusing that Shigure calls him ‘Haa-san’ while also calling Haru ‘Haa-kun’. I looked back to check, and they don’t acknowledge how confusing that is in the manga, so it was a neat little detail.

I feel like I’ve been saying this about every episode, but the reboot’s still doing an amazing job at having all of the backgrounds and environments look super detailed, atmospheric, and spacious. One thing I really like is that they’re not shying away from more complicated layouts and camera angles, especially when characters are walking up stairs. The sheer variety in shot composition and the consistency of detail in the art design really make this feel a bit closer to a movie than a TV anime, if that makes sense. I feel like the music’s also getting better and more emotional as the episodes go on, although they used the same insert song they did in ep5, which felt a bit odd, but it worked.

There’s not really a whole lot to say about what actually happens in this episode, story-wise, since it’s a pretty chill and low-key chapter even in the manga, but it’s nice to get even more focus on how much Yuki and Kyo are coming to care for Tohru, and how they’re getting more and more aware of her feelings and how she tends to suppress things.

In a lot of ways this episode feel vaguely recap-y, with all the short flashback montages and stuff, but it’s not to the point of feeling drawn out or unnecessary. It feels more like a way to wrap up this whole first chunk of the story before we move onto a whole new round of character introductions and plot developments and stuff.

And on that note, the next episode is gonna be Haru’s intro episode, which I’ve been impatiently waiting for. It doesn’t help that I initially thought the pacing of the reboot would be a fair bit faster, so it’s been taking longer to get to this part than I thought, lol. I do appreciate that the reboot’s taking it’s time and going slowly but surely, even if it does make me a bit impatient to get to certain later parts.

In the back of my head I’d been a bit irrationally anxious about if they might downplay or outright erase the fact that Haru has a crush on Yuki, but right off the bat they’re literally titling the next episode ‘Yuki Was My First Love’, lol. It almost feels like a spoiler, for new fans at least, since it’s meant to be a bit of a surprise, but I can’t complain.

This is getting into more long-term spoiler territory, but I’m very curious to see if they add in any references or teases to Rin in the next episode, or if like in the manga she won’t get brought up until a fair bit after this. I think it’d make sense to bring up her and her relationship with Haru in the next episode, especially since it’s also gonna include talking about how Haru first had a crush on Yuki. But we’ll see how they choose to do it. I have a feeling it’s going to be the sort of episode that actually feels almost exactly the same as the 2001 anime version of it, since it’s a very straight-forward arc that the original series didn’t cut anything out of.

Also, before I forget, I said that it looks like Uo and Hana’s backstory chapters will get included in season 1, and that’s because it looks like in the video Funi posted where they explain the reasoning behind Momiji’s dub voice-acting, you can see what seems to be some notes of the season 1 episode list on some sticky-notes in the background, which seem to basically spell out what a good chunk of season 1 will cover, episode by episode, which seems to include both Uo and Hana’s backstory parts. So I think it was nice that we got some small teasers at what their families and homes are like, since we’ll be seeing more of them later in the season.

Anyway, this was a super warm and fuzzy episode to help shift us away from the emotional intensity of the last episode. With how shockingly consistent and good the reboot’s been thus far, I have high hopes for what’ll come next.