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cryptid-crow13 · 11 months

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Sooo I have three finished chapters for the dead on main fic I'm writing. I'm debating on going ahead and posting the first chapter on ao3, but I'm not sure SO

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of chapter one :)

Danny didn’t know what they did to deserve this. They’d gone three years in Gotham without directly interacting with any of the vigilantes. There were a few close calls, but three years! The closest they had gotten before tonight was that time they ran into Red Robin at a corner store buying coffee. They had stared at each other’s exhausted expressions, nodded, and went their separate ways. Now, here Danny was, half out of their window and on the fire escape, staring down at the vigilante (anti-hero? former? crime lord?) that had fallen onto their dumpster before he crashed onto the alley floor.

Danny debated turning around and acting like they didn’t see or hear anything, but they knew they couldn’t do that. Their core and their conscience whined at the thought of leaving an injured vigilante like this. Danny had been about to go out as Reaper, but apparently, they had new plans. They could practically hear Gotham's laughter. They sighed and went back inside. They grabbed their keys and strapped one of their knives to their thigh. They most likely wouldn’t need it, but you never know in Gotham.

When Danny opened the backdoor of their shop, they saw that Red Hood had managed to at least sit himself upright against the dumpster. “Uh, you good?” Danny asked and immediately had a gun aimed at them. They raised their hands and kept their posture relaxed. “Hey, you’re the one that crashed into my dumpster.”

Red Hood kept the gun aimed at them and tried to stand up. He almost dropped the gun when his knee buckled, but he managed to catch himself. “’M fine.” He said and the words came out in a metallic growl.

Danny propped the door open and sighed. “Look, either you pass out here, and then I carry you inside or you let me walk you inside now.”

Hood stared at them for a long moment before he lowered his gun. “You’re the weird mechanic.” He said.

Danny laughed. “Glad to know my reputation precedes me. Now, inside?” They asked as they gestured behind them into the shop. Red Hood nodded and leaned back against the wall to holster his gun. Danny moved closer to him, projecting their movements as much as they could. “Come on, big guy. I don’t trust you won’t pass out as soon as you try to walk again.” Danny said as they moved to support the vigilante’s weight.

“Big guy?” Hood asked absently and Danny felt their cheeks warm a little. They decided to ignore it. Red Hood slowly shifted his weight a bit more onto Danny before he seemed to realize they could actually support him properly. The man smelled like blood, leather, and gunpowder. Danny slowly walked Hood into the repair shop and sat the man down in a chair behind their front desk.

“Stay,” Danny ordered and pointed at Red Hood before they turned and walked into their supply closet. Danny grabbed their large medkit off the shelf and walked back. They nodded when they saw Red Hood had actually stayed in the chair. They knew from personal experience how stubborn vigilantes could be. Danny moved a stool in front of the man and opened the medkit on their desk. “Injuries?” They asked, straight to the point.

Hood hummed. “Took a bat to the knee and probably ripped some stitches.”

Danny squinted their eyes and crossed their arms. They knew that couldn’t be all if the man almost passed out earlier. He must have only been able to walk semi-normally due to experience. Hood stared resolutely at Danny, but eventually he relented.

“I probably have a concussion and had a bullet hit me in my side. It passed through.”

“Shit, you have an open gunshot wound? Why didn’t you tell me that first?” Danny reached out to move the vigilante’s jacket out of the way so they could try to get a look at it. Hood waved their hands off and shrugged off the jacket himself. He kept the guns he had in shoulder holsters. Danny hissed when they saw the red bandages over Hood’s side.

“Stubborn ass vigilantes,” Danny muttered as they turned to go wash their hands.

They heard Hood laugh and groan when it jostled his injuries. “You’re funny, Nightingale.”

“I try. Now,” Danny pulled on gloves, “let me see. I’m not gonna have you pass out from blood loss in my garage.”

Let me know what you think :D

#danny can't help themself and has to help when someone that's injured is almost literally dropped right in front of them #dpxdc #dpxdc fanfic #dead on main #dead on main ship #trans danny phantom #bc its important to me <3 #cryptid crow caws

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hauntingofhouses · 8 months

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i know I've mentioned my interpretation of mizu's gender a million times on here but i don't think i ever fully elaborated on it.

so on that note i just wanna ramble about that for a bit. basically, it's my reading of the show that mizu is nonbinary, so let me dig into that.

putting the rest under the cut because it ended up being pretty long lol. also here have a cute mizu pic of her being happy and most at ease with herself, symbolised by her letting her hair down. <3 ok let's proceed.

thus, when i refer to mizu as nonbinary, i am interpreting mizu as a woman, but not ONLY a woman. not strictly a woman. she is also a man. she is also neither of these things, she is something in between, while at the same time she is none of these at all. i've said as much many times, but i just don't want people to think that when i say nonbinary, it inherently means a "third androgynous gender" that essentially turns the gender binary into a gender trinary. not only is that going against what the term nonbinary was crafted for (to go against rigid boxes and categorisation of gender identities), but also, not all nonbinary people fall under that category or definition, and that's definitely not the way i interpret mizu.

okay before i go deeper i'd just like to address some important things. first of all, this post is an analysis of canon, and thus everything i am arguing for is about my own interpretation of the show, and not some baseless projected headcanon i am projecting onto the character. please remember there is a difference between an interpretation (subjective; interpretations will differ from viewer to viewer, but ultimately it is firmly rooted in evidence taken from the source material) VS a headcanon (unrelated and often even contrary to what is presented in canon; opinions wildly differ and they cannot be argued for because there is no canonical evidence to back it up).

ALSO please note that nonbinary is an umbrella term. this means that it applies to a vast range of gender identities. other identities that fall under the nonbinary umbrella include agender, bigender, genderfluid, and so on. however, it's my personal preference to use the term nonbinary as it is, simply because i'm not a fan of microlabels (more power to you if you do like them and find they suit you more though!).

also, before anyone fights me on this, let me clarify further that gender means something different to everyone. it's not your biological sex or physical characteristics. but at the same time, gender is not mere presentation. you can be a trans woman and still present masculine—either because you're closeted and forced to, or because you just want to—and either way, that doesn't take away from your identity as a woman. same goes for trans men. if you're a trans man but you wear skirts and don't bind or don't get top surgery, that doesn't make you any less of a man. because gender non-conformity exists, and does not only apply to cis people! some lesbians are nonbinary and prefer using he/him pronouns while dressing masculinely, but that doesn't mean they're a man, or that they're any less of a lesbian. neither does this mean that they're a cis woman.

the thing about queer identities in general is that, like i said, they mean something different to everyone, because how you identify—regardless of your biological attributes and fashion or pronouns—is an extremely personal experience. so a nonbinary person and a gnc cis woman's experiences might have plenty of overlap, but what distinguishes between the two is up to the individual. there's no set requirements to distinguish you as one or the other, but it's up to you to decide what you identify as, based on what you feel. either way, by simply identifying yourself as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, you are already communicating to the world that you are not what a conservative, cisheteronormative society wants you to be.

which is why i find all this queer infighting on labels to be so ridiculous. because we're all fighting the same fight; the common enemy is a societal structure that divides us into set roles and expectations purely based on our biological parts. that's why biological essentialism in the queer community is a fucking disease. because by arguing that women are inherently weak and fragile and soft and gentle and must be protected from evil ugly men, while men are inherently strong and angry and violent and exploitative of women, these people are advocating for the same fucked up system that marginalises and abuses women as well as effeminate and/or gay men.

anyway. i'm going on a tangent. this was meant to be a blue eye samurai post. so yeah back to that— the point i'm trying to make is that there's no singular way to identify as anything, as everyone's views on gender, especially their own, is specific and personal to the individual.

so with that being said, yes you can definitely interpret mizu as a gnc cis woman and that's a totally valid reading of the text. however, interpreting her as nonbinary or transmasc also doesn't take away from her experiences with misogyny and female oppression, because nonbinary and transmasc folks also experience these things.

me, personally, i view her as nonbinary but not necessarily or not always transmasc because i still believe femininity and womanhood is a very inherent part of who mizu is. for example, from what we've seen, she does not like binding. it does not give her gender euphoria, but is instead very uncomfortable for her both physically and mentally, and represents her suppressing her true self. which is why when she "invites the whole" of herself, she stands completely bare in front of the fire, breasts unbound and hair untied. when she is on the ship heading to a new land in the ending scene, she is no longer hiding her neck and the lack of an adam's apple. we can thus infer that mizu does not have body dysmorphia. she is, in fact, comfortable in her body, and relies on it extremely, because her body is a weapon. instead, what mizu hates about herself is her face—her blue eyes. she hates herself for her hybridised racial identity, hates herself for being a racial Other. hates that she has no home in her homeland. thus it is important to note that these are not queer or feminist themes, but postcolonial ones.*

* and as a tiny aside on this subject, i really do wish more of the fandom discussion would talk about this more. it's just such an essential part to reading her character. like someone who's read homi k bhabha's location of culture and has watched this show, PLEASE talk to me so we can ramble all about how the show is all about home and alienation from community. please. okay anyway—

nevertheless, queer and feminist themes (which are not mutually exclusive by the way!) are still prevalent in her story, though they are not the main issue that she is struggling with. but she does struggle with it to some extent, and we see this especially during her marriage with mikio, where we see her struggle in women's domestic spaces.

on the other hand, though, she finds no trouble or discomfort in being a man or being around other men—even naked ones—and does not seem stifled by living as one, does not seem all that bothered or uncomfortable navigating through men's spaces. contrast this to something like disney's mulan (1998), where we do see mulan struggle in navigating through men's spaces, as she feels uncomfortable being around so many men, always feeling like she doesn't belong and that she's inherently different from them. mizu has no such experiences like this, as her very personality and approach to life is what can be categorised as typically "masculine". she is straightforward and blunt. her first meeting with mikio, she tells him straight to his face that he's old while frowning and raising a brow at him. she approaches problems with her muscles and fists (or swords), rather than with her words or mind. compare this with mulan, who, while well-trained by the end of the movie, still uses her sharp wits rather than brute strength. this is a typically "feminine" approach. it's also the approach akemi relies on throughout the show—through her intelligence and persuasive tongue, she navigates the brothel with ease. mizu, in contrast to someone like mulan and akemi, struggles with womanhood and femininity, and feels detached from it.

thus, in my opinion, mizu is not simply a man, nor is she simply a woman. she is both. man and woman. masculine and feminine. she has to accept both, rather than suppress one or the other. her name means water. fluid.

as a side note, while i do believe mizu is nonbinary, i also primarily use she/her pronouns for her, but this is a personal preference. i find it's easier to use in fanfic (singular they is confusing to write stories with, but again, that's just my feelings on it, and this is coming from someone who uses they/they pronouns). i also lean towards she/her because it's what the creators and all the official promotional copywriting of the show uses. and even though i am a "death to the author" enjoyer, i feel that when interpreting things that are left open-ended, it does help to look at the creators' take on things. also because, in general, being nonbinary simply doesn't necessitate the use of they/them pronouns. nonbinary is not just a third gender. it's about breaking the binary, in any which way, and that's exactly what mizu does, constantly.

also, i'd also like to mention that one of show's head of story even referred to her with the term "nonbinary", rather than simply "androgynous" (see pic below). and it's possible this could be a slip up on his part, in which he believes the terms are interchangeable (they're not btw), but regardless i find it a very interesting word choice, and one that supports my argument.

so anyway yeah that's my incredibly long rambling post.

TL;DR nonbinary mizu rights 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 congrats if you reached the end of this btw. also ily. unless you're a TERF in which case fuck off. ok i'm done.

#shut up haydar #fandom.rtf #meta dissertations.pdf #mizu blue eye samurai #mizu bes #blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meta #sorry if this is redundant btw i just cant stop thinking thoughts :3 #btw i am a mixed* southeast asian who is also nonbinary. just in case that's important context #by mixed* i mean i'm asian+asian but diff ethnicities lol. i dont have a white bone in my body god bless<3 #my whiteness is purely learned thru cultural osmosis + bcs my parents taught me english as a first language (boooo 🍅🍅🍅)#also i live in the global south so i think EYE know a thing or two about being gnc in a society of rigid awful gender roles‼️#so likeee i think its ridiculous that its an either-or thing #mizu can be nonbinary while still being a woman of colour ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#also ummm as much as i love queer themes and gay people i wish people would talk more about the racial otherness / community aspect #as mentioned in the post above #you don't need to read bhabha's whole book btw but just take a look at some of his ideas and you'll get what im talking about #like the fact that the fandom mostly ignores those themes in the story makes me feel like :( :/#cuz to me THATS the thing that spoke to me most and its a shame that its just not talked about enough #i mean i know why thats likely the case. but still.#whoops im rambling again 🤪

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