#blue speaks

[babybluebanshee]

you know who’d really like those German boy memes? Nightcrawler. He’d think they were hilarious and would frequently troll people over them. Someone would see one the blüntensmoken one and show it to him and he’d be completely stone-faced as he said “ja that’s how we say it. Also the weed cave is a very big problem in many small villages in Bavaria and it’s really insensitive you’d make light of it like that” but internally he’s just like

[dqmens]

Jack has two dads and newsflash Dean isn’t one of them

[bluesfreakingart]

Plz draw music meister, he's the other mind control boy and no one gives him enough love 🥺

Well, anon I have GOT an image of him!

I drew it some time ago and never posted it but, ya know what? sure!

have this silly!

POV only eddie was fast enough to get the ear plugs in 😔

[blue-lantern]

Rereading Batgirl (2000) and it really is crazy how DC struck gold with such a strong ongoing centering a complex and nuanced protagonist, with strong ties to other characters in the mythos, and an interesting take on morality filtered through her trauma and guilt, and her deep desire to do good. And then just threw all that out for seemingly no reason other than racism and misogyny and let Cassandra’s character be neglected for years.

[mrs-bingley]

ok guys but what's your top song in the Spotify wrapped this year I'm curious

[stylographic-blue-rhapsody]

I was deep in my drunk feelings when I made a joke post threatening to write about episode 5 symbolism and mizu, but then enough people said "where is the essay" so I am here to ramble as requested 

in ep 5, the tale told in the puppet show spliced with the flashback sequence of mizu’s marriage identifies mizu as not only the ronin, but also the bride and, with tragedy, the onryō. I would argue that mizu is also depicted (in a less linear fashion) as the phoenix itself, and will circle back to this thought later

mizu is first presented as the ronin, the warrior with a singular purpose. as the ronin’s lord is assassinated by the rival clan, mizu’s mother is killed in the house fire. the ronin swears his revenge, and dedicates his life to this cause. through his childhood and into his young adult life when he departs from swordfather, mizu is exclusively the ronin. he is not the onryō yet, demonstrated in his honorable unwillingness to harm the men who stab him and throw him out of the shop even after he insists that he wasn't looking for a fight in the first place

the ronin is only able to rest and put away his mission when he meets the bride, the lover. however, mizu’s bride is not literally another person she meets. the bride is not mama, or mikio, but the lover mizu discovers in herself, the one allowed to bloom in place of mizu-as-ronin. mizu’s growth into the bride from the ronin occurs over time, but solidifies in the moment when kai is gifted to her by mikio, paralleling the taming of her own distrust and expectations of being hurt. (side note, giving a nod to effective use of color: the bride puppet, dressed in reds and oranges, has matching coloring to the gifting scene, as it takes place in autumn)

mizu’s transformation into the onryō happens in two parts, beginning with the slaying of the bride and completing with the slaying of the ronin. the betrayal by mikio and mama kills the softness in mizu, kills the lover she has allowed herself to become. mizu-as-onryō retaliates by killing the ronin: the part of himself that hesitates before striking, that part that cares for honor. in not intervening in mama’s death and then murdering mikio in turn, mizu kills the ronin in himself, slaughtering it in retribution for the dead bride

mizu is both the bride and the ronin, peaceful lover and noble warrior, until he is not—he is the onryō, only the onryō. episode 5 opens with the narrator saying, “no one man can defeat an army, but one creature can.” only as the onryō, and not as the ronin or the bride, does mizu have the force of will and capacity for violence it takes to singlehandedly overcome boss hamata’s thousand claw army and protect the brothel

mizu’s identity and place in the world is a constant dialogue. he is too white to have a respectable place in japanese society, but is also seen by abijah (our stand-in for white british society) as filthy and corrupted. he is not perceived as enough of a man to walk through life wholly as one (madame kaji’s comments about his apparent lack of sexual desires, his bones breaking “like a woman’s” under fowler’s hands, his disregard for honor and recognition as a samurai). she is also not enough of a woman to exist peacefully as one with mikio (she is a swordsman, an accomplished rider, bad at domesticity; “what woman doesn’t want a husband?” mama chastises)

the moment when mikio rejects her completely following their spar is a particularly poignant narrative beat about tolerance of “the other” in gender presentation: mikio can accept her as a woman only until she bests him at manhood, at the sword, at violence. she is Other in that she is physically strong, a poor cook, able to wield a sword. these traits are all tolerable to mikio, also an outcast, so long as she is not so Other as to be a man. but her swordsmanship bests his, and bests his in the way the sun outshines a candle. it is too Other, and therefore she is not a woman. she is a monster to him, the onryō, even before she kills the bride and the ronin in herself

(( as an aside, this series does a very good job at discussing the oft-challenging relationship between race and gender (e.g. that it is difficult for mizu to live as a biracial man, but would be deadly for her to live as a biracial woman), and demonstrating how queerness of identity complicates that relationship even further—but that’s a topic for a different post ))

as the narrative has been building on this idea that mizu is both the ronin and the bride, the man and the woman, japanese and white, episode 5 concludes with the heartbreaking reveal that, although mizu is all of these things simultaneously, he has had these identities beaten out of him by tragedy and cruelty and his own self-loathing hand

but mizu does not stagnate as the monster. we return to the metaphor of steel: too pure and it becomes brittle, breaking under pressure. mizu is a sword, a weapon that he has forged for the sole purpose of revenge and blood, but he has excised too much of himself to successfully deliver on his goals—he is not the ronin or the bride, he is the onryō; she is not a woman or a man, she is the onryō; the onryō is nothing but pain and vengeance—and so it breaks

“perhaps a demon cannot make steel,” mizu says. “I am a bad artist” 

swordfather replies, “an artist gives all they have to the art, the whole. your strengths and deficiencies, your loves and shames. perhaps the people you collected… if you do not invite the whole, the demon takes two chairs, and your art will suffer”

to be reforged, mizu must not only acknowledge the impurities she has beaten out of her blade, out of herself, but lovingly, radically accept them and reincorporate them into the blade, into herself. he adds impure steel—the people he has collected, with their own dualities—to the sheared meteorite sword: the broken blade that fit so perfectly in taigen’s hand (the archetypal ronin, but a man seeking happiness over glory), the knife akemi tried to murder mizu with (the archetypal bride, but with ambition for greatness), the bell given to ringo and returned to mizu in broken trust (the man unable to hold a sword, but upholding samurai principles of honor and wisdom), the tongs that honed mizu’s smithcraft under swordfather’s guidance (the artisan, a blind man who sees more than most). to make of herself a blade strong enough to see her promises through, she must hold her monstrosity and honor and compassion and artistry in equal import

she is the onryō, and the ronin, and the bride, and all the people she has collected.

with this we finally come to mizu as the phoenix. mizu undergoes many cycles of death and rebirth, both in the main storyline and the flashbacks into her life leading up to the present. often, mizu is juxtaposed against literal flames—the burning of his childhood home, swordfather’s forge, the fire as he battles the giant in the infiltrated castle, the heart sutra forge of her own making, the climactic second confrontation with fowler. not every death/rebirth mizu undergoes is thematic to flame, of course. the fight with the four fangs, spliced with the rebirth ceremony of the town, for example, or the deaths of her ronin-self and bride-self, giving rise to the onryō

he is the phoenix, unable to truly die: every fatal combat he pulls back from the brink, reborn over and over in the wake of failure and setback. in episode 1, mizu prays for the gods to “let [him] die.” not to help him to face death unafraid, not to die with honor or victory, but to die at all. mizu has experienced death a thousand times over, but not once has it stuck

(( as a parting aside: the ronin’s rage at the phoenix clan for killing his lord parallels mizu’s self hatred of his mixed heritage (which he believes to be the thing that killed his mother), and so the ronin’s quest for revenge against the phoenix clan is mirrored in mizu’s quest to kill the white part of himself as best he can, by killing the white men who could be his father ))

mizu, the ronin. mizu, the bride. mizu, the onryō. mizu, the phoenix.

[bluevaractyl]

Why is Hyrule's world often depicted as a toxic wasteland? So far the impression I've gotten while playing AoL is that it's dangerous but still plenty alive. There's forests, grasslands, swamps, mountains, deserts... Sure, you can't step outside a town without something immediately trying to kill you, and yes, some of the villagers are secretly monsters, and okay, the people apparently felt the need to build tunnels so they could travel safely between towns... but Link can swim in calm water just fine, and the grass is green? I am just curious.

[bluest-planet]

"Kill em with kindness?" WRONG! AQUA BURST! 🌊 AQUA BURST! 🌊 AQUA! BURST! 🌊 AQUA BURST!🌊 TAKE THIS! 🐓 SMILE! 📸 LIGHT FLARE! 🎇

*SHUFFLING DECK*

🛡️ IS THAT ALL YOU GOT? 🪖IS THAT ALL YOU GOT? 🗡️IS THAT ALL YOU GOT? 🔪 KUGH!

LIGHT FLARE! 🎇 LIGHT FLARE! 🎇 LIGHT FLARE! 🎇 TAKE THIS! 🎣CHRONOS BLOW! 🕔 CHRONOS BLOW! 🕔 I AM THE LIGHT! DEFIER OF DARKNESS! MAGIC, SHINING SERAPH!! 🎇☄️🪽🎇☄️💥🎆💥🎆☄️🪽🎇🎇🎆🪽💥☄️🎆🎇💥☄️🎆☄️🎇🪽🪽☄️🎆💥🪽

[yours-truely-blog]

I'm ill and fantasising about some well meaning robot finding me curled up and not quite knowing what I need but deciding to fuck me full of all the essential fluids and nutrients I'm missing to make me better and not knowing how much pleasure it's bringing me <3

[therianimal]

Went on T almost a year ago now and one thing I wasn't expecting was increased body hair being so satisfying in an animal way. Like yes I AM a furry creature. So fuzzy. Am canine so of COURSE I must be very fur. Like yes I am More Gender but I am also More Species. It feels really awesome actually :3

[moodybleux]

I'd be happy to swing on by and join in the fun 😁

Ummm

If you had two subs at your mercy to play with, would you rather have them both service you at the same time, or command them to play with each other for your enjoyment?

🤭😏

I'd have them play with each other until they couldn't take it any more, two sweet, desperate messy subs for me to watch 🔥🔥🔥

[babybluebanshee]

It's honestly kind of jarring being one of only two queer people at my job, because sometimes I'll see people who are obviously, visibly, unabashedly queer and mention it to one of my non-queer coworkers and they're like "why does it matter?" or "i don't care if someone is gay or straight or whatever" or "okay, and?" What they don't seem to understand is that I'm not being judgy when I point it out. That's nothing but queer joy babey.

A trans boy who's experimenting with hair dye and oversized hoodies and new names and has currently settled on a video game character? We love to see it.

A gay elder who has never explicitly told me that he's gay, but wears rainbows all the time, has a little pride pin on his hat, paints his nails, and mentions his gender-neutral "beloved" who loves Rocky Horror and Priscilla Queen of the Desert? Makes me want to cry from sheer happiness.

A woman and her daughter coming in to get library cards, and when I asked how many she'd like on her family account, she replies "three, for me, my daughter, and my wife"? Catch me trying not to burst with euphoric squealing at the circulation desk.

When I point these people out, it's because I'm happy to see them! I'm glad these people can live authentically and contentedly and that we can run into each other. I"m glad there are closeted people who can see the visibly queer folks and maybe get that little extra bit of confidence to live the way they want. I'm glad we don't have to hide!

Basically, I live and breathe that panel from Fun Home.

[dqmens]

[bluesfreakingart]

I find it funny how edward and jonathan went on manipulating jervis need for love and affection only to get uno reversed.

Riddler manipulating Hatter

Ah Yes! I can use he's tecnology for my own ends.

Riddler's subconscious: finally someone who will give me the attettion, love and devotion I só desperately crave!

Scarecrow manipulating Hatter

Scarecrows subconcious: ah Yes! I can use he's technology for my own ends!

...

Is this what feeling loved feels? It's nice, now I can never live again without it.

THEY ALL FUMBLED. THEY ALL FUCKING FUMBLED INTO EACHOTHER. THEY ALL WENT IN WITH KNIVES BEHIND THEIR BACKS LIKE "YES. I WILL BE USING THE OTHER FOR MY SCHEMES!!! HAHA!!! SURELY NOTHING WILL GO WRONG!" >Months into "Jerv+Jon were supposed to go back to their lairs but Eddie never kicked them out" >They're just straight having food together, talking, venting, breaking down, sleeping and living together "hey wait a minute"

[blue-lantern]

So.

You think if I go to whoever it is in charge of DC and ask really nicely and bat my eyelashes, I can convince them to give me a Kyle Rayner ongoing that explores his parents and heritage, his deeply held sense of justice, how much the government/law enforcement sucks, and how all that intertwines with his position as a Lantern?

Please I would give so much money for it, I would buy the stupid variants even. I want my boy to be plot relevant and political again.

[mrs-bingley]

Sometimes I go on archive dot org just to look at art made by artists mostly forgotten especially portraits of people mostly forgotten to remember I am human