#but it was too meandering and I lost the plot on it so maybe I'll try that again in a different post one day lol

[mustardyellowsunshine]

In today's episode of Shut Up Robin, Nobody Cares:

I finished Maison Ikkoku back in February, and I had a lot of feelings about the series. (It's good, do yourself a favor and go read it if you haven't.) As I read through it, I couldn't shake the thought: this is the caliber of romantic development Rumiko Takahashi can bring to the table?? We could've had this kind of relationship development in InuYasha??? 😭😭

The other thought I couldn't shake: InuYasha fans who still question the sincerity and depth of InuYasha's feelings for Kagome might benefit from reading Maison Ikkoku all the way to the end. They should read the final chapters of Maison Ikkoku, think for awhile about the blatant parallel themes found in InuYasha, and then try reevaluating InuKag's dynamic.

Now, I should clarify: I think the InuYasha series already makes it abundantly self-evident that the Inu/Kag/Kik "triangle" (🙄) is a complex situation that puts InuYasha in an extremely difficult position. (Well, it puts all of them in a difficult position, but you get the idea.) You just have to read the series with your brain on to see that. To review: teenage boy is tricked and terrorized by a demonic murderer; that demon successfully murders the boy's ex while masquerading as him; later his ex is revived from the dead against her will, wanders the earth as a vengeful spirit for awhile (who wouldn't be pissed about being brought back into that bullshit?), and is actively stalked by the demon who already murdered her once; teenage boy is falling in love with someone else when this happens, but he still wants to save his ex from being re-victimized by the demon who already brutally murdered her once. Anyone who sees that situation and describes it with a straight face as "InuYasha needs to make up his mind already" is probably never going to reconsider their assessment of InuYasha's character. They've already formed an opinion in defiance of the evidence. That ship done sailed.

But for some folks, I think experiencing the way Maison Ikkoku explores the same relationship themes—and particularly how it resolves those themes in the final chapters—could help them re-evaluate the emotional nuances in InuKag's relationship, and maybe help to re-contextualize the Inu/Kag/Kik conflict.

The parallels between Godai/Kyoko and InuYasha/Kagome are pretty obvious—Rumiko Takahashi consistently revisits this relationship dynamic in her work (it's present in Mao to a lesser extent). But I think Maison Ikkoku more directly confronts the emotional complexity of that dynamic. You can feel the difference in how RT more directly explores the messiness, complications, and pain of a) grieving a former relationship even while falling in love with someone else, and b) loving someone who is still tangled up in grieving their past. The InuYasha series obviously deals with those themes too, but Maison Ikkoku brings more focus and resolution to its exploration.

This may be for two reasons: 1) Maison Ikkoku had an older audience, as it was published in a seinen magazine geared for adult men between 18 - 40 years old, and 2) the relationship tension between Godai/Kyoko pretty much constitutes the main story of Maison Ikkoku; in InuYasha, the plot (such as it is) revolves around a vengeance quest and the monster of the week, and the relationship tensions between InuKag are second to that. Maybe that's why RT was more willing to get into the weeds with Godai/Kyoko and to more directly resolve the tension.

InuYasha does have some standout chapters where it explicitly deals with the tension of InuKag's situation (e.g., chapter 78, chapter 124, chapter 176, chapter 286, chapter 458, etc.), but there's this distinct hesitance in the narrative to resolve that tension in a substantive way. That's one of my beefs with the InuYasha series: it gives us moments of standout, concrete relationship development which then doesn't impact the future narrative all that much. The same relationship conflicts play out over and over again, well past their narrative expiration dates. See: Miroku flirting with women right in front of Sango after they've acknowledged feelings for each other; also the entire Kaō arc, which just... I do not understand the narrative purpose of that arc when it just exacerbates tensions that already existed and resolves none of them. Anyway. I digress.

You could argue this hesitance to permanently resolve relationship conflict comes from the episodic nature of InuYasha's storytelling. There's some truth to that, but that's not a satisfying explanation for why the main couple's relational status quo remains inert for the latter half of the series. Maison Ikkoku also does this to an extent—the "will they, won't they?" tension is strung along for as long as possible—but in general Maison Ikkoku does a better job of allowing relationship development to actually affect the narrative. Moments of emotional revelation and growth do change the relational status quo between Godai and Kyoko. They don't stay in quite the same relationship limbo that InuYasha and Kagome get stuck in for the latter half of the series. (It probably also helps that Maison Ikkoku is significantly shorter than InuYasha.)

All that to say: I think Godai/Kyoko is actually a useful mirror for examining InuKag, because they share the same themes and relationship dynamics without sharing the same narrative failings.

Okay, so: big time major spoilers ahead for Maison Ikkoku. Stop here if you don't want to see the conclusion of that series.

I want to look at how Maison Ikkoku's conclusion simultaneously revisits and resolves the main conflict between Godai/Kyoko.

Ahhhhhh my feelings!!! Man I love this series.

Okay, let's review the major takeaways from this scene:

• Notice how the tension between Godai and Kyoko—Godai's struggle with insecurity and Kyoko's feelings for her deceased husband—mirrors the tension between InuKag. And notice that the reader is encouraged to sympathize with both Godai and Kyoko. Godai is not "at fault" for struggling with insecurity and feelings of jealousy. That's a natural human feeling to have, especially in a relationship that hasn't been anywhere near secure until very recently. And despite whatever jealousy or inadequacy he may be feeling, Godai tries to see things from Kyoko's perspective. Part of Godai's struggle—the heartache of it—is his understanding that Kyoko is also not at fault. It's not her fault that she married before she ever met Godai, it's not her fault her husband died, and it's not her fault that she's struggling with the grief of that tragedy. She's trying to reorient herself to her new life after loss; she's falling in love with Godai, but she's also scared of betraying her husband's memory. (Let's hold that mirror up to InuYasha now, shall we? SHALL WE?) Moving on from Soichiro emotionally represents to Kyoko a breach of duty to a loved one.

• To reiterate: neither Godai nor Kyoko are "at fault" in this situation. That's precisely why it's a tragedy. They both have to process painful, messy feelings; both their feelings are valid and understandable. (Hold that mirror up to InuKag, girl. HOLD IT UP.)

• Notice how Godai explicitly acknowledges that loving Kyoko means loving the Kyoko who once loved Soichiro. "On the day I met Kyoko, you were already within her. That's the Kyoko I fell in love with." It's impossible to divorce Kyoko from her feelings for her former husband: that part of her life significantly shaped her into who she is. And I just love that Godai is hashing out his feelings at Soichiro's grave: it shows a sort of respect for Soichiro's memory, but more importantly it also shows that Godai knows his negative feelings can't ultimately be "fixed" by Kyoko. If she could fix them, he'd be having this conversation with her. (And by this point in the series they have had this conversation.) But Godai knows he's the only one who can truly work through/resolve his insecurity—especially now, when Kyoko has already assured him that she loves him—and I love how the scene's setting subtly demonstrates that. Soichiro's ghost is haunting Godai's feelings, not Kyoko's, and Godai is trying to work through that with Soichiro himself. There's no love triangle to resolve here: what needs resolving is Godai's own feelings of inadequacy which no amount of assurance from Kyoko can ultimately "fix." This is his ghost to fight. (We get an echo of this kind of inner conflict in chapter 458 of InuYasha: Kagome directly wrestles with the "ghost" of Kikyo and struggles toward some resolution of her own insecurities.... Only for the Kaō arc to come along later and materially damage that resolution and character growth for no clear reason, BUT I DIGRESS.) And this scene shows that Godai wins that fight: he comes to understand that loving Kyoko has to include accepting her past. Kagome reaches a very similar understanding in chapters 175 and 176 of InuYasha.

• To reiterate: Maison Ikkoku's conclusion is not the resolution of a "love triangle." It's the resolution of a series-long conflict, which is completely different. In order for love triangles to work—to actually function as love triangles—two competing love interests have to be viable options. This is quite evidently not the case in Maison Ikkoku: Soichiro is dead at the start of the series. It's literally impossible for Kyoko to choose him in any meaningful way. RT blatantly acknowledges this early in the series when Kyoko's father-in-law tells her she has to live her life. I cannot stress enough how self-consciously the series is not about a love triangle between Godai/Kyoko/Soichiro. (Mitaka is another matter entirely, for a different post.) Rather, the series is about the damaging power of grief in our lives, the rocky and painfully non-linear journey to healing from that grief, and how messy, fraught, and ultimately profoundly beautiful it is to love another person for exactly who they are — past pain/trauma and all. (Please for the love of heaven hold that mirror up to InuKag.)

• No, you know what? I'm not leaving that at a parenthetical. I'm just gonna say it: exactly as Maison Ikkoku is not about a love triangle, InuYasha isn't either. For the same reasons as stated above, the Inu/Kag/Kik dynamic is not ultimately a love triangle because Kikyo is dead at the start of the series. And while her spirit is magically revived—in an altered/diminished form—she is still not truly alive. The story conspicuously communicates this: her body is literally created from decomposing bones and cannot sustain itself (she needs to consume souls—other deceased spirits—to remain animated), symbolically suggesting she is of the dead even as she walks among the living. This is a facsimile of life. RT is not subtle about this. Kikyo is a tragic and complex character whose arc can be interpreted in many ways, but I think it's fair to say that the series self-consciously represents her as a past which can't be recovered. The damage has been done. She is dead, time continues to move forward, and there's no reversing that. (That's, again, why it's a tragedy.) Even her resurrected body symbolically represents this reality via death imagery. Ergo, from the very start of the series—just as we see in Maison Ikkoku—Kikyo is not a truly viable option for InuYasha. He can't choose her in any meaningful way. To "choose" her would be to essentially choose death—abandonment of life—just as Kyoko choosing Soichiro would make her "a wife who hadn't died yet." Kikyo represents an irrecoverable past just as Soichiro does. And the main thematic trajectory of each series does not suggest that Kyoko/InuYasha should give up on life by choosing death — it suggests they should choose life. Godai and Kagome conspicuously represent life, the possibility of living into the future. (Kagome is literally from the future, that's how unsubtle RT is about this.)

(A quick aside while we're here: no, Kikyo's not being a viable option does nothing to diminish the sincerity of InuYasha's feelings for Kagome. Kagome is not a "second choice," for the love of God the series blatantly addresses that very thing many, many times—like it's right there y'all—and I have already written a long ass post about why Kagome's insecurity over InuYasha's feelings for her shouldn't be taken as gospel truth.)

So, rather than being an actual love triangle, I think the Inu/Kag/Kik dynamic is a complicated emotional landscape that explores the same themes Maison Ikkoku does: how grief and trauma affect our lives, how painful and messy it can be to heal from that grief, and that loving someone—choosing to take that mutual risk with them—means trusting that they mean it when they tell/show us they love us, and choosing to trust them more than our own insecurities.

It's just that Maison Ikkoku explores those themes a little better. 😅 Which is why I think it makes a good mirror for re-examining InuKag: all the same themes without all the narrative failings and missed opportunities. ✌🏼

[tobiasdrake]

Time to meet my character. And also the other one, I guess.

My colors are cooler than his. Nyeh!

In seriousness, Valere and Zale both have killer portraits. Though the jagged upper edge of Zale's scarf makes it look like it's preparing to eat him.

That's a terrible idea, Zale. You want us to explore an unknown wilderness in separate directions and then when we find something... what? Yell really loud and hope the other one's aimless nature meandering hasn't taken them out of earshot?

I don't know, maybe we have mystical methods of communication but then we'll still be left trying to offer navigational advice like "I think I took a left at a rock?"

Sometimes games let you pick a character to play and then quickly sideline the other for the duration of the plot. Resident Evil comes immediately to mind. I'm sure Sea of Stars has no intention of doing that but it would kill me if the non-selected character just ended up lost in the wilderness for the duration of the game. XD

OH SURE, you take the easy flatland and leave me with the path that requires climbing up a ledge.

Well. Whatever else he may be, we know that a gentleman, Zale is not.

WHOA put the staff down, Valere. Look at his backpack. He might just be a traveling merch--

There are skulls decorating the backpack.

You know what, never mind. You're right. I'm wrong. Activate self-defense stick and wait to see if he makes the first move.

Not even "Goblin" or "Orc" or anything. Just. Wanderer. I'm having second thoughts about beating the shit out of this guy again.

I mean, I'll do it. I just don't feel good about it. I'm going to just focus on the skulls and try to assume we were being accosted by a bandit, and not a traveling vagrant who decorates his gear to try and ward off would-be assailants because life's tough when you're on the streets.

Have to climb a ledge and cross a rickety bridge. I hope Zale enjoys his pleasant stroll in the woods that seemed to be off in that direction.

Yes, I am petty.

On the plus side, that's definitely a previously-used campsite up there on that ledge. So we should be able to cross the bridge and then take a nice, relaxing walk up the hill to that bridge up there, which may connect us to--

I'm gonna put a thumbtack in his sleeping bag.

I got attacked by a rock bull, thank you for asking. It's like a regular bull. But made of rocks.

Oh, but the pleasant jaunt through the woods takes you to the well-used campsite. Great. I got mauled by a rock bull for nothing.

We weren't looking for the way to the top. We were looking for that campsite next to you. But sure, Zale's easy route not only takes him to the campsite I was trying to get to, but also to those delicious looking berries over there and also the way to our ultimate destination for good measure! Because life isn't fucking fair..

.... *deep breath* You're too nice to be mad at.

You know what, I take it back. This route isn't nearly as easy as it looked from a distance. Alright, Zale, I won't put a thumbtack in your sleeping bag.

The moral of the story is that assumptions make an ass out of u and mptions.

But I had to climb both sets of rocks so you're cooking tonight.

Credit where it's due, the writing for these two characters is strong. I don't know if they're supposed to be siblings or lovers or platonic besties or what. What I do know is, you can feel the history in their relationship. These two characters have been supporting each other with love and friendship for a long time.

The dialogue in Sea of Stars is already doing a great job of sounding organic. Valere and Zale don't stop to explain things because. Like. Why would they? They both already know what they're talking about. Instead, they convey hints of information through casual chatter and trust the audience to be smart enough to understand what they mean.

And painting in intrigue. Valere has regrets about a third person who should be here and isn't. Oooo, mysterious. I wonder what happened to--

Oh, I guess we're going to find out right now. Kinda thought they'd drag that out longer.

[cinemacentral666]

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021)

Movie #1,119 • TWO FOR TUESDAY

I appreciated what this was going for but it's too meandering. Thematic resonance is seriously lost in all the various and random digressions. I do understand their purpose, though. This movie could be ten minutes long and it could ten hours long. When a group of school kids are told it's going to be an hour for the ice cream machine to be ready, they decide to wait. There's a roughly sixty minutes left in the film when this occurs. Perhaps that's a coincidence but it's the type of thing this movie makes you think and I really appreciate that. It's like the camera's gaze is stoned, can't focus on any one thing for too long.

It's crazy the plot of this involves Argentina winning world cup and then they actually the did the very next year, their first since 1986. And it's SO weird that seemingly no other review out there mentions this?? I guess most cinephiles really do hate sport. Or maybe I'm a freak for finding that interesting.

The ending is fairly unsatisfying, though I wasn't surprised or taken aback. The narration about how the strangest thing of all is that an author could think of something kooky like this was annoying. It really wasn't that strange of a story!

Oh well. I thought this was nice to look at and had a relaxing vibe and I'll always appreciate an artist following their every whim with such gleeful abandon, even as a whole I felt like it came up short. Of note: This is the first piece of Georgian (🇬🇪) cinema I've ever reviewed.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[hippiehusk]

prompt 15, baffy?? 🙊

Hey! you didn't say which list you meant so I took the prompt from Drabble List #1! If that was the wrong list go ahead and send me the prompt u meant and I'll do that one too!

“I may have lost it.”

Bugs was roused from sleep by a horrible hammering sound. One of the neighbors - most likely Yosemite - must be doing some handyman work. Bugs rolled over, checking the clock. Only three minutes til his alarm went off. Ugh.

He sat up and stretched, rubbing his eyes, slowly waking up. His ear twitched, pointing toward the loud thuds. Now that he thought about it, the racket sounded awfully close…

Oh, no.

Tugging his robe on as he went, Bugs rushed downstairs and out the front door. To his horror, Daffy was their old ladder, leaned shoddily against the side of the house, trying to pound some nails through the siding. It looked like he’d succeeded so far; a string of colored lights was draped across half the house already.

“Have you lost it?!” Bugs called.

“Lost what?”

“What are you doing?”

“What’s it look like? I’m doing the Christmas lights myself, since apparently I’m the only one in this house with a sense of holiday spirit!”

“Wanna run that by me again?” Daffy of all people caring about Christmas did not compute. Presents, sure. But not Christmas.

“It. Is. Dethember -” Daffy snapped, adjusting his scarf, which was, notably, the only garment on his body, “And we are the only ones in the neighborhood with no lights!”

“I’m just struggling to find a reason why you’d care.”

“Holiday spirit!”

Daffy finished hammering in the nail he’d been working on, and let go of it. Immediately, it fell out and tumbled to the ground, and in his effort to catch it, Daffy wobbled on the ladder. With a series of unsteady “Wh - whoa - whoa!”’s, Daffy, still clutching the ladder, sailed to the ground, landing in front of Bugs with a thud.

“I’m gonna ask you again - slowly, this time - have you lost it?”

“I may have lost it.”

“Will you just come inside?”

“But the lights!”

“Your holiday spirit will survive if you take a break. Which, if I were you, I’d spend Googling ‘how to hang Christmas lights.’”

Daffy looked up at Bugs, one eyebrow quirked. “Holiday spirit? Who said anything about holiday spirit?”

“You did, about ten times.”

“No. I said ‘competitive spirit.’”

“Pretty sure it was ‘holiday.’”

Daffy shoved the ladder away, brushing himself off. “Well, I meant competitive spirit. If the rest of these losers are going to demolish my beauty sleep with their stupid lights, blazing through my window every night, we’re gonna have the brightest house on the block.”

“Okay, see, now this makes sense.”

Daffy was peering out the window, laughing maliciously. He’d been there for about forty-five minutes.

“If I hear that stupid laugh one more time -”

“Be quiet, rabbit, it’s happening!”

Bugs turned around from his spot on the couch to see what Daffy was looking at. He’d been outside all day finishing the lights, and now, the sun was finally setting. Bugs doubted the lights would even go on.

He was wrong. The sun was nearly finished setting, and as the clock struck 5pm, Daffy’s timer turned on the lights.

A giant inflatable Santa was illuminated by several red and green floodlights, which rotated, shining all around the neighborhood.

“Daffy, those are ridiculous!”

“I stole that big one off a police helicopter.”

The inflatable Santa was apparently on some sort of stand, rotating in a circle. Bugs watched as the thing’s wire wrapped around the base as it spun, eventually straining, until finally, it snapped, sending sparks everywhere. Santa’s foot caught fire.

Daffy screamed, running outside. Bugs meandered behind him, watching the duck frantically try to untangle the hose. Santa's entire lower half was consumed by flame by now.

“Take a picture, maybe they’ll let you have your burial plot back at Ohev Shalom,” Bugs said.

“I can’t, they took out a restraining - AH!” He blasted himself in the face with the hose.

“Yeah, you’ve definitely lost it.”