Mizu's spectacles, and the levels of her disguise
In drafting some more Blue Eye Samurai meta posts, I find myself writing out the comparisons between what Mizu can and cannot hide about herself, and how that affects how she moves through the world.
Like, I get the jokes about Mizu's glasses, if only color contacts had existed back then, etc. etc., and I think (hope) that most viewers don't take the glasses jokes seriously, as in "I don't care about the suspension of disbelief because BES is a cartoon." But I wanted to write these thoughts out anyway without burying them in a text post about something else.
I think the points I'm going to lay out here are viewed very differently by different people, so please feel free to add to this post, reply, or put your thoughts in the tags!
Not only do Mizu's glasses not actually help her that much, there's surely more to Mizu's mixed race appearance than just the color of her eyes.
In my view, this was pointed out in episode 1:
I'm willing to bet most of us were expecting young Taigen to say "blue eyes," not "ROUND eyes."
Obviously this is still about Mizu's eyes, but not even spectacles can hide their shape.
I don't think the show is obligated to point out everything about Mizu's face that isn't quite as Japanese as the people around her expect. Though the creators have said that they specifically designed Mizu - and her clothes - to read both as "white" and as "Japanese," as well as both male and female. I think there's more about Mizu's features that read as "white" than just her eyes.
This is where my own headcanons start entering the picture, but it's my impression that people can just tell that Mizu looks different, whether or not they can put a finger on exactly how.
There's the little girl who looks at Mizu and then hides on the way into Kyoto:
When there's more to your face you'd like to cover up than just your eyes, big hats are a big help!
By the way, most of these examples have to come from the first half of the season, since by the second half, either Mizu is too preoccupied with fighting henchmen, or everyone Mizu is facing knows who she is already, and she therefore has no reason to hide her mixed race identity.
It's worth mentioning that the mere fact that Mizu has to hide multiple aspects of her identity - her mixed race and her sex - results in her having to choose clothes that really, really cover her up, which doesn't win her any favors either:
(Zatoichi reference, anyone?)
If it were as easy as, for example, tying her glasses to her head and wa-lah, nobody would ever know she was half-white - then (1) Mizu would've just done that long ago, and (2) Mizu wouldn't be so on guard and on tenterhooks 100% of the time the way she's depicted in the show, even when her glasses are on.
Her spectacles sure don't help her in the brothel, which is full of observant women who are trying to seduce her, meaning they get good long looks at her:
Mizu never takes her glasses off, but they still send a woman to her who has light eyes, thinking that must be what will interest a blue-eyed man:
No wonder Mizu gets mad after this, lol
So Mizu never takes her spectacles off in the brothel, it's dimly lit inside, and the women can still tell that she has blue eyes. I'm getting the sense that Mizu putting on her spectacles isn't a guarantee that people suddenly can't tell that she looks different.
And yet no one spots that she's female.
Mizu can hide her breasts, can wear her hair in the right style, can hide what's between her legs, can walk and talk and behave like a man - and she's been doing it for almost her entire life, to the point that not only is she very good at it, but the threat of being found out as female is deadly, but isn't presented in the show as omnipresent.
Let me explain.
She threatens Ringo for nearly saying the word "girl" out loud, because while she's constantly ostracized for being mixed race, being a woman traveling without a chaperone, carrying a sword, and disguised as a man will get her killed or flogged or arrested or some combination of these things.
But in addition, it's been drilled into her since she was a child that if she is discovered as female, the combination of her being mixed race and female will identify her as someone extremely specific, someone known to some bad people, and she will be killed:
I think of it as Mizu thinking to herself, "Being found out as mixed race means I'm treated badly. Being found out as mixed race and a woman means I'm dead."
Mizu's hair is cut as a child. But she isn't made to wear a big hat, or cover her eyes somehow, or anything like that. Because hiding her sex is a more successful endeavor than hiding her race.
Ringo finds out she's female by accident, but once Mizu accepts the fact that he won't rat her out, she relaxes pretty early on in the season. Because the threat of being found out as female is mitigated pretty much 99.9%, since Mizu has gotten so good at being a man. And also, because most of the time, people see what they want to see. Even if Mizu's face makes her stand out as "not 100% Japanese," no one in the world of BES looks at Mizu's clothes, her bearing, her sword, hears her voice, and will ever in a million years conclude that she is a woman, because expectations around gender roles in the Edo period were so rigid and so widely enforced.
One detail that proved this to me is after the Four Fangs fight:
Ringo takes off Mizu's clothes so he can stitch her up, then leaves her clothes off even after he's done. He doesn't even throw her cloak over her as a blanket or anything. There's a little a straw (pallet?) as a divider there on the left, but anyone could just peek around it and see Mizu and her chest bindings. (I think it's mostly there as a windbreaker.)
And Taigen is right there, but he doesn't give a shit:
Opinions probably vary hugely on this, but my impression is that because the show doesn't make any kind of deal about Taigen being in the room with Mizu here, my guess is that Mizu isn't in any danger of Taigen thinking she's female. Even when I watched the show for the first time, I assumed that Taigen had seen Mizu out of her clothes here, and that he thought nothing of it.
Eat your heart out, Li Shang (Mulan 1998). I actually do think that this scene is a direct and purposeful side-eye to that movie, lol
There's obviously some nuance to how "severe" being mixed race is compared to how "severe" being a woman is for Mizu:
After all, Swordfather can't bear to listen to Mizu confess to being a woman.
So a Japanese man can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants in BES. A Japanese woman has limited options: marriage, religion, or a brothel. A mixed-race man is an eyesore in this story. A mixed-race woman is a death sentence.
May as well eliminate the female aspect, and do what you can about the mixed-race aspect. Because that's just realistic.
Meaning Mizu can avoid the strictures Edo society places on women. But she can't avoid the repercussions that come with being mixed race. And I truly don't think that it's just because "there's no brown contacts yet."
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Did Brambleclaw actually disown the Three when the secret is revealed? I don't remember this happening (then again, it's been a while) but it does bug me how all three go "Poor brambleclaw :(( He was such a good dad to us and he has to learn we're not even his biokits :(((( poor guy" while simultaneously shitting on Leafpool and Squirrelflight despite them showing them more care and affection before AND after the reveal. If he does disown them, then.... WOW is the double standard real here.
In-canon? It's something you have to approximate. They don't seem to have a concept of ""disowning"" because blood relation is taken as such an insurmountable, FUNDAMENTAL fact of life. He doesn't write them out of his little kitty will and testament, but his actions ARE disowning.
It's as if the fact he is not their biological father is an automatic disowning. From the reveal onwards, he is immediately cold, distant, and the "betrayal" is mentioned often. The Three also explicitly don't blame him for his behavior, like it's just to be expected that he's Not Their Dad anymore.
Lionblaze in particular stares longingly at him several times, really missing him. And like... that's kinda what gets my goat so much
I do believe Brambleclaw is entitled to his feelings of betrayal. I believe Squilf was ultimately in the right to lie, actually, but he's still allowed to be upset and angry that she didn't trust him enough to tell him something so important. THAT SAID, YOU ARE NEVER ENTITLED TO TREAT OTHERS POORLY.
And that's what GETS me. He isn't upset that it was all revealed in such a painful and embarassing way when this could have been avoided, or that his lover struggled with this lie for so long without him, or that he feels he's lost his children. Squilf points it out in The Last Hope-- He's so ANGRY at Squilf that he will THROW HIS FAMILY AWAY
Lionblaze seems desperate to be his son again. Hollyleaf is gone for months, and Brambleclaw is still huffing about the secret when she comes back from the dead. Squilf is fawning in the hopes it makes him talk to her again. Doesn't matter. Brambleclaw Is Upsetti Spaghetti so the narrative will never examine his role in hurting this family he apparently loved so much.
(Narrative seems to understand full well that when Squilf lies for a good reason, that doesn't invalidate the hurt Brambleclaw felt... but when Brambleclaw is upset for a good reason, it actually DOES validate what he put her and his kids through)
In BB it is explicitly a disowning. He cuts them off as his children, and they reciprocate. BB!Lionblaze does so in a ball of fury, vowing that he has ONLY a mother.
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141 if reader gifted them a pet tortoise (or turtle if you prefer) :D /nf
— 🦗 (hi simon!!!!! yes i'm still here (and always will be)- i loved the post you did for my other request!! it was amazing (no duh) , love your writing style as always 💗 have a good day and no pressure!!!!! you don't have to do this or answer this ask either)
Hey, cricket anon! I'm glad you're still here, I was worried you wouldn't be :D Also, this is probably my favorite request I've ever worked on! I love turtles so much, it's unreal! And I love my favorite lads with my favorite animals! Nothing's better than the TF141 with a turtle or tortoise!!
TF141 Receiving a Pet Turtle from Reader
Price: Oh, bless your sweet heart. What could he possibly be doing with a little turtle, though? In fact, it won’t even leave its shell while he’s holding it. Sure, he could understand something like a dog, to keep him active, or a cat, to argue about food with, but a turtle? And yet, he’s completely enamored, even if he can barely see it. You say that it’s a box turtle, and it is rather pretty, he has to admit. It almost looks toxic with its red-ish, yellow-ish and black shell. But it shut itself in completely. As soon as you take it from his hands, it peeks out from its shell, staring at him. You’re holding it like a rather large burger, which he finds kind of funny. It’s a staring contest between the two of them at first, both of them just confused about the other. Price may claim that he has no use for a turtle, but you insist on him having it. You leave him with all the necessities to make sure it grows up to be a healthy specimen: worms and calcium. Naturally, with you being an expert in turtles, you help him out from time to time. Surprisingly, despite everything, it takes a liking to him fairly quickly. He’s very loving towards it, always feeding it just a worm or two too much, always giving it pats and whatnot. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sometimes brushed it with a toothbrush as well, making it dance a little bit. He was hesitant to love it at first, would he really be a good keeper for a turtle? But his worries were unfounded, his turtle loves him to bits. Sometimes he plays around with it too. Sometimes, it ignores him playing and just walks up to him. It has bitten his nose before, by the way. Sometimes, while he takes a nap, he lets it sleep on top of his chest. Yes, it’s peed on him before, but he still loves it dearly. I can see him naming it something like Shelly. He’s not too creative with names.
Gaz: He’d be ecstatic if you show him a turtle. He loves those little critters, they’re just so cute. He can name a few as well, so he immediately knows that you gave him a red-eared slider! But what should he do with it? When you tell him that it’s a gift from you to him, he grows a bit concerned. Would he really be able to take good care of his little turtle? On the same day, he immediately buys a rather big tank and sets it up for the little critter. He lets it explore around his home during the meantime, but he did attach a helium filled balloon to it so he wouldn’t lose it. He always keeps the tank clean, he always feeds it on time. Though, because he loves it so much, he might feed it a little too much from time to time. Sometimes he’ll argue with it that it shouldn’t be such a glutton. In all honesty, as soon as you told him that that turtle was his, he immediately became protective of it. It wasn’t scared of him either, he just has an aura of calm and love that makes animals trust him. Little Mikey was no exception to that either. Though, Gaz doesn’t know if Mikey is actually a male or a female. He just called it Mikey because he liked the name and thought it to be fitting. If Gaz could, then he’d give it so many kisses, but he can’t because of salmonella, so he settles for brushing it on the daily instead. It’s not uncommon for Gaz and Mikey to be relaxing on the couch together, watching TV. Yes, Gaz has watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with it, claiming that Mikey needed some good role models. Whenever he has guests over he proudly shows off little Mikey. It’s his pride and joy and he sends you pictures of it on the daily, showing you how much he’s thriving. When Gaz is sad, he just watches Mikey bask in the light of his little lamp. It makes him feel better. Sometimes, Gaz wishes he was a turtle too so he could do turtle things with Mikey, that’s how much he loves it.
Ghost: He feels neutral about most animals, aside from snakes, which he is deathly afraid of. So I think he wouldn’t want to take the little tortoise you’re offering him initially. Ghost doesn’t know anything about tortoises, so he’s certain he’d just kill it. Not that he’d get that attached to it in the first place, he’s got better things to do. The two of you make a deal that if the turtle isn’t being taken care of properly, you’ll come to retrieve it and take care of it instead of him. That’s the thing with Ghost, though: He always tries his best to appease the people he loves, no matter what. He wanted to appease you by taking good care of it. In his case, you gave him a somewhat endangered little critter, a hermann’s tortoise. Ghost doesn’t know that at first. Yes, the resident edgelord may pretend to not care about it too much at first, but he gets attached fairly easily. It’s just so small and so young and so fragile. His protector instincts are kicking in whenever he sees it. I mean, when he got it, it was smaller than a pack of cigarettes. However, under his care, it’s thriving. It grows into such a big and healthy specimen. Ghost bought several books on how to care for turtles and tortoises and he makes sure that it’s always fed and entertained. He named it Nike. One could argue that he named it after the Greek goddess, but he actually named it after the shoe company. He just took the first best thing he saw and decided that it made for a good name. Nike has fallen asleep in his hands before. Ghost is a very warm person with very warm hands. Besides, Nike felt comfortably cool in his hands, so he dared not to move and wake it up either. People may look at it, but no one but you and him are allowed to touch it. He cuddles it fairly often and it doesn’t seem to mind either. Whenever Ghost is home and in its field of view, it immediately crawls up to him. It loves him so dearly. It has escaped its enclosure before, but instead of running away it ran towards Ghost. He could never scold it, so he just wrapped it in a blanket and cuddled with it on the couch.
Soap: Soap was certain he could go for something bigger, but not too big. When you said you’d get him an animal, he expected something along the lines of a dog. He never would have considered a reptile. Sure, they’re cute, but what could he possibly do with something like that? Either way, back at home, he has a rather big yard and lots of greenery. And thus, you gift him a sulcata tortoise. It was fairly small when you got it and he didn’t really think much of it. However, within a year he noticed that he’d likely need to build a small shed for it or else it’ll outgrow his home. And that he did. His tortoise is a little rascal. Like Gaz, he doesn’t know if it’s a male or a female, he just named it Bonnie because it reminded him of you. It’s not uncommon for Bonnie to eat the flowers from the bushes, or the flowers in general. His mother would have killed him for it, but Soap lives alone these days. Soap scolds Bonnie very often because it keeps eating everything in his garden. But he lovingly scolds it, there’s no malice whatsoever behind his words. He actually also works out so that he’ll always be able to carry it home if it strays too far. Soap is a strong lad, but Bonnie is a great motivator as well. He often feeds her all kinds of dubious vegetables he’s found in the store, before trying them himself. I mean, if the tortoise eats it, then it can’t be bad, right? He celebrates the day you gave it to him by making it a big platter of lots and lots of snacks. Soap even arranges the food nicely so that it’s eye candy as well. He takes so many pictures of Bonnie, it’s unreal. And yes, he sends each and every single one of them to at least one person. You’ve received so many turtle pics. Ghost has probably blocked him for a day or two because Soap kept spamming him with blurry pictures of Bonnie. Sometimes, while it’s basking in the sun, he just lies down next to it and takes a small nap. Loves spraying Bonnie with the hose, it gets so demanding with the water. It always wants to be sprayed with water and Soap lovingly scolds it that it doesn’t need to be sprayed any more.
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The way people talk about Tsukasa makes me want to murder people /neg
Somehow just because Tsukasa attracted the attention of the younger fanbase, people just have found themselves allowing to dunk on his fanbase because "how dare these 12 year old misinterpret a character that I don't even personally like".
Because yeah it's almost like young people can identify a darker part of a character but overexagerate it because the part that discerns nuance isn't even fucking developped yet. Or you know maybe it's just fun making angst, maybe they're just venting through Tsukasa ?
And somehow these people making angst are somehow more wrong than the people who just act as though Tsukasa is like the happiest guy ever with the least amount of struggles (because how dare he be happy, the only way a person can be struggling is if they're miserable 24/7).
Like it's wild it's somehow the same thing that happened to Sans, it's as though people don't realize that making a character have less problem than in canon is just as much of a misinterpretation than the opposite, you're not smarter for it.
No genuinely what's wrong with people, every other male oc fans get to do whatever and somehow Tsukasa fans are the ones that only enjoy his character cause he's a "dude".
I'm a Rui fan but it makes 0 sense to me how much of us just get away with more because ig it's more acceptable to make angst of rui ????
Like people say "wow people exagerate Tsukasa's backstory so muchh lol", like ok here are the multiple instances of Tsukasa flashbacks :
-Dazzling Lights
-Tenma mixed event
-Colorfes card
-Vocaloid World Link
Wow, yeah really short and rare Tsukasa flashbacks yeah....
And also people acting as though he was fine being alone at home are just straight up lying, like that is a lie the game literally tells you he's not fine blatantly in Dazzling Lights. And if you somehow needed more proof you can dig through the vocaloid world link, his colorfes card or even fucking side card stories.
There's no reason to talk about Tsukasa fans and how exagerated Tsukasa angst is i'm sorry, you're just being a bully and passive agressive to fans who want to have fun. The only time it's worth while to dunk on them is for ableism which IS a problem with Tsukasa fans.
Obviously I'm not gonna police you into what you should talk about but I just think it's really obnoxious and just kinda has been worsening the toxicity of this already radioactive fandom.
Also don't take anything in this post too personally this is just like a scream into the void about this fandom's behavior around Tsukasa.
I'm talking about this also because I literally saw firsthand how just kinda mean people are to others who just have fun.
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Remembering my first mental hospital stay, wherein I was a freshly diagnosed schizophrenic with paranoid delusions. I had told a doctor I was convinced someone was following me, wanted to hurt me, and that I was afraid, and she just told me it wasn't real. Just in my head.
I wandered to the group room, tired and freaked out from not sleeping for a few days prior to admission. There was a native woman, maybe 55-70s in age sitting at a table and she could tell I was shaken and upset and invited me to sit with her where she had a big sprawling unfinished puzzle out.
She asked me what was wrong and I told her, someone is following me and I think they want to hurt me, and I'm scared. She listened and nodded without interrupting me before speaking, gently coaxing me to add a piece to the puzzle in front of us. "See those doors? There's only 2 to this entire wing, and they're both always locked. Only authorized people with the codes can come in or out, no one can come in thats not supposed to be in. You're safe, okay?" Her voice was so gentle and reassuring. I kept repeating her words to myself, you're safe, you're safe.
And I will always remember that. She didn't tell me it wasn't real, my fear was real and she didn't say it wasn't. She just reassured me that I was safe. I felt listened to, and as I searched for more pieces to that puzzle I actually did feel safe. The terror dissipated while we searched for the pieces together
I don't remember her name, don't even remember the puzzle we were making, but I remember that her words not only validated me, they comforted me when I needed it so badly. I will never forget that kindness, and it made the stay all the more manageable while I got proper medication and healed.
Whoever you were, thank you for treating me like a person. Thank you for giving me that comfort. I think of you still and always will
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