Seeing fan discussions about Blue Eye Samurai and especially Mizu's identity is so annoying sometimes. So let me just talk about it real quick.
First off, I have to emphasise that different interpretations of the text are always important when discussing fiction. That's how the whole branch of literary studies came to be, and what literary criticism and analysis is all about: people would each have their own interpretation of what the text is saying, each person applying a different lens or theory through which to approach the text (ie. queer theory, feminist theory, reader response theory, postcolonial theory, etc) when analysing it. And while yes, you can just take everything the authors say as gospel, strictly doing so would leave little room for further analysis and subjective interpretation, and both of these are absolutely necessary when having any meaningful discussion about a piece of media.
With that being said, when discussing Blue Eye Samurai, and Mizu's character in particular, I always see people only ever interpret her through a queer lens. Because when discussing themes of identity, yes, a queer reading can definitely apply, and in Mizu's story, queer themes are definitely present. Mizu has to hide her body and do her best to pass in a cisheteronormative society; she presents as a man 99% of the time and is shown to be more comfortable in men's spaces (sword-fighting) than in female spaces (homemaking). Thus, there's nothing wrong with a queer reading at all. Hell, some queer theorists interpret Jo March from Little Women as transmasc and that's totally valid, because like all analyses, they are subjective and argumentative; you have the choice to agree with an interpretation or you can oppose it and form your own.
To that end, I know many are equally adamant that Mizu is strictly a woman, and that's also also a completely valid reading of the text, and aligns with the canon "Word of God", as the creators' intention was to make her a woman. And certainly, feminist themes in the show are undeniably present and greatly colour the narrative, and Episode 4 & 5 are the clearest demonstrations of this: Mizu's protectiveness of Madame Kaji and her girls, Mizu's trauma after killing Kinuyo, her line to Akemi about how little options women have in life, and the way her husband had scorned her for being more capable than him in battle.
I myself personally fall into the camp of Mizu leaning towards womanhood, so i tend to prefer to use she/her pronouns for her, though I don't think she's strictly a cis woman, so I do still interpret her under the non-binary umbrella. But that's besides my point.
My gripe here, and the thing that spurred me to write this post, is that rarely does this fandom even touch upon the more predominant themes of colonialism and postcolonial identities within the story. So it definitely irks me when people say that the show presenting Mizu being cishet is "boring." While it's completely fine to have your opinion and to want queer rep, a statement like that just feels dismissive of the rest of the representation that the show has to offer. And it's frustrating because I know why this is a prevalent sentiment; because fandom culture is usually very white, so of course a majority of the fandom places greater value on a queer narrative (that aligns only with Western ideas of queerness) over a postcolonial, non-Western narrative.
And that relates to how, I feel, people tend to forget, or perhaps just downplay, that the crux of Mizu's internal conflict and her struggle to survive is due to her being mixed-race.
Because while she can blend in rather seamlessly into male society by binding and dressing in men's clothing and lowering her voice and being the best goddamn swordsman there is, she cannot hide her blue eyes. Even with her glasses, you can still see the colour of her eyes from her side profile, and her glasses are constantly thrown off her face in battle. Her blue eyes are the central point to her marginalisation and Otherness within a hegemonic society. It's why everyone calls her ugly or a monster or a demon or deformed; just because she looks different. She is both white and Japanese but accepted in neither societies. Her deepest hatred of herself stems primarily from this hybridised and alienated identity. It's the whole reason why she's so intent on revenge and started learning the way of the sword in the first place; not to fit in better as a man, but to kill the white men who made her this way. These things are intrinsic to her character and to her arc.
Thus, to refuse to engage with these themes and dismiss the importance of how the representation of her racial Otherness speaks to themes of colonialism and racial oppression just feels tone-deaf to the show's message. Because even if Mizu is a cishet woman in canon, that doesn't make her story any less important, because while you as a white queer person living in the West may feel unrepresented, it is still giving a voice to the stories of people of colour, mixed-race folks, and the myriad of marginalised racial/ethnic/cultural groups in non-Western societies.
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'There, instantly, she found her little brother perched. He hunched over his cigarette as if someone might steal it from him and shot Temari a cautionary glance that made her think he might bite. She half expected him to rush to finish it, but he leisurely puffed between swigs of his latest beer, looking out over the houses across from them.
Temari debated leaving him be for the warmth inside, but his indifference towards her presence made her inclined to stay. She sat down beside him and lit a cigarette of her own.
She paused, quiet for a while, then cleared her throat.
“So, are you going to apologise for that shit in there?” she whispered.'
Grandmaster on ao3 by @notquitejiraiya
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as pleased as i am that we're getting a new support hero, i can't help but be disappointed that she looks like d.va's and tracers's models just got mashed together (i literally thought it was just a new skin for either of them for a sec). i kinda want to know what the lore behind her is, but... at the same time i lost interest in new characters lore after bap :( let us know if she's at least fun to play when you get a chance to test her out!
i havent been interested in OW lore since like. idk maybe ramattra: at this point i am just here to see if the chara plays nice and if they look nice while liking the old ones LOL
juno looks real fun to play with the space theme, so i'm optimistic she'll be a joy :^)
regarding juno about her appearance, i don't think she looks too much like a mash up of dva/tracer like some of the gal heroes usually do (kiriko genuinely does just make me think of tracer sometimes, for instance)..
...but i do like her 'preview' model before. at the very least, her eyes made her stand out with how sharp the lashes were coupled with her smaller face
in the model we have now, they like. nerfed her lashes LOL??? i could be coping but her old eyes looked more 'rectangular' than the rounded shape we have now also. if they kept the eyes from before, i think that would've helped make her stand out, at the very least the lashes. they have a particular style to them that just isn't translated into the in-game model now
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