#hence splitting this off into its own thing!)

[anghraine]

A more coherent part of the adaptation+Darcy post I was threatening to release from drafts purgatory:

While I think all adaptations' versions of Darcy are pretty bad at representing Austen's character, though sometimes compelling in their own right, I think the various choices made are all ways of addressing the same problem with the character as written.

It's not a problem in the novel—indeed, I'd say it's a remarkable achievement there—but I think we don't always realize how extremely ambiguous the presentation of Darcy is through the first half of the novel. It's easy to read him as basically hostile because he was when he first appeared and because Elizabeth, our smart, likable POV character, gets stuck in that perception of him for half the book. So it's only on re-reading that most audiences realize Elizabeth drastically misread his real feelings and the original interpretation of his manner is thrown into question, at the very least.

But as I said in the other post, Austen plays fair: it is entirely possible to realize that Elizabeth is mistaken about some things (esp about how he feels towards her), it is possible to realize that particularly observant characters find his expressions and behavior difficult to interpret, it's possible to notice that we are rarely told how he's speaking or smiling, and scenes typically cut off before we can be told. And it's possible to notice the many issues with Wickham's account of him.

But it's also entirely possible to read everything he says and does as Elizabeth does, and the narrative gently encourages us to do so without often committing to actual description that would guide us in those ambiguous scenes. Austen might have, for instance, described his smiles in the Netherfield scenes as contemptuous, polite, or pleasant. But she just repeats that he's smiling while drawing very little attention to the fact and rarely committing to an indication of what his smiles or presentation of dialogue are like. So it's mostly up to us to decide, with the occasional (dubious in some respects) interpretation from Elizabeth.

And we're likely to reach different conclusions on re-reading—the earlier presentation of Darcy rewards re-reading a lot, because a lot of the time, we don't even realize how much we're not being told until the letter or even the Pemberley scenes, where Elizabeth identifies the smile we saw in his earlier scenes as the same one in the painting done during his beloved father's lifetime—making, say, the "contemptuous" reading very unlikely.

Now, getting away with that level of ambiguity and obscuring that the ambiguity is happening in the first place, as Austen manages to do in the novel, is both impressive and a hell of a lot harder in visual form. Not impossible! But if we see and hear him ourselves we're less likely to form judgments shaped by Austen's tricks of narration and Elizabeth's POV, and this typically involves commitment to a particular aspect of his presentation in the novel.

And if you think about it, the four major adaptations of Darcy are essentially committing to some part of his depiction.

Laurence Olivier's Darcy is smiling, witty, and charismatic—which are a part of his personality, but skewed so far out of proportion that he's virtually unrecognizable. And there's no attempt to obscure his place in the narrative as the actual love interest (I assume because duh, it's Laurence Olivier—but it was a pretty unrewarding role for him as written).

David Rintoul's Darcy is (in)famously "robotic"—the 1980 version of him leans into the withdrawn, inexpressive, difficult to read but clearly uncomfortable version of Darcy. The smiles in the earlier part tend to be tight, a matter of form, and/or unconvincing, by contrast to the later Darcy's comportment towards the Gardiners and Elizabeth, esp after the second proposal.

Colin Firth's Darcy is, well—okay, I'm biased because of my intense dislike for the 1995 production, but I do think it's also struggling with the same issue, but responds in the opposite way as the 1980. Where the 1980 tried to replicate the ambiguity in a way that retained Darcy's tendency towards a certain severity and dignity and mostly ended up at expressionless, the 1995 transforms it into visibly intense, sexualized brooding. This is coupled with Elizabeth's perception of Darcy's hostility being much more validated than in the novel; he snaps at her, most of his textual smiles are removed, even his letter is rearranged with an eye to half-dressed angst rather than the subtle charity of the omitted "God bless you", and generally his angst and passion!!! are played up rather than down ("I shall conquer this!!" / the melodramatic pond dive and shift in focus from Elizabeth's shame to Darcy being barely dressed / Darcy being grim in London, etc).

If the 1995 version of Darcy commits to Darcy's behavior being largely how Elizabeth sees it, the 2005 drastically reverses that. Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy is also struggling with passion, but tbh he seems like he's kind of struggling with everything. He's visibly consumed with anxiety, he's obviously shy where Darcy has to explain his discomfort or experience it as a POV character in the novel, he seems sweet despite occasional classism, and at times his arc seems more about learning to relax than anything else. That is, instead of representing Darcy as more or less accurately seen by Elizabeth, it leans into emphasizing the extent of her misunderstanding, with Darcy's behavior both more sympathetic than she sees it and clearly comprehensible if she weren't so biased against him (fwiw, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries also emphasizes Elizabeth's misjudgment to a considerable extent and deals with the ambiguity by keeping him literally offstage).

The point of all this is that there is a core issue of adaptation here—the difficulty of representing subtle novelistic ambiguity while making Darcy emotionally compelling at the same time. Adapted Darcys are often given extra scenes, altered dialogue, or (where described in the novel) altered mannerisms/emotions to try and achieve this. And all lean so hard into the aspect they choose to emphasize that they tend to sacrifice most of the rest of his personality to the interpretation they're committing to, and his feelings for Elizabeth tend to be incredibly obvious to the point that it sometimes strains belief that she wouldn't see them, even with all her investment in not seeing them.

I guess the thing is that I think just stopping with "this is an issue of the different media and can't be represented on film" is boring and underestimates the potential of film as a medium. There are plenty of performances that can only be fully appreciated on re-watching or re-listening to something with a fuller knowledge of what is revealed later. And to some degree, the adapters do have to choose how much they want to incorporate Elizabeth's perception of Darcy vs the bare narrative and what they're willing to give away about him to preserve what seems most important.

These are all active choices with actual significance, IMO. They imply priorities about the production and their production's take on Darcy that are intriguing in a way that gets lost by just giving them a free pass by way of the challenge of the medium.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep7 Musings - Loustat: The Trial (Spoilers)

Imma split my Loustat musings into 3 parts, cuz there's A LOT to unpack. So I'll do the Ep3/4 & Ep5 revisits in the next posts; this is just general/initial Louis & Lestat stuff I wanted to respond to.

They beat the dog snot outta Louis, omg. They nearly snapped his neck! Louis was barely conscious, ofc his memory's spotty.

I LOVE how they're emphasizing the physicality of the Maker-Fledgling bond, first w/ Lou & Madz, now w/ Les. It's ofc all wrapped up in how much Loustat loves e/o, but its also their blood connection thru Amel. (I wonder how Louis Merrick'ing himself in Ep5 affects his connection to Amel if his heart didn't stop, cuz Armand stopped him from burning too much?)

And I love what Jacob said in the Insider, afterwards.

Fear that Lestat's come to exact revenge; excitement (a frisson of both negative & positive emotions, excited to see Les just cuz of the tension of having not seen him in so long, but also having all his nerves & senses tingling cuz of the tense anticipation & not knowing what to expect--hence: fear); fury cuz this whole mess could've been avoided if Les had told them WHY European vampires should be avoided at all costs; and relief cuz Les's' alive, his husband's ok.

But this time Lou KNOWS he's the real deal, cuz he can FEEL it--"it wasn't NOT his hand." And Dream!Stat jumpscare in Dubai, well well well; I thought Lou'd stopped seeing him on that Parisian bench? 👀

Here we effing go, whatever this French bish has to say better be good 🍿🍿🍿

I HATE HIM YOUR HONOR 🤣 Omfg take ONE thing seriously! Not the Roland-Garros, STFU! XD Lestat going off script got the coven like WTF?!

OML 🍿🍿🍿

Well that's not helpful at all--WHICH ONE!?

Les was asleep for the whole 100 years b4 he went to NOLA--but we KNOW this can't be true, cuz Les met Marius after he left Paris❗ SAM (the vamp) has been mouthing the words to this whole script, so I wonder if that's just what Les was TOLD to say, OR! It's what HE told THE COVEN, so they wouldn't know about TWMBK❗❗

NOT LES DOING A PIROUETTE INTO THE EARTH STAHP OMG 😭

THIS GAY QUEEN CAN'T HELP HIMSELF, I CANNOT

Awoke in 1908 & disembarked in humidified daughter of Paris, NOLA--but Les told Lou he was headed for Saint Louis, Missouri. 👀

"And who did you meet there?" DANG this is TENSE--Loustat finally making eye contact for the first time, Les having to see his husband all beat up & sad; as Claudia languishes in the background, as usual.

Not Louis with the cigar 😭

"The ACCUSED," LOL, Santiago had to catch himself--stay dehumanizing the violent evil Black man whydontcha; we see you. And Lestat had to feed him his own lines after derailing everyone with that homophobic soldier's evisceration.

Omg this sounds like every court case b4 they throw the book at a Black man. And the bored unaffected way the white audience just rolls their eyes & shakes their heads & smokes--they DGAF about Lou; they've already decided he ain't ish--A STONING.

LOUIS FACE. This is EXACTLY how folk in the fandom talk about Lou--and it came back with a vengeance during all that Loumand Maitre/Arun crap, as y'all were QUICK to jump on Lou being an evil pimp, even though your fave Daniel literally said that was just kinky roleplay Armand didn't take seriously when ish got REAL.

I thought y'all were just bartering for the "last bouquet of lilies"!?

Oh great, the coven's making Louis look like a perv predator. 🤦‍♀️ And the visual centering of Lou's dastardly mind-control waves like a halo over sweet innocent victim Lestat's blonde head, I CANNOT.

Omfg Louis face, SAME! If this crocodile-crying liar don't take his To Kill A Mockingbird, Central Park Five lookin arse off that stage! 🤬

Omfg Lestat I'm finna kill you myself. Omg this nonsense is too much; I know Lou, speak up, YES! But also, STFU, Les is actually tryna save your life by tearing your reputation to shreds. 😬🤦‍♀️

I loooove this effect when the coven uses the Mind Gift on them. They effed him up so bad his left eye started hemorrhaging. 😭

Armand don't you look away for an INSTANT, don't you even BLINK! You could've prevented this, EFF ALL Y'ALL in this nasty AF Theatre!

This gaslighting is hitting way too close to the way IRL court cases go when the innocent get the book thrown at them for crimes they didn't commit.

This is so painful to watch, but Sam Reid you better werk; the way he was yelling those lines had me shook, oml.

Les knows he's effed up, but what can he do? His eyes are going red; he's gonna cry. (His contacts look different, I thought they said they were gonna stick with purple eyed Les?) "I offered it to him in the church on the altar: My companionship." And Lou nodding along, cuz that was their wedding! 😭💔

I was wondering how these frames would be used. It's about the Ep3 race riots and vampire loneliness, the night Louis left & Claudia was made. But I love the implications, cuz how could humans know ANYTHING about hows vampires feel--which is SO important when they start lying about everything else that went down with how Claudia was made and how it would affect her as a "defective" vamp.

Even the VAMPIRES don't know how other vampires feel, and the capacity they have for enduring--Armand said it over & over to Louis in Ep3 and Madeleine in Ep6. Lestat came closest in S1 when he commented on Claudia's eternally 14-yr old metabolism & needing to eat more than an normal vamp, but beyond that none of them had a effing clue what Claudia was going through. They don't know REAL loneliness, even with her diaries telling them what she thought, not HOW SHE FELT.

(And I'm reminded of what I said here about Gabrielle telling Lestat what her loneliness felt like. I think "vampire loneliness" is different for every vampire; which is precisely why Gab (and Claudia) was able to walk away from her Maker/son & live alone; while Nicky & Louis went crazy.)

Lestat crying blood tears, daaaaang 😥

Kill this dude (but I stan a Loustat ally, LOLOL).

Imma stop here, cuz I've run out of Tumblr's stupid 30-pics per post, and the Ep3/4 revisit that "took all the pieces of Louis life, defiled them, bent them into a Lestat-shaped effigy" is IMO the JUICIEST part, with the most new meat to chew on.

[h2llish]

vil rambles cuz im still sick

listen, everyone who literally views vil as this arrogant asshole who likes looking at himself in the mirror every morning has got to be some of the most blind idiots i've ever seen. his insecurities have played out right in front of us?? he is literally so insecure it's blaringly obvious???

it pisses me off watching people completely mischaracterize him as some harsh, insincere character who would bully and pick at someone's insecurities like a fucking prick.

those who genuinely see and regard vil properly as the type of person who has so many insecurities and stresses from living as an actor/model/etc, have honestly earned my respect. his character is interesting and having him mischaracterized as less peeves me.

i don't like to compare trauma, even in characters. trauma is different and revealed in every person differently.

and yes, vil has trauma. living life under spotlight and having his entire life on screen for everyone to see, is his trauma. while he may enjoy his line of work, and has a very supportive father in his corner, that does not make it any easier for someone who grew up under expectations and ridicule since the moment he started walking.

vil's insecurities stem from his roles in movies; he's been casted and sought out for the role of a villain even when he only ever wished to play the hero. since he first played the villain role as a child, bullying the hero (neige) he was automatically perceived as a villain outside of the role as well. and while he may not seem all that bothered, i think it does get to him. to constantly be casted as a villain because he "fits that role so well", and then to have people see him as a villain outside of it can be dehumanizing and painful ━ hence, his insecurities.

a lot of people fail to realize that the life of a celebrity isn't all its chalked up to be. they're human too, they have insecurities and flaws, parts of themselves they don't want others to see. and i think vil does a good job at presenting that.

his overblot revealed that sometimes our insecurities build up and spill over and we may do things we regret. in this case, paired with magic, it was an attempt on a rival's life.

unlike leona or maybe azul, he does regret his actions. he admits his wrongs and that he let his insecurities lead him down a path that could've been disastrous had it not been for rook and everyone else.

i understand that his confidence can be misleading; "if he's so insecure why is so confident?" because idiots, a person with insecurities can also have confidence. while vil is insecure about his stand in beauty, he's also confident in his looks. his insecurities about his looks come from his one-sided rivalry with neige. neige receives more compliments and views and offers, so that comes back to vil and he views himself inferior.

a lot of people seem to think he hates neige. but he doesn't, even he has admitted that he's only jealous. he holds a lot of respect for neige. he knows about neige's tough childhood, and he knows how hard he works, but he does not pity him for it all the same. his feelings for neige have only been jealousy brought on by the views of fans and media, and believe it or not, jealousy is not hate.

vil is genuinely a decent person. after his overblot he continues to thank those that helped in stopping him, and then proceeds to take responsibility for being the reason they were all so tired during the competition. he even takes his own money to offer to everyone after he broke his promise to split the earnings when they won. he also isn't upset with rook for voting for the winning team; he respects that he was able to do so without feeling much guilt. (while i still want to fight his ass. fuck you, you damn peacock spitting mf /affectionate). and then proceeds to give his money to the mc so they can fix up the dorm.

i understand his first impression wasn't great. even i thought i'd hate him, but after getting to know him, i saw that my opinion on him was stupid; understandable at first, sure, but false.

he's strict, yeah, but he means well. he just wants everyone to be healthy, and that includes routine and taking care of your body. it may seem a bit obsessive, but it's his way of caring for those around him, even if it isn't how, you like it or how you'd prefer to be cared for.

i think what i like about vil, is that he genuinely tries to make things right. unlike those before him, he wishes to apologize for the trouble he caused and wants to avoid having his jealousy take ahold of him so strongly again.

and addressing those that seem to think he would attack a person's insecurities, you're wrong. i doubt he'd try to hurt a person by pointing out their own insecurities when he himself has insecurities. he knows what it's like to have your insecurities take hold of you and consume your thoughts, why would he do that to another person? if he does find himself saying something that might be an insecurity for another person, i don't think he'd do so on purpose. he probably intended to help, but in the process hurt them. i just don't believe he'd want to hurt someone by rubbing their insecurities in their face.

overall, he's not a bad person or some asshole who would hurt someone on purpose. he's confident but insecure, and he's strict but means well. stop regarding him so wrongly please, it's actually fucking annoying.

[wild-joker-out-pleasures]

🚫 Joker Out Pokémon Types and Teams: A Very Important Thread 🚫

(A thread made by your resident OG Pokemon fan. I did my best to give each of the lads a Mega evolution, an Eeveelution as well as a plausible starter Pokemon.)

Bojan - Fairy type ✨

Mischievous, ethereal and charming

Starter Pokémon: Chimchar/Infernape

Actual first Pokémon: Growlithe/Arcanine

He definitely has a couple of fire-types that allude to his sexiness.

Tinkaton, Diancie and Sylveon are little but fierce, just like him. DO NOT mess with them.

Arcanine and Ninetales are puppies!

Diancie suits him. A tiny diamond princess who’s a sight to behold and screams “look at me”? Absolutely a Bojan-coded Pokémon.

Kris - Psychic Type ⚜️

Elegant, intelligent and such a slay

Starter Pokémon: Fennekin/Delphox

Actual First Pokémon: Ralts/Gallade

C'MON GUYS, Gallade has cake. A huge cake. Looks very princely too. He’s a much better fit for Kris than Gardevoir!

Hatterene is SUCH a Kris-coded Pokémon. Tall, beautiful and they even share a default expression!

Milotic is a fitting, beautiful tallmon. Naturally such a beauty would suit Kris!

Kris mentioned that he prefers light over darkness, hence Psychic types in general and Espeon in particular.

Jan - Dark Type 💀

Mysterious, sexy and edgy

Starter Pokémon: Sprigatito/Meowscarada

Actual First Pokémon: Deino/Hydreigon

Houndoom has sexy incubus vibes. One cannot have an appropriate Jan team without a Pokémon that gives off incubus vibes.

Weavile and Umbreon are appropriate black cat coded Pokémon.

He's the only one with the patience to slowly raises a Deino all the way to Hydreigon. Even if the little Deino is clumsy and blind, and evolves so late, he perseveres (and thus also shows his soft side). Also, imagine little Jan and Deino with their matching hairstyles!

Jan mentioned that he prefers darkness over light, hence the Dark type in general and Umbreon in particular.

Jure - Electric Type ⚡️

Energetic, chaotic and playful

Starter Pokémon: Pikachu/Raichu

Actual First Pokémon: Shinx/Luxray

Rotom is a chaotic gremlin, of course Jure would have one! And he does switch between all its forms from time to time.

Luxray and Zeraora are big cats!

Ampharos may be cute...but it's a dragon and is capable of VERY dangerous things, so please do not piss it off.

Jolteon is SUCH a Jure coded Eeveelution. Chaotic? Swift as lightning? Charming in its own way? Yup.

Nace - Ground Type 🍂

Strong, steady and reliable

Starter Pokémon: Turtwig/Torterra

Actual First Pokémon: Teddiursa/Ursaluna

Of course Gengar makes it on his team. A Nace coded team is not a proper Nace coded team without Gengar!

Ursaluna is 100% a Nace Pokemon...FIGHT ME. Just look at it! A fierce looking bear that also looks like it could give nice hugs to its owner? Sounds just like Nace in Pokémon form.

He absolutely has the temperament to deal with a powerhouse like Garchomp.

Leafeon is nurturing, but also has immense strength for a small Pokémon - it’s strong enough to split trees. 100% the Nace-coded Eeveelution.

Martin - Steel Type ⚙️

Logical, dignified and protective

Starter Pokémon: Piplup/Empoleon

Actual First Pokémon: Porygon/Porygon-Z

Metagross is just as intelligent as Martin is, and despite being hell to catch, Martin managed to work out a strategy and caught it in a Beast Ball, no less!

Martin has a very kind heart, and this kind heart means that he would never abandon his very first Pokémon that he programmed, a Porygon that evolved into Porygon-Z, even when it starts acting quirky!

He's such a king, of course Pokemon such as Kingdra and Aegislash would suit him.

He has some Water-types to reflect his caring, levelheaded side. Vaporeon is the Eeveelution that suits him most, due to its qualities.

[doctornolonger]

Did you know the BBC wanted a young Doctor spin-off, but the Doctor Who production office shut it down, so all the ideas for it became the CBBC show Leonardo?

or,

You want a Deca spinoff? We’ve had one all along!!

It’s well-known that CBBC had planned a young Doctor spin-off before they commissioned The Sarah Jane Adventures. As RTD put it in The Inside Story (2006), “Children’s BBC approached us. They wanted to do a drama based around the idea of a young Doctor Who, but I said no to that. Somehow the idea of a fourteen-year-old Doctor, on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers, takes away from the mystery and intrigue of who he is and where he came from. So instead I suggested doing a series with Sarah Jane Smith, because she'd been so popular in School Reunion.”

But is it possible that CBBC didn’t throw out the idea, and “a fourteen-year-old Doctor on Gallifrey inventing sonic screwdrivers” became “a fourteen-year-old Leondardo da Vinci in 15th century Florence inventing new futuristic technologies”? Many thanks to my friend Poseidome for pointing me to this connection, which came from the same rumorhound who told me about the Dalek rights situation and abortive BritBox reshoot plans:

Leonardo is what the young Doctor spin off was going to be. “Fantastico!” as his catchphrase. The series would follow the Doctor, Master, Rani, and friends uncovering a conspiracy within the Academy and Time Lord society. The Doctor and the eventual renegades at the heart of it all. The Doctor’s ideas being stolen, his future has been foreseen, Time Lords trying to stop it, etc. All that kind of stuff. There’s even a Borusa stand-in played by Alistair McGowan!

(More under the cut…)

The cast I believe would have been the same, along with the budget, filming locations and costumes. Just adapted to be more sci-fi. CGI shots of Gallifrey, actual futuristic technology, classic monster cameos, that kind of thing.

Most if not all the ideas for the young Doctor series are in the Leonardo trailer still, as they kept 99% of the concept. The independent company tasked with adapting it had already done all the development before the idea got canned. Storylines, scripts, characters, costume ideas, locations, sets. If you watch the first series, the story arc and scripts should still be clear what they originally were, so it sort of still is, in a weird way, a bit of Doctor Who media.

I think it would have been really popular. I believe it would have broadcast in a gap year, or between split seasons. Similar to what they later did with Class, but instead of late teens, it was for the Sarah Jane Adventures demographic.

I’ve not seen the second series, but my understanding is its a lot more it’s own thing, as by then they’d had time to redevelop it outside of being a reworked young Doctor show. Hence why series 1 is the way it is, and series 2 tonally different.

I’ve done some digging to try to verify this rumour, including reaching out to one of the series 1 writers, but I haven’t found anything definitive yet. I rather doubt that development had gone as far as costumes, sets, etc., given how early in the process RTD seems to have shot it down, but it’s certainly true that the cast list matches perfectly. Plagiarising freely from the Leonardo Wiki:

Jonathan Bailey (Psi from “Time Heist”!) as Leonardo da Vinci, a young apprentice who loves painting, inventing, and creating new things. As the BBC Press Office put it, “He’s not just a genius; he’s an unstoppable, free-thinking creative force who’s always ten steps ahead of the rest.” Obviously the Doctor.

Flora Spencer-Longhurst as Tomaso/Lisa (of “Mona” fame), a girl who lives disguised as a male apprentice at Verrocchio’s workshop in Florence. According to the rumorhound, this would have been the Rani – although she also sounds a bit like Alanir …

Akemnji Ndifornyen as Niccolò Machiavelli or “Mac”, the number one man when it come to fraud or theft. He has a network of urchin spies and cut-purses throughout the city, and he likes money-making schemes and mingling with the rich and famous. Leo sometimes has to get him out of trouble. Obviously the Master.

Colin Ryan as Lorenzo de’ Medici, a wealthy boy largely bored of his life of luxury who enjoys sneaking away to join his friends. He is anxious to please his father, whom he greatly admires. The Monk, perhaps?

Alistair McGowan as Piero de’ Medici, an ambitious man and cousin to the Duke of Florence. He keeps a close eye on all happenings in Florence, and he heads a mysterious secret society. Borusa.

James Cunningham as Andrea del Verrocchio, Leo and Tom’s strict maestro. Leonardo is very loyal to him. The Doctor’s mentor Azmael, or an original character?

In light of this, I could totally believe that the blueprint of the young Doctor series was reused for Leonardo. If true, the transposition of the characters from Gallifrey to late 15th century Florence was frankly inspired. TIL Machiavelli and da Vinci were actually contemporaries!

(Incidentally, one of the script editors of Leonardo, Nina Métivier, also played a role in some of my favorite stories from the Chibnall era: she edited “The Woman Who Fell to Earth” and “It Takes You Away” in Doctor Who series 11, and of course she wrote “Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror” in series 12.)

This wouldn’t be the first time that planned Doctor Who stories have been repurposed for other series: Wizards vs. Aliens (2012–2014) was made by the same creative team and played in the same timeslot as The Sarah Jane Adventures, and at least one episode was based on a SJA script that had gone unproduced after Elisabeth Sladen’s untimely death; some Dirk Gently and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy stories had their roots in Douglas Adams’ rejected or unproduced Fourth Doctor pitches; and quite a few rejected Wilderness Era book and audio proposals eventually found homes outside Who, such as the Sixth Doctor pitch Smoking Mirror, which ultimately became into the Faction Paradox novel Against Nature.

But unlike those cases, where we know the character dynamics of the Doctor and their companion or Sarah Jane’s friends so we can spot their analogues in the new contexts, this young Doctor series is an attempt to do something new. Maybe we can spot the young Doctor and Master [edit: or can we?!], but we’ve never seen their friendship anything like this before – and as for the Monk being an impressionable kid trying to impress his father? It’s completely new.

We don’t have anything to compare Leonardo against: its existence is literally the only surviving hint of CBBC’s vision for the young Doctor and friends. And what a compelling hint it is!

[crabs-brencil]

I'm a lil confused by your diagram of murderbot's arm gun in that recent ref with three. what's the bit on the bottom?

i'm not too sure exactly what sketch you're referring to, but this sounds like a perfect opportunity to infodump about poorly designed machinery and hopefully that will answer your question lol

hence! okay so basically i went full "disregard what's actually in the books because vibes" when i designed it and mb's energy weapons system is comprised of two separate cannons, the wrist cannon and the forearm cannon. why? because it needs at least a little bit of space for musculature in its arms if it wants to be able to use it's hands, and so splitting the weapon up allows for better space management.

however, we also know that the bond company produces shoddily-made units, right? and they'd likely put more importance in cramming as much firepower into their units than like, keeping it safe ("whatever, that's what it has the cubicle for right?") which is why mb could reasonably shoot its own hands off if it's not being careful. no one ever thinks to fix this, even when secunit hand materials become their most-ordered item by far.

anyways all this is to say, the bit on the bottom is either it's hand (hinge-operated wrist that moves the hand out of the way (like more than normal wrist movement would allow for) in order to use the wrist cannon), or the wrist cannon itself (telescopic, literally built into the ulna and radius)

as an extra; this is contrasted with three's singular cannon design, which functions both as a part of the forearm as well as a gun, because whoever designed three's model of secunit actually used their brains and had better resources, likely. which is why it doesn't risk shooting its hands off. however, the weapon housing does coincide with like, where the ulnar nerve (funny bone) would be in a human, and because its weapon system doubles as musculature... well that's why that ikea-cabinet thing comes from lmao

and yeah lol i really hope this answered your question and thanks for the ask lol

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Uncleftish Beholding

For most of its being, mankind did not know what things are made of, but could only guess. With the growth of worldken, we began to learn, and today we have a beholding of stuff and work that watching bears out, both in the workstead and in daily life.

The underlying kinds of stuff are the firststuffs, which link together in sundry ways to give rise to the rest. Formerly we knew of ninety-two firststuffs, from waterstuff, the lightest and barest, to ymirstuff, the heaviest. Now we have made more, such as aegirstuff and helstuff.

The firststuffs have their being as motes called unclefts. These are mightly small; one seedweight of waterstuff holds a tale of them like unto two followed by twenty-two naughts. Most unclefts link together to make what are called bulkbits. Thus, the waterstuff bulkbit bestands of two waterstuff unclefts, the sourstuff bulkbit of two sourstuff unclefts, and so on. (Some kinds, such as sunstuff, keep alone; others, such as iron, cling together in ices when in the fast standing; and there are yet more yokeways.) When unlike clefts link in a bulkbit, they make bindings. Thus, water is a binding of two waterstuff unclefts with one sourstuff uncleft, while a bulkbit of one of the forestuffs making up flesh may have a thousand thousand or more unclefts of these two firststuffs together with coalstuff and chokestuff.

At first it was thought that the uncleft was a hard thing that could be split no further; hence the name. Now we know it is made up of lesser motes. There is a heavy kernel with a forward bernstonish lading, and around it one or more light motes with backward ladings. The least uncleft is that of ordinary waterstuff. Its kernel is a lone forwardladen mote called a firstbit. Outside it is a backwardladen mote called a bernstonebit. The firstbit has a heaviness about 1840-fold that of the bernstonebit. Early worldken folk thought bernstonebits swing around the kernel like the earth around the sun, but now we understand they are more like waves or clouds.

In all other unclefts are found other motes as well, about as heavy as the firstbit but with no lading, known as neitherbits. We know a kind of waterstuff with one neitherbit in the kernel along with the firstbit; another kind has two neitherbits. Both kinds are seldom.

The next greatest firststuff is sunstuff, which has two firstbits and two bernstonebits. The everyday sort also has two neitherbits in the kernel. If there are more or less, the uncleft will soon break asunder. More about this later.

The third firststuff is stonestuff, with three firstbits, three bernstonebits, and its own share of neitherbits. And so it goes, on through such everyday stuffs as coalstuff (six firstbits) or iron (26) to ones more lately found. Ymirstuff (92) was the last until men began to make some higher still.

It is the bernstonebits that link, and so their tale fastsets how a firststuff behaves and what kinds of bulkbits it can help make. The worldken of this behaving, in all its manifold ways, is called minglingken. Minglingers have found that as the uncleftish tale of the firststuffs (that is, the tale of firststuffs in their kernels) waxes, after a while they begin to show ownships not unlike those of others that went before them. So, for a showdeal, stonestuff (3), glasswortstuff (11), potashstuff (19), redstuff (37), and bluegraystuff (55) can each link with only one uncleft of waterstuff, while coalstuff (6), flintstuff (14), germanstuff (22), tin (50), and lead (82) can each link with four. This is readily seen when all are set forth in what is called the roundaround board of the firststuffs.

When an uncleft or a bulkbit wins one or more bernstonebits above its own, it takes on a backward lading. When it loses one or more, it takes on a forward lading. Such a mote is called a farer, for that the drag between unlike ladings flits it. When bernstonebits flit by themselves, it may be as a bolt of lightning, a spark off some faststanding chunk, or the everyday flow of bernstoneness through wires.

Coming back to the uncleft itself, the heavier it is, the more neitherbits as well as firstbits in its kernel. Indeed, soon the tale of neitherbits is the greater. Unclefts with the same tale of firstbits but unlike tales of neitherbits are called samesteads. Thus, everyday sourstuff has eight neitherbits with its eight firstbits, but there are also kinds with five, six, seven, nine, ten, and eleven neitherbits. A samestead is known by the tale of both kernel motes, so that we have sourstuff-13, sourstuff-14, and so on, with sourstuff-16 being by far the most found. Having the same number of bernstonebits, the samesteads of a firststuff behave almost alike minglingly. They do show some unlikenesses, outstandingly among the heavier ones, and these can be worked to sunder samesteads from each other.

Most samesteads of every firststuff are unabiding. Their kernels break up, each at its own speed. This speed is written as the half-life, which is how long it takes half of any deal of the samestead thus to shift itself. The doing is known as lightrotting. It may happen fast or slowly, and in any of sundry ways, offhanging on the makeup of the kernel. A kernel may spit out two firstbits with two neitherbits, that is, a sunstuff kernel, thus leaping two steads back in the roundaround board and four weights back in heaviness. It may give off a bernstonebit from a neitherbit, which thereby becomes a firstbit and thrusts the uncleft one stead up in the board while keeping the same weight. It may give off a forwardbit, which is a mote with the same weight as a bernstonebit but a forward lading, and thereby spring one stead down in the board while keeping the same weight. Often, too, a mote is given off with neither lading nor heaviness, called the weeneitherbit. In much lightrotting, a mote of light with most short wavelength comes out as well.

For although light oftenest behaves as a wave, it can be looked on as a mote, the lightbit. We have already said by the way that a mote of stuff can behave not only as a chunk, but as a wave. Down among the unclefts, things do not happen in steady flowings, but in leaps between bestandings that are forbidden. The knowledge-hunt of this is called lump beholding.

Nor are stuff and work unakin. Rather, they are groundwise the same, and one can be shifted into the other. The kinship between them is that work is like unto weight manifolded by the fourside of the haste of light.

By shooting motes into kernels, worldken folk have shifted samesteads of one firststuff into samesteads of another. Thus did they make ymirstuff into aegirstuff and helstuff, and they have afterward gone beyond these. The heavier firststuffs are all highly lightrottish and therefore are not found in the greenworld.

Some of the higher samesteads are splitly. That is, when a neitherbit strikes the kernel of one, as for a showdeal ymirstuff-235, it bursts into lesser kernels and free neitherbits; the latter can then split more ymirstuff-235. When this happens, weight shifts into work. It is not much of the whole, but nevertheless it is awesome.

With enough strength, lightweight unclefts can be made to togethermelt. In the sun, through a row of strikings and lightrottings, four unclefts of waterstuff in this wise become one of sunstuff. Again some weight is lost as work, and again this is greatly big when set beside the work gotten from a minglingish doing such as fire.

Today we wield both kind of uncleftish doings in weapons, and kernelish splitting gives us heat and bernstoneness. We hope to do likewise with togethermelting, which would yield an unhemmed wellspring of work for mankindish goodgain.

Soothly we live in mighty years!

[anonymouspuzzler]

As a humble connoisseur of the Psychic 7 I'm curious if u have any headcanons for them ur particularly fond of, esp if maybe its something youve never rly seen other ppl hc/talk about (tho well agreed upon hcs are also the bees knees)

OH BABY LET'S HAVE A THINK I'LL TRY TO BRAIN A SOMETHIN FOR ALL THOSE WONDERFUL OLD PEOPLE. under cut for length and spoilers

Otto: I'm so with everyone who's like "oh he's so sus and fucked up wait no actually he's normal wait no he's so fucked up". I think his brain is probably a mess but like in a way where he's able to function from day to day. I feel like maybe he's also the kind of guy who like... how to put it. He sometimes has a hard time remembering that just because he's passionate about and invested in something, doesn't mean everyone else around him is going to be equally as passionate and invested. (Especially after the Psychic 7 started splitting apart and having their own issues - hard to pull him back down to earth when you're too busy having your own breakdown.) I also really like the idea of him being at least part-Grulovian and having met Lucy when they were much younger, hence being in contact with her when they started the Psychonauts.

Ford: That man bi and he and Otto are Divorced (they never married) (they barely dated) (they're divorced) (they're still dating). Now that I write it out I think maybe he only had pretty casual relationships until Lucy. It feels like she was maybe the first and last person he really considered Settling Down with - all the more reason for him to be hit so hard by losin' her. I also love the idea of him eventually trying to become a mentor to Frazie, specifically because she seems to have teleportation powers and I feel like he'd want to hand down his unique power and help her refine that, which would be funny because she seems to resent him more than any of the other Aquatos.

Bob: I always interpret him as having lived in the Gulch before the Psychonauts were even a thing - that was just his family home, eventually Ford and Otto and Lucy moved in, he started talking to them and that was that. (I think it'd be funny if he was like, their local food supplier when they started crashing in the woods, he just kinda knew them as regulars who'd buy a crate or two of veggies every week or so, and eventually he and Otto got to talking and what the fuck Otto realizes he's a psychic and the rest is history.) I also really like the idea of Truman visiting him in the Gulch a lot growing up - this is a bit of a tangent but I like the idea of Truman pushing to found Whispering Rock and/or the Intern program when he became Grand Head specifically because of his fond memories of visiting the Gulch and developing his powers under the tutelage of the Psychic 7.

Compton: I really like interpretations where he like - kind of mutually separated from his partner on good terms. (Maybe even did it in part so his Accidental Violent Escapades slash new life in the woods doing psychic research wouldn't have a negative impact on his kid(s).) By the same token this started out halfway as a joke but I like interpreting the lady running the cafeteria at the Motherlobe as his daughter; she's got just the right combo of Sass + Eccentricity plus apparently ferrets at home, and it just feels right to me that Sam would have, like - a parent that's an employee but not an agent, y'know? If that's the case, I feel like she probably had a kinda distant relationship from him growing up (in large part due to him Fucking Off Into The Woods) but made an active effort to reconnect now that she's an adult and especially once she had her own kids.

Helmut: I think the poor guy really missed his calling with the Psychonauts shifting from spy & agent work more towards education (as we see with stuff like Whispering Rock & the Intern program & the apparent interest in kinda training/tutoring the Aquatos post-2). Like, in a world where he didn't get frozen, he'd probably running or at least working at Whispering Rock, putting on big psychic performances with the kiddos. (Granted, he would've had to have make it through the 20 years of spywork, which I think would have been tough for him.) Also I bet Quentin has like an ancient limited-press vinyl of his that sold like, 5 copies, and is Starstruck if he ever meets him and Helmut gets a HUGE kick out of that.

Cassie: LESBIAN!!!!!!!!!!! But ahem anyway where was I. I think one of the things she probably struggled with post-Grulovia (alongside uh. everything else. obviously) was probably, for lack of a better word, the like... legitimization of the Psychonauts? Like, much as she's very sweet and a natural mentor, Cassie's also rough around the edges; very much a do-what-you-gotta, anti-establishment type of gal. (love her for that.) I feel like suddenly having to work with The Government and go through official channels and be all organized and doing paperwork and reports and stuff probably rubbed her the long way and contributed to her feeling like she was getting left behind in the changes.

Lucy: This is all but text but like... I feel like Lucy probably had very mixed feelings about her decision to leave Grulovia. On the one hand, she got out of a place that was actively becoming more dangerous, out of a place where she was lonely and heartbroken after her husband's death, to this great new opportunity to use her powers and make lifelong friend and find a second chance at love with Ford. On the other hand, she had to leave behind a home she'd been in all her life and loved very much, in a time of great turmoil that she clearly feels she should have been able to do more about, and above all leaving behind her beloved sister. I wonder if maybe she tried to convince Marona to emigrate too and couldn't. I wonder if maybe part of what worsened her post-Astrolathe instability and made her suddenly rush back to Grulovia was that unconscious regret about leaving. Ain't no wonder she eventually broke, the poor thing.

[scholar-of-golbetty]

maybe i should explain my au a little bit. rambling under cut, hopefully its coherent<3

basically, this au is just a rabbit hole of "what if Fionna & Cake(show) didn't happen?"

so, what would happen? well, here, simon would continue to spiral in his attempts to get to betty, contact her, anything. he begins to subject himself to more isolation, not noticed much by the people in his life, given theyre busy with their own lives, and see him as much more reserved. and, well, what reason would they have to worry? everyone needs time to themselves. it's not like marceline never hears from him, it's not like finn never sees him around, so no worries, right?

after so many failed attempts to get to the chaos goddess, simon's getting desperate. it's getting to where nothing else holds any merit to him, he has to get to betty. he HAS to. that's all there is to it.....

soon enough, his whole life is dedicated to this cause. not just finding her, talking to her, but understanding GOLB and GOLB's philosophies. maybe this could help him, seeing how betty's fused with the god. but GOLB's philosophies, what the Scholars of GOLB would follow, that's pretty different from the betty he'd known. of course, she's different now, but she couldnt be exactly like this merciless deity. so he mixes his knowledge, or what he could remember, of betty, with what he studies of GOLB. follows a sort of mixed belief of the two. hence, he is now Simon Petrikov, first scholar of GOLBetty

and here's where it gets weird. i couldn't, personally, decide on one or another trail for this au to follow, so it splits off into two different subsections. Devotion and Obsession .

Devotion: simon, in this au, is fueled by faith in the thought that he'll be able to, at least find, GOLBetty. that he'll once again be able to talk to betty, as different as she is now. that's still his fiance, he's still devoted to her, he thinks. still, he isolates himself, spirals down a dark path, but he doesn't lose himself. people worry, but ultimately, he's still Simon. simon, with a red geometric ring, digging into his hand and leaving small, but stinging, scratches and scars. simon, with an endless drive for a hopeless endeavor. he's still simon petrikov

Obsession: here, he spirals bad. nothing matters but GOLBetty. not a moment of his life is meaningful if it isn't spent looking for her, studying how he could find her, contact her. hell, even how he could appease her as a goddess. worship her, give offerings, pray, whatever might grab her attention, or get him closer to her. his life doesn't matter if it isn't for her. the rituals he attempts delve into darker magic, blood rituals(to which he loses a finger), things he shouldn't be doing lest he anger some other god, or lose too much blood, or get himself possessed, etc etc..... he becomes a bit manipulative to people around him, to try furthering his goal. convinces prismo that he hadn't actually gotten a wish, and deserves a redo. uses the fact that prismo might relate to losing a loved one, like jake, to guilt him into bending the rules a bit... simon wishes for the crown, from some other universe. who it was taken from, it doesn't matter, so long as he can use it. it's different, of course, from a different world.... he still becomes cursed, his memory only minorly affected, but the ice is all the same. his tolerance for magic is much greater now, given what he's been putting himself through for the sake of GOLBetty, not to mention talismans he'd been carrying. it keeps the crown from completely overtaking, but he is still cursed. everything he does is for GOLBetty

now that that's out of the way, im not entirely sure if the Obsession sub-AU simon's twisted, freezer simon look should be from this alternate dimension crown, or a result of another ritual gone awry. open to suggestions!

[kafkaoftherubble]

做工前肯定要讲几句有关249的事: 憂太的 领域展开

// I Must Talk About c249 Before I Work: On Yuta's Domain Expansion

This post contains spoilers for Chapter 249 of Jujutsu Kaisen.

If I don't dump it here, these thoughts will distract me later! I'm already very distracted lately! Too distracted for my own good! Ahhhhh!

First off, I was eating so good. Yuta fans, simps, appreciators, and Rika (good taste, y'all)—rejoice, for this chapter is basically 95% Yuta! That's right; the next 5% was Yuta's Eyebags!

Look at this! He's so cute! So handsome!

Oh, I have to learn to exorcise spirits now. Then I can kick that fake Rika away and become his Rika!

Also, some people are somehow even more handsome just by being shown slow breathing. Is it just me who thinks that? Or is this what "rizz" truly means? I mean, look at that slight frown! Look at those eyebags! Look at him breathing!

... I'm sorry. I'm usually not one to write something with such trifling, substanceless content.

It's just... Yuta, man.

Anyway, the main point. Please, look at Yuta's

Domain Expansion

Shit is so magnificent. The many swords are obviously the first thing one would notice (and all that joke about Unlimited Blade Works and that Bleach... thing), but it's the abundance of crosses and the knots behind them that attracted my attention.

I'll get the easy out of the way first.

The Crosses

I would suspect these are meant to be "gravestones." Not too hard to think of "till death do us part," right? Though, to be fair, death didn't do Yuta and Rika part. In fact, it strengthened Yuta's split-moment craving for Rika and cursed her—in true dukkha fashion—into something quite macabre.

If one's Domain is the extension of their mental-scape, then it makes sense that Yuta's would incorporate gravestones, since his genesis as a cursed energy user effectively began on the day Rika died.

----

The Knots

Now this is the part that attracted the most of my attention!

Japanese knot-tying traditions are largely influenced by Chinese knotting (中国结) [1]. The word for knots in Chinese, 结, means "to bind," which then comes to represent all kinds of "union." Marriage, for example, is 结婚 (hanzi) /結婚 (kanji) [2][3]. Given Yuta's "love" motif, you can already see why the knots are part of his Domain.

There are plenty of meanings for the word 结, inter alia, it's a pun on 吉 (blessed) [2][3]. The fact that these knots are intertwined also comes to represent "interdependence," "connection," and "bonds." [2]

It's a bit of a stretch, admittedly, but I suppose one could probably draw this to that time Yuta described himself as "blessed." He is blessed because he was loved—he is enriched by connections and bonds with other people.

-

What is the knot type in Yuta's domain, then?

There are two candidates I could find.

I always rank each possibility from the highest confidence level to the lowest, so here goes. Note that I'm using the Chinese name (I would love it if someone added a more Japanese-focused viewpoint in this post on a reblog. I'm much more familiar with Chinese and cannot read Japanese, so...):

(1) 双钱结, The Double Coin Knot, 淡路結び [1]

It's shaped like two copper coins that are intertwined, hence its blessing is largely related to fortune and money [2][4].

However, the pronunciation of 钱 ("money") is similar to 全, "whole." Meanwhile, there is a pair of coins in this knot. This gives 双钱 an alternative reading—双全, "a pair that makes the whole." It also means 好事成双, "good things come in pairs." [4][5]

Yuta, as a jujutsu sorcerer, is more of a pair than an individual—he fights with Rika and is connected to her. These two together make a whole. A force of good that comes in a pair.

Due to sturdy enough sources corroborating the meaning of this knot, the similarity in appearance to Yuta's Knot, as well as the very fitting "pair + whole" symbolism, I have a higher confidence in this knot being the one in Yuta's Domain.

(2) 八字结, The “Figure 8” Knot

It's a pretty dime-a-dozen knot where the number 8 is formed. It has pragmatic purposes (eg. rock climbing), but here, because these two loops are intertwined, it apparently means "honest love" and "unchanging friendship." [6]

I rank this knot as lower in confidence level. It does at least pertain to the motif of love, according to one source, but it doesn't resemble Yuta's knot quite as well as the Double Coin Knot.

A bit of a caveat, in the spirit of intellectual honesty and rigor: The meaning of this knot has been found in only one source (see Citation #6), and it doesn't actually pass my internal rigor test. I've tried to search for corroboration from Chinese sources, but no dice. The only site in Chinese that corroborates the meaning of "eternal love" has busted web certificates and links.

----

The Name of Yuta's Domain Expansion

The translated name by OP Scan is terrible. It certainly pays homage to Yuta's fame (infamy?) as "The War God of Pure Love," but the actual kanji is 真贋相愛。

真 - Truth or real

贋 - False or fake

相愛 - mutual love, or reciprocal love, or "in love."

真贋 literally means "truth and false. Together it usually means "veracity." Here though? I'd interpret it as "The (Mutual) Love Between The Real and The False."

Isn't this shit metal as fuck? I mean, it's also fucking poetry. Truly the kind of magnificence only one with premium quality eyebags could provide!

It's worth nothing that 真贋 itself makes a contrasting pair, which again, links back to the Double Coin Knot's meaning.

I'm sure yall can make your own interpretation of what 真贋相愛 could symbolize vis-a-vis Yuta and Rika. Let's go, people!

----

Tangents to My Research - Side Dish

Knots have come to be a very important symbol of relationships, especially love, since the Tang and Song Dynasty [1]. To draw to the Japanese side of the practice, Chinese knotting practice reaches Japan during the Tang Dynasty as well [1]. It's not too surprising that this love connotation could also have been passed to Japan.

The entangling property of knots also comes to mind the term "连理（枝）", which means "interlocking (tree branches)." Here are two poems referring to the word:

(1) 同心结缕带，连理织成衣. —By Luo Binwang (骆宾王)

We tie this ribbon into a concentric knot, and we turn our interlocking branches (of love)into our clothes. Translation mine.

(2) 在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝 —By Bai Juyi (白居易）

In heaven, I want to become a Biyi Bird (with you). On earth, I want to be (a mesh of) interlocking branches (with you). Translation mine.

The Biyi Bird is a mythological bird recorded in the purely fantastical geographical treatise, The Classics of the Mountain and Seas (《山海经》). The bird is born with only one eye and one wing on one side. To fly, it needs a partner with the other eye and wing of the other side—and the two will fly together as a complement. [7]

It's very lovey-dovey and romantic and shit.

...Damn, Yuta is really all about love and connection, isn't he?

----

Wow, I didn't work on my actual job at all. Because I deadass spend hours just on this. Seriously?

But then again, there has been a precedence to me breaking my lackadaisical attitude toward writing JJK-related things—and that is when it concerns my favorite character. You don't need to click on the link to know who that other one is; it was Gojo Satoru.

Yuta, bless his rizz, deserves all of my time. If he dies (NO FUCKING WAY, GEGE!!!), then at least I have made something of worth about him.

Thank you for reading my ramble!

---- ----- ------

Citations:

"Chinese knotting" from Wikipedia

"中国结的历史来历和寓意" ("The history and meaning of the Chinese knotting") from 妍妍旅行记 on Sohu.com (in Chinese)

"Chinese Knots, Winding the Best Wishes with Cords" by Beijing Tourism

"双钱结寓意和象征，双钱结编法" ("The meaning and symbolism of the Double Coin Knot; How to Make a Double Coin Knot") on 结艺网 www.zhongguojie.org (in Chinese)

双色绳的编法有哪些？("Whast are the ways to make knots using two different colors?") on Zhihu (in Chinese)

"19 Popular Types of Chinese Knots and Their Meanings" on AnyofChina

"比翼鸟" from Wikipedia (in Chinese; English page not created)

There are also other links embedded in the ramble; these are references for that one specific instance and so do not warrant their inclusion under this section.

[raayllum]

I have a question that has been very divisive in my friend group of people who enjoy tdp.

What direction do you think they'll take Callum's magic in:

Do you think he'll master his Sky Arcanum, following the footsteps of Ibis, especially with his staff.

Or, connect to and become a master of all 6 primal sources, like Aaravos, but for good and love.

And more importantly, what idea do you enjoy more as a concept?

First off would just like to say your header is incredible.

As for your actual question: Callum is a character who chases magic out of a desire to learn and have agency. It becomes a fundamental part of who he is ("I will learn magic. It's who I am") which eventually manifests in him literally creating magic inside him (an arcanum). This transcending of limitations and what other people thought was possible means that Sky (representation of Freedom) was the perfect arcanum for him... to start. After all, seeing through illusions and crafting your own reality is very Moon arcanum-y, and there's been a decent amount of foreshadowing that he might connect to the Moon arcanum next for a while now ("After all, you really only know the appearance itself" "Now you're starting to sound like Lujanne" from 3x01). By forging a manual connection to one arcanum, it naturally begs the question of why wouldn't he at least try to connect to others in a similar manner?

All of this to say: I'd be surprised if Callum isn't connected to all 6 by the end of the show, for a few reasons.

While Callum being connected to primal magic is extraordinary on its own, and it's certainly an accomplishment... it ultimately means next to nothing if Other Humans don't also follow in his footsteps. A lack of access to magic is what created a lot of issues in the world of Xadia, and evening out that score / removing the need of dark magic is the ultimate way to Break the Cycle, as the wheel has always spun on magic and dark magic. If other humans don't connect, we're right back where we started. And humans being connected to Sky would be great, but there's so much more out there, and Callum will only really be able to be a teacher for all the arcanums if he knows and understands all the arcanums... hence, Archmage. (It'd also be very nicely full circle, given that Callum starts off as part of a lacklustre student-teacher pair in 1x01, and growing to become a wise and understanding teacher.)

Callum's parallels to and eventual rivalry Aaravos are mostly dependent upon Callum gaining more magical prowess. Right now they don't have a ton of parallels, but they are undeniably wrestling for narrative control. Aaravos is also underestimating as being just another dark mage like all the rest, "and destined to play right into my hands" but Callum will be, eventually, so much more than that. And thanks to Aaravos, we know a six primal archmage is possible. Seems only right that Callum would become his literal mirror.

One of the core weaknesses of Xadia is their insistence on isolation. Exile is their most common punishment and they literally split the continent in two. Elven society is generally very segregated according to their primal with only a handful of exceptions in ways we know don't exist in the Human Kingdoms (Duren coming to Katolis for aid; Lissa being from Del Bar and marrying a man from Katolis, etc). We see that the arch dragons are more likely to fight than convene with each other successfully and that since imprisoning Aaravos, they basically all went no contact. Xadian characters are also more likely to want to do things alone (Runaan, Rayla, Zubeia) than to pull on all possible resource areas, and the human villains who hate them (Viren) are also more likely to be isolationist. VS the princes ("We're in this together" in 1x05, "This is a chance to solve our problems together" in 4x03, Opeli and Corvus going to Duren for aid) and the Human Kingdoms. Kasef, however antagonist, believed in and depended on the collective. Karim starts to lose his shit in S4 precisely because New Aurea isn't going to be entirely Sunfire elf in nature; I don't think he would've responded to other elves any better than he did humans, honestly. Okay, great, so what? Well the one Xadian character we have who hardcore rejects that isolationist attitude in regards to a primal source with his very existence... is Aaravos. And that elves, humans, and dragons all presumably worked together to imprison him once before. It would make sense that the kid who is going to be the key (or one of the keys) to his defeat would likewise carry that same Rejection of Isolation, and instead embody literal Magical Solidarity by having access to all magics.

As for which I prefer, it depends. I think canon could do just about anything and make it work, and so long as we see other humans connect to arcanums (with or without Callum's help) I have no other Narrative Requirements, I think, in regards to places I think the story has to go in order to function narratively, in the end. He could master just sky magic, and as long as other humans are able to connect to arcanums, I think that'd be just fine.

If I'm writing fic, and I want Callum to be more limited for plot / angst reasons, I'll probs just write him as a sky mage. Magic is useful but can't (and should not, for story reasons) be able to fix everything, and is still only as useful as your brain can figure out how to use it, anyway. By and large, a magic system is only as good as its limitations, as that is what allows a story to have conflict, and places to show off creative thinking (with or without magic).

But generally (in post-war / late season speculative stuff; in looking at where canon is going, etc) I lean towards Archmage Callum and always have, and dumped all my headcanons about it accordingly into this fic (order of connection, how each of the arcanums feel different, dual wielding, what it brings between him and Aaravos, etc).

I would also love for Callum to get his own staff at one point, simply because it'd be nice to have a weapon 1) of his own and 2) wasn't yet another thing he inherited from a dead man (the cube from Harrow, the mirror from Viren) but if he uses the staff all throughout the show, that's perfectly fine too. Just means I get to write a fic where it gets destroyed for some reason, and then him (and maybe Ethari) get to help design and build his own for Reasons

[v-arbellanaris]

i'm thinking abt the differences between arcane warrior and knight-enchanter (definitely not bc im gonna redo my amell pt or anything hahahahahahahaha nope no way im doing HAWKE next remember) to try and understand the shift, if there is one...

so in origins, you've got the spec that can be learned directly from what seems to be an elven spirit trapped inside a phylactery. this allows you to use magic in place of strength for damage and also for equipping weapons and armour. there's other abilities that block most damage, provide bonuses to armour, resistance, atk, defense and damage as well as mana regen. you have one weapon specific for arcane warrior, which is spellweaver.

this same spec actually also comes up in dai in multiplayer. it's split into two trees, mentalism and elemental. in dao you could have the aw spec and then have additional spells so im assuming the elemental tree (which has a lot of overlap w the rift mage spec) is maybe something specific to cilian rather than a general arcane warrior thing. the mentalism tree includes combat clarity, spirit blade (w defending blade ug) and fade shield. interestingly, it also includes passives that increase armour, bring up protective barriers, filling the area with sympathetic magic, stun when hit, increases in magic, willpower and constitution, immunity to flanking, reduced % of stagger, phasing when hit, threat reduction, damage bonus for missing mana, damage bonus against panicked. there are also actives that cause panic, dispel magic (w upgrades that allow that dispel to fuel your own damage and barrier), mindblast (w similar upgrades).

then you've got KE in dai, which also has spirit blade, fade cloak and disruption field. and the focus ability, resurgence, which is traditionally a spirit healer ability so idk why it's now a KE ability but that's certainly. a thought. especially since the spirit blade uses an actual spirit or wisp i think? the passives in this spec mainly deal with supplementing barriers, returning damage and faster mana regen.

so in an effort to like... expand/solidify what any of this means:

arcane warrior:

spirit weapons - like a spirit blade. (i assume spellweaver would've been something like that if they'd been able to pull it off with those graphics in dao). but i think arcane warriors - esp in dao - would have asked spirits or wisps to become part of the weapon.

barriers that are. not like normal barriers we see mages cast. these barriers absorb and reflect damage, boost mana regen, defense and damage, presumably because of whatever the differences are between something like shimmering shield in dao and a barrier spell.

knight enchanter:

also uses spirit weapons & barriers but spirits or wisps are bound to these weapons. there's no asking about it; i just think that fits the circle & the chantry's viewpoints about mages, but also spirits, and the relationship between the two.

specifically in terms of barriers, i think KE's are casting regular barriers and then learning how to add all these additional things to the barriers they're casting to mimic shimmering shield and aura of might in dao, simply because that knowledge is lost.

similarly, the way fade shroud (in dao) is cast is different to how KE's are casting fade cloak. that's why one is passive and the other is an active that only lasts for a short amount of time.

KE's also don't have the sustained combat magic that dao has. to me, this implies that KE's strength comes from the mage directly as opposed to being able to convert their magical power to strength. (BUFF MAGES BUFF MAGES BUFF MAGES BUFF MAGES--)

more spirit-school aligned than arcane warrior is on its own (i get the vibes from dao and cilian's ability trees that arcane warriors work well with elemental schools but ive also done entropy arcane warriors that have also been fun in dao? so hmm), hence you get resurgence, mind blast, disruption field (which reminds me of some of the mage abilities in awakening?) & mostly dealing spirit damage

[m1lkyw4yw1sh3z]

Rotating that elevator in our brain <3 We have SO many worldbuilding thoughts sldkfjsf Anyway here's a collection of various general hcs that apply both to our AU and our interpretation of Regretevator in general :)

First off imo it seems like most of the different floors are entirely separate dimensions?? The various NPCs are all so drastically different from each other, not to mention some floors are references to/locations from other games entirely. It'd just make the most sense to us if the elevator was an interdimensional entity.

On the surface it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to who gets access to the elevator, or what worlds it travels to, but in our interpretation it tends to go after people who fall under two categories: 1. they have some abnormal/otherworldly quality that makes them stand out compared to the rest of their own dimension, and 2. they're holding onto some regrets (ha because regretevator)

Once someone fits those criteria, they receive an anonymous invitation in the mail containing the number corresponding to their floor, and the elevator starts appearing somewhere near them. Perhaps a new door appears in their house, or the entire elevator itself just materializes in a remote area, it's a coin toss.

Some people never decide to investigate, which is why many floors have no elevator NPCs associated with them. However, curiosity often gets the best of them anyway...

More below this post is getting long sldkfj

Some floors are just different locations in the same world, and as time passes this becomes more common of an occurrence due to the elevator causing otherworldly vibes :tm: to spread. For example: Two Stud Camp, 3008, and Infected Apartment were originally just normal locations all on Earth.

Unfortunately the elevator's dimension-warping energy/technology is very unstable (hence its frequent malfunctions, inability to properly assess whether it is at capacity or not, the tendency for NPCs like Mozelle or Jaoba to enter in-between floors etc.) so it tends to contaminate worlds it accesses very easily.

Due to this, some floors also exist as "pocket dimensions" hidden within other worlds, like the Gumball Machine in the Hotel Floor. A lot of the liminal space floors in this AU are examples of these pocket dimensions! You take a wrong turn, open the wrong door, and end up wandering in a slightly Off version of the building you were originally in....

Also, time doesn't pass normally within the elevator, meaning it can still serve as instantaneous travel from place to place despite the fact that all of the buttons are broken and rarely take you directly where you want to go. The time distortion sometimes bugs out, which can cause travelers to see strange things, like echoes of their own previous trips to the elevator....

In this AU, the INTERNET ITSELF is also an otherworldly creation like the elevator, able to span across dimensions if you know where to look. Several characters from different worlds met each other online before they ever gained access to the elevator to be able to meet in person. Ex: our headcanon that Infected met PartyNoob and Split online pre-elevator.

The reason why we assume Infected Apartment and similar floors to be on Earth is because iirc the devs said that Infected is based on old roblox roleplay games, which tended to simulate normal everyday things in society. Like living in a city, having a job, etc. Robloxian "humans" from Earth are distinct from beings like PartyNoob or Pest.

That being said, most "humans" who manage to gain access to the elevator are uh. No longer human by the time they do....

[silly-inky]

Thinking about what the KB triplets actual royal duties would be because they'd obviously split things between them to not be utterly overwhelmed by their duties and to better sell the long running gag of them pretending to be the same guy.

Henry is mostly internal affairs, dealing with the newly deceased and some external affairs

Alexander is publicly stunts and majority of the external affairs

King is handles the alliance with Bowser and supplying Boos for Bowser's schemes

King has the most freedom out of the three hence why he was able to orchestrate the events of the Luigi's Mansion games

Oh cool, mine is set up a bit different

Jovi and Luan spawned into existence and came into power around the same time, they were taught how to behave in their role and take over Royal duties properly by another Monarch at the time (the Dark Land's then Queen) in which they split the Responsibilities between them.

Jovi took over the more social aspect of things, appearing at and attending events, going out to meetings to do trade when it's needed to be done face to face and just general external affairs

Luan is the one who does all the internal affairs, sorting out meetings and trade from behind the scenes and sets everything up so Jovi can then conductbit in person if he can't handle it through letters and messengers. As well as supplying Bowser with Boo's

They both take some part in Browser's schemes, in between the Luigi's Mansion games Luan would be more active in they role, but when he was preoccupied or captured Jovi would take that over

When Luan is captured Jovi will increase the amount of Boo's sent off to work for Bowser to keep them safe since Luan isn't able to take care of them and Jovi can handle only so much of the work load

As for Sunny, since he's very new to the whole thing, he has been taught how to handle things if it is necessary but usually the other two handle it since they've been doing so for years now. So usually Sunny focus's on his own affairs, but will help when needed.

So when Luan is captured he helps Jovi out and picks up most of Luan's work load save for the Bowser stuff (Sunny does not get on with Bowser at all and would rather stay out of that stuff) he keeps himself up to date with their status and how other kingdoms are doing just in case an emergency pops up and he needs to make some quick decisions and rely's on the other two's connections if he hasn't made his own.

Technically they all have their own freedom as if one needs to slack off for whatever reason the other can pick it up when necessary. Sometimes, although very rare, they all must attend an event or need to make a big decision together but that doesn't happen often.

Overall Sunny is the least experienced but he can handle himself just fine because he was taught well and has his own business and strategies he's built up himself which had honed his skills, he may not know how to conduct himself at the fancier events but he knows how to behave himself

Luan is the backbone of the operation but his obsession can get the better if him so the other two will sometimes need to pick up the slack ( he makes it up to them and the other Boo's tho) he's been taught how to conduct himself accordingly and is a bit more old school but still up to date

Jovi is the social one keeping up face and being the one all in the know, he does all the face to face stuff as its the easiest for him but can take on Luan's work if necessary, he may not be as efficient at it but he at least gets the job done

They don't exactly have a kingdom to rule over, nor are they in charge of dealing with the whole realm of the dead, but they are well known and respected in their community, the hold power so some ghost's, even if they aren't Boo's will still view them as their King's. They are a well oiled machine and altough they may be a bit hectic and chaotic, they are good at their jobs and take pride in their work (sorry for this long one)

I like how yours is done and how they still share the work load

[stillness-in-green]

On Riots and Resolutions (Part One)

So, I got, unsurprisingly, a lot of asks about the heteromorph riot mini-arc, both in terms of how it was presented in the story and how fandom (my own posts included) responded to it.  In turn, this gave me a lot to research before I started shooting my mouth off about either topic, hence this being as late as it is.  Thanks as always for your patience, everyone.

I had intended to make this one big ask round-up, but I ended up with a few offshoots that didn’t really fit as a response to anyone’s ask in particular, but nonetheless struck me as significant enough to share.  Therefore, rather than having this be an unwieldy ask post/meta mashup, I’m going to split it into two parts.

The first post will use one specific ask, the one that really sent me into the weeds research-wise, as a springboard to talk about what cultural factors might have influenced Horikoshi’s writing decisions about the hospital attack, as well as some discussion of how the Western fanbase talks about heteromorphobia.  I’ll be getting into that past the cut below; there will also be some links at the end for sources and further reading.

The second post—coming soon!—will contain all the rest of the asks, which are somewhat more scattershot in nature.

Both posts skew heavily towards meta analysis: they’ll be about Horikoshi’s context as a Japanese creator writing for Shonen Jump, and about how fans—myself included—have responded to the resulting material.   Obviously there will still be some references to the actual events in the manga, but it isn’t the main focus.  If you want my in-depth opinions on the sequence in question, you can find my very opinionated opinions in my chapter posts.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Discussion of real-life discrimination (racial and otherwise) both in Japan and elsewhere, the historical construction of race, and theoretical considerations about how the idea of race might have been impacted by the appearance of quirks in-universe.  Also, some brief allusions to overwork in Japanese office culture and its impact on people’s ability to engage in/with activism.

On that note, if you haven’t seen me say so before, I’m white as white gets, and obviously writing from a U.S. perspective as well.  I’ve done my best to do my reading and be respectful in my wording, and I did run everything past a non-white friend before posting, but please do let me know if you see anything offensive. Some of these topics are ones that I already know people of color have pretty divergent opinions on, though—I was following the fandom response to this arc quite closely!—so do be prepared to encounter some reads that may differ from your own.

Hit the jump!

So, this is the ask that I looked at and immediately thought, “Oh, I’m going to need to do significant reading before I even start thinking about a response to that.”  Most significantly, I wanted to research what Japan, a famously homogenous country, even thinks of the idea of race.  Do Japanese people conceptualize it the same way U.S. Americans do?  If they view it differently, how does that view color what they think about race-based discrimination?  How, in turn, might that have influenced Horikoshi’s writing, and how might a greater understanding of his (potential) lens affect our own interpretations?

Well, let’s take a look.

Horikoshi’s Context: Racism vs. Xenophobia, Protest Culture, and How To Fight Discrimination

Racism vs. Xenophobia

Having now done some reading, here’s a very key thing to keep in mind: the vast, vast majority of Japan does not actually think the country has an issue with race.  Even the people who do talk about the discrimination faced by the country’s various minority groups almost universally do so in terms of xenophobia rather than racism.

For my purposes here, xenophobia can be understood to mean the fear and/or hatred of foreigners and foreign influence/culture.  Racism, conversely, will be discussed mainly in the context of a) the belief in the idea of race as a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities[1] and b) behaviors stemming from that belief, especially the notion of the inherent superiority or inferiority of races in comparison to one another.  Note that this definition is distinct from the idea of ethnicity and ethnic discrimination; I’ll get into what distinguishes race and ethnicity in the Western fandom portion of this post.

Now, of course, outside the realm of analytical essays, all these issues overlap hugely.  I’m going to be talking about them as relatively discrete issues for the purposes of considering the experiences of individual characters within Boku no Hero Academia, but certainly where you find one, you’re frequently likely to find the others.

That all said, let’s return to the idea that Japan doesn’t believe it has a racism problem.

The reason for that is complicated, and intensely historical, but what it boils down to is that there is a lot more to being viewed as “Japanese” than simply being born in Japan.  The majority opinion in Japan is that being Japanese means having Japanese ancestry,[2] speaking the language fluently, understanding the culture, being a citizen, and so on.  This very blurred view of race, ethnicity and nationality means that all sorts of things can “disqualify” someone from, as one researcher I read put it, “Japanese-ness.”  And if one isn’t Japanese (e.g. because they have Korean ancestry or Ainu ethnicity or an American parent or whathaveyou), then, voila!  Discrimination can’t be racism; it’s xenophobia.

Basically, the government’s official stance is that Japan is a homogenous country, so there are no racial minorities for them to be racially biased against.  All those hafu and Zainichi Koreans and Okinawans and so forth?  Well, they’re not really Japanese, so the discrimination they face is about nationality.  Poor Japan is just so insular; its people don’t always know how to deal with outsiders.  But it isn’t racism, because racism would mean Japanese people judging other Japanese people on the basis of race, like white Americans judge Black Americans on the basis of race!  And Japan only has the one race, Japanese, so it just isn’t possible for them to be racist.  Even people who go out of their way to study discrimination in Japan, writing academic papers and news articles, still tend to use this framing.

It took me a while to get my head around that fairly tortured logic, and I sometimes still lose the thread of it.  Now, I can’t read Horikoshi’s mind, so I have no idea what he would say if asked, but let me take Rock Lock as an example.  If he were a real dude living in real Japan, it wouldn’t matter that he has a perfectly standard Japanese name and was born in Tokushima Prefecture, nor that he speaks the language and understands the culture.  He has obviously Black features, which would lead most of the people around him to assume that he has non-Japanese ancestry, and therefore that he isn’t “really” Japanese.[3]  Ergo, the mistreatment would be considered xenophobia, not racism.

Consider, then, how that might impact Japanese heteromorphs.  They speak the language, they’re born in the country, they understand the culture, they have Japanese ancestry, they’re citizens of Japan—it seems like they should check all the boxes, right?  But they still don’t look “Japanese,” which makes it very probable that there are people who don’t think of them as really being Japanese.  Indeed, the real anti-heteromorph hardliners are very explicit in thinking heteromorphs have something wrong with them in their very blood (see the invective spat at Shouji about his “dirty blood”), and as I said above, the wrong kind of blood is one of those things that can easily disqualify one from proper Japanese-ness.

Sidebar: I said I’d talk about this back when it happened, knowing it was going to have to wait for exactly the kind of research this whole post needed, so I’ll address it here: “Folks with human faces just don’t get it!” Regarding the Spinner fans leveling this accusation at Rock Lock, those guys have clearly internalized the view that, despite them being human, their facial features are not human.  That’s a very obvious logical fallacy, but they wouldn’t believe it if they hadn’t been exposed to the view over a significant period of their lives, which in turn speaks to an ongoing issue with dehumanization of those with fully heteromorphic faces. I’ll point to characters that call heteromorphs by epithets like dog, lizard, frog-face, and so on as a clear demonstration of how that sort of rhetoric is widespread even among characters not otherwise portrayed as violent bigots.  Further, while the evidence points to such language being viewed as somewhat rude, it’s not so objectionable that most people raise a stink over it.  Of Shouji, Chief Tsuragamae, Spinner, Hawks, and every heteromorphic classmate that Bakugou has ever used an animal name on, only Spinner has ever protested.  Every other case has featured the heteromorph quietly letting the word pass by.[4] When even Certified Good Boys like Iida and Deku don’t think to say a thing about Shouto and Bakugou’s choices in phrasing, only to protest their surly attitudes, it’s a strong indicator that this kind of language is well entrenched. All that said, is, “Human-faced people wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be judged by their appearances!” a fair thing to yell at a Black guy?  Surely not.  But that kind of intra-minority shortsightedness (however misguided it might be) can be a real thing, especially when peoples’ own circumstances have gotten so dire, so I don’t think it’s an unrealistic accusation for them to be written as making. That, of course, brings us to the matter of Horikoshi’s own intentions in said writing.  Was he consciously writing the Spinner fans (and the rest of the mob by extension) as being blinkered by their own pain and lashing out at someone who probably does understand, better than a great many in his field would?  Or did he think the Spinner fans were right (at least in that specific accusation, if not in the broader act of rioting)? Further, if he did think they were right, did he put Rock Lock in that position to be intentionally ironic, some sort of, “Oh, look, even minorities can discriminate against other minorities, wow, isn’t that such a profound observation?” gotcha?  Or was having the target of the Spinner fans’ ire be Black entirely coincidental, the wince-worthy result of Horikoshi only having so many named Pro Heroes to spread around and Rock Lock being the one whose personality+power fit the needs of the scene best? Those questions come down to a) how aware Horikoshi is of what Takagi Ken would experience in real-life Japan, and b) whether he thinks that kind of racism(/xenophobia) still exists in his fantasy alternate future Japan.  Unfortunately, we just don’t spend enough time with Rock Lock, Mirko, Class B’s Rin, and so forth to be able to gauge that with any accuracy.  Like so much else about this plot, it feels much too specific to be accidental, but so tone-deaf that it’s hard to believe a thoughtful writer would do it on purpose.

Protest Culture in Japan

Something that struck me as I was researching this post and rereading the relevant chapters was that I never seem to hear very much about large-scale protests in Japan.  There were certainly historical ones!  I’ve touched on some examples of those before in my writing for this fandom, and I’ve seen enough anime to be aware of the infamous student protests of the late 60s.  But I don’t see much about protests in modern-day Japan.

That’s not to say they don’t happen—they absolutely do, and I’m sure there are things I miss because it’s not like I have The Mainichi in a daily news feed or anything—but my image of Japan was that it’s not a country that has a very strong “protest culture,” if you will.  I thought I should dig into that some, both to see if the impression was broadly correct, and for how the answers would reflect on this whole plotline.

Lo and behold, what I found was extremely telling.

To give a very brief summary, organized protests—by which I mean people with signs, mass gatherings outside government buildings, marches, that kind of thing—were indeed a bigger thing historically in Japan.  However, a combination of factors meant that they fell drastically out of use and have only started to rebound within the last fifteen years or so.

Specifically, protest in the 60s and 70s had become very specifically associated in the public eye with the New Left, a radical group inspired by the New Left movement in the West to break away from the “Old Left” represented by Japan’s Communist and Socialist parties.  Always prone to factionalism, the New Left eventually suffered several very public, very lethal, internal schisms and splashy scandals, all as they were also moving into terrorism—groups associated with the New Left were responsible for, among other incidents, two airplane hijackings and an airport attack that killed 26 people.[5]

One result of all this was that the people who had deeply believed in the cause were left very disillusioned, and those who had not supported it were left feeling even more justified in not having done so.  In both cases, the idea of protest—which had not even been successful at achieving its aims, on top of everything else!—was left marred by this association.

Add onto that, the Bubble Economy was coming into full swing, so by most metrics, Japan was doing pretty well—there wasn’t much widespread push to change anything when people at large were thriving.  And, yes, there was a measure of good old-fashioned government crackdown on the legality of the kinds of protest the New Left had been doing.

That was pretty much the state of affairs until the early aughts, when counter-culture movements started redefining what organized protest could look like, development that was pushed even farther along after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.  Since then, protests have been gradually becoming more common; it’s still very much a movement in progress, though, and for a lot of people in Japan, old associations die hard.[6]

Notably, however, there are some places where organized protests never went away.  To this day, Okinawa has strong movements calling for the return of Okinawan land that’s currently being used for U.S. military bases.[7]  There was also considerable opposition from rural communities to a number of dam projects through the late 70s and on through the 90s.  The classic anime using those dam protests as plot fodder is, of course, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, though so far as I can tell from some cursory research, the dam opposition group in Higurashi’s backstory was rather more successful than any real-life equivalent.

I trust it’s not difficult to draw the lines between those perceptions and Horikoshi’s depiction of the attack on the hospital: overly violent, led by extremists with suspect motives, and concerned with an issue that’s very pressing to people in rural communities while being largely invisible to people in big cities.

“Let sleeping dogs lie.”

In the course of my research, aside from all my findings detailed above, I did come across a quote that I wonder if influenced the resolution Horikoshi chose to write.  It’s the Japanese proverb Neta ko wo okosuna, which translates to, “Don’t wake a sleeping baby.”  Colloquially, the meaning is that if a problem is not currently being a problem, you shouldn’t stir it up by poking at it—our English equivalent would be, as the subheader says, “Let sleeping dogs lie.”

Other deployments as an adage aside, the context I’m most concerned with here is the way that it’s applied to burakumin discrimination (and how that, in turn, might reflect what Horikoshi thinks is the “right” way for characters to address heteromorphobia).

Basically, the idea is that if a discriminatory belief/set of practices is dying out, the best way to deal with what problems remain is to just—not talk about them.  Because it’s no longer an everyday fact of life, children today aren’t going to know anything about burakumin or anti-burakumin discrimination unless they’re specifically taught.  And so, the reasoning goes, if you simply don’t teach them, they will never learn.

Thus can discrimination be starved out of existence, or so people hope.  Obviously, it is wildly flawed rhetoric to apply that adage to discrimination, because people who discriminate will teach discrimination to their children.  Nonetheless, it’s a popular view in the mainstream, even one that was long endorsed by one of the biggest burakumin rights organizations, the Zenkairen.[8]

In that light, I wonder if we might consider it a possible influence in Horikoshi’s offered solution of, “Just be a Model Minority until all the problems go away.”  We can see this attitude reflected not only in Shouji’s resolve and his final words to the crowd in Chapter 373, but also in his decision to constantly wear a mask to cover up the proof of his assault.

Shouji knows what people will think if they see a heteromorph covered in scars; the fear he wants to prevent is not only that of small children who might think his face is scary, but also that of adults who would see his wounds and fear that his experience made him vengeful.  And so, it’s a conversation he just chooses to avoid instead.  If people don’t know about it, they won’t believe they need to fear it.

Of course, one can’t help but suspect that the reason, “Don’t wake a sleeping baby,” is popular in the mainstream view is because it conveniently lets the majority culture avoid talking about uncomfortable topics.  Japan notably has a huge cultural stigma about making people uncomfortable, so it’s easy for people who bristle when confronted with discrimination to point to the minority raising a stink as being the ones in the wrong.  That, too, is reflected in Shouji’s horrible accusation that the heteromorphs’ own actions will put their movement back thirty years.

I don’t have a lot of neat conclusions to draw from all this.  After all, you can’t just look at a bunch of polls of what any given group’s majority believes and then immediately assume that all members of the group are equally likely to believe the same.  I do think it speaks well of Horikoshi that he seems to be at least enough aware of discrimination issues in Japan to include a new but eminently predictable form of discrimination in his work.  If he, like many people in Japan, just believed that Japan didn’t have a discrimination problem at all, presumably he just wouldn’t have included heteromorphobia!  The kegare bit in particular feels way too specific for Horikoshi to have tripped his way into it.

That said, all of the ways that he chose to address the problem speak to a woefully outdated viewpoint—that protest is ineffective and prone to violence, and that the best way to deal with discrimination is to starve it with silence.  It’s incredibly striking that at no point in any of those chapters does anyone on the “right” side say that they’ll do anything about the problems facing heteromorphs.  The onus is, apparently, entirely on the oppressed minority to present themselves as such paragons of humanity that the bigots will be too ashamed to try to hurt them—heteromorphs can neither fight back nor count on their government to do anything for them.

Even having read and relayed everything that I now have, I’m still hard-pressed to say that knowing all that context makes me feel any better about BNHA’s “answer” to the characters involved in the hospital attack.

Meanwhile...

The Fandom’s View: Well, Is It Racism?

As far as the wording the Western fanbase uses, I agree that people shouldn’t just call it racism, straight out.  Heteromorphobia is a fictional construct that, for reasons of clarity and sensitivity, should not be conflated with an evil that people in real life, many of them readers of this very comic, suffer today.

That said, my experience is that most people who use the word racism in talking about heteromorphobia tend to add a qualifying adjective: “quirk racism,” “fantasy racism,” things like that.  It’s following the broad TV Tropes-style short-handing of plot elements like heteromorphobia as Fantastic Racism.  And that, unlike just calling it racism without further qualification, doesn’t bother me.  Let me pose a thought exercise to get at why.

Race is a debunked concept insomuch as it refers to the scientific categorization of humans into neat little boxes based on their physical traits.  In actuality, it’s a social construct, changeable based on the needs or biases of the people defining it.[9]

That said, people obviously still mean things when they use the word, particularly when the topic being discussed is racial discrimination.  In that context, race as distinct from ethnicity or nationality refers to the observable, physical qualities a person has—the color of their skin, the color and texture of their hair, the expected range of their eye color, their facial structure, and so on—and what category (codified to justify imperialism and slavery) those traits would lead that person to be sorted into.  A Black guy might be from the U.S. or France or Senegal—or Japan!—but he’s a Black guy, regardless, and any discrimination he faces based on those Black features is likewise going to be racism, regardless.

Conversely, nationality is obviously based in matters of nation—what country was one born in; what country is one a citizen of?  Ethnicity is a much broader term that covers culture, socialization, language, the values one is taught, sometimes things like religion and traditional modes of dress—basically all intangible or, in the case of clothes or language/accent, adoptable things.

Obviously, bigots aren’t always drawing clean lines like that, and society, too, has been moving away from the idea of race as a valid categorizational tool.  Insomuch as the concept still has a distinct meaning, however, that is the distinction: inborn, observable physical commonalities between different peoples that are distinct from other peoples; racism in this context is stereotyping and discrimination based on the belief in those traits.

That all said, how does that conception of race reconcile itself with heteromorphs?  In the understood sense of what is denoted by “Asian,” would someone like Gang Orca be considered Asian?  If he were vacationing in BNHA’s New York City, would anyone there assume he was Asian just by looking at him in a crowd?  Someone like the Sludge Villain, who doesn’t even have a bipedal body arrangement, is an even more extreme case.  Conversely, someone like Iida would still be easy to categorize.[10]

This gets you into questions that mirror discussion about racial discrimination in real life, like the idea of heteromorphs “passing” (the differences between a heteromorph like the Sludge Villain and one like Iida) or the ways in which some racial traits might be viewed as attractively “exotic”—especially in combination with other traits that more resemble those of the majority culture—while others are viewed as “ugly” (like how Hawks’ cool red angel wings have a far broader appeal than Spinner’s full-body scales).

Of course, the problem with saying people like the Sludge Villain and Gang Orca can’t be categorized as Asian because they don’t look Asian is that it begs the question of what race they would be considered.  They don’t look like any existing human race, but they don’t much resemble each other, either: they both have recognizable eyes and teeth, and that’s about it.  So if race is determined by one’s physical features and how much they align with those of a broader group, then how does one go about assigning that to a heteromorph?

Are heteromorphs considered a race entirely of their own, a sort of broad catch-all for anyone in quirk society who has permanent non-baseline[11]-human features?  Or has the idea of “race” been largely cast aside because it’s too difficult to make fit the new humanity?[12]  It’s a pertinent question in determining whether we could rightly call heteromorphobia a form of racism in and of itself, as opposed to a discrimination more like anti-burakumin sentiment (which, as I’ve discussed elsewhere, heteromorphobia also has markers of).

It is a pertinent question, but I don’t think Horikoshi will ever answer it.  Indeed, thanks to the previously described way that Japan tends to conflate race, nationality, and ethnicity, I’d be surprised if he ever thought to raise the question to begin with!

That doesn’t mean that we can’t ask it, though!  Given that race as a social tool stems from the need to justify discrimination and subjugation, how might the idea of race have changed in the BNHA setting as both quirks in general and heteromorphs specifically became more common?  Would such obvious Others have sharpened the lines of division or blurred them?  Is there a checkbox for Heteromorph on official forms that ask about Race/Ethnicity?[13]  How much of a group identity do heteromorphs have, even ones who look very different from one another or hail from different countries?  If it exists, how would that group identity be meaningfully distinguished from the idea of, say, a global Black community?

BNHA depicts a world that is still, over a hundred years later, trying to pick up the pieces from the advent of quirks, and heteromorphic discrimination is simply another aspect of that same ongoing development, so it would be no surprise to find all sorts of different answers to these questions.  They would likely vary depending on a given culture’s view on how race differs or overlaps with ethnicity and nationality.  Even heteromorphs who share a community might disagree; minority groups aren’t monoliths, after all!

Anyway, that’s all deeply suppositional and well beyond the level most readers of the series are likely thinking about re: heteromorphobia, so to reiterate, I don’t think the evidence is there to just call it racism without any further qualifications, so fans should probably not do that—be respectful of the shared community space and all!

Neither do I think the idea is entirely groundless, however, so I don’t begrudge people their “quirk racism”s and “fantasy racism”s.  Plenty of people want to talk about the ways in which heteromorphobia resembles their own experiences with discrimination, so using shorthand that relates to those experiences rather than a made-up word that doesn’t express anything real, feels like a valid choice to me.

Look for Part 2 hopefully within the next 24 hours!

----------------- FOOTNOTES -----------------

1:  Phrasing taken from the Merriam-Webster definition of racism.

2:  When Japan incorporated Western ideas of race into its own understanding of the concept in the back half of the 19th century, it was largely interpreted to mean sharing a common blood, hence the huge importance of family line I have written about elsewhere when talking about e.g. the family registry (koseki) and the country’s chilly view on orphans.  In that period, the concepts of race and nationality were both being refined in order to justify Western imperialism, a threat to which Japan responded by rapidly modernizing into an imperial power in its own right, complete with its own ugly cocktail of ethnonationalism.

3:  And lest anyone think Japan is uniquely awful in this way, think about the way that people ask Asian minorities in the U.S. first where they’re from, and then where they’re “really from.”

4:  There’s also a discussion to be had about Hawks using that language for himself, as well as looping the highly unamused-looking Tokoyami into it.  It’s off-topic for this post, but suffice it to say that I don’t think we can ignore the glaring difference between Hawks’ upbringing and those of the other characters.

5:  The Lod Airport massacre.

6:  Oddly enough, it seems to be young people who are least likely to approve.  Overworked, unable to risk their livelihoods in the current cutthroat job market, and deeply jaded by both of those facts, the younger end of Japan’s adult population seems to be more likely to express their issues online, rather than in person.  One survey I read about suggested that belief in both the effectiveness and acceptability of organized protest increased with every age category, though in no cases was there a commanding majority in favor.

7:  The numbers are telling: the islands of Okinawa Prefecture make up 0.6% of the nation’s landmass, yet 75% of the U.S. bases in Japan are located there.

8:  It’s also fairly in line with a practice you sometimes see talked about in relation to media and big business in Japan when accused of using discriminatory language: word hunts, where the offending language is put on a list of forbidden verbiage so that people will stop complaining, but no further action is taken to address the offensive attitudes behind the words.  Thus, the underlying problems continue to exist, setting the stage for future word hunts.

9:  As, indeed, you saw when a bunch of people in Meiji-era Japan were figuring it out.  They got the idea from Western trade partners, decided they didn’t like what those Western trade partners assumed about “the Asian race, ” and so invented a narrative whereby their race was Japanese, which was like a unique and special kind of Asian, better than all other Asians.  Their Western trade partners, one assumes, went right on ahead with considering them as Asian.

10:  This analysis assumes that if you took Horikoshi’s stylistic “filter” off of the cast, and asked what they would look like in a more realistic depiction, characters like, say, Present Mic would still read as Japanese despite the fact that he’s depicted as blond.  There’s room for argument there, but that discussion is beyond the scope of this post.

11:  “Baseline” is a term you will see me use a lot when I finally get that big Heteromorphobia In BNHA (No, It Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere) essay turned out.

12:  If you think Re-Destro has any kind of point—and obviously I do—then it’d be a fair guess that humanity hasn’t gotten rid of the idea of race just yet. See that bit in Chapter 227 about society conforming to old ways of thinking even as humanity as a species has transcended that idea of normalcy.

13:  Or Origins or Categories or whatever kind of language the local census/tax department/medical facilities/etc. are currently using. Japan does not actually ask this question on its official paperwork, for what it's worth.

------------------ REFERENCES ------------------

1: Sociology Compass, Volume 7 – The Social Construction of Race and Minorities in Japan

2: Vox.com – Japan's blackface problem: the country's bizarre, troubled relationship with race

3: Kana Yamamoto – The myth of “Nihonjinron”, homogeneity of Japan and its influence on the society

4: Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Volume 45 – The History of Japanese Racism, Japanese American Redress, and the Dangers Associated with Government Regulation of Hate Speech

5: Carl Cassegård, Social Movement Studies – The recovery of protest in Japan: from the ‘ice age’ to the post-2011 movements

6: Nippon.com – Why Are Japanese Youth Distancing Themselves from Social Activism?

7: Thisjapaneselife.org – On Living In the Wrong Neighborhood in Japan

[bobbydagen24]

an idea I had for a future film what about if it featured a Rogue Group of Trolls who didn't accept the peace that was made with the Bergens.

little idea I had for the story of a 4th film what about if it centered on our main characters trying to stop a Rogue Tribe of Pop Trolls who plan to Genocide the Bergens?

basically what it would be is that following the first film not all Trolls accepted the peace that was Brokered and they split off from Pop Village to start their own tribe.

who spent years planning to wipe out the entire Bergen population as Revenge for their lost loved ones.

maybe the film opens with a scene in Bergen town showing everything peaceful and happy and we see inside an important place like maybe some sorta lab or factory and the Bergens there get attacked by a group of dark hooded mysterious figures.

who kill the Bergens that were working there and somehow sabotage and maybe steal something important from the factory. Gristle asks Poppy and Branch to come check out the crime scene afterwards confusing them at first only for him to tell them that there's signs that this was caused by Trolls hence why he asked them there to help.

anyway long story short the film's about them going on a journey to find these Rogue Group of Trolls before they put some plan into action to wipe out all the Bergens.

the factory they hit at the start could have been to stop production of Bergen town's main source of food sending it into panic and also because they needed something from there in order to build a large weapon which they plan to use to destroy the town and everyone in it.

plus it'd be neat to have the main leader of the group be a sorta Dark parallel to Branch in that they also lost loved ones to the Bergens at a young age and spent years being obsessed with them.

only difference is they spent years preparing to fight and they didn't accept when the peace was made with them in the first film instead they bitterly broke off from the rest of the village along with a bunch of others.

and spent all this time planning Revenge on the entire Bergen population maybe throughout the film Branch is actually the one more determined to settle things none violently.

while his Bros just see this as something they need to solve with their fists not really understanding why Branch cares so much about trying to get through to these other Trolls.

since in this film it could explore how at the start Branch actually tried to hide from his Brothers his past as a reclusive paranoid hermit out of fear of judgment or scaring them away.

but eventually later on during a heated moment he does tell them exactly why he wants to get through to these Trolls so badly telling them he used to somewhat be the same way during his Bunker years.

but regardless of his attempts the Troll group can't be talked around and are all too consumed by hate and the climax involves their attack on Bergen town with their new giant machine weapon and the group trying to stop them.

and after the final battle where the main cast have been able to damage the weapon to the point its starting to malfunction everyone but the leader of the group retreats and Branch tries convince them to leave since the device is becoming unstable.

but the leader is too far gone to give up on their Revenge now and they continue trying to fire the weapon only for it to explode killing them.

anyway just a little idea I had a while back it'd probably be too dark a concept for them to actually use it in a main film but I find it interesting to think about.

it could make for an interesting villain with somewhat relatable motives and it could maybe help Develop Branch's relationship with his Brothers a bit further.