#i have no shame...obviously

[kaladinkholins]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[uncanny-tranny]

Hey, if you have speech impediments, you are so amazing.

If you stutter or have a lisp or misspeak easily or you have a flat affect or a limited verbal vocabulary or if your voice is AAC or if you just have a difference in your vocality, you are so incredibly important and amazing.

Just know that your voice is yours. Nobody will ever be able to truly take it away. Your voice is part of you, and you deserve to make it as true to you as you deem fit. I hope you have the space to grow with your voice and whatever about it makes it unique.

[poisonheartfrog]

I think Grace being okay with committing massive idolatry in order to spread her ideals of chastity is very telling of her relationship with religion. Something something fundamentalist Christianity is actually more about strictly controlling both your own and other people's behavior than it is about your relationship to the divine

[nats-uvi]

Angst time :D👍

You can read my rambling about her in the tags

[lackluster-draws]

Anet I think it's time to give us necromancer minion mounts, especially with Halloween around the corner 🎃🥩🍖

[tabbi-mysteries]

Episodes 1-500 Mouri Ran's Wardrobe!

+ Films 1-11 & OVAs 1-8

(better quality images under the cut)

Wow what an update! This took a while because uh she does not rewear her outfits very often in this segment of the show, still it was fascinating to see how the style of clothes changes over this time period. Also new to this update I went through and added the smol Ran's that have appeared that I skipped over before :)

This project has been a lot of fun and I intend to continue so they'll be more to come in the future too. In the meantime I want to know people's favourites! (Or least favourites are fun too) let me know in the comments/tags!

As a final P.S I've learnt that some of her merch/promo looks are unique and I was wondering if anyone knows if there's any archive or something of references of those cause some of those are really cute and I'd like to include them.

[aeoris4lovers]

matt mercer as essek thelyss & laura bailey as jester lavorre + the last days of judas iscariot

[spooksicl-e]

as i recall it ended much too soon

[wizardsix]

i guess i have to say it a million times since people insist on being dense: gale is just as much of a victim as the other companions. this isn't the trauma olympics. everyone has been through shit and deserves healing and redemption.

gale is not the self entitled, manipulative abuser people are painting him as. he's a lot of things, but nothing so heinous. he was groomed by a goddess who has a history of preying on wizards that threaten her power, and as a result, gale's ambition and faith was what drove him to discover the netherese orb. what he did was for mystra - in his mind, it was to prove his love by restoring her missing power - and by extension for the betterment of mortals. his actions were never malicious or selfish, in fact he puts himself so low on the priority list it's pretty much non existent. he was never going to use that power to usurp her, but mystra definitely saw it like that, which is why she didn't hesitate to present suicide as his only solution. he never crossed her personal boundaries in the way people are twisting it, he only wanted to cross the boundaries she put on wizards and their power.

people who insist he's all of these things and more clearly only spoke to him once or lack the reading comprehension to see past how much of an unreliable narrator he is. i can understand first impressions might put some people off, but you can say the same about the other companion introductions. i don't like comparing but since people insist on doing it; gale is one of the easiest companions to get along with just by being a good person, yet his honesty and selflessness makes people think he's secretly evil? while the companions with the capacity to be evil don't even try to hide it? how are people being so backwards about this? it's genuinely baffling and tiring to see people continuously spit out incorrect takes all too confidently.

no one is forcing anyone to like him, but it's unfair to completely mischaracterize him because you refuse to learn critical thinking. i promise using your brain is not as scary as it seems, or you can just. not talk about things you don't understand.

[novalizinpeace]

Hello sorry (sorry my bad english) hypotetically what if if the Smilings Critters found a group children that now are adolescents in 2005 and was raised by Kissi Missy or Mommy Long Lens after they was part of experiments and still being humans and was abandoned in the "Day of the Joy" and they are like the"Lost Children"that can found found food easily and are sanes and good how react the Smilings Critters if meet these children?Sorry my english,your art IS super cool you are cool❤️😭😻

Heavens allmight, this again uhm

I explained this i think 2 years ago? When i was making my FnaF Daycare Au, but i guess i need to explain it again: I'm not here to illustrate your Aus guys, 'm here to have a nice time making silly drawings of my own Au.

I know i must sound mean, but hear me out: Imagine that you came to a restaurant and eat a fish there, right? Some nice Smoked Salmon that you really liked, but then you came and tell the chef ''I liked your food, but could you make me a sushi? You're are already really good cooking fish and you already have fish to work with, so you can make this one for me 'cause is one of my favorite food, doesn't matter that this place doesn't sell sushi at all.'', don't you think that kinda rude? It the same here, you're asking for something REALLY specific, something that, more that a question for my Au, look suspicious like you own AU that you're trying to make me work on it.

And this was one of the think that really bother me when working both in my FnaF Aus and LMK Au, the lot of questions that weren't like

and more like

And no, it not the same with the questions that evol into a event, 'cause those question KEEP the Au on mind, DON'T TRY to introduce really specific thing in it, and are simple enough for me to go crazy and evol the idea ON MY OWN WAY.

You want me to work in your Au/idea/fanart/crossover/ect? Pay for it, i have commission open and even have a comic commission just for this kind of thing.

But don't treat me like 'm a machine that can give you the soda you want if you shake it enough, 'cause that actittude only help me to go away from the fandom and stop making the shit i like, and old followers know that can happen, it had already did two times.

[smokbeast]

Seeing allot of trans stuff lately. I don't do this but obviously trans people and all people of LGBTQ+ are welcome here!! If you are a terf or sick mf I will stomp on you till you die you are not welcome here.

Also merlot, frak and soma are trans! Allot of my ocs are of the queer skellies and my goobies alike so hehe :]

[tariah23]

Apparently, BM are complaining about the new color purple movie “depicting BM in a negative light,” and are mad about Celie and Shug kissing (they did more than that in the novel and they also kissed in the original film, are these people stupid) and I-

[rawliverandgoronspice]

given that seems to be the new popular take in the fandom at large since totk got out: let the record show that I'll gladly let myself get repeatedly manipulated by the wind waker speech and be foolishly moved by its implications over rejecting space for humanity and vulnerability in the monstrous and the dispossessed, and then feeling weirdly smug about severing that fleeting attempt at connection and deem it obviously insincere

[ganondoodle]

i dont like making art tutorials, not just bc my way of drawing and my knowledge about it changes daily but mostly bc i know saying sth wrong can do quite a bit of damage too, even if it was well meant its been many years by now but i once saw an art tutorial that said characters CANNOT have a certain body shape bc its unnatural (false) and will inevitably make them look bloated/pregnant and its put fear in my head that still lingers in my mind whenever i draw fat characters even tho i know better by now

[mylonelydreaming]

I like to imagine Link and Zelda denying that they are in any kind of relationship to their friends despite obvious evidence to the contrary. Like, Riju will ask why they are still wearing high collars in the summer or something and they'll come up with the most eye-roll inducing, paper-thin excuse in existence. Someone will literally walk in on them making out and they'll still deny it until one day they finally admit it and Purah is like "yeah, we know, you two are about as subtle as a guardian lazer..."

[slythereen]

I agree, if Charles went to RBR it would actually be the best, PR-wise, for RB and him.

If anyone starts talking about Charles betraying Ferrari? The absolute shade Christian would throw out into the media about how Ferrari didn't treat him right.

People hating on him once he starts winning? Red Bull would bask in the media attention for being the villain team and having two drivers destroy the competition. They would post videos of getting booed and see it as a sign of superiority. You're right, they would definitely eat that shit up and throw it in everyone's faces.

And Charles in Ferrari media always gives PR-media-trained-perfect-angel-boy, but we all know Charles is actually unhinged and insane and can be snarky as hell. RB would allow him to not be a robotic PR boy for once in his life.

Honestly, it would be best for everyone, and most importantly, entertaining for us.

you know, i actually am not sure how demonic charles would be on main about it all. on one hand, yes, ferrari absolutely has a hand in how buttoned up his media persona is — but, he's been with them for so long (is ferrari the team that sent him to media training with sky? or was that earlier?) that it's definitely influenced his natural approach, i think. careful and deliberate is ingrained in him.

don't get me wrong: he has his moments. he's not afraid to get a little sassy, he will toss shade, but significantly less than other drivers (and half the time he gets kidnapped by silvia and returns suddenly happy with ferrari again). i can see the sudden shift in pr management from transitioning from ferrari to rbr going two ways.

first, charles doesn't really shift much. his personal brand is very polished and serene. it may have originated with ferrari, but it's part of the image that he has also helped to craft for himself. he may just me more relaxed and freer with his cheeky commentary, less likely to get scolded behind closed doors (but everyone knows so it may as well be in the paddock), generally be a slightly spicier form of charles... but he'd still be gentle about it. playful about it. not abandon his main persona very much, because a) i think a lot of it is genuine but b) a switch up would make it look not genuine. so non-robotic but not the fullblown rbr villainy that would entertain me greatly.

or: rbr as a brand encourages it. they will tell him he can do it, likely (within reason/without it blowing back on the team, naturally). they may even craft scenarios where he can be "real" on main. red bull gives you wings, after all, and charles' have been clipped for years. and charles, if he moves to rbr, knows what he is signing up for. if he wants to cohesively integrate into the rbr image and marketing (which he would want/need to) he would need to embrace a shift in his pr approach. that's something he would need to be committed to in advance. he might full-send it, or at least send it harder than expected. it might be part of the new marketing angle he's taking.

a combination thereof may be closer to the how the brand book would be put together. a happy middle ground, maybe. if you think about it, charles' shift in messaging supports it, too: "i don't care for pole, i want to win" "max may have the best car but that doesnt excuse his talent. the driver winning is still extremely talented even with the best car, btw. (pls remember that when i have the best car and suddenly am winning again)". it's little but it's noticeable; he's repeated it a lot.