#if the world is against toxic yuri then i am against the world...

[serbianvriska]

heathcliff is it okay/normal if our evil mirror selves are doing um. something

[cpunkhobie]

🧪,🦹, 😡, 😍

🧪 Where does the mutagen come from? The Krang design it! I'm debating whether i want to go for a more GOTG approach, where it's a fully synthetic substance - or if it's closer to tmnt2012's where most of it comes from some kind of alien creature. Either way, it ultimately comes from the Krang and the wield it.

🦹 Who is the main villain? Krang and Shredder ^_^. They started working together before Splinter was mutated, and because of Shredder's specific.. um.. gripes with Yoshi, he became a target for mutation and its experimentation on humans. I might have TCRI have a bigger role as I interact with more media where they're prominent, but I just don't know enough about them to incorporate them into the story rn

😡 What is your villain’s motivation? OK SO. With Shen and Splinter it's a toxic yuri situation. Basically due to multiple relationship and personal issues (primarily on Shen's end) as well as generational shit going on, their relationship ended in bloody lovers quarrel, which ends with Shredder having a permanent and personal bloodlust and vendetta against Splinter. She wants him to suffer as much as possible, and that includes in his death. The Krang are just evil scientist alien freaks, who use science and the discovery of other worlds and species to justify their complete takeover of the galaxy - at least discovery is how they advertise it. There are a bunch of other alien species that get roped into it, as well as a couple scientist humans, but that's the gist of it. Needa think deeper about them. I think at first it started as a "oh my god our planet is dying" kinda thing, but it's gone far past that. Am I making this too complicated

😍 Are there any romances in your au? I've been thinking about one between Mondo and Ronin, since plurality and dating is something I wanna talk about. But other than that not really. Unless you account for... the entire basis of the main plot which is how Shen and Yoshi's romance/relationship has effected their kids and everyone around them in increasingly awful ways LOL. But that's it

[chocolatespyro]

all the riders in the world are mad at me for speaking facts unfortunately…🙁 ITS OK ive been avoiding them!! :3 i am the number pne cabby fan i know her best

i just kinda wish they Would just confirm one sided cabtube is canon. its so implied atp, if they can make one sided silvercandle canon they can make one sided cabtube canon

i just notice so much like…toxic yuri in ii, i dont wanna accuse them of sapphicphobia or lesbophobia bc i dont believe thats the case, but mlw ships (fantube and silvercandle) and mlm ships (nickeloon) get so much positive attention in the show but wlw ships (cabtube and tacomic) get so much negative attention or little attention at all (testbulb and soapmic).

the fandoms disgregard for wlw in general makes me upset especially since cabby was a core character for many lesbians back in feb-april 2022 especially with her exit interview. i get emotional but that’s because cabby means a lot to me, especially since her exit interview came out just when i found out i was lesbian

sorry for the long ventish thing in ur inbox its been eating me up for a while

-🍭

HONESTLY!!!!!! Theres so much more heavily implied/basically canon content for the straight ships especially and its just like. man.

"But just because they gave fantube a child and everything doesn't mean they're dati-" I mean technically yeah but they're giving a massive amount of attention to that ship with plenty of moments and fanservice for them, even Test Tube straight up getting revenge for Fan against Cabby. Let's not forget the whole meetup thing with Fantube either.

The writers DO notice certain ships being popular and definitely play into that. It's irritating to see people feign ignorance about it when it's right there in front of us.

(I remember seeing a screenshot of Adam tweeting a storyboard of balloon having his hand on nickel with a blushing emoji, but i sadly can't remember where i saw it, i think it was in a deleted tumblr post unfortunately.) (So you're free to take this w/ a grain of salt but if anyone has any information on that. lemme know.)

(There's also the obvious. Silver blushing in ii17 and having a whole scene of him saving her from a shark and everything. I know there's that whole ii18 thing but like, there's no way there isn't gonna be some kind of forgiveness or reconciliation scene after they went out of their way to do all that in the previous episode knowing ii. come on.)

(Test Tube and Fan getting a kid and the crew hyping up the relationship at a convention. Easy.)

Even with some of the more "healthy" wlw ships it's really saddening to see almost nothing for them. ESPECIALLY in season 3, a lot of the female characters have their storylines or biggest moments either revolve around men or they get shoved into a guy's story.

As someone who's been back-and-forth questioning my own orientation, Cabby means an awful lot to me too. In fact, the whole Cabby being betrayed in episode 7 stuff was part of what got me like... VERY attached to her as a character. I don't wanna go into detail, but some parts of it hit VERY close to home.

I've also been thinking.... Cabby is VERY strategic and especially in the earlier episodes she's very serious about the competition. But in ii7...?

She goes out of her way to give a lot of her files to someone she was fighting just a few episodes ago!!! She also doesn't seem to harbor much ill will towards Test Tube either until she realized she was backstabbed!

Now why would Cabby, someone who seemingly only allied "for the sake of the game" do something that could easily backfire so tremendously like that? Why would she put her own possessions on the line in that way for Test Tube?

Haha I dunno. just a thought.

[inventedsanity]

so i reread i'm more dangerous than you. i have read it before but never really tried looking deep into the story but since i reread it, just gonna rant about the manhua. personally i never shipped ren pingsheng and jiang wanshu with each other at the beginning of both reads since i was never a fan of the teacher x student troupe. if we are talking on the romance part, then i actually liked the idea of ren pingsheng having a toxic yuri romance tension with bai qi. mostly, because i thought how cool would it be for a journalist doing covering of murders which are done by the serial killer they are in love would be kinda a nice plot. but also how both are such yin and yang of each other. bai qi has a strong sense of justice and morality, wheras ren pingsheng being a serial killer obviously is the complete opposite, she goes against the laws made by the system. bai qi believes those who have done wrong should face their punishment by whatever the law sees fit but ren pingsheng questions her what if the punishment is unjust? she evens asks bai qi on what she would have done if jiang wanshu opened up to her and asked her for help about the abuse she faces at college. ren pingsheng knows, even bai qi knows that she would have just told the authories and both know that the authorities would have done shit. both challenge each other's morality, their view of the world. which is why i prefer them for each other.

also i geninuly believe that ren pingsheng does not love jiang wanshu in the same way jiang wanshu loves her. jiang wanshu's love stems from actual romantic feelings (though not healthy ones), but ren pingsheng's? jiang wanshu is the author of the novel the dictates how she lives her life or how she kills her victims. basically that novel is kind of how TWSA was important to kim dokja in a sense. TWSA was for survival but this novel was for her to kill people that do 'wrong'.

this scene kinda proves my point? she does say the she likes her, but see how she first mentions the novel? jiang wanshu will always be first the author to her favorite nowel in ren pingsheng's eyes. jiang wanshu is just someone that can write the perfect novel for her. there is no romantic feelings for jiang wanshu from ren pingsheng.

that's all i got to say, there's more and i might add more but its like 3 AM and i got school.

[theodora3022]

The LoveSick Schemers

Summary: Claude and Yuri as Yanderes, as per requested.

Notes: Someone wants three houses yanderes?! Yeah I am also a FE blog pffttt- Anyway I assumed you meant separate, not poly(I’m not comfortable with that) or competition(sounds tempting, maybe I’ll do it once I clear out my inbox). I set the reader to be a fellow student in Garreg Mach for the convenience’s sake, hope that’s alright. I happen to love these boys a lot too, so hello fellow schemer lover!

These are pretty tame since you didn’t specify anything, I don’t want to accidentally trigger anyone! The Yuri one is gender neutral, the Claude one is a bit on the female side. 

Warnings: Spoiler for the game(obviously), possessive behaviour

Claude Von Riegan

“I’m from the ruling house of the Leicester alliance, but don’t worry about all that madness.”

To draw his attention, you’ll have to be a trickster yourself, or an ideal-bound conservative like Ingrid. The former would light that competitive fire, while the latter your serious ways are amusing to behold to him.

At first Claude would only see you as a pleasant distraction, he has grand plans after all. But sometimes he would find himself eyeing at your concentrated form as you swing weapons, or study magic tomes, with a genuine smile on his lips.

It was at that moment, Claude knew something had slipped out of his control.

His mother and father told him what love feels like, but this is the first time the seventeen-year-old prince has experienced it firsthand.

If you are in another house, Claude will find a way to convince Byleth(or anyone leading the Golden deer) to have you transferred. But seriously, he can be charming when he wants to be, you won’t be able to say no. If even that doesn’t work, how about scouting away all of your friends so you’ll have no choice but to join the Golden deer!

He will go out of his way to spend time with you, finding flawless excuses so you won’t suspect a thing (even if you are as cunning as him). If your goal is to become an archer, that’s more than perfect for Claude because expect him to invite you to target practice everyday. “It’s a house leader’s duty to make sure the member honed their skills properly. Now, do you want to try with this killer bow?” Authority class is also a good way to bond with you!

Expect Claude to invite you every meal possible, with Hilda. You will feel odd to dine with him at first, but once you get used to it, he is just another goofball who has good tricks up his sleeves.(Claude will deliberately make himself appear dumber so you would lower your guard) If you are a goodie-two-shoe(A/N:like Ingrid), you might even scold him for his lacking of table manners!

Claude would try to make your relationship as normal as possible. As a prince, he had seen enough toxic relationships in the royal court of Almyra. Someone as wonderful as you should not be a caged dove, a mere wife for your crest or bloodline(if you are a noble that is). He wants you to flourish alongside him, as a formidable mage/soldier. The future Queen of Alymra should be able to defend herself at least!

But him only. Don’t even think of getting into someone else’s arms.

That Blue lion lad who asked you to the grand ball? How unfortunate it is to hear that he had fallen off from a clift on a mission. That Black eagle boy who is getting too handsy with you at lunch? It was disturbing to know that his black magic backfired leaving him permanently disabled.

Too bad if you liked any of your suitors back. Because they will get their due for attempting to lure you astray from your dear Claude.

Would persuade you to become House Riegan’s knight during the timeskip so he can stay close to you. Golden deers need to stick together, especially during these chaotic times right?

Once you are in the Deirdru with him, that is when the new Duke will start trying to court you formally.

If you are charmed by his amorous advances during the five years, he will be overjoyed and the dark side of the moon will never come into play. Although Claude would be concerned about how to reveal  his real identity before officially announcing the marriage, and how his parents or the people of Almyra would think of another Foldanese Queen.

If you somehow didn’t get swayed by his smooth ways, that’s okay too! As long as you do not promise your hand to another! Surely he can work out something after this war. Since you are in his domain now, no one is allowed to make inappropriate advances towards you because of the Duke’s warnings. They wouldn’t want themselves and their family exiled from  Reigan territory, or even the entire Leicester Alliance.

Yuri Leclerc

“Don’t let that pretty face fool you. He is a rouge, through and through.”

I imagine Yuri would like someone who is naive, virtuous,kind hearted like Ashe(A/N: It’s a crime they don’t have at least a B support IS!!!). You are that refreshing breath of air, the one who reached out to help him when almost everyone looked down to the residents of the abyss.

You are probably a sheltered noble lady, who has not learned about the sinister world well enough to not display kindness towards anyone. Or someone like Mercedes, who loves to take the role of an older sister to others in the Academy.

He would want to preserve your innocence, that precious pureness in this dirty, corrupted world. Yuri is a rat who lurks in the cold shadows, it’s only natural your radiant warmth would attract him.

When he is taken in by Byleth to the Officer’s academy, you are the first to invite him to the dining hall for a decent meal. You even gave him half of your peach sorbet to him since it charges extra and he didn’t spend money on it. “You have a sweet tooth, right? Well, I haven’t touched mine yet, here’s half of it.”

Another naive little fool, guess it’s only fair for him to protect you, to make sure your kindness doesn’t get exploited by other people.

Yuri always has interesting stories for you, or if you are a bookworm, he will bring you some banned books from the Shadow library. Be careful though, better not let Seteth see you reading them.

This guy is smooth and he knows it. Yuri would slip in some flirtaious words here and there, they can be considered as friendly even.

You in turn helped the people of the abyss in any way possible. If you are a white mage, you are happy to heal their wounds or care for the sick, since only a few healers are willing to devote time to “the underground”. If you are a soldier, you would teach the people how to wield a weapon, to defend themselves from thieves and bandits.

Realization didn’t strike Yuri all at once. Constance and Hapi are the first ones to notice how his gaze never strays away from you, and they love teasing him for it. He would deny it, saying he merely thinks of you as a good friend. Then when the thick headed Balthus also agrees with them, that is when his composure would collapse.

Genuine affections? Romantic attachments? Those things should not take up so much space in his heart. They can be perceived as weaknesses, to be used against him. How dare you make him feel this way, who gives you the right?

Maybe the goddess does watch over Folan and this is her punishment for all Yuri’s sins.

Like Claude, Yuri knows how to wear a smiling mask as if that is his true nature. He is a gang leader, he is not afraid to dirty his hands. Yuri is a lot less merciful than Claude when it comes to rivals. While Claude would not takes lives, only causing them enough harm so they get the hint, Yuri will resort to murder as he sees fit. He got underlings at his disposal, his rivals will be nothing against him even if they come from an influential family.

During the five years, since Yuri cannot leave the abyss, you two will keep in touch via letters, unknownst to you he also got some of his trusted henchmen to watch over you, making sure you are in good health and safe.

Once you return to Garreg Mach, you two can pick up where you left off! Don’t worry, Yuri won’t let you die or out of his sight again!

[tundrainafrica]

girl you should see twitter because every shipper there is trying to force their own agenda enfjcjvkv i tried interacting with some levihans there and they were so AGRESSIVE. same with the eruri fans who say we’re all homophobic? no???? like i see hange as non-binary how is a nb ship homophobic and even if it’s a m/f relationship it’s just that they have good chemistry what does gender have to do with anything aaa

Tbh, I actually am on Twitter for Levihan content so I am aware of what you’re saying.. I tend to stay lowkey though because it’s a pretty personal twitter and a lot of my irl friends follow me there. I don’t join the convos but I’ve seen some of them. 

Gender has to do with everything for a lot of people. There are people who see everything gay as a relationship, people who see everything opposite sex as just a friendship. More common irl but there are people who see everything straight as a relationship but refuse to see everything same sex as a romantic relationship. 

I see no problem with people doing or writing anything they want or preferring one ship to the other. Like go write an mpreg eruri fic or a canon ereri fic. I definitely have issues though with people just pushing their agenda. Tastes on fanfiction and headcanons are personal preferences and the goodness of the community is pretty much rooted in the discourse and in the sharing of HCs. I don’t agree with some of the ones I’ve seen even among mutuals but I do have a lot of HCs now about Levihan because of whatever people post here. In a fandom, nobody is supposed to judge you about which HCs you consider true and which you don’t.  Fandom is a break from real life, work and school where we are constantly judged because of our skills and our ability to contribute to this world. This part of our life is supposed to be wholesome and it’s supposed to make us happy. That’s pretty much one reason why I try not to get into shipping wars or try not to join in on those and just respect other people’s opinions. One of the reasons why I avoid fights as much as possible. I enjoy doing analysis because I like the discourse but I try not to keep it heated and avoid any personal attacks. That’s also pretty much the reason why seeing personal attacks against Isayama and his writing doesn’t sit well with me.  

Personally, gender isn’t a big issue for me just like for you anon. 

I do not care if Hange is a woman, nonbinary etc etc etc. I love Levihan for the dynamic, just like you. I personally see her as a girl because I don’t want to delve into her biology but canon has shown me enough to at least make me want to write her as a woman. I also need pregnant and Momma Hange in my life. I don’t use “they” because I just find it confusing because I tend to have to reread lines and ponder whether they are talking about one person or two. I don’t go much into the gender discussion either/ because as mentioned before, I don’t think Hange and Levi given their current circumstances would ever consider something as progressive of a concept as gender.

In a modern AU, maybe? Would I write it? Probably not. I am not as adept with LGBTQ and gender issues as other people. 

Does that mean I’m homophobic?  I ship Yuri and VIctor, I ship Yuki and Kakeru from fruits basket too. I’m not necessarily homophobic. If anything, I am “Unhealthy relationship” phobic or I probably wouldn’t read a fic about a pairing which has enough grounds for me to think they would never develop naturally. I wouldn’t read fics that glorify rape or domestic abuse or where my favorite pairings are just being assholes to each other either. 

People can write whatever they want though but my own preference would be to highlight the types of relationships I would want to be in, hence Levi and Hange, Yuri and Victor, Roy and Riza, Yuki Kakeru etc. 

When I post stuff online, I generally have a goal. The goal generally when I write is to highlight the good parts about relationships, the beautiful parts about developments, make sense of certain emotions and facets of character’s personalities and see how they’d react in certain situations. As much as possible, I try to leave something for myself or other readers to think about after writing it and the messages I try to leave are generally wholesome. 

That counts as an agenda.

Would I consider it pushing my agenda? As said above, I wouldn’t argue about it. I’d give my opinions, lay out facts, give analysis and the readers and the audience can choose what to do with it. Would it be nice if they agreed? Yes it would. But we all have different backgrounds. We’ve experienced different types of traumas. We have different histories so I will never truly understand why other people feel the way they do or why they believe certain things and that’s why at this rate, I wouldn’t bother to try to push my agenda to anyone. (That is unless I see people’s agendas being a danger to other people but how I handle those is another story for another time.) I would try my best though to understand because that’s really the most we can give people. Besides, the facts, opinions and analyses people lay out will only make our own opinions towards certain things more nuanced and that’s why I love discourse.

Tumblr metas and writing is something I go into after a hard day’s work and I guess I just want to keep it as stressless as possible for myself. My general relationship with this hobby is good and I’m hoping to keep it this way. 

I hope the aggressiveness of other people in the community does not hurt you or destroy whatever love you may have for your ship or for the fandom. There are lots of people in my little Levihan tumblr bubble who agree with you and are pretty nice and open people. 

Feel free to just drop an ask anytime. I’m happy to just discuss sensitive topics like this without pushing agendas or giving out personal attacks. Even people I’m close to in real life have different perspectives and preference, even my best friend and my boyfriend are like that so I’m pretty much used to disagreeing with people. 

As long as we agree that we all want to strive to make this community a less toxic place, I think we could make whatever differences we have as a fandom work.

[rilldineth]

So a friend of mine told me that given that we are now in 2020, it will be fun if I did a top 20 ships of the past decade for me and boy, did I thought was a good idea and I have decided, why not right? I will be listing them here and...if followers decide to read it...well...

You will quickly notice that probably that most, if not all the ships fall on the following categories: a) rare-ships that are obv not canon; b) ships that are obviously crack; c) ships that had wasted potential, the ones hinted but never happened or briefly happened in canon and writers decided to fuck up. There’s also only one...one RL ship and I am ashamed yet not, but had to list it because I spent a long time hung up on it so don’t judge me.

So yes list...

Before the list, no list is complete without some honorable mentions, these are mostly ships I either got into the hype to recently (not being dedicated for years as the one I will list) or had my fancy then lost it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Charlastor from Hazbin Hotel (recently got into it)

Clack from Final Fantasy VII

Cloud x Squall from Final Fantasy/KH series.

Hayffie from The Hunger Games.

TodoMomo from Boku Hero no Academia.

Gency from Overwatch series ( on and off )

RinMako from Free!

Terraqua from Kingdom Hearts series.

TOP 20 SHIPS OF THE PAST DECADE

20. Spuhura - Spock x Nyota Uhura (Star Trek original and reboot): Again this was another ship that I liked, since the original series, while everyone was Spirk this and that, I was like,’’yas, yas give me the sweet, sweet Spock and Uhura interactions’ and I was happy the reboot hooked them up, even if that ended dubiously but for a glorious moment, I had it.

19. Swarkles - Barney Stinson x Robin  Scherbatsky (HIMYM): This is one of those ships I am bitter, bitter and salty about, there are more in this list in fact next spot is another one. But I loved it and I did think they complimented each other better than the wet noodle they stuck Robin with, they took the time to know the other, grown separately and then together, the episode where Barney proposed to Robin gave me all the feels and it was so sweet, and then fuck the writers deciding to do what they did. It’s no wonder the finale of this show is so hated.

18. Lotura - Lotor x Allura (Voltron Legendary Defender): When they announced a new reboot to Voltron I didn’t think much of it. I had fancied Lotor x Allura in the original series, as dubious as that was, but then I started to watch this Netflix thing and there was something between them, something more tangible and I was happy. It was this strong woman with an equally strong man encouraging her strength and not putting her in the box of the exotic pretty princess, like a certain dude, and wanted to know her mind and interests, they discovered things together and for a brief moment knew peace and I was here so happy that we were getting something good and then fuck the writers again that decided ‘Nah bro, you’re not getting it’ and you know to fuck off again. I will always have fan fiction I guess.

17. VinTi - Vincent Valentine x Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII series): This is a ship that I think started to like during my second playthrough of the game, I always figured the both could work, both having loved people that for one reason or another couldn’t fully love them back (Lucrecia due to damn guilt and Cloud because of Aerith) and both were mature enough to fit together, I just like them okay.

16. Helsa - Hans x Elsa (Frozen): Truly, I have never made it a secret that I really dislike this movie, I truly do. The only good things were Hans (which I am still huh at the ‘turns out he is evil’ I still call trolls) and Elsa (because of her damn powers) and then the next step was shipping them and honestly, he should have gone for the older sister lmao, they make more sense and there have very nice fiction out there.

15. Yuzuvier - Javier Fernandez x Yuzuru Hanyu (Figure Skating): Ahh, we have reached my dreaded and dark secret only RPF fancy. Be it broship or more, I always liked the friendship and camaraderie these two skaters had with each other, they were rink mates and rivals but above all friends. I was kokoro break when Yuzuru was telling Javi that he couldn’t do it without him and stop it you two. I just like them, they are wholesome.

14. Victuuri - Viktor Nikiforov x Yuuri Katsuki (Yuri!!! On Ice): And here we have another precious figure skating duo when I started to watch this series it was only because it was a figure skating anime and I love figure skating, I never expected to see a wholesome and wonderful healthy relationship to explode in front of me. The relationship between Viktor and Yuuri is just so lovely, so mature, they both worked through issues, grew from them and accepted them even and I can’t I love it. (Special mention here to Yurio x Mila, as is another ship I love from this series and so underrepresented).

13. Jonerys - Jon Snow x Daenerys Targaryen (ASOIAF/GoT): Regardless of the stupidity committed in the series, I have shipped them since the books, because I can read in between the lines and there are too many parallels between them and their journeys, ones that at will some point collide and bring them together in a way that will be worth it, so better make it count George. 

12. Rhaegar Targaryen x Lyanna Stark (ASOIAF/GoT): Yes, mea culpa, I love tis ship and no one can shame me for liking it and boy has people tried to do so. Were these two smart of escaping like that and not saying a thing? Nope, they were so not. Was Brandon smart going to Kings Landing, knowing there was a crazy king with a penchant of burning people and demanding his heir's head? Nope, that was probably the stupidest move of all. Do I want to believe they loved each other? Why not? Martin has a penchant for tragic love stories, I know this ship is problematical for some, but I still love it and if you see spot 10 here, well I have varied tastes.

11. Soriku - Riku x Sora (Kingdom Hearts series): Come on, this is a given. Prior to Kairi appearing, it was clear Sora was Riku’s world and Riku’s was Sora, they were attached to the hip, the rivalry for Kairi more felt like Riku being jealous of Kairi and wanting Sora’s attention back. Then we have KH2 where Sora spent the whole damn game being all ‘Riku, Riku!’ and Riku doing his damn best to help him from the shadows, ashamed to be seen. DDD was more Riku protecting him and Sora leaning on him, even KH3 had Sora wanting to find and reach Riku, and then Riku going once again to find him by the end, so I am sorry but if there was a love story written here it was between these two. 

10. Hannigram - Hannibal Lecter x Will Graham (Hannibal): Quite honestly, from all the things I ship, they are probably what one will consider the most toxic one I guess, which fair considering one part of the ship is a charismatic yet cannibalistic serial killer. But there was something in the way this relationship was developed by Fuller and brilliantly brought out by Mads and Hughs that just hooked me, their soft moments, their violent ones, it just somehow worked for me. I guess this is also one of the few canon ships that I have, funny enough.

09. Rivetra - Levi Ackerman x Petra Ral (Shingeki no Kyojin): Who will have thought that a series about human eating titans was going to give me one of my most everlasting and also shortlived OTP’s. Years can pass by and I will still love this ship, my heart will still believe there was something more between them, something that was realized or something that wasn’t, I don’t know, but I will forever love it and even though years have passed since she died, I always enjoy the hints here and there that he still remembers her or hints where we are supposed to do so.

08. Squinoa - Squall Leonhart x Rinoa Heartilly (Final Fantasy VIII): People can say whatever the fuck they want ‘the love story was rushed’ ‘we hate Rinoa’ (fuck you btw) but it doesn’t change the fact that Squall fell in love with her and that Rinoa helped him to open up, to not take things for granted and Squall taught her to be even stronger and conquer her fears, they helped each other grow and it’s what matters in the end.

07. Feanor x Nerdanel (Tolkien): This is probably, from all the romantic relationships that Tolkien has gifted us, which I have loved the most and held my attention the longest. They have the happy times, the ones that were full of joy when they met and fell in love and had their children, then we have the tumultuous times when he became too obsessed with this craft, the separation when he left with their kids leaving her behind in her pain and then their possible reencounter when he leaves the Halls of Mandos and how they might deal with it.

06. ItaHina - Itachi Uchiha x Hinata Hyuuga (Naruto): Both the heads of two of the most important clans of their villages, both with heavy expectations upon their shoulders that nearly broke them, only one was talented from the start and the other had to learn, yet they are also similar. Both love their siblings to a fault, sacrificing so much for them and their happiness, both seem to hate conflict yet know is necessary and both are devoted and loyal to a fault, they would have suited each other wonderfully, in an AU probably they would have gotten engaged, who knows, but it would have been wonderful.

05. SessKik - Sesshoumaru x Kikyou (Inuyasha): A ship that could have been but that we didn’t have. This is a ship that has been with me for years and I don’t plan to let it go, they were the best players (in a sense) in that game against Naraku, also probably the strongest, both level headed and smart, not easily intimidated and calculating, together they would have been quite a formidable force and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see that.

04. Bethyl - Daryl Dixon x Beth Greene (The Walking Dead): Another wasted potential and gone so soon, not to mention forever salty at the waste. The way they were being developed promised so much, in the few time he was with her, well, she taught him to have faith and it’s something that apparently still shows from times to times (I am not sure as I stopped with this show) and imagine how it will have gone if they had more time. Just a waste.

03. Romanogers - Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanov (Marvel/MCU): I have been shipping them for years, like honestly, and when the MCU was showing me the seeds of potentiality I was happy, not even that stupidity with Bruce killed my hope, as they still had this steady relationship, he trusted her and she trusted him, something that she couldn’t say of many, they had each others back and took care of the other...but again another wasted potential right there.

02. Huddy - Gregory House x Lisa Cuddy (House MD): I spent years, kind of, season after season watching the delicious and lovely UST between these two characters, watching them snark and then help each other, watching the ‘won’t they will they’ dance, waiting for the moment when these two will finally collide and my lord was it glorious when they finally did, and I was eager to see where it went, as they both seemed to be in relatively good places, but no once again forbid the writers to stop House from being self-destructive and another ship I had waited years was ruined.

01. Terrence "Terry" Graham Grandchester x  Candice "Candy" White Adley (Candy Candy): And this is still my most important ship of the decade, I was forever bitter they never ended together and that their authors decided to make them suffer so much, but then Final Story came and all clues were pointing that aha they did found the other again and ended together as they were supposed to be, and before anyone says shizz, I did manage to read the novel and I do believe all hints were there to let us all know the identity of her husband was Terry and I am so happy.

And there it is, all the ships of the decade for me lol. Next stop, I should maybe make a list of mythos ships I like lmao.

[recentanimenews]

Revolutionary Girl Utena's Ikuhara is Directing an Anime this Spring!

  Hey all, and welcome back to Why It Works. Last week I wrote an article celebrating the upcoming original anime Carole & Tuesday, which will be directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, the director of Cowboy Bebop. Watanabe is a true titan of anime, and has developed a stunning catalog over his years as a director, but he’s not the only heavyweight offering a new show this spring. And as I promised last week, today we’ll be exploring the resume of one more anime legend, as we work to gather clues on what his latest production might offer. Today on Why It Works, let’s run down the unique style of Kunihiko Ikuhara!

  Though he’s best known as the director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ikuhara spent many years honing his craft at Toei Animation before handling his first original production. He might never have achieved such fame if not for working closely alongside the equally legendary Junichi Sato for many years, acting as both assistant director and episode director on a variety of Sato productions. Along with being the original director of Sailor Moon, Sato would eventually go on to direct such esteemed magical girl properties as Princess Tutu and Ojamajo Doremi; the man is an unparalleled titan of shoujo anime, and working closely with him undoubtedly shaped Ikuhara’s ability to make resonant, insightful stories that are rich with complex themes, and yet never talk down to their audiences.

After the fourth season of Sailor Moon, Ikuhara would move on from Toei Animation to create his masterpiece, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Combining his experiences at Toei with a narrative that drew on Takarazuka theater and classic Dezaki imagery, Ikuhara imagined a magical girl anime that defied both genre and societal expectations in all manner of ways. From the very first episode, the heroine Utena’s desire to be a prince clearly indicated that this show had a bone to pick with gendered expectations; from there, the show would go on to sharply challenge a vast array of expectations facing young adolescents, from the ways we are shaped by public perception to the harsh censure that falls on any non-socially-approved relationship.

The complexity of coming to terms with your sexual identity, the brutal mockery of your equally insecure peers, the ultimate reality of adolescence as a harshly limited domed ceiling… Utena is absurdly rich in empathy and social insight, and rises to a stunning crescendo, as its complex and deeply sympathetic characters rally against the imposing walls of their world. I feel no hesitance in saying that Utena is undoubtedly one of the very best anime of all time.

Along with its varied and insightful social commentary, Utena demonstrated Ikuhara’s unique style in manifold other ways. Though Junichi Sato’s influence likely informed his visual sense of humor and rigorous understanding of narrative structure, Ikuhara also draws from older influences, with his visual flourishes often echoing the embellishments of anime godfather Osamu Dezaki. But Ikuhara’s influences aren’t limited to other animators; his work is so unique and rich because his fields of interest also stretch farther afield, encompassing arthouse cinema, classic horror, and modern literature.

All of these interests would play into his next anime, the bewildering Mawaru Penguindrum. Tasked by a strange woman to find the “penguindrum” or watch their sister die, Penguindrum follows two brothers through a deeply troubled Tokyo. The real-world Aum Shinrikyo cult’s 1995 sarin gas attack (along with Haruki Murakami’s post-attack interviews and associated stories) would become the inspiration for a story about how all of us are dehumanized and isolated by the modern world. In response to this alienation, Penguindrum offers the hope of finding our own families, in a story that blends evocative mythology with brutally painful character drama, and even one frog-based love potion ritual.

Ikuhara’s next production would lean heavily on his interest in niche horror, while carrying on his fascination with personal transformations and profound social consciousness. Yurikuma Arashi banks on the limiting assumptions of “Class S yuri” works, which once were able to subversively portray lesbian relationships in a harshly homophobic time, by promising that such relationships would dissipate once adolescence had passed. Ikuhara spun that dramatic assumption into a horror story where lesbians are literally bears in disguise (echoing one more famous Japanese tragedy), ready to actually devour any unsuspecting young girls. Funny and visually inventive and genuinely searing, Yurikuma might be Ikuhara’s most pointed allegory to date.

  For his latest work, I’m not expecting Ikuhara to give up any of the qualities that have made his shows so rich and fascinating. Sarazanmai’s predominantly male cast is an unexpected and welcome choice, but I have every expectation that questions of how we overcome our scars to survive adolescence and embrace our personal truths will be relevant once more, and am quite sure I’ll start sobbing somewhere along the way. Ikuhara’s fascination with personal transformation has moved from bears to kappas, while his ornate and self-aware narrative style, complete with built-in narrators, seems to live on through the story’s adult characters. The trailers so far have demonstrated plenty of the aesthetic restlessness that have kept Ikuhara’s works so engaging, with Sarazanmai potentially embracing a mixed-media approach that incorporates live footage into the animation, along with the return of Penguindrum collaborator Wataru Okabe's graphic designs.

It’s all beautiful and intriguing stuff, and given how well Utena illustrated the toxic expectations that hang over male adolescence, even as a largely female-led narrative, I’m very excited to see what he’s got to say this time. Whatever else you think of them, Ikuhara shows are always brimming with ideas; visual ideas, narrative ideas, ideas about how we exist in this world. It’s always a privilege to learn what Ikuhara’s been mulling over lately, and I can’t wait to watch his latest with you all this spring!

What’s your own favorite feature of Ikuhara’s impressive catalog? Let us know in the comments!

-----

Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[ranchonmysteak]

My issues with DITF: My first thoughts

The anime community has been sort of amping this anime up and I’d heard it was like super deep and interesting but it dropped off in quality in the last few episodes. Due to raving nature of the reaction surrounding until the last 2-3 episodes, I was naturally intrigued by this anime. What exactly caused the positive reaction and how had the last few episodes caused such a violent response? (by the way, this rant will be very disjointed and I might clean it up later... If you haven’t watched this anime, you will get very confused.)

I watched the first few minutes and right off the bat, I’m already disappointed. It starts off with a monologue by Hiro, the main character, about a species of bird (this is a plot point later but literally no one cares for now) that requires a male and female to be able to fly. If you couldn’t already tell, this is an analogy for the way the mecha are piloted in the anime and gives off the impression that this anime will be analysing how relationships work. 

Now, on to my disappointment: Why did this piss me off? 

First off, it’s an incredibly unhealthy expectation of a relationship. It doesn’t really work that way. It’s fine not to have things completely work out in the beginning but one should never have the expectation that a romantic relationship will save your life and if you don’t, you will literally die. Hiro’s words, not mine. He’s not wrong, either. After all, to pilot a mecha in this series, you should have sex! (wow, it’s not like you could just have sex outside a relationship) Shipping off teenagers to have sex to save the world and we don’t even really know if they’re into each other is not problematic at all!

Secondly, it’s heteronormative. You might say,”oh, but it’s Japan. No shit” and I’d like to say that’s racist. Anime and manga are 100% completely able to discuss queer issues. In fact, the studio also created Little Witch Academia and you’d be hard pressed to find someone deny that Diana Cavendish is, at least, a little gay for Akko. Furthermore, this is anime where relationships are discussed and to sort of hamfist a heteronormative moral isn’t great. 

I continued watching and found that it was completely boring. I am not kidding when I say I probably accidentally skipped half the episodes just because I was thinking of the better anime I could watch. Jesus Christ. One episode had the girls be really angry at the boys for ogling them which, if you watched anime in the early 2000s, have probably heard of this plot line. It’s about as boring as you could imagine and more!

Side note: how many times has a female character, who has not been established as a pervert, ogled men? It’s a very weird convention than women’s (weirdly enough, straight women get the brunt of this but I watch yuri more often so it might just be me) sexualities get brushed off. 

For an anime that is obsessed with sex, it seems really bad at sex ed. It literally only shows one position (missionary) and never quite talks about kink, safe sex and consent, which is wager is incredibly important to educate teenagers on.  Sadly, the creators are likely only interested in selling Zero Two figurines to a bunch of horny anime fans who will eat anything up so they don’t give a shit about that.

Which is another thing the anime community duped me on. 

They kept mentioning Freud and really interesting sex comparisons (really, it’s about as basic as a 7th grade biology lesson) so I thought that this anime would have something interesting to say about sex. It did not. It may have been more sex positive than other anime but given the characters are technically married (the first episode had allusions to marriage), it probably isn’t extremely sex positive and more creepy. Power to them, I guess.

However, that’s not my point.

My point is that I’m sick of people throwing out references and pretending that means they are very enlightened and they are very interesting! References should have a purpose and be a narrative device in the story. One example that does this well is Flip Flappers. It references ojou type women which were a staple in Class S yuri manga, which the show obviously carries some influence because it is also yuri. The women are perfect and prim and the world is equally perfect and prim. However, the catch is that the world resets at midnight and the day repeats itself ad infinitum. This is a clear parallel to old yuri conventions where lesbian relationships must adhere to traditional Japanese conventions of femininity and stop by graduation. By having the characters fight against this is a statement that this anime will not trivialise the characters’ sexualities and refuses to compromise to homphobia. Here, the reference has a use.

In DITF, there is no use apart from short hand that the robots rely on sex.

That’s it

Speaking of lesbians, there was a lesbian character, Ikuno, who is completely in love with Zero Two, the main love interest for Hiro (because of course). Of course, the robot doesn’t work when the two of them are together because of their incompatible sexualities. Which would be a statement if it weren’t for the fact this character could clearly work with men in the mecha even though she is explicitly lesbian so the point is sort of moot and the sentiment was lost.

She did get a girlfriend, which is cool, I guess.

There was also a bi male character but because his bisexuality is so vague, it almost doesn’t count as representation.

Also, the ending has Zero Two and Hiro die for each other which would be tragic if it weren’t for the fact that the two are unable to function without the other. Again, the anime glorifies an unhealthy and toxic relationship and the fact DITF doesn’t even acknowledge that is worrying given that it’s explicitly about relationships and there are hardly any media which discuss just how hurtful being in this type of relationship is.

[livixbobbiex]

Toxicity in fandom: The difference between fanfiction and meta

Because I genuinely don’t think some people in this fandom can grasp this.

Fanfiction is, essentially, free entertainment. And let me tell you, writing a chapter you can get through in five to ten minutes honestly takes hours of time to produce. And the brilliant thing is that, with the exception of a few bad eggs in the community, writers do this just for the joy of providing that entertainment, or the love for creating art. There are many arguments, then, why you shouldn’t criticise at all. I’m against that, for my own reasons, but here’s the thing:

Criticise what they can actually improve about the story (a grammar mistake or something like that, you can imagine), not the idea itself, just because you don’t personally agree with it.

I’ve seen this in many fandoms, and though Yuri!!! On Ice is what prompted this, it still remains relevant.

Man, why do you even care about the content of somebody else’s fanfiction? Even if it’s horrifically out of character, even if it’s what you’d consider entirely against canon, it’s not harming you unless you read it. Fair enough if there are inaccurate tags to falsely lead you in, but I honestly haven’t seen that happen. If you’re warned of the content, and click on it anyway, it’s your own fault it upset you, not the author’s. So what if somebody wants to write mafia viktuuri or something, it doesn’t actually cause any damage.

And after some thinking, I think I’ve realised the main issue here. Some people in this fandom don’t understand the difference between meta, headcanon, and entirely changed fiction. So, let’s break this down again.

Meta

A meta post is basically analysis of the original media, in which you state something as if it is fact. Here, using my own post as an example, I am stating something I believe about a character is entirely canon, using the original source to back up my points.

Headcanon

A headcanon is something you either believe about the original media, or would like to happen, but you can’t claim to be entirely true. It’s your own, preferred version of canon. Here, I state a headcanon about a character, widely accepted and easily possible to be true, but with no argument that it actually is.

Entirely changed fiction

Taking the characters and putting them into an entirely different situation, either changing their personalities of the world around them – sometimes both. In this case, nobody is making any claim to canon. Here, I have a fanfiction in which Viktor is a vampire and drinks Yuuri’s blood – something that clearly would never happen and is not a reflection of their canon personalities.

And the main issue with mixing these up is that people just police fandom, when it’s completely unnecessary. Let’s bring up the dishcourse from the YOI fandom, for example. If people want to headcanon that Viktor doesn’t like doing washing up, let them! I don’t personally agree with it, and sure you might see it as ‘problematic’, but unless people are claiming it is canon (seriously claiming, as people do say ‘it’s canon that’ in a joking manner), it harms nobody.

I highly doubt the creators of any fandom are just sitting around scrolling through Tumblr and AO3, finding posts, and getting offended about the characterisation or ideas of their canon.

The beautiful thing about art is that everyone sees it differently, everybody has their own experience and their own meaning.

Want Viktor to be transgender? Great! Do it! Write it and do your idea justice!

Want Yuuri to secretly a psychopath who’s a deadly killer? Sure, all the more power to you!

Want them to have a domestic argument? Go for it.

It’s not canon, but there’s nothing stopping you. Or, there wouldn’t be, if people stopped making preachy posts and frankly nasty comments for no reason? Let me stress again – nobody gets hurt in people having their own personal interpretations. Frankly, I don’t understand why people even do it, to get a sense of righteousness maybe? Policing the fandom achieves nothing but killing potential creativity.

I’ve seen too many fanfictions deleted because of negative comments. I’ve seen too many creators bullied away from fandom because people couldn’t accept a different interpretation to their own. I’ve seen too many off these bullshit righteous posts that are nothing more than ‘everything I don’t agree with is disgusting’ rise in popularity. I’ve seen an actual shit list created to shame writers. Scrolling through Tumblr sometimes feels like I’ve stumbled into a bloody Orwell novel. 

‘Don’t like don’t read’ is the oldest rule in the book. Maybe 2018 should be the year people actually pay a lick of attention to it.

And guys, don’t let popular blogs and their posts/comments get you down or stop you and your beautiful creativity in any way.

I will be tagging basically all the large fandoms I can think of off the top of my head, as this is relevant to more than Yuri!!! On Ice

[axelsandwich]

yuzuru hanyu: an exhaustive introduction

YUZURU HANYU IN 8 SECONDS: A SUMMARY 

the weird goat noise crying at the end is yuzu himself basically going ‘nooo no way, no I don’t want this, that was scary, so scaryyy’

THIS IS ALSO YUZURU HANYU IN 13 SECONDS

YUZURU HANYU JUST BEING HIMSELF (PART 2)

choose your fighter

he’s happy a lot

basically the embodiment of the n__n emoji

and cute

the cutest 

ever

loves nature on the rare occasions he goes outside

hitting his coach with a fan

scaring his other coach and then running away

adorable w kids

loves teaching

but also falls down a lot. very cutely.

sometimes in a stupidly beautiful way

factual info you could probably Wikipedia but are too lazy to do so: Yuzuru Hanyu is a Japanese figure skater from Sendai, born 7 December 1994 who competes in the men's singles discipline.

PSA: YUZURU HANYU IS NOT THE MODEL FOR KATSUKI YUURI FROM YURI ON ICE (yuuri katsuki is canonically based on tatsuki machida thank u)

japanese media (esp in sendai) basically filmed him growing up and called him a young prodigy so we’re lucky to get footage of chipmunk-cheeked yuzu with his (flying) mushroom hair 

look at this tiny bean

he was interviewed in ice rink sendai with japan’s other figure skating gold medallist shizuka arakawa. to quote, when asked “can you become a gold medallist too?”, he said “probably”. and then he went and did exactly that.

he would get into fights with his rinkmates, used to ball up skate rink magazine flyers to hit like a baseball and basically had a 5min attention span after which he would get bored

he also remained top 5 in his class academically while competing internationally during high school and does online education at waseda university, which is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan (this kid was away the day God handed out laziness and procrastination I s2g)

he’s studying Human Informatics and Cognitive Sciences (ie. basically a massive maths nerd)

my favourite in-depth and extended interviews with yuzu are his press conferences with the foreign correspondents club in japan, he really lets his intelligence and thoughtfulness shine here in particular:

2014 post-sochi olympics

2018 post-pyeongchang olympics

2018 post-pyeongchang olympics (japanese media)

memelord mc memeface (no, I am serious)

literally can’t control his face

I could go on.........

for a long time

(this is my fave)

the duality of man

10 expressions for the price of one

‘yuzuru will also respond in english’

yuzuru was a victim of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami and lived in an emergency shelter with his family for about a week. spent the summer afterwards skating 60 different ice shows to raise money for the victims. he lost his home rink because of the earthquake and so would go to the show rinks early to practice ): 

it’s heartbreaking that he’s still very affected by the memories. he’s said he doesn’t take anything for granted and is always grateful to have a rink to skate on, and the impact he had on the survivors had a profound effect on his skating

he mentioned it in his post olympics interview

if you feel like crying really really hard today, watch yuzuru visiting sendai’s disaster affected areas and where he stayed initially in the days after the disaster

he donated all his olympic winnings to helping tohoku recover

the only regular TV appearance he does every year is 24hr TV which is a charity marathon to raise money for various causes, especially for areas affected by natural disaster 

“If it is because I visited them that those who suffered from the disaster can forget about their hardships for even just a moment, to me that would be something very meaningful. Therefore, at that moment, I thought that I wanted to get another Gold medal at the next Olympics.” 

the reason why he’s going for another olympic medal. cry with us

gets on with nobunari oda like a house on fire and carries out shenanigans whenever they meet

nobu and ex-tennis player matsuoka shuzo have been his most zealous and purest hype men since he was sixteen, it’s the cutest thing in the world, they’re regularly worried about him, stunned by him and moved to tears by his performances

here they are reacting to his olympics programs

here’s yuzu thanking shuzo for his support by putting his gold medal around shuzo-san’s neck

has the cutest bromance ever with training mate javier fernandez (eg. when he cried bc he didn’t win but was also super happy for javi, and when he watched javi’s free skate)

gives the best hugs to javi

iconic(TM)

just before the Olympic medal ceremony, yuzuru cried after javi told him this would be his last olympics and saying ‘no I can’t do it without you’ wow I didn’t need my heart or anything today

has the cutest interactions with all skaters including his direct competitors

here’s boyang jin giggling about how he got a hug from ‘the guy who likes Pooh’

nathan chen commenting on yuzu & both of them complimenting each other

dodges media attempts to pit him against shoma uno as bitter rivals bc they are NOT ABOUT THAT LIFE 

olympic gold medallist checking to make sure the olympic silver medallist has his jacket on straight and teaching shoma to wave bc he is actually just a mother

the only person who has the ability to make him lose focus: his forever-idol evgeni plushenko (now in motion) 

probably the only asian boy who willingly opted for a bowl cut 

who he shamelessly cheers on during ice shows

literally not capable of not being extra as fuck

here’s his pre-competition rituals aka. lipsyncing silently at a wall

he does it a lot

where every other male skater is in sensible shirts and pants, you will find yuzu standing there BEDECKED IN SEQUINS AND FEATHERS

he don’t give a fuck about your gender norms

and looks excellent while doing so

here he is, single-handedly destroying toxic masculinity

here he is just generally being Extra, with the rest of the men, bullying junhwan, bullying boyang... speed skating

tbh his milkshake seems to bring all the boys to the yard...seriously. and obviously most of the girls...

famous for his death glare murder face of hyper-competitive intensity

scariest thing is how quickly he can switch it on

there’s literally a collection of photos of yuzu - from when he was a bb to presently - eyeing the gold medal from another podium position like ‘my precious will be mine soon’ (here’s another one)

but also for being the sweetest kid ever 

he is truly SUPER polite wherever he goes

hugging his competitors at the 2018 pyeongchang olympics

staying behind to answer all questions from media at the competition

CRAWLING ON HIS HANDS AND KNEES behind competitor shoma uno so he doesn’t get in the background of shoma’s interview

mr worldwide (he thanked reporters at the Olympics in five languages)

watch him say thank you in korean

JP TV basically had entire TV segments where they were like ‘OBSERVE HIS GOD-LIKE BEHAVIOUR’. It continues to this day

there’s literally a shrine with kanji similar to his name and fans pray for him there

he has three dedicated shrines that his fans make pilgrimmages to - yuzuruha and the two seimei shrines. 

oda nobunari visited one and basically all the ema wishes were for him (yuzuru himself also visited the shrine to pray as well)

helping people repair the rink after competitions

single-handedly keeping the winnie the pooh soft toy industry alive.  

Disney-senpai finally noticed him in 2018

he donates all the toys he gets to local orphanages and charities

gives his fans regular heart attacks

watch him save jumps that shouldn’t have been physically possible

changing program halfway through when he failed a jump to accommodate #emergencyquad and #yolotripleaxel 

casually breaks world records because he was annoyed with himself

casual jump combinations during practices

casually says shit like wanting to jump hithero impossible jumps

jumped new quad when pissed off at the world team trophy It is REALLY IMPORTANT to know that the main reason for fan heart attacks is because he’s dealt with a distressing number of injuries, illnesses and misfortunes in his skating life but has somehow managed to come back and succeed in spite of them

a really scary accident that happened at cup of china 2014 and he decided to skate anyway because he wanted to qualify for the Grand Prix Final (which he then went on to win) and he really should not have been allowed to but he.......did that > <;

he then came back a month later to win the Grand Prix Final for the 2nd year in a row

he then had abdominal pain and surgery right after winning Japanese Nationals in 2014

and after spending a month recuperating, still managed to win a silver medal at worlds 2014

this is why we don’t talk about boston

important to note he skated his iconic chopin/seimei 2015 grand prix final programs WITH THAT INJURY

but then he came back and won the world championships in Helsinki in 2017

he missed almost the entire 2017-2018 olympic season he severely injured his ankle while practising the 4Lz in practice at the NHK Trophy, while recovering from a fever

is making his comeback from injury either at the pyeongchang team event or potentially yolo-ing it and going just for the individual event, we have no idea, we just know heart attacks are imminent

update: he skipped the team event and made his COMEBACK SKATE FROM INJURY after 3 months of no competitions and 1 month of prep at the individual mens event of the pyeongchang olympics.... AND FRIKKIN WON HIS SECOND OLYMPIC GOLD 

he then...injured himself again for the 2018-19 season, went out and skated anyway, won the event and showed up to the victory ceremony on crutches. he made a comeback at the world championships 2019 on painkillers yet again and still managed to get a silver medal

is proficient at disappearing like a ninja and subjecting his fans to radio silence for months on end, usually bc he injured himself ))):

so his fans made him a banner

(he has some ridiculously talented fans tbh)

a helpful guide to stanning yuzu (warning: you may feel Attacked)

did I mention he happens to be pretty good at figure skating? 

he’s broken the world record 16 times and counting (the video is his reaction to the first 11 (most of them are his own records)

he’s the first man in 66yrs since Dick Button to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in mens figure skating (sochi 2014 and pyeongchang 2018)

I cannot emphasise HOW FRIKKIN #YOLO HIS 2018 OLYMPIC SEASON WAS. this was the medal he wanted his ENTIRE LIFE, which he had literally planned since he was a novice skater and had seriously begun planning since right after he won the gold in Sochi. this plan had to be adjusted due to the truly distressing number of injuries, illnesses and misfortunes he sustained during the last quad (his Olympic athlete profile has PARAGRAPHS dedicated to all his injuries - and note these are only the post-2014 ones). but yuzuru started the 2017-18 olympic season with a plan to basically break all 3 of his WRs at the olympics by recycling his Chopin and Seimei programs but upgrading the layout and introducing a new quad - the 4Lz - which he had been preparing for years. and then this plan was, once again, thrown out the window when he sustained the injury in NHK in early November, which was much more severe than he first thought. he sat out of competition for 3mths despite hoping to return first at Japanese Nationals and then to the Pyeongchang team event, but pulled out of both as well. yuzuru made his comeback from injury debut at the individual men’s event, aka. the BIG DEAL, after marching into the airport like a BOSS. we were told he had only recovered his triple axel 3 weeks ago and his quads 2 weeks ago, but post-Olympics, he’s slowly revealing that it was even more dire than that. he skated the entire Olympics on painkillers that were not working 100% which meant every jump landing hurt.  and he. frikkin. WON. by doing this. and this.  (it was also the 1000th medal in Winter Olympics history because destiny rewards those who are Most Extra)

seimei is arguably one of the greatest masterpieces of skating programs and yuzuru was involved in every step of putting it together

his iconic moves ; _ ; 

edges, have you seen anything more ridiculous

romeo and juliet 1.0 at worlds, less than 1yr after the tsunami disaster and really launched him onto the international stage

sochi olympic short program (the thing that won him the gold lbr)

sub point: his reaction to gold

sub point: his reactions to BOTH HIS GOLD MEDALS

chopin and seimei at Grand Prix Finals 2015/16 

WR for highest short program and total program score and he’s gonna bring them both back and try to surpass them for the Olympic season because he wasn’t already under enough pressure.........

hope and legacy FS at Worlds 2016/17 where he came back from 5th place in the short program to win the free and break his own world record yet again (annotated version)

broke his 12th WR in the first event of the 2017-2018 Olympic season at the ACI Challenger event with a sore knee and downgraded jump layout

hilariously, his coach brian orser was - uncharacteristically - warning everyone that his first skates of the season are like ‘first pancakes’ and to not expect too much from him before the SP

his fans, needless to say, were amused

he did go ahead and die in the free skate the following day though, and finished with his obligatory Canadian silver

Jumped and landed his first 4Lz in competition at the Rostelecom Cup 2017 (watch it clean - it’s a THING OF BEAUTY) and now has landed 4 types of quads in competition (4T, 4S, 4Lo and 4Lz). Has now said that being the first person ever to land the 4A - his childhood dream - is one of his key motivations. 

just go watch all his programs lol

has a majestic jump face. it’s art. literally. 

seemingly endless appetite for getting better and continually challenging himself

his favourite word: kuyashii (ie. frustrated)

one of my favourite interviews of him ever was right after his broke all 3 world records and went over 200 and 300 for the FS and total competition score for the first time at NHK 2015.  “[On losing to Patrick Chan at Skate Canada & the fact he was practising during gala rehearsal where everyone else was chilling] I thought I want to improve, even here right now.  Patrick was nearby and it was a really good motivation.   It’s like, ‘Watch me.'  I will definitely practise all kinds of jumps and I will grow for sure.  I will win the next time for sure, I have been practising with that in mind.”   Then 3 weeks later, at NHK Trophy, he had a different lay-out. Yuzu:  This is not related to Patrick anymore.  I was really fired up this time. Boyang Jin got 95 points in SP, right?  When I saw that score, I thought, wow NO MISTAKES!!  He gave the best of his abilities!  OH YES!!!! Matsu: You didn’t think OH NO!!!  You thought OH YES???? Yuzu:  I thought “It’s here!!!"  Since I was a child, I have never liked winning a competition when others made mistakes.  Everyone skates to their best, but I still come first, above all.  That is what I like. I like pushing myself to the edge—.” (translation cr: yuzusorbet) says volumes about his competitive mentality.

this is also iconic AF. ‘In your mind, what do you mean by wanting to win with a commanding lead?’ yuzuru (no hesitation and immediately): after everyone goes clean, I go clean and win. (matsuoka shuzo’s face is a MOOD)

oh, also he’s had asthma since he was two 

he talks about it here

it was referenced in a movie

he got an asthma attack 2wks before the World Championships in Helsinki 2017 and still went out and Did That

the new york times did a long feature on him and it’s mostly a pretty comprehensive article if you want an overview

has remained at number one in the world standings for the entire olympic cycle since 2013 despite aforementioned heart-attack-inducing injuries and illnesses

sucks at finding suits that fit him. because he needs one imperfection

questionable fashion sense in general (generally remains stuck at ‘japanese teenage boy circa 2005′)

he wears toe socks and has been seen wearing crocs once, ho n e st l y

Good Guy Yuzuru: doesn’t wear fitted suits often because he knows it’ll kill his fans and/or will only do so if he gets paid for it tbh

unless he’s wearing under armour

he can keep wearing under armour

seriously, why isn’t he being sponsored by under armour

why

really obsessed with earphones and has like 50 pairs, many of which are custom-made and cost over $1000. he gets really excited about sound quality & bonds with sound technicians over their headphones. basically it’s the only thing he talks about when interviewers want to know what he likes to do in his spare time

that and play games in his room by himself

he’s hyper-competitive about games too

is this a surprise at this point

he’s basically a shut in when he’s not on the ice rink, in competition or at an ice show. he is not v exciting

he got really obsessed with kendama and now has like 8 of them

can’t dance but has no shame (yeah) (YEAH. you’ve been warned). werq it boi

made his japanese film debut in a bald cap, playing the young lord of Sendai which he SORT OF BASICALLY IS

get you a man that loves you like the entire city of Sendai loves yuzuru

their cheer video for sochi and pyeongchang

as of originally writing this intro post - part of the top six men in figure skating right now. probably possesses the Most Lack of Chill, being world champion, olympic champion and holder of all 3 figure skating records. we’re all drinking heavily this olympic season, not in the least because Olympic season has been a Pretty Big Disaster So Far

BUT HE WON THE GOLD MEDAL AND THE MENS EVENT WAS - FOR THE MOST PART - PRETTY DAMN BRILLIANT, especially given all the disasters that happened this season.......so I recommend watching it all. ; __ ; 

alas Patrick Chan and Javier Fernandez have now retired ;;

he’s also b e a u t i f u l 

um excuse me, rude

VERY RUDE

apparently not interested in sex appeal......... 

‘acting’

want to research more? 

here’s a recommended watchpost

a compilation of interesting interviews by tsukihoshi14

gif cr: balladestorm

in conclusion, thank you for reading and I hope you know more about this special, brilliant boy ( : 

[vyuric]

A New Beginning

When so much of your identity is tied to your work in and through the arts, what does it mean to walk away? Does walking away scare me more than moving on? 

I had my last day at my university arts job yesterday. It was my first job out of grad school, my first full-time, salaried position, and a step that felt like the first of many of its kind in my professional career. But yesterday, I left the job to transition into an industry that feels at odds with my work in the arts. 

When I think about this move, I feel nervous, mournful, confused, and excited. I oscillate between feeling truly liberated and deep-seated fear. On the one hand, I feel that I've finally found a way to ease out of a sector that has felt volatile and even exploitative at times1. On the other hand, I worry that I have walked away from an industry that has truly enriched my life, a space that I have invested and dedicated almost a decade of education and professional development. Haven't I wholeheartedly believed that working the arts in education was (and maybe still is) my life's calling? All it took was 3 weeks of interviews and a pay bump to make me leave...what does that mean?

I'm scared that walking away means I won't be able to go back. Did I leave because I wasn’t cut out for it? Does it mean that I wasn't so sure about being in the arts in the first place? I think the last concern sits heaviest with me. So much about being in this field is about advocacy, both in pushing the importance of the field at large, and the personal relationship with what might be considered a "non-traditional" industry.2 I know the personal and communal impact of the field, I’ve spent the last nine years teaching, learning, growing, and making at three higher education institutions, two museums, and countless public schools. 

Did I spend those nine years for nought? Did I not advocate for myself hard enough? When I leave, where does that labor, skill development, and commitment go? 

When I think about walking away, moving on, pivoting, I consider what it means to transition into the tech sector. My friends know that I’ve been more than vocal about my allergy to technology. “Vanessa Yuri Chung as a tech bro” feels like a cruel joke. My disdain doesn’t come unfounded; growing up in the Silicon Valley3 as a young person whose parents ran a non-lucrative small business, the tech industry was the strange, enigmatic source of my financial and social insecurities. I chose to pursue the arts in high school as a way to hold myself against the grain of the world around me. The arts always felt like a safe space for me to be, well, me4. 

What does it mean for me to work in tech? Am I losing a part of myself? Am I selling out? Am I giving up?

When all is said and done, I know that a lot of these considerations fall flat against the truth that I am an artist and an educator at my core. A job does not define that for me, and certainly does not negate my personal commitment to and belief in the arts as an integral and necessary part of our world. 

I also know that a lot of these feelings are based on fear: I'm scared to be sucked into a culture that for so long as an outsider, I've projected as toxic. I'm scared that I'll be willingly participating in an industry that has caused so much harm (not that the arts doesn't...but it's different, ya know?). I'm scared that taking a job partially because of the pay bump speaks more about my values than I'd like to admit. I'm scared to leave, and yet, I am thrilled for this new beginning. 

The arts have prepared me for this, at the least, and has guided me through the entire job application and interview process! I didn’t choose to work in “the tech industry.” I chose to work at a company and on a team that aligns with my personal values of access and collaboration. The ethos of deep questioning and joyful tinkering is embedded in the arts, and I’m excited to carry this through and beyond this transition.

This next chapter will be good. 

1 One day, I’ll write about the toxicity and the inherent white supremacy of the non-profit industrial complex. 2 I'm working to divorce myself from binaries, but I'm still stuck on the convenience of them. In regards to using "non-traditional" here, I'm maybe thinking about what society might think as beneficial to productivity and/or capitalism. More on this in the future.  3 I grew up in Cupertino, California, most well known as the home of Apple's headquarters. My middle school had a student drop off zone that was directly adjacent to the main Apple campus--parents were known to drop their students off in the parking lot and have them walk through the bushes to get to class on time.  4 Again, more to unpack later!

[rainbowravioli]

hi again, yes about the interview in particular and if you have new thoughts on S2 (because i know you already wrote some predictions and problems that could occur) that would be great!!

Alright then.

So this trainwreck of an interview. This was a wild ride. Just when you think there is no possible way to be more disappointed with the YOI staff, we get this. After this interview, Yuri on Ice can’t claim praise over representation. It can’t.

I’m going to cover the points that I found more…distressing, let’s say. If there’s anything I don’t touch upon that people want me to comment on specifically, feel free to send me an ask. All the bolding in the quotes will be my doing for emphasis of certain points.

Let’s start with this really, really worrisome thing:

Regarding Yuuri and Victor’s scene after the FS, I was fine with it being interpreted in any way. However this is the part that had more response from overseas, I was even directly asked “which one it was”. And then I heard from Japanese people too that some had an argument with their friends over whether they kissed or not, or they just hugged. I was surprised that people would want to know the truth. Up until then I had always thought that people wanted to be able to interpret fiction how they preferred. But seeing the reactions that this episode received, I realized that even if it’s fiction, inside people’s mind this series exists as a world of its own and so they believe that there must be a correct truth, an exact answer somewhere.

First of all let me say that I am very glad there’s finally been mention of the Japanese fandom asking about the kiss or hug thing because I was getting very tired of the whole “lol silly westerners~” thing. That said…how is she surprised that people want to know? If she’s writing this story about two male characters being in a romantic relationship, especially amidst the sea of fanservice bait and toxic yaoi bs, people are going to want confirmation that these two characters did kiss! Mind you, I am team “it was a kiss” and have been since the episode aired, but it’s highly irresponsible of Kubo to just adopt this nonchalant attitude of “I’m fine with any interpretation.” She shouldn’t be fine! This to me says that she was never actually concerned at all with giving anyone representation. 

Victor is asked whether he would like to fight Yuuri as an athlete, but he really doesn’t think that. Actually many people were expecting to see Victor and Yuuri confront each other in a match eventually, however Yuuri is also “trying to win to prove Victor’s skating”. The director and I shared this same opinion when we wrote the series.

Yeah this one is just here for me to go, thanks for the further evidence that Victor was originally meant to retire! Miss me with that “Yuuri skates for Victor” thing though, Yuuri deserves better than that. 

Yurio’s FS is still incomplete, but I wanted to show how he was able to obtain a new strength and elegance thanks to the presence of Lilia, Yakov, his grandpa and JJ as a rival. I also depicted his aggressive side when he changes the composition of the program to win, and the fact that he still isn’t able to win against JJ, which is another trial that he needs to overcome.

This is here as an example of what I mean when I say that an author’s intentions are all well and good but the work needs to speak for itself. In this case, JJ was never a trial for Yurio to overcome. He was set up as such, but Yurio never actually had to win against him because JJ ended up self-destructing in the end.

In a meeting with the director I asked her a very basic question: “Why does Yuuri want to win?”, and she replied “Well, he has never won a gold medal so far, of course he wants to win!”. I thought that made sense. Yuuri, who has never won an international competition, wants to win a gold medal before retiring. The “origin” of his desire to win is in fact pretty simple. He has been able to work hard so far because he wants to win a gold medal and is confident that he is good enough to succeed. I inserted that monologue because, even though Yuuri might look weak, he actually has been fighting the whole time.

First of all WHAT? You’re the main writer of the series! You should know your main character’s motivations! How do you not know? How could you have been writing him without knowing it? That’s basic character building! Second of all, she apparently doesn’t know her own characters at all. Because Yuuri Katsuki is not confident! This is a character trait AND a plot point, that’s repeatedly mentioned by other characters and by Yuuri himself! W H A T?!

I was told that the words “please take care of me until I retire” are actually something that real skaters say when they ask someone to be their coach. When I heard that, I thought that this was the perfect timing for Yuuri to tell Victor. At this time, Victor doesn’t take these words in the sense Yuuri really means, which is “until the end of this season”. He left Yuuri fighting alone in a tournament, so I think he was very torn about whether he should apologize and about what he should tell him when they met again. But then Yuuri told him “until I retire”, and I think Victor was probably really happy because it meant that Yuuri still needed him even when he was far away. Victor didn’t think that Yuuri would retire after the end of the GP Final, and he didn’t clearly decide until when he would continue being Yuuri’s coach, therefore I believe that he was happy to hear Yuuri’s feelings, to know that Yuuri too wanted him to be his coach until the end.

Absolutely no mention of Yuuri and Victor’s relationship being anything beyond that of coach and athlete, absolutely no mention of “that sounds like a marriage proposal”. 

What Yuuri bought is pair rings. When I looked it up I found out that buying a pair was cheaper (LOL), and I also thought that if they were going to wear something matching this would be good. There are actually many real skaters who wear accessories as “omamori”, protective charms. More importantly, Yuuri has been giving Victor fresh surprises until now, and I wanted him to get a new item, a weapon to fight in the final match. When I suggested the rings to the director she was like “Yes, that!!” (LOL). We were like, “yeah, a cornered athlete would do something like that!” More than implicating something like a wedding, it’s similar to members of the same circle deciding to have a matching item.

I AM LAUGHING AND CRYING GUYS! LAUGHING AND CRYING!

Platonic! Wedding rings!

But wait wait! It gets worse! Because we have this to top it off!

Victor is surprised by Yuuri’s action but understands him, so he makes a wish upon the ring telling him “show me the skating that you like the most”. In the China tournament he said things as if he was testing Yuuri, he “broke” his heart, so here he finally vows to the ring that “he will completely trust what Yuuri decides” and is determined to do what he can as a coach.

That entire scene was a platonic scene between coach and athlete, it’s what this is saying. It was never meant to be a proposal on Yuuri’s part! So there actually was no canon Victuuri proposal. Victor announcing they are engaged is not a proposal, it’s an announcement. One that Yuuri doesn’t even confirm. And then it’s never brought up again. ARE THEY EVEN ENGAGED?!

Platonic wedding rings! How do you pick wedding rings as a platonic symbol for your characters to share?! Remember how people joked about the rings being platonic because people still didn’t see Victuuri as canon? Those ‘just a bro buying wedding rings to another bro’ things? Well Kubo says they are platonic! Canonically platonic wedding rings! This is even better than #trancendental 

There’s also a moment where Yurio thought Victor was smirking looking at the ring. Like Yurio says in this scene, people tend to believe that athletes “die as competitors” when they stop and “become stable”. But I think that Victor, more than anyone else, is sensitive to this topic and is worried that people will say that about him, or that he will actually become like that. In this scene Victor wasn’t smirking, he was starting to think about his future.

Pray for Victor’s lost characterization. He’s truly dead.

Yuuri makes an attempt at adding a quadruple flip in his SP, but actually in the beginning I wasn’t planning to have him jump so many quads. The increasing level of real life competitions prompted me to add a realistic feeling by showing how you can’t win if you don’t have multiple quads in your programs. The reason Victor jumps a quad flip together with Yuuri during his performance is, more than something he does as a coach, something that comes from his feelings as an athlete.

The flip means absolutely nothing for how Victor feels about Yuuri. Nothing.

The reason Yurio could pull off his best performance is that many elements like his experience and the environment surrounding him all blended together perfectly right at this time. From an external point of view young and strong athletes somehow tend to look like they are “destined to win”, like they are performing a program prepared to win. However, every single second of their performance is the result of their efforts. I wanted to show this with Yurio’s SP.

Gonna quote @soobaki on this one “maybe bc theyre literally always the protag in every other series and yoi was supposed to subvert that but then didn”. If you wanted Yurio to be the protagonist so badly, you should have just made him the protagonist from the get-go. 

When Victor is watching Yurio’s performance we cannot see his expression because I myself haven’t decided what the truth is, like whether he is frustrated because Yurio beat his record, or he wants to surpass him again, or what else.

Lady. LADY! L A D Y!!! You! Are! The! Writer! If you don’t know, who knows???

In the end I’m really portraying every character thinking that I want them to win, and especially in JJ’s case, he has a power that makes you want him to win.

JJ won bronze because author favoritism. There. It’s explained now. Honestly, read the way she talks about JJ in the entire interview. At this point I’m sure she likes him more than Yuuri. Hell, at this point I don’t think she likes Yuuri that much.

I could touch upon every single point of episode 12 believe me, but here’s my top offenders.

What Victor told Yuuri right before he starts is performance, more than something that he really thinks deep down, is what he came up with when thinking about what could encourage Yuuri Katsuki the most, so basically it’s “Victor playing the role of Victor as Yuuri expects him”.

……………….

I have no words.

No, wait, I have many words. Starting with, what the hell? So…I really dislike that scene. I think I made my feelings for that scene obvious. This just makes that scene worst. So Yuuri tells Victor to be true to himself and Victor…acts. He’s not being sincere. Victor goes back to playing a role, the role he thinks Yuuri wants him to play. This is utterly heartbreaking. And really unhealthy as far as their relationship goes! There is not positive way of reading this. 

Regarding the scene where Victor hugs Yurio before the competition, he didn’t do it because he was begging for his help to stop Yuuri from retiring, or because he was asking him something. He just wanted Yurio to skate at his best, it was his genuine feelings of support for him, as if he was saying “go and do your best!”. After all, until this scene we never really saw Victor support Yurio. It’s an action that cannot be explained with logic. 

Ok well, you didn’t convey that, did you? Some basic scene set-up and character acting was sorely missing from that scene. Still, RIP manipulative!Victor theory. Small blessings.

That said, here’s Kubo forgetting her own canon again. We never saw Victor support Yurio until this scene? You sure?

Are you really sure about that?

She also keeps saying that certain character’s actions or thoughts or feelings “can’t be explained through logic” and all I have to say about that is this: cheap excuse. You’re the writer, you should know how to explain your characters.

The selfish decision ultimately taken by the selfish Yuuri Katsuki was to continue competitive skating. I think there were many reasons that led to this conclusion. Not only what Victor gave him, but Yurio’s performance in the FS also managed to pull Yuuri back to the ice, and maybe he was influenced by the other athletes’ performances too. 

Yuuri Katsuki? Selfish?! Yuuri who spent most of the series thinking about people other than himself? Yuuri who had a mental breakdown over the idea that he was keeping Victor from happiness? Yuuri who had “accepting and admitting to his desires” as part of his character arc? Yuuri who had to be pushed by other to do the things he wanted for himself? Ok so she clearly doesn’t know her characters.

She “thinks” there are many reasons that led to the conclusion of Yuuri continuing to compete? Please enlighten us. Other than “we wanted a s2 and didn’t know how else to pitch it, also give us your money”, what other many reasons were there? Narratively, I’m pretty sure not even Kubo knows, considering the “MAYBE he was influences by the other athletes’ performances too”. 

This interview guys. I’m pretty sure it shortened my life span. Character derailment, retcons, continuing to insist on the at this point blatant lie that the finale was planned from the start (I would still be furious about it, but I would respect the staff so much more if they admitted they changed it at the last minute), and still no confirmation of a romantic relationship between Yuuri and Victor, on the contrary. I don’t really have new thoughts about s2, other than the fact that it’s not looking great. Not looking great.

Platonic wedding rings.