#like it would be insanely disrespectful to everyone's experience of the plot if i tried to make those decisions here. ykwim?

[greenerteacups]

Did Narcissa have a miscarriage, or lost a baby that was a girl ?

I'm re-reading year one and two, and these two excerpts that stands out to me.

“Five years in Azkaban, five years, I was alone with my boy… a one-year-old boy. And when he came back, he didn’t want… wouldn’t allow… it wasn’t safe, he said, not for a daughter, a lovely little girl for the whole world to hate…” She turned her head into Draco’s chest, and wept.

and this one in the summer between year one and two

For some reason, she took particular delight in Pansy. There was something about having a girl around the house, he supposed, that created a feeling of instinctive allegiance and understanding between them, and she had delighted in taking Pansy shopping at the local markets. They gossiped and drank coffee (that Pansy wasn’t supposed to have) and chatted about whatever the hell women did in pairs, and Narcissa spent unholy quantities of Draco’s inheritance on fine silks and trinkets and bottles of wine for Pansy’s parents, with whom she had exchanged almost a dozen letters before Pansy was allowed to come.

perhaps I'm grasping at straws here, but number one, if Narcissa got pregnant again then she cannot choose if she'd have a boy or a girl. Second her treatment of Pansy could be a sort of wish fulfillment, but I wonder if there is another reason for. Maybe a bit more tragic reason.

I mean, I can say that it's definitely canonical Narcissa wanted a daughter, cf. the chapter "Narcissa," but as for anything else — who am I to tell you? The only power I have to say what the story means is what I've written and what I'll write in the text of the fic. Beyond that, what happens in between the lines is your call as much as it is mine.

[annqbthchse]

Agathas casting + Sofia Wylie

hi I just chugged 2 redbulls, ranted to my friend for like an hour about this because the amount of absolute disrespect and just plain racism i've seen about the casting infuriates me. so here are some of the comments i've seen and my opinion/reaction to them (this is literally just a passionate brain explosion done quite late at night -10pm-  and vv quickly so I apologise if some points are missing/worded weirdly!!)

“she isn’t how she looks in the books” || “i’m all for diversity but [🙄] why did they make the pale one a POC” || “it doesn’t make sense for agatha to be played by a black actress”

for those saying it doesn't make sense for agatha to be plated by a black women,,,  what are you talking about!!! IT ACTUALLY DOES THO???? if anything it makes more sense and adds more weight to her storyline and character arc! her entire arc is realising she has been beautiful ALL ALONG. its just her low self esteem and the impossibly and very eurocentric high beauty standards that's she's up against at the school for good & in Gavaldon keeping her down. having agatha being played by a WOC is perfect because that is something we unfortunatly have to face on a daily basis. it makes for a wider range of people to see agatha and her experiences and be able to relate to someone whose place in society mirrors their own. and isn’t that great??? SHOULDN’T WE WANT THAT????yes. we should.

as a WOC myself, when i found out the news I literally called my friend at like 8am to be like “HOLY SHIT :DDDD” its exciting!! i know that a lot of people loved agatha because they could relate to her and that's great! but you still have that!! book agatha isn’t going anywhere. she's still there! like i've said before, Sofia as agatha allows MORE people to be able to relate to her character. This is an amazing decision and these kind of changes in the adaptation should be welcomed and encouraged. i

and also you can’t just pick and choose what characters can/cannot be black. that literally makes 0 sense and isn’t how it works. having agatha - one of the films lead-  as a WOC is a big deal and suggesting that instead have the side characters have diverse actors infuriates me. why does it have to be a side character??? it makes as much sense for agatha to be black as it does any other side character and sofia is perfect!

ALso Soman (who first published SGE in 2013) probably just used whatever beauty standards at the time and ran with it. but hey, it's literally 2020 and if this year has taught us anything it's that times are changing! casting a diverse lead for a book that has a predominantly white cast reflects that change! its great! tbh before the casting news, i was very apprehensive about the movie because of some of the problematic themes and events that occur but this casting is the step in the right direction! it shows that at least on some level the people making the movie are all aware of its wrongdoings and adapting the movie to better fit and reflect a wider audience in 2020.which is what we all (or at least should) want!!

“She doesnt have straight black hair so she can’t possibly play agatha”

first of all her hair is gorgeous!!! and does it really matter that she wont have straight hair??? will you die if one fictional character doesn't have straight hair?? no. you won't. and she shouldn’t have to straighten, use relaxers or wear a wig to play the role. hollywood has a long standing history of making diverse (predominantly Black!!) actresses having to fit Eurocentric beauty standards LIKE having straight hair. and using relaxes can also be a really traumatising and degrading experience for black women and its unfair for people demand that she can only play agatha if she “fixes” her hair. and yea again it has some very racist undertones. but dudes this is HAIR we’re talking about people. it's such a stupid finicky detail to hyperfocus on that won’t even affect the plot or the movie in any big way. I for one would love to see Sofia play Agatha with her beautiful, gorgeous, natural hair!

we all have our different interpretations and visions of agatha and that's ok! but with that and the movie you have to be realistic. there is no way they could’ve casted the ‘perfect’ agatha. even if they did stick to her book descriptions. you can't please everyone and people will always have opinions and something to say about it

“I can’t see her as agatha because of her previous disney roles”

bruh it's called acting. and you know another famous actress known for the classic disney roles and is now an emmy award winning actress?? ZenDAYA. yea. stfu. we haven’t even seen them in their full costumes or anything, hell this is really the first big information that we’ve had! give it some time,,, lets see the rest of the cast, the costumes, the sets and THEN decide if “she's not my agatha” c’mon guys!! she's insanely talented (a triple threat at 16!!!) and criticising her casting of agatha based on one photo - which literally says nothing about her performance- does have some severe racist undertones no matter how many times you try to defend yourself using the classic “i’m not racist but-” excuse.  

The people who casted her are literal professionals. they do this for a LIVING and have been for ages. SO ofc they would’ve casted the perfect person for the role. these are the same people who casted Harry Potter. pls just have faith in the process. they don’t want the movie to be a flop any more than we do. they picked her for a reason and i'm sure that in time we will see the exact same reasons they do

“I wanted asian agatha so i’m very disappointed in this casting”

I get it, I do but honestly,, c’mon dude A WIN FOR ONE OF US IS A WIN FOR ALL!! all minorities are all severely underrepresented in hollywood rn and idk about y’all but i’m taking this as a massive win for all us POC regardless of whether she's black, brown or asian.

“Sofias too beautiful” || “Agatha's supposed to be ugly >:(”

Agatha has literally been “beautiful all along”. the problem isn’t that she's ugly, its just that she's had impossibly low self esteem and doesn't see herself that way because of the impossibly high (mostly eurocentric) beauty standards she's held against. and with the ugly casting??? you really want them to put out a casting call specifically calling for someone ugly?? what would that even entail?? dudes The Lord of the Rings TV show tried that shit here in NZ a lil bit ago and it did NOT go down well lmao. you can’t just cast an ‘ugly’ person. also ‘hollywood’ ugly is still hot (e.g She's all That ) so idk what you guys were expecting????

pls remember Sofia is literally 16 (!!!!), she's so young and must’ve been SO excited to have gotten this role!! and if we can see all these comments, she definitely can so just be kind. ok

anyways,,,

Sofia is absolutely gorgeous and the perfect agatha and i’m very excited to see more of her ❤️

[drink-n-watch]

Hi Crow, how has your week been? Mine has been busy but generally all right. Did you read Karandi’s post on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? I think I’m generally more indulgent on anime but she brings up some fair points. It also made me realize that I may be approaching Demon Slayer from a slightly different angle than a lot of fans. And that angle is camp. When I was a kid The Lost Boys was one of my favourite movies, and it’s this same type of atmosphere and experience that I get from Demon Slayer.

Hi, Irina! Week’s been fine — insanely busy, but that’s par for the course! Yep, I read Karandi’s post, and I agree she brought up some fair points. I wouldn’t say we’re more indulgent in the approach we’ve taken. I’d say we’re so into the characters and the plot that the pieces that would other not work fade into the background.

So you see Demon Slayer as camp? I can see that. There are definitely times Tanjiro reminds me of Asta from Black Clover. Tanjiro has a little less of the over-the-topness I associate with camp, but the elements are there.

Oh, I’m bold this week — and you should watch out for spoilers!

why do I feel like I forgot something…

So far Demon Slayer has stuck to a tightly linear narrative. Each episode picks up the second the previous one ended, and sometimes a few seconds earlier for context. As such, we got thrown right back out on that crowded street with the unknown man turning into a demon while Kibutsuji was slowly walking away with his family. Were you as surprised as I was by how quick that transformation was?

Yes, I was. I started to wonder why he doesn’t just turn everyone into a demon. Then I realized he be creating competitors for his food supply, and he wouldn’t want to do that. That was a chilling scene…

Sort of makes you wonder what Nezuko’s transformation was like. Well, that’s a horrible thought.

let’s just not think about it

As I predicted the police did get called in but Tanjiro managed to stay out of trouble by being a kid and a little help from an unexpected source. Still, it was pretty lucky that Tanjiro didn’t get hauled off to jail, it’s not as if anyone could make bail for him and poor Nezuko would have been left all alone by the stand.

Yes, you did predict that! You aren’t reading the scripts in advance, are you? If you are, could you share? Tanjiro definitely needs to keep his responsibilities in mind. This city is a completely new world to him, and he’s not going to be able to recognize some forms of danger at all!

Hahaha … of course…what’s that over there?

you didn’t see nothing!

Both the freshly transformed demon man and his wounded wife got scooped up by a mysterious demon claiming to be a doctor, and her young companion. She has some hallucinogenic blood scent power that I didn’t quite get and that seemed a bit tacked on to me. Their appearance seemed a bit too convenient so I was suspicious. What did you think of Tamayo and Yushiro?

I don’t recall ever seeing a blood-based pheromone power before. Ants and other creatures use pheromones to communicate, even over distances, so I think that makes it plausible.

As for the coincidence of them happening to be there? Part of me wants to blame Karandi (jokingly, of course) for making us more sensitive to that kind of thing! Part of me wonders: Given what we learn about her motives later, was she shadowing Eviler Michael Jackson (err, Kibutsuiji)? If so, she’s awfully brave. That’s an astonishingly dangerous thing to do.

how am I supposed to feel about this? oh right: terrified!

This was just the opening scene folks. In the meantime, Kibutsuji just calmly walked away. I’m probably going to repeat this every episode but I really adore his voice and the delivery, as a matter of fact. I looked it up and he’s played by Toshihiko Seki. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen him in much except as Senketsu in Kill la Kill and I don’t remember the performance that well. Well, he’s certainly killing in here….Ha!

I see what you did there!

We have this almost instinctive tendency to equate a good father and husband with a good man. From the little, we see Kibutsuji is doting and caring to both his human wife and daughter. Careful to keep them out of danger and gentle. And yet he’s also the type of man who would brutally murder a group of drunk strangers over a stray word. He certainly does not like comments on his appearance.

Can we talk about his encounter with the drunks for a moment? When the drunk staggered into him and got irate, Kibutsuji tried to stay calm and even apologized! But the drunk pushed his luck, and the demon back-handed him so hard the impact against the wall killed him. He killed the other man, who turned out to be the dead man’s older brother, in an even more brutal way.

this is a reasonable reaction

But the poor girl? The way he killed her? I watched the episode a few hours ago, and I’m struggling to remember as brutal and horrific killing in any of the anime I’ve watched. Kibutsuji killed the first two out of anger. He was stone-cold when he killed the poor girl. For me, that was one of those “Welp, guess we’re not in Kansas anymore!”

Kibutsuji is one of the most dangerous types of evil characters: He can tightly control his emotions.

I think we may be staggering into the “unknowable” evil category. To him, killing is just an ordinary response and doing it so cruelly, simply a way to spice it up a bit. Like getting a breakfast sandwich instead of just a pastry for breakfast. But something triggered him.

I didn’t realize how present he was in the episode until I looked over my screencaps

Also, it seems that he has now decided to go after Tanjiro. Not directly, of course, but he sent a couple of hench demons. Is it just me or does Kibutsuji seem a bit flustered by Tanjrou’s presence? Why? From his perspective, he shouldn’t have much to fear…

Not from Tanjiro, maybe, but do you remember the flashback with the other demon hunter? The one with the same earrings as Tanjiro? Looks like his flash earrings are for more than just decoration!

I just thought that was the eyecatch….good thing you’re here.

Tanjirou goes back to pick up Nezuko and I am very glad to see they addressed the udon issue. Having families ripped apart, with loved ones brutally murdered is one thing, but wasting perfectly delicious looking udon….

I know, right? The poor stand owner was beside himself! I was very glad that Tanjiro ate two helpings. And both looked as good as the first!

yes, they did!

This is when the siblings meet up with Yushiro again who has come to lead them to Tamayo’s home and clinic(?). I really liked how Tanjirou just jumped to defend his sister’s pride! Well, Yushiro had no right disrespecting Nezujo. I mean, come on! Yushiro actually makes a pretty good foil for the rather one-note Tanjirou. I like their little frenemy dynamic and I think it brings out a much more fun aspect of our protagonist. What did you think?

Agreed. Though I’m still going to hold a grudge for how he spoke of Nezuko. <grumbling> “Eyesore?” What an idiot… </grumbling>

Crow wrote a scene for this episode

We finally get some good old exposition courtesy of Tamayo. It seems she, like just about every demon, was turned by Kibutsuji over two decades ago. In that time, she’s managed to modify her body to survive on nothing but small amounts of donated human blood. She also turned Yushiro into a demon to save his life but has never managed to turn anyone else. As a result, the boy is fanatical….let’s say “devoted” to her.

Tamayo is desperately trying to find a way to break the demon curse. Which is great news for Tanjiro. However, she needs to study a variety of demon blood to devise a cure, and that may be a bit tricky to come by. What do you think of this plan Crow?

I think we just saw a quest-type plot be born right before our eyes! Seriously, I think it’s a great way to focus on his journey. Not sure how it’ll interact with the missions delivered by his Kasugai Crow. And if his mission in Tokyo was to destroy Kibutsuji, then I don’t see how he’s going to succeed. Still, I think it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.

And do you have any idea why Tanjiro didn’t jump all over the idea of modifying Nezuko’s body so she wouldn’t be tempted to kill humans? To make her more like Tamayo? I think he should jump at the chance to let her speak again, at least!

Or am I missing something?

no, nothing

You know, the more demons we see, the more I realize there’s no reason for Nezuko to not be able to speak. She can easily take that bite out of her mouth just when she needs to say something.

When Tamayo mentioned that “something” must have happened to her during the to years she was hibernating, I couldn’t help but worry that it was brain damage. That’s why she’s acting like a child or small animal when she was a perfectly coherent girl before.

That’d be terrible, wouldn’t it? Something’s going on, because the way she reacted to Tanjiro stroking her cheek was adorable — but it bordered on puppy or kitten-type adorable. It wasn’t the reaction of a human sister. And the way she just laid on the floor with her legs in the air? I don’t think a young lady like Nezuko would do that. And the writers are too good for that to be an accident. Something’s up.

undeniably adorable

This scene also solidified the analogy between demons and vampires. We seem to be mixing and matching monster traits for an ultimate nightmare. I’m not against it.

The Lost Boys meet The Howling? Or maybe The Werewolf of London?

This episode was relatively calm, with none of the signature high action scenes demon slayer has been mesmerizing us with. Of course, that is all going to change next episode, as in the final moments, Kibutsuji’s lackeys find them all at Tamayo’s place and get ready to exterminate some earring wearing slayers.

We finally get a good look at these two and once again, I’m diggin’ the design. The garish shock of colours and blunt lines really works well to create unnerving yet very unusual looking bad guys. Did you like their first appearance?

The girl reminded me of Claire from Claymore — in a good way. They looked evil, and they looked like the enjoyed being evil. The tension of expectations between the pretty bouncy balls and their devastating impact on the house (and presumably on anyone they hit) was another nice touch!

I really like the colourful bouncy ball

Last thoughts? Predictions? Fears…..

My fear is that our guess about Nezujo’s mental state is correct. That would be an interesting for the plot, but yet another cruel stroke of fate for Nezuko!

Well, this is grim but there’s hope. Tanjiro finally has some powerful allies by his side and even a chance at a cure. That is if he can survive the next episode.

Want to read our past reviews?

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 01: Cruelty

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 02: Crow will Protect Me

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 03: Sabito and Makomo

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 04: Final Selection

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 05: My Own Steel

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 06: A Friend fo All Humans

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Episode 7 – Not A Boy’s Hands And The Happy Family

that’s not how it’s spelled…

As usul I took a completely unreasonable amount of screenshots an I’ll share a few here. I’ve decided to upload them all to imgur because I think it will be easier for you guys to see the higher quality images there. If you are interested the gallery is HERE.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 8 – Vindictively of course Hi Crow, how has your week been? Mine has been busy but generally all right. Did you read…