#old story rewrite

[dionysia-does-stories]

Snow Spirit

Cringetober 2023, Day 18: Old Story Rewrite

On AO3

Rating G - 611 words - Cardcaptor Sakura - Touya/Yue

Summary: Touya has a romantic Christmas Eve planned the Yue refuses to let an evil sorcerer interrupt.

Story:

Touya had been planning the perfect Christmas Eve for three months. His Favorite Twerp and her boyfriend (not his favorite) were spending the night out. He didn’t ask for details. He didn’t want to spoil his Christmas by think about their Christmas. Their father was traveling for business, leaving the kids to choose how to spend the most romantic day in Japan.

Sakura had declared it a “Clow Free Holiday”. She left the cards at home. Took Kero to Tomoyo’s house where he was gorging on homemade takoyaki. And Yuki was at home with Touya. 

They had the house to themselves. They were always together, but never alone. It felt indescribably luxurious to be together in the kitchen, cooking and talking like an old married couple. Yuki had brought a bouquet of flowers with him, perfuming the air with a soft floral scent.

“I feel like Yue and I are getting along better than we used to,” Yuki said. “Like we’re actually starting to be one person with shared goals.”

Touya nodded but kept silent. They were one person but they were also two people. It was an unusual situation. The two facets of them didn’t share memories yet. Maybe they never would. Touya had spent long inscrutable afternoons talking to Yue. Touya loved them both. He wanted to protect them both. It didn’t matter how complicated it all was. 

“For the longest time it felt like we were fighting with each other. Like we couldn’t decide who’s life was the priority. But it’s all melded together. Protecting the Clow, protecting Sakura, building a human life, loving you. It’s all one purpose now.”

“What was that last one again?” Touya didn’t look away from the pan he was cooking in.

Yuki swooped in and kissed him. 

It was so easy. It was wonderful that it was easy. They’d earned these moments of peace and love.

Yuki suddenly looked into the distance. His eyes unfocused. “I think I forgot something upstairs.”

Touya knew that look, but decided to let Yue think he was being covert. “You should go look for it,” he said.

Yue in Yuki’s body pecked him on the cheek. A blush stole across his face. Yue always found showing affection to be profoundly embarrassing. Touya like that he did it anyway.

Yue-Yuki went upstairs where he let his power wash over him. In the blink of an eye, he was fully transformed. His priest robes flapping and his long white hair nearly reaching the floor. He had sensed something outside the house.

This was Yue’s season. The cold winter frost added to his power. The full moon hung heavy in the sky. He walked out into the night, casting a spell that made him become one with the snow. He was invisible to on lookers.

He moved around the house. Floating outside Sakura’s window, a low-talent sorcerer was trying to break in. No doubt he was here for the cards.  He thought them undefended in their master’s absence. He was wrong.

Yue moved silent and hidden through the snow until he was right bellow the sorcerer. Then he struck. Fast and hard. The sorcerer had no time to collect himself or mount a defense. Yue dismantled him. Yue was not going to allow anything to interrupt Touya’s romantic plans for this evening.

He allowed just his cold eyes, glowing with moonlight, to appear to the sorcerer. “Leave this place and never come back”.

The sorcerer ran.

Yue returned to the house, realizing his body to Yuki. The human didn’t remember what happened but had a vague impression of how excited Yue was to be spending Christmas Eve with Touya.

[j-a-nuary]

I fucking hate proofreading/editing

This is the only line out of 69 (Nice™️) pages that brings me any joy anymore.

[bonus-links]

So, the immediate question I have is did Wake lose an eye, or is he wearing an eye patch to preserve his night vision to better navigate in darkened ship's holds and dungeons?

he did lose an eye, the scar is in his ref! it's super super old, but I actually have a comic about this too! it was one of the first comics i made for bonus links (featuring a few old designs lol). I'll probably retread this info at some point in the main comic, but if you don't mind some spoilers, you can read it here

[ellzilla]

I realize I haven't drawn these two interacting with each other DIRECTLY in years even though their mutual hate is the ONE piece of lore that hasn't been changed or edited in any way and used to be Ella's only lore for eons.

[shrineofdolls]

there's someone in my shadow ~

[inkandpaperqwerty]

Do you like to see Envy suffering and struggling and generally in as much despair as is humanly (and non-humanly) possible? Of course you do. Because everyone does. Since this is the case, may I humbly request you check out my Brotherhood AU where Envy survives the Promised Day but is captured by Mustang. You can find Seeing Red on AO3, fanfiction.net, and wattpad. If you do check it out, please let me know what you think!

[vixxelle]

Gonna rewrite how Ivor’s effected by the Wither storm cuz his sudden character change was jarring as hell.

I love Ivor, but you gotta admit he basically got off Scott free despite summoning a literal demon that nearly destroyed the world and probably killed thousands of people in the process JUST to spite his ex-BFFs.

Yeah, he was rightly upset about Soren using a command block to kill the Ender Dragon and lying to the public for fame. But I don’t think summoning a world destroying demon is the best way to deal with that.

Especially when that world destroying demon caused MASS MURDER and left the survivors traumatized and with lasting scars (whether it be physical or mental) to remind them of the horrible event.

Despite Ivor being a literal mass murderer, NOBODY seems to hold a grudge against him for summoning the Wither Storm.

Not Petra, who was nearly killed by the Wither Sickness.

Not Jesse/Jessica, who lost Reuben to the Wither Storm and was thrust into power at an extremely young age after the old Order was outed for fraud and retired.

Not Olivia and Axel, who lost their Idols to the Wither Storm.

NO ONE in Beacon Town, Boom Town, or Redstonia; who had their whole ass homes torn apart and family and friends killed over some grudge.

Absolutely no one is angry at Ivor for nearly causing the end of the world. The only time there was any conflict with fitting in with Ivor was in episode 5 between him and a random group of people.

And it wasn’t about his involvement with the Wither Storm, it was about his house that he built that happened to be extremely dangerous.

Nothing about the Wither Storm? The old Order? No resentment?

DONDE ESTA MY SHIT?

Hold on tight, cuz imma bout to cook up a post-Wither Storm Ivor rewrite for no reason other than pure, hot, spite.

[multifunctionalnitroglycerin]

Leona and Diana Old Lore / New Lore. My take on it

Okay so, I am relatively new to the League community, with barely three years under my belt, but lore is one of the things that interest me the most about it. And well, the dynamic between Sun and Moon coded characters is one I never pass up in exploring. Leodia is arguably my favorite ship from League, but it's mostly the idea of it, with recent executions leaving me feel kinda... meh.

So apart from probably having read every single half decent fic under the Leona/Diana tag on Ao3, I have scourged the internet for their lore and have come across quite a few references of their old one. Never found the complete thing though. And possibly unpopular opinion, I like it better than their current one.

That is not to say that the old lore is any sort of masterpiece, and people could argue that it doesn't set them up to be lovers, but I think with a little bit of tweeking it can become really good. Many of my ideas are inspired from a fic I probably read like 2 years ago, also features an OC named Helena and has a side of Riven's inner struggle, Riven and Diana friendship and Rivelia. (I cannot for the life of me remember the name, I apologise)

My problem with the New Lore mostly, is that it's vanilla for a mountain of warriors and *cultists* it feels almost like High School AU but try to fit it into League, and yeah it's not it for me. Also the co-dependence of their ascension, and just Leona's whole thing kinda sucks. Like I can see how people might see it as romantic and poetic and whatever, that they ascended at the same time and Leona followed Diana up the mountain to keep her safe etc. etc. but that's kinda glossing over some issues especially with Leona's character.

Now the new take on Leona's character is really interesting, and a complete 180 from the old lore and actually the idea isn't so bad, if they ACTUALLY DID ANYTHING WITH IT. Now as a person that definitely doesn't overanalyze literature and fictional characters for fun, Leona's new lore is such an interesting take and could be taken many directions if someone chose to explore it and go a bit deeper that "genocidal close-minded bigot".

At first read Leona is really just that. She does what she is told no hesitation, no questions asked and turns on Diana also no questions asked. But let's take it a bit deeper shall we?

I have no intention to make it as though Leona holds no blame for her actions or that she is a paragon of virtue, cause she is not. But if we dive in her story a bit more we could perhaps understand how she came to be what she is. Because under no circumstance do I think she is that daft. Especially if she was with Diana for years. Some of that curiosity must have rubbed off on her. Then again she could have just ignored everything Diana said about the Moon and her research. I guess we'll never know.

I do not intent to ramble about Leona in this post. But I'll give you some clues as to why her backstory and the whole Targonian premise is important. She is born practically into a cult, or well a religion with really strict and particular disciplines. So already an environment with very particular ideas and particular ways to enforce them. She is the daughter of two really strict and proud parents in said cult, who seem to care more abt her achievements and punishments than anything (Grade A parenting), - She doesn't even send them that letter in the end - and she is the golden child of the Solari. So what do we have in our hands? An affection starved perfectionist suffering from gifted child expectations. NOw take that and put it in the Solari premise of religious fanatism and voila!

(I will probably at some point make a separate post abt this, because I really took a deep dive in Leona's character when writing my Ruination fic - that I wont ever post anywhere probably - and I have a LOT to say)

So in the old Lore the Rakkori are the warriors and defenders of the mountain, a bit heavy on the bloodthirsty side though, hence the right of Kor. A coming of age ritual battle to the death. (What else could it be). Leona being the only one that refuses to kill her opponent and friend, is sentenced to be executed, but before the execution could be carried out, she is claimed by the Golden Sister as the Sun aspect with a beam of golden light.

I feel that Leona's ascension in particular is really important in the old Lore, because in such a warlike culture she was rewarded for showing mercy. She was chosen because she chose mercy over mindless slaughter. Something that could potentially be really important later on, in a mountain where half its indigenous people have slaughtered the other half??

Point 1 I like from the old lore: The Sun chose Leona because she was merciful. (Or had a semblance of a moral compass)

Moving forward the lines kinda blur for Diana, mostly cause I am not sure what I remember is actual lore and what is related to that magnificent fic.

Her curious truth-searching nature is ever present. She discovers hidden texts, burned pages and embarks on a journey of knowledge that leads her to climb the mountain. Only she is in the company of an elderly woman I think? Anyhow, she finds - is lead to - an alcove, an old temple and the relics of the Moon Aspect. Overjoyed at her findings she dons the armor takes it all down to the elders, they call her a heretic, brand her, and intent to kill her, when she begs the Moon for help and ascends. Either her or the moon blast kills every elder in the room she gets blamed either way, and the chase begins.

Diana is at her core an academic and a researcher, that researches. She has her Indiana Jones moment in the mountain and there is a process a ritual to it, instead of I just climbed up saw unimaginable terrors and now I am the aspect of the Moon (over-simplified I know. The climb judges worthiness). There is something about her checking old dusty books, and deciding to brave the climb looking for answers. About her choosing to be helpful -kinda as a mirror to Leona sparing her opponent, Diana, the one that keeps to herself - apart from when arguing abt academics and scriptures consciously engages with and helps a stranger, guiding them up the mountain and helping them along the way when the trip became too arduous.

Point 2 I like from the old lore: The ritual of the process in Diana's research and ascension and the mirroring with Leona, minor though it is, that they ascended - sooner or later - after an act of kindness that contradicted what would have been expected of them.

Point 3 I like from the old lore: The brand. Like it just adds another layer to Diana's character. And is a much better explanation for its presence than Moon magic. Also the amount of complications this act has, its just delicious. I mean THE DRAMA. and ofc THE TRAUMA. I don't think she'd go near a fire for months.

Point 3 I like from the old lore: The independence of the ascensions. It gives us the chance to see them grow and evolve as their own people before the thread of fate that binds them together appears. We get to see one without the other, and that would later make their dynamic more interesting.

But How are Leona and Diana connected?

In the old lore they aren't. I think. Leona is like a blood hound that needs to kill the heretic.

In the fic, Leona's dad was one of the guards in the room when Diana ascended and was killed, which in the context of the story adds a layer of betrayal between them, as up to that point they were lovers. And you know what, I really like that idea. And I was thinking that perhaps we could try to get the best of both worlds. Though it might be difficult to fully develop the idea.

Lore Idea:

So the Rakkor ans the Solari are different factions. Solari = priesthood, Rakkor = Warriors. Leona's family are Rakkori, and they are simple people, her father works as a guard for the Solari Temple, something that is considered a bit of an honor despite that fact that the factions don't rly see eye to eye about everything. Right of Kor happens when they are around 15 (Yes I want to traumatize a bunch of teenagers that train to fight, kill and defend since they could walk) and Leona's story proceeds as we know it. She then gets taken to the Solari temple to be educated in their way and train to become the figurehead of their faith. (Like that Leona has already had the chance to develop some critical thinking, and to experience sth different.)

She gets there and all the acolytes younger and older look at her starry eyed, because the elders told them so and because they see her like a bit of a Messiah. (Plus I doubt a bunch of scrawny academics and priests to be have seen anyone their age with that musculature). All of them apart from Diana, who as always isn't particularly impressed by the paragon in training of the Solari faith.

Leona is relieved to get some normal person treatment, even if it is from the broody girl with her nose in a book half the time, and like the cocky 15year old meathead she is, she wants to show off a bit and perhaps win her favor. Shenanigans ensue and Diana unlike the other people that desperately want to befriend Leona, is not impressed.

Another point of similarity is that Leona - that has ascended already mind you - would have a few questions and oppositions to all that mumbo jumbo the Solari say about the Sun and the Moon. So after she flops exceptionally in one oration or sth class, with saying something positive about the Moon that has the students look at her with horror, and the priest fuming and screaming punishments - light ones, because the Sun chose that clueless miscreant, and he doesn't want to fall out of her favor - Leona manages unknowingly to win inquisitive Diana's intrigue - and favor, (but don't tell anyone about the last part).

A tentative bond forms. It gets solidified when Leona stops a few bullies from beating Diana to a pulp, and the dark haired girl in return helps her pass a class she was having an exceptionally hard time with. Diana - who in my head is a year younger - does eventually get charmed by the surprisingly goofy and sunny disposition of the Sun Aspect in training. (Don't get this wrong Leona will still act like a 15 yo that has had to train and fight every day of her life) Diana asks her countless questions about life outside the temple and they discuss theology together, either trying to help Leona understand, or trying to make sense of Diana's findings. (The Rakkori in my head are far more neutral abt Sun and Moon, more like if there is light and I can see I am happy, whether its the Sun or the Moon. "There was even that one traveler from some big city, Pilt - something was it, that even said that the Sun and Moon are like orbs in the night sky, one is a star rly close to us and the other is like a smaller planet or something, can you imagine?")

The become friends, the Nightless Eve happens, and then they become lovers. Leona starts suffering from all those expectations and the charade she needs to put up, she has more hours with classes and training she gets tutored by the priests, punished more severely when se speaks out of line or says something borderline heretical, yada yada. More people like her and she likes the attention. She doesn't abandon Diana though, and she always defends her. Things get difficult as the years go by but still they persist. (We could include some homophobic sentiment in the Solari, or even sth downright misogynistic, which would add complications with Leona's state as the Radiant Dawn, and the wlw relationships as they would not be seen as real substantial relationships - add asshole trying to flirt with Leona bc her relationship with Diana isn't real cause they are both women- DRAMA)

Leona is 18 passes her final exams, and Diana is 17 when Diana's arc happens. They have a huge fight about faith and contradicting it and if it is worth it. (No one wants to bandage their lover's whipped back that is practically a mosaic of scars at this point, or nurse them to health after sever dehydration - cause yes apparently standing naked in the sun for three days can do that). Diana storms off angrily. Finds an elderly woman in the base of the mountain that needs help going up (Silver sister in disguise). She helps her up, and when they are like 3/4 up and rest cause Diana's everything hurts the woman disappears. She looks around, finds the temple, sees carved proof that the Solari and Lunari co-existed gets the relics and climbs back down excited to show everyone her findings.

Meanwhile Leona has left for an emergency Solari mission or sth, and hasn't told Diana. Diana goes to the priests, they don't believe her, she invokes her right to be judged by the Aspect or sth, the priests pretend that Leona is still around and doesn't want to see or help Diana (Strike 1 of betrayal). Diana feels betrayed and hurt and fears for her life. The priests give the order for her to be branded and executed on the spot. Leona's dad who had been in the room and had met Diana, tries to plead her case from an outsider's perspective. One of the elders reprimands him and threatens him with death.

They brand Diana with the moon Symbol on the forehead, and are about to place her face down in the flames and / or slit her throat, and Iasur can't have her dying thinking that Leona betrayed her (A bit of family honor and afterlife beliefs - honor is a huge deal-, and a bit of a soft spot for his daughter's closest companion). He tries to fight his way to her, and gets killed in the process. Diana witnessing Iasur's murder prays to the moon for help, and seconds before breathing her last breath, she ascends. Pillar of Moonlight and heavenly fire burns everything to a crisp, and Diana remains alone in the middle of the room, barely breathing and clad in the garb of he Moon aspect. She takes one look around her and speeds away from the temple.

Leona returns three days after to find the council and her father dead, the council room in ruins and apparently Diana to blame. On top of that Diana is missing. Leona is presented with the case and believes Diana to be her father's killer. She vows to avenge him and kill the Scorn of the Moon, because her Diana wouldn't do that. It must be the moon spirit. and yes apparently Moon is bad because dad and Diana are gone bc of it. Leona is determined to save her lover from the Moon's clutches and set her free the only way she knows how, with killing her.

And thus their journey begins. Leona becomes more and more of a puppet from here and on driven by anger and betrayal and Diana feels abandoned and betrayed, with nothing left in the world but the glow of the branding mark on her forehead and the knowledge that her lover wanted her dead.

And as for their path to reunite again and achieve peace? Well Leona needs to be merciful, and Diana needs to guide and support someone through the right path.

Thanks for reading this huge ass post. Again MANY credits to that amazing writer on Ao3, if I find that fic I'll put a link here, cause its phenomenal.

Take care and see ya next time!

[adarafaelbarba]

Currently in the process of edit old fics and make them better! 😅

hopefully I'll also be able to update the damn masterlist at some point too 😅🫣

[maebees-stuff]

Dnd oc refs for art fight Dnd races made by @/Aveskeep

[themintman]

finished my mock exams so I drew my Jack + Nurm designs from an unfinished fic of mine. As a treat.

[chronicbeans]

The Cul-de-sac

So, y'all remember when I said I might be repurposing some of my Hazbin Rewrites into OCs for an original story? Yeah, this is it. I may or may not repurpose one of my old side blogs that only has a few posts and followers, too, but I'm not sure about it yet.

The very basic premise of this idea is that the afterlife, for people who were horrible in life, contains one small cul-de-sac in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't connect to a city or town. The road just fades out into an area of grass before turning into a forest. The cul-de-sac itself is surrounded by a few suburban houses, where two to three people live in each one. They're told that if they can make it through the woods and to the other side, they'll have a second chance at life on Earth. If they decide to stay in the cul-de-sac, they'll live in that isolated community forever. If they die there, their soul will be destroyed.

Nobody knows what lies deep into the forest, however, as various dangerous cryptids, urban legends, and more inhabit the woods. A large part of the story would include them talking to one another about their country's urban legends and such to try to warn the others about how to survive them. However, sometimes, they may meet ones none of them have ever heard of before.

If you're worried about how it may impact my rewrite or which of my rewrite versions I'm repurposing, you can send asks about it.

[asexualandalwaysshipping]

I got in about 7k words for this Dreamling fic I'm writing, only to come up with a better concept entirely, and nothing in those 7k was salvageable so excuse me while I go deal with that and ignoring the two exams I actually should be studying for.

[papermonkeyism]

sorry for being active

logical... i think I'm annoying you too much /especially with my bad English/, and if you don't want to answer, that'll be fine ^^` in any case, thanks for your attention! i'm probably overthinking this, but...

the last question was, what is Crippled (and the others for that matter) afraid of? I understand that all the hounds lived in a pretty terrible place, but what about simple, almost human things like darkness and loneliness? Surama seems quite fearless to me, despite her dislike of the dark, unlike her brother (okay, he's just quite active), and Iacar is reliving the past. of course, they worry about each other, I think, but... hey, admit it, who is afraid of thunderstorms? :)

sorrysorrysorry ^^`

English isn't my first language either (terveisiä Suomesta). It's just that I'm wary.

I do not currently live in a creative enough environment nor life situation where I can reasonably sacrifice several days out of my week into such a demanding creative work, alone, without burning out.

And every time I so much as casually mention Wurr online, there's usually at least one person who'll come and let me know how tragic it is that I've "decided" to "abandon" my "great story and characters". (Or, in one case, how irrelevant and pathetic I am as a failure of a person. Fuck that one, though.)

Like, I had a bit of a nervous breakdown because of health and livelihood issues back in last spring that I'm still occasionally dealing with (one's systolic blood pressure is definetely not supposed to stay over 190 for long), and I just don't want to be dealing with the people sending me obituaries for my comic on top of that right now.

Like, maybe, maybe, if I one day move closer to Tampere to have my Brainstorm Buddy in my reach regularly again. I miss having creative company.

But right now? I'm just tired.

[grimgummies]

...

[filmcompanion]

The last sex scene in The Handmaiden is not male gaze...

The Handmaiden didn't even need some smartass thematic reason for ending with a sex scene, despite how the final sex scene actually is set up with the bells and silver motifs that's layered through multiple story elements.

Like it's an erotic thriller, there's gonna be sex to show certain story beats lmao, it doesn't even have to be that deep (even though it is). It's the same way that a romantic story ends with the characters kissing in a big epic scene, but instead with sex. In The Handmaiden, the characters have been deceiving each other, but now they are free to be together and express their love for each other openly. This is their emotional closure, and also gives the eroticism back to the women after the rejection of male perversion.

More importantly it's a lesbian movie where the men literally die realizing they are pathetic and never important to the women, while the two women gets everything they wanted - and what they wanted the most was to be with each other. Don't know how it flew over people's heads when like most of the movie was about how much Hideko and Sookhee wanted to be in love and have sex with each other so much lol. Sure it's excessive, but it's lesbian wish-fulfillment at that point. They got the money and freedom which is what they initially were seeking, but even that was sort of a bonus, as they both were willing to give all that up after they had sex, just to be together.

Like fine, it's also playing into some clichés that the movie isn't trying to avoid or erase (in the way some other fade-to-black lesbian movies would), but rather recontextualize, because the visual of lesbian sex has been dominated by a on objectifying gaze, but that's the whole damn point.

Keep in mind Hideko actually loved the story with the bells and it's art. During that performance of that story, she is blocking out the audience and reading only for herself. Sure it's horrifying she had to perform this for men, but within that context, this is the content she had available with sex she could actually find appealing. Even Sookhee didn't destroy the art of the lesbians with the bells when she saw it during the library destruction. Like literally, it's as if these two lesbians might like the idea of two women together and the visual of it lmao...

Yeah, there's a sense where it's staged and that we are Looking, in the sense we are portraying something visually that previously was visualized with an objectifying purpose, but Hideko and Sookhee have taken over the stage. Sure, they are very beautiful together, but in an intimidating sense, as it's clear they're doing it for only themselves and we can only admire what they have. Hideko and Sookhee clearly have their own sexualities and emotions in that scene, their bodies are not actually in focus for the viewer except almost as an outline of two female bodies intertwined, so the somewhat uncomfortable voyeuristic element is more about throwing off the viewer than inviting male objectification or certainly "presenting" for it, before the scenes fades to the view of the ocean as we hear Hideko and Sookhee continue to make love (seemingly into infinity, like go off movie) - not for an 'audience'.

You can just as easily argue that a steady, somewhat distant and full-bodied frame is actually the most neutral way to portray a sex scene - because the two characters are free to move within that frame without the camera leering at their bodies. Sookhee and Hideko are only facing and perceptive to each other's gaze in that scene - if there's a sense we are looking, there's equally a sense that they don't care, because they are wrapped up in themselves.

(Also that was a perfectly comfortable couch by 1930's standard lol, and while the visual might be somewhat bizzarely symbolic rather than realistic, the position isn't actually all that strange a way to have sex).

They are not "awkwardly posed for men", the sex is just hyper-aestheticized (in the same style as the rest of the movie) to visually express something about these characters emotional dynamic. Huge difference.

Really, the visuals of the scene are far more metaphoric than really erotic. The scene spends more time actually focusing on their faces as they laugh and look in each other's eyes and kiss joyfully. The two shots that actually show their full bodies are shot in a rather desexualized manner, and the emphasis of those shots is the visual of Hideko and Sookhee together as equals, overcoming all their differences and the power structures that have been constraining them and corrupting the men in the movie the whole time - a way of having sex none of the men in the movie could imagine. The final shot shows them coming together full bodied as one, with nothing between them.

It's surely a clichéd way to show sex, two parts of a whole, two people fulfilling each other, fully balanced and becoming one through sex, but it's rare to see such a picture with two women in a genuine way, because the metaphor is intended for straight sex. Then fading to the moon finally coming to a full, there's an almost fairy tale element to it, like the two lovers in the night, under the full moon becoming one... So it's a fantasy, but that doesn't mean it's an exploitative one.

The whole story in The Handmaiden is taking these tropes that's been used in objectifying, degrading or homophobic ways in storytelling, and turning it on it's head, so it makes sense that the movie tries to recontextualize also visual clichés.