bababooey

25 F | i draw and talk | #my art tag

[amamaiiya]

i wish i was a fast artist but even a simple sketch could take me 50 minutes to an hour

[amamaiiya]

i don't know kaoru i think he wants that cookie

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

"it's not that deep" not yet but I've got a shovel and fan theories and digging makes great exercise!

[amamaiiya]

she only gets more beautiful

[amamaiiya]

kiryu, sayama and yearning

it's saturday and i feel yappy. this morning i booted up infinite wealth in japanese to satisfy a small curiosity and here's what i found

the golf memoir with kaoru is titled "恋" (koi) that means love, but since japanese is a language that can assume different meanings by using different kanjis (im terrible at explaining so forgive me for butchering this) this form of love is different from the "愛" (ai) which i think many are more familiar with

"恋" is used to describe deep romantic love and passion but also to yearn for someone when they're missing

this suits their relationship. the boxes are all checked, it is built on a deep romantic connection that blossomed from having spent time together while working for two goals that aligned and sharing their experiences as orphans, there is clear attraction between the two both physical and emotional (kiryu thinking that she's cute despite her dismissing it, kaoru believing for the first time that someone's past doesn't define their character because of him — haruka literally telling kaoru outloud that kiryu indeed likes her because when he's around her he feels like himself.)

and —whether it was intentional or not by rgg— kiryu insanely longs for her years after their separation and it's easy to notice in infinite wealth

best part is this goes as far back to the ps3 days. they showed that he was never shy about his blatant attraction for her and his yearning

you could say he feels stronger sentiments for yumi in the love camp since he pines for her and assuming they've used "愛" to describe his feelings for her which is like saying pure love. but this kanji also encompasses relationships that aren't just romantic, like platonic love, the kind of selfless love you feel for your friends and family. you can see it however you want it, this is just the version of love i personally go with for them since they grew up together under the same roof and kiryu often refers to her as family the same way he does with nishikiyama and kazama

the one used for kaoru however is strictly romantic ——he doesn't imply that now she's just a forgotten fling or just a friend, no. he's still in love with her and wants to get close to her as much as she wants it, even though he's in a position where he can't.

he's blindsided when he hears she wishes to be with him; if he was truly over her he'd probably smile and wish that a beautiful woman like her finds someone else that could make her happy. instead he hesitates, ruminating her words, and then takes a decision that -from my pov at least- served mostly as a sort of "protection" to stop himself from following his selfish wishes (and that would put her in harm's way by the daidojis), and as a way to reaffirm in his mind that a dead man walking can't reconnect with loved ones. even knowing this date encourages him to just do it he doesn't care if he's going get his shit rocked if it's for kiryu lol

he's not over her. she's not over him.

they are yearning for each other, koi'ing out between who eventually gives up first and goes to see the other. this feel very deliberate of rgg to show because it's like they know that there's a sizable portion of the fandom that wishes to see a reunion and is kept on the edge of their seat. iw felt incomplete without showing at least a little interaction of kiryu seeing everyone he loves and cares about now that he's a frail man in recovery, including kaoru, who i think is one of the people who he deserves to see the most after getting closures about his past regrets and losess throughout gaiden and iw

also fuck the 10 picture limit i wanted to add more lmao

[amamaiiya]

for all its flaws i think k3 did a good job to soften the blow of their rushed breakup and the wording here seems to be purposefully made to align with kaoru's life link in the 8th game

this time it's much sweeter and hopeful...to me it reads as two people who definitely would give it a try again if they had another chance to do so

its so heartbreaking how in infinite wealth kiryu believed she might have forgotten him when, in fact, she never did.

kaoru chose to wait on the chance that she might see him again because her heart simply couldn't move on from him after all those years. she wants to be with him.

and i believe that deep down kiryu wants this too. ❤️‍🩹

[amamaiiya]

like. sjbsnsjj.

this is what yearning looks like and they're just about to separate i can't

[amamaiiya]

for all its flaws i think k3 did a good job to soften the blow of their rushed breakup and the wording here seems to be purposefully made to align with kaoru's life link in the 8th game

this time it's much sweeter and hopeful...to me it reads as two people who definitely would give it a try again if they had another chance to do so

its so heartbreaking how in infinite wealth kiryu believed she might have forgotten him when, in fact, she never did.

kaoru chose to wait on the chance that she might see him again because her heart simply couldn't move on from him after all those years. she wants to be with him.

and i believe that deep down kiryu wants this too. ❤️‍🩹

[amamaiiya]

bang bang

[amamaiiya]

🍃

[samirasystole]

non exhaustive list of fandom/media misogyny

only ever liking male relationships and calling a relationship with a women in it 'het slop'

'she's just not that interesting compared to [insert male character]'

only talking about female characters in a shipping context

treating a female character as an accessory or self-insert next to the male character

calling a female character toxic or bitchy for the same things that a male character gets coddled for

'if you want more fic/art/content about female characters/wlw ships make it yourself'

yuri but it's only genderbent yaoi

saying a female character 'deserves better' and then sidelining her completely

claiming that favouring yaoi is 'escaping misogyny'

a complex female character being used in fics solely as a yaoi cheerleader

female character's mental health gets ignored in favour of a male character's development

female character being reduced to a mom or sister character when they aren't related to x character at all

'her character was so underdeveloped' but then their fav is a man with much less screentime

'fandom isn't activism'

the tag about a female character being 80% shipping content

complex female character being called bitchy while an equally complex male character is adored and coddled

killing a female character off in fic

not listening when women in fandom point out something about the source material being sexist

calling a female character overrated

male character's sexism being excused because 'he didn't know any better/he's mentally ill/he didn't mean it in that way'

giving a male character/mlm ship the same traits that an existing female character already has; while not engaging with that character at all

female character in a straight ship being written ooc because the author only wrote the fic because of the male character

'mean lesbian' trope

'stop dictating how people should play with characters'

'it's not that deep'

canon sapphic ship has about 10% of the fic compared to the non-canon yaoi ship

calling women in fandom hysterical for being upset at how the source material treated a female character

feel free to add more. most of this i added myself but this site helped, and so did this post by @susandsnell

[amamaiiya]

can i fix your tie?

[amamaiiya]

Ey, much as I adore your kazukaoru art, I'd personally prefer that you take some time to recharge if you're feeling burnt out. It's important to give yourself downtime when you need to 😊👍

thank you :]

i don't even feel burnt out, the ideas are there but my body doesn't feel like working much. it's like it is telling me to chill or something lol

[amamaiiya]

i feel like taking a break but i also don't want to disappoint by not bringing more art🫪

[amamaiiya]

anyway im sorry for the sentimental cringe nuke i unleashed upon you, i will post art soon lol

[amamaiiya]

I'm not in the fandom long enough to have an opinion, but I can imagine him having some unpleasant fans, bc even though I love him and he's in my top 3, he is the perfect type of character ppl would be weird about. Who are your fav characters tho, minus kiryu and sayama of course :)

oh yeah it is bound to happen with popular characters haha, kiryu is second to him popularity-wise so i saw my fair share of it there too :' but i don't hate the guy and i deeply care my majima moots and followers who love him to bits.

as for my favorite characters minus kiryu/sayama i have many but i think now I'll just list rikiya, tanimura, masato arakawa, nishiki date, reina, haruka, saeko and ichiban :]

[amamaiiya]

i have a strange relationship with majima. i think he's fine. personally not in my top 10 and i do believe he's kinda overrated (and I'm not saying undeservedly, i get why people like him), but frankly so is kiryu aka my favorite character so that doesn't really matter

he's also the very same character that showed me some unpleasant sides of the fandom, but i also met fans of his who are the sweetest people on earth

for a while i really could not stomach him because when i saw him i was reminded of *that* side (it was honestly the same for yumi and park tbh) but now i have a renewed fondness for him like "that's oomfs favorite character, he's my peepaw in law" and i will gladly enjoy anything that involves him

[amamaiiya]

stuff stuff stuff