[auxorin]

Introductions

hi, i'm auxo (she/her). i can't turn my brain off, but i love things. i have a working ability in Spanish and I have basic knowledge of Tagalog, too. please read my fics on ao3, i promise i only type like this on tumblr for *the aesthetic*

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[auxorin]

I think it's super interesting that, even though we (or at least I) like to talk about the cannibalism in Mairuma as a representation of the tension and everything else Kirio and Iruma have going on, it technically isn't cannibalism. Or, well, it exists in a state of both being and not being cannibalism.

I should be clear here that cannibalism is a social construct and it has been practiced for a number of reasons throughout history, for better or for worse.

Moving on, what happens in the manga isn't cannibalism in that cannibalism is the act of one member of a species eating another. Additionally, it's not cannibalism according to demon society, which encourages the consumption of humans.

However, it is cannibalism in that the manga doesn't exist in a vacuum, so that there is still this transgression where someone that we the audience recognize as human--as being sapient--wants to consume someone else who is also recognizably sapient.

So, we have Schrodinger's cannibalism.

Except, even when it isn't cannibalism in-universe, it sort of is. Because, though it is culturally accepted for demons to eat humans, Iruma has already been recognized as a demon, so eating him is...messy.

In terms of the story, the cannibalism is super important in that it's a breaking point. Iruma has a wonderful life in the Netherworld, surrounded by people who love him. He's coming closer and closer to viewing himself as a demon. Then Kirio (Iruma's example of a 'true demon') shows up and declares that he wants to eat Iruma. Because, according to demonic society, Iruma is only as valuable as the power he provides to others and his life is made for consumption. So, he's facing this major cognitive dissonance between his parents (who were supposed to support him, but only used him) and his new home (which has supported him, but is supposed to use him). He's going to have to face the fact that the place he loves doesn't view him as a person.

That, of course, doesn't justify the cannibalism. The Victorians (and earlier Europeans) ate mummies because they wanted to be healthy, but it was also a sign of them viewing Egyptians as subhuman.

The rhetoric surrounding the cannibalism is also very fascist. It focuses on Iruma's 'place', and is, in some part, Kirio's attempt to reassert his own worldview via invalidating Iruma's. Here, I'm defining fascism as a restrictive hyper-nationalism, wherein only those who fit within pre-defined roles are permitted to succeed and also promote oppression of those who do not fit within those roles. In this view, Kirio is the victim of fascist system; he did not fit into the system until he forced himself to fit into the system. His despair worldview, his madness, is him coping with the ugliness of the world. If he were to accept Iruma's worldview as right, he would have to deal with the fact that he was wronged and that no one saved him. Eating Iruma would prove that Iruma's refusal to despair is just a 'human thing' and that it is invalid. Moreover, it would be Kirio once again justifying his own trauma by forcing Iruma to accept despair as good (because hurt people hurt people).

The 'other species' thing also doesn't work out completely in that humans and demons have at least been shown to have the capability to hybridize. I know that sci-fi and fantasy love to play loosey-goosey with lines between species, but the point still stands that these two species are close enough to crossbreed.

In summary, cannibalism in WtDS!IK is super loaded and fascinating and I love this story and cannibalism in general is super loaded. I didn't even talk about the erotic aspect of it.

(I talked about some of the cultural stuff surrounding cannibalism, but it's genuinely fascinating to look at how it is so dissonant in different cultures. Also, if you've read this far and have a strong stomach, look up prion diseases (especially kudu [this is the big one] and mad-cow disease).

[auxorin]

Currently trawling ebay for a specific porcelain doll, which means that, as I'm inspecting vaguely labelled dolls for features resembling the doll I have, I have been exposed to The Horrrors. I've been getting war flashbacks to my pseudo-grandmother's house, where she displayed her doll collection.

The only nice thing is that I'll occasionally see a really cute and/or interesting doll, like one that almost looks like a fairy, or a pretty doll depicting someone who is Slavic or Black, which is nice.

[delusional-ninjago-fangirl]

Lloyd and harumi are way more intresting as siblings then as lovers Imo

[auxorin]

I think pretty much every story could be improved by the inclusion and exploration of body horror

[auxorin]

Really funny to me that Grace was one of the first individuals (of hundreds, surely) to make actual contact with astrophages, which are the first proven instance of extraterrestrial life. Then, he proceeded to figure out how to make them reproduce. Then, he got shot into space on a ship full of them and proceeded to meet two more species of extraterrestrial life, one of which was sapient.

In conclusion, Ryland Grace is Aliens Georg.

[auxorin]

I am never going to get over the fact that the entire reason for the Magnus Archives is that Fear itself was afraid.

The only thing that gets me more is that it almost failed. The eldritch horror of fear feared death so much that it nearly caused its own. If it weren't for Martin, the Fears would have died at Jon's hands.

[crowsintheforest]

you know what I like about ichi the witch? absolutely no tolerance for subtlety. there's a traitor you say? okay cool let's pull them out immediately. they're going to be one of the coolest looking people you've ever seen and their name is going to be bonkers. a brick to the face surrounded by trumpets is less subtle.

[auxorin]

so, i fell headfirst into the scum villain fandom and i love it, but I'm also really fascinated by how the story treats abuse. It of course has this big thing going on about cycles of abuse, wherein Shen Qingqiu/Jiu abuses Luo Binghe, but that itself is born from his unresolved trauma from his childhood. But, as I've been reading a lot of QiJiu reconciliation fics, recently, and I love narratives wherein we actually look at the abuse that Bingge suffered, I realized that it's not just cycles of abuse, it's systems of abuse.

Like, Shen Jiu was enslaved, which is the epitome of an abusive system. But everything else sucks too. Yue Qingyuan's master was perfectly fine to throw a beaten YQY in a dark cave for a year and to ignore the pain of his beloved family member. The Old Palace Master used his position of power to isolate the objects of his obsession and, in the original PDIW, got away with it. Even in SVSSS canon, he destroyed SXY and broke up her family. No one stepped in when SJ abused LBH. We all love to care about everyone on Cang Qiong, but all of them were bystanders in a crueler world.

The closest thing to accountability that anyone gets is the Trial of SQQ, but that's another form of abuse. That's a powerful man leveraging his political power and the legitimate grievances of the accused in order to justify torture.

And, while I'm at it, I should specify that I do think that SQQ earned his fate in the original. Not that it was deserved, not that anyone could deserve that, but rather that he created his own downfall. LBH is at fault for choosing to torture SQQ, yes, but part of SQQ's crimes, of his abuse, was destroying the part of LBH that would care about mercy or give up revenge. He was cruel.

It's something that gets at me while I'm reading about these people with extravagant wealth and insane political power. Like, I get that it's a fantasy, but the fact is that there is no true system of accountability for anyone gets to me sometimes.

[emberchii]

some little pokemon interactions :] even without catching them, pokemon really love xie lian!

[auxorin]

so, i absolutely hate the feeling of lotion on my skin. hate it. it always makes my skin feel icky and it always is more than i need and i do not like it.

however, it is march. i live in the american midwest. my knuckles are turning red. one of the joints in my middle finger has an actual cut on it from sheer dryness. i have to put on lotion.

i get a tiny amount of lotion and put it on my hand, dreading the idea that i'm going to have to rub all of it into my skin, and then i don't even have enough of it to hydrate my whole hand. my skin is so dry that lotion, my hated enemy, doesn't even feel that bad. i keep on putting lotion. my skin keeps eating it. my hands feel bad either way. i love march

[auxorin]

absolutely going insane about the forgotten island announcement as a filipino american girl. I don't know what to say other than freak out about how jo actually looks like me. I'm mixed, but my features are overwhelmingly filipino, so it's honestly wonderful to see that reflected in a mainstream movie

[hustledimension]

Seeing all the people excited about seeing Filipino representation in Forgotten Island makes me happy. People online can bitch and moan about "wokeness" and "DEI" all they want, and throw tantrums when a nonwhite character/a non-sexualized woman exists, but even with corporations bending the knee to the current government, there are still artists working within these companies that still genuinely care and put in the effort. Representation matters, has always mattered, and always will matter.

Plus, something being culturally specific actually can make it popular and appealing to everyone. Just look at some of the most beloved and popular media in recent memory: Spirited Away, RRR, Black Panther, Sinners, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Coco, Encanto, The Book of Life, El Tigre, The Boondocks, Parasite, Squid Game, KPop Demon Hunters, Princess Mononoke, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Spider-Verse etc. These got acclaim BECAUSE they were culturally specific, not in spite of it. And I am sure Forgotten Island will be the same way as well.

[auxorin]

Someone told me earlier that they barely knew anything about Yugioh, except that it was pseudo-deathy, had Egyptian elements and somehow connected back to a card game, and I had to figure out how to communicate the sheer force of the series over text.

And it does make me wonder how exactly the franchise ever got made in the first place. Like, I know about season 0 and how the card game began, so the first official series is plausible, even though I think it's a little wild that it was made at all after the darkness of season 0 and the fact that they were clearly uninvested in the card game (i.e. they kept on finding excuses to play other games and season 1 barely followed any rules)

I can tell how Yugioh GX was made, too. The first series was super popular, so a slice-of-life sequel wouldn't hurt.

But, as a GX lover who is really invested in all of that show's insanity, I can't understand how they greenlit 5ds following the end of GX. The premise of 5ds is wild, even if the 'cool' factor of motorcycles bought it some brownie points in marketability.

After 5ds, which is still thought of as a good Yugioh series, I can see how we got Zexal, because it is genuinely a good show that blends the elements of prior series with a wild new setting. Also, all of its theme songs rock.

Furthermore, I can see how we got Arc-V out of Zexal; it's a show that incorporates a lot of older elements with a novel premise, except this time they don't pull it off because they care more about nostalgia than actually building out a good story (i'm not bitter) and write a terrible ending for the anime (and an even worse ending for the manga).

But, after Arc-V, what made them willing to even try to go to Vrains? (Disclaimer: I have not watched Vrains). From what I can tell, Vrains is interesting and well done and I'm glad about it, but I still don't get how it happened.

I understand why Go Rush and Sevens happened as well (appealing to a younger demographic a la Beyblade and Bakugan), but I think that it was an odd/careless decision that disregarded the fanbase that had fueled Yugioh's madness for years.

But it's really weird that all of this sprung from a dark show that wasn't even about card games.

[thy-lovelylionheart]

I was rereading chapter one of ITW and I realized something

So, this is what the World-Hater Majik's (WHM) eyes normally look like:

They sometimes have a glint in them, like when he's addressing Uroro and the glint seems to be one of disdain. But for the most part, they're empty. Dull.

So when rereading chapter 1, and I got to this part:

I realized that it's the same look.

It's an apathy toward life. Toward living.

So then, what happens next?

Ichi didn't just amuse WHM. They weren't just caught off guard by his intensity or enthralled by his enthusiasm.

They were caught off by how he made them feel a surge of life.

WHM has a "purpose" for living: destroying the world. But they do not "live." They said it themselves: "I appear. I warp. I leave. That's all."

But for a split second, Ichi made WHM feel alive.

And considering their whole thing is, y'know, eradicating life, and Ichi's whole thing is loving life:

I'm really excited to see future interactions between these characters.

[dear-kumari]

This may be a bit underbaked bc I'm not a history expert, but I do believe that if you must view the Pointed Hats as analogous to any single real-world group, it would be the Christian church during the medieval period in Europe. They're somewhat sequestered from the general population (the Great Hall and ateliers vs. the Vatican and monasteries); have near-exclusive access to certain important information (the truth about magic vs. the language of the Bible and much of historical record) and the means of media production (Silverwood ink and casting seals vs. the labor and resources to copy manuscripts); are supported by taxes but do not seem to pay any (ch. 48); are relied on to perform individual charity, general social services, and paid services for feudal lords and monarchs (a central tension in ch. 39 and much of the Silver Eve arc); and of course, are punitive towards heresy and apostasy to the point of having a specialized judicial branch to root out sinful witches (the Knights Moralis vs. the Inquisitors, who are often depicted in similar colors).

WHA's setting is clearly inspired by the medieval period in its aesthetics and worldbuilding, but it doesn't include any organized religions (iirc) because the secular Pointed Hats roughly fulfill that role, including as moral arbiters for this society. Knowing that can also clarify the position of forbidden magic in the story as not just crime, but sin (as defined by Pointed Hat dogma). Despite sharing the name of "witch," Pointed Hats aren't at all comparable to witches as they were understood in the medieval period, while the Brimhats are functionally the witches in this analogy. They are marginalized thanks to their heretical beliefs and/or sinful practices (esp in cultivating knowledge preceding and/or contradicting the current world order) and offer a precarious alternative to the stifling conformist institution of the Pointed Hats.

Now, if you're reading this and going, "Hmm, okay, but WHA puts the Pointed Hats in a generally positive light and shows them as being far less violent, corrupt, and oppressive than the actual medieval Church, while also playing the Brimhats pretty straight as borderline demonic criminals rather than unfairly marginalized heretics or political targets," I think that's a good line of thought to follow! It's similar to the "does WHA actually say ACAB or do you just like Shirahama" debate but a bit more accurate to the Pointed Hats' actual role in this fictional society, imo (because as I've said in the past, I don't think WHA "says ACAB" by any metric, but I also think it's overly reductive to call the Knights "cops"). I also think this is a fun thought exercise if you, like Coco, fell in love with the sense of wonder and goodness around the Pointed Hats' magic, because we don't tend to look back in history and consider all the positive feelings the average person might've had towards the church, nor how radical and dangerous it would've actually felt to question them.

[auxorin]

Girlhood in dark manga/anime

So, I've recently read some amount of Witch Hat Atelier and, while I was thinking about the actual politics of the manga (the story is set in a fascist society) and reading a post about how it draws you in with a fantasy of hope, friendship, and magic and then throws you into the deep end, I was reminded of Madoka Magica and how it does a similar thing.

And it's interesting, because the genres of the respective series are on opposite sides of a spectrum. PMMM is a magical girl tragedy, which mixes a genre traditionally about girl power and women supporting women with the experience of catharsis and facing doom. Witch Hat Atelier is a shoujo high fantasy, which tend to lean into nostalgia, tradition, and feudalism in addition to the self-empowerment of women.

This is further complicated by their aesthetics. PMMM is very cutesy and pastel, merged with a grungy city look and a slight edge of eldritch horror. This is a very modern look; the story is about the desires and emotions of girls. Witch Hat Atelier, on the other hand, is very much a cottagecore fantasy, an aesthetic that is full of conservativism, though it also introduces an element of wildness to it all. The story is about growing up and learning how to fit into society, or at least how to deal with society, but also about freedom.

Both of these stories deal with the weaponization of girlhood and the objectification of women in the society that they portray. The genres and aesthetics of these manga do not make one better than the other, even if I seem to be hyping up one over the other (I do not mean to be, but I wanted to put this disclaimer) .

In Madoka Magica, girlhood is a thing to be exploited in that it can be shaped into something that destroys itself. The actual desires and emotions of magical girls do not matter in the society that they inhabit, rather, the fact that they exist at all means that they can be commodified. And, as girls move forward, pursuing their dreams, the dreams that are shaped by their society, their progress only harms them. Here, PMMM deals with the ramifications of girlhood in a capitalist society, in a society that is fully willing to objectify women.

In Witch Hat Atelier, girlhood fits into a role. Traditionally girly things (such as crafting and designing) are used to fuel society as whole, following strict rules. Moreover, girls are taught how to behave in general, and participating in their society sets them up to be suppressed in the future. In this, Witch Hat Atelier depicts the subjugation of women in conservative societies.

To finish this out, I want to talk about how these stories depict witches.

PMMM presents witches as monsters at first and then reveals that they are, in fact, the 'waste' created by the process of harvesting girlhood. They are the unproductive, destructive, and ruined members of the society that they inhabit and they are completely dehumanized. A witch is a girl who has followed her desire (always shaped by her society) to its end and come out broken for it. Kyubey even says something about magical girls specifically growing up into witches. A girl who follows her desires is useless in the end, and therefore not worth the label of human.

Witch Hat Atelier is fascinating in its distinction of 'good' and 'bad' witches through hats. It's even more interesting that the traditional witch, the Brimhat, is the 'bad one'. It points to this idea that the actual witch, the one who eats children, still exists in this world, and with it the idea of an individual who can damn an entire group of people with the use of their own dark arts. In a fascist society, true desire, true independence is demonized.

(I'm not saying Coco should become a Brimhat or that their side is completely right and just [they cursed a kid and set him up to be completely abandoned by his society, so i do know they suck], and I am not at all up-to-date on the manga, but the Brimhats are still at least somewhat right and I will say it. )

On a more lighthearted note, I do want to recommend some anime/manga that do also depict women well. Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun, Ichi the Witch, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (the 2003 version is good, too, but I don't know if the anime-only take on certain female characters was that great) are all shounen written by women (Osamu Nishi writes the first two and Hiromu Arakawa did FMA) that engage with them as being fully formed individuals and their desires as being important and worth following. And Apothecary Diaries is a show for women and about women and Jinshi's there too.