take a chance on me

25... been here since the beginning of time. I post whatever i feel like posting :)

[0nlyhere4phil]

[iamhavingsomuchfun]

[cherubg1rl]

[sobcat]

this saturday we succeed!!

[weavingshaw]

elon musk is officially the world’s first trillionaire

[rainformation]

formative years? aren’t they all?

[bewbin]

EVERYOBODY GET DOWN HES TAKING A CREATIVE LIBERTY

[goetic-justice]

You guys are always like "being crushed by 10,000 tons of rock probably feels good as hell" or "being torn to pieces by hunting dogs would low key fix me" and I feel like those things would actually be unpleasant.

[goetic-justice]

How about "Drinking an ice cold strawberry milkshake probably feels good as hell". Do you guys like that one.

[dykebark]

★

[feastofsnakes]

hey sorry I snapped at you, I've just had a really hard day and [remembers focusing on myself is selfish] maybe it's your fault for provoking me?

[dogpuppy]

[saturnisfilledwithbees]

“Put him on his knees give him something to believe in” has the exact same energy and depth of meaning as anything Hozier puts out on the regular but since it’s sung by Megan Thee Stallion no one takes it seriously. In this essay I will-

[saturnisfilledwithbees]

To flesh this out a little bit more: both Megan Thee Stallion and Hozier write and sing really sexual songs, but they’re different in that Hozier’s music is typically “let me worship you” while Megan’s is usually “I’m worshipping myself,” which makes all the difference because it’s an acceptance of power rather than the giving of it. He’s the sinner, she’s the saint. However, taking their difference in genres out of it, people don’t usually seem to take Megan Thee Stallion’s music seriously in comparison to Hozier because a) her lyrics are more overtly and blatantly sexual and b)she’s claiming her sexuality for herself, and that scares a lot of people. The secret, no-one-wants-to-talk-about reason is that she’s a confident black woman, which terrifies people way than sex does. In conclusion, Hozier and Megan Thee Stallion are two sides of the same poetic, sexual coin, but people just don’t want to admit it. Which is WHY a collaboration between Hozier and Megan would be so powerful that it would change the timeline as we know it yes I will elaborate 

[fairycosmos]

you literally have to unironically listen to some shit like party rock anthem so you don’t kill yourself

[smoqueen-deactivated20251108]

*stopping random people at the mall* look out, ok, because today was a friday thursday

[maidslime]

mom's minion memes for real justice

i posted these originally like 9 or 10 years ago or something but I can't find them anywhere, so now you get retortured.

[watershalation-deactivated20191]

feminism is about blunts and weed. its about smoking marijuana, and as much of it as you can get your hands on

[samuraijacksoff]

like nsfw but i lowkey interpret aku as a sub top ngl primarily bc hes lazy. and his holes r trash like boo we hate ur pussy. i think dom top is a valid interpretation and i do not claim aversion to it bc it has a home in my heart but hes a queen to me. idk. anyways😊✨🌷🌈🍃🐝🌸

[ckret2]

oh that's interesting. i sorta disagree but like in a way where i can see where you're coming from and wonder if we actually agree.

Sorry for the very long post in reply to your three-sentence casual opinion, I got too into the topic.

if you're interpreting "top/bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as in "the one who's physically performing all the action / the one who's receiving the action," with both terms divorced from the concept of "the one 'in scene' with authority+decisionmaking power / the one who by obedience+force submits to the other's authority,"—or, with "authority/obedient" being added to "top/bottom"—then yeah, it makes sense. Questions of who's sticking it in who aside—Aku would just lounge back and make the other party do all the work for his amusement.

on the other hand though, i interpret "top bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as "the one with in-scene authority/the one who in-scene submits to the other's authority." i specify "in-scene" because, in ethical BDSM*, out of scene the power dynamic can be equal or opposite—like the sub-to-be tells the dom-to-be exactly what they want and how they want it and the dom-to-be takes notes and goes "got it boss, tied up and spanked until you cry, i can make that happen. do you want me to act paternal or sadistic. sadistic? no problemo." (*and i specify "in ethical BDSM" because with aku involved there's no guarantee ethics are being observed so I feel like with him the lines would be blurred.)

and i wonder if that's the angle you're coming at it from—that aku's "subbing" because he's not exerting effort "in-scene" even though "out of scene" he decides what they're gonna do?

but while i do think aku's lazy tree rooted-to-one-spot ass would be inactive, i can't imagine he'd submit.

like, the one who's wielding the whip is the dom and the one who's tied to the x-cross and crying is the sub, and in that case the dom's active and sub's inactive. But also, the one who's lounging in a recliner reading a magazine is the dom; and the one who's frantically running around the house doing chores for fear of being forced to sleep on the kitchen floor if they don't finish, and serving dinner on a tray kneeling before master while they're ignored, is the sub—and in that case the dom's inactive and the sub's active.

I can't see Aku as the one with the whip (too much effort) or as the one being whipped (letting somebody else bind him?? giving them the power to try to wound him, even if they can't??? as if he would lower himself so before a subject). I also can't see him as the one serving another. But, I can see him as the one sitting back, doing absolutely nothing, waiting and expecting to be served and ready to get mad if he isn't.

So, for me:

Top/bottom? On a watsonian level, he's a shapeshifter, we've got no indication what kind of genital configuration he personally prefers wielding or what he'd rather use it for, could go either way; on a doylist level, this show operates on very broad and simplistic fairy tale/mythical archetypes, and gun to Genndy's head forced to choose one or the other, I don't think he would try to get any more adventurous than "penetration = power" "penetration = domination"; so, top.

Active/inactive? Like you say, Aku's lazy. I think he'd prefer to exert minimum effort as often as possible. Make the other do the work and cater to his needs.

Dom/sub, though? I can't imagine him ever putting himself in a position of obedience/powerlessness to somebody else. I can't even imagine him getting a thrill out of roleplaying being out of power—unless it's with the intent of reversing it and overpowering his opponent (not "partner," opponent) (and since the shedding of the facade is what Aku's being thrilled by I'd consider that part of the scene rather than the end of the scene). Regardless of who's penetrating or who's exerting more energy, I can't see Aku willingly being anything but dominant.

And I explain all that to say: I wonder if we're basically in agreement about Aku's sexual preferences, and just using the words "dom/sub" with slightly different definitions? That's what I assume is going on.

But on the other hand if you DO mean you interpret Aku as a "sub" in the sense of the one beneath the lash, the one being tied up, the one obeying orders, the one who (in scene) is being compelled to serve the other's whims—the servant, the slave, the victim, the masochist, the prey, the prisoner, the little, the pet, whatever... then I'm very curious about your reasoning and I wanna hear more.

(Addendum: "exclusively dominant" is how I interpret canon Aku. For fantasyland that only exists in my head Aku, he's a bottom sub, because I don't think canon Aku would get off to the role reversal of surrendering power, but I get off to Aku being stripped of power and I'm the god in this neighborhood; and also I like puss. I'm keeping my deeply held personal tastes separate from the canon character interpretation—but do know when I say "if you mean sub the same way I mean sub then I wanna hear more" I'm VERY serious lmao.)

[samuraijacksoff]

i love ur essay it's so thorough and in depth and genuinely rly great at elaborating on these concepts and i am so sorry for the bluntness of what im abt to say but i interpreted aku as a top bc im into tentacle stuff🫪

but yes, absolutely i agree with ur definitions of top/bottom and dom/sub that is the same framework i based my ideas from

honestly the sub stuff for me came from things such as the character lord of darkness from the 1985 film legend, as well as the phantom of the opera. while they can be interpreted as dom, its the hopelessness of their obsession and the lengths that they go to serve someone which i rly love. more examples of inspiration are the opera bluebeard's castle, the novel jane eyre by charlotte brontë, the film dragonwyck with vincent price. i am huge on gothic literature and film so my interpretation of his character comes from these gothic tropes i am very much in love with. this even extends to include richard the iii by william shakespeare, when he proposes to lady anne and he manipulates her with this false vulnerability as he is on his knees begging her to stab him while proclaiming he killed her husband and caused her this unbearable grief because he loves her. its rly his manipulation and obsession which i am playing on when i interpret him as a sub. he is not performing tasks of submission in a traditional bdsm scene so much as he is desperate for attention and actively makes the other person's life worse by these acts of wanting. i think me saying he is a sub is more closely related to a 'brat', someone who pushes someone on purpose and is then faced with the consequences of it because thats the fun of it. he is something like a cat that bites and scratches but then on their own terms is clingy and begging for attention. i think that he can very much be both dom/sub as a switch and i love him completely either way.

but lastly i think that i advocate for sub because it's the subversion of aku's character, it is easy to look at him and interpret him as a dom and that is why it will always have a place in my heart and why i love him in that way as well. so him being a sub i think it offers an exploration to his character and how he is able to feel pain in addition to his manipulation and obsession. bc the sword is the only thing which genuinely harms him so this may be something which is entirely new for someone who otherwise has everything and can do anything

anyways thank u so very much for ur reply this is genuinely a rly fun discussion and i am glad to have been able to read ur side into it and to be able to further elaborate on how i see him 🫶 sorry i shouldv specified jaku in the beginning bc i said this originally with jaku in mind, not counting for other possible characters

[ckret2]

i interpreted aku as a top bc im into tentacle stuff🫪

you are the most valid person to ever exist

while they can be interpreted as dom, its the hopelessness of their obsession and the lengths that they go to serve someone which i rly love.

oooh okay okay okay, out of your examples i'm only directly familiar with POTO and with the Bluebeard legend (not opera), but I see the vision. although he's something of a different character it makes me think of that quote from Labyrinth—"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." Except with something of a threat underlying it: "let me be your slave... or else." the flinging himself utterly at someone else's feet to the point it's pathetic, anything to get what he wants... but if he doesn't get what he wants, that patheticness can turn dangerous very fast.

lotta overlap with the yandere archetype—not specifically the "cute/loving but scary/crazy" dichotomy yanderes have, but the "love to the point of obsession, obsession to the point of madness; love so intense you'll kill everyone in this room and then your beloved and then yourself if you can't have them"—which is really where I find the appeal of the trope.

"extremely feared powerful in-control character undone by an obsessive need that knocks them off their throne and on their knees before the object of their overwhelming desire" is a top tier character trope to me.

its rly his manipulation and obsession which i am playing on when i interpret him as a sub. he is not performing tasks of submission in a traditional bdsm scene so much as he is desperate for attention and actively makes the other person's life worse by these acts of wanting. i think me saying he is a sub is more closely related to a 'brat', someone who pushes someone on purpose and is then faced with the consequences of it because thats the fun of it.

it's like. dom subbing. yeah i'm submitting to you but i'm calling the shots. you don't get a choice. like petplay but the "pet" is a strange wolf you found standing in your kitchen one morning after it broke in through the doggy door and you can't get it to leave. character dynamic where one character's wearing a collar and the other character's got the leash but the "collar" is just a string tied in a simple bow you can undo with one tug and the "leash" is a handcuff locked around the alleged master's wrist.

but lastly i think that i advocate for sub because it's the subversion of aku's character, it is easy to look at him and interpret him as a dom and that is why it will always have a place in my heart and why i love him in that way as well. so him being a sub i think it offers an exploration to his character and how he is able to feel pain in addition to his manipulation and obsession.

🤝🤝🤝 you're speaking my language. "i think he'd always be dominant" is my Strict Canon Reading, i sincerely don't think he'd ever willingly do otherwise, in canon... but that's exactly WHY it's so fascinating to imagine but what if he did. what would have to be buried in the deep dark pit of his heart in order for that to be what bubbles up when he feels obsessive desire? why, when he's already happily stolen the entire world and everything within it, would yearning inspire him to debase himself in front of another rather than simply steal them away too? what would it take for the Master of Masters to allow himself to be mastered by someone else. I've got a friend (who i Will be linking this conversation to) who refers to The Sub Aku Experience as "master in the streets mastered in the sheets." it's about that contrast.

bc the sword is the only thing which genuinely harms him so this may be something which is entirely new for someone who otherwise has everything and can do anything

someone who otherwise has everything... except love. admiration. affection. always the object of fear, never the object of desire. There's power in repelling everyone you meet, oh, sure—but when you've repelled everyone, it leaves everybody very far away from you. and perhaps aku doesn't care. perhaps canon aku doesn't care. but like—what if he did tho.

after all that time, what would it feel like for someone to so doggedly chase him down.

sorry i shouldv specified jaku in the beginning bc i said this originally with jaku in mind, not counting for other possible characters

with ur elaboration yeah i can see the jaku vibes. when i'm imagining aku in a shippy and/or sexy context with no other character indicated I generally default to imagining like,, 1/3 jack, 1/3 scaramouche, 1/3 random hypothetical nobody probably with no strings attached. I'm gonna be real with you when it comes to jaku if aku isn't at least a little pathetic and needy i'm not even interested. like. that's the prerequisite. if aku's all cool and commanding and jack's just his helpless toy who idk develops stockholm syndrome or something, then i don't care!! make the ruler of the world beg!

[samuraijacksoff]

LOVED reading your reply !!!! more thoughts below, i love this mile long thread <3

like petplay but the "pet" is a strange wolf you found standing in your kitchen one morning after it broke in through the doggy door and you can't get it to leave. character dynamic where one character's wearing a collar and the other character's got the leash but the "collar" is just a string tied in a simple bow you can undo with one tug and the "leash" is a handcuff locked around the alleged master's wrist.

this is a VERY good analogy !!!! its very eloquently written and absolutely perfect for the idea of subbing that i had wanted to express but lacked the eloquence for. just absolutely love this paragraph thank you so much for sharing this <3

the flinging himself utterly at someone else's feet to the point it's pathetic, anything to get what he wants... but if he doesn't get what he wants, that patheticness can turn dangerous very fast. lotta overlap with the yandere archetype

this is a rly great paragraph and i cannot believe completely forgot abt the labyrinth film which i love so i rly love that you brought it up because that is a very good quote!! and also the yandere archetype, i did want to bring that up initially but i abstained because iv actually never read a yandere-specific story that i enjoyed, as well as it being a controversial kinda topic to some ppl, however i do very much acknowledge overlap and think that it is interesting and worth exploring for some characters/stories.

if aku's all cool and commanding and jack's just his helpless toy who idk develops stockholm syndrome or something, then i don't care!! make the ruler of the world beg!

absolutely abbbsoluuutely and this is unrelated but one favorite films of all time is misery 1990, based on the novel by stephen king and what is so compelling about this particular film is not the stockholm syndrome but it's the push and pull conflict between the two characters. like ur not singularly watching a man get his leg broken by a person who is nuts, ur watching the rise and fall of a man's hope and the writing of a novel he is forced to write as his an anchor to his sanity and the escalation of madness by wilkes and that is more valuable to me than a dark romance which promises such things but fails completely at this level of storytelling even though it's a very basic story on the surface it has a continually gorgeous push and pull and interior to its writing. in both the novel and the film, i love both equally. like im sorry this is unrelated rambling but that is also what i am applying to aku in my daydreams, a push and pull conflict rather than a singular fetishization

"extremely feared powerful in-control character undone by an obsessive need that knocks them off their throne and on their knees before the object of their overwhelming desire" is a top tier character trope to me.

yes this trope is SO GOOD🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️and thats why i just had to mention lord of darkness from legend 1985, specifically the goldsmith cut of the film because he is pathetticcccc its sooo good 🙂‍↕️🤝🤝🤝🤝

I've got a friend (who i Will be linking this conversation to) who refers to The Sub Aku Experience as "master in the streets mastered in the sheets." it's about that contrast.

real meets real, the contrast is literally so important

[shogunofyearning]

hello yes i am The Friend :) exemplary akuposting going on here. honestly so exemplary i am simply nodding in agreement. i have no skin in the 'aku's canon top/bottom dom/sub alignment' game because i agree, he would be the dominant partner. outside matches inside, master of the sheets, nothing to see here.

however

with samurai jack, having wildly diverse fanon interpretations and queering everything in sight is my passion, so i am a submissive bottom aku enjoyer. but i get like, So niche and specific about it, because i also have a transfem reading of aku. i haven't started posting this art series yet because i haven't finished drawing it, but i'd like to introduce you to oiran aku

so perhaps unfortunately, my penchant for high romance, my jaku tendencies, and my japanese women's history nerd inclinations have coalesced to form an au whereby everything is the same except aku has a secret identity as a kabuki-style tragic oiran. specifically, he wants to be the kabuki-style tragic oiran to jack's stoic and uncaring kabuki-style samurai. aku is telling Nobody about this okay this elaborate fantasy is between him and him, alone in his lair on a friday night.

despite what the figure of the oiran represents i think the horny element is only half of it for aku. the other half is a desire to be desirable, to be chased, courted, fought over, fought for. in his outside life everyone flees from aku as they flee from the pit of hate. the deliverer of darkness is something revolting, a corruption to be feared, a source of horror. but in the privacy of his own thoughts, aku's terrible horns become elaborate kanzashi, his monstrous face obscured by a richly embroidered uchikake sleeve. in this secret floating world, he's a priceless treasure. warriors and nobles eagerly forfeit their inheritances, their reputations, their lives, for the mere suggestion of his favour. and of course aku's samurai, the one great passion of his heart, spurns and rejects him even in his own imaginings. he's a tragic oiran, remember. the weeping and lamenting and threatening to tie his nonexistent knees together is all part of it for him.

(and then of course i'm like but what if jack actually did see aku, terrible fearsome master of masters aku, as desirable, as a priceless treasure worth fighting for. secretly, by his campfire on a friday night. and what if he saw aku's secret oiran-self and recognised within it his own secret self, and they made a beautiful kabuki play together???? this ties into my 'scroll theory' which is my meta around the roles that jack and aku play in canon and how their potential romance disrupts those roles but that's like a whole other post)

so yes op, what if aku's holes are trash but he wished they were treasure?? what if he were a whore and a queen?

[samuraijacksoff]

oh i absolutely just adore the concept of oiron aku that is sincerely such a clever utilization of his character i am going nuuuutss and what is so cool about it i think is your description and inspiration of historical japan, that is such a beautiful contrast to aku's futurism while being so neatly tied into jack's sensibilities wowww🫶 i will be waiting patiently for ur art series bc that is amazinggg🫪💕

i genuinely love how much discussion came from this silly post that i made without thinking abt anything in particular, i love the expansiveness of samjack and its interpretations and adaptations by fans still being so fresh and clever after 25 years im soo grateful for this thread fr🫶

[shogunofyearning]

yippee me too me too :) samjack fandom is so tiny, it's always a delight to find like-minded fans!!

it's maybe not canon at all but i do see both jack and aku as beings 'out of time'. i like to place aku's roots (harhar) strongly in historical japan, because if i do that, then they have this incredibly rich shared culture that they both yearn for in their own ways and can never describe to anyone else. and also i can get super niche with it lmao.

in terms of oiran aku i was firstly inspired by my own (patchwork and amateur) knowledge of the floating world. i only got into samjack earlier this year, but as soon as i did i immediately started watching japanese historical drama and midcentury samurai films. (and i read the tale of heian joy and never shut up about it to ckret2 sorry secret2). but like. a rec i would actually give for understanding what i'm going for with oiran aku would be the film sakuran, from 2006, which is a highly melodramatic visual feast about an edo-period oiran's rise and fall.

since you are also a jaku op you may enjoy that it has such choice lines as 'if it's your hands i die content!' and 'you know he's a samurai, he can kill you for refusing him.' / 'let him try!'

the last aspect of oiran aku that i cannot fail to mention is that he uses oiran kotoba (alone in his lair on a friday night) to get into the spirit of it. there's not a lot about it available online in english afaik, but it was a way of speaking, and a dialect, unique to oiran. here's an example from modern-day reenactment.

View this post on Instagram

if you can't imagine aku speaking like this, therein lies the inherent contrast and tragedy. i don't think he hates his own voice, but he recognises that it will always be the voice of the Great Aku, the shapeshifting master of darkness. maybe using oiran kotoba is aku's way of trying to become the one shape he can never take - someone wanted.

[samuraijacksoff]

i have a bit of an unrelated question. are you perhaps familiar with the sondheim stage play pacific overtures? its alright if you aren't, i just got reminded of it and its original broadway cast stars aku's voice actor mako as narrator and shogun, he has particularly gorgeous voice work in this production and even speaks a few japanese lines 🫣

while i know very little japanese, i absolutely adore the video you provided she is a very skilled artist, i can absolutely imagine aku speaking in that stylization. and i am very interested in watching the film sakuran thank u so very much for sharing !!!🫶

and lastly i agree completely with aku and jack having been born from the same time, its kinda easy to forget that with aku's industrialism but thats such an incredible string that ties them together and a fascinating exploration of aku's character:)

[shogunofyearning]

watching the 1976 pacific overtures right now on your suggestion and i'm enjoying it very much :) i hope you enjoy me recs in return, though no pressure 🖤❤️💚

[samuraijacksoff]

that is very sweet i am glad u are enjoying it tho it is an admittedly sometimes clunky production🫶 i just love spreading word abt mako's works beyond his voice acting. i very much look forward to watching ur rec !! 😊

[hauntedpersonguy]

okay so this got too long for the tags but that's where i wrote it out so that's why it's formatted weird

i agree with the canon aku interpretations, buuuuut, i am now thinking abt aku thinking he's a dom top, but then gets in a fight with jack and his sword, and is like ah shit why do i like this, anyway masochistic aku, but only for the specific type of pain the sword can cause, obviously jaku, i just think that'd be hot, as others have said, it's about the contrast, also the amount of trust any scene would have to have, bc that thing can kill him, bc jack is supposed to kill him, and no matter how much time passes where he's not trying to, aku is so hated, would it be a stretch for jack to change his mind?, and then wait until he was vulnerable?, and jack doesn't seem that underhanded, but aku is, so he can think of it, and it lingers, bc he knows how much pressure there is for jack to do it, and i think that fear would undermine them, but it might also change how aku acts, at least around jack, bc if he steps too wrong or pushes too hard, jack could turn on him, and he's opening himself up for the perfect bullseye, so aku's a little more careful where he's toeing, and slowly the overton window for what's 'acceptable' behavior, for what doesn't get jack all fussed, shifts, slowly very slowly, but what do they have but time?, it's not 24/7 kink, but it does affect them 24/7, idk, i think i may be playing with different dolls now, but those are my train tracks and i'm sticking to them, 'what if a sexual relationship changed you as a person', i think it's the aro in me, 'would you change for your romantic partner-' no!, 'would you change for your booty call, bc what gets you off makes you face some shit about yourself, bc you have an outlet for stuff you couldn't otherwise express?, bc you can be someone other than who you have to be-' yes!, excellent! don't see it enough!, I'm not saying sex has to have an effect on anyone, but it's fun when it does, especially separated from romance!, alright i am definitely off track now, goodnight everyone

[ckret2]

the thread doubled jeez louise ok cracking my knuckles

@samuraijacksoff

and also the yandere archetype, i did want to bring that up initially but i abstained because iv actually never read a yandere-specific story that i enjoyed, as well as it being a controversial kinda topic to some ppl, however i do very much acknowledge overlap and think that it is interesting and worth exploring for some characters/stories.

it's an archetype i'm picky about too, it's gotta hit just the right balance of horror and romance without tilting into "teehee your girlfriend wants to murder you isn't that sooo cute?" A fulfilling yandere can't just be a manic pixie dream girl with a knife. i think the one traditional yandere character i deeply enjoyed was trope codifier Yuno Gasai from Future Diary, and in large part it's because the show makes pains to demonstrate how that level of obsession is a result of things going terribly wrong in the yandere's life, rather than just a default state of being; and that the heart of the obsession is the obsession itself, not the love interest—the actual love interest is irrelevant/interchangeable, what matters is having someone to focus fully on. Best exploration of yandere psychology rather than just unquestioningly taking large facets of the trope for granted. but i digress,

absolutely abbbsoluuutely and this is unrelated but one favorite films of all time is misery 1990, based on the novel by stephen king and what is so compelling about this particular film is not the stockholm syndrome but it's the push and pull conflict between the two characters.

oh my god I'd never conceived of some alternate timeline where misery was written as a "dark romance," i shudder in horror at the very thought. BUT YES push and pull conflict is v compelling

yes this trope is SO GOOD🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️and thats why i just had to mention lord of darkness from legend 1985, specifically the goldsmith cut of the film because he is pathetticcccc its sooo good 🙂‍↕️🤝🤝🤝🤝

adding to my "to watch" list.

@shogunofyearning we've already talked about oiran aku so much that i don't have anything new to directly say to that part of the conversation lmfaooo so let me offer a blanket 👍👍👍👌👌👌🫶🫶🫶

it's maybe not canon at all but i do see both jack and aku as beings 'out of time'. i like to place aku's roots (harhar) strongly in historical japan, because if i do that, then they have this incredibly rich shared culture that they both yearn for in their own ways and can never describe to anyone else. and also i can get super niche with it lmao.

i like the idea of them being like,, the same but also different on that front. they are both from the same time, they both share a history that nobody else can share, they both understand and remember things forgotten to the rest of the world—but that's the only world jack knows whereas aku has lived all the time between then and now. jack is out of time while aku is of another time. he's not displaced in the same way jack is; but his roots are growing from the same time/place as jack's roots.

so to jack aku is the only thing familiar, the only thing in this strange world that is of his own world; whereas to aku jack is something nostalgic, a resurrection of a world that died long ago to the passage of time. to jack, seeing aku is like wandering around in a strange foreign country and suddenly seeing a fast food joint that exists in your home country; while to aku, seeing jack is like suddenly running into a restaurant from a fast food chain you thought went bankrupt and closed all storefronts when you were a kid. there's that shock of ecstatic Recognition but it's rooted in slightly different experiences.

but like. a rec i would actually give for understanding what i'm going for with oiran aku would be the film sakuran, from 2006, which is a highly melodramatic visual feast about an edo-period oiran's rise and fall.

Reminding me that i also still haven't gotten around to seeing this, bumping that higher up my to-watch list.

@samuraijacksoff

i have a bit of an unrelated question. are you perhaps familiar with the sondheim stage play pacific overtures? its alright if you aren't, i just got reminded of it and its original broadway cast stars aku's voice actor mako as narrator and shogun, he has particularly gorgeous voice work in this production and even speaks a few japanese lines 🫣

ALSO adding this to my to-watch list,,,

and lastly i agree completely with aku and jack having been born from the same time, its kinda easy to forget that with aku's industrialism but thats such an incredible string that ties them together and a fascinating exploration of aku's character:)

ty for mentioning the industrialism because YESS that contrast in aku's character!! this ancient thing with this futuristic society, and yet he himself seems detached from the future he's built. he's still living in what looks like the same tower he was in during jack's time. never redecorated that thang. super compact super polluted cities are the hallmark of his rule but does he live in them? and rub elbows with the commoners?? NO he lives out in his country estate, far away from the filthy city! *picture of 1000-foot-tall 50-foot-wide tower in a giant desolate crater. country estate.* dude barely seems to know what a computer is. tech for thee but not for me. this how he made the world and he doesn't even seem to like it.

i just love spreading word abt mako's works beyond his voice acting.

speaking of which, if there's anyone in this threat who hasn't yet seen conan the barbarian...

@hauntedpersonguy

i am now thinking abt aku thinking he's a dom top, but then gets in a fight with jack and his sword, and is like ah shit why do i like this

"guy who thinks he's big tough dom always in charge shocked and horrified to realize he's extremely turned on by being smashed to the ground, brutally roughed up, and stripped of all power" is hot as hell and the bigger and tougher the "dom" is the hotter it gets. i'm smacking the table. write that fic.

'would you change for your romantic partner-' no!, 'would you change for your booty call, bc what gets you off makes you face some shit about yourself, bc you have an outlet for stuff you couldn't otherwise express?, bc you can be someone other than who you have to be-' yes!, excellent! don't see it enough!

speaking as both an ace and an aro one of the most annoying romance tropes is when characters are like "oh i changed for love ♡" *looks at the story* *zero romantic chemistry in sight* *it's literally only lust* *they're trying to pass off pure undiluted lust like it's the same thing as romance*, so like,, a story that's HONEST about "no actually i changed for lust, i chased what made me horny and it shifted something in me" is v refreshing in contrast to trying to pass off something that's clearly void of romance like it's romantic.

... and it's also v sexy. but that might be the corruption kink lover in me. "is the weird sex liberating your true desires or perverting & warping your desires?" why don't we have both :)

anyway i think jack could corrupt aku. i believe in him. i may or may not have 1 or 2 or 50 brainstormed-never-to-be-written AUs involving some variation on that theme.

[samuraijacksoff]

@hauntedpersonguy

rly loved ur paragraph and i agree completely !! unfortunately i do not have much more to add tho bc a lot of it mirrors ckret2's reply, thank u for sharing it was great to read !!!! 🫶

@ckret2

oh my god I'd never conceived of some alternate timeline where misery was written as a "dark romance," i shudder in horror at the very thought. BUT YES push and pull conflict is v compelling

just rly quick in good faith i did not mean to imply misery as a dark romance, but i speak in criticism of contemporary literature trends and dark romance as a genre being shallow and lacking interiority. obviously there is nuance but this ties again to how iv just never read a yandere-specific story that i enjoyed, however by complete coincidence these similar overlapping themes have come upon me in the most random and unseeming works which did not intend fetish, and even existed before such fetishes could be commercialized or described. this is way off subject now my bad i just love literary discussion i can go on this spiel for hours i am just greatly critical of dark romance. i love eroticism as a marriage to horror and it brings me no satisfaction to see it get put thru a shredder by some ham egg and cheesers after all the things iv had to do and all the blood on my hands for a scrap of aku pussy

dude barely seems to know what a computer is. tech for thee but not for me. this how he made the world and he doesn't even seem to like it.

this is suuuch a good observation about his character like despite everything that he has going on, hes just been living in his same desolate tower all of these years and thats why i am always saying that he is unemployed because he really does just sit there all day he needs to get a hobby or something. and im going to get off topic again but i always thought it would be a really funny gag, when aku's future developed touch screen smartphones, its completely unusable to him because his hands/claws are too sharp and his black mass is too obscure it simply wont recognize him as touching it. idk i just think it would be cute if he continued using old analog technology when the world developed beyond him, furthering his disconnect with everything in the world

so to jack aku is the only thing familiar, the only thing in this strange world that is of his own world; whereas to aku jack is something nostalgic, a resurrection of a world that died long ago to the passage of time

LOVE this connection between them !!!! jack was new to the world when aku came in but now theyre both ancient creatures and of the very few people living who remember what the world used to be like and can still interact with it in a meaningful way (to mean like S3E10 when the old enlightened monk is connected and living from the tree but hes just kinda chillin hes not doing much)

lastly rly hope that u enjoy pacific overtures if u happen to watch it! it is a bit clunky and not exempt from criticisms but mako is delightful in it