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[akihika]

Romanticism and Hikaru no Go

There are but a few works where homosexual feelings can be stated as canon (aside the BL genre). Instead, we often have to make do with subtext and ambiguous sentences, situations, or facial expressions.

The height of frustration, that is.

Not being able to ship two male characters without receiving the fatal “That’s just your yaoist imagination” argument is considerably irritating, and comes from the fact that you just have the subtext on your side, whereas the text will rather be on the side of your adversary.

(Note that your adversary may have already eaten his/her hat on Killua’s case in Hunter X Hunter, where the amount of subtext may have exceeded the amount of text.)

Let’s take the example of Hikaru no Go. The two main reasons that are opposed when shipping Akira and Hikaru to people who can’t even consider the idea are the following :

        1. Hikaru is interested in Akari.

        2. There are not romantic feelings between Akira and Hikaru; they merely see each other as Go rivals.

The first reason is not even worth lingering over. When does Hikaru ever think of Akari, except when he randomly bumps into her at school ?

The second reason is more interesting, and it may concern many other works than Hikaru no Go: that so-called lack of romantic feelings between true rivals.

(Who are so much rivals that they think of each other each hour of the day.)

But what are we exactly saying when waving that “romantic feelings” argument ? Are we speaking about some shojoish sentimental effusion ? Or about unexpressed, bubbling feelings ?

For those who may not know, romanticism is not exactly what the word means to most people nowadays – some insipid, mushy romance that movies, books, animes, and bad shôjo are filled with.

Romanticism, basically, is an artistic movement that aimed at revolting against classicism and rationalization by letting intense emotions run wild out of aristocratic norms. These emotions being multifarious and (fortunately) not limited to love. Romanticism, hence, may be expressed through violence, desperation, morbidity, passion, obsession.

(That is not to say that the romantic movement was free from insipid and mushy romances.)

If we were to take musical exemples : Thais’ Meditation, which everyone of you has at least heard once (and which may have, hence, led you to think that classical music is fundamentally insipid, mushy, and boring) could easily fit in the failures of romanticism, which explains quite well why it now invades the worst tear-jerker works of our time.

Whereas Liszt’s Sonata could, in return, give a perfect example of the masterpieces that romanticism is able to create.

Let’s go back to Akira and Hikaru, now. We all agree there is no confession whatsoever. Actually, their interaction is extremely limited all through the manga, whereas we all have the impression that it constitutes the majority of the book.

That is precisely because both Akira and Hikaru share the same obsessional passion towards each other. They are constantly worried about their own progress in Go, but not only.

Can you remember Akira, panicking as Hikaru, depressed from what happened to Sai, thought of stopping Go ?

Can you remember how easily both of them, and especially the well-mannered Akira, lose their temper when interacting with each other ?

Can you remember the intensity of their long awaited match, for which Akira counted the exact amount of time they had to wait ?

Can you remember how Akira guesses right about Sai, saying he is the one that “understands Hikaru the most”, and how Hikaru reacted as if these were words of confession ?

(That was, actually, more than a confession. That was the irrefutable proof that Akira has cracked the most intimate, and rationally unbelievable, secret of Hikaru.)

Advancing individually on a common path to an upcoming and awaited reunion, yet worrying about the other and thinking obsessively about him to the point of fully understanding him without almost any direct communication ?

Could there really be a more fundamentally romantic background between two characters ?

[ghooostbaby]

Now that i am fixated on he xuan and hua cheng’s dynamic, rereading the black water arc and seeing all of the tiny but meaningful ways they talk to each other is kind of a delight. I suppose on the surface it might seem that they’re kind of passive aggressive in their communication and at minimum are kind of prickly with each other. However, obviously all their face-to-face interactions are shown through the perspective of xie lian, who they need to convince that they are a legitimate god and the ghost king who kidnapped and tortured said god. they’d have to be pretty inept if they got along any better in front of a heavenly official… if you pay attention, it becomes clear how they’re actually always working together and helping each other out.

When shi qingxuan and “ming yi” first show up at the puqi shrine, hua cheng and ming yi react to each other with intense animosity and hua cheng tells ming yi to leave and not come back, and ming yi responds “coming here was not my choice!” The narration explains specifically that their reactions to each other must be because they had last met when hua cheng had kidnapped and tortured ming yi, at least as far as shi qingxuan and xie lian are concerned - so it seems to me that they are putting on a good act to help keep he xuan’s disguise up, while hua cheng is communicating objections to he xuan involving xie lian, and he xuan is responding that he doesn’t want to, but his hand has been forced by shi qingxuan.

Then when they’re going over shi qingxuan’s scrolls hua cheng corrects the mistakes that the kills attributed to the Reverend, and that actually some kills were his own and some were Black Water’s, and then has a pretty good time insulting Shi Wudu. All of that could be typical for Hua Cheng, and there also could be a lot of other double meanings read into it, but I just think that He Xuan probably enjoyed hearing that a lot. And when Hua Cheng describes how the Reverend goes after not only the prey but all its family and friends … something about it feels like he’s speaking for He Xuan’s benefit, speaking out loud all the things He Xuan can’t say yet about what happened to him so Shi Qingxuan has to be forced to deal with it, which I think would be a little satisfying for He Xuan. Hua Cheng seems to be giving him face, showing respect…

Then when they go through the array and Shi Qingxuan gets quite close to the truth of who meddled with the array, Hua Cheng starts babbling accusations and twisting logic so Shi Qingxuan gets confused and distracted and they move on. On the surface it looks like its because Hua Cheng could look guilty himself and he was showing that he wasn’t there to meddle or help, just to be with Xie Lian … but suspicion of Ming Yi was the most probable cause of the array taking them to a wrong place, and Hua Cheng’s contributions mean they barely consider it at all.

“What’s with that look? In my opinion, don’t you think Lord Earth Master is the most suspicious one?” said Hua Cheng.

Ming Yi’s eyes also swept over. 

Hua Cheng added, “Instead of focusing on guessing who meddled after, what if the array he drew was wrong from the beginning? You don’t necessarily need a reason to do something. Lord Wind Master, you yourself are suspicious too.” 

“Huh?” Shi Qingxuan had never thought the tables would turn on him, and pointed at himself. “Who? ME?!”

“Yeah. A thief crying thief is a common thing,” Hua Cheng said. “Just why have you come? If you and your esteemed brother are truly scared of the Reverend of Empty words, why were those rags cobbled together? It’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that the two of you schemed, and intentionally led us here.”

Just by looking at his expression, one could tell that he was cheekily gabbing nonsense; but he looked so confident that almost anyone would start doubting too. Shi Qingxuan was almost shaken.

(the last part ahahaha hua cheng <3)

 Even in the novel as a whole - hua cheng and he xuan do a lot of things to benefit the other that otherwise they wouldn’t have wanted to. They always have a self-serving reason to pass it off as instead of “i just love my ghost king pal <3” but i firmly believe hua cheng and he xuan respect and *gasp* care about each other!!!

hua cheng lies to xie lian to support he xuan’s plans in the black water arc and i think it would take a LOT for hua cheng to do that. And in the last book, he xuan comes when hua cheng asks to help shi qingxuan hold together the spiritual array fighting the human face disease, that also is not something he would ever do lightly- even when he does come he seems very angry, as well as that this is the only time he shows his face around shi qingxuan again, and he hadn’t shown his face to anyone since his revenge but for this either.

Also in the last book, he xuan lets hua cheng trash his territory and pretty much smash apart his bonefish, and hua cheng says he can do this because of he xuan’s debt, but 1.) it doesn’t seem like he xuan is ever paying him back, or that there’s any kind of a collection deadline, he xuan just keeps taking more and more, 2.) hua cheng doesn’t seem liable to let someone take so much from him if he had wanted to be paid back, and 3.) hua cheng does not seem to care about any of his nice possessions and wealth, he’s pretty careless with the rare treasures he has, his own mansion burning down (twice?), and so on. He seems pretty unfussed about spending his resources as if there is always more where that came from. (credit to @muigiel for this observation) So i do think this is a purposeful mislead. Like the debt is a good cover for them to do nice things for each other :3 (i love them)

I think in general in tgcf ghosts and gods are not as they appear, and the more i look into ghosts in this book the more full of goodness, hope, love, and life they seem to be. (qi rong is an outlier and should not be counted. Ok but he is loved by guzi who apparently finds him to be a better father than the original (omg i’m so sorry guzi) so he does count a little i guess?) 

I think a good indicator of how the actions of these ghost kings should be taken is given in the moment with hua cheng, xie lian and guzi where guzi is afraid of hua cheng on sight, and xie lian says, “don’t worry, this gege is a good person” and hua cheng says “no, i’m a very bad person” while making a cute little butterfly fly over to guzi. in hua cheng’s and he xuan’s responses to each other it’s as if they’re saying “i’m a very bad bad person” while making little butterflies fly toward each other. if we miss that I think we’ve missed something important about the story.

[hamliet]

In tgcf, I’ve always wondered if SQX had actually done wrong to He Xuan like SWD did or if HX just hates him as an extension of SWD. I’m still learning English so I wonder if I missed anything, because to me SQX’s only ‘wrong’ was ignorance. Did I misunderstand anything?

He didn’t do anything wrong :’’’) His crime was ignorance and privilege, to be honest, which allowed him to be the beneficiary of He Xuan’s agony, without even bearing the burden of knowing what had been sacrificed for him to benefit. His crime was that he was innocent, in terms of what he knew, while He Xuan had everything torn away from him. 

I also don’t think He Xuan hates Shi Qingxuan! I think he projected both Shi Wudu and himself onto Shi Qingxuan–an innocent suffering because of others’ actions. Except, He Xuan forgot that Shi Qingxuan was suffering because of his (He Xuan’s) actions, and He Xuan became the Shi Wudu in his own story to Shi Qingxuan in his story. 

I think the best evidence that He Xuan does not hate Shi Qingxuan is in the very end, when Shi Qingxuan, mortal and crippled, is asking a disguised He Xuan for help and he coldly tells him “deal with it yourself.” This offends Shi Qingxuan, and He Xuan then even hits him–but by hitting him, he gives him spiritual power, and tosses his wind master fan at him. In this moment, He Xuan is acknowledging that, perhaps ironically, the best suited for godhood among the three of them was Shi Qingxuan, the one who didn’t earn it, who didn’t pursue it, yet who cared about humans, gods, and ghosts. Shi Qingxuan is the one best suited to be the hero there, to save people, and He Xuan knows it. 

[nikkiandmomo]

Another ship~ mwahahaha

I wonder if anyone write fanfic of Zhu Yuxian/Bai Yongxi?

This game have lots of ships XD

Ss from Zhong Lizi’s 2nd dream weaver story.

[jackoshadows]

It just hit me that GRRM wrote Gendry as literally Arya's knight in shining armor.

Hot Pie stepped out of the barn. "Arry, come on! Lommy's gone, leave her if she won't come!" Stubbornly, Arya dragged all the harder, pulling the crying girl along. Hot Pie scuttled back inside, abandoning them . . . but Gendry came back, the fire shining so bright on his polished helm that the horns seemed to glow orange. He ran to them, and hoisted the crying girl up over his shoulder. “Run!” - Arya, ACoK

He comes out of the fire with the light shining his polished armor helm and helps Arya save Weasel.

It's also consistent with GRRM's theme of subverting Westerosi stories and songs about the brave and honorable, high born knights rescuing princesses from towers when in world it's actually women like Brienne and bastards like Gendry being the brave knight in shining armor.

[charlottescarlet]

I despise omega aerion with my burning hatred because many people villainize Egg and demand him to be more sympathetic with his abusive older brother? Egg was not a better person than Aerion if he wished his abusive brother die? Do you hear yourself? Fuck off.

[reidspng]

Doodles for my trans!Egg AU!

[crumbpigeon]

A falling star brings luck to those who see it 🌠 prints

[fortunate-hal]

I dreamed that you were all in white from head to heel, with a long pale cloak flowing from those broad shoulders. You were a White Sword, ser, a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard, the greatest knight in all the Seven Kingdoms, and you lived for no other purpose but to guard and serve and please your king.

An unused metaphorical sketch of Duncan the Tall as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and Egg as King of Westeros, from Art of Gary Gianni for George R. R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms

[vekharious]

dragon riding

[the-ravening]

Normies outside the Dunkegg tag acting as if it’s the most morally deplorable ship ever, when canonically the age difference is seven or eight years, Dunk is virtuous and too thick in the head to be some grooming predatory mastermind, Egg is functionally way smarter than him + is literally royalty with all the benefits/power that comes with that, and they met when Egg was 9 and Dunk was 16/17

Meanwhile, in HOTD, Rhaenyra x Daemon have an age gap of SIXTEEN years, he has known her since BIRTH, and he is her UNCLE but apparently that’s just fine and ‘spicy.’ They have hundreds of gifsets made of them, they’re featured heavily and explicitly in the show, winemoms cheer and clap at their scenes and they have 6700+ fics on Ao3

Naturally, Dunkegg where Egg is still underaged is a whole other pro-ship debate that I’m not getting into. But even in fics where Egg is anywhere from 18 to a grown-ass king, people still act as if you’re in the Epstein Files for thinking the pairing is engaging to read about.

In a fandom with pairings like Sansa/The Hound (4600+ fics) or Theon/Ramsay (1300+ fics). In the canon books themselves, a hypothetical Dunk/Egg pairing where Egg is an adult wouldn’t even be in the top 100 most ethically dubious pairings – some of which are even celebrated by the fandom lmao

I know it’s pointless to argue with pearl clutchers because they’ll just plug their ears and wag their finger imperiously but it’s really frustrating having to deal w/ these people constantly. In a series as sexually controversial as ASOIAF, with all the provocative fics therein, I don’t know why THIS is where people are drawing their line in the sand

There are FORTY-FIVE (45) Dunkegg fics. Just LEAVE if it vexes them so much. Good LORD

Sorry you’ve had to deal with this, anon. I can see why a ship involving a character played by a child actor on TV would cause more of an intense squick for people than those played by actors in their teens or 20s, but it’s def hypocritical to draw the line in the imaginary sand as though it’s a moral issue rather than one of personal taste. Fictional ships are neither moral nor immoral, they're all just stories, and I wish people would stop treating these silly ship wars as activism.

I’m so happy to hear we now have nearly 50 Dunkegg fics though! That’s not so bad for our little rarepair. I hope the excitement for them keeps growing and that these fics will beget more fics through the inspiration they spread. Fuck them haters, they hate to see us having a good time here!

[astraskylark]

New Shirahama art,,,Her aura is 2000's shojo protagonist,,,, her vibes are unmatched, so mysterious....the hair, the cardigan, the pose,,, her ponytails hide secrets but now they're loose......something is shifting in Tetia lore

[serenashinart]

Tetia 🌸 3/4

Daffodils remind me of her hairstyle!

I'm giving the girls different clothes inspired by flowy nightgowns but keeping their usual shoes 👢

[camel-casing]

When some Bylrs were disappointed that after word got out that Mike was missing from the graduation ceremony and Will didn’t flinch or was the first to jump up and volunteer to go look for him instead smiling at graduation and enjoying himself but I guess it looks like getting over Mike Wheeler also means not rushing to his every need and being his emotional support dummy and he couldn’t even get a hug from him when he came out to everyone or seemingly not giving af when Will was in a literal coma looking like he was on the brink of death so I said actually good for you Will why should he have to be the one to rush after Mike to go comfort him when he needs it but he couldn’t even get the same from him.

Will finally broke free from the cycle of being Mike’s therapist friend and we all cheered 😌

[newergrowup]

Piuttosto che diventare un fascista meglio essere un maiale. (Porco Rosso, 1992)

[onanistzombie]

Nothing kills me more than when eremin deniers or people who deny any not-kissing-nasty-on-screen-type-canon same-sex relationships in general by calling it a brotherhood or a sisterhood.

Those words do not mean a familial relationship in the context of a platonic relationship. A brotherhood can transform into a romance. And no, it's not incest-ish.

Eren and Armin never referred to each other as brothers nor has any official guide. Them seeing each other as a brother is a completely fandom headcanon. It's obviously not invalid. However, I don't see how can one interpret parting your lips before hugging your best friend as brotherly love 😭

Also, even if official guides confirmed them as a brotherhood, it still wouldn’t invalidate the ship (not like anything invalidates a fictional ship anyway). Eren and Armin didn’t grow up in the same home or were related in any way. So, from real life standards, it's perfectly cool of them to forge a romance or a sexual relationship

[the-ravening]

Angsty temporary death AU where the tragedy happens earlier, Aegon lives, and Dunk dying in the fire at Summerhall counts as a blood sacrifice to make some Daenerys-esque hocus pocus happen which causes the dragon eggs to actually hatch

So now Egg finally has his dragons – but at what cost.

And the rest of the fic is Eggy having a biblical Targ Crashout™️ and obsessively trying to find a way to revive his knight. Maybe seeking out some Red Priests/Priestesses from Asshai or Volantis to have the Lord of Light bring him back, or hunting down old Valyrian artifacts/forgotten rituals

And when he does manage to bring him back, Dunk has no idea what to make of this harried, manic Egg who has been dabbling with blood magic on his account, has dragons at his beck and call, and has been having the mother of all meltdowns in his absence

Anon, this is so juicy, I’m reaching through the screen, snaking my spiritual arms through the ether, to massage at your brain so more of this story gushes out of it.

I would loove fully deranged Egg, mad with grief and ever escalating mystical powers, becoming the very worst version of himself possible. I’m obsessed with the idea of him having this undercurrent of darkness barely kept at bay his entire life, and his honourable sworn knight Dunk being the sturdy dam that helps him hold it back, and now that he’s been slain (by Egg’s own hands, he would feel) that darkness is a gushing, rushing riptide that drags him from his sanity and further and further into a frenzy of damning decisions and appalling acts.

Would a risen Dunk be horrified by the man before him, hardly recognizable as the good king and friend and lover he once knew? Would he reach his strong and steady grip through the decay and destruction of Aegon’s soul to find what’s left of him and bring him back? Or are they both too far gone now, destined to be entwined in a dance that balances on precarious tiptoe between a tenuous semblance of life and undeath? Would they find a pale and perilous peace in this, paltry perversion of love though it is?