#crow.asks

[iridescentscarecrow]

brother how do you even THINK about your metaphors ???/ there are so many examples of amazing metaphors in your fics im geniunely gagged teach me ur ways

omg... im so thrilled you think so!! thank you! figurative language — & deliberateness in use of figurative language — is very important to me because i feel like it's one of the most visible devices onto which you can inscribe the character & their set of experiences. i don't really come up with metaphors in isolation. i think the following questions are interesting to ask myself as i write:

1. what does the language the pov character uses & the comparisons they draw say about themselves? what history is it a part of? for ex. a character for whom violence is mundane & whose consciousness doesn't easily demarcate the two sectors would tend to comparisons which intertwine them, or place them into dramatic irony, depending on what kind of story they think they're experiencing. for a character who has a particular past regarding a certain object, a comparison to that object would be invariably more meaningful than it might be in another pov. when making extra-textual references: why might the pov allude to this text — is it something your pov character would have read? if so, why do they care about it? why do they refer to it here?

2. what is the effect the metaphor itself has in the slice of writing it's located in? does it disturb or elongate the reader's settled expectations? sometimes strikingly simple figurative language is far more powerful and functional because of dissonance or reinforcement it might bring to its surrounding paragraph.

3. what constellation of objects/experiences does the metaphor belong to? where have similar devices drawing from this constellation appeared in my writing thus far? what effect did those devices have then? is there similar effect created here now? if not, why is there a change? what overlaps exist between these contexts?

the above questions are very much - ah, working backward. i often start from the answers to these questions, and think of what devices might belong to and produce the answers im seeking. and a few bridges are a little too unconscious for me to be able to really describe them here haha. regardless, i hope this helped?

[iridescentscarecrow]

know you don't like him but barem analysis. write about him like you write about reze.

helloo! i definitely do like barem, and if you've seen any barem meta post from me or worse my slew of dead wife barem posts you'd know i'm very not normal about him hahaha. i won't repeat what's in these, but i can give you some vague-r thoughts which make little sense.

barem using makima to repudiate and suspect nayuta, constructing a distorted makima on his body in her abuse of denji, this attaching itself to his (misogynistic) treatment of nayuta - denji as the Mother to the Child, after makima, gets collapsed into where barem directs the makima in the story, as Woman and Abuser and Source. of course, he claims to love makima but cannot understand her desire for family, and just like he makes makima into parceled violence visible through him burning up denji's home & his family, he parcels up nayuta into commodified, digestible product.

put next to his fandom of the chainsaw man, distinguished from fumiko's fandom of denji - the hypermasculine chaotic superhero - which mirrors makima's idealisation of the chainsaw devil's chaotic/freedom from rules. but it rebukes who denji is, and denji's family (this is the other of the Two choices, of course). denji's performance of gendered domestic labour in his caregiving role wrt nayuta. and this makes sense, because similar to him directing makima in part 2, he wishes to take over chainsaw man's editing power, as well. chainsaw man, who has been represented through umbilical cord, through its signifier as birthgiver, as mother...

barem seeking to control this, barem being the opposite of miri in how he articulates himself as under control even in the present, barem's misogyny shown in the microcosm in the mini-arc of the eyepatch guy who loved his wife very very much (her cannibalising him in the end as rebellion against his idea of her) and in how he treats asa as a figure of the church whom she's postergirl (again! idea) of. barem being flamethrower, controlling & directing the fire (see: devil name) of part 2 into causal end. and denji's apartment, with the dogs, and with nayuta and his life, with the plants they grew together to provide respite from the city, is the centre of this.

[iridescentscarecrow]

do you have any posts discussing makima's relationship with the japanese govt? whether she had control over the govt is something that confuses me. though i gravitate towards the idea that she didn't control the japanese govt but it was the other way around? however, if the japanese PM or other govt officials are people she can't deem inferior and thus can't control, why is it implied that the chainsaw devil is the only one she won't necessarily be able to control which is why she deems pochita an 'equal? do you also have posts discussing makima's relationship with pochita?

hi, i'm very sorry for taking — absolutely: months, to get to these asks. partly because of my own schedule & because i'm no longer in the habit of writing analysis on CSM at a general level. thank you for the asks & the kind words regardless!

i'm not really interested in the mechanics of makima's powers (because fujimoto isn't either, he's the kind of storyteller who vibes & auras his way out of powerscaling details in his worldbuilding & i frankly don't blame him): & it's true that by the end of the series makima can't really be said to be under the government's control. but i think it's fairly obvious that her character is still rooted in the fact that she was raised as a tool by the government (although this isn't strictly made explicit, to my knowledge?) & acclimatised to those systems of violence that she then purposes for her own ends (this is, i believe, the point - too - of the nurture themes brought in w. nayuta at the end of p1). supported by of course her childish distaste for the "bigwigs at kyoto" whom she doesn't want to meet (i've talked previously about how her r.ship w/ them & her attempts to dream within it mirrors denji's own protagonism), the line to the mafia ("the true necessary evils have already been kept & collared by the state"), her attitude around kishibe, her ref to the PM knowing of her plan, & of course: the way she thinks of & imagines the CSM.

in my interpretation, the CSM for her is a symbol of power but also something that in his seeming complete non-subscription to societal norm fascinates makima, who after all is someone who is constantly fashioning every bit of herself to the purpose at hand, as she's been taught. we love what we lack... her repetition of his "lines", her lecture to denji about csm's character, her failed & sputtered cigarette at the graveyard, i think, all point to her embodiment of the CSM as her own ideal of freedom, which is why she can't consider herself superior to it. & denji's deviation from her projected Chainsaw Man disgusts & frustrates her. of course, being the miserable wretch that she is, she masks it under her "utopic" vision for the world.

i don't have any posts focusing solely on this aspect of makima (on makima/pochita: ive one CSMTOBER prosepiece on makima & the hero of hell, if you're interested in fiction), but i do talk loosely about makima's search for family & what part it plays in nayuta & denji's lives a little here. pochita -> denji -> makima -> nayuta to me is one horrible line. dogs eat dogs. makima treats denji like a dog, but she's also a character who can tell people apart through smell, who's been "collared" by the state, & keeps dogs in turn.... ah. i like it when antagonists are systems, and born of systems, and respond quite viscerally to systems.

[iridescentscarecrow]

Favorite my hero academia characters? If you don’t have one I think you would like hawks and toga! Hawks is Reze in a way toga too

hello anon! i liked shigaraki & ochako the most when i was into MHA. i think shigaraki was my Favourite, but i wrote for ochako a lot more & thought more about her in general — although in terms of the Possible rather than what lay in canon. i also liked shinsou rather a lot, & kuin // tamao from MHA vigilantes, if you've read that one. not to say i didnt like the two you mentioned, umm,, my tastes were very different back then & i think if i did revisit it i would find new faves. not that im raring to.. i was a villain stan on a whole, i loved toga & togachako (talking about the latter without prompting). & wrt hawks, i see why you say reze (branch of facadepilled character) even if i don't entirely agree. i liked him and found him extremely compelling but i think i had v different idea of his character than his fanbase at that time? so a weird sense of friction. i forget most of the particularities, though... ahh.

[iridescentscarecrow]

I saw on twitter that you caught up with mtefil and i'm so glad since so few people know about it. What do you like about it? Personally I love it's rendition of the fallen angels, so vile and pathetic yet human.

hello!!! i kind of regret keeping the small liveblog thread i did on my priv and not posting on main, since i ended up having a lot more things to say than i expected. i'm still sorting out my thoughts right now, and i want to go back and reread some stuff with context, but here's a quick summary of what i felt:

i like the fallen angels a lot too, but my favourite aspect of mtefil is probably the depiction of the sins, it's wonderfully clever. i think the order of my interest goes lust (aria arc specifically ) > sloth > gluttony > greed > envy.

for lust, i feel like i might appreciate it more than other people because i was very interested in the "agelessness" associated with "sexiness" vis a vis idolhood and the creation of aria as someone "bottomless", as these are themes consistent with some of my favourite things in fiction. asmodeus is one of the characters i ended up liking the most because of this. her inflicting violence onto priest as a expression of her love for sarah, and the propertyship there was very good. asmodeus is constantly seeking worth & dignity! her connecting with priest through like a shared sameness really got to me. i liked how imuri was the audience proxy for our knowledge that aria was actually priest's assaulter, it made for some really horrifying moments of tension, i was kind of shaking through it, also, i think it contributes to my idea that imuri is the protagonist (the first page of the manga is literally her painting) and priest is the "love interest" - also a fun concept because of how bel frames him as a romcom protagonist later on? but that's just extended thoughts. the ending scene of the arc with him fantasizing about imuri and then throwing up was very powerful to me, because i think the gendering of priest is essential to the series. him being disgusted with himself because he feels like a predator, and immediately giving up the caregiving role (of gendered labour) that he assumed over imuri earlier stuck to me.

i like how gender entwines with every aspect of MTEFIL, tbh. its very well planned, even if it does end up beating you over the head with its themes at time lol! the sins are one thing - most of the male ones are dimensions of patriarchal abuse, and the two female ones we've seen are leviathan with her ill fitting motherhood, and asmodeus, who like i said, is focused on Worth through sexual conquest. the church refers to the "father, the son" & the witches to "evil" feminine figures. a lot of the manga discusses how the witches are alienated & considered inhuman, and their struggle is a tussle over humanity. verge literally brought up "storytelling" !! and this makes sense because imuri's Role is the "femme fatale", that she constantly refers back to and describes herself with, and that's essentially story trope.

sloth was the depiction i was most impressed by when it came to inventiveness. i was reading through the files intently before he was revealed since they're all written very well, so when he showed up, i assumed he was writing the child's room ones almost immediately. the scapegoating of women, paired with the eternal childhood of it all and priest's own exhaustion is all very fun.

gluttony being a grooming allegory is honestly insane. i often feel like depictions of gluttony end up imagining it as a kind of Greed Lite - but with a focus on food, which is boring TBH. the manner in which the sin of taste is presented as experienced/practiced by the abused & the way this connected to leah's "forbidden love" as described by the files... i really liked leah in this arc. beelzebub talking with her and saying,, this is just human nature,, centering her shame... it made me feel very ill if i'm being honest.

greed is a typical depiction but the way it's fleshed out connects really well to the manga's themes, although im more interested in tachibana than the actual character of greed. i feel she represents it in a more nuanced way than him, although that's probably whats intended. the file about her with the line referring to "the womb" and the one file conversation she has with verge really sticks to me. she's obviously portrayed as the sole woman in a room full of men and the way she revels in her success when it comes to The Meritocracy fascinates me. i hope we get more of her

envy is probably the one i have the least thoughts on: leviathan as the state & the sea monster connect to motherhood is kind of apparent but i wish i had more to chew on with respect to how that ties to the sin of envy. but that's a minor nitpick, and i'll probably understand more later.

overall, i'm kind of happy with how these themes are being tackled in a shounen manga, and i had tons of fun with it. i wish it had more attention! i like priest a lot, i think he's incredibly well written but my particular tastes in characters mean that my favourites right now are imuri, asmodeus, leah, and verge. the latter is probably biased by the fact that i'm deeply invested in the weird yaoi he and dante have going on, it's so fun?

this is everything that i could think of for now, but i'm considering talking about newer chapters when they drop on my main, perhaps? thank you for the ask, it gave me the opportunity to go on about it a little :D i liked it very much!!

[iridescentscarecrow]

asks on retrospring [archived]: responses containing thoughts on hyuna & luka (one / two)

q. did you notice that in the blink gone mv in Hyuna's third appearance (when she gets close to the screen and the archives start uploading) Luka says the lyrics "Exist for me" [....]?

a. YESS I WAS FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS ON MY PRIV WHEN THE MV DROPPED; a bit rambly but: it's that beautiful last line in the hylk anakt comic if you remember. i don't think hyuna <exists for luka> in the same way mzsua ivtl manifest themselves, since she's not the subject of his songs: while for others their loves are a manner of self realisation through other, luka obscures himself & Becomes (someone else's) Other. it's a part of the control he maintains on the stage; hyuna doesn't leak through even once other than the brief glance back when she appears in person at the end of r5. (this is something i contrast w/ how hyuna sings too, but then this response would get too long)... this is the exact control that hyuna describes to luka in the anakt comic, the sense of ownership she gets from the stage: "before we get on stage, we do as we're told... [but when i'm singing] my existence, my life.. feels like it's mine." & he responds "but your life is mine, though?" & in a way it is. because she's absent, she's scrubbed herself of any of these sticky connections but he's taken the control she once described to him & made it his, become her embodiment when every other aspect of his life is controlled by heperu. in the narrative, she exists for him & is simultaneously secluded from the audience, the thousand preying aliens, until he sees her on the stage & his easy facade falls...

q. What do you think Hyuna's feelings for Luka are? Her feelings for him were never confirmed, in the artbook profile for her it says that she thinks that she shouldn't have approached him first and treated him well, and she evades saying something else about him, so it implies that she dislikes him, but in every official art that has them (even in the sweet dream mv), she lets him be intimate with her (touch her waist, be close to her, massage her, etc) despite her awkard or angry expression everytime they interact

a. i think quality-wise it's obviously complex & there's much still to learn but i'm less interested in whether it measures as dislike/like than how it falls into alien stage's idealisation-as-love aspect: because in many ways none of this is strictly "love" — the children in anakt are constructing what it must mean out of nothing & this process occurs simultaneously with their manifestation of their own selves. & i think w/ hyuna that mired sort of intimacy in their few official art is best mixed in with her own Evasion & clouding over of luka (in my previous answer where i was talking about how luka thinks about her: he does something similarly divergent from alnst's idealisation form). in her profile she says "i shouldn't have approached you from the beginning and been nice to you... shall we talk about something else?" — the evasion, the shortness, very different from the answers she uses for everyone else. she's kind of refusing to let him become her ghost lol. in the artbook, they say "from the outside, hyuna appears to be moving forward, but in reality, she’s unable to escape her past." i really like how all in has hyuna creating her own, Changed Fantasy with the lyrics about her control through which her own Free self is made manifest coming off as a Kind of proof of life against the way said lyrics r layered with flashes of luka and hyunwoo & her own desperate expression. she's not singing about luka...! she's singing about herself but he appears nonetheless and the lyrics at the points he appears characterise her further to me. like she still makes the gestures mid song, going through the motions of exhibited confidence despite her distressed expression... it fascinates me in how a stage where everyone story-ises another in order to get this individuation (see: ivan),, its not just that hyuna sings about herself,, she does this on top of a Refusal of luka. compare this with luka who always sings in a way where he's obscuring himself! i really enjoy the lyrics from drunk and party [goodbye, i'll release you / from these cold shackles / your body and soul, bruised and broken / your freedom was taken away so you couldn't fly, sing!] because of the way its directed towards Someone else, keeps herself in that area of savior. but the someone else in question is hypothetical, unformed outside their plight, unlike a lot of the other songs. and so now the hyuluka art comes off as this — frame of romance, almost. luka the blissful, blushing bride & hyuna's expression of horror. in the newest art his hand curls around her hip (the location where the brand is on his own body), like he's trying to inscribe himself onto the idea of her, and she's revolted by the idea of this and he can do this, because she's Off Stage. she's the concept of freedom he has made his own... but she's alive and kicking & that's why them actually seeing each other on the stage is such an important moment to me. like,, hyuna lives in a way where she's trying to cut herself off from the sticky connections of the past, the same ones the stage is composed of. and it's really interesting how she saves mizi because she sees herself in her? it makes me think of luka-sua parallels, lol & how sua according to the artbook wanted to preserve mizi's innocence to her detriment, so that she could live within that beautiful innocence of the "heavenly garden", to the point of becoming an obstacle to mizi's growth... and luka's obsession with hyuna's idea of freedom on the stage has me speculating that something in a similar flavour happened there. because hyuna is so obsessed with growing Past it now, in a way, and luka is like a sua who lived. i'm very curious about their past..!

[iridescentscarecrow]

by you talking about makima being an abusive mother i assume you're referring to eli's excellent post about CSM's association with motherhood. please do check it out if you haven't, it's been rotting away in my brain for a while and the Chainsaw Man as a birthing device is something i'll bring up in this response.

this is a really intriguing line of inquiry, and an interesting way to think of kishibe; so i'll attempt to assimilate my thoughts on how he's positioned in this answer. this will be quite long so do bear with me:

i've talked about how Family as a concept bleeds into part two from part one. in p1, makima forms for denji a Family, and in p2, denji is handed this motherhood over nayuta.

makima as the Mother is kept and collared by the state. and thinking of chainsaw man in terms of its reproductive power can be extended to its literal reproduction of the narrative. myth and memory form themselves through regurgitation, and the CSM cuts away this chain of reproduction when it eats entire concepts. when it makes people forget. there's an already apparent connection to the Womb (makima // nayuta // denji) but the selectivity in narrative-reproduction is why its central to makima and kishibe's conflict. the war against the mother who exerts control over the child.

because kishibe is the Masculine: he teaches makima and in turn makima entrusts denji and power to him,,, he narratively affirms denji's wondering if he's still able to feel, whether he shouldn't feel sadder at himeno's death by telling us, the audience, that the best devil hunters are those who "have a few screws loose." we're painted this image of denji as a feral incomprehensible Crazy thing, but this isn't true even at this phase of the story. he mourns pochita, he empathises with power's grief at losing meowy. [there's an intriguing line of thought where you compare denji with aki along this vein too, if you think about it].

and that's why the movie date with makima is actually the effective closing of this arc -- her telling denji that he does have a heart subverts kishibe's rhetoric, and what the story tells us denji is. this is makima in her role as mama, the mother, the love that she feels and recieves and creates. incidentally, the chaotic agent that kishibe envisions coincides with makima's idealisation of the chainsaw man, apart from the part where she's expressedly affectionate towards it. and who has she been raised by except these (masculine) institutions? who taught her how and what to want?

aside but "that's a lie." // he sees makima and recognises her machinations at one level but he's never really understood her or her need for love. she tells him that she wants to save people (and this may or may not be true) but he can't really parse that, can he? and kishibe also structures and contextualises so much of the story for us, just like what makima does: what i already said about denji's chaotic self, him narrating reze's past, etc. he's an independent source of information.

because yeah: kishibe is ruthless. and people often bring up kishibe's relationship with quanxi but i don't often see them balance her "ignorance is bliss" vs. kishibe's need to have a few screws loose. we know as the audience about how quanxi actively shuts herself off, but kishibe keeps talking about leaning into this devil hunter nature. and what i think is decipherable from this dynamic is that quanxi, or at least what kishibe sees her as, is kishibe's ideal. tbh she's actually a Symbol for various different ideals, her habitation and display of her sexuality alongside her Ignorance is denji's ultimate form! and kishibe trains denji... [aside but this is why cosmo being her gf is so interesting to me. something something woman who thinks ignorance is bliss x devil who embodies the Horrors of Knowing]

kishibe blindfolding himself after her death is him transposing that ignorance onto himself. he doesn't want to see a thing -- and that's where you see that dissonance. it's not that he's beyond caring, it's how blind he is in how he does this caring.

and kishibe strains against this, he wants to cut away his relationships as contrasted with makima (and even denji) wanting to form them. and this is why makima cutting off kishibe's last tie to quanxi is so interesting because you remember: quanxi didn't accept his deal.

you have kishibe pining after quanxi and yet she's not sexually available to him, so he further isolates himself. and the forming and breaking of relationships comes back here so vividly --

aki's and power's deaths form the CSM out of denji. it's crazy and unpredictable but it doesn't challenge makima, does it? // "attacks don't work against her."

and when all is said and done, denji tells him it's love. loove. denji's the one who explains makima to kishibe. they're sitting at the bench and denji's petting the dogs while nyako, the willingly domesticated animal, twirls itself around kishibe... and kishibe handles the cat with such affection. denji tells him it's love so what does he do except hand nayuta to him??

thank you for the ask, anon!

[iridescentscarecrow]

thank you for sharing your thoughts on anything and everything. i'm really inspired by the way you compose and illustrate your ideas. it means a lot to me, especially as someone who struggles with expressing themselves. i have two questions for you: do you have any advice when it comes to thinking critically about media consumption? like how do you happen upon your thoughts? i want to be better and more thoughtful with my own reading and sharing my thoughts and feelings on stuff i find impactful. and two: could you talk more about makima and her themes of freedom and gender and chainsaw man? the way you expressed that really opened up an aspect of her character for me that i hadn't considered before. sorry if any of this is untoward and i hope this message finds you well! thank you again.

hi anon !! sorry for getting to this so late, i've been very busy. i'm glad you think so 🙇‍♂️. thank you!

i don't know if i have any advice? i like analysing/building on certain themes because i genuinely enjoy them & everything else is an offshoot. i don't think there's a particular <thinking critically> skill to be acquired. i struggle with putting my thoughts into words sometimes, but in the end i'm mostly talking about the elements that appeal to me, enmeshed in the biases i have. & everyone sees different things & that's quite beautiful. i like seeing texts as components of larger histories & pre-existing tropes/mythologies/genres and looking at individual element in that context, because everything's informed by everything that came before, even if that's a horrific kind of truth... i'm not sure what other advice i can give you anon, but i'd say i often lack confidence when posting my thoughts but eased into it with time. & sometimes things come to you even mid articulation, because that's an act of translation.

regarding your second question: i can't recall what i've said & not said — but makima has always been someone who seeks freedom in the image she projects onto the CSM. that kind of fan. the scene in the train where she gazes out of the window & says "the drinks yesterday were delicious" or the failed superimposition with her sputtering over the cigarette in the graveyard. you can think of kishibe here & insanity & irreconcability & hypermasculinity. makima being raised in a certain way as the control devil, and wanting something she can't quite articulate alongside intimacy w/ pochita. & how brutally she twists denji into this ideal. conversely, how denji is gendered — the painting of the Mother & the Child — in the caregiving role he assumes over their "daughter", nayuta... i can't really put all my thoughts down haha. but i think it's at the core of her character. denji too always wished to "dream."