seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from Australia
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from India
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Brazil
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Germany
remade my height headcanons and added alpha kids yeaayy
Words of encouragement!! Words of great encouragement, statement!! :D 🫂
THANK YOU FREN
IM
FUCK
IM READYING MYSELF TO SEND IT AND IM SHAKING
IT WAS NICE KNOWING YOU ALL
I have to gush a bit about Episode 5 of Blue Eye Samurai.
MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD. I hold nothing back, so unless you want big stuff spoiled, don't read.
I love how this show explores the issues of colonialism, patriarchy, sexism, racism, revenge, etc. It does not shy away from criticizing Japanese culture in the same breath that it shows respect to how and why it developed that way and to the individual people portrayed in the narrative. One particular bit that stuck out was the Bunraku puppeteers and how they were a visual cue about the destructive and self-perpetuating effect of cultural and societal pressures on Miku's path.
Throughout the episode, interspersed with the main story and with flashbacks is a performance of Bunraku, a traditional Japanese puppet theater. Puppeteers wear black to disappear into the background and are meant to be ignored.
First, the performance overlaps with a flashback to Miku's past, when she first began on her quest for revenge against her possible fathers. She isn't experienced yet and gets horrifically injured, then stumbles off for help. The performance begins with an introduction about how the samurai isn't afraid to die, but is afraid of dying before fulfilling his vow of revenge.
At about 8:27, when the samurai sees his future bride, the puppeteers visibly fade in the animation. The overlapping flashback is when Miku, after being injured during her search for her potential father, rediscovers her "mother" (the maid who raised her until their hut burned down). That event leads to Miku foregoing her revenge, marrying Mikio (a disgraced warrior), and trying to settle into a peaceful life.
Miku was making her own choices to live peacefully, even when her family criticized her or talked her down. But Miku kept trying, even pushing back against the others and learning to be diplomatic in the face of their judgment and cruelty. She was breaking the cycle of hate by choosing to be kind and trying to help. It wasn't about shirking Japanese culture nor about acquiescing to gender roles; the puppeters were still gone whether she was trying to be a proper wife or when she showed her true self (a swordsman) to Mikio or when she told him of her oath of revenge and how she lived as a boy.
Of course, that didn't last. (It's not made obvious in the episode whether it was the maid or Mikio who reported Miku, though I'm leaning that it was the maid.)
Regardless, in the overlapping Bunraku performance, the samurai discovers his bride was from his enemy clan that he swore revenge against, and she tries to dissuade his wrath. When Miku is waiting (dressed as a bride, too!) in their home for Mikio to return from delivering the horses to the lord (including her own), she hears numerous horses approaching and takes a kitchen knife. Then, at 34:50, after the samurai beheads his child and bride, the puppeteers are back. Next, Miku leaves the home with a knife in hand to fend off the warriors that have come to kill her, and they confirm someone reported that she (the "white devil") would be there. Mikio arrives and sees her and the blooming fight, then flees, abandoning Miku to die. The dead bride, held aloft by two puppeteers, then becomes an onryō as Miku slaughters the warriors herself with Mikio's naginata.
Miku could have fled or hidden, but she chose to kill. That decision pulled her back into this cycle of destruction and hatred. The puppeteers were back because it was meant to show that outside forces were involved in Miku's decision: the trauma she endured as a mixed race person in Edo period Japan, the culture of honor that bound the warriors to hunt her and Miku to seek revenge, the cowardice of Mikio in the face of a wife stronger than him, the selfishness of the maid that blamed Miku for her suffering. Miku made a choice, but that choice was not made freely--she was forced into this by things she could not resist or escape.
The point was to show that Miku could not live her life freely in a society that demonizes her. Miku seemed to be free of the puppeteers, but the samurai was still a puppet the entire time. The puppeteers were always there. The harmful effects of specific aspects of Japanese culture were always there.
We just didn't see them because Miku was happy.
Yun: Let’s rewatch Violet Evergarden! Everything will totally be fine. I know the whole plot anyways!
Yun: *cries in every single episode now that I’m old enough to understand everything with more emotional depth*
he—
I just realized that across my three different AO3 accounts that I've written half a million words of fanfiction (not including the old FFN account that has stories that I still need to migrate)...
like...
FucK....
HI IM BACK I SAW ENDGAME IM SAD AND DEPRESSED SOMEONE HELP😀
ANOTHER TRIGUN EPISODE, ANOTHER STEP CLOSER TO THE COUCH
