- Akiridians (even slender ones like the sibs) are slightly above-scale to humans and I think that’s a really neat detail
- Stuart’s first experience with humans was capture and torture and he still loves Earth culture, if that’s not adorable and inspiring I don’t know what is
- Zadra is Really Terrible at undercover work and I love that. It saves her from being another generic badass
- Speaking of Really Terrible, if you actually look at Stuart’s fake IDs they are so unbelievably bad, how did you get into the US you goober
-I did not expect scary Señor Uhl to become the world’s best interim principal but I’m liking this development. Also very curious about his background now
- The Blanks could have been a one-off joke or shoved in a closet when not absolutely necessary and they weren’t. I love how they became integrated characters and show glimmerings of sentience, I hope they live forever
- Speaking of sentience, Mother’s subtle snark is a lifesaver. Never change, Mother
- Steve’s transformation over the series really makes you think about what his biological dad must have been like that such a (when it comes down to it) caring, emotional and naive kid felt like he had to act like a sitcom bully to get any acknowledgement or respect in life.
- Mary Wang’s social media must be flippin’ insane by now
Like... okay, so Akiridians are energy-based beings. They don’t have a clear concept of “eating” or humanoid “mating rituals” but they do have a gender binary and family groups with genetic inheritance (ie, the Houses). They can be “hurt” (Zadra post-coup) and stunned (like Krel, more than once), but seem surprised by the phenomenon of bleeding (unless Krel has just led a VERY sheltered life as a prince and never got a bloody nose before...which is possible but unlikely considering he was supposed to have warrior training).
If they are hurt sufficiently their external molecular structure sort of...disassembles itself into pure energy? Thermodynamics in microcosm I suppose. Death and severe injury are not very fleshy affairs (see: the bombing aftermath with tons of de-activated cores lying around). It’s not clear what level of damage would lead to this, though we know Zadra managed to avoid it despite being injured to the point of unconsciousness.
The healing pods on Mother give us an intriguing glimpse into the internal makeup of the Akiridians, which seems to be based around a nervous system not unlike our own, though composed of bright glowy fibers instead of flesh and blood, all centering around the core rather than a brain. Their faces seem to be made up of a semi-rigid plate rather than malleable skin.
They are clearly able to feel sensations, touch, texture and pain, though whether their skin is a series of flexible and solid plates or something softer isn’t entirely clear. It’s also a bit of a toss-up as to whether the black portions are part of their molecular structure (like with the gems in SU) or separately fabricated clothing.
Complicating things are the disguises mother provides through the transduction chamber, which, according to Krel, involves “reconfiguring our energies into a form that resembles this planet’s life forms.” It’s clearly more than a cosmetic change, since all three of them actually shrink (are condensed?) slightly and obtain organic trappings like skin and hair. They are also unable to voluntarily shed the disguise, so it’s not like they’re squished inside a literal human suit so much as their molecules gettin’ all rearranged...for twelve hours at a time.
We know that their cores remain exactly as they are (as seen through the bounty hunter’s scans), but their bodies are materially altered-- internally as well as externally, since Varvatos Vex is constantly complaining about his disguise’s “fragile bones that are not good for crushing”. This implies that their disguises would hold up even under an x-ray (potentially? though their cores would definitely be visible) and that they, for all intents and purposes, have the number of limbs, height and eyesight of their disguises as long as they wear them. And yet they aren’t entirely bound by the physical limitations of those forms (Aja’s strength, Varvatos Vex ninja flipping around).
Krel and Aja both eventually eat food as the series goes on and even seem to enjoy it at times, but it seems to be more of a social thing for them and it’s not clear how/whether they are able to metabolize what they consume.
Whatever Mother configured for their internal fluids is...not blood, or even a good facsimile. Which begs the question of whether they have any internal organs at all, whether they have a heartbeat, breathe oxygen, etc.
How/whether injuries translate from their human forms to their Akiridian forms is unclear, and could manifest very differently in each considering the vast biological differences between the “human-like energy shape” and their true forms.
Maybe? I don’t know? I need more information! Or maybe I should stop flippin’ overthinking this
Glad you’re back! Tumbl is a dumpster fire, but with the right filters it can generate a beautiful stream of content! And Slack misses you!
Aw I’ve missed Slack too! Y'all missed my last cosplay.
Yeahhh Tumblr is great… with a lot of filters. And a severely limited dash. And frequent vacations. And probably losing all your friends through unfollows. Ahaha….yeah.
It has a knack for funneling the absolute worst aspects of social media into their most potent form.
What gets to me is the enduring lack of context. With the absence of timestamps, the muddy ownership of reblogs, and the ability for a conversation to splinter in a thousand different directions without anyone getting the full picture, it’s scary easy for people to cherry pick what they want to see and believe.
Tumblr has been such a great place to meet artists and see creative fan culture thrive. I’ve learned a lot about subcultures I might otherwise have never brushed shoulders with; I’ve met some absolutely amazing people. It’s been good in that sense.
I don’t regret being here, I’m just saddened to see groups I’ve felt a real rapport with succumb to their own hatred. C'est la vie, I suppose. Not like the USA is doing any better…
Ah, I totally feel you with the DP crap that's been going on. I feel like it's okay to acknowledge it and say "That wasn't cool", but after that, I think we should move on and just enjoy ourselves. Please take your time coming back to the fanbase, we all want you to stay happy and healthy <3
Yeah, pretty much.
I’m just sorta...sticking my toes in for now? I really need to focus on original fiction anyway. I’m thinking of starting an original-writing blog here and making haikujitsu more of a side blog...
I was looking for something to kill time on Netflix and finally got around to watching it and holy crap. I'm going to try to ramble about it with no major spoilers (I'll stick to things revealed in the first 2-3 episodes) so that I can get y'all onboard because my friends this show needs more love. Seriously guys, this is the best fantasy serial I've seen since Avatar.
While it follows a lot of common monster o' the week and secret teen hero tropes, it pulls the rug out from under you at the best/worst possible moments. Real-life consequences intrude, schemes backfire, characters do the unexpected. You can never be totally certain things will go according to plan, and that's really exciting.
Why it’s Great
Swords and sorcery action! Get the obvious one out of the way, hehe. It's got flashy high-stakes, high-energy battles with swords and glowy lights and the protagonist and/or his friends being 2 seconds away from death against creatures wayy more skilled at killing than they are.
You know how kid shows dance around talking about death and dying even when the protagonists are literal ninjas with swords or w/e? This... is not that show.
...yeah that's episode 2.
Also it's really funny? Not every joke hits home, but there's some really hilarious moments--even better when they're woven into the mortal peril.
Toby is a gift. He might be a typical jokester best friend sidekick, but he's got some great lines and manages to walk the line between goofy and relatable.
Jim Lake, the protagonist, is such a good kid. He shows almost none of the toxic masculinity that is typical for this kind of protagonist. He's never self-conscious about fear of death, or shedding tears or apologizing. He lives alone with his mom, and he does all the cooking and at least some of the housework and is openly happy to take care of her.
Also he learns Spanish above and beyond class requirements just because he knows his crush is bilingual and that's frickin' adorable okay?
Speaking of the Lake family, Jim's mom. Oh man, Jim's mom. I love her. I love the ongoing gag with her awful cooking skills, I love how she's horribly overworked but still manages to demonstrate how caring she is, I love her lack of a weirdness filter and how she calls out Jim when he lies about where he's been. She's the parent all of our teen superheroes should have had.
It's hard to really talk about the trolls without getting into spoiler territory, but I just love them.
Their weird, magical, honor-driven society is a great juxtaposition against the more mundane high school life, and I love how simultaneously silly and creepy they can be. Arrrgh's character arc especially is super engaging, and wayy more nuanced than you'd expect of the tank character.
Then there are the villains. So many awesome baddies. This show is dripping with antagonists eager to kill/maim/use the protagonist, and that's part of what I love about it. The odds start out so absurdly stacked against them.
We have the typical fantasy terrifying but distant Big Bad, the scary Brute Bad, and the scheming Lesser Bads (including the deliciously complex Strickler), all of whom vastly outrank the protagonist in power, then the Monster o' the Week, then the technical allies who may fight to the death over ideological differences... and that's ignoring the school antagonists, like the bully character and the teachers who (le gasp) don't like it when their students flake. It's just a giant swamp of hazards and I love that.
Everyone has an arc in some shape or form. Something I'm weak to in TV series is the minor/just-for-laughs character growing in the second season (can anyone say McGuckit?). Trollhunters does not disappoint in this respect. We get to see not only the secondary characters (sidekicks, minor villains, Jim's mom) given more depth, agency and personality, but even some of their classmates that were barely touched on in the first season.
Also the overall character development is slow and has nuance. I love that, because so often it's simplified for children: once a Lesson is learned, it's learned. In this show there's always this back and forth, like Jim's relationship with Claire, Arrrgh's change in ideology, Strickler's priorities, and I think that culminated in what happened at the end of S1. It always feels real and true to the situation, but there's not a clean progression and that's perfect.
So yeah this barely scratches the surface but I’d better stop rambling. That’s my unasked-for pitch for Trollhunters, go watch it, it’s awesome thank you very much!
Hello! Silly question, but I wanted to know if you have a favorite character in voltron. My sister loves Keith, and I love Lance (though it was probably fandom lance that I really came to like and have since projected those feelings onto canon lance), and I also adore Hunk and Pidge. And Coran. And Allura. And I like Shiro from before he was replaced with a clone. I was just interested in which paladin/character appealed to you most :)
Haha! Not a silly question, but a tough one… which you’re having a hard time answering too, I see. XD
It’s hard to say! I’m sort of on again, off again with V:LD as a show, but I do think they did a good job with the character designs.
I really like Hunk and Lance, though neither of them have had enough screentime to really develop as characters imho. Coran is endearingly funny without being obnoxious (most of the time). Shiro is great, and the clone storyline adds this layer of intrigue and doubt to someone who started out as a reassuring cornerstone of the team. Keith has grown on me as he moves away from being a Sasuke-like character. Allura too, now that she’s become a more active part of the team. Even Lotor has a surprising level of complexity. I like how you’re never quite sure where he’s coming from.
See? Hard.
If I was forced to choose, I guess it’d be Pidge. I’m always a sucker for family feels, so her unerring focus on rescuing her father and brother is really endearing. She’s gotten some of the best solo episodes imho. Also she’s dorky, brave, super-intelligent and does incredible things with her bayard. She flippin’ innovated and improved on a thousands-of-years-old-semi-mystical technology that no one else in the galaxy really understands. She’s awesome is all I’m sayin’
Man I really wish I’d seen Coco before I finished SoaD. That scene near the end, the part with ‘you don’t have to forgive him! Just don’t forget him’ hit so well on what I was groping for on that whole messy love-hate-love bundle that comes with family traumas. How there’s a whole lot of grief built into abandoning people, even if they (in Maddie’s case) deserved it. I did the best I could, but I wish I’d been able to encapsulate that better.
Hokay I need to just... let go of my Coco feelings for like two seconds and actually talk about some stuff. Sorry about the flood of reblogs, this movie blindsided me WITH FEELS THAT I CANNOT HANDLE okay alright deep breath moving on...
What About Yer Original Fics
I spent all of November writing for Volatile, an original fiction piece detailing the life of a girl with a deadly superpower that she’s determined to control. It’s still rough and ugly and the raw draft is only about 70% done, but it was fun (though scary) hacking out a totally new world, with its own rules and tone... I think it landed somewhere in the scifi/horror genre with a side of comic book world? My next step is to methodically write out the missing scenes so I can stitch together a coherent full draft. Will update as that happens.
My other goal for December is to finish an old short story of mine, a horror/scifi (oh gee golly I have a type) tale about a man who loses his head. Delish, eh? I’m hoping to get it up on Amazon in January for as cheap as they’ll let me sell it.
So yes, I am doing things in the general direction of Real Authorhood. *finger guns* Stay tuned!
What About Yon Social Media
Yeah I wayy overshot my ability to balance multiple social media platforms. Currently I have Twitter, Slack, Wordpress, Tumblr, Snapchat, Skype, Discord, FB Messenger... just too much and I end up posting to none of it and appearing irregularly everywhere. It’s distracting and annoying, so I’ll be paring these down as the year comes to a close. If only I could get all my friends onto a single platform...
And I know there’s a backlog of asks and I’m sorry about that! I’ll do my best to parse through them soon.
What about Ye Olde Fanfiction Stuff
Ahaha, well. I’m certainly not pouring all of my molten fangirly feelings into a dark AU that rewrites the end of Coco oh no most certainly not--
*ahem*
I’m still planning on running a SoaD fanfiction contest in January, probably in tandem with reposting it to AO3 where it’ll be easier to access and cross reference. I’d make it earlier but I don’t wanna overlap with the Christmas exchanges goin’ on this month.
I also need to plan the AMA... idk if people still want me rambling about post-SoaD canon, but that’s a thing and I’ll schedule it as soon as I figure out what the rest of my holiday work schedule is gonna look like.
I will also work through my bucket list in small increments starting in 2018. I’m thinking of instating a Fanfic Friday, since it seems like I’m not going to be able to kick the habit entirely. Thanks Coco. XD
