i love dog coded characters. devoted dogs that will slip on the collar of their own violation, who will lay at your feet and put their head in your lap because there's nowhere else they could ever be, for better or worse. stray dogs that have been hurt before and growl and bite when you come too close, yet still come slinking back and can't bear to stay too far from your side, even if they can't let themselves come any closer. dogs who attack anyone who you name, dogs who guard you with their last breath, dogs who realize the collar is both a point of connection and control, dogs who think their world is the length of their leash. do you get it.
let's talk about how both sha-ming and sq utilize their sexualities in very specific ways to present themselves as shallow (sha-ming as sleazy and sq as an airhead) and thus get people to underestimate them and maintain a careful distance with others. and how they both care so so much about other people but sha-ming is afraid of getting attached to others and getting hurt, and sq is afraid of never being loved for who she is without any ulterior motives on the other person's part.
i love confident and silly readers but lowk i also enjoy when reader is insecure about love but in a way where they've made their peace with it and it just becomes a fact of life, something they reason through. like ofc no one thinks of them in that way. it's silly to expect otherwise.
and. ofc. to counterbalance this, the other character has to be wildly, deeply obsessed and is soooooo in love while reader cannot see it at ALL because it's just so ridiculous.
okay so. i was thinking on this and discussing with a friend, and these are my honest thoughts on the flaws/issues that would pop up in a rls with these hq characters, especially when they're in high school lol. under the cut bc it gets a little long!
atsumu: his fanclub warns each other to stay away from dating him not out of a sense of jealousy or possessiveness, but because dating atsumu is easily the worst experience you will have in your entire life. getting into a relationship with him isn't the hard part, surprisingly, because he's amiable to anything that strokes his ego. the real challenge is in actually dating him, and there's a reason most people who approach him lose their crush when they talk to him for an extended period of time. he's demanding and selfish, and he's the sort of person who expects you to drop everything for him when he wants attention, but will never make any effort to reciprocate.
in fact, atsumu gets irritated at "clingy" behavior and will dump you with no hesitation if he finds you annoying, if you ask him for too much that he doesn't want to give, or if you "get in the way of volleyball." he's hypocritical to the extreme, picky, testy, and really just expects you to stroke his ego and flatter him and little else. he might be willing to play along and act the part of a good boyfriend if he's in the right mood for it, but it won't be consistent by any means. he does get offended if you choose to break up with HIM, though. like wtf. were't you getting along so well?????? (he told you not to text him during interhigh tryouts because he would NOT respond and has more important things to focus on and then promptly forgot he said that).
osamu: osamu is more popular to date than atsumu, a fact osamu holds over his head endlesslyyyy. and on the surface, osamu is leagues better than his brother. he doesn't expect you to be a decorative lamppost, for one, and for another, he actually does appropriate boyfriend activities, like take you on dates, bring you little gifts on anniversaries and holidays, and walk home with you after school. however, osamu also can't really keep a partner because he has the opposite problem of atsumu: instead of being demanding, he's inoffensive and lukewarm, and never deviates from that.
it's not as osamu ever sets out to make you feel neglected, but he's just shy of passive. he can go through the basic motions to get by, but he won't really put in the attention or effort to do more than that if he doesn't find it interesting enough. this is something that becomes more apparent the longer you date him. he goes out with you less because he really really wants to and more because he doesn't have a good enough reason to say no. having mutual feelings for him is enough; he just assumes things will fall into place and work out because you both like each other. osamu is not the sort of guy who would ever trouble himself to do anything he doesn't want to, so he also gets irritated if you push him too hard. also, he won't ever linger over a breakup, whether he initiates it or not. out of sight, out of mind.
oikawa: oikawa?? with a flaw?? when he's the best, most charming boyfriend of all time?? it's hard to find an issue with him, and that's precisely the issue itself. it's just so easy with oikawa, because he's sweet. he's dedicated. he's attentive. he's a great boyfriend both on paper and in practice, despite how carefree he may act, but he won't let YOU be a good partner. friction is inescapable in any healthy relationship, but there is no friction with him because oikawa is so focused on making sure you have a good time and that he's living up to the expectations laid out for him that he never really opens up.
it's to the point you never really feel like you get to know him, because he wants to the Best Boyfriend Ever, and wants to succeed in both fulfilling his role and maintaining the positive way people view him. he's really good at dedicating himself to others, even if it means neglecting himself unintentionally. it's reminiscent of the way he plays setter, actually, and how he dedicates himself to his spikes on court. maybe romance, to some extent, is just another calculation for him. also, as much as he cares about you, he will always put volleyball first and has trouble balancing priorities as a result. oikawa will inevitably stretch himself too thin in an effort to make something work, which just serves to make you feel a little exhausted, dating someone who's always putting on this performance but who you don't really ever know.
kenma: listen. it's really, really difficult to be a position where kenma 1. likes you and 2. likes you enough to DATE you. so even getting that far is already a success in and of itself. congratulations on unlocking a hidden achievement! but kenma, despite appearances to the contrary or initial expectations, is a difficult person to date. he's a specific combination of both obstinate AND lazy in the sense that he will put his blood, sweat, and tears into seeing something through if he chooses to do it, but he also digs his feet in and refuses to compromise if he doesn't want to.
also, kenma has a habit of tossing things aside when he gets bored, and he demands to be constantly entertained. if the relationship ever gets inconvenient, or annoying, or if he simply loses all interest for whatever reason, he will break up with you without a second thought. it's also REALLY easy for him to act spoiled in a relationship because you might feel like you need to capitulate to his whims, but that also runs the risk of him getting bored if you're not giving him anything interesting to work with or you're too passive. but he also hates it if you push him all the time and impose your demands on him, which is another way to make him turn tail and run. it's a tricky balancing act with kenma! he's very very very picky. unfortunately, he treats dating like a video game run.
kita: so kita shinsuke is actually the world's most perfect man and would have no flaws as a boyfriend ever as a result. JK!!! there are some flaws to kita's behaviors. in general, i do think kita is genuinely one of the best boyfriends of the bunch in the sense that he's steadfast, attentive, caring, and devoted in a way that makes it feel like you've been dating for years instead of weeks. HOWEVER, you're at a loss if you expect traditional romanticism from kita. he will not whisper sweet nothings into your ear. he will not go out of his way to act physically affectionate. in fact, people might be startled you're dating at all if they don't know kita very well.
additionally, he's pretty intense. he doesn't treat dating casually, because it's another aspect of life that he applies himself fully to. if he's going to do it, he's going to do it well, you know? so if you want a fling, you're out of luck. kita also has a very strict routine that he adheres to, and it's very easy for him to integrate you into that. he doesn't expect you to go out of your way to act like he does or to suddenly structure your life around his routines, but he does expect you to respect his daily rituals, or at the very least, not get in the way of them. perfectionism is daunting in a boyfriend, and he won't budge on the things that he thinks are vital. you might end up feeling like another task successfully completed that he checks off on his list.......
i think soulmates is fun as a horror trope. i think there's something soooo fun about the horror of being bound to only one person forever, that this is someone who will know you whether you want them to or not. the idea that you WILL fall in love with them, and you have no choice in the matter. also the capacity to use the soulmate bond as a tool to keep someone close to you, whether they want to be or not.... it's sooo fascinating to question the ways in which love/soulmates/relationships are constructed.....
hi all! this is the analysis i wrote for my grad midterms as part of a larger portfolio, and i've touched it up a bit for posting. the crux of my essay and research was concerned with the monstrous mother and abjection.
some disclaimers: i was working with a specific prompt and a limited word count, so i didn't have time to hit on all the points i wanted to make. trust me when i say i could easily go on for about twenty more pages on monstrosity and motherhood in unsounded. i'm also using some psychoanalytical frameworks provided by freud and kristeva.
i also make comparisons to incest and abuse, especially in regards to ilganyag's character and actions. when i evoke these concepts, i am by no means accusing, condemning, or placing value judgements on the characters within the text for their particular actions. i am not a sole authority or stating that this is definitively what the text means to say. this is simply my own interpretation of the text using psychoanalytic theorists as a basis.
this is also my warning that these concepts are present in my essay if you'd like to avoid them. and ofc there are also unsounded story spoilers.
anyways. essay under the cut, and some extra author notes after that:
From ancient literary figures like Grendel’s mother to modern depictions such as the Other Mother in Coraline, the figure of the monstrous mother has always been a vehicle for our cultural anxieties concerning motherhood. Nothing is more frightening than the mother, and by association, her body, when it distorts, subverts, and twists traditional ideas of maternal nurture and care. When the mother becomes a site of trauma, death, monstrosity, and injury, it breaks the foundation of our identity and invites intimate fears about our own mortality and ruptures the comfort of the family. In the epic fantasy graphic novel Unsounded, Ashley Cope utilizes the figure of the monstrous mother through the bird goddess Ilganyag to play with and subvert traditional expectations of the maternal as nurturing and selfless, and to reveal the implicit horror in the exploitation of power dynamics between mother and child and the maternal body. Using Kristeva’s and Freud’s theories, I will examine the abject horror of the monstrous mother who complicates the traditional family structure.
Ilganyag’s first appearance in the comic sees her take form of an innocuous black bird haunting the Khert, the source of magic, memories, and reincarnation in Unsounded’s world. However, that is far from her true form. When she interacts with one of the protagonists, Duane, her torso twists out of the bird’s mouth, which functions as her lower body, revealing sleek, red, insect-like limbs and a row of six black breasts with protruding nipples. It is her face that is most human, albeit slightly feathered, familiar but bordering on uncanny. From her first appearance alone, Ilganyag’s physical form embodies the abjection of the monstrous mother, where “it is thus not lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection, but what disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite” (Kristeva 4). Ilganyag is both human and animal, both divine and monster, with her red skin, black hair, and bird body, and this amalgamation of differing parts disorders our own sense of self. Are we, then, not so different from monsters, and not just one step removed from them?
Additionally, her seemingly benevolent nature, her guidance of the narrative’s protagonists in matters both spiritual and emotional, and protruding breasts, bringing to mind a mother’s milk, positions her implicitly as a maternal figure. In particular, the breast serves as a symbol of motherhood, as Timofei Gerber breaks down in his article “Eros and Thanatos: Freud’s two fundamental drives:” “the mother’s breast is not as unconditionally available as the womb, it needs to be summoned by crying.” The breast is the source of the infant's sustenance and thus fulfillment, but is also the infant’s first exposure to lack and denial. Its needs are not fulfilled passively and wordlessly as it was in the womb, and satisfaction is now determined by external entities: the mother hearing its cries and thus fulfilling her role by feeding it. However, this also becomes a site of the human’s primal fear of the mother: someone who could reject and neglect the infant as much as she can nurture it, denying its need for survival. The presence of six breasts is discomfiting because it reinforces the disorientation three times over, of both lack and denial. In addition, Ilganyag’s gigantic size also positions the human characters she interacts with as juvenile and child-like in comparison, beings which are both physically and mentally inferior to her.
On a psychological level, the monstrous mother is also a site of fear because she is a reminder of mortality: “The theme of the two-faced mother is perhaps the representation of the baleful power of women to bestow mortal life” (Kristeva 158). If the mother can bestow life, then the mother can also take it away, which makes her monstrous, the dual harbinger of both life and death. The womb is simultaneously a grave, a site of the abject where identity can be both birthed and annihilated. This fear is also reminiscent of the Eros and Thanatos drives within each human present in Freudian thought: the Eros drive desires a creation of higher unities, or a return to the womb, while the Thanatos drive desires self-annihilation, or a return to a pre-birth, inorganic state of being (Gerber). The womb, and by extension, the mother and her body, is the fascination of both drives: it is where a place of higher unities and self-annihilation can take place simultaneously.
Ilganyag’s body is a physical representation of the cultural anxieties present towards the mother, the fear of its destructive power and a place of nurture that has turned hostile instead. Her nipples sprout razors that she guides towards the mouth of her children, cutting their own mouths as they wean on blood (Cope 110). Additionally, when she leaps to smother Duane for his perceived betrayal and insolence towards herself, she reveals that within her labia, her vagina is lined with teeth, a vagina denata (Cope 196). There is nothing more monstrous and abject than the mother’s body that you cannot return to but will also destroy you in the attempt, a rejection from the womb. The mother becomes not a protector but a threat to the life of the child, and by extension, a threat to the proliferation of humanity and its survival.
However, the monstrous mother is not just limited a physical manifestation; it is also a emotional and mental monstrosity, one made apparent when Ilganyag manipulates her children and places their care second to her goals. Within the narrative, she gathers a group of men, the Black Tongues, throughout the centuries to function as both lover and child to her. To join this group, which offers the temptations of forbidden knowledge, they must castrate themselves and wear silver circlets around their neck as a symbol of her domination over them. However, this relationship is fertile ground for manipulation, control, and abuse. As Ilganyag tells her favorite follower, son, and lover Bastion when he tries to probe into her plans: “Shh... Mother is tending them. I am the sun that unfurls your fronds; the cool water that entices your roots. I nourish and hope, the subtle gardener. And for now, the garden pleases” (134). As Ilganyag speaks, she is positioned behind Bastion, cradling him with her hands placed provocatively on his chest and near the hem of his pants, visually placing him as both lover and child as she denies him agency. The monstrous mother is horrific because she destroys the traditional patriarchal family structure and subverts a woman’s typical role as passive caretaker, active only as she nurtures the husband and child.
The pseudo-incestuous placement of her followers as both lovers and children also become a symptom of abuse and control, where children are then placed as vulnerable subjects that the mother harms, blurring the traditional boundaries and protection of the heterosexual and patriarchal family. In Ilganyag’s own words, she is their “gardener,” which dehumanizes them as objects under her control, and the implicit warning that she will prune them should they prove to be undesirable growth. She only keeps them alive so long as the garden “pleases,” an inherent selfishness and conditional love that’s frightening when it means the mother considers herself first, and the child second, if at all.
This also ties back to the Thanatos and Eros drives and abjection: the monstrous mother is horrifying because she is the site of both creation and higher unity, but also complete annihilation, and the monster is not afraid to enact the later. The monstrous mother evokes primal worries over mothers who do not nourish us but instead reject or manipulate. If the mother’s womb is a site where needs are passively meant and the mother is an extension of the infant, then to the child, there is abjection in realizing the mother is an outside entity, disordering their sense of identity and creating fear. The monstrous mother arises from the mother who does not fulfill her patriarchal role and thus does not know her place, fragmenting our own identity as “child” in response.
The monstrous mother continues to haunt our imaginations because she serves as a site of primal, cultural anxiety over our own mortality, the precarious nature of our own identity, our inherent vulnerability but also as a mediation over women who reject, subvert, and resist their roles. As a monstrous mother, Ilganyag’s inhuman body and manipulation of her “children” embodies that fear of a mother who does not nurture but destroys instead. However, this monstrosity also reveals the instability and fragile construction of traditional patriarchal family roles. Through the destruction and deconstruction of such traditionally oppressive and strict roles for mothers and for women by extension, this can provide a different avenue for female characters that is not reliant on their patriarchal worth as womb and child-bearer.
extra notes:
ilganyag is not human, and as such, her affection cannot be measured in human terms. is it wrong for the divine to treat humanity as she pleases? there is an inherent power imbalance present in the god/worshipper dynamic, after all, and gods and humans occupy different social strata. and ilganyag is not a cruel person! she does not relish excessively in suffering, but simply sees it as a means to an end. she is monstrous from a human perspective, but she's not human; she's a senet beast. to ilganyag, her actions are justified, and everything she does is out of love, even if it's a love that's frightening to us. but then again, isn't a mother's love always frightening in its capacity to smother and control? isn't she right, to an extent, that she has more knowledge of this world than the humans that reside in it? what does it mean to be a god in the unsounded universe, and is it just a title we attach to beings that are simply inconceivably different from us?
there's a line that jacaranda says in particular that i keep turning over in my head: "mother expects father of all men." if ilganyag views men as a proxy for her lover, that explains her fascination with control and her jealousy over her black tongues. they're a way to reproduce her relationship with her original lover. then, in her words, we can also expect the inverse: ilganyag sees herself in all the women she looks upon, and so they become an avenue for her self-loathing.
bastion's circlet in particular is a source of fascination of me, especially when he compares it to dried cum in conversation to darkest paul. the collar is a sign of favor from ilganyag, but it is still a collar: a sign of ownership and possession. bastion's in particular serves as a violation of his body, and it's no coincidence he's her favorite either. while the other black tongues are able to take off their circlets, bastion's is rooted deeply in his body, physically attaching him to ilganyag, the mother-lover. and aren't children, in the end, just possessions of their parents?
unsounded in general is interested in deconstructing and criticizing familial roles and the traditional family structure, which is part of what the monstrous mother is meant to destroy. power imbalance is inherent to a traditional family structure, which makes it a fertile ground for control, manipulation, and even abuse. this isn't to say that parents are irredeemable terrible people or that Family Is Bad, but that the traditional family structure necessitates that children are powerless, and are treated as lesser because they are not seen as whole people. this is just how the system is intended to work, and adults are will never be punished for simply reinforcing this system. we see it over and over with sette and nary, quigley and matty, jivi and his particular family circumstance, the kept twins, and the plat children sent off to war. even duane is not immune from this, for as full of love as he is. parents are people, and people are flawed, but parents are also supposed to be a sole, unquestioned, all-knowing voice of authority. and this is a contradiction, the consequence of which children bear the brunt of.
kristeva also says, essentially, that if the wastes and fluids that leave the body are abject, then how do we position ourselves as beings that are also ejected from our mothers? one way to handle this is through the sexualization of these fluids (piss, cum, etc) which i think extends to the black tongues and ilganyag. being her lover figure is a way to negotiate their own precarious positions as both fragile human and son and then wrights and reshapers of the world. to fall in with a being more powerful than you is a comfort and a form of protection against the contradictions of your own identity.
okay so. here's my redemption arc tm for the hq boys and ways i think you can make a rls work with them + their good traits compares to their bad ones <333
atsumu: i think atsumu functions well in a relationship where he feels challenged, or at the very least, has to work to impress someone. he's at his best when he thinks he has to work hard to earn something, because he gets complacent fast if he thinks it's just going to be handed to him. so if he feels like he has to earn your respect, and then has to KEEP it, then he's going to throw himself into it 100%. besides, he hates losing, and he always puts in the work for things that he thinks are worth it.
also, despite his numerous flaws (childish, arrogant, competitive, etc), atsumu is also sincere and honest in a way that makes it hard to fully dislike him. he likes what he likes, and he has no qualms about making it known, no matter what other people may think. his love is very very earnest so you will never doubt that he cares about you, because he treats it like second nature, an act as easy as breathing. if atsumu's in your corner, then he's in it 100%. as much as he wants you to push him, he'll also push you 120% because he has high expectations for you, and he believes in you more than anyone else. he won't accept anything less!!
osamu: the secret to a good relationship with osamu is communication AND taking initiative. unfortunately, osamu expects the other person to just read his mind (side effect of growing up with atsumu) and has a habit of being complacent as long as things are (seemingly) going well. you really do have to sit him down and tell him what you want, to lay clear your expectations and give him that little kick, as osamu has a habit of wanting to rise to any challenge presented to him.
also!! osamu might be more subtle about it, but just like atsumu, if he likes you, then he's in your corner 100%. he will put in persistent, steady effort for the things he thinks matters, and never back down at all. he's also very observant, so it is a little unnerving about how well he picks up on all your habits and traits, even ones you might not be aware of, and how readily he incorporates them into his own life and your own interactions together. sometimes it feels like he knows you need something before you do. did i mention he's also patient? once he's set his mind to something, he WILL see it through.
oikawa: honestly, the thing with oikawa is that you need to see past his facade, and you need to have the wherewithal to be veryyy upfront and honest with him. it's very rare that he ever lets that initial guard and facade drop, so you have to be the one to break through his unintentional walls, to reach out to the person he loathes letting other people see. he needs someone who can push him to grow in the same way he pushes others, who will be there for him when he can't go to anyone else, so there also needs to be a sense of mutual respect and camaraderie. his partner should be his friend first and foremost.
when oikawa is relaxed in a relationship, he has the habit of acting a bit more bratty and childish than he would with anyone else. it's a sign of closeness, if he feels like he can relax and trust you to accept him even at his worst or when he's less put together. if he's willing to tease you or mess with you in any capacity, then you know you've gotten somewhere with him. he will always bring out the best in you, though, because he is encouraging and thoughtful like no one else, and he will always believe in you 100%. just make sure you're willing to believe in and support him, too.
kenma: the secret to managing kenma is both ridiculously easy and difficult all at once: you need to catch his interest. i think the trick to both earn and then subsequently keep his interest is to be the sort of person that always strives to improve yourself and take on new risks, new challenges. kenma likes novelty. he likes people who are always doing new and unexpected things, who go against his passive, assumed expectations and who make him want to want to grow in response and meet you tit for tat.
when kenma is at his best in a relationship, he latches onto you like a very loyal and clingy cat. you think this is your personal space? wrong. it's also HIS personal space. he's a little bratty, a little demanding, but kenma thrives on mutual respect and a mixture of stability and novelty. he's not a fan of hierarchy in any way and doesn't like being forced to do something, but give him enough trust and space and leave the door open and you'll find that he'll always come back to you in one way or another. he wants his independence without being pressured into acting a certain way, but he'll always pull through for you when you need it.
kita: i think to be in a good relationship with kita, regardless of whether it's romantic or not, you need to earn his respect. this doesn't necessarily mean that you need to act in a way that he always agrees with or in a manner similar to him, but that you are earnest, steadfast, and devoted to your own goals. kita values consistency and diligence, so his respect isn't going to be immediately earned, or even obvious once you do earn it, but like all good things, it's worth waiting for.
also. i think if you understand kita, then you know that, even if he isn't going to act super outwardly affectionate, he is consistent and earnest with his own feelings. he's not someone who's capable of loving shallowly or casually, and he devotes himself to you the same he devotes himself to volleyball practice or his daily routine. he will always carve out time in his schedule for you, he will always show up for you, and he will make the active choice to love you each and every day, in ways both big and small, no matter the inconvenience or difficulty.
