♦maje | 30 | poland ♦art, otoge, anime, games ♦more active on twitter @dellycroix ♦ i have stage 3 triple negative inflammatory breast cancer, going thru chemo atm 🤪
As of 7.5, I love to think everytime Jamil refuses one of Kalim’s requests, Kalim has taken up silently pouting with his cheeks puffed, or with a slight little whine in his throat.
Magically, the request gets completed an indeterminate amount of time later.
[Starting with a disclaimer: I’m not an expert though I do speak Japanese, take everything I say with a grain of salt, etc… It’s just a little fun fact based on personal observations. Feel free to discard it.
Now, I won’t bore you too much with explanations about how the Japanese language uses second-person pronouns because it’s a nuanced discussion, I’m not a professor, and I’m not here for that, but you just need to know that they aren’t used that much is conversations. In fact, you can go a whole conversation with someone without using one. Fun language. Because of this, it’s a pain to find them in vignettes, so I gave up pretty quickly and will only use a few different examples.]
When translating Jamil’s “La Bonbonnière” vignette where he talks a lot with Yuu, I noticed something about the way he addressed them. He uses “君” (kimi) to talk to them which I found a bit funny. Maybe you’re wondering “Yeah so?” and yes, I guess that it doesn’t mean anything because, once it’s translated into English, it’s essentially the same “you” as any other pronoun… But that’s when the JP script (and some Japanese knowledge) helps!
You see, Jamil doesn’t always use “君” (kimi). The first Magical Archives tells us that he uses both “お前” (omae) and “君” (kimi). “お前” (omae) is rougher, more casual while “君” is a little more polite. Not as much as “あなた/貴方” (anata), but still more than “お前” (omae). Don’t worry, I will stop using Japanese right after this paragraph to make reading easier on the eyes.
So, when does Jamil use “omae” and when does he use “kimi”? We have a few examples of both.
“Omae”:
– Kalim. Of course, as other characters have said before, they are closer to each other than to anyone else, so it’s obvious that Jamil would be very casual while addressing Kalim*.
– Ace** and Floyd. A junior/clubmate and a classmate/clubmate. Nothing to really point here, they’re friends or at least close acquaintances who celebrate each other’s birthdays with pranks and fool around in the gym.
– Najma. His sister. They bicker in public, she teases him, he tries to retaliate… They’re close siblings is all.
“Kimi”:
– Azul. He doesn’t want to be associated with Azul despite our beloved octopus’ best efforts and keeps a distance between them.
– Sebek and Silver. A junior and classmate. They don’t have many interactions that’d make them friends or acquaintances and Jamil is always polite with them.
– Yuu. You, Yuu, protag-kunchan. A junior who’s always here because they’re the MC.
What do I get from this? Well, it’s pretty clear. We know Jamil has clear boundaries with people, so I’d hazard a guess and say that he uses “kimi” to establish a sense of distance between himself and his interlocutor. It’s a pretty neutral way of speaking compared to his speech when he’s with the people he uses “omae” with where he teases, bullies or bickers with them. He also uses “omae” with other classmates like Ruggie where he doesn’t hesitate to use them (like in “La Bonbonnière” vignette), so I’d also say that he uses that pronoun for people he knows he can do that to (which I’d qualify as “more than acquaintances, less than friends”) which isn’t the case for the people in the “kimi” category. That’s my interpretation at least.
To conclude with, I said I found it “funny” that Jamil uses “kimi” for Yuu because despite the vignette showing a good/neutral vibe between them, in the end, it made me feel like there’s nothing more to this. Like he’s still guarded and closed off. He really doesn’t change I guess.
Bonus! Jamil does a few pronoun switches during the Main Story that I like, so I’ll talk a bit about this here.
1) * I added this after the Kalim section so I could expand later. Later is now. In Book 7.5, when Jamil bullies Kalim by playing the perfect servant, he changes how he addresses Kalim and how he talks about himself. I won’t talk about the other language change (the keigo/polite language he uses) here.
Usually, Jamil uses “俺” (ore) which is a masculine and casual way to speak about one’s self. Here though, he goes for “私” (watashi) which is more polite/neutral for obvious reasons – he’s pretending to be a docile servant who speaks with deference. The same goes for how he addresses Kalim with “あなた様” (anata-sama) which is a level above anata (which was the neutral/polite second-person pronoun I spoke about earlier).
In short: he’s going all out, and that’s why Kalim thinks he’s talking weird. While he does speak less casually, more neutrally with seniors like Leona (at least in Kalim’s Tamashina-Mina’s vignette), he doesn’t use keigo per se. Here though, he does. My rough translation of the Book 7.5 had him talking a little stilted to try imitating the style (alas, I’m not a pro), but it’s way more visible in Japanese.
2) ** Just a little note regarding Ace. Though Jamil does use “kimi” at the start of the year (Floyd’s “PE Uniform” vignette), in later stories (the first Ace screenshot comes from Ace’s “Luxe Couture” vignette), he uses “omae”. Good on them for becoming friends!
3) Remember when Jamil went to talk to Neige to trick him into falling for Snake Whisper? He changed pronouns here too. How and why you ask? Well, he used “僕” (boku) which is above “ore” in the politeness scale, but below “watashi”. Deuce uses “boku”. A younger boy could use “boku” too. This makes Jamil looks less threatening, more meek which serves to make Neige lower his guard. To continue, he uses “貴方” (anata) to refer to Neige. It’s polite/neutral – way less casual than “omae”/”kimi” that he uses for people he knows – to reinforce the idea that he’s a fan meeting his idol.
Since this is a Scarabia blog, maybe you’re wondering “What of Kalim?” and well, Kalim just uses “omae” for everyone, and he also uses “ore” for himself with everyone. Thank you, Kalim, I don’t have to type a 900 words post to explain your speech patterns. I ran out of space to put screenshots too. It' all your fault,Jamil.
And that’s it! If I remember something else, I’ll add to this post.
Jamil and Kalim make me SICK. The complexity of their dynamic, the contrast between their characters, everything about them is beautiful and tragic in the best way possible. I adore them, and felt I rarely draw them. I’m considering drawing some Vil x Rook or Riddle x Floyd next, but can’t be too sure.
I relate to Kalim, I also wouldn’t be able to let go of such a beautiful man.
i forced them together in my dorm so they could duke it out and it finally happened
i wanna say i really love jamil’s voice in his line even when he’s mad he sounds so cool and awesome and kalim’s “i’m mad now!” is so cute to me i’m sorry i can’t take this two seriously
ever since vil's luxe couture groovy was first revealed i have not been able to stop thinking about how much i love him and the way his relationship with gender is written and treated by the narrative. the way that he's a gnc man who refuses to be seen without makeup on, who uses an extremely feminine personal pronoun in japanese ("atashi") and it isn't treated like an unusual thing or a joke. the way he admires the fairest queen, wants to be beautiful like she was and has such an immense amount of pride and confidence in his physical beauty. and then literally not one person in the whole story calls vil's masculinity into question except for epel, who gets told by vil that his views on gender roles and of men doing "feminine" things are backwards and archaic, and ends up having a whole arc where he learns that he was wrong and comes to see his own naturally cute and feminine appearance as a strength!
and then the fact that the narrative doesn't just treat vil normally as a gnc man but also actively celebrates him by having him be such a massive, world-famous celebrity who's so respected and loved?? he's a movie star, he's a model with a record number of runway appearances, he's an influencer who has 5 million magicam followers, if he advertises a product it flies off the shelves. in his dorm uniform vignette an international fashion magazine--which is specifically known for being the first to feature vil on its cover--is coming to interview the pomefiore students for an article on their pursuit of beauty, and the interviewer tells vil that he looks like the fairest queen reborn! and that's how he wants to be seen and is an entirely positive thing!! and with vil being so famous throughout twisted wonderland there will be kids and teens, most certainly including gnc and trans kids, who will look up to him and hear him publicly say things like how there's no such thing as something being just "for girls" or "for boys" and that men shouldn't be ashamed of doing feminine dance moves or wearing certain kinds of clothing. kids who will feel empowered because the vil schoenheit said they could be both beautiful and strong.
idk, it's just, in a lot of other stories i'd expect vil to struggle more because of the way he presents himself and to be treated in a more comedic way because of it. but instead he's a very important and well-developed character who's incredibly successful and confident, who isn't the slightest bit a joke or comic relief character and in fact is one of the most responsible and mature in the whole cast, whose struggles are mostly unrelated to his gender presentation but who gets to defend his right to be happy just the way he is when someone does look down on him for it, and who at least in my opinion gets some of the prettiest cards in the whole game. he is such a cool and unique character and i love him so much and find this aspect of how he's written to be so empowering and refreshing.
“standard dni” in bios is funny to me. i keep thinking about the idea of a designated class of people that goes around tumblr knowing they’re not supposed to interact with posts
missing The Character is a strange thing because yea there's always the option to go back to their source material or looking at art or reading fics but it's also like i can't just call them up like i would a friend to see how they're doing and that's the frustrating part of it
We all got that one mutual that be going through the most treacherous situations a person could endure and then posting a few minutes later about why such and such should get fucked through a concrete wall.
Mutual: my situationship partner just got caught in a tornado at a broken glass factory where they were cheating on me with my landlord who just increased my rent by 6000% and my pet marmot has a disease so rare they’re naming it after him and all my bones are becoming apricot jelly which I’m allergic to.
Same mutual 16 minutes later: Do you think Ronald McDonald and the Burger King ever explored each other’s bodies?
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