its 1am and i am overwhelmed with love for a person who kindly and knowledgeably answered questions on a forum about niche topics. this is not the first time and it absolutely will not be the last
I wanted to figure out how to identify/describe a silver blade vs a steel blade for a fic, and I found a post on silver-collecter.com from 2010, and answers from a man named uncle_vic:
in this same thread, olewheat asked about another silver piece; uncle_vic explained that blades were not made from silver, because it'd be too soft - often carbon steel would be silver plated, and eventually get pitted.
after a volley of questions, several users asked if they could contact uncle_vic directly. vic responded, very kindly:
I am always, always charmed by a clearly veteran hobbyist helping out new people on a forum, and i wanted to see what else uncle_vic posted, what other nuggets about his life i could learn, and it turns out he was a pillar of the community:
He joined in 2006, when the website was only 2 months old, and throughout the next 6 years, he helped many identify their silver pieces, and welcomed them all with: "Hi there and thanks for joining us", and always ended with a "Regards, Uncle Vic"
He helped so often, he'd post on the social thread to let people know he'd be gone without internet access for an extended period of time!
These often didn't get many interactions, but he did so anyway, like a journal made public: one about how a hurricane was reaching him in Baton Rouge; several about his fishing trips, like this one in 2011:
A year later, he wrote a similar vacation post, which became his final topic on the forum, titled: "Gone fishin'".
In May 2012, 3 months later, a newer user asked Vic what type of fishing he liked.
Vic replied: (content warning for cancer)
This was Uncle Vic's last post on the silver-collecter.com forums. Unflinchingly honest, and this time, instead of his usual "Regards", he ended with "Keep the Faith".
According to the obituary posted in the same thread, he passed away the next day, at his camp on the Tickfaw river -- well known for fishing.
--
This isn't the first time I've come across kind, dedicated forum users, usually knowledgeable retirees, who suddenly stop posting; it certainly won't be the last. But everytime I fall in love with them, and in turn, with humanity even more, to see what we leave behind.
A retired Cajun lawyer from Baton Rouge found a silver collecting forum from a hobbyist magazine in 2006, and decided to spend the next 6 years, up to his dying day, sharing his life, his love, and his knowledge with strangers.
Thank you, Uncle Vic, for the forum users you helped; thank you for the countless, anonymous users who found your posts through search engines like me.
I'm glad your corner of the internet exists so that, 12 years since you've been gone, I can visit and you can still teach me a whole lot about identifying silver and silver makers.
the thing is that whenever someone says "pluto IS a planet" you don't know if they're actually a space fan who is prepared to love and cherish all the other bodies that would become planets if pluto was promoted again or the dumbest motherfucker on earth who thinks science should have stopped when they left 3rd grade
i have no argument as to why pluto should be a planet other than “it’s probably really sad that it isn’t a planet anymore” and i’ll stand by it god damn it
My astronomy professor pointed out that Pluto went from being just another planet to being the model specimen and best known example of a whole new class of objects, and argued that that's a promotion not a demotion.
"Planet" is a noun, and "dwarf" is an adjective describing it. ("What kind of planet?" "A dwarf planet!") All dwarf planets are planets, but not all planets are dwarf planets.
Sadly the IAU, when defining the words "planet" and "dwarf planet", explicitly excluded that interpretation. Dwarf planets are not at all planets, according to the IAU. Having dwarf planets be a subcategory of planet was a proposed idea, and it was rejected.
I'm sorry, the IAU is trying to take on the entire adjective-noun relationship in the English language? In any language? Hold on, I must make popcorn for this epic fail.
Ask any schoolchild around the world about adjectives and offer planets and dwarf planets as examples, and they'll know what to do.
Pluto is a planet. The IAU cannot win against language itself. How amusing to even try.
I promise this is especially true for museum folks, library folks, and academics. We are always looking for an opportunity to talk about our silly little special interests and we will love you for providing one. Send the email.
Literally just got off a call with the director of my country library system who was so gracious and genuinely happy to talk to me about the history of our local library board and what the current needs of the system look like. Can’t recommend this highly enough.
having a freeze response to stress is so funny in the context of normal adult stressors. millions of years of evolution are trying to tell me that the email will not find me if i stay very still and do nothing
If you want some idea of how much autistic people struggle to understand allistic people when they don’t say exactly what they mean, take a cooking recipe and replace all units of measure with “enough but not too much”. For example:
enough but not too much white sugar
enough but not too much butter
enough but not too many eggs
enough but not too much vanilla extract
enough but not too much flour
enough but not too much baking powder
enough but not too much milk
preheat oven to hot enough but not too hot
bake for long enough but not too long
Even someone who’s experienced with cooking would probably struggle to follow that recipe. Now imagine if they had no experience cooking and had no idea what these ingredients are.
I just keep obsessing over how Mizu is so many things. She truly is water, so deep and unfathomable and complex, ever-changing, ever-adapting, fluid and mysterious, she fits into every shape you pour her into, she is gentle yet vicious, soft-hearted yet callous, stoic and quiet yet still sarcastic and playful.
She is Japanese and white and both and neither, she is woman and man and both and neither, she is human and demon, she is ronin and bride and Onryo and phoenix.
She is also a sword; Mizu and her sword are one.
"The sword is the soul of the samurai."
"I am... made of mixed metal. No amount of hammering can remove my impurity."
"What is a sword? [...] It is a line. On one side of the line is life. The other, death. The edge we forge cuts the line between life and death."
Mizu's soul is thus represented by her blade, but Mizu is also
the metal: beautiful, strong, sharp, and precise, but ultimately neutral, neither good nor evil, as metal can be used to craft both weapons of death, or knives for cooking and nourishment;
the maker: artistic and passionate, the maker creates;
and the one to wield it: deadly and swift, the swordsman destroys.
In the first episode, we don't even see her blade for much of it, only mentions of it, as she doesn't even deign to fight someone like Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Ringo's noodle shop.
Most people don't even deserve to see her blade. And who is the first person in the show whom the sword is even shown to? Well...
Taigen: "Are you afraid to fight with steel?"
Mizu: "Thank you. No one has yet deserved my blade."
And then, more crucially, who does she actually allow to wield her blade? The first person she spars with? It is none other than Mikio, her husband.
She literally passes him her sword, letting him wield it for the rest of their fight, taking his naginata in exchange. Not purely a crossing of blades, but an exchange of it. Mizu is literally baring her soul to him and putting it in his hands.
In the whole show, the only other time we actually see someone besides Mizu holding her sword is after Mizu kills the Four Fangs and passes out from her wounds. Ringo picks the unconscious Mizu up, and in the process, her sword slips from her hand.
And then, resisting his selfish quest to reclaim his honour, Taigen tells Ringo a safe place for Mizu to recover and follows them both there, but not before he takes Mizu's sword, and also Chiaki's broken blade.
It is brief, but he does hold it, and the shot focusing on his hand picking it up places further emphasis on this fact.
Now, about the broken blade, @saessenach told me something very interesting, which is that when Mizu had helped craft this sword, it was made for the man she believed Chiaki was. And who exactly is that again? Let's go over the cover story he related to Master Eiji:
"I am not a swordsman. I bind books. I was taught my trade by... my father. He was killed by a drunk ronin, who cut my father down for splashing him with his cart. This ronin is a drunk, but he is skilled as I am not. He will kill me. I know this. But with a sword from you, Master, I can take his life as he takes mine. And die avenged."
So, as @saessenach so aptly put it, the broken blade "was made for a man who wanted to regain his honour from a stronger swordsman. He doesn't expect to survive the duel, but would just like to die with honour."
And doesn't that sound familiar? Like Taigen, a man who would also like to regain his honour by duelling a swordsman stronger than himself? Taigen, who had also come from nothing, who was raised not to be a samurai, but a humble fisherman, by his father who is now dead?
So of course that's why, when Taigen wields that broken blade, despite not even knowing the story behind it, Ringo unwittingly glimpses it anyway, and says this:
"Master Eiji's broken blade is a good fit for him."
Mizu just shrugs and frowns, refusing to accept it, because the sword isn't just bearing Master Eiji's signature, but also hers. A part of her is in this sword, just as a part of her is in all the blades she makes (though none of them are her soul, which is represented only by her meteorite sword).
But then later, after fighting together and barely making it out from the chasm of arrows alive, after seeing each other's skills, only then does she admit to Taigen:
"The broken blade fits well in your hand."
Which is why she (after knocking Taigen out and leaving him lying in the snow LMAO) leaves him with the broken blade, and again comments on how it "so well fits his hand."
Also, on the topic of the broken blade, why did it break again? Well, Mizu is one of the sword's makers, signing her name on it, thus putting a little of her soul into it as I already mentioned. According to Master Eiji, this process of the soul entering the sword occurs during the yaki-ire:
"The yaki-ire is when metal is reborn, and the soul enters the sword. All must be pure for the sword to be pure. The metal, the maker, the one to wield it."
As this process unfolds, this conversation happens:
Eiji: "Mizu. Is your mind clear?"
Mizu: "It is."
Eiji: "Mizu. Is your soul at rest?"
Mizu: "It is."
However, after Master Eiji presents Mizu with the finished sword, it breaks, much to Mizu's disheartenment.
Chiaki: [About the blade being broken] "How could this happen?"
Eiji: [...] "An unexpected element entered the blade." [...]
Mizu: "The fault is mine. The element is me."
Mizu is right; she is "the unexpected element" that broke the blade, but not because of her race, nor her gender, but because her mind is not clear, and her soul is not at rest.
Why? Because the yaki-ire takes place right after she binds for the first time; she is in pain both physically and mentally, ashamed of who and what she is, hiding her true self, trying to smother an inherent part of her identity.
Then, about Bloodsoaked Chiaki wielding a sword which is broken, Master Eiji says this,
"A soul like that is drowned in blood. There is no stopping them. They will always find their broken blade."
This parallels Mizu breaking her blade after her rampage through the nine levels of Shindo and Fowler's fortress, after she gets literally soaked in blood.
After storming the fortress, her blade, too, is broken, and she is unable to melt it down and repair it.
Master Eiji: "Your sword broke because the blend was wrong."
Mizu: "It was perfect."
Master Eiji: "It was too pure. Your metal wants to be blended with new steel."
The sword, as, Mizu's soul, houses all the rage that has festered over the years. The purity of its meteorite steel represents her single-minded, hate-driven goal for vengeance.
On that note, it's interesting to remember that the meteor fell in front of Mizu during her confrontation with Taigen and his gang of bullies. That encounter was the beginning of her rage, the moment she stopped running and hiding, and instead fought back, clawing and throwing herself at the people who mistreated her. The meteorite thus represents her anger, her fighting spirit, her resistance.
Over time, she crafts her sword--her soul--purely out of this anger, and sets off on her revenge quest.
Of course, she then meets her mother, gets married to Mikio, and after their betrayals, Mizu once again resumes her quest.
But after her journey seeking Fowler, after meeting Ringo and Taigen and Akemi, Mizu's soul no longer feels singularly bound to her hate. She's made friends, she's starting to let people in, but she still suppresses those feelings, still insisting that she is just an Onryo, that she has no room for love or friendship or weakness, despite the fact that those are things her soul craves and needs deep down. She needs gentleness and respite, she needs to allow herself to be vulnerable and allow herself to love again, because she's not a demon--or at least not completely.
"There may be a demon in you..."
When Master Eiji says this to Mizu, he's not insulting her; by demon here, what he is referencing is the part of Mizu that is capable of great wrath and violence. Just like a demon is.
"...But there is more."
Mizu is still a human being. And she should let herself be one, should allow herself to feel more than just rage, but also joy, grief, love, and even pain.
"If you do not invite the whole, the demon takes two chairs."
So that's when she finally allows herself to start "allowing the whole"; she stands in front of the fire completely naked, no longer suppressing her true self, and melts the metal of those she collected, which are, in order,
the broken blade that now represents Taigen;
Akemi's knife;
Ringo's bell;
and Master Eiji's tongs.
These are people whom she cares about, who compel her to open herself up and see beyond her hate, who make her feel like she is capable of being more than just a demon.
By blending their steel into her future sword, she is accepting them, and the lessons and values they had taught her along the way, into her soul.
But as it stands now, Mizu does not have that sword. Not yet, for it's yet to be forged, as she gives the blended metal to Master Eiji.
Mizu: "If I succeed [to kill Fowler] and am still alive, I will return. And you can determine if I am worthy of a sword of this metal, made by your hand."
Which is why, in the finale, Mizu only fights with a random assortment of weapons she picks up (a sword, a naginata, a gun--but never shoots it--and the dagger Fowler stabs her with).
And then of course, Fowler drops the big reveals about Skeffington and Routeley; about her birth mother having been killed by one of the white men; about her Mama actually being a maid who was paid to keep her hidden.
With all this, there is so much she's still yet to know about who she is, who her parents are, and her identity is left hanging. So she leaves Japan not only to kill the remaining white men, but also to discover more about herself and her heritage--her white half. And this also mirrors the way she looks at the very end:
her hair grown out, her bangs identical to how she looked as a child; no longer wearing a scarf around her neck, no longer covering a part of herself.
Thus, Mizu will eventually receive her new sword that matches the new state of her soul, made of steel that "could kill a god."
But for now, she needs to understand who she really is, to discover the full breadth and complexities of the metal that made her, and the hidden depths within herself. In doing so, she must also learn to accept her anger as a tool, but cannot let it control her lest she become a demon; thus, she must allow herself to love as much as she hates, and most of all, simply let herself be.
