princessboy

[princessboy]

Michel and Morgana celebrating christmas, from the side stories.

#fatamoru #the house in fata morgana #my art #fanart #side stories #michel bollinger #morgana

[princessboy]

The King of Ivy.

I love the ivy motif for Michel, a symbol of his long wait in solitude and how he emotionally emptied himself to escape the pain, slowly decaying.

When I realized Morganas skeletal arm is supposed to be on the other side, it was already too late to change it.

#fatamoru #the house in fata morgana #michel bollinger #door 7 #morgana #ivy

[princessboy]

"We are the same type of person. Those who have the right to curse others."

A print design I made for a t-shirt, where I wanted to visualize the mirroring of Michel and Morgana's cruel fates. I like my idea of the flowing blood turning into fire

I think the actual violence is quite abstracted in this image, but I labelled it just to be on the safe side.

#fatamoru #the house in fata morgana #michel bollinger #morgana #giselle #Mell Rhodes #Yukimasa Aida #jacopo bearzatti

[princessboy]

The moonlights spell.

#the house in fata morgana #fatamoru #my art #fanart #michel bollinger #giselle #otp

[princessboy]

I thought I might as well upload my fatamoru fanart here, the fruit of this years obsession with this VN.

Assento dele was by far the best part of Fata Morgana Requiem for the Innocence if you ask me.

#the house in fata morgana #fatamoru #Imeon #my art #requiem for the innocence #assento dele #fanart

[princessboy]

#fanart #my art #the liar princess and the blind prince #usotsuki hime to moumoku ouji #My true self cannot be with you

[princessboy]

I reread Assasin’s Fate recently and got inspiration to draw Fitz and the Fool (and Nighteyes) again. That’s a pretty young looking Fool though. I guess it’s kinda their ideal selves.

#rote #realm of the elderlings #nighteyes #fitz and the fool #fitzchivalry farseer #the fool #otp #Robin Hobb #assasins fate

[princessboy]

I was warned somewhere that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian would be completely loveydovey when they finally got together...

Spoilers from chapter 101 from Exiledrebels translation below the cut:

...But I wasn’t at all prepared for this sickingly sweet and embarrassing dork couple (////∇////)

 “Lan Zhan!”

“I am here!”

Wei WuXian, “Hug me!”

Lan WangJi, “I am hugging you!”

Wei WuXian, again, “Hug me tight!”

Lan WangJi, also, “I am hugging you tight!””

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #lan wangji #fan art #my art #they're embarassing #Finally the loong wait for wei wuxian to get a clue has ended #Lan Wangji is suddenly surprisingly talkative and embarassing #fanboying #lovey dovey couple #lan wangjixwei wuxian #hug #right in the middle of the villain's master plan and all

[princessboy]

Sadly, Japan is far from the only country with the colonialist practice of keeping indigenous remains at their museum collections.

(Pet peeve: Seriously people, link the sources to articles. If you’re engaged enough to be enraged by this, you should make sure people can read all of it and get more information about the issue.)

The link to the article

What’s wild is that like just last year there was a long legal battle between the Ainu people and a university because the university refused to give back bodies of the Ainu dead and kept them for “studies”…

#japan #colonialism #ainu #ainu people #indigenous rights #japan times

[princessboy]

This game crushed my heart into pieces and then mended it right back together.

#i have feels #might be the best queer-themed game I’ve ever played #the missing: j.j macfield and the island of memories #still crying #queer protagonist #happy ending #I can relate so much to this game

[princessboy]

Lan WangjixWei Wuxian is the magic that happens when Lawful Good and Chaotic Good comes together.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #d&d alignment #lawful good #chaotic good #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #otp #their oposing views makes a great chemistry

[princessboy]

My sweethearts <3

The stands have such a pretty design, I love them so much!

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #acrylic stand #official merch for the audio CDs (I hope) #thank you whoever linked the site though I sadly forgot where or who #they’re so nice no matter what #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation

[princessboy]

As another person somewhere on an undefineable place of the ace spectrum and with a fluid gender presentation I wholeheartedly relate to the latest post.

The undefineable and non-sexual nature of Fitz and the Fool's relationship was incredibly affirming to me in my teenage years and still is now, in a way few other portrayals of relationships have come close to, because it's the closest to my own feelings I've seen. It's the kind of relationships I am hoping for, indefinable but extremely deep, and somewhere outside the conventional norm of what the relationship to your most beloved (no pun intended) person should be like. Because the feelings I have for other people don't match the conventional narrative.

I really do wish Fitz would have gotten over his homophobia and transphobia more though, and acknowledge his feelings better. And I find it sad that Fitz needs to distance himself from that way of thinking about them, instead of realising that a queer romantic and/or sexual relationship too is perfectly fine and possible, just not exactly what they have. Fitz's heteronormativity is really frustrating, and if I had gotten to choose, I'd have let him get over it. Actually, I consider that a huge tonal shift between Fool's fate and Fool's assassin. Because the Fitz at the end of Fool's Fate seemed to have accepted Beloved's undefineable nature completely, but the Fitz in Fool's Assassin has gone back to putting the Fool and their relationship in a rigid heteronormative box.

I don't think it is in any way perfect, but I wouldn't call their relationship queer baiting either. Not without erasing my own kind of queerness and feelings about the relationships I want to have and calling it invalid and false and non-queer. My feelings about relationships are not more profound, nor deeper, it's just a little bit different. And makes my queer representation needs slightly different. And I've actually never heard queer baiting being used when one of the characters involved is so openly and profoundly queer? Surely sexual and romantic relationships aren't the end all of genuine queer representation?

For me, the Fool and Fitz kinda did end up together, by acknowledging they were both the most important human beings in each other's life, even more important than the sexual romantic relationship Fitz also once had. It gives me comfort that perhaps I too can be the most important person for someone even if the relationship is not sexual and maybe not even romantic. I do however feel sad that this often has to come at the expense of romantic sexual queer and/or same-sex relationships. Because it is usually those relationships that gets to be undefineable in fiction while opposite sex non-queer couples always gets to be easily defineable. In a world where romantic same-sex relationships still are all too rare in fiction, it is a problem. But I don't want the undefinable relationships I identify with to disappear, just get better. The solution I see is more representation overall, of all kinds of queer relationships.

I also think that I'd rather not see Robin Hobb write queer relationships or characters intentionally. Even though I really love her writing, she's not that good on writing LGBTQ characters even if it's obvious she tried to incorporate them more in later novels. I consider the Fool a one-time lucky exception. Probably because they wasn't planned, but just happened to grow into the story. And even there I can find things a bit jarring in certain passages. I feel like Robin Hobb herself tried to put the Fool back in a more defineable box in the last trilogy.

Overall this is a really interesting discussion with food for thoughts and different perspectives. I wanted to add my two cents because I've wrestled with this a lot, since I love these books.

Okay so I’ve been thinking a lot about queerbaiting and - consequently - Realm of the Elderlings in that context. I knew while reading it that some people would consider it queerbaiting, and I couldn’t quite articulate why I wholeheartedly believed it wasn’t. But since I half-wake several times a night thinking about RotE because my brain is a fucking nightmare I woke up this morning with a bit of an epiphany.

Now obviously you can disagree with this, but here’s the biggest reason why I personally don’t see Fitz/Fool as queerbaiting: because if the Fool was femme-presenting, the story wouldn’t have been any different.

Imagine that Fitz had grown up thinking that the Fool was a girl. Every single thing the same, except Fitz grows up assuming that this friend of his is female. Apart from the accusatory stuff about his “unnatural” relationship with Lord Golden, nothing would be different. They still would have the same dynamic because the Fool was never defined by masculinity.

Now, I hear you saying, “But all those cold nights in the mountains! All those cuddles, and hand-holding and declarations of love! If the Fool was a woman, that would have gone further.”

But would it? I emphatically believe not. Not once does Fitz think, “Well gee, if only the Fool were a woman we could be together.” Nor does he think, “Well maybe if I had met Amber first…” Because it’s not about that. Also, we see evidence that Fitz can have a physically affectionate friendship with a woman while still having no doubts at all that it’s totally platonic. He and Kettricken share a bed and even kiss on the lips and it is NEVER portrayed as anything more than friendly.

“But it’s different with the Fool! The Fool is canonically in love with Fitz, and there is romantic tension between them.” I’m not arguing that at all. Fitz loves the Fool with all his lil heart and that’s what is so fucking devastating. Because he loves him more than anything, but he can’t give himself to him. And I’m not talking about sexually.

Here’s the thing: Fitz’s story - when considering the full scope of it including the ending - is basically a nine-book-long metaphor for the fear of vulnerability and then the beauty of letting people in fully. Fitz was not incapable of embracing the Fool’s love for him because he was too straight. He was too fucking scared. He didn’t know what to do with a love that really truly accepted him for who he was. For all he was, and not just parts of it. Male or not, do you think he would have paid any romantic attention to the Fool when he could go off chasing Molly Redskirts instead? Fitz justified his lying to Molly in a myriad of ways, but those lies were just extensions of the ones he told himself. He wanted - even in adulthood - to be with someone whose idea of him he could shape. The Fool always saw Fitz far too clearly; that in itself made Fitz uncomfortable, but to be truly seen and still loved fiercely? That was too much.

And speaking of “too much,” the Skill-link stuff is also a metaphor for the love and deep knowing that Fitz cannot face. Was it really “too much” or was it just too much for Fitz? The way he describes it leads you to think it’s dangerous, as if they would both lose themselves if they explored that link. So then why wasn’t the Fool afraid? The Fool knew they still had work to do. He wasn’t willing right there and then to give up his physical form and merge with Fitz in the Skill river. He wasn’t afraid because that’s not what was going to happen. I think all that was going to happen was that Fitz was going to have to feel the depth of the Fool’s unwavering love and acceptance, and that was too much.

This is why the ending is fucking beautiful. It’s the culmination of nine books’ worth of build-up - but is it plot? Action? Intrigue? No. It’s all character. Like holy shit. The ending is literally just our protagonist finally allowing himself to be known, to be loved, and to return that knowing and loving just as freely. No limits. Fuck I’m crying.

Don’t get me wrong, I was internally screaming at Fitz to just fucking kiss the Fool already the entire series. A part of me really wanted them to be together, but the storyteller in me knew it would never happen. And NOT because they were two males, but because it just wouldn’t have been right. The entire story would have had to change around them for them to be together. As devastating as it is, I’m much more satisfied with a haunting, symbolic ending than I would have been with a blatantly happy one. Their relationship was beautiful, intense, profound and… Indefinable. And I truly believe that defining it in any way would have undone so much of the intricate weaving that made us love them so much in the first place. Even Fitz’s own question of “what were we” goes unanswered. There is no answer. We don’t have a word for it. Lovers? Friends? Soulmates? It doesn’t do it justice.

No matter the Fool’s gender, a romance between Fitz and the Fool would have cheapened if not totally destroyed the larger meaning of the story. It would have made Fitz… Not Fitz. His inability to believe himself loved is so integral to his character. He could only surrender to it when he had literally nothing left to lose.

*crying intermission - damn you Hobb you brilliant bastard*

So. What it comes down to really is that where other authors cheapen their stories by dangling “gay moments” that never amount to anything for the sake of attempting to sate both queer and conservative audiences, Hobb stayed true to the real story the entire way through. The moments between Fitz and the Fool we love so much were not for us, the readers. They were for them, the characters. And that makes all the difference.

I know that when I inevitably read this series over and over, the Fitz/Fool scenes that tugged at my heart the first time will be no less powerful for knowing it never goes further (sexually or romantically). Those scenes don’t lose their meaning because they don’t lead to sex. An issue I have in general is the idea that romantic relationships are somehow superior to platonic or familial ones. And yes, I will continue to joke about Fitz “No-Homo” Farseer because his self-deception is extreme and hilarious and yes, a character flaw. But a believable and integral one. When I make those jokes I’m not implying that Robin should not have written him that way. I’m just ripping on Fitz because he’s a beautiful, precious little idiot.

This is - as I said - open for debate. This is just where I stand on the issue and I’m genuinely curious as to what other people think about this.

#fitz and the fool #robin hobb #reblog #interesting conversations #my thoughts

[princessboy]

So I made a necklace of my current favourite fictional couple. I love these guys together!

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #lan wangji #wei wuxian #otp #my art #fan art #I love these guys #so cute and funny #had no good lighting in the room

[princessboy]

So I've rewatched the new trailers for Sarazanmai over and over! It's interesting to see a combination of animation and live footage.I love the music, and the underlying tone of sadness, and the characters talking about their views on connections, I feel like you get a good grasp of their general outset. And of course already feeling that Ikuhara vibe. Weird street signs, towers having significant meaning, people unable to connect with society. I can't wait for spring!

#hype #sarazanmai #kunihiko ikuhara #trailer #spring 2019 #spring 2019 anime #anime #can't wait

[princessboy]

MDZS and the power of societal support and general opinion

I haven’t posted on tumblr in a long time, but my recent obsession with Mo Dao Zu Shi makes me need an outlet for my thoughts. 

Serious MDZS spoilers below the cut (up to the point of the novel fan translation by Exiledrebels)

So I think Jin Guangyao is simply a brilliant and scary antagonist, one of the best I've personally seen. I love that in a setting full of powerful magic users, the antagonist seems to have rather meagre magical skills, but tremendous social skill instead. No matter how strong you are in magic, like Wei Wuxian or Nie Mingjue, it won't help you achieving your objectives without societal support among people in general.

Jin Guangyao uses his good memory to keep personal track on everyone, as well as the social skill to get on everyone's good side by complementing them for something they've done by using that good memory, all while appearing harmless and humble as he manipulates people. He also seems to have tremendous skill to always appear like the wronged one in any conflict by keeping his politeness while pushing others to rash actions and anger. He gets wine spilled on him, gets pushed down the stairs among other things., which from the outside makes him clearly seem like the one deserving sympathy (none the less because he really does deserve sympathy in many cases)

As a socially awkward person with a bad memory for names and faces, an antagonist whose main weapon is his social skills  and memory about people sounds completely nightmarish. Especially Nie Mingjue’s situation made me feel frustrated and helpless. He sees through Jin Guangyao, yet is powerless to anything, because he lacks the social skills to get support from the general population. He can't keep calm and thus seem rational, instead reacting with anger and violence, which is the wrong reaction if one wants to make others listen. Seriously Nie MIngjue, insulting someone’s mother’s social status and pushing a physically smaller and weaker person down the stairs isn’t exactly endearing oneself to the general population, and clearly unfair and wrong. He hates social manoeuvring, and that is why he loses against it, because he can’t contain his rage at seeing it in action. When he notices how Jin Guangyao even wins over his own little brother with social skills and flattery, he reacts with more anger, thus having the effect of pushing his brother away further. His life ends while knowing his murderer yet being unable to make anyone else understand and accept that fact because in everyone else's eyes he is the raging madman out of his mind, while Jin Guangyao is polite and harmless.

Wei Wuxian does have social skills, and can also manipulate others to a certain degree, but no ambition to use it further, also mostly living by his own sense of justice which makes him rebel against popular opinion. His low social status as an ostracized necromancer makes him unable to gain any social support even though he knows the truth about Jin Guangyaos machinations.The only supporter is Lan Wangji, which isn’t exactly the best ally to have against a social mastermind antagonist. Lan Wangjis argument boils down to that he trusts Wei Wuxian and doesn’t trust Jin Guangyao. No explanations why. No wonder Lan XiChen isn’t convinced at first.  And that feels so scary and relevant as someone belonging to several marginalized minorities as well as having generally bad socializing skills, that even if you know you are right, it means nothing unless the majority of society is on your side as well. Mo Dao Zu Shi truly illustrates the scary side of  social skills and social power, and this is very clearly a main theme. The novel (and donghua) even starts by telling us the general societal opinion  of the events that transpired.

Nothing more chilling than an antagonist that knows the right time to serve chilled fruit slices and hand out compliments.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jin guangyao #social skills #fan rant #lan wangji #wei wuxian #nie mingjue #this turned out longer than I thought #social opinion #social power #nightmarish

[princessboy]

Florence +the machine's new song hunger

#florence + the machine #hunger #lyrics #loneliness #body hate #body posititivity