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stromblessed · 30 days
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click this..
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then click your blog(s)
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scroll all the way down and click this..
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profit?
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stromblessed · 3 months
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Mel 🔆, Viktor 🌌, and Jayce 🔥 symbolism
SUN 🔆
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Mel's association with the sun is self-evident and still mostly shrouded in mystery, though her love scene with Jayce is notable, which is overlaid with starry imagery, where her silhouette and her freckled face are compared to the cosmos. The sun is also a star. It's just the star that's closest to Runeterra and has the most influence over the world.
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Mel and the Hexcore are the POVs of the scene.
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Hexcore and starry imagery is more strongly and consistently associated with someone else, though!
STARS 🌟 / THE COSMOS 🌌
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Viktor's blue to purple pipeline is real
But seriously, the starry/swirly shapes point toward distant stars, the cosmos, a galaxy. There is no moon in Viktor's night scenes throughout the season, only stars.
Viktor's character regresses as the season goes on (blue to purple, ready to fall into Shimmer-like magenta as his corruption nears its peak).
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His hubris opens him up to some kind of corruption by the Hexcore, or by whatever - or whoever - is using the Hexcore as a gateway, like what Jinx points out. Singed as his mentor plants and encourages the lie that Viktor believes, that he's better off alone and that the ends justify the means.
These perfectly ruinous circumstances lead to him getting Sky killed (Sky like sky blue, like Inspiration, lost as Viktor has lost sight of good in his pursuit of great).
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In his running scene, Viktor runs not from left to right, filmspeak for progression - he runs from right to left, as though backstepping.
(And also for the Rocky Balboa reference called out in this brilliant post, but hey, I think it all works)
It's also worth laying the foundation that Viktor is a fantasy interpretation of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor who was fascinated with electricity, radio signals, the cosmos, and [REDACTED for another post probably lol]
If you've fallen down the rabbit hole of League lore like I have, you might have picked up that peoples and warriors who are sun-worshipers are (at least anciently) tasked with hunting down and destroying Void beings, who are eldritch beings associated with the distant stars, or are Runeterrans constructed by the Void Watchers trapped between realms. The sun fights against interlopers from other dimensions or celestial bodies.
Mel and Viktor have the same ideas about risk and the nature of progress, and they are both technically foreigners living in Piltover and pursuing that progress - in two very different (but complementary) ways. They are most likely the two characters whose literal bodies are celestial, imbued with the Arcane. Their bodies are most likely augmented with magical metals.
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Yet the arcane imagery that seems to accompany them respectively are diametrically opposed - Sun vs. Void, possibly. (Also, purple and yellow/gold are opposite or complement colors on the color wheel.)
Whether they wind up working together or whether they clash (as Viktor loses himself) or if it's a mix of both, I think Mel and Viktor are destined to collide in season 2.
So where does this leave Jayce?
FIRE 🔥
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Fire for Jayce means more than one thing. The first thing that should come to mind is the fire of the forge. Creation and industry. The legacy and hard work of his family.
However, his FIRST imagery with fire occurs when Elora says "Speak of the devil" and Jayce is framed in flames at Mel's fundraising party.
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He's similarly framed in the flames of a Molotov cocktail on the bridge between Piltover and the undercity with Viktor, after he's just called the people of the undercity dangerous.
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What I think we're being shown here are Jayce's choices. He can use his talents and influence for good - creation and industry - or he can use them for destruction and oppression. A hammer can create.
A hammer can also be a weapon, a tool of destruction:
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Fire can quickly burn and spread out of control.
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Hey look, blue all the way to magenta in one scene!
And if you know his original League lore, the reason why his rivalry with [REDACTED] crosses the point of no return - fire and destruction. Yeah.
Jayce is interesting because his point position in the Mel-Viktor-Jayce trifecta makes it tempting to assign celestial imagery to him, too. However, adult Jayce is only present with Hexcore, star, and sun imagery when he is sharing a scene with Viktor or Mel respectively.
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The show makes it a point that Mel and Viktor are the reasons he is the Man of Progress at all:
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Note that Jayce in the center of his Man of Progress posters is backed by a gear (Viktor) and the sun (Mel). If Viktor had not intervened in episode 2, Jayce would be dead or disenfranchised. If Mel had not intervened in episode 3, then Jayce AND Viktor would have been kicked out of the Academy if not imprisoned or exiled, and Hextech with Jayce and Viktor at the helm would not exist.
(This is reaching, but I like to interpret that the circle + notches in the gear shape are like Viktor's star symbolism, but even if that's the big reach that I think it is, Viktor is a machinist, engineer, and techmaturgist with Artificer parents - the gear definitely represents him on a meta level)
The imagery that I believe is Jayce's and Jayce's alone is that of fire. He is terrestrial, using magic contained within tools the way he has always wanted to bring Hextech to every household, while Mel and Viktor are influenced by magic on a whole other level.
Sure would be a shame if Jayce found a reason to choose the path of destruction and be corrupted further, diverging from Mel and Viktor's core values
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Sure would be a shame if Viktor's personal choices had consequences that radiated out further than season 1 and he gets put on a disastrous collision course with everything that Jayce and by extension Piltover hates and fears
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Sure would be stressful for us if Arcane decided to be a Greek tragedy about it
Though possibly the most important piece of this picture is how Mel - gold like the sun, gold that doesn't tarnish or rust, gold that is an excellent conductor - has already faced the abyss and said NO to her own corruption:
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It sure would be something for her to have to watch Jayce and Viktor go down a different path, huh
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stromblessed · 4 months
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What Are Little Girls Made Of?
“That child would see you and run.”
Master Eiji has several amazing lines as the local Wisdom Dispenser of Blue Eye Samurai, but I think this is the deepest of all.
It doesn’t sound like a dissuasion from Mizu’s quest, but it is.
It’s confirmation that she’s a soulless beast, but it’s a warning instead of an insult.
In the Ronin and the Bride play that parallel’s Mizu’s singular attempt at being happy, in the very moment where Mizu decides to throw away her relationship with Mikkio and her patience for Mama, the ronin puppet murders his child. In the immediate context of episode 5, it’s a literal demonstration of Mizu killing her chance at peace and a future.
Now flash forward to episode 7, on the eve of her quest fulfillment. In pointing out her hollowness, Master Eiji is implying that Mizu once had a soul. Once had an option to turn back. Once had gentleness. Once had patience. Once had teachability in her. Once had innocence.
If her rebirth and reforging of that sword mattered afterwards, why did the conversation still shift towards the content of Mizu’s heart and not her head?
Eiji is making a suggestion that should shatter the viewer—even if Mizu seemingly blew past it completely.
Is Mizu becoming a villain?
On paper, the answer is no. Blue Eye Samurai is commendably great at keeping Mizu amoral for her own benefit, but not unkind.
Narratively, still no, but the feeling that Mizu isn’t a good person should linger.
Fowler spelled it out in the final boss, but that doesn’t count in my eyes. He was taunting her in-story, and making a point about whiteness being genetically destructive out-of-universe.
[By the way, I think BES was doing a great job talking about colonialism until episode 8 which was a little too heavy handed with Fowler’s rancid takes right at his actual brawl with Mizu, but that does not enter into this post.]
If it was just Fowler’s cheekily evil means to an end, to get under Mizu’s skin and into London so he would have the cultural upper hand, Mizu being on a dark path would already be stale as it was uttered in the writers’ room.
Mizu doesn’t want to be associated with innocence, but Eiji insisting that maybe she should be, that maybe she is wrong to abandon happiness, needs to be a red flag to the viewer.
Mizu’s no hero. She’s no samurai. But she is her own unreliable narrator. If who she once was would be afraid of her now, then maybe we would do well to judge Mizu’s actions in England by the same lens as Swordfather judges: with the intent to dissuade her from whatever it is she sees.
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stromblessed · 4 months
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TERFs on my posts will be blocked on sight.
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stromblessed · 4 months
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Mizu's spectacles, and the levels of her disguise
In drafting some more Blue Eye Samurai meta posts, I find myself writing out the comparisons between what Mizu can and cannot hide about herself, and how that affects how she moves through the world.
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Like, I get the jokes about Mizu's glasses, if only color contacts had existed back then, etc. etc., and I think (hope) that most viewers don't take the glasses jokes seriously, as in "I don't care about the suspension of disbelief because BES is a cartoon." But I wanted to write these thoughts out anyway without burying them in a text post about something else.
I think the points I'm going to lay out here are viewed very differently by different people, so please feel free to add to this post, reply, or put your thoughts in the tags!
Not only do Mizu's glasses not actually help her that much, there's surely more to Mizu's mixed race appearance than just the color of her eyes.
In my view, this was pointed out in episode 1:
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I'm willing to bet most of us were expecting young Taigen to say "blue eyes," not "ROUND eyes."
Obviously this is still about Mizu's eyes, but not even spectacles can hide their shape.
I don't think the show is obligated to point out everything about Mizu's face that isn't quite as Japanese as the people around her expect. Though the creators have said that they specifically designed Mizu - and her clothes - to read both as "white" and as "Japanese," as well as both male and female. I think there's more about Mizu's features that read as "white" than just her eyes.
This is where my own headcanons start entering the picture, but it's my impression that people can just tell that Mizu looks different, whether or not they can put a finger on exactly how.
There's the little girl who looks at Mizu and then hides on the way into Kyoto:
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When there's more to your face you'd like to cover up than just your eyes, big hats are a big help!
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By the way, most of these examples have to come from the first half of the season, since by the second half, either Mizu is too preoccupied with fighting henchmen, or everyone Mizu is facing knows who she is already, and she therefore has no reason to hide her mixed race identity.
It's worth mentioning that the mere fact that Mizu has to hide multiple aspects of her identity - her mixed race and her sex - results in her having to choose clothes that really, really cover her up, which doesn't win her any favors either:
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(Zatoichi reference, anyone?)
If it were as easy as, for example, tying her glasses to her head and wa-lah, nobody would ever know she was half-white - then (1) Mizu would've just done that long ago, and (2) Mizu wouldn't be so on guard and on tenterhooks 100% of the time the way she's depicted in the show, even when her glasses are on.
Her spectacles sure don't help her in the brothel, which is full of observant women who are trying to seduce her, meaning they get good long looks at her:
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Mizu never takes her glasses off, but they still send a woman to her who has light eyes, thinking that must be what will interest a blue-eyed man:
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No wonder Mizu gets mad after this, lol
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So Mizu never takes her spectacles off in the brothel, it's dimly lit inside, and the women can still tell that she has blue eyes. I'm getting the sense that Mizu putting on her spectacles isn't a guarantee that people suddenly can't tell that she looks different.
And yet no one spots that she's female.
Mizu can hide her breasts, can wear her hair in the right style, can hide what's between her legs, can walk and talk and behave like a man - and she's been doing it for almost her entire life, to the point that not only is she very good at it, but the threat of being found out as female is deadly, but isn't presented in the show as omnipresent.
Let me explain.
She threatens Ringo for nearly saying the word "girl" out loud, because while she's constantly ostracized for being mixed race, being a woman traveling without a chaperone, carrying a sword, and disguised as a man will get her killed or flogged or arrested or some combination of these things.
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But in addition, it's been drilled into her since she was a child that if she is discovered as female, the combination of her being mixed race and female will identify her as someone extremely specific, someone known to some bad people, and she will be killed:
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I think of it as Mizu thinking to herself, "Being found out as mixed race means I'm treated badly. Being found out as mixed race and a woman means I'm dead."
Mizu's hair is cut as a child. But she isn't made to wear a big hat, or cover her eyes somehow, or anything like that. Because hiding her sex is a more successful endeavor than hiding her race.
Ringo finds out she's female by accident, but once Mizu accepts the fact that he won't rat her out, she relaxes pretty early on in the season. Because the threat of being found out as female is mitigated pretty much 99.9%, since Mizu has gotten so good at being a man. And also, because most of the time, people see what they want to see. Even if Mizu's face makes her stand out as "not 100% Japanese," no one in the world of BES looks at Mizu's clothes, her bearing, her sword, hears her voice, and will ever in a million years conclude that she is a woman, because expectations around gender roles in the Edo period were so rigid and so widely enforced.
One detail that proved this to me is after the Four Fangs fight:
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Ringo takes off Mizu's clothes so he can stitch her up, then leaves her clothes off even after he's done. He doesn't even throw her cloak over her as a blanket or anything. There's a little a straw (pallet?) as a divider there on the left, but anyone could just peek around it and see Mizu and her chest bindings. (I think it's mostly there as a windbreaker.)
And Taigen is right there, but he doesn't give a shit:
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Opinions probably vary hugely on this, but my impression is that because the show doesn't make any kind of deal about Taigen being in the room with Mizu here, my guess is that Mizu isn't in any danger of Taigen thinking she's female. Even when I watched the show for the first time, I assumed that Taigen had seen Mizu out of her clothes here, and that he thought nothing of it.
Eat your heart out, Li Shang (Mulan 1998). I actually do think that this scene is a direct and purposeful side-eye to that movie, lol
There's obviously some nuance to how "severe" being mixed race is compared to how "severe" being a woman is for Mizu:
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After all, Swordfather can't bear to listen to Mizu confess to being a woman.
So a Japanese man can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants in BES. A Japanese woman has limited options: marriage, religion, or a brothel. A mixed-race man is an eyesore in this story. A mixed-race woman is a death sentence.
May as well eliminate the female aspect, and do what you can about the mixed-race aspect. Because that's just realistic.
Meaning Mizu can avoid the strictures Edo society places on women. But she can't avoid the repercussions that come with being mixed race. And I truly don't think that it's just because "there's no brown contacts yet."
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stromblessed · 4 months
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Genetics - blue eye allele had to come from both parents (or random mutation) for Mizu to have blue eyes. You know what population of people in Japan have colorful eye genes? The Ainu :3c
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stromblessed · 4 months
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The parallel of Mizu and Taigen peeping through holes in screens and seeing one another
In 1x01 Taigen looks through a hole in a screen to see Mizu fighting his dojo.
This shot is later paralleled in 1x05 when Madame Kaji opens a hole in a screen telling Mizu it is "A window. A mirror" to desire and Mizu thinks of Taigen while looking through it.
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stromblessed · 4 months
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Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows
In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.
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If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.
So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.
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I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?
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However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.
Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)
And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.
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Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.
It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.
Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?
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While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:
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She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.
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You see where I'm going with this.
When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:
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And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD
When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.
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MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS
No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.
And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:
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Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!
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The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.
And, uh
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Yeah.
I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.
But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.
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Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:
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But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.
There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.
After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:
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"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.
Kind of like another bird in this show:
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stromblessed · 4 months
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Mizu was wrong to let Akemi be taken because they both deserve better
First, a confession. When I saw this for the first time:
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I was relieved. I knew that was what Mizu was going to say and I felt like it's what I would have said in that situation too.
When Akemi does this:
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I cringed, because if we know anything about Mizu, it's that she (1) isn't quick to make friends (though to be fair, even though Akemi did try to kill Mizu, so did Taigen - multiple times! - and look how that turned out lol), and (2) doesn't take orders.
So when Akemi and Ringo and later Taigen get angry at Mizu, are they being unfair?
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Sure, Mizu isn't obligated to treat Akemi - or Taigen or Ringo or anybody else - nicely, or to serve them, or to be honorable, or be a hero to them, or whatever. No human being is obligated to any other human being. We all have the choice to do whatever we want to anybody else. But the point of flawed characters in storytelling is the tension between those characters and their potential. Their growth into someone who can choose the higher, harder path, who chooses to be obligated to others, who chooses kindness and compassion.
Because Mizu's problem isn't revenge. Nobody is preaching at Mizu that revenge isn't the answer. Her circumstances do suck, her life has been incredibly unfair, she is marginalized, and as far as we and Mizu know for most of the season, she is a child born of violence and no one is saying that that violence doesn't deserve to be repaid in kind.
Mizu's problem is isolation. And the fact that she thinks she has no responsibility toward her fellow human beings, because her hatred of her own circumstances and her having no life outside of her quest devours everything else. This is a problem because it turns Mizu into the worst version of herself. A version that hurts the people who like Mizu, the people who care about her.
Practically, Mizu has just taken on an entire army almost by herself. She's hurt. She's exhausted. If she were to defend Akemi now, it'd be yet ANOTHER fight, this time against horsed and armored samurai.
But that's not the reason Mizu gives Ringo. Mizu's ability or willingness to fight isn't even on her mind. All she says is, "She's better off."
"She's better off" is Mizu deciding what's best for Akemi. Akemi's entire story is about her being a caged bird longing to fly free.
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One after the other, every man and woman in Akemi's life makes her decisions for her. She has to grovel and smile prettily and lie through her teeth just for the chance to be heard. Mizu judges Akemi for being a rich princess who isn't being more grateful for what she has, all without understanding Akemi's situation, and without any curiosity for why Akemi feels the way she does. From Akemi's perspective, Mizu is just one more person (one more man!) in a long lineup who ignores Akemi's wishes and (casually!) makes a decision for her that impacts Akemi's life greatly.
In the end, even Seki concludes that Akemi should get to decide what's best for Akemi. What others think that Akemi SHOULD want does not matter compared to what Akemi wants for her own life. As Madame Kaji said - Madame Kaji, who despite calling out the weirdness of Akemi's situation as well as the childishness of her decision to run away - is the only person Akemi meets who doesn't try to make decisions for Akemi, but instead only challenges Akemi to work for and be worthy of what she wants - she needs to decide what she wants for her own fucking self, and then take it.
Mizu being born female does not make her automatically wiser for letting Akemi be taken, and it does not preclude her from having a hand in giving Akemi back to her jailers. A patriarchy that Mizu knows full well would stop Mizu from achieving her own goals if she didn't present as male.
Mizu is still understandable here. She just had to kill Kinuyo, a disabled girl sold by her father into prostitution, a girl in a situation so far beyond Akemi's worst imaginings that I can practically feel Mizu's world being rocked just by comparing them in her mind the way she most likely is. That still doesn't make it right for Mizu to let Akemi be carried off to be sold into marriage by her father against her wishes. Those "good options" Mizu thinks Akemi has don't exist, no more than they ever existed for Mizu. Akemi and Mizu both have to get creative, make the best of their circumstances, take dangerous risks, and break rules in order to have any control over their own lives.
Even on my first watch, when at first I thought that Mizu had made the right decision and that Akemi was being unreasonable, Akemi screaming Mizu's name while being dragged, LITERALLY DRAGGED, back to her father was haunting as hell.
Mizu had the power to help Akemi, and simply chose not to.
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Mizu lets Akemi be taken, Akemi who has just begun to trust Mizu. Mizu calls Ringo weak and quickly - seemingly easily - turns her back on him. Mizu values her quest over Taigen's life, after Taigen has endured days of torture to protect her, and she not only risks his life in the process, but doesn't tell him that Akemi is engaged to someone else, or that she came looking for Taigen, or that she is in danger.
Mizu's sword breaks because it is too brittle. Too pure. Too singleminded. Mizu only melts down the meteorite metal when she mixes the metal with objects from parts of her life that have nothing to do with her quest. Objects from the people she cares about, and who care about her.
All I'm saying is - Mizu doesn't have to be a hero. But she is the better version of herself when she reaches out to help and connect with others. When she's just a decent, kinder human being. And I think that's what this story is telling us that we should want for Mizu.
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stromblessed · 4 months
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"the second day of autumn," huh?
In episode 3, Mizu agrees to duel Taigen on the "second day of autumn" when it is currently winter in the story
So can we talk about how
the day Mizu met her husband was probably in the springtime
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the day Mizu finally slept with her husband was during autumn
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and so was the day they "dueled"
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where it becomes clear that fighting isn't just what Mizu is good at - she associates fighting with pleasure. she LOVES it
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at least, when she's fighting the right person
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In the brothel, when current-day Mizu sees the threesome in the throes of pleasure, while Madame Kaji is opining on being honest about desires -
Mizu instantly thinks of THIS
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THAT FRAMING SURE LOOKS FAMILIAR
now HEAR ME OUT
a lot of the Mizu+Taigen adventures happen in the snow/winter, but you know what happens in the spring?
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YEAH
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YEAH
spring is when their characters AND their relationship both turn a corner
so Mizu's life turns a corner and she meets her husband in the spring, duels him and sleeps with him in the fall - and is betrayed
Mizu's life turns a corner and she reconciles with Taigen in the spring.......... and has agreed to duel him in the fall
it would've taken a few months to sail from Japan to Europe. March plus 6 months is September. Taigen is absolutely gonna end up in London because he fucking wants that fucking duel
do you see what i'm. do you see what i am saying
do you understand that the cherry blossoms blooming in Edo bloom in late March
during the spring equinox
and the "second day of autumn" is the autumn equinox
DO YOU SEE
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stromblessed · 10 months
Text
I love all the poetic comparisons between S1 Roman and S4 Roman, but the claim that he didn't figure out that Waystar and his family are "nothing" and "bullshit" until S4 - you guys, his very first appearance in S1 is him going LOOK AT ALL THIS BULLSHIT and laughing, like
Roman has always known that Waystar is bullshit, his family is bullshit, HE is bullshit, he is the jester that points and laughs at everyone else to be the voice that confirms just how bullshit all of their scheming and rich people behavior is, but he spends all of S1, S2, S3, and most of S4 playing the succession game anyway because HE WANTS TO BE LOVED AND TO BELONG, he thinks about becoming CEO as a way of ensuring Logan's affection for him and proving he's not weak or stupid or useless without the Roy name to guarantee him a place in the world - even though he KNOWS that the Roy name is the only reason he and all the other siblings have any place in the world at all, deep down, he KNOWS
Roman has always known, but part of the tragedy and sad irony is Roman buying into it all anyway, WHILE knowing
The fact that he can smile wryly at the end of it all, after losing it all, just makes him that much more fun of a character
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stromblessed · 1 year
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The idea that Marlene, the Fireflies, anybody who's even heard stories about Joel from back in the day - the idea that every single one of them underestimated him in the most unexpected way possible.
You can tell through the whole season, from Tommy to Maria to Marlene and even through Tess, that Joel is a bad guy, a scary guy, practically a bogeyman, a cold killer through and through. The Fireflies never would have thought that Joel Miller of all people would love some random little girl like she was his own blood. And that he would turn what everyone fears about him - his ability to hurt and kill without remorse - back on them because of love. That was where they messed up.
It's this cold and hard-bitten world, and they assumed that Joel would just Do The Job and be cold and hard-bitten just like the genre demands. And he was. And he wasn't, not at all.
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stromblessed · 1 year
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They survived but survival isn't enough
Okay but the whole time Ellie is listening to Joel talk about Sarah and how Ellie and Sarah would've liked each other and Ellie's not even cracking a smile and it all leads up to her BURSTING with needing Joel to swear to her I just -
Ellie knows what Joel did. She knows that Joel is equating her with the daughter-shaped hole in his life. She knows he did something terrible at the hospital, she knows he did it for her, but she might suspect that he's projecting Sarah's ideal onto her - even though I really don't think he is, but the hollowness in Ellie's voice during that conversation just makes me UGH
Just WEEKS ago, Ellie probably would've loved to be Joel's daughter officially, and now it's true but it came at the wrong time and it all feels WRONG and it's partly Joel and his damage, partly David and what he did to Ellie's spirit, partly Ellie's abandonment issues, partly the loss of her innocence on the whole, but MAN
It hurts as a viewer to FEEL that fantasy almost come true, that Joel and Ellie could be a real family and live peacefully and happily together for the rest of their lives, you can feel how CLOSE they came, but it was never meant to be and even though Joel ensured their survival he also doomed that happiness to the realm of fantasy, and by god he will prop up that fantasy on wobbly stilts if he has to by telling a lie that they BOTH KNOW Ellie doesn't really believe oh GOD it hurts, seeing Joel that desperately happy right next to Ellie's palpable dread and suspicion was the most devastating thing I've seen on a screen in ages
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stromblessed · 1 year
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You can see it in Ellie's/Bella Ramsey's face. The SECOND Joel said "raiders attacked the hospital." She knew exactly what he did.
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stromblessed · 1 year
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hmm!
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stromblessed · 1 year
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Joel thinks he needs to be the ultimate protector, but doesn't realize how invaluable he is to Ellie as a provider and a nurturer
I keep thinking about how Joel goes through aalllll of that in ep 8, the torturing and the killing and the tracking, thinking he's on the warpath, probably thinking he's either gonna rip some bitches apart right in front of Ellie or simply avenge her -
Just for the end goal of simply being there for Ellie. He doesn't even get there in time to pull her off of David, or to guide her out of the burning restaurant. He's only in time to be someone safe for her to hug and hold onto.
Joel is forever stuck in this place where protection is the one thing Sarah needed from him on outbreak night, that he couldn't give her. On day 1 with Ellie, he defaults to the trauma of failing at being that protector, and throws himself at that FEDRA guard, tells Ellie to be careful, etc.
But he does not provide for her - Marlene provides, for a bit. He definitely doesn't nurture her - Tess does, however briefly and gruffly. Joel thinks he's just there to be a trigger finger and a pair of fists. And he WILL use those things to protect this little girl - the absolute bare minimum that he failed to give to Sarah. To prove he can. That he won't fail like that again... until he does. Over and over again.
But I wonder - does Joel ever think about how he was able to provide for Sarah? Working a blue-collar contractor job to support her as a single parent, give her a home, posters on her wall, cute clothes, money for fixing broken watches and eating eggs for breakfast? Working so hard that he forgets to buy a cake on his own birthday?
Does Joel ever think about how he was able to nurture Sarah? He was emotionally available. He made her smile and laugh. He was a tough man's man who still hugged and held his daughter and talked to her and apologized to her and teased her and carried her in his arms. She could tease him back and scold him and go through his things without fear of him snapping at her or stonewalling her. They watched bad movies and took care of their neighbors together.
I love that Joel eventually taught Ellie to hunt. How to keep watch and be alert and keep herself alive. He probably thought that needing to transfer his skills to Ellie means he's already failed at protecting by default, but he SUCCEEDS at providing! Where so, so many other characters in this show fail!
To Joel, the happy fun times with Ellie - however brief they are, just little bright spots in a few episodes - are probably detours, little distractions he allows himself, but he's there for her again and again. Apologizing to her. Making her smile. Giggling at her stupid jokes. Teasing her. Asking her about herself. Telling her stories. He's not all the way there yet, but he's been there enough that Ellie CHOOSES him. Even when Joel may not be the best choice - the best protector.
And now at the end of ep 8, there's ultimately nothing Joel can do. But he goes through hell - to nurture her, in the end, after Ellie spends weeks protecting him and providing for him. But that nurturing, loving nature is what Ellie needed the most, the one thing Joel thought was worth the least, and I am. Unwell.
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stromblessed · 1 year
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So I hope we're gonna talk about how the choice to NOT have Joel be the one to pull Ellie off of David, to NOT pull her out of the burning restaurant, isn't just a change for no reason. It's A Choice
Joel can't save her. Joel can't protect her. Not forever. And certainly not here. His worst fears for his own inability, his worst fears for Ellie, came true and he wasn't even there for it. Only Ellie could save Ellie and she experienced David alone, ALL alone. She has to drag herself out of that burning building. ALONE. It's sadder and bleaker and it centers her experience even more than ever
Like, I always loved the scene in the game where Joel makes her stop stabbing David, where he hugs her in the middle of a burning building, but I also have to ask myself if that even means anything for either character, especially in the context of the themes that have been built up in the show (Ellie wanting autonomy and independence but facing the realities of violence/conflict, Joel aging and doubting himself and failing to physically protect 2 daughters from the violence of this world despite actually managing to be emotionally available and nurturing).
Ellie hitting her lowest point entirely by herself jives better with what's coming in season 2 and ugh I wish that it was being talked about more beyond people wishing that it was 1:1 with the game
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