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eien-no-gakusha · 4 years

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“Castle of the White Heron” is a stupid name for a story about foxes

I mean just looking at the opening curtain and you would think it’s about herons or Himeji Castle. As soon as this thing rises we are bashed over the head with kitsune and youko (fox spirit) lore. We don’t get an ending similar to MAHOROBA where the protagonists turn into herons to symbolize their spirit returning to the home they yearn for. This isn’t even about being an expatriate, where such symbolism would make sense. Yurika drops one line about flying on heron wings and it’s never brought up again. No one ever sang jack all about being homesick. The focus was always on the characters’ infatuation with each other.

The argument for herons symbolizing peace in death doesn’t work either. After the literal foxy leads die, they don’t turn into herons and fly off into the sunset. Instead a bunch of foxes, their ancestors and extended family, come to bury them together. Then they’re reincarnated and bump into each other around ghost month and finally get to live happily ever after. This is about love across time and space.

Nothing ties this revue mini-story with the heron symbolism. There’s a bit of heron and bird imagery in the costuming but it’s always overpowered by the more focused fox fire imagery. The title is only reference to the name of the castle where the protagonists commit lover’s suicide together. While a major plot point in their story, it’s not the focus of the revue.

Rather “Castle of the White Heron” pays homage to the foxes of Japanese folklore through the entwining tale of two legendary fox spirits. Abe no Yasunari, a descendent of famous half-fox Omnyouji Seimei; and Tamamo-no-Mae, a courtesan so bewitching she is thought to be a powerful fox demon who enchanted and wreaked havoc in all the courts of Asia.

Traditional fox folktales go thusly: a hero character like Seimei defeating a demon temptress and saving the Emperor from his enslavement by a woman. The Emperor is cured and the world returns to its natural order (aka status quo) and there’s no more famine, economic crisis, etc. It’s such a ubiquitous myth it’s even referenced in Kurosawa’s film “Ran” to criticise a woman’s influence in court and calling a girl a fox is still used for slut-shaming to this day. And Takarazuka does absolutely nothing new with their fox theme.

“Castle of the White Heron” is as classical as it gets. It’s a tragic romance, it’s a zuka romance, and it’s a folktale about civilization triumphing over baser nature. Like every Asian supernatural romance.

The metaphor for the inequality of the sexes is definitely there. Kitsune are fox spirits associated with darkness, femininity, and the spiritual world while humans are creatures of the light, inhabiting the masculine physical world. You see it in the casting and staging where kitsune only make an appearance at evening banquets or under the moon. The humans are mainly represented by the otokoyaku, doing manly things like chasing women and charging heroically into battle.

The traditional notion that humans and man specifically are the superior species is heavy in the revue’s groundwork. Therefore the patriarchal, civilized world and the virtues of logic and order are to be desired over the kitsune who are wild creatures that embrace their basic instincts and sensuality.

It is evident when Kuzunoha, queen of the fox matriarchy, drops off her son Seimei to be raised by his human father never to see his mother again. Since times of old, the explicitly stated reason is Kuzunoha in her motherly love & wisdom knows Seimei will have a brighter future getting a proper education among humans, something he can’t get in the mountains. It’s also symbolic of a boy stepping through the threshold of manhood and leaving childhood behind (the jurisdiction of women). Thus the artifice created by humanity (law, stratified society, etc) or manhood is perceived as the superior state. Yasunari’s consistent victories over Tamamo also reinforce this idea. Tamamo-no-mae herself, while clearly the most powerful and enchanting of the kitsune, is seemingly no match in combat against her ever manly nemesis Yasunari, being forced to retreat after ever encounter and just getting herself killed when she goes on the offensive. Getting Mozart’s Magic Flute vibes, yet?

The ending scene even suggests happiness and all that is good is found in submission to man (which kind of “man,” I’ll let you decide). Tamamo’s final reincarnation gives up her kitsune heritage in her wedding ceremony and joins her lover to live among humans. The marriage or unification of the lovers is clearly during a fertility festival when a man is asked to take a fox bride to ensure good harvest, in other words to tame nature for the benefit of civilization.

Overall, I thought “Castle of the White Heron” was a solid revue. Absolutely stunning costumes and sets that clearly defined time and place. The singing and dancing were good and progressed the plot, but nothing particularly memorable. Festival music is catchy as always. The leads had great chemistry and acting was wonderful from the entire cast as they captured the period aesthetic. Pacing was perfectly fine and I enjoyed the story overall. It’s nothing new & quite a traditional tale, especially those familiar with Japanese lore, but it’s simple and sweet. There was a clear theme that came full circle in reincarnated Yasunari and Tamamo running off together against a backdrop of dashi floats celebrating their epic first encounter. That theme was just more related to foxes than any bird or castle. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a short story or really pretty nihonmono!

But then again I have a soft spot for Heian Japan and the myths & legends from that time so of course I’m biased towards this revue.

#白鷺の城 #宝塚 #makaze suzuho #Hoshikaze madoka #my thoughts #my ramblings #my rambles #my meta #meta #castle of the white heron #takarazuka #review #yugiri315

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margridarnauds · 5 years

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Ronan Mazurier for the character thing. I want to know your first impressions of the Trash Panda Boi.

Keeping in MIND that my first time watching 1789, I was 17.

First impression

I’ll be honest, I think it was something like “Oh, he’s hot, but scruffy. Oh wow, they’re both hot. But I’m not bi as fuck, oh no. I just want them to both live and have babies and survive the Revolution.” Like, the ONE thing I can distinctly remember from my first time with 1789 was spending long periods of time looking up fanfic on ff.net after my creative writing class at my local community college, desperately hoping for someone to give me the “Ronan and Olympe live in the countryside and raise a litter of Ronans” fic my teenaged self so richly deserved. (Which…is HILARIOUS given what I WRITE these days. I came so, so close. Incidentally, I REALLY didn’t like Lazare.)

My issues with Louis Delort’s Ronan aside, I can STILL say that he’s pretty damn attractive. He’s just…also whiny. And bitchy. And really shouldn’t be within 5 feet of Olympe.

With Zuka Ronan, I don’t think I BOUGHT it? Mainly because I didn’t understand that Ronan was DESTINED to be a twink. I think that I thought he was too helpless.

With Teppei’s Ronan, it was like, “Wait a fuck, he looks familiar. Wait a second…is that L? IT IS. Oh my God he looks like a baby. HE’S SUCH A SCRAPPY LITTLE SHIT.”

With Kato’s it was, “…Oh. It’s you. Again.”

(These are really more my impressions from the 2018 trailers VS the 2016 ones, because Toho!1789 REALLY didn’t leave that much of an impact on me when I first saw the trailers. Yet another area where my teenaged self was very, very clueless.)

Impression now

Applicable to all Ronans, across the board: Scruffy Boi. Goblin. Also a definite twink. Possibly a reincarnated raccoon.

In all honesty, I’ve tried to put so much thought into him over the course of nearly two years, it’s hard to really put Ronan into WORDS for me. Like, he’s become very, very important for me the last couple of years. He’s very, very flawed, he makes some terrible decisions, he’s hot-headed, can’t hold his liquor, narrow-sighted, insensitive, and is basically like a cat that someone tossed in a pool at one point and sometimes gets into random fights in the street (also might have fleas). But he also has SUCH a huge heart and really EMBODIES the spirit of the revolution as it stood in 1789, idealistic and fierce and so TIRED of a world that told them that they were fated to die in the muck because of a trick of their birth, questioning WHY they shouldn’t have the same rights as everyone else. There’s just this…SPARK to him.

Favorite moment

When he high fives Charlotte during Au Palais Royal, that moment in the Zuka one where he starts singing about how they can be with the ones they love and Peyrol comes up from behind him, when he calls out the Revolutionaries for their asshattery…

Idea for a story

I have, like, 50 different ideas at any given period of time. I really, really want to get the Zombie Apocalypse AU off the ground, and the Assassin’s Creed AU (When I…actually…am able to get ahold of the glitchy Assassin’s Creed). And the Tanz der Vampire crossover (Ronan VS Herbert fighting for Lazare’s affections), the Terra Nova crossover, the Reincarnation Fic that is also a College AU…

There’s also one moderately fucked up thing I’ve considered as far as dealing with Ronan’s reaction to Thermidor, but I would be VERY scared to actually write it up even though it would be 100% consensual. And one of these days, we’ll actually GET to the main body of the Abomination, though I have no idea what the fucking plot is anymore.

Unpopular opinion

I don’t THINK that there’s really enough in the 1789 fandom to really…HAVE an unpopular opinion on Ronan? There was a time when I was a bit of a minority in the English-speaking 1789 fandom as far as actively LIKING him while still not really shipping him with Olympe, but I think the balance has shifted a little since then. My evil plan is working.

One thing that I’ve noticed a bit in, say, the Russian and Chinese fandoms in particular is to have a particularly weak, subby Ronan VS HYPER sexual, predatory Lazare and…I mean, I can ROLL with it, but I tend to think that with them in a genuine RELATIONSHIP, Ronan has Lazare wrapped firmly around his finger and is the one most likely to initiate…things. I blame Takarazuka!Laz for looking so smitten half the time while he’s interrogating him. Like, Ronan’s a sub, but he’s not SPINELESS. Peyrol wouldn’t have noticed him if he didn’t have a spine, and he’s going to call Lazare out every single step of the way. It’s a kind of odd equilibrium that they establish.

Favorite relationship:

I have no idea what to choose. Me? Have a favorite relationship for Ronan? What could you be- *a dozen unfinished Peyronan fics fall out of the folder I’m carrying* Fuck.

Either Peyronan or Ronan’s relationship with Solène, because the Mazurier sibs always have my full heart.

Favorite headcanon

I have so, so many Ronan headcanons at this point that it’s hard for me to keep track.

This is probably going to end up in the Abomination in some form or another, but Ronan got his absolute HATRED of any kind of injustice when he was about 8, when his mother died. It became obvious fairly early on that there were issues with the birth, and his father sent him to get help while he stayed to help her, along with the other women (Solène, ~6-7 at the time, stayed outside). He ran for ages, trying to find the local matron, but she was away somewhere else, so he went to the local physician instead, who swatted him away because his family couldn’t pay. By the time Ronan went back, his mother was dead, and even though his father told him time after time again that he’d done everything he could, he always felt a deep sense of shame over it, like he hadn’t done enough, paired with anger over a system that would turn a blind eye to that kind of suffering. That would come back in FULL FORCE after his father’s death, where he internalized his own guilt over escalating the situation with Peyrol into revenge.

Also, he’s a chronic cuddler, due to growing up sharing a bed with his father and Solène, often instinctively cuddling with Lazare for warmth. Lazare’s repressed, touch starved ass will never SAY that he secretly likes it, but sometimes, when Lazare is late in coming to bed (which is often, given that he’s a workaholic) and crawls into bed with him, Ronan will find himself being pulled over to him.

Also, he’s the reason behind most of the animals they adopt. Because he can’t STAND to see animals being abused and abandoned in the street, and Lazare, as we’ve established, is thoroughly whipped, even though he CLAIMS that Ronan is going to be responsible for taking care of them. (Somehow, Lazare is the one who always ends up walking the dog in the early hours of the morning, because, well, he’s up anyway. And one day, when Artois the cat is having stomach problems, he stays up the whole time. Which Ronan relentlessly makes fun of him for.)

#long post #ronan mazurier #I love him #drawn-and-talk-of-peace

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