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trashlie · 1 year

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Shinae the Light vs Yui the Shadow

This post heavily discusses episode 138 but also pulls from 170, 179, and 180 and discusses things up to 214, but nothing from the FP epsiodes!

Earlier today I read this post and it got me thinking a LOT - and trust me that I’m going to ramble about something else shortly outside of this lol - regarding shadows and lighting!

One of the episodes that most deliberately plays with lighting and shadows in a very in your face way is episode 138, where Shinae speaks to Rand about wanting to renegotiate her contract. It’s an interesting episode, because Shinae is met with another side of Rand than the man (the father) who was trying to help Nol. This version of him shuts her down immediately and informs her that he has no jurisdiction over her contract.

As readers, we can deduce that he is speaking this way because Yui is around and he cannot divulge any bit of knowledge that he has been working with Shinae, that there is any sense of relationship there. But also, he isn’t lying in that he can do nothing about her contract. Interestingly, he is in the light where she is in the shadow. He’s not the focus of this moment, but I find that very interesting regardless - Rand is unable to help because he doesn’t have that power. They aren’t on equal footing here. One is in the dark, one has the power of illumination - he knows more intimately than Shinae who and what Yui is.

But my thought is not about Rand but rather Shinae and Yui.

Throughout their conversation, Shinae is in the shadow. She is part of Yui’s trap, in a pit she cannot crawl out of. Yui wields power over her both in the sense of her employer and also as a person who has played with her as prey. Yui, too, is in the shadow. While some light casts on her, she faces away from it and it doesn’t reach her face.

I’ve wondered a lot about Yui and what her situation is, why she is the kind of person she is. I don’t think she’s without reasons - I just think we don’t know enough about her to really know yet. One of the popular theories is that of the Mukoyoshi Theory - that is, that a Japanese family with no male heirs will “adopt” the husband of (one of) their daughter, who will take their last name, rather than she take his. In this case, Yui comes from a Japanese family with a family business and it is deducible that there is no male heir. Hansuke’s family name is Shishido - not Hirahara, which means he’s related by his aunt (and Yui has mentioned her before to him). Rand, who we know is not Japanese, married into the Hirahara family and adopted their name and became a part of their family. Thus, his affair with Nessa is even more of a blight - he has a duty to the Hirahara family. It is his responsibility to not mar their name and upkeep their prestige.

We could do a whole think piece about this, and it really gets into my thoughts on Rand and Yui’s relationship, but to sum it up: it is clear that Yui wants to be the one in control, but must defer to Rand, and that she resents it. This is HER family business. I think she wishes that she was the one in control, and that she could wield that control without having to go through Rand. Yui harbors resentment for a patriarchal society in which she wields no power. There’s a lot to read into re: the way she wields her femininity as a tool, but that’s a whole other post. The point is: Yui resents that she does not have the power she thinks she deserves, the power that she’s capable of, and that fully plays into Shinae.

But, for the sake of this post at this time, it’s essentially that Yui, too, exists in the dark, in the shadows. She can only run this company through others - through her marriage to Rand, through Kousuke, the sole heir. But as powerful and intimidating as she is, she, too, is trapped. She, too, is relegated to the darkness, because it is only from the shadows that she can operate. Yui wears a constant mask, always putting on the front of a concerned mother, a feeble frail lady, a sweet simpering maternal woman. The real Yui lives in the shadows. She’s not allowed to freely be the person she wants to be, she puts on a front for society, for the patriarchy, for the sake of being able to move in the shadows.

Shinae’s objective is to escape the shadow, the prison, the dark. She longs to escape poverty, she longs to escape the prison she turned herself into, she longs to escape the job in which she feels unsafe, the contract that she signed, the agreement she made under false premises. She longs to escape Yui’s reach. And while she can’t escape most of those yet, she still works towards the light. unlike Yui, who has accepted that she belongs to and operates in the shadows and pulls people into them with her, Shinae strives for the light at all times. She wants to be a better daughter, a better friend. She strives to be able to help out her father and create a better life for them. And especially since the black and white formal, Shinae’s inclination towards the right side, the side of light, has grown stronger.

It’s not a bad vs good kind of thing so much as Shinae chooses to work honestly. She’s trying to address the things that scare her - the insecurity she felt about Maya and Rika’s friendship, the quiet plaguing fear that maybe Minhyuk also just tolerated her. She’s had difficult conversations with her father, she has had difficult conversations with her friends. Instead of shirking into the shadows, Shinae moves towards enlightenment. Even if things end, isn’t it better for them to end on good terms, with understanding? Even if she gets hurt, isn’t it better than she gets hurt being honest, than never progress at all? Even if she fails, isn’t it better to make effort than live with regret?

Shinae leaving Yui by way of the light is pointed. Yui’s goal is to pull everyone down with her. If she lives in the shadows, so, too, must everyone else. And the thing about this scene is - I think Yui means it, genuinely. She has a very different way of seeing the world than Shinae and even much of us as readers. Shinae believes in working hard; Yui understands that privilege and connections are more powerful. Yui can see in Shinae the makings of a strong, powerful woman - but power doesn’t have to look one way. For Yui, power is controlling those around her, especially the ones who are meant to have power over her. In a world where men are the all-power, Yui feels powerful when she can manipulate and push them around.

But when she tells Shinae she doesn’t want her to make the “wrong choices” I believe her. It’s just... what does Yui consider to be the wrong choices? Much in the same way that so much of ILY changes based on whose perspective you view it through re: Nol and Kousuke, we the same of Shinae and Yui. Yui is a woman who knows how to make the world yield to you, how to get what you want out of it.

This is a whole other tangent, but because I’m trying to validate my Yui views lol, I believe this is part of what Yui has done with Meg and Alyssa. In fact, I feel like Yui has absolutely treated Meg and her obsession with Kousuke as a joke - what woman demeans herself in such a way for a man? It’s the complete opposite of Yui’s power. Men yield to HER, not the other way around. Is Alyssa a test of her will, to see how much she will bend before she can break? Does Yui hope to find a hidden spine in her, someone who will eventually push back? I think that’s why she has shifted to Shinae - she has the fight and the spirit that Yui wants to mold. Shinae is strong and faces her fears. But she also stands for the complete opposite of Yui, which makes her a fun challenge.

As Shinae moves into the light and leaves Yui to the shadows, Yui makes an attempt to pull her back into them. Or maybe, rather, she’s planted the seed? It’s an ominous moment, Yui’s certainty that there will be a time when Shinae will go running to her, will want her help, her step up in the world. But at this moment, Yui is unsuccessful. Though Shinae cannot renegotiate her contract like she wanted, she still makes the choice to deny Yui’s offering. She will continue her path in the light. She refuses to let Yui pull her down into her shadows.

As much as we view this story as a game of chess between the white and dark side, so much of it gets told through the shadows and the light. Who else spends his time illustrated in the shadows, existing outside of peoples’ view, wearing a mask out in the light? Nol is one of Yui’s prey - he’s learning how to stand on his own feet as himself, but so much of his imagery has been enshrouded in shadows, a victim of Yui for so long that he’s forgotten how to make his way out of the dark, until now.

Shinae has the ability to bring him out of the shadow, to give him the eventual courage to exist outside of the shadows, to allow himself to enjoy the light. Every time he turns away, he finds himself drawn back in. Every moment he’s angled himself away from her in effort to stay where he thinks he belongs, to skulk in the dark, he still ends up moving towards her.

And every time that Nol choose to go towards Shinae, he moves towards the light.

Like literally lol. In the pool, he basked there in the dark, willing to finally throw in the towel accept that peace, but because of Shinae, because of his penance, he chose to move towards the light once again. Maybe he thought it would be for the last time, but we’ve seen better.

Shinae guides him back out of the shadows.

And that brings us to my next post: how Shinae is the true adversary of Yui.

Really, go read @denjidomination’s post! It’s got me going off on a whole different tangent than I planned to this week, but I think I’ll be able to get to it before the next update. I’ve said for so long now that Shinae is very likely meant to help bridge Nol and Kousuke, but I think more than that, Shinae is the guiding light for them - that in very different ways, both Nol and Kousuke exist in the shadows and are imprisoned by their circumstances and experiences, and Shinae, I think, is the one who will be able to help them fight back against that darkness. I don’t mean this in a “She will save/fix them” kind of way as much as her presence in their lives, what she means to them, will help them to move from that which holds them down.

But I have a headache so I have to work on that another time lol

#I Love Yoo #ILY Brainrot #Shinae Yoo #Yui Hirahara #Nol #Nolan Oliver T. Lochlainn #I'm pointedly saying light vs shadow because i think in some ways shadow represents feeling trapped and enprisoned #it's not that any of these characters are ever entirely enshrouded in shadow bar Nol whose whole Yeonggi to Nol process has involved pointed #shadows lol but more in the sense of what these characters are representing if that makes sense?#In the chess theory Yui plays for the white side - but from Shinae's perspective she plays for the dark side #I think it's easier to view it as Yui pulling people down and imprisoning them? and please know i mean this very metaphorically!#i'm very well aware that their choices are theirs #it's more like i feel like esp regarding Kousuke and Nol Yui influences that shadow that prison so much #we see that Kousuke's cognitive dissonance pushes him to the breaking point and that this has been propped up by Yui before #I think Yui is happy to keep Kousuke in the dark with her at her side because people like them don't require honor and moreso because #I think Yui resents what Kousuke can do and possess the opportunities afforded to him that she was not allowed #and she is vicariously living through him that he has become a shadow puppet without realizing it #I think Yui is also the main obstacle to Kousuke ever changing himself because she alone is able to pull him back which is especially #important at this stage as she is the only immediate relative who has made Kousuke feel supported and loved - she is the only pillar of #of stability that he has and this absolutely affects how he acts and behaves. how far can he stray before he's forced to return to her side?#look at how things went when he went off to college #and likewise we know that Nol has been imprisoned in the shadows and Yui has actively made his life harder and worse. though he makes the #choice to remain in the dark #he is the one deciding he is undeserving of the life #who created that thought? who put it in his mind? where does it all stem from?#anyway lmao this is so long oh god i always get into the tags and start rambling #but i'm also really excited to explore this thought about Shinae #we always talk about the chess theory as being Yui vs Rand or that Yujing is the formidable opponent #and don't get me wrong Yujing certainly is #but I think the true adversary is Shinae; I think she is the one who can guide everyone out of the shadows

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dawnssummers · 1 year

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by the way becoming ii grave parallels make me want to climb walls

#parallels #dawn and buffy <333 #btvs #catching the sword is like... buffy has only herself in this moment. literally take that away and what's left? me #buffy afterwards looking at the school watching ppl walk away before she herself turns to leave. the absolute heartbreak of becoming ii #and then! grave and buffy once again facing someone she loves wanting to end the world #buffy handing dawn a sword and asking for her help and dawn saying i've got your back...#the shot of them looking out at the World!! the world which didn't end and buffy didn't want it to!!!!!#the world she wants to show to dawn . buffy telling her i cant wait to see you grow up the woman you will become #the externalisation of wanting to live!!!#AND THEN full of grace vs prayer of st francis... buffy in becoming ii on a bus away from sunnydale and slaying and herself #and sarah mclachlan singing 'i know i can love you much better than this'#but then here is buffy with dawn climbing from the grave walking side by side and the song is about hope & forgiveness... 'let me sow love'#'oh darkness i feel like letting go' vs 'where there is darkness light' with the idea of dawn as first light wahhhh #buffy summers #dawn summers

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evawritesstuff · 1 month

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"The paradox of Sith philosophy:

According to the Sith code, through power, you become free. But when you try to control life through passion, it eventually controls you. You give up your happiness and behavior,to something that always was and always will be outside your control.

Through the dark force, you can supposedly become immortal. Ironically, every Sith master eventually gets killed by their own padawan. It's a way of life which boasts about immortality but always ends in blood, pain, and death.

A Sith lord's goal is to bend the Force to their will, becoming all-powerful. But life as we know it never works that way. You can't become extremely powerful for too long, especially without help. Dark side users don't help each other. The ancient spirits of Sith lords are immensely secretive or even mock you when you ask for guidance from them, unlike Jedi who guide you as long as you need it, even helping you become a Force ghost.

A Sith lord is always lonely, knowing that even their padawan, the person closest to them, will one day try to kill them out of self-interest. That's why their reign will always be short-lived and will end up in death. Humans are not designed to prosper all by themselves.

Dark side users declare that peace is a lie. They tell you that all Jedi are corrupted or will be. And they are not wrong. Jedi are humans and humans get corrupted. But to say that a person is fully corrupt as a whole or not, is an absolute. And life doesn't work in absolutes. A person can be corrupted but still mean/do well. A person can understand their corruption at some point and try to fix it, redeeming themselves. Life is neither straight nor static. It's a curve, full of shades. The longer you live, the more chances you have to screw up/ unintentionally do harm etc.

It's not a true contradiction, it's human weakness, and it has nothing to do with the metaphysical world aka the Force ontologically speaking.

To have peace is to constantly try. It's hard and at times seems futile, and it's not the only way in life. But it is the only way to self actualisation, to reaching a point where after enduring battles with nature, internal ones, pain, having loved ones, achievements etc, you can finally say " I am complete with all my scars and tears" before becoming one with the Force. You can't self actualise through the power of the dark side, as it's a fire that will find you deep into the chains of your own passions and burn you.

#jedi code #jedi philosophy #star wars #sith #sith code #may the force be with you #force ghost #sith lord #darth #dark side of the force #light force #light vs dark #star wars analysis #george lucas #sw prequels #sw sequels #sw original trilogy

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americankimchi · 1 year

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sometimes i think about how star wars is one of the few fandoms with the most cut-and-dry, black-and-white, good vs evil, heroes vs villains storylines out there and still we have to convince people that the child-killing mass murderers are the bad guys

#personal #like. it's even color coded #LIGHT side. DARK side. blue vs red. soft whites and natural beiges and greens vs hard metallic blacks and silvers #SIDIOUS. LIKE INSIDIOUS. VADER LIKE INVADER #THE DOWNFALL OF DEMOCRACY TO GIVE RISE TO A TYRRANICAL EMPIRE. WHAT. IS. NOT. CLICKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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thechaoticfanartist · 6 months

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36. Title your WIP like an article headline!

WIP asks!

I hope I understand this right because I'm going to treat it as a joke:

Jedi Knight Has Custody Battle With Darth Vader

- As Long As There's Light

#grim kennet #grim and luke #grim vs vader #most of what I've written for as long as there's light is grim & luke and grim vs vader #and it's fucking hilarious to me #grim is out here training vader's son while he wants luke to join the dark side #please it's so funny #idk if i understood the assignment but i think I'm funny either way

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smhalltheurlsaretaken · 11 months

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i should make this into a proper meta someday but i'm writing it down so I won't forget...

as much as the Mortis story may seem weirdly out of place with the rest of the Force lore, it can work as an illustration. sure, in the movies "balance" means "no more Sith" and the less dark side around, the better (balance in the movies is absolutely NOT 50% light, 50% darkness like it seems to be on Mortis) but hear me out. on Mortis, the Father (balance) says he has to keep his children from tearing each other - and the fabric of the universe - apart, but....... that's not what's actually happening.

The Son (the Dark Side) wants to kill Balance. The Son does actually kill the Daughter, aka the Light. The Dark Side is always, always the aggressor, and the Light only ever defends herself, defends the innocent bystanders, and defends Balance.

The Light protects Balance against the Dark's attacks on both Balance and Light. That's the conflict here, it's not that both Light and Darkness need to be kept in check. The Father never has to worry about the Daughter's actions.

And you know what else? The Father - the one in the middle, the representation of balance - makes a ton of mistakes and fuels the problem by bringing Anakin to the planet (since the Mortis Gods are heavily influenced by the presence of anyone around them, and the Son very clearly begins to mirror and embody some of Anakin's darker parts). Balance is only restored when the Father follows the Daughter's example of self-sacrifice and, very importantly, allows the Son to be killed.

If the Son had been killed first and not the Daughter, do you think the planet would have gone haywire? There's no real evidence of this.

Anyway, all of this to say, the Light is not and has never been the problem, the Light actively defends Balance even to the cost of itself, and the Dark is a poisonous destructive Force that threatens everything and even goes against its own interests and Mortis doesn't contradict that.

The Jedi - and other 'light' Force users - weren't "dogmatic" or "going against balance" for completely rejecting the Dark. They were defending balance and rightly siding with good.

#light vs dark #light side vs dark side #the force #mortis #sw talk #the son #the daughter #the father #mortis gods #clone wars #anakin skywalker #balance

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selznick · 6 months

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loving aj's subtle hints for ppl to choose darkside

#animal jam play wild #light side vs dark side #jamblr

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elrondsscribe · 2 years

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Is the Dark Side of the Force inherently evil? Not the Sith, they’re obviously wildly cruel and inhumane — does the Dark Side of the Force automatically mean evil?

Cuz I’m seeing people say “attachment is a path to the Dark Side!!!” and hey, what if they’re right? Especially if the Light Side is all about detachment and non-emotion and calm.

If that’s really true, it seems like close attachments and strong emotions are what the Dark Side is about. And if that’s so, saying the Dark Side is all about evil is … kinda sus, honestly.

Obviously the Dark Side can be used for evil … but well, look at how the prequel era Jedi approach the Light! I wouldn’t call theirs the most ethical use of the Force.

#star wars meta #dark vs light side #attachment is fundamental #thinkin out loud about the force #shut up elvella #star wars ramblings

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an-organized-confusion · 1 year

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Just thinking about a vid that catalogued some of the most sampled drum breaks in music. Like “Amen, Brother“ and “Apache“... and just how much of it comes from funk traditions (mmm, bass guitars and sax and rock organ.... *chefs kiss*.)

The latter got me into the Incredible Bongo Band (which I’m just going “Heart Eyes Motherfucker” about rn)... and hot damn. They did a fun rendition of “In A Gadda Da Vida“. I just love the psychedelic supergenre of art/music. So much. orz

There’s a reason half my Creativity is a damn hippie.

It’s kind of funny think about how my dad’s taste in psych/prog rock was formative. Pink Floyd’s probably my favorite that he played a lot (which I’ll never not be amused how Logan mentioned “Comfortably Numb”.) And how I see Liam’s temperament being closer to Patton (which that scene has it’s own Dad energy in today’s moment and my own experiences) than Roman as a lighter and more sentimental (and trippy) side of my creativity.

Liam’s less Disney-centric or fairy-tale like in aesthetic, more Yellow Submarine and all that jazz. Vibrant and bold colors, recursive fractal patterns, dreamlike surrealism... yeah.

Which there’s some fuzziness in boundaries with Mel. Surrealism can turn dark and nightmarish like a bad trip (”The Wall” was so damn haunting and it was great to grow up listening to it) - so that’s the kinda stuff she excels in. And some macabre, trashy, absurdist humor too, so she vibes more with Remus and she’s my main squeeze. Still amused she’s more temperamentally like Virgil though.

(But then again my creative pursuits weren’t ever as “extroverted” as theater/singing/acting. I was a visual artist, writer, and cellist.)

#sanders sides #roman sanders #remus sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #(over here happy stimming to groovy/funky bongoes now tho)#(mel had a field day once remus debuted - let me just say man)#(you know... that might be one reason my multishipper ass digs dukexiety)#(anyways i think it's also funny how i imagine Mel and Liam being amicable coworkers than sibling rivals w/ heady moral pretense)#(dark and light is more about tone/mood/atmosphere than necessarily a clear line of good vs evil)#(made mel & Liam when I was in HS... well before SaSi was even a thing)#(i would know... i'm less than a yr younger than actual!thomas sooo)#(gawd that was like a decade and a half ago)#(might be fun drawing mel palling around w/ remus and virgil + liam w/ roman and patton)

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handdrawnfantasma · 1 year

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honestly the more i think about it the more i am OBSESSED with how what the Master was doing in TPOTD feels like the natural endpoint to his arc. like, it is far and away not the ONLY way things could have gone for him but it’s like one of those tragedies where the line you trace from A to B seems like an inevitable result of the character’s choices you know? the line from 12 trying to get Missy to be more like him -> Missy getting sabotaged by her own past self and seemingly abandoned by the Dr -> dh!master discovering the truth of TTC in the matrix and coming to the conclusion that the Doctor has always been better than him, more special than him, that they’ve never actually been equals and never had a chance to be -> trying hard to level the playing field by dragging her down to his level, pushing her to the point where she would kill both of them (and what’s left of their shared childhood ie the planet with all those memories on) by her own hand (“Become death, become me”) -> this plan doesn’t WORK and so of course the only thing left is to go the other way and to very literally become the Doctor instead, steal their body and identity and completely wipe them from existence. the line from trying to emulate 12′s idea of goodness on a surface level while pointing out that actually 12′s idea of good isn’t absolute -> whatever he was up to in Spyfall dialling the performative evil up to 11 to try and regain his identity as the Dr’s counterweight -> a little piece of you is in me, all that i am is somehow because of you and believe me when i say i cannot BEAR that -> an army of cybermasters born from you but led by me -> become death become me -> i’m going to force you to regenerate into me now I am the Doctor -> i have erased you, don’t make me go back to being me

this post barely even counts as meta really, i’m just turning him over and over in my mind, but i guess i just love how it’s so very easy to see how he got there?? he just couldn’t let this idea go that the Doctor is better than him because of what they are, when actually anyone who’s spent like 10 minutes with the Doctor could have told them that what makes the Doctor the Doctor is what they choose to do and who they choose to be. it’s the attempt. you know? which is why Yaz succeeds where he fails. i don’t really know where i was going with this so i’m going to stop before this becomes unwieldy but gosh i am MANY thoughts head fit to BURSTING

#honestly i could have a lot to say abt how 13 and dh!master's arcs are like light mirror vs dark mirror regarding the theme of identity #but i would want to actually organise my thoughts into something more coherent first HAHA #needless to say they're the same they're the exact opposite they're two sides of the same coin they have their backs against--#each other and neither of them is willing to turn round you see what i'm driving at right #this post is a Mess! i would apologise but you all just have to deal with it i'm afraid #fel livebagels the space hobo show #dw spoilers

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