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nagarusus-radiostatic-blog · 3 days

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obligatory fankid ideas + general thoughts

mostly abt staticradio but there’s other ships because I’ve lost all control. Everything after the first fankid is under the cut.

(Disclaimer: I see Alastor as a demiromantic ace, so do not come onto this post to start petty bullshit. I prefer this ship as two-sided, end of.)

First, the obvious. If Alastor and Vox had a kid, it would be a daughter. Why? Because if we go off their interactions with Niffty or Velvette, they are very girldad in vibe. I know Velvette’s more like... a friend/sister to Vox - they are closer in age than Niffty is to Al, as Velvette’s obviously 30 something, but there's still that generational gap given she was most likely born in the 70s - but still. Their interactions strike as found family type, even if it's a fucked up kind. Same with Niffty and Alastor. That, and I cannot see them raising a son and that kid not growing up to be like...Cain.

I think the girl would resemble Al, but with Vox’s colors, like most design such fankids. But I think the blue in her hair would be dark navy blue, borders on looking black. Maybe heterochromia type eyes? One red, one blue as a diamond. Her fur would be like... really light blue. And she'd have spiral patterns somewhere because Vox.

Despite this, this fankid I envision - Aimee, I call her - is both her fathers' daughter and nothing like them all at once. She has a favoritism for televisions yet an adoration for radios. Modernity isn’t something she fully accepts and she likes some old traditional stuff, yet wouldn’t be afraid to mix either if it’s fun. She can intimidate and bribe, manipulate like both - yet most of the time remains easy-going, kind and with an attitude that draws people in easy that her fathers feel horrified by. How could their little heir be so soft?

Its like that scene in the old Addams family show where Pugsley becomes a boys scout and plays with a puppy, Gomez and Morticia thinking he’s lost it. That’s Alastor and Vox with Aimee.

Despite this, they still love their daughter fiercely. Granted, it wasn’t easy at first. She was created from their magic combining, accidentally, and thus Alastor nearly relapsed. He wasn’t sure what to do with the little fawn, now snug in Vox’s arms. Vox didn’t have experience with kids, much less babies, but he wasn’t going to let her go - all while Alastor was reliving memories of his childhood. An abusive father who beat him, his mother always trying to protect him - a fear rose up. Would he repeat the cycle?

He left Vox’s tower that he moved into, after they finally got over their bullshit and became the power couple. He left not due to contract, and repression of his feelings for him. He left to protect their kid from the possibility he could potentially hurt her. He's always had a favoritism of women and girls. It gets bitter when it's his daughter now.

Alastor goes to Rosie first, who promptly calls him out on being a dumbass and thinking of leaving his child and Vox. "You have every right to be afraid, and you need to work on recovery - but not at the expense of your own offspring and her development plus your husband who you just FIXED YOUR TRUST ISSUES WITH. YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT."

He tries. The first five months are rough. Vox was hurt even if Alastor came back quickly this time. Alastor struggled to hold Aimee and try not to think of himself. Trying to repress the questions of why his father would think to - and he grows protective of his daughter in the process, though not as much as Vox. Vox who babyproofs literally everything.

By the time Aimee walks and talks, it's slightly better. Rosie comes over, helps a lot even if her experience with being a mom is basically adopting Charlie as her own despite the fact Charlie’s a grown ass woman. Ah well. Details! Rosie's a great aunt. Mimzy’s an even better aunt and spoils the kid rotten. They become her favorites instantly.

Velvette would also spoil Aimee but makes little outfits for her, ties bows in her hair. Unfortunately Aimee isn’t a girly girl and usually takes off the frilly stuff for casual clothes. Overalls and stuff. Velvette’s hurt and thinks Al is somehow to blame. Actually it’s Vox but no one tell her, she will be biased no matter what.

Husk makes himself an uncle to the kid, alongside Angel. This pains Alastor inside, hearing Aimee call the buffoons "uncles." But can he deny her that? Nope. He's just glad Charlie and Niffty can be better influences. Also the kid is built with a passion to annoy Lucifer, Lilith AND Adam who’s basically living up the sinner life by the time she’s "born." Vox and Al are so proud!

Misc:

If I can bring other fankids into this... Aimee's friend group is basically Ayn, Sal/Salvatore, Lukas, Orion, Wynonna and Nicole. Who are Guitarspear, Huskerdust, Chaggie, Stolitz, Strella and Niffty x Baxter kids respectively. (Let me have my fun crossover shhh)

There's also Moxxie and Millie's triplets, Mason, Morgan, and Marilyn but they're like, four Yeats younger, so Aimee is often stuck babysitting... bummer.

Aimee is the least gremlin-like of the group and it frustrates Vox because she's a sweet little doe and these other kids are little shitheads who are the bane of his existence. He is very competitive as a result and probably ended up fistfighting several times. Alastor had to bandage his wrist and screen twice.

Aimee sees Carmilla and Zestial as like, grandparents. Only because Alastor’s mom Maeva is in heaven, and Vox’s mom is too. Vox and Alastor’s dads were both shitty and abusive, so as a result... the two oldest overlords become honorary grandparents. She calls Carmilla "mamie" and Zestial "Papi". Zestial’s basically willing to take her as his precious granddaughter, while Carmilla is a bit apprehensive because she and Vox never got along - but fuck it, the kid is cute. Too bad her dads are assholes and will do anything to make her an equally big menace.

The bane of Adam's existence is that his dynamite Ayn is friends with edgelord's kid. That being said, Vox pays him to shut the fuck up, so he tries to resign to this. Ayn is slightly less of a menace as a result of Aimee's influence, ironically. Same cannot be said for Orion or Nicole, who drag Aimee into lots of trouble and make Alastor contemplate whether he risk pissing Niffty and a demon that ranks higher off, or let this continue.

I will expand on more later because I have many ideas.

#hazbin hotel #radiostatic #staticlovetune #staticradio #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin hotel alastor #nagarusu talk.png #fankids and all their niches #it takes place after some slow burn and a couple years + Al and Vox are married #Romantic husbands. Murder husbands maybe.#I specify bc no mistag (which I've seen so often)

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odessa-castle · 11 months

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I'm bouncing around a larger post about Nishiki and the mortifying ordeal of being known, but in the meantime I'm thinking about Nishiki and Kiryu and how the clothes make (or don't make) the man. Like, beyond my visceral horror that Kiryu begged Nishiki to pick out a safe and boring suit for him in Y0 and then said he was envisioning something purple with gold stripes.

I'm thinking about Nishiki's incredible sensitivity to image and his need to control how he's perceived. I'm thinking about Kiryu's inability to let go of the past. I'm thinking about how KIryu dresses like who he thinks he is, and Nishiki dresses like who he thinks he wants to be.

There's some interesting incidental dialogue between Nishiki and Kiryu in Y0 while they're en route to the men's suit store. I wish it wasn't so easy to miss, because there's a lot to unpack here. (I'm just transcribing the English in-game subtitles here; I don't speak Japanese so I have no idea how loose vs. direct the localization is in this part.)

NISHIKI: …now that I think about it, you've been dressing like an old man since we were kids. KIRYU: Have I? NISHIKI: Yeah. The few times we got to pick our clothes, it was always like, "you're choosing THAT?" NISHIKI: I wouldn't say you're a plain guy…You'd pick shirts with weird prints though. KIRYU: Guess I forgot all that. It's weirder to me that you haven't. NISHIKI: Well, confession time. You're why I started caring about fashion. I swore I'd never go out dressed like you. KIRYU: Come on, I'm not THAT bad. [we have already discussed why kiryu is, in fact, that bad.] NISHIKI: [laughing] Aww, did I hurt your feelings? NISHIKI: Well, this time you've got me with you. I'll see my bro gets taken care of. KIRYU: Heh. What an honor. NISHIKI: Leave it to me.

Nishiki doesn't bring up Sunflower Orphanage much; when he does share memories of his childhood, those memories are kind of painful (see: "do orphans not get to dream?"). Kiryu's surprised that Nishiki remembers how they dressed as kids, but it makes sense that wearing a limited selection of hand-me-downs stuck with Nishiki so strongly. His clothes announced his poverty, and they weren't even his -- he had to share them with the other orphans, so what he wore showed he belonged to yet another stigmatized group. And I'm sure people picked up on those visual signals, especially other kids. Kids can be vicious, and appearance is an easy and immediate target! We don't know for sure how young Nishiki interacted with his peers and teachers, but given what the Morning Glory kids go through in Y3 (and given, like, everything about Nishiki), he probably didn't have a great time.

Kiryu frames his childhood as poor but loving, and places much more emphasis on the latter. There might be some rose-colored glasses at work there -- let's look at the flashback where Kazama tries (and fails) to violently dissuade Kiryu and Nishiki from joining the yakuza.

KIRYU: I owe you everything, but this isn’t about that. [...] We’ve looked up to you for all this time. Your car. Your confidence… The way everybody bows to you. We idolized you. I want that life, too. Is that so wrong!?

Nishiki doesn't really speak in this flashback, but like, Kiryu uses "we" enough for us to draw some obvious conclusions about Nishiki's own motivations. That being said, I don't think Kiryu's being dishonest or disingenuous when he describes his childhood as happy, and himself as well-loved. He's not ashamed of his upbringing, and he doesn't hide where he came from. Nishiki seems to have the inverse view. It's not that he doesn't love (at least some of) the people he grew up with, but what comes up first for him is what he didn't have. He didn't have money. He didn't have respect. He didn't have a cure for his little sister. He didn't have a lot of choice, right down to the clothes he wore.

(There's a whole other essay here about why Kiryu's and Nishiki's perspectives diverge on this, but I'm trying to limit the scope of this post. Suffice to say that, while I don't think game canon gives a timeline, I do think Nishiki was a little older when his parents were killed -- old enough that he actually remembers them, at least.)

The same mindset fuels Nishiki's interest in fashion. Yeah, part of it is that he's ribbing Kiryu, but I think it goes deeper than Kiryu wearing ugly shirts. Nishiki doesn't want people to look at him and see what's missing. Fashion isn't a means of personal expression for him, really. It's a message. It's the interplay of knowledge and resources and presentation: knowing what clothes read as successful and trendy and expensive, being able to afford those things, and convincing people that your successful important outfit makes you a successful important person. And he's not wrong about the social dimensions of fashion.

NISHIKI: Try sporting a suit that runs 500 grand for once. Trust me, you’ll see the world in a whole new light. KIRYU: Fashion’s not my thing. Besides, Kazama-san never wore flashy clothes. NISHIKI: You do realize he’s the family captain, right? Number two in the whole Dojima operation? You get to that level, you can wear whatever you damn well please. But for the rest of us, “flashy” is part of the business. KIRYU: So that fancy new car you bought was just “business”. NISHIKI: Yeah, and that fancy lighter of mine, too. Which you still haven’t given back. KIRYU: You want to play the rich guy, quit being so stingy. NISHIKI: But you get what I’m saying, right? People see the expensive car, the designer jacket, and the gleam of that little Dojima pin, they pay attention. A yakuza’s only as good as his image. [...] Take your buddy today. These squeaky-clean idiots, borrowing money just to blow on tits and booze… Nobody in this town gives a crap about substance. What you see is what you get.

That's our first take on one of the major themes of the game: what does it mean to be yakuza? Again, there is truth to what Nishiki's saying here, particularly in terms of the ethos of the eighties. I'm not an expert on the bubble era, but the worldbuilding in the game speaks for itself. People hail taxis with 10,000-yen bills. You punch money out of punks during random street battles. Nishiki keeps a personal bottle of high-end booze at a bar he's visited twice, mostly because he "can’t stand being taken for a bum." The act of spending is important, not what you're spending it on.

Nishiki's outfit in Y0 is perfectly suited (heh) to that outlook. And look, I might be inviting controversy here, but in context, I think it's a werq. Yes, it's loud. But the silhouette -- squared shoulders, single breasted, thinner peaked lapel -- is right on trend for the time period, and it fits him well. The colors look good on him. The bold pattern (no, it's not animal print) under the solid maroon is a risk, but he pulls it off. And excess aside, he knows when to pull back on the accessories. It's bright and confident and memorable, and boy would Nishiki like to be all of those things.

Also -- and importantly -- Kiryu would never go out dressed like that. Because we can't talk about Nishiki and Kiryu without talking about Nishiki's Mt. Fuji-sized inferiority complex. Mastering image doesn't just make Nishiki stand out; it makes him stand out from Kiryu. Let's go back to the beginning of the game.

NISHIKI: I’ll admit, though, you’re finally starting to look the part. You make a pretty convincing yakuza. You’re done with collections today, right? KIRYU: Yeah. NISHIKI: Good. That should put Kazama-san’s mind at ease a bit. KIRYU: Heh, dunno about that. But he always knew all I could do is fight. You’re the one who’s good at the dance.

Nishiki then calls attention to the "rags" that Kiryu's wearing, which...is not an unfair assessment. (TUCK IN YOUR SHIRT, KIRYU. HEM YOUR PANTS.) As the two of them walk around Kamurocho, Nishiki offers Kiryu plenty of hot tips, from meeting girls to making big bucks to cozying up to the brass. But even when Nishiki's opining on his area of expertise, there's a competitive edge to it. "You asking me to pick out clothes for you means you admit you have terrible taste," he tells Kiryu on the way to the suit shop. Kiryu tells him to shut up, but there's no actual hurt behind it. Kiryu doesn't really care that his taste in clothes sucks. Fashion isn't important to him. Most of the things Nishiki knows so much about don't really matter to Kiryu. And that makes Nishiki feel more insecure! Because if Kiryu rolls out of bed looking like a yakuza, if Nishiki's image counseling sessions aren't helpful or meaningful, if Kiryu can skip the dance and get to the top on the strength of his fists and convictions, then who cares about Nishiki's 500 grand suit or his hourlong hair care routine? If image isn't what makes a yakuza, what does that make Nishiki?

At the end of Chapter 6, Nishiki tries to look out for Kiryu again -- this time, by granting him a merciful death before the Dojima Family drags him to the Hole. It's one of my favorite scenes in the game. Nishiki's crying too hard to aim the gun properly; Kiryu tells him to man up and shoot. Finally, Nishiki collapses.

NISHIKI: Can’t do it… How could I shoot you!? Without you, I’ll always be nothing. Can’t make it as a yakuza… No. I wouldn’t even still be alive now if I didn’t have you beside me! I’m just… If you’re not with me, I’m useless! Nothing means anything!

Mastering image hasn't granted Nishiki anything of substance. At the end of the day, Nishiki's playing dress-up, and he knows it.

And I'm almost certainly getting into overthinking-this territory now (if I haven't gotten there already), but I kind of like the spin this puts on Nishiki ripping his expensive suit off in Chapter 14 when he decides to fight the Dojima Family at Kiryu's side. Like yes, ripping off your outer layers to get at the naked (so to speak) truth -- your irezumi, and what it represents -- is just Yakuza Storytelling 101. It's decisive, it's kind of dumb, it's great, it gets me hyped every time. But I like that Nishiki's honest answer to "what does it mean to be a yakuza?" isn't about looking the part. I am genuinely trying not to end this paragraph by saying that Nishiki must become like a dragon, but like...you get where I'm going with this.

Of course, Nishiki's back to playing dress-up in Y1/Kiwami. I'm not the first to call the Patriarch Nishikiyama look a glow-down (though I like the patterned white tie). Like, fashion-conscious Nishiki would look good in a Hedi Slimane/Tom Ford-esque skinny black suit. But he picks a silhouette you'd expect to see on a much older man, torso-swallowing pants and all. The slicked-back hair doesn't help. He's just so transparently trying to look bigger and broader and older, and he doesn't pull it off. Big Bad Patriarch isn't a good look for him, in any sense of the phrase.

A final thought: Kiryu's clothes, and Nishiki's commentary on them, are the subject of their first conversation in Y0 -- and of their last. Kiryu's costume progression in Y0 is a pretty obvious commentary on his journey, to the point where Kiryu and Nishiki explicitly call attention to the color connotations in their final exchange. As a Dojima grunt, he wears black, and it doesn't look good on him because "brutish thug who keeps his head down and does what he's told" isn't a role he's comfortable with. He wears white when he works in real estate, but the change in color isn't enough to sell anyone on his transformation into a civilian. Although it's a little rich for Oda "Red Clown Shoes" Jun to chide someone for not wearing a proper suit. At the end of the game, Kiryu's in his classic grey suit, and well, the game spells it out:

KIRYU: I’m not feeling black or white these days. This is where I’m at right now. I chose it myself. I’m making it a fresh start. NISHIKI: Fine, fine. See if I care! Wear it the rest of your life!

Nishiki, dismayed, tells Kiryu that the grey suit already looks dated, but for Kiryu, "fresh start" doesn't mean "on trend". His image might be out of step with how other yakuza view themselves, or want to be seen, but if he's always going to look like a yakuza, he might as well stake his claim on what being a yakuza means. Still, it's telling that, even as a young man, Kiryu looks like a throwback to an earlier era. As the series progresses, the games hammer this home more and more. How many antagonists tell Kiryu that he's out of touch with the modern world, that he represents a version of the yakuza that no longer exists, that it's time for him to make way for the next generation?

"Wear it the rest of your life!" is a funny little in-joke, yeah, but...it's a little sad when you think about it, isn't it? Kiryu gets new outfits from Y3 on -- and in every game, he ultimately puts the suit back on and heads to Kamurocho. It's exactly of a piece with how Kiryu views being yakuza. We, and he, can debate the exact extent of his retirement from the Tojo Clan's affairs, but the yakuza isn't a career for Kiryu, it's a set of beliefs he carries with him. He wears the suit the same way he wears the dragon on his back: as an indelible part of his self-image.

#yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza meta #kiryu kazuma #nishikiyama akira #kazuma kiryu #akira nishikiyama #i've been poking at this thing intermittently for months but a certain tournament really got my mental gears going again #yakuza's just really fun to put under a microscope #i'm interested in the way the games do things even when i don't like what they do #(although to be clear i *do* generally like how rgg dresses its cast)#(even the outfits i make fun of are usually like...coherently delivering a statement about the character wearing them)#genuinely did not think i'd spend so much time writing this but hey #maybe i'll do these kinds of posts more than like...biannually...if they're sufficiently interesting #meta

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