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cigarcloud · 8 days

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The Sun Hardly Touches Me

Word Count: 1200 Ao3 Link Summary: “That man is a menace to the future of humanity!” Sengoku’s voice rang out over the loud crush of battle. Crocodile smirked to himself as he pushed his way through the bodies. He had to agree, that little brat was a menace. His body melted into sand as he was hit with stray bullets. The grains slid over each other seamlessly to reform him. “He grew up with Ace! They’re like brothers!” Crocodile was only half listening as the Fleet Admiral rambled, his target was growing closer with each second. “As for his bloodline, he’s the son of Dragon the Revolutionary!”

The world stopped in its tracks. Author's Note: Poem at the beginning is an excerpt from Lamium by Louise Glück

This is how you live when you have a cold heart. As I do: in shadows, trailing over cool rock, under the great maple trees.

The sun hardly touches me.

Another husk hit the ground with a thud, another Marine who thought he could survive Sir Crocodile. It was a mistake many others had made. It was always their last.

“That man is a menace to the future of humanity!” Sengoku’s voice rang out over the loud crush of battle. Crocodile smirked to himself as he pushed his way through the bodies. He had to agree, that little brat was a menace. His body melted into sand as he was hit with stray bullets. The grains slid over each other seamlessly to reform him. “He grew up with Ace! They’re like brothers!” Crocodile was only half listening as the Fleet Admiral rambled, his target was growing closer with each second. “As for his bloodline, he’s the son of Dragon the Revolutionary!”

The world stopped in its tracks.

No.

“Can’t believe I let you kick the shit out me for so long, brat. No one else would get away with that, you know.” But there was no malice in his voice.

NO.

“Look at you, so handsome! Somebody gave you good genes, huh?” Arms wrapped around his back, a chin landed on his shoulder. Crocodile snorted.

“Hope you’re not referring to yourself, uggo.” Dragon laughed, peppering Crocodile with kisses, ignoring the performative disgust that followed.

“Never, Wani.”

NO!

It couldn’t be the truth. Crocodile raged on, reckless in his pursuit of Whitebeard. He could barely respond, barely think when that annoying pink bird intervened in his fight. In his head all he could hear was a mad chorus of denial, slamming against the walls of his skull.

“What did we do for the heavens to send down the sun itself?” Crocodile rolled his eyes at Dragon’s attempted poetic ramblings. “Well, at the very least you certainly didn’t get your joyful nature from your mother.”

He shouldn’t care, he had buried that loss long ago. He had given his sunshine to Dragon, and he had never let affection or love rule him since. It shouldn’t matter now, but denial could only get him so far. Deep down, a vicious instinct had already reared it’s ugly head, all gnashing teeth and throat rending screams. Crocodile was made servant to its calls.

My baby, my baby, my baby!

When the blades were ready to land on Fire Fist’s neck, he succumbed. His son had been through enough. He wouldn’t let anything else happen to him. The executioners were dead long before their bodies hit the ground beneath the scaffold.

“Crocodile!” Sengoku’s dismay was written all over his face, sounded in the sharp intonation of his voice. Crocodile couldn’t bring himself to care much. He rolled his eyes, and gave some vague excuse of not wanting Sengoku to win. A truth perhaps, but not the truth. The navy certainly didn’t need to know that Monkey D. Luffy’s bloodline was criminal on two fronts.

Doflamingo also took offense, although Crocodile knew he didn’t care if the Government had their way or not.

“Oh come on, Croc!” He heard as his head fell off of his shoulders. “You rejected me and now you’re joining Whitebeard? I’m jealous!” Crocodile scoffed once he had a mouth to do it with, his head rebuilt.

“I’m not joining anyone.” Not anyone he wanted Doflamingo to focus on, at least.

The battle raged on, his son at the center of it all. Enemy after enemy piled on, seeking to be the one who took out the Revolutionary’s son. But for as many adversaries he attracted, he lured in allies just as effectively. It was a trait Crocodile found irritating, when he had fought the kid. He had arrived in Alabasta, Princess already in tow and wrecked years of planning like it was nothing. In the wake of this revelation, he couldn’t be surprised. How could he complain of being burned when he had stood in the path of the sun?

“Mr. One!” He barked out, turning to his right hand man. “Keep an eye on Straw Hat.” An order he was thankful he gave, when only a few minutes later Mihawk raised his blade to Luffy. Daz blocked his path, but only for a moment. Thankfully a moment was all Crocodile needed to catch up with his son. He shielded Luffy from Mihawk’s second swing, his hook and Yoru screeching as they collided.

He wanted to pull Luffy away, to take him and run. He knew how foolish it would be though. The kid’s enemies and allies alike would target him, and Luffy himself would be fighting. So he swallowed his bile and watched as the battle raged on, as Luffy lost everything. As Crocodile failed to protect his baby, again.

His heart clenched as he heard his son’s wails. His baby screamed in agony, and if Sengoku’s announcement hadn’t clued him in he thought that cry would.

“Shh, it’s okay baby. I’ve got you.” Crocodile looked down at the little bundle, barely bigger than his hands. He watched in fascination as the wails died down and his baby smiled up at him. His face wasn’t one known for its calming effect, but the baby didn’t seem aware of that.

Luffy would find no comfort in him now, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting him out safe, alive. He could atone later, he could hand his son the world on a platter, but only if he made it out alive. A scream tore itself from Crocodile’s throat, his cool demeanor shattered as Akainu punched through Jinbe and into his son. He hurled himself forward, knowing nothing but the war drums of blood pounding in his ears.

He blocked Akainu’s second attack, and turned to his son. He was lost to his shock, completely unconscious. His body was limp in Jinbe’s arms. All Crocodile wanted to do was take him and cradle his baby like he hadn’t in seventeen years. Instead he whipped his hand out towards them, throwing a sandstorm with it.

“Sables!” He cried out, turning towards their retreating allies. “Somebody catch them and put them on the ship!” He turned towards Jinbe then, locking eyes with the fellow ex-Warlord. “If you want to protect something, do it right! Don’t let them have my son!” Crocodile’s eyes widened at the same time as Jinbe’s, realizing what he’d said. What he let slip in the heat of his rage. He whipped his head towards Akainu, but thank whatever Gods were watching the Admiral was dealing with several other allies. No one else had heard.

Luffy and Jinbe eventually made it to the Submarine of another new pirate. The Surgeon of Death. Not the most comforting name, but Crocodile would have to accept it. He saw Luffy’s injuries. They needed treatment right away, there was no time to find anyone else.

Once the submarine disappeared, it was time to leave. Crocodile shifted through the battlefield, locating Daz and making his escape. There was a lot of work to be done, if he wanted to gift the world to the sun.

#fanfic #one piece #sir crocodile #monkey d. luffy #crocodad #the sun hardly touches me

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caelum-in-the-avatarverse · 5 months

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ive been a fan of ATLA since it came out, and I think I stopped reading fic for it once Korra came out. So (luckily?), I escaped Embers, but im curious to know what is its influence in fanon. Do you know any examples off the top of your head?

Whoa, that's impressive that you managed to skip it if you've been a fan that long. It started in 2009.

And yeah, I do. Admittedly I do not read ATLA fic often these days, so I'm probably behind on current trends. But if you know what you're looking at it's pretty obvious that lots of Zuko-focused fic is influenced by Embers. Granted, oftentimes the writer may not realize they were influenced by Embers--they may have been inspired by a fic that was inspired by a fic that was inspired by Embers. The fic is 14 years old, and the rabbithole runs deep.

So the effects Embers has had, off the top of my head:

The Wani. Zuko's ship does not have a canonical name, but so many writers have used Vathara's name for it that people are surprised when they learn it's not canon. Even I'm guilty of this one, it's such deeply-entrenched fanon that I figured I might as well use it in a throwaway line (tho I'm seriously considering going in and editing it out of the one fic I mentioned it in).

Dragon!Zuko. If Zuko or Fire Nation people are turning into dragons, that idea probably came from Embers; I don't recall ever seeing that trope in ATLA fic before Embers made it a thing.

Certain Aang-critical readings of canon. There are multiple ways people criticize Aang (fans have complained about him not killing Ozai since the finale aired, and shippers have their own gripes), but there are certain arguments that either originated with Embers or were popularized by it. The concept of "Aang told Zuko he'd come with him if he left the SWT alone, then Aang escaped, therefore he broke his word and lied and he's lucky Zuko is such a good person that he didn't turn around and burn the village to the ground because he totally would've been within his rights to do so" is an Embers original. Then there's the "Aang has totally killed people and is therefore a hypocrite and/or idiot who doesn't realize he kills people" criticism, which may have existed before Embers brought it up, but Embers definitely popularized it. (Canonically Aang has done things that would definitely result in people dying, but also canonically we never saw the bodies so the narrative didn't confirm or even acknowledge it, therefore there's plenty of room to interpret Aang's kill count and still be canon-compliant. I'll admit this is a pedantic argument if everyone else admits that some fans are overeager to give Aang a kill count and call him an idiotic mass murderer, especially when they point at the Siege of the North, where the only people he would've killed were enemy combatants). And apparently now there are stories where Zuko is very knowledgeable about Air Nomad culture and teaches Aang about it, or preaches to him about patience or maturity or morality--I reblogged a post about this recently. That entire mentality definitely came from Embers.

Hyper-competent Zuko. This is not solely Embers's doing, but let me explain. Zuko is the fandom's favorite, we love him, he ticks off a lot of boxes people love to see in a character. It is perfectly normal for a fandom to heap all sorts of awesomeness on their fave, and in fanon they become a super-competent badass who puts up with so much and fights so hard despite the odds, they are knowledgeable and intelligent and strategic, they are confident and compassionate and have iron-clad morals. (am I still describing Zuko or Obi-Wan Kenobi? lol) So this version of Zuko probably would've become a thing eventually; Embers was just the starting point. But things have to start somewhere, and in this case, it started with Embers showing off just how to make Zuko a hyper-competent badass. And Zuko is indeed a badass, but canon gave no indication that he'd actually be good at, like, politics, aside from the narrative implying it by saying he was the best person to become Fire Lord. There are takes on Zuko where he's politically astute, spiritually attuned, brilliantly strategic, extremely knowledgeable about all sorts of random things--none of which have much basis in canon, but they aren't necessarily contradicted by canon either. And again, this is just regular fandom behavior--but in the ATLA fandom these takes were sparked by Embers basically laying the foundation and creating the template for how to write Zuko.

Well-researched fic. Like the previous point, this is not solely Embers's doing. Researching stuff for fanfic has been a thing since forever. But Embers was huge, and Vathara talked a lot about the things she knew and the books she'd read, and people were very impressed and praised her for it, and it inspired them to do and show their own research for their fics, too. Unlike the other things on this list, this actually isn't something that annoys me--even I was inspired by this aspect of Embers, in conjunction with the racebending movement and cultural misappropriation criticism, to make research an important part of my own fic. I'd looked up information for my writing before, but Embers really showed how research could make a fic incredible. And frankly, I'm glad for it, because looking up stuff for my fics has proven to be a fun and rewarding pastime, and I love sharing my research with my own readers (tho I really hope my own author's notes aren't as condescending as Vathara's). Now, granted, given some of the opinions in her author's notes and things she's said elsewhere, I consider all of Vathara's information and reading recommendations to be suspect. But I'm glad it's inspired other people to do lots of great research and share it.

And that's all I can think of, off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more, but I haven't read Embers in years, and I don't read much ATLA fic in general these days, so if there's more I'm unaware. If anyone else can think of anything, please do chime in!

#caelum rambles #meta #fandom #fandom history #zuko #aang

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muffinlance · 1 year

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Cheating at Pai Sho Outtake: Crew Interrogation

Opened up Cheating at Pai Sho and this alternate version was just chilling in my notes. I ended up using the “Sokka goes out drinking with the crew” version instead, but behold, the crew messing with Zhao’s men:

* * *

Sokka was entirely unclear on whether the crew didn't notice him under his newly replaced guard helmet, or just didn't care.

"Look sharp, Ensign Other One," a fellow creepily anonymous skull-mask-guard said, giving Sokka an elbow nudge to the chest plate, and firmly putting an end to the did they know or just not care question. "Hostiles incoming."

"What do we do?"

"Mess with them." The guard lifted his faceplate. Hawker Genji winked at him, then let it drop.

Heavy boots stomped up the loading ramp, mere minutes after Zuko and the resupply party had left.

"Attention on deck!" one of the newly arrived armored-but-not-wearing-helmets guys bellowed. None of the crew had any particular reaction to this bellowing, probably because it was a few decibels below what they were used to. The man's lips twisted down. "The port commander has ordered a mission debriefing. You will assemble all crew—"

"Yes," Genji said, and the same time a woman next to him was saying "Agni blight it," and handing over a handful of coins.

The port inspector snapped his head towards them. "What was that, crewmen?"

"Nothing, sir,” said Genji. “Just won a bet. Thanks, by the way."

"Nothing, sir,” said the woman. “Just lost a bet. Thanks, by the way."

A third crewmember snickered, and stifled it as soon as the dock officer whipped around to glare. And suddenly Sokka realized why everyone on the Wani had put on their own helmets: near-complete anonymity.

So began the messing with.

%%%

The crew was, basically, locked in the mess hall. Except for the people who the port officer had hauled off to speak with one-by-one; they, presumably, were being released into the Wani wilds elsewhere, to minimize the getting-their-stories-straight thing.

"Do it," Genji urged Sokka on. "I'll give you a silver if you do."

"He's low-balling you, kid," Assistant-to-the-Doctor-and-Occasional-Pikeswoman Satomi advised.

"What even is a silver worth?" Sokka asked, having grown up in a region largely decoupled from the greater world economy. "I need a baseline for how much this is worth to you."

"A silver is worth about five kilos of rice if they don't know you're from the Wani," Satomi said. "Half that if they do. Hold out for a gold from him, at least. That's ten silvers, or an hour with a really good hooker."

"Sssh," Helmsman Kyo shushed, in a manner most shushily. "I can't hear what they're saying." He had his ear pressed to a metal pipe that connected to another pipe that ran to the room the port officer was doing his interrogations in. "Wait no, I got it. Okay, so we're up to The Avatar appeared before Prince Zuko in a column of light which vanished into the sky, leaving behind the last living airbender. The airbender lives on our roof and helped us fight off the Southern Savages that attacked us from the sky on their snow-white beast. It sounds like they're—yeah, they're finished! Next up!"

The uninterrogated remainder of the crew all assumed their sullen stances, and waited for the the port officers to drag the next of them off. Satomi was picked, and went with some literal dragging of heels. "Oh no, not me."

The Wani crew, as it turned out, tried very hard to be consistent in their ridiculously over-the-top rewrites of the truth.

"We don't get battle stories to brag about," they'd explained to Sokka. "But we do get Avatar Hunt ones."

Kyo pressed his ear to the pipe again, and continued his narration. "Okay. Good, good—she laid out the basics again. And she's adding—oh wow, this is great—'Together with our new airbender, we brought the light of Agni to the frozen heathens, and converted them to our cause. Now they worship graven images of Fire Lord Ozai and leave offerings at the rusted ruins of our ships—'

Sokka. Knew what he had to do.

%%%

"Sit," the port inspector ordered.

Sokka sat.

"Your fleet commander demands an explanation for this wasteful expenditure of resources to the south," the man snarled. "Tell me the truth of it. Start from when your ship departed this port the last time."

"Well, I'm not going to be able to help you with that," Sokka said. "You see, I was out minding my own business on my culturally inferior ice shelf when the light of Agni shown upon my world. Also, Avatar something-something? I forget what they told me to say. Anyway, long story short, I'm a converted Southern Savage. Hail Fire Lord Zuko's Dad!"

It might just be the sleep deprivation, but the guy's expression was hilarious.

%%%

"How did you all get written up for insubordination?" Zuko shouted. "I was gone for less than two hours! You're not even in the navy!"

"Yeah," the Water Tribe peasant said. "That officer guy got really angry when he thought I was giving him a fake name. Then he heard them calling me 'new guy' and just wrote up Pikesman Kazuto. Sorry, Kazuto."

"He… what?" Kazuto, who was carrying the last sack of rice aboard, paused long enough to look befuddled.

The teenager shrugged; his armor clattered and creaked even worse than Jee's. "What can I say? Just because I'm not part of the navy doesn't mean I'm not part of this crew."

There was. There was so much cheering and backslapping. Zuko had left for less than two hours, and now his crew liked a Water Tribe barbarian more than their prince.

#Cheating at Pai Sho #outtakes #Avatar The Last Airbender #atla #poking at writing the next chapter

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traitimdoithay · 1 year

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(Thief King Bakura-centric Comic) Nile Kappa Pool (English Translation)

hi there! i came across this comic about thief king bakura learning about kappas and i loved it so much that i had to give translating it a go. it's not often you see non-romantic comics getting passed around that aren't gag comics, so obviously i had to jump on this one. apparently it's a fairly recent one too, being distributed in 2018.

my translations may be a bit off, please feel free to correct me if you see anything that could be translated better! i tried to make the dialogue sound natural in english while also not losing the original meanings. i’ve also typed out all the dialogue under each page cause i did have to fight with the small speech bubbles a bit, so dialogue may be a teeny bit hard to read sometimes. there’s also a few translation notes added too!

Title: Nile Kappa Pool/ナイル河童淵 Author: nmoohha (you can find their distribution notice post here if you’d like to see glimpses of the original digital version!) Summary: TKB meets a boy who tells him about kappas Scans: @super-lovely-collection (thank you for giving me permission to post my translation with your scans!)

i’m also providing a download for people who want to read it more conveniently! i included all the separate pages plus a PDF version :) (the last few pages in the original aren’t included since they’re not part of the story)

Boy: Hey... Boy: Have you ever seen a kappa?

TKB: ... TKB: Ka...ppa...? TKB: ...The heck is that? Boy: Hmm? You don’t know?

Boy: It’s a spirit that lives in the river Boy: A spirit that lives hidden in the grass by the water...

(Boy: Yeah!) (TKB: Ohh) Boy: It grabs children playing by the water Boy: And tries to drown them! TKB: Hoh... (Boy: It bounced 9 times!) (TKB: First time I’ve seen that) TKB: ...You ever seen it? (The kappa?) Boy: Nope TKB: Come on! Boy: So every day I lure it in while playing like this (I wanna see it!) TKB: Every day?! (In your free time?!) TKB: If I did that, I’d rather get attacked and eaten by a crocodile!

TKB: A kappa, huh. ...That’s it. TKB: Did you mistake it for a crocodile? Boy: Huuh? That’s not it. It’s different from a crocodile. There’s no heroic tale*. TKB: Okay, sorry! (I’ll throw stones too) Boy: A kappa walks on two legs. TKB: Two legs... Boy: It has a mouth with teeth like a crocodile Boy: And arms with thick claws like a jaguar Boy: Also, it has webbed feet and can swim Boy: And on top of that, it has a turtle shell on its back TKB: ?? *The original word used here is ロマン/roman, which can refer to chivalric romance literature. These kinds of stories tend to be your classic 'knight goes on a journey, fights monsters and other evils, gets the lady' tale. I couldn't really figure out a better way of making this understood briefly, so it is what it is. On another note, apparently the Japanese word for crocodile (鰐/wani, but here it's written as ワニ) was originally used to refer to an ancient sea monster which has been featured in quite a few Japanese myths. Don't know if this knowledge adds anything to the comic, but it is interesting to know!

(Artist’s impression of a kappa: by Bakura) Boy: It’s really strong, right? TKB: Isn’t that too much bullcrap? Boy: A kappa is a spirit that likes to fight Boy: My grandpa saw one wrestling* a hippo when he was a kid TKB: Huh...

*The specific term used here is sumo wrestling, just to be clear it's not referring to general wrestling.

TKB: Ahh... I dunno about a kappa TKB: But I have seen one. TKB: A spirit Boy: A spirit? TKB: The spirit I saw... was better than a kappa. (Haha) TKB: It looks like a human from the waist up... TKB: It has bird wings on its back TKB: Two pairs of them! TKB: Not only that, it has a snake’s head from the waist down TKB: It has the two heads of a human and snake

(Artist’s impression: by young boy) Boy: Two heads... Boy: Yeaah, it’s weirder than a kappa TKB: W... weird... Boy: But it seems stronger than a kappa Boy: When did you see it? The spirit (Boy: It has two heads...) TKB: I met it... when I was a kid... TKB: It saved my life.

TKB: If I hadn’t met the spirit... TKB: I might not have been able to play like this... TKB: Or have the desire to live Boy: Wow... how cool Boy: The spirit... is just like a god, huh? TKB: !! TKB: A god...? TKB: Heh heh TKB: Not bad!

Boy: Ahh... it didn’t bounce at all... TKB: ... TKB: Hah?! It’s my first time doing it! TKB: How do you make it bounce like that?! Boy: I have a trick, I’ll teach it to you (Ahaha) TKB: Just you wait, I’ll make it bounce more than you! Boy: I told you, I won’t lose

(Boy: It’s round) (Boy: Flat stones like this are good) (TKB: Hoh) (Boy: Lower your stance more) (TKB: Ah)

TKB: It bounced 3 times just now! Look! It bounced, it bounced! (TKB: Alright!)

Boy: Well then~ I’m going home TKB: Okay Boy: Don’t get attacked by a kappa! Be careful! TKB: Haha, you too... TKB: ...Hah... TKB: I got worked up with that kid by accident... (Ow ow ow...) TKB: Well... it’s a good way of killing time once in a while TKB: Right, partner?

TKB: You are like a god TKB: You must be happy, right? (Diabound: Mhm) (Diabound: (Smile)) (TKB: You’re really happy...)

TKB: Now... to find a suitable restaurant somewhere and have dinner... TKB: ! TKB: ...? TKB: A stone...? TKB: Is someone there...?

TKB: Hey! TKB: What the hell?!

TKB: Why are crocodiles jumping toward me?! TKB: ...Can crocodiles jump...? ???: Hey TKB: ?! ???: Give the stone back* during the day, kuh keh keh ???: But... it’s important to give it back properly

*The specific word used is お返し/okaeshi, which refers to a custom where when someone gives you a gift, you have to give them a gift in return for the initial gift.

TKB: This spirit looks... strong...

TKB: ...A...

TKB: A kappa...?

#tag: yugioh #tag: translations

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demonslayedher · 1 year

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Why do you like Demon Slayer so much?

I---I don't know, Anon, w-why do you like breathing so much?

...because BREATH TECHNIQUE LOOKS WICKED AWESOME AMIRITE!??!!?

UFOTABLE MADE SUCH A FREAKING COOL LOOKING ANIME that both looks and sounds amazing with all that care put into it HOW COULD I NOT LOVE IT!? Such good source material too, ALL HAIL WANI-SENSEI!!!!

Or rather, to more eloquently express myself, I'll answer this in two parts: the "why" and "so much."

Why do I like it?

- Simplicity

It's a classic Good .vs. Evil story, a triumph of working hard and working together. It's Coming of Age and Hero's Journey, all themes that never get old because they're really good themes. KnY isn't even that fresh of a take if you boil it down to this, but it didn't need to reinvent the wheel, it just needed to be a good wheel to keep the story going.

I was grateful it ended when it did, it had a goal to accomplish and everything in the story worked toward that goal. I've fallen away from adventure shounen because I can never stay interested in super long series that get mercilessly extended past their natural life as cash cows. Not to sound like a Swamp Demon here, but this manga got to end while it was still young and beautiful.

The fighting mechanisms are complex enough to be fun to explore, but it's not as complicated as other shounen series, making the barrier to entry lower for first-time anime viewers. That's part of why I think it's been so successful. Plus, even though we get things like Red Blades and Marks later, their existence as ultimate techniques was in place from the start, so they felt believably set up and paid off. They made sense within the world building, even if they had to be dropped on the readers later so as to weekly serialization interesting.

It tackles deep themes, but doesn't overcomplicate them. Muzan being a simple villain and Tanjiro simply being good-hearted created interesting tension just fine, the motivations throughout the cast keep the story nicely driven.

- Depth

Although the story, world, and characters are simple enough for people of all ages and familiarity with anime to enjoy, if you want to scratch deeper than the surface level, the hundreds of thousands of words of meta and cultural background throughout my blog go to show that it's very, very easy to bury yourself deeper in it. In my case I already have years of obsession with Japanese culture to build on, so KnY fit very nicely into my niche. I already love samurai and oni and swords and such so that was already playing to my knowledge, but as a passionate nerd, it's also given me lots and lots of exciting new material to learn more about. But more about that later, suffice to say here that Gotouge is a very, very knowledgeable gator.

- Characters

THEY ARE JUST GOOD AND FUN AND UNIQUE DESIGNS IN THE FIRST PLACE, but also, I don’t feel like I already know these characters from other anime. Many of them defy being typecast, and even the ones that do feel like like other characters in a plethora of anime have such a unique spin to make them stand out in my heart. I'm sure I could be a nerd for plenty of other series, but it takes the right characters to make a fangirl.

Also, my emotions got manipulated excellently; I like Tanjiro and immediately wanted to root for him, but I ha-a-a-ated most of the rest of the cast until I got to spend a teeny-tiny bit more time with them, and then I liked them hopelessly. I got totally strung along and I love it when I can get strung along like this.

Why do I like it so much?

A lot of that comes down to my personal recipe of brain soup and the situation I already felt stuck in by the time I got into KnY, a few months prior to the pandemic. Watching the anime and feeling really into it came as a comfort while I was finding myself in what felt more like a situation than a good career move and feeling frustrated with the second draft of a novel which wasn't working. Then just as I had hoped there might be some improvements to my situation which I was holding out for, the pandemic changed everyone's plans.

Simply put, the isolation and stress in those early stages of the pandemic both gave me lots of time to explore and write fanfic and made me rely a lot on the joy I got out of KnY, and then I got so practiced at making KnY fanwork that this blog became like my bonsai I could cultivate in peace while most other things in life have continued to feel out of control. And dang it, I'm good at cultivating this bonsai of a blog! It's gratifying to feel good at something when real life is making you feel otherwise!

Hopefully the upcoming new start in a new city and in a new job that'll hopefully make me feel good at things again and provide some smidge more control over my life will make me less reliant on KnY for such a big share of my happy hormones, but...

THE HYPE IS PART OF WHAT I LOVE

IT IS

SO MUCH FUN BEING OBSESSED WITH A MAINSTREAM PHENOMENON

THERE ARE THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY EVERYWHERE

I SAY THESE CHARACTER NAMES AND EVERYONE KNOWS WHO I'M TALKING ABOUT AND THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME

IT STAYS ON MY BRAIN BECAUSE IT IS EVERYWHERE

AND THIS IS SO COOL

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rappaccini · 3 months

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I get what you're saying. I adore him in spiderverse though I think he's better in the comics, but I get the feeling the writers think they have to bend and twist other characters to prop him up, which isn't needed at all. Its like how they changed Miguel to an asshole, Peter is made to look incompetent and careless and Gwen's entire character is sacrificed and water down to sell her as a love interest. I lowkey get the feeling they're gonna try to make it to where Peter's more inferior than him: like how they're framing it so far, Peter couldn't do this, or that, he couldn't save this person but Miles can cause he's better. He's special. And yes, he is a great character but you don't have to water down other characters for his sake. He's already great on his own. I mean as someone who loves both Peter and Miles I think they should be able to coexist without putting one another down, but it kinda feels they're setting up the story to be that way. And while yes, hit at the critics and racists who bash Miles all you wany, but putting it to where you think he's a superior than Peter because...whatever isn't exactly the way to do it and will only make things worse.

yeah, i feel that.

i wrote a whole novel about how i hate that gwen's been watered down to make miles look more special, so i won't repeat that here.

man i feel sorry for comic miguel fans. they've been fighting for their lives bc of atsv. i have conflicted feelings about this version of miguel, because on the one hand i think the role he plays in the movie works and he's a great villain, but i still wonder if they could've come up with a different plot for atsv that didn't revolve around responding to the backlash against miles, or at least made someone who isn't another poc the face of the backlash.

peter b though... hm. one of the biggest problems with him in the comics pre-itsv (which still pops up, but less lately) is that he keeps being built up as this oh-so-special chosen one that all the other spider-ppl have to kiss the ring of (especially miles), and it's so annoying. so taking him off the pedestal and saying 'no, he's kind of a loser' is very satisfying.

it also highlights how the presence of miles in his life can inspire him to finally grow the hell up for good instead of being stuck in this constant state of arrested development. and since itsv was most people's first impression of miles, it was SO important for miles to not be following peter around with puppy dog eyes, and for peter to instantly understand and appreciate how special miles is (because if peter does it, so does the audience).

atsv is where i think the problem comes in. peter b being so benched doesn't track with his characterization. like, you're telling me a girl miles went on one bus ride with who friendzoned him is risking her life to come see him, but the guy who mentored him for days and loved miles so much he decided he wanted to be a father because of him won't? no. absolutely not. if anyone was going to sneak away from the society to see miles it should have been peter. and no way in hell would he be grinning taking selfies with his baby while miles is being hunted by the society. they flushed the miles-peter dynamic down the toilet to replace it with miles-gwen and it sucks.

it also doesn't work with the metacommentary. because let's be real: the canon events all center around peter parker. he's the blueprint, and the movie doesn't mention it at all. like, isn't that weird? there are more peters at hq than any other type of spider-person, and nobody mentions it? wouldn't peter be uncomfortable with being put on a pedestal like that? wouldn't miguel have a huge inferiority complex about not being peter parker? wouldn't this be a great opportunity for the original spider-man to tell the racist fans who won't accept miles that they're full of shit? why is he just wandering around in a robe and slippers.

as for miles being superior... i think btsv is what'll make or break it. as of the end of atsv, miles thinks he's better than the spider-society and that's why he thinks he's going to be able to break canon. he's proud of himself for "beating" them, he keeps telling gwen he's gonna be the guy who'll be different for her (he won't), he wants to be the most special spider-man who gets to cherrypick his canon events and he hasn't considered that the idea that canon events are mandatory might be the real problem. if btsv revolves around miles realizing he's wrong and helping everyone else break their canon too, i love it. but if btsv ends with the theme of 'sure, canon exists, but some people, like miles, are special enough to be the exception' instead of 'everyone deserves better' that undermines the whole story. i'm just gonna wait on it.

#asks #spiderverse salt #they also took from hobie for miles' you-should-have-been-the-prowler narrative fwiw

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drachenwiki · 6 months

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Post you reblogged about the Żmij made me think about how even within cultures there can be a wide range of dragons with a wide range of traits (sometimes antithetical to each other) and I think people should talk about that more. Talk about the different slavic dragons and how they fight one another, or talk about the differences between a Ryu, Tatsu, Mizuchi, and Wani.

I think with the East Asian examples, they are actually very different creatures that just got labelled as dragons by Europeans because of similarities.

The Eastern European examples however are extremely interesting to me because oftentimes there are different words like variants of zmaj, smok, lamia or azhdaha, which at their core all mean dragon but get used to differenciate creatures that play very different roles in their myths.

But since all I have to work here are German and English folklorists and the rare English text by a Slavic (and even rarer Romanian, Hungarian, Albanian or Greek) folklorist, I'm not sure how much of this stuff is just generalization and categorization by folklorists and how different the regional beliefs actually are.

So yeah, comments by people who know more about Eastern European folklore are greatly appreciated.

#zmij #smok #western dragon #asian dragon #lamia

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thepavementsings · 1 year

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pierresteban reminds me of that quote about childhood friends being the benchmark of our lives because they have always around each other and competing together

“Childhood friends are the benchmark of our lives, no matter where we go, what we do. They will always come by and take you to the place where you belong.” — Burhan Din Wani

sorry for what is under the cut lol

I just googled this quote anon and I think you're so right! In a way that is more extreme for them because they've always been measuring themselves against each other - they had to. There's one winner. One scholarship. etc etc.

There's a quote from Pierre when he's asked about Esteban not possibly losing his seat in 2019 (I have so much to say about them and 2019 but it is like, unhinged so we won't do that now) where he responds:

"Since i'm 7 years old, I've always fought with him and I'm sure I'm gonna keep fighting with him in the next few years so. I think for sure F1 is pretty tough.... he's doing his job and things [that] are out of his control are not really going his way. So I'm pretty sure he'll keep pushing and we'll see him back on the grid pretty soon. I'm sure we'll keep having some pretty good fights."

and I think that encapsulates it so well. The way they've always been in the periphery. Everything changes yet so much stays the same!! And I think that will be so exciting to see this season. Because I have always been a firm believer that there was no one right or wrong in the breakdown of their relationship. So much of it was circumstance and the environment they were in where it felt like only one could come out of it, and for both of them for so many reasons outside themselves it was a "it can't be both of us, and it has to be me" scenario.

Which is why BOTH of them being in the paddock, BOTH of them being grand prix winners is so bittersweet. Because it could be both of them!! But at that point in their relationship when it fell apart it couldn't be. And what does that mean now!! As teammates. Because they've spent so much time building themselves into who they are away from each other. And now they're at a place - once again, because of circumstance - where it can't be both of them, not really! So what do they do? How do they make it work? How do they give each other the space to each do what they need to do? Because like it or not they're a TEAM now. And they will both be under heavy scrutiny to make the partnership work. It can't be both of us, but it has to be. On the real life basis it will be fascinating.

On the more RPF-y side, what does it mean to be given another chance with someone you once loved!! Because in some type of way, maybe in all types of ways, they did love each other once. Do they even want to take the chance to do it all differently this time? Is it worth it to open all of that back up? I don't know if they both have the same feeling on that to be honest.

Anyways their narrative truly is so rich because it's SO complex. I can talk about it for hours haha.

#sorry for this response haha #i have been thinking about them all day...#pierresteban lore #anon #asks

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artisnowy · 7 months

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its been almost 2 months since you said you didnt wany to be friends, 3 months counting the ghosting.

The place in my head where you live is fading but i despretely holding onto the memories, leaving claw marks everywhere.

One day i will no longer think of you whenever i see that game, Someday I will no longer wonder where you have gone. And i dont wany that day to come

I realized after you left how desprete i am for connection, without your voice to ring through these calls and these texts to comfort me i realize how little i am without the people around me.

I hope you dont think of me the same way you think of him, I know you know who i am refering to, and yet they have the courtesy to confirm your ok.

I think im just tired. Im tired of fighting battles to keep the friends closest to me, tired of watching those friends surrender, and watching them leave

I am no longer the one you loved and yet my heart still worries for you

#depressing shit #tw depressing thoughts #poem #poemsbyme #poetry #poem by me

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calcliffbas · 2 years

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So, I know it’s probably been a while for you, but I was recently rereading your White Lotus Zuko series, and I noticed you mentioned being willing to elaborate on your reasons for sticking so close to canon. I’ll admit, the way you stuck close to the events of canon in basically every way was a source of some major frustration when I first read it, and even now, it’s something which unfortunately brings it from a 10/10 to a 9.5/10. Why did you choose to have Zuko’s different choices have ultimately no effect?

Ohhh yikes, I’ve been dreading this ask. The long and the short of it is under the cut:

The simple answer is that the White Lotus Zuko series only really came about because I'm a Zutara shipper who wanted to see what their relationship could have been like if Zuko was a good guy from the start. It really was that simple when I first began writing ‘No Reason You Can’t Do It’.

The longer answer is that I was still (am still?) a very new writer, really not all that confident in my ability to craft a plot and a narrative, and I was more interested in (and had more fun thinking about) the characters and their relationships than the plot. That’s what I liked most about writing Book 1 and Book 2, and one part of Book 3 I really enjoyed writing the climactic scene when Aang unlocks the Avatar State, because that’s when we see how much his friends have helped him on this particular take on his coming-of-age journey.

I could have had the story go differently, yes, but when I was writing this fanfic, I’d just left a job that I hated only to find myself in another job that I hated in the middle of a global pandemic, and I wanted to write something that brought me joy. And like I’ve said before, I didn’t want to write a canon-divergent series so much as a canon-adjacent series; I wrote the story for me, and I enjoyed the fact that sticking close to canon meant that I could try my hand at writing Azula, Mai and Ty Lee. Plus, I was able to bring in more Asian influences such as Zuko’s Japanese poetry or Iroh’s Korean proverbs, which was hands-down my favourite part of 'You Have To Stand Firm’.

I’m sorry to hear that you were frustrated by the way the series went, but I mean, if it’s canon-divergent AUs you want, I wouldn’t say Zuko’s choices had no effect. I wrote a 90k Zuko-centric prequel set in the 18 months between ‘Seventy-two to nil’ and ‘No Reason You Can’t Do It’, and I’m kind of fond of my Mai-centric spin-off, which was set up pretty nicely by the ripple effects of ‘You Have To Stand Firm’ and ‘Who Knows What Happens Next’.

Maybe once I’ve worked on some other stuff and real life slows down a bit, I might go back and write an alternate Book 3 where Zuko fights Azula in the Crystal Catacombs to allow Uncle, Katara and Aang to escape. When they get back to the Wani, Sokka and Suki are fully prepared to go back and break Zuko out. Just before they leave, Iroh hands Sokka a bag to give to Zuko. In full view of everyone, Sokka opens the bag and pulls out a Pai Sho set, a couple of boxes of ginseng, and a Blue Spirit mask. Annnnd that’s how Aang and Katara and the SWT warriors find out that Zuko’s the Blue Spirit. Great job, Sokka.

On the ship’s brig, Azula taunts Zuko by telling him that she’s heard rumours that pirates have sent a mercenary after the Avatar’s waterbender and the Blue Spirit after they sunk their ship. Once Sokka and Suki have broken Zuko out, they decide that it’s too dangerous to risk leading Azula straight back to the Wani, and instead decide to go across the Earth Kingdom as a distraction, a la Sokka and Zuko’s plan in Book 1. Whilst they’re looking for the Kyoshi Warriors, Combustion Man catches up to them - he’s after the Blue Spirit, and he thinks Sokka’s the waterbender!

Cue Aang learning the elements from Katara, Toph and Iroh, the older kids doing White Lotus things, and more ZK pining than ever. But would anyone read it after such a long hiatus? I probably wouldn’t.

#thanks for the ask!#weepingslimethingoperator #white lotus zuko

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veiledfox · 5 months

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@bxd-kxrma: this battle ALWAYS gets me hyped!

} no joke, I was literally seeing the battle play out in my head the entire time

Sending out Takibi -my shiny Typhlosion- against Pikachu first thing, blasting a flamethrower against the ground to get a wide spread of flame to catch the agile little mouse before focussing on it to down it.

Swapping in Ob -my Gengar-, to counter Espeon with a shadowball before it could do anything.

The struggle against the Snorlax who resisted Ob's hypnosis attempts. Downed Hana -my Meganium- with body slam just after getting poisoned by poisonpowder after three misses. Recovered from poison by putting itself to sleep with rest, boosted it's special defense so high Ob couldn't hurt it with Dream Eater so I had to swap to Yos -my Togetic- to try and hit it with a fighting type move. Taking so little damage that I figured it better to flash it to lower it's accuracy, but it wasn't havin any of that so it took down Yos as well with body slam. Then got frozen by Wani -my Feraligator- after two Ice Punches before TWO crit Slashes finally took it down.

Then swapping Takibi back in against Venasaur who got burned to a crisp by flamethrower. A thunderpunch dropping the Blastoise that came next down below half before it did rain dance, getting hit with another thunderpunch to finish it off while it was no-doubt about to use a hydro pump. Then dashing right in at the Charizard amid the storming rain and OH-KOing it with a thunderpunch uppercut for the win.

It feels SO fucking good to finally finish Gen 2 properly after having never been able to finish Jhoto because my OG copy of Silver had a dead internal battery so I couldn't save it at all. I'd get past Lugia, get to the E4, but couldn't beat them cause I was in a fucking car at the time.

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kricketbee · 6 months

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WIP Wednesday Game

It’s WIP Wednesday, time for a little accountability, sharing your work, and getting a kick in the pants.

Here’s how it works:

In a reblog of this post (so people can find you in the notes) or new thread (w/ rules attached) if you want to play on your own, post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to play!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event or gift fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. I’ll be searching the reblogs to find people to send asks to!

If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

file names:

FreedomFighter! Dai Yu

chp 3

chp4

chp ?? (jee)

teenage vow in a parking lot

Robin 3 (rouph draft)

snippet from chp 3

The next day someone was sent to go pick up Dai Yu’s laundry, and as soon as they came back the Wani sailed out of Yu Dao.

It had taken exactly one night with half the crew away on shore for everyone to know about her fight with Zuko. Kairo thought the whole thing was hilarious. He was still in his civvies from last night, and faintly stank like alcohol but looked better rested than she felt. “You have no idea how happy it makes me. Agni what I wouldn’t give to have been on deck to hear it myself.”

“You could have told me what it meant,” She huffed. Uncle had taken her aside that morning and gently explained that the word she’d so loudly called Zuko, in front of half the crew, didn’t mean exactly what she thought. Well it did, but also meant…something else. She hid her face in her hands when he said ‘female genitalia’ and kept hiding as he tried to ask about who’d said that to her. She’d eventually convinced him that no one in particular said that to her, and she’d just overheard it.

“You didn’t ask.” He took a bite of her food. “So, you really don’t have your own money?”

They were sitting in a random cargo bay, by his suggestion. Cloudy skies, a light drizzle and chilling winds from the north made it too cold to eat outside, despite the fact that they were already firmly in the beginning of summer.

“No.”

“Huh…well, did’ya have fun?” He said in a tone mocking the way a relative might ask about a child's day out.

Dai Yu spent a lot of time last night thinking about whether her criminal excursion had actually been worth it. She sank her teeth into a spa cake, it was a little stale on the outside at this point, but still moist and sweet in the middle. “Yeah.”

“Hah, good.”

The door of the cargo bay swung open and Daisuke stepped in followed by Lee, another seventeen year old. Daisuke stopped when he spotted them, mumbled something like an apology and started to turn back towards the door.

“What, you too good to eat with us?” Kairo called.

Daisuke glanced at her, and then to Lee. Lee was quite a bit taller than either Kairo or Daisuke, and had a square jaw and cheekbones that reminded her of the man on the covers of a book series cousin Mari liked. (She liked them so much in fact that she kept them hidden in the back of her wardrobe and made Dai Yu pinky swear not to tell Uncle Jaeyu).

Lee shrugged. “If Kairo hasn’t managed to get thrown overboard yet, we should be fine.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s permanently on the nightshift now,” Daisuke responded.

“Maybe I like the night shift, ever think of that, asshole?” Kairo had been on night shift ever since the trip to the western air temple, instead of the usual week on week off schedule. So after they ate breakfast together Dai Yu wouldn’t see him again unless they ran into each other by chance before she went to bed. She hadn’t given it much thought until now, assuming Lieutenant Jee put him there because he was the least likely to start fights with other people that way.

Lee seemed to have made up his mind, crossing the room to sit across from Kairo on Dai Yu’s right. He gave her a friendly smile. “I’m Lee, by the way.”

“I know,” She said.

He smiled wider. She felt her face heat slightly and turned her attention back to her cake.

Daisuke seemed to give in and followed his friend, sitting across from her in between Kairo and Lee. “Do you also like being dragged into the mountains to sort through air nomad junk after not sleeping all night?”

Dai Yu examined Daisuke. This was the first time she’d been able to see him this close without him trying his best to leave. He reminded her a lot of her mother. Granted, before she left home most fire nationals did, with their black hair and yellow eyes. But something about the specific combination of Daisuke's features: round jawline, dark lashes, slightly upturned eyes. He really looked like mom.

She realized she’d been looking for too long when he glanced nervously back at her. “Sorry, I’m staring and that's rude. You just kind of remind me of someone.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Mmhmm.” She didn’t want to say that he reminded her of a woman, even a pretty one. Boys hate that.

#wip wednesday #fic writing #Black Jade spoilers #trying to write a bit while I'm on my break today #send motivation/inspiration/good vibes

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demonslayedher · 2 years

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Hi! What are your opinions on Kanao? Like how her trauma was dealt with/developed, how she was just characterized in general? I sort of want to write a fic and I was wondering if you have any tips on how you would write her?

Gut reaction opinion: She’s baby.

But, to think more deeply on Kanao (a few thousand words more), I hope you don’t mind me borrowing a few lines from one of my own fics about the pre-canon Butterfly Mansion:

“Deep down inside, Tsuyuri may have always had the spirit of a Flower Breath user. She withered early in life, but she’s got roots, slowly, slowly strengthening her. She’s got Kanzaki to prepare food for limber and strong limbs, little ones to shade and protect, and a shower of love to help her grow. Deep in her heart, sleeping quietly, she may possess the will of a weed.” “The Wasp's Nest” – Chapter 5

If I bring up this fic a lot, it’s because it’s the result of all the questions I’ve asked about Shinobu, Aoi, and Kanao, especially in light of the Taisho Secret before Chapter 164 which details how Kanao learned Flower Breath by watching, and despite not thinking for herself, she decided of her own accord to do something as drastic as joining the Final Selection. I was stunned by that Taisho Secret, as without it, I would have interpreted Shinobu and Kanao's relationship completely differently, with Kanao having been raised to use Breath Technique and been told to go participate in the Final Selection.

Some of my reasons for that: 1. In the flashback extra chapter of Shinobu complaining to Kanae about Kanao being unable to think for herself, she says its “dangerous.” I had misremembered this as being in reference to taking her to battle, though the actual text doesn’t necessarily imply that. 2. In Chapter 100, Gotou describes Kanao as a seriously weird kid who doesn’t even talk, and that she’s been made to fight demons ever since she was a child. 3. The fact that we had zero indication of Kanao having made a choice on her own prior to Tanjiro’s influence on her.

The most damning evidence of the three of these is Gotou’s comment, though it’s possible to explain this in-universe as Gotou’s erroneous assumption. He’s not far off, as the other little girls might not have been forced to fight demons (perhaps for lack of aptitude) but they do have to work as nurses for slayers with gruesome injuries. What’s interesting is that in the manga, we aren’t presented with Kanao’s back story until after hearing that she makes decisions by flipping a coin, whereas Ufotable shaped our perception of the coin flipping scene with Tanjiro by giving Kanao’s back story and Kanae’s “when she meets a boy” commentary an episode earlier. (Also, the glittery-eyed moment with the wind sweeping by her is anime-only, and they removed the part with Kiyo startling her and making her fall off the engawa.) A part of me suspects this change in presentation order is because Kanao was a hard character for Gotouge to get right. Wani-sensei probably wasn't decisive on the skirt length and then blamed it on Maeda, I bet. There was a vision in mind for Kanao all along (no pun intended), but like the rest of the cast, she was extreme in ways that didn’t totally come across without more explicit explanation, and Gotouge might have gotten to know her better over the course of writing her. I also suspect that, in light of the cruel realities of fighting demons and the strictness that requires, and already being a world in which children often undergo grueling Breath technique training, the original intention might had been for Kanae to have taught her Flower Breath all along. However, this idea might had gotten ret-conned via Taisho Secret to soften the image of the Kochou girls and show them raising orphaned girls purely out of the goodness of their hearts, not to pass on their demon fighting legacy to the next generation of swordsmen, even though this is exactly what we see Shinobu doing by raising Kanao as her Tsuguko.

While I’m not an expert in trauma and recovery (and I look for a story to be convincing as opposed to realistic), what I found most jarring in Kanao’s development was the switch from Shinobu as “Shihan” (Master) to Shinobu as “Neesan,” and if it was always meant to be a “Neesan” relationship all along, then why did only Kanao, among all the other Butterfly Mansion girls, get this extra level of closeness? Those were questions I wanted to wrestle with in fic, which was why I created Tsuguko OCs to try to unravel how the Butterfly Mansion dynamic became the way it was (ultimately that fic is just my own personal take on how canon might had come about, but in the end it is still fanfic and can’t speak for canon, and everyone is entitled to their own imagination on how to work with any given character in fic. I still like my version, though).

So, with this as background for how I am most curious about Kanao’s development, let’s look at her from a chronological perspective with what clues canon provides.

Childhood: Sucked.

According to the second fanbook, Kanao was the eighth of eleven children, we know that at least a couple of her brothers died, and their bodies were just left around to be cold by morning. They were especially punished if they cried, which was why Kanao desperately tried to avoid that. She refined a skill of narrowly avoiding being hit in her vital spots, but one day, it was all too much, and something in her snapped, and she didn’t feel anything anymore.

We do see some light return to her eyes when she encounters the Kochou sisters. By that time, she is covered in filth and bugs, so much so the man who expects to make money off of her doesn’t even want to be physically near her. To expand on this, I’ve copied about half of this post of random Kanao thoughts: I was reading the section in this book about Kanao being sold as a child, and they theorized that between being sold to a factory or do agricultural labor or being sold into prostitution, she was most likely sold into prostitution, for she could be sold into prostitution to be a Kamuro at a younger age than she could had been sold to other places. Her parents likely could had gotten a higher upfront price for her this way (somewhere around the range of 1M-3M yen in modern currency) and gotten rid of her earlier. This makes me wonder if the reason we only see brothers in her flashbacks is because any older sisters were already long gone, and they had to hang onto the boys until around age 12 when they could legally work in factories. As for the man who bought her finding her so dirty that he kept her on a rope, the book proposes that perhaps like the Yarite of the Ogimoto-ya spotting a beauty like Inoko under all the ugly makeup, he also had a good eye for spotting diamonds in the rough and getting them for cheap. As for Kanao’s age, this is a bit of a mystery to me, as there is a big difference between her height and Shinobu’s, implying that Kanao is very, very young. However, I think there’s only a four year window in which this encounter could had possibly taken place, and given that Kanae is wearing that haori (though it’s possible she wore it since before becoming a Pillar) and Shinobu seems drawn more similar to the flashback in which Kanae dies than in the light novel chapter when the freshly orphaned girls meet bother Himejima, that makes me narrow it down to more like a 2-year window, and to keep Kanao on the very young side, I’m making a big assumption by saying she’s a very scrawny 10-year-old.

But it’s just so hard to see this Shinobu as 12! I tell you, one of the facts that shakes me the most, still!!! Is that when canon takes place, Shinobu is 18 and Kanao is 16. SIXTEEN!!!?? But… but she’s baby… but also, like how do they even know that!?!? She didn’t know her own birthday, so they picked they day they found her (which Ufotable totally did not follow, as they set this against winter scenery and the day they took her home was May 19). So were they like, “so how old are you? Aoi’s age?” and Kanao didn’t deny it, so they just decided, okay, she’s the same age as Aoi (even though she clearly seems younger, it must be due to undernourishment and trauma, right??? Did they not see she’s baby???)

So anyway. Baby who they have decided is only two years younger than Shinobu needs a name. We do not know if Kiyo, Sumi, or Naho were around yet, but Aoi sure was, though not in a Corp uniform yet. We also do not know what Aoi’s relationship with the Butterfly Mansion was in the first place. Aoi has her own story and we can make guesses but we will never know it. What we do know is that the four girls made a game of letting Baby choose her name, writing some ideas for names down (and I assume having read them aloud to her as I doubt she’d have ever been taught to read—she probably got a lot of education to keep her busy after entering the mansion). Among the first names, Shinobu added some fishy names that she didn’t realize would sound weird, and Kanao was about to go for “Kamasu” (barracuda) when Aoi swept it out of her reach. As for surnames, they let her pick this out too and gave her options that included “Kochou” and “Kanzaki” but she went for the rare (but existent) surname Tsuyuri. As for Kanao’s name sounding so close to Kanae’s, there is a theory in the Japanese fandom that there is a pun woven into it which shows Kanae’s wishes for Kanao.

Kanao doesn’t go out of her way to interact, and but will cooperatively do whatever she’s told. As a reminder, she was in such a state that even with her stomach growling with hunger, she won’t eat unless she’s told to (probably a rule around her family home about not eating without permission). With all her sense of suffering having snapped, she might not had even recognized that’s she felt hungry, and I’m willing to interpret her as having had other emotions, but being unable to recognize them. After all, years later when she’s slaying demons, she is still convinced that everything is “whatever” so there’s no need for her to decide a thing; it has been 5 to 7-ish years since Kanae told her to make decisions with the coin and Kanao has been doing exactly that for this whole time. At some level, Kanao has chosen via indecision to remain as she is, giving herself no pressure to get in touch with her own feelings.

However, she does have them.

When Kanae died, Kanao was distressed, and recognized this—was even troubled by the fact that she was distressed, and felt she should be crying, but could not. This was a moment when Kanao was forced to recognized that there was something wrong with herself, despite having given herself permission—by way of indecision—to remain in a numb “whatever” state in which she doesn’t need to face her own heart, and the pain it carries. She wasn’t only experiencing a physical inability to cry due to her history having to keep from getting physically harmed, but was forced to peer into her own Pandora’s Box. While we wasn’t aware of it, at the time she was probably facing a decision: open the box more, or close it? By way of indecision, it stayed as it was.

Kanao really couldn’t help that she felt pain and sympathy and righteous anger, especially when seeing (specifically, according to that aforementioned Taisho Secret) how Aoi and the little girls had lost their families to demons, and how Shinobu lost her parents, her sister, and her Tsuguko to demons. Kanao knew she had to do something, but since she wasn’t good at nursing work like the other girls were, she became a demon slayer. THIS WAS A DECISION. The Taisho Secret makes it absolutely clear that this was Kanao’s will, even if Shinobu worried that this was a decision Kanao made because of the environment she was in instead of this being a decision Kanao wanted.

So maybe the voice in Kanao’s heart is small, and she still relies on the coin even for small things like whether or not she wants to train with the boys (the coin said not, at least in the anime, because the anime added tons more breathing room (no pun intended) to the Functional Recovery Arc) and whether or not to say anything to Tanjiro (the coin said yes). However, these are pretty innocuous decisions; Kanao has zero confidence in deciding what she wants, and is used to not even asking herself. It’s easier not to. It’s also easier not to get emotionally involved with other people…

…because Kanao has does care very, very deeply for other people.

While I considered more about Kanao’s potential relationship with her other siblings on this Ask, what I want to focus on here is that Kanao was of course scared for her own physical safety, but she had to watch her siblings suffer and die. Kanao, who was willing to risk her life because of the injustice she felt for her new housemates/sisters-ish, probably could no longer take helplessly watching her siblings perish.

I really like that one of the ways Ufotable added to her story was in a scene where the Kamaboko boys are training together, Kanao is watching, and Shinobu suggests she join, after all, they’re from the same batch (translation: You need friends, Kanao). Kanao silently smiles and bows and nopes off to the side (which Shinobu probably was resigned to expecting), and after pondering them a moment, Kanao flips the coin. The kicker is that Kanae instructed Kanao all those years ago to use the coin “when she can’t decide” and in this moment, Kanao really didn’t know if she wanted to train with (aka, bond with) those boys. Caring about people opens oneself to being hurt; it’s safer to feel nothing.

But let’s look back at that big decision Kanao made, resolutely. She went to that Final Selection and came out without a scratch. This was not due to any external pressure put on her or instruction whatsoever, Kanao knew to do this without a doubt. Her selfless empathy and righteous anger drove her to that, no matter how much she believes she doesn’t feel anything.

So anyway, Kanao, in this resoluteness while also being untouchable for as long as she never makes the decision to peer into her own heart, blasts through the first five of ten ranks within a couple months. Baby is bonkers, I hope Shinobu was astounded. But then Tanjiro BOOM-BOOMed his way into Kanao's life with his Functional Recovery period, and took the top of her box and threw it away as forcefully as he threw her coin. Kanao’s locked away emotions stood no chance.

Let’s be clear, Kanao might had fallen in love with Tanjiro in that scene, but it wasn’t until his declaration of how he was going to wrestle that box open one away or another—I mean, not give up if the first coin toss failed. No, Kanao was emotionally invested for other reasons. It was all a safe, if not awkward conversation until Tanjiro took possession of her coin, and Kanao fretted about having given someone the power to make decisions for her which might have emotional consequences; until this point it’s always been easy to follow instructions as long as she’s numb to the results either way. She’s put herself in a vulnerable position by letting Tanjiro hold that coin, which is for when Kanao is emotionally invested in something enough to not be able to decide something. But then when Tanjiro tosses it, she’s eager to know what fate will decide. On the one hand, she’s terrified of the result Tanjiro wants. Listening to her own heart means being vulnerable, to care, to suffer. But on the other hand, she does want this, but has been too scared this whole time to make the decision to do anything with that partially open box. Having someone else force the decision on her is what she’s been pining for all this time, a push which neither Kochou sister ever gave her, hoping she’d come around in her own time.

And then, once the box is open and the decision is made, Kanao’s changes are fast.

At least, in comparison to the numb-by-virtue-of-having-decided-nothing state she in for years, her changes are relatively rapid. It’s not overnight, but as Kanao learns to confront her own vulnerability, she is likewise able to better understand what she likes, and what she wants. Fanbook 1 tells us that she used to be happy just to sit and stare out into space when not training o on missions, but lately she’s been actively blowing bubbles (BABYYYY), helping cook, buying little candies and presents for everyone back at the mansions when she’s sent to run errands, and poking the pads of cat’s paws (BAABBBYYYYY). Now that she’s open to positive emotions too, she’s exploring the world with wonder for the first time. (BAAAAAAAABBBBBBYYYYY.)

This development as a human being seems to have come at the expense of her progression in the Corp, but Shinobu likely does not push this at all, now that Kanao is finally coming around and expressing her own tastes and interests (and defying a Sound Pillar’s orders, as one does). I dedicated a whole post to pondering how and why her accession through the ranks slowed so dramatically after she got Tanjiro’ed, including pondering in more detail why was at those particular ranks. We also see in the light novels that Kanao is progressing in her friendships with Aoi (who still found it hard to communicate with Kanao even after all this time) and Inosuke, whom she goes so far as to have an argument with when he’s being insensitive about Kiyo being distraught over losing one of her butterfly hairpieces from Kanae (righteous anger!), but when appreciative of him later, she asks Aoi to help her make tempura for him. Within the pages of serialized manga, Kanao can even listen to her heart when it wants everyone to SHUT UP because Tanjiro is sleeping. We see time and time again how Kanao’s deep emotions stem from how much she cares about others.

A big turning point, one which Shinobu points out, is when Kanao verbalizes an “I want” statement. She wanted to train with her own Shihan. This is when Kanao graduates from doing things for others like an extension of doing what other people would want her to do, to taking up her own space in the world. This when Shinobu can finally feel that Kanao can act as her own person, but this means she can also be trusted with the full responsibility of a Tsuguko.

(Quick tangent here. Kanao totally took part in the other Pillar Trainings and I wish we could had seen how it went. Any bad blood between her and Uzui? Blowing through Muichiro’s training like its nothing and making everyone else watching feel as inadequate? Her greatest difficulty in Flexibility Training being surviving a hug that’s too tight? Showing up to Snake Pillar training and hitting it off with a friendly snake only to have the Pillar say his training isn’t suitable for girls and sending her on her way? The meditation with the Rock Pillar being refreshing but then who knows if and how she succeeded at moving the rock? Showing up ready for hard training with the Wind Pillar but he goes very obviously easy on her because he doesn’t want to be the one to harm Kanae’s adoptive sister? No wonder Kanao would have wanted to train with her Shihan if she lost out on so much of it elsewhere! But at least she got to see a snake and that was cool, right?)

So. Kanao is now getting instructions from her Shihan which are hard to stomach (again, no pun intended), but it’s the true test of her abilities now to follow these instructions while also having vulnerable emotions.

Growing up: Sucks.

Even if she was prepared, Kanao is consumed with righteous anger and a slew of other ugly emotions when Shinobu is killed right in front of her, and this is when Kanao really must step up and live out her decision to be a demon slayer. That means keeping her cool, not being numb. That means making decisions in the moment, including social decisions to keep Douma distracted. I don’t think she planned everything she said to him; that was the ugly depths of Kanao’s heart open and doing all the talking when she told him how she felt about him. There was zero hesitation in saying any of it. Even if she was still in the habit of flipping a coin by that point in the story, she wouldn’t have felt even an itch of temptation for it because she felt those words so strongly. Taking her own place in the world means not only knowing her own likes, but also discerning her dislikes.

And man, she slays and slays hard. While the fight against Douma is impressive enough as it is (and yes, unlocking her ability to cry at the end of it (right before that big Taisho Secret reveal) is indeed a major moment in her character arc, as she’s finally been able to unlock that last hidden piece of vulnerability), the fight against Muzan? Everyone else went down, down to bits and pieces, she is deeply shredded with injuries that were too fast to avoid, but she still managed to avoid getting hit in her vital areas and, even if she fell to her knees, she did the best at standing her ground. When I had originally read that chapter (that awful, heartbreaking Chapter 191) I took this as Gotouge not wanting to rip the girls apart as viciously as the boys, which was why Kanroji was already removed from the fight, but haha… hahahaha…. Clearly this was never a concern and I was naïve. No. Kanao was not lucky. Kanao was acting on deeply rooted trauma and narrowly avoided getting hit in a “bad place.”

Sorry, my writing is getting all over the place as I’m mentally reliving this arc and how much pain it put me through as I was following week to week. My gosh, though, can we give it up for that Kakushi who was charging in to save her without a shred of hesitation? Charging straight toward a direct hit from Kibutsuji Muzan himself? Kanao was totally doing her best, deciding as hard as she could to stand up and keep fighting, she wanted more than anything to do that but she physically could not.

So anyway. After this, Kanao disappears for a while, which is why I called it when I suspected Kanao might be the key to dealing with demon!Tanjiro. I was right although for totally unexpected reasons, but dang, THAT WAS AWESOME. The final, defining Breath of this whole manga was Kanao’s, it was her moment, and she was amazing. She was still bleeding from her abdomen and limping and gasping for air (this is our 24-hour Total Concentration Breath pro, you know panting like that is a bad sign) but she knew she could do it and she did it. You’re amazing, Baby. I know I’m getting off-track, but if we bring this back to being a moment of characterization for her…

…Kanao, at some level, still believes in fate.

She believes in a reason for things happening, like every time she flipped the coin, the universe was making a better decision than she could. When she knows what she needs to do in this moment, she feels this must be the reason fate left her with one eye left. She is still a deeply emphatic person who cares about the welfare of others before her own; as she approaches the Kamado siblings she’s moved with pity for them.

Zero hesitation.

Kanao has reached a point of peace with herself that can she act on these feelings, which is what points in her in the direction of wanting to practice medicine. Although being vulnerable makes her open to pain, it makes her open to joy, she and doesn’t hesitate in embracing what she likes—and we can assume, she doesn’t hesitate about what she wants, either. The fact that she believes in fate may be something that helps her. It wouldn’t have been possible for her while she was numb to everything, but now she sees how good things came from the painful sacrifices, and she’s ready for all the suffering and joys life still has ahead. While every fic writer is welcome to take their own approach because that is how fic works, I choose to write my post-canon Kanao with a generally positive outlook. I don't write her with survivor's guilt; instead of wishing she could had died in her sister's place she wishes that no one had to die in the first place, and she remains filled with gratitude for her sisters. In the case of TanKana developments, I write her as knowing what she wants, being decisive about it, and embracing the joys as well as the suffering. I was never really sold on her being a capable doctor if she's freshly (near) blinded and never showed much aptitude for tending the injured slayers before, but I suppose where there's a will there's a way, and Kanao's got the will of a weed.

#tsuyuri kanao #kny fandom theories and meta #I really do love Kanao though her development really is jarring if you're not reading deeply into it #anyway tldr #she's baby

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m0thcl0wn · 7 months

Text

zou ramble post

whyd Wanda lick Luffy

also Pedro <3

OH Robin and the dragon, shes adorable shes really grown to be one of my favourites over all (i dont think i could list like 1-10 my favourite straw hats, theyre all my favourites)

Law

Luffy getting washed away after being told to hang on. love him. idiot.

BEPO

"then its true they must be-" "A Cannibal Tribe." "NOOOOO"

i love Shachi's voice

i like the new eye catchers theyre fun

the chumby gatormobile (Wany)

Zoro letting Usopp puppet him. like he just goes along with it

Nami sleeping on the sheep (shes so pretty in the purple/blue? dress)

STOP LICKING HIM WANDA??

theyre all happy to see luffy the most they love their captain

Sanji :(

Zoro noticing Nami get upset at the mention of Sanji

(god WCI is going to fucking HURT)

((like im already crying, Sanji has been one of my favourites since the beginning, i know some what what happens in it but GOD its nothing like the real thing yknow? the same with when Ace died, i knee it was coming but it hurt like hell))

BROOK MY BELOVED

they keep apologising for Sanji, my chest hurts

Brook with his hand on Luffys shoulder, hes a dad

the dog minks going after Brook cos hes bones LEAVE HIM ALONE and the straw hats just letting it happen

(side note sanji with his shirt/jacket over his shoulders hes SO HOT)

i love getting to watch Brook actually fight, hes so cool

them using Ceaser to carry the canon balls wheeze

"shippy" (sadly)

god Sanji

HEART PIRATES REUNION

Law holding up Bepo (his lil smile) hes so happy seeing his crew again

Luffy making the bridge jump usopp telling him to read the room

"Luffy dont talk about the samurai" "wheres the ninja our SAMURAI FRIEND KINEMON wanted to see" youre such an idiot Luffy i love you

Shishilian <3

Dogstorm big and him falling asleep mid convo about Shanks

Pekoms crying over his family and changing his hatred for the straw hats to Nack and beast pirates wheeze

Ceaser is v cute, i like him a lot (i like his cunty leotard and eyeliner)

i wonder if Sanji *knew* that this ends up the way it does (ep 762, idk if its confirmed after this, thats where i am while writing it), the looks he keeps giving makes me think he does, does he know that this will lead back to Germa 66 and his family?

POOR PEKOMS WTF BEGE

"Sanji gets a startling invitation" aAA

do you ever think about the dudes in Bege and like, do you wonder what they thought the first time around getting inside this dude?

"i can kick your lumpy ass anytime"

Ceaser is a girlfailure

"i imagine youd have to slice through his abandon" thank you robin

do they never show us haow to get in the castle castle fruit, thats what i wanna know, thats freaky as hell

oh Sanji has gotta know right hes so angry

OOO VINSMOKE MENTION FINALLY

oh god this is really gonna hurt

he looks so disgusted at the invitation poor dude

Brook knows about the Vinsmokes?

they all love their captain so much

poor Sanji

(he is so handsome though)

WHAT DID VITO SAY TO HIM

two smokers staring each other down across a long table

sanji my poor self sacrificing boy

pain

SANJI HUGGING THEM ONLY TO THROW THEM OUT

this is going to hurt so much

Zoro stop being a little bitch

(hes not really but like cmon yknow, you can just be honest that youre worried)

Luffys lil tongue licking his sting

i love whenever Brook gets to sing it always slaps and i just love him

master cat viper(tm) the song slaps idc what anyone says

the raindeer/deer mink chopper falls in love with for like 30 seconds

"youre worried about Sanji too, huh?" Luffy knows his crew like the back of his hands

the heart pirates posing for Luffy

"not cool not cool not cool" you tell him

"we're not friends we're strategic allies" oh law youre already in too deep

cat viper is garfield?

Brook, Franky and Robin trying to guess what the drawing was

Kin'emon and Kanjuro share one braincell

FUCKING SHISHILIAN WHEEZE whyd he scream!! cmon man!!!

dogstorm and cat viper (enemies to friends to lovers 80k words)

the minks letting their city fall for their friends sobbing

the soft soft music

HES HAD A BACK TAT THIS WHOLE TIME?

lord momonosuke wild

"nin nin NINJA"

theyre so sad its not the ninja they wanted

(more and more talk of wano, so fucking close)

((123 EPISODES UNTIL WANO))

Luffys frowny face

LAW GETTING EXCITED ABOUT THE NINJA

theyre menacing Raizo poor man

"so, no shadow clowns?" sobs Law i love you hes so fucking excited when Raizo does it

theyre all so happy about it

"THERES FOUR LAUGH TALES THATS CRAZY" "YOU IDIOT JUST LET THE DOG TALK"

"shes SUPEERRR" frobin stans rise

feral for Rayleigh that man is SO hot i shouldnt be allowed near him (also Roger. actually worse with Roger, tumblr would delete me if i said anything)

hes gonna say no

INKNEW IT

overtaken getting louder in the background god i love the music of op

"straw hat you shouldve run this be me first" "but its cool right?" "well yeah but"

AWW KANJURO DOING THE FRANKT POSE

they fist pump for the alliance

"do we need the ninja part?" "OH COURSE WE DO"

"us being allies means we're best friends"

Zoro is so jealous of his captain praising Sanji

the beast pirates planning on killing Zunesha makes me think, what is zous plan when Zunesha died?

MARCO

Luffy being like who the fuck is marco? "he looks like a pineapple" OH THAT GUY

"dinner time dinner time dinner time dinner time"

"captain could you bring back a poneglyph rubbing pretty please" "THAT WAS SO CUTE" youre right usopp it was

love Luffy being a special little guy

Pedros tail LONG

YOOOOOOO BEAT THEIR ASS ZUNESHA

Zoro getting lost and Law making fun of him

new clima tact lets gO

starting to see some,,, odd art choices

and just like that no more Zou

WHOLE CAKE ISLAND HERE I COME

VIVI??

#no one else to talk to #so you get my rambles #one piece #zou #op zou

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