Airfleck - Airfleck

My submission for @/rakkutron’s DTIYS on Instagram but they don’t have a tumblr and I’ll post it there tomorrow but for here it’s tumblr tbh who cares what time I post here

☆ - ̗̀✨ He's just Ken ✨ ̖́- ☆

Speaking of the Sailor Moon manga, I've been thinking about the thing with Haruka and Usagi in the manga, and I think it makes more sense to me when I remember that Naoko has said Haruka is her "ideal woman" and she's also stated that Mamoru is her "ideal man" and definitely means it in a romantic sense.

Usagi is the character the reader is supposed to project on (and who Naoko has indicate she projects herself onto), and I think the whole thing suddenly makes a sort of sense when you look at it through the lens of something we often see, which is experiencing a queer fantasy but in a "safe" way where all "fault" is removed from you for that fantasy (like in Dracula, etc). Naoko wanted to explore kissing and being attracted to what she considered the "ideal woman", either for her readers or herself (or both), but OBVIOUSLY Usagi can't cheat on her boyfriend, that would be bad! So hey, Usagi is clearly attracted to Haruka, but she doesn't actually know she's a girl at first soooo! And also the cool lesbian kisses Usagi out of nowhere, so hey, Usagi didn't do anything wrong, it wasn't consensual or anything! And sure, she thinks about the kiss afterwards and even dreams about it and dreams about Haruka in both "feminine form" AND "masculine" form but it's okay, that's also not cheating, it just kind of happened. She gets Haruka telling her that gender doesn't matter and leaning towards her seductively and she gets to swoon a little and maybe actually considers receiving a kiss, but she gets interrupted. And now she can go back to Mamoru no harm, no foul, she (and the readers) got to live the fantasy but she didn't cheat on her guy or do anything wrong, it's cool.

This obviously doesn't make it good writing, as it makes Haruka come off like a horrible person and completely disregards Michiru and plays into some stereotypes, but I do kind of understand why it was this way when I think of it through that lens.

I don't think Naoko was thinking of what it said about Haruka and Michiru at all. I think Naoko put exploring that fantasy (while absolving Usag and (thus the reader) of all responsibility) above all. And is that progressive or good? No, but I can sympathize with wanting to live out that fantasy. Maybe Naoko didn't want to face her own feelings and fantasies, or she understood her readers wouldn't want to, so they get to live out their fantasy this way.

Notably, she's also a fan of Takarazuka and based Haruka off that, which is very commonly how female fans experiencing the thrill of being attracted to a woman but hey she's playing a "male role" so does it really count? They get to experience that attraction is a "safe" way and then go home, put that attraction in its box, and resume their lives without having to face and unpack those kind of feelings they don't want to deal with. It's just a fantasy, it doesn't "count", but you can always go back to swooning over the hot girl. because she's sticking around and continuing to be hot and protective of and devoted to you.

It's a very 90s approach, but I kind of get it.

cool drag transformation (im on episode 115 so please no spoilers)

epic sword pull sequence

Adventures in babysitting: a saga

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Bonus:

so idk if we’re getting a bard’s lament this season, but regardless of if we are or not i NEED to talk about my most favorite dynamic ever so i can get this convo back out into the universe before a bard’s lament happens because it makes me unwell.

vex and scanlan are, in many ways, the same. they’re deeply insecure, sad people that put on masks to hide it. they’re good liars. so that’s what they do. they stand in front of each other and they lie. and it’s not hard for them to know the other is lying. i mean vex LITERALLY SEES THROUGH HIS DISGUISE EVENTUALLY LIKE ARE YOU KIDDING?

and like, vex is snippy and she can be a bit of a shit and she says scanlan is just some guy without his magic. but he’s also the person she looks up to. she literally travels across the whole continent by herself to make sure his daughter can get to him and she sends kaylie back to him even though she’s distraught and terrified and alone. she’s the one person who actually gets through to him during a bard’s lament and she gets through to him by telling him to stop viewing his daughter as a sacred object. to fix his relationship with her. AND HE LISTENS. like again she is the ONLY person in that room who gets through to him and it’s because she implores him to fix his relationship with his daughter after he cruelly remarks that they went to the fey realm to “fix her daddy issues.”

and scanlan! he teases her and he deflects his seriousness around her with humor as much as he does to anyone. but he teaches vex how to use the broom and he gives her the hat to wear. and he ensures her success when he turns her into a dragon and directly tells a god that she’s mean and greedy and the most perfect one of all of them.

scanlan is a father with a fractured relationship with his daughter and vex is a daughter desperate for her father’s approval.

scanlan is not vex’s father. but when scanlan comes back she does everything she can to try and make sure he won’t leave again despite the way he hurt her.

vex is not scanlan’s daughter. but he walks her down the aisle and makes sure she can see her brother at her wedding and he’s happy to be like her father for a day.

scanlan is NOT vex’s father and vex is NOT scanlan’s daughter but really, aren’t they made of the same stuff?

August 6: Dracula

“She is steered mighty strangely, for she doesn't mind the hand on the wheel; changes about with every puff of wind. We'll hear more of her before this time tomorrow.”