Antoniachuu - Suma

Writing Blind/Low Vision Characters

Time for another one of these I have decided! As always, this is based on personal experience with blind low vision people, classwork, and research. I do wear glasses, but I am not blind/low vision and this is not my lived experience. Please feel free to question, correct, and comment, as long as you are respectful! Thanks so much for reading :) On to the good stuff!

Vocab

Blind describes a person who has very little to no vision. This can be written with a lowercase or capital b (blind or Blind). Blind does not always mean no vision. It is medically defined as having vision of less than 20/200 in the better eye. Someone can be able to distinguish color, light and dark, or shapes, and still be blind.

blind refers to the medical condition of having little to no vision.

Blind (note the capital b) refers to the sociocultural experience of being a nonseeing person in a predominantly vision-based society. This distinction is newer and less common than with the Deaf community, but is becoming more popular, particularly with DeafBlind people. As always, the important thing is respecting what people identify as and want to be called

Visually impaired is a term that covers the spectrum of vision differences.

The term does not include disorders that affect one or more of the “basic psychological processes.” What this means is that though vision or the use of visual information may be impaired, if the nature of that impairment is not related to the structure of the eye, it would not be described as “visual impairment.” Examples include perceptual disabilities, brain injuries, or dyslexia.

B/VI is an acronym, standing for Blind/Visually Impaired, that can be used to refer to the community as a whole.

Low vision describes a person who is not fully blind, but whose level of vision is significantly impaired. More technically, this refers to vision that cannot be corrected through medical or surgical procedures, or conventional eyeglasses.

Legally blind (in the USA) refers to an individual whose vision is affected beyond what glasses can correct. This is a bit difficult to describe in writing but: If the strongest prescription possible cannot bring that person’s vision up to 20/20, they are legally blind. This is not the same as having no vision.

Deafblind or DeafBlind refers to an individual with any combination of vision and Deaf gain/hearing loss, ranging from mild to profound Deaf gain/hearing loss and from low vision to total blindness.

Visual acuity refers to clarity of vision and is the source of numbers like 20/20, 20/30, etc. This is another one that’s weird to describe so stick with me. My vision is about 20/40 (last I went to the eye doctor lol) which means that I see at 20 feet what someone with 20/20 vision sees at 20 feet. The top number is always 20, and refers to the 20/20 standard, while the lower number describes the visual acuity of the person in question. If their visual acuity is 20/10, that means they see at ten feet what a person with 20/20 vision would see at 20 feet. If they see at 20 feet what a person with 20/20 vision would see at 200 feet, they are medically considered blind.

Visual functioning is (basically) a measure of how well a person can use visual information in completing tasks. This is assessed a number of different ways.

Residual vision is another way of referring to the functional vision of a person with low vision or blindness. 

I’m not going to go through all the different kinds of blindness and eye conditions, because that would take too long, and this is already a pretty long vocab section. But there are lots of different kinds of conditions and disabilities affecting eyes and vision! Please explore them :)

Blind Culture?

Is there Blind culture in the same way that there is Deaf culture? Difficult to say. It’s an ongoing debate, and I’m going to briefly address each side, and then leave it up to you to research further how this might affect your character and your story.

Historically, the blind community have rejected the idea that blind individuals have a shared culture. The reasons for this are very well outlined in this letter, which I highly recommend reading. To summarize it here: Blind people are not isolated from sighted people in the same way that Deaf people have been historically isolated from hearing people. The reason for this is generally acknowledged to be the lack of, or existence of, a language barrier. Blind people use the same language as the sighted people around them, while Deaf people have used signed language as opposed to spoken language. Where no language barrier exists, this position argues, no separate culture forms or needs to form.

On the other hand - there are certainly experiences that are shared by people across the visually impaired spectrum that fully sighted people do not have. Blind or low vision people access and interpret the world in different ways. There is, analogous to Deaf communities, a history of blind or low vision children being educated separately from sighted children, and of discrimination throughout the lifespan that has isolated visually impaired people from sighted society.

What does all of this mean? It means that there is less consensus about what it means to be visually impaired, and what values or traditions unite that experience. It means that there is less of a framework for how your visually impaired character might relate to other visually impaired characters or their broader community. I highly encourage further exploration within your own story, as well as making sure that whatever choices you’re making about the character’s relationship to their vision is grounded in conscious choice and research. Just because there are no easy answers about a collective blind culture does not mean that a blind character can be written the same as a sighted character but without the vision.

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology (as a reminder, this is not specific to visual impairments) refers to pretty much anything used to make the lives of disabled people easier.

Official American government definition is:  “Any item, piece of equipment or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of children with disabilities. The term does not include a medical device that is surgically implanted, or the replacement of such device.”

Braille is a tactile system of writing in which raised dots represent letters, numbers, and punctuation. More on this later.

A screen reader is a software program that either reads written text on a screen aloud, or produces a Braille display.

Speech-to-text programs are software programs that…convert speech to text.

Text-to-speech or TTS are programs that convert written text into spoken speech. These were also commonly used on landline phones by d/Deaf people before text messaging became commonplace. 

Seeing Eye dogs are service dogs that are trained to help their blind owners move and navigate independently.

White canes are white canes with a red stripe. These are both navigational tools for B/VI people, and used to communicate to others that the person carrying it is B/VI. Accordingly, it is illegal in some US states to carry a white cane if you are not visually impaired. Only 2-8% of B/VI people actually use them, though, and it requires dedicated practice to use them effectively. They are designed to vibrate differently when they come in contact with different types of surfaces, and proper practice can help cane users distinguish between different obstacles. 

Braille and the Braille Literacy Crisis

Braille, as mentioned before, is a tactile way of writing, which helps B/VI people read and write effectively. I’m not going to do an exhaustive explanation, but essentially, a different combination of raised dots represents each letter of the written alphabet. The sentence I’m writing, rewritten in Braille, would have the exact same words and structure, but would be expressed in raised dots. There are abbreviated forms that are less commonly used and may be used by more skilled readers or those reading texts with specialized, space-saving abbreviations.

Less than 10 percent of legally blind in the US can read Braille, and only 10 percent of legally blind children are currently learning it. This is a huge problem. Over 70% of blind adults are unemployed, and up to 50% of blind students drop out of high school. There is a strong, scientifically supported link between literacy and employment.

Technology should supplement literacy, not replace it. Screen readers and text-to-speech are great tools, but are not an adequate replacement for literacy.

Reading English text is not always the best possible method of reading. The misguided belief that reading Braille is isolating and stigmatizing leads many to push reading text over reading Braille, even when this is inappropriate or even impossible. Some children achieve higher levels of literacy through reading Braille.

Implications for your writing: Can your character read Braille? Why, or why not? What impact does their illiteracy have on their life?

Rethink

I’ve tried a couple different headings here cuz as always, don’t want to tell people unequivocally not to write things. But these are things you should really think hard about before you include them in your writing.

So, things to rethink:

Overused tropes for B/VI characters:

Blind seer/blind mystic

Innocent, pure, noble, sweet etc.

Bumbling oaf B/VI person

Feeling people’s faces as a way to “know what they look like”

Does not happen in real life, more of a stereotype/sighted person’s fantasy

“Helen Keller didn’t exist” TikTok conspiracy theory (not a writing thing but a pet peeve I can’t not mention)

This is ableist. The only reason people think she wasn’t able to accomplish things is because she was deafblind and that’s fucking bullshit. It is not a cute silly TikTok joke. It’s ableism, and it’s disgusting.

Blindness negating power/ability.

This can be anything from an actual superpower (X-Men) to a technological advance (Star Trek) to a supernatural ability (Avatar: The Last Airbender.)

In real life, this could be having someone with other senses that compensate to an unrealistic degree, or echolocation, which, while it proves successful for some people, is hard, takes a ton of effort, and doesn’t work for everyone.

Resources/Recommendations

Please add recommendations in reblogs and comments! I really haven’t watched a lot of TV or movies that have blind characters, which sucks :/

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law By Haben Girma is an autobiography of a deafblind woman that is incredibly well written and discusses independence and activism.

The World I Live In by Helen Keller describes life as a deafblind individual and is really powerful and beautiful.

Things About: Ryuko Matoi

✄ For a newspaper ad, Kill la Kill scriptwriter Kazuki Nakashima wrote a short introduction for Ryuko from Ryuko’s perspective. In the introduction, Ryuko reveals that she’s been alone for as long as she can remember and “only [she] could protect [herself].” She then talks about Senketsu, noting that it’s strange that she’s wearing him (perhaps especially because she’s been alone so long and has never particularly trusted anyone else?), but finishes by saying that how Senketsu makes her look doesn’t matter so long as she comes out a winner: “That’s the spirit of Ryuko Matoi.”

✄ Ryuko is very much depicted as a Japanese delinquent (and she describes herself accordingly in episode 8). Her initial outfit and Senketsu are clearly modeled after sukeban, “girl boss,” a term used to describe the culture of the rebellious schoolgirl gangs that began appearing in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. These all-girl groups would modify their school uniforms, wearing Converse sneakers, cutting their blouses short, and so on. Interestingly, even prior to Kill la Kill, when Ryuko more resembles a “typical” high school girl, she still wears different-colored socks than the other girls, much like sukeban would.

✄ Ryuko’s appearance also takes some cues from Sukeban Deka, a series from which Kill la Kill draws a ton of inspiration from (perhaps most obviously, the first ending sequence of the series is a straight-up homage to a Sukeban Deka ending sequence). Particularly, take note of the red glove.

✄ Ryuko’s initial jacket, too, is associated with rebellion and delinquency. The jacket is known as a sukajan, which was initially a specially-embroidered “souvenir jacket” that American soldiers brought home from Japan after World War II. However, in the 1960s, the sukajan became a symbol of defiance, representing a rebellion against the growing popularity of the American “preppy” styles in Japan. Sukajan were then connected with gangs and criminals.

✄ Even Ryuko’s speech is indicative of her delinquency and rebellious attitude. Ryuko (I believe) uses ヤンキー語文法 (yankii (yankee) speech), a crude, disrespectful manner of speaking (which the English dub tries to convey with Ryuko’s considerable potty mouth, her tendency to cut the “g’s” off her verbs, her usage of words like “ain’t,” etc.) Here is an excellent discussion of yankii speech (and its similarities/differences to yakuza speech), which also references this blog post here that delves further into yankii speech.

✄ However, Ryuko is also depicted rather sweetly even at the start. In the first episode, she steals a delivery bike to make an escape, which is fitting of a delinquent. Later in the episode, though, she returns the bike back to where she’d taken it with a note reading, “My deepest apologies for borrowing without permission.”

✄ The “JK2″ sticker on Ryuko’s guitar case is meant to say that she’s in her second year of high school. As Japanese high schools begin at the tenth grade, Ryuko is then an eleventh grader (an American junior), and she still has one year of high school left. As revealed in the OVA, Ryuko (and Mako) will attend Rinne-Dou High School in Kanagawa for that last year. (Interestingly, Gamagoori attended Rinne-Dou Junior High before transferring to Honnouji Academy.)

✄ The other sticker on Ryuko’s guitar case is of Kuri-chan, the main character of a classic, 4-panel manga series of the same name. Kuri-chan is apparently Ryuko’s favorite mascot character.

✄ At the Complete Script Book Event in 2014, it’s revealed that Ryuko doesn’t go to university after graduating from high school, getting a job immediately upon graduation instead. It’s said that “it’d suit [Ryuko] to be a babysitter or something like that” because she “probably can’t do jobs that force her to work with customers, but she is good with kids.”

✄ In episode 7, when Ryuko throws her bath bucket at the Mankanshokus, you can see that she uses Timotei shampoo (and rinse).

✄ In episode 6, Ryuko is shown brushing her teeth with a bunny toothbrush. The Kill la Kill artbook SUSHIO CLUB LOVE LOVE KLKL has a page dedicated to the “Toothbrushes of the Mankanshoku Family” that includes illustrations of Ryuko, Mako, and Mataro’s toothbrushes. (Ryuko’s is the bunny, Mataro’s is the eyepatch cat, and Mako’s is the bear (?))

✄ By episode 5, Ryuko is shown using a personalized bowl with her name on it while eating dinner at the Mankanshoku’s.

✄ At Anime Expo 2014′s Kill la Kill panel (6th post from the top), it’s revealed that from what Ryuko saw of her father’s killer, she deduced that the killer had to be a high school student of around 17. As such, Ryuko spent six months going from high school to high school before finally getting to Honnouji Academy. 

✄ The series suggests that Ryuko becomes so convinced that Satsuki killed her father that she reworks her memories to change the Nui-like silhouette she remembers to a figure that more resembles Satsuki instead. 

✄ As a series that loves wordplay and puns, Ryuko’s name is surely filled with meaning. Folks who know much more than me have written about this, so I’ll point to this post and this post that discuss some Ryuko name meanings. I will say, though, that one of the most prominent meanings I see behind Ryuko’s name is “abandoned child” (which no doubt refers to how Ragyo literally threw Ryuko away), since the 流 (ryuu) of Ryuko’s name is a kanji that represents ideas of “washing away” and “forfeiting.” (And the 子 (ko) represents “child.”) That said, though, it was explained at the Connichi Kill la Kill panel in 2014 that “Before my body is dry” is Ryuko’s theme because the kanji 流 (ryuu) represents “fluid” and 子 (ko) represents “child” and Ryuko “is a child who is easily influenced by others and thus loses her way quickly.”

✄ Though Ryuko is widely understood as a big lemon eater, she’s actually only depicted with lemons three times within the series and in official, non-concept art (as far as I’m aware): as a part of her introduction in episode 1, in the first opening sequence, and on CD art for the first volume.

✄ In contrast, Ryuko is shown eating/with croquettes many, many times throughout the series (episodes 2, 5, 7, 22), and the disc art for the final volume (9) even depicts her holding up a croquette.

✄ In fact, as revealed at the Complete Script Book Event in 2014, Ryuko’s favorite food is actually gameni, a dish of chicken and vegetables.

✄ That same event also revealed that Ryuko’s least favorite food is konnyaku, “because it reminds her of Uzu,” whose family owns a konnyaku business (and who is kind of obsessed with konnyaku himself). Funnily enough, though, Ryuko seems to enjoy eating konnyaku in the second Drama CD.

✄ In the first Drama CD, Ryuko claims that she’s excellent at cramming, but when it comes to cramming for a big group exam coming up at Honnouji Academy, she ends up sleeping for nearly a week in the library instead of studying. Listen to her dramatic apology to her teammates from about 3:47 - 4:00 here.

✄ The first Drama CD also features Ryuko “correctly” understanding that Satsuki’s eyebrows aren’t truly thick.

✄ In Track 3 of the second Drama CD, Ryuko and Senketsu make a daring escape through Guts’s butt.

✄ The third Drama CD features a bizarre plot where a sentient Life Fiber bug, Minomushi, creates a white T-shirt body for himself that Mako finds. Minomushi then drains Mako’s energy, transferring her consciousness into his T-shirt body (which Mako can then control). (I think.) (Yes, Kill la Kill is batshit.) The Mako/Minomushi T-shirt proceeds to attach itself to the Elite Four, resulting in a bunch more batshit scenarios where Mako speaks through the Elite’s voices. When Mako speaks through Uzu, Ryuko gets super creeped out when “Uzu” tries to treat her like Mako would, dodging “Uzu’s” hug and telling “Uzu” to not call her “Ryuko-chan.”

✄ In the fourth Drama CD, which takes place immediately after Ryuko learns of her Life Fibers and her relation to Ragyo, she falls unconscious desperately trying to convince herself that she’s human. 

✄ The lyrics for many of Kill la Kill’s vocal pieces suggest that they are about Ryuko. Though nothing has been officially confirmed (as far as I am aware), it seems clear that “Before my body is dry” is a duet between Ryuko and Senketsu, “Till I Die” and “Suck your blood” are songs from Senketsu to Ryuko, “I want to know” is from Isshin to Ryuko, and “New World Symphony” and “Light your heart up” are from Mako to Ryuko. I’ve also heard conflicting information that “Ambiguous,” the show’s second opening, is either entirely from Satsuki to Ryuko or half Ryuko to Senketsu and half Satsuki to Ryuko, and I’d make a case that “Sirius,” the first opening song, is one from Ryuko to Senketsu. The first ending song, “Sorry, I Can’t be a Good Child,” I would also argue to be from Ryuko’s perspective.

✄ On the disc art for volume 8, Mako is shown pushing Ryuko and Satsuki together (perhaps because Ryuko is shy and needs a little help to be sisterly with Satsuki?)

✄ Akira Amemiya’s illustration of Ryuko and Senketsu having fun at the beach (which first appeared in the 49th issue of Nyantype magazine in late 2013) later became two official cards for the Kill la Kill card game and a figurine, which might maybe imply that “Senketsu’s Date with Ryuko” is a canon event.

✄ Similarly, there is a plethora of animator art featuring Ryuko that isn’t officially canon to her character but is still fun to consider. For instance, character designer/animator Sushio draws quite a bit of post-series Ryuko/Mako, animator Kengo Saito once created a comic in which Ryuko works part-time at a clothing store, and something that never fails to get my heart aching is Sushio’s depiction of little Ryuko celebrating a happy Christmas with her father.

hsr characters as things to never say to someone who just came out

crop is weird bc idgaf

Sunday

anaxa ✏️

O que é o Agejo, realmente?

O termo "agejo" veio da revista Koakuma Ageha e era usado para descrever as leitoras da revista, principalmente aquelas que se inspiravam fielmente nos tutoriais de maquiagem, cabelo e moda da revista. A Ageha é extremamente importante para entendermos quais exatamente são os elementos do agejo, que não se resume apenas a MA*RS ou combinações de rosa e preto. Sim, essas são características marcantes e icônicas que podem estar presentes nos visuais, mas a ausência dessas características não impede uma estética agejo. Por exemplo:

Essas são duas scans da Ageha onde as marcas usadas em cada exemplo estão listadas em inglês mesmo. Percebe que alguns designs poderiam ser confundidos com designs da MA*RS, que são os que mais recebem atenção internacionalmente quando o assunto é agejo, mas o nome da MA*RS não está listado? Isso é porque no auge do agejo, existiam várias marcas que lançavam designs com características voltadas a esse público, não apenas a MA*RS. O que me leva ao meu próximo ponto:

Dois exemplos de propagandas da GOLDS∞infinity, uma marca com diversas características agejo, no entanto, nem todas as co*des das imagens incluem necessariamente preto e rosa.

Os verdadeiros elementos que vão contribuir para uma co*de se encaixar na estética agejo são: feminilidade, glamour (numa visão gyaru), sensualidade, maturidade, a silhueta da co*de. Na maquiagem, isso inclui uma base uniforme, um contorno detalhado e delicado e afins. A atenção aos detalhes é máxima e cada elemento faz diferença.

Por outro lado, alguns exemplos de co*des gyaru que usam preto e rosa mas não têm os mesmos elementos agejo discutidos acima:

Mais exemplos, agora uma co*de gyaru sem intenção agejo (esquerda) e uma com intenção agejo (direita), apesar de usarem peças similares:

Agora exemplos de hime gyaru vestindo preto e rosa:

Se você se interessa por agejo, evite usar apenas referências da MA*RS e procure conhecer a Ageha de verdade, entender suas influências (como a cultura hostess e o ero-kawaii), conhecer as modelos da Ageha tanto quanto quem gosta de outros subestilos conhece as da Egg, busque por scans da Ageha! O que mais nos interessa não está nas partes escritas e sim nos visuais, não entender japonês não é um empecilho tão grande. O maior empecilho para suas co*des gyaru vai ser não ter referências realmente sólidas. Pesquisar por scans vai te ajudar a ter uma ideia melhor do que é uma co*de coerente, quais eram os trends de cada época, qual modelo você gostaria de usar como inspiração e afins. As fontes na internet são diversas e estão a sua disposição. Usar essas ferramentas é o que vai te ajudar a entender como ter um visual gyaru sem depender exclusivamente de marcas, podendo montar co*des a partir de roupas que estão disponíveis com mais facilidade. Aqui estão algumas fontes que eu recomendo, relacionadas ao agejo (você pode usar a tradução automática das páginas pra entender o conteúdo):

Galture

Shibuhara Glitter da Toxic Tsukino

Natsumi’s room da Natsumin

Scans da Ageha

Aventurine character study that I spewed at my friend posted here bc I despise whoever portrays him as a useless blonde 24/7 horny twink as his canon self (i will throttle you through the fuckin screen)

A/n: I think the 2.1 trailer is helping me regain my writing motivation, expect inbox asks from Jan- Feb to be coming out soon :)

WRITTEN BEFORE 2.1 This post will contain leaks, 2.0 Trailblaze quest spoilers, world quest spoilers, Aven's slave life in canon, disgusting people saying Aven's a sex slave, under the cut! Please proceed with caution if any of these trigger you. Thank you, and enjoy my yap session on one of the best characters in this game.

Aventurine's story is much more than just looking and acting like the typical rich blonde playboy, as much as he gives off those vibes. Looking at his child self in the 2.1 trailer compared to all of his current models, its very obvious that many, many things happened that caused all the light to poof from his eyes.

First, his homeland, Sigonia. Aventurine's home planet's is uninhabited, and perhaps even destroyed completely. Aventurine is the last of his kind left. His parents, his sister, his possible friends and relatives, hell, even all the people he doesn't know have all perished. The IPC took him in, I presume, but most definitely not out of kindness. In fact, it may not matter that Aventurine is one of the Ten Stonehearts, he is not a person to the company. He is just a asset, a piece for them to dispose if he fucks up.

In the 1.4? Belobog quest where Topaz goes to Bronya about Belobog's massive debt to the IPC, and at the end, we get our first crumbs of Aventurine's character. A important thing to note in this dialogue between the two of them is that he asks Topaz to the project manager on his project in Penacony, because if he knows better than everyone that if he fails to get Penacony back into the IPC's grasp, he'll die. There's no way around it, unless he gets someone he has a somewhat close bond with, Topaz, to lighten his fall.

The tattoo on his neck, is a symbol of his slavery to the IPC. How he's bound to them. How no matter how hard he runs or hides, he will never escape their grasp. In fact, he knows damn well, if anyone gets wind of this alongside his Sigonian history (Sigonians are notorious for being wolves in sheep's clothing, bad people in most eyes'), it is very well possible that his rivals and enemies will use his past to their advantage. Thats why he freely shows it to the world. So that no one can dig it up and use it against him, because how do you use something that he so freely proclaims to everyone he meets?

Aventurine is a man who gambles as well. Not just simply gambling for the thrill of it or his earnings. He says it himself, he sees the world, life itself, as a gamble. High reward, high stakes. Even going back to his conversation with Topaz, its only shown on how he tells her he warned her about taking Belobog as her project because it was high risk, but low return. Aventurine wants the best outcome not just for himself, but because if he doesn't get a good outcome, the IPC has no use for him.

Aventurine is a man who knows how to get what he wants. he knows how to take risks, get out of high stake scenarios with him being the winner. Its obvious in his lightcone, 'Final Victor', his conversation with Dr. ratio in the Penacony 2.0 Trailblaze quest, and his conversation with Himeko and Welt about giving up his room for the Trailblazer. He's confident, cocky, if you will. But for good reason.

In the lightcone, its implied it doesn't matter for Aventurine dies or lives. He will always be the winner. Every move is calculated, precise, carried out with clockwork precision and most importantly, planned so well that whether you like it or not, you're letting him win. He manages to get the Nameless, the widely regarded faction, in his debt. He knows damn well how to play his cards. It is extremely impressive. But he is the Aventurine of Stratagems. He knows what he wants and needs, and he will go any length to get it.

The lightcone, again, also shows just how far Aventurine risks, just for him to gain Dr. Ratio as a asset for him to benefit from. He could have gone any route, but what does he go for? Thats right, Russian goddamn roulette. Just for the (I assume) slim chance of Dr. Ratio's trust, or at the very least, cooperation. "I will always be the final victor." I am repeating, but just bear with me here, this just solidifies the fact he is confident in his skills. He doesn't flinch at all when he shoots 3 blank rounds right into his heart, even though there's the 1/6 chance he'll die. He takes risks. Its his character. He doesn't have anything or anyone, much less his own life, left to loose.

The lightcone is also not 'haha funny gay story', as much as it is funny, i wont lie, the memes are fun to look at, but it is not that. Its a story where Aventurine's suicidal tendency shows through, perhaps not so clearly, but its very much there if you look past the story and read into it. Again, Russian roulette, he could have gone for anything else, like a contract or smth, but he knows he has to go through extremes, and this just solidifies the fact of how Aventurine will do anything for assets and trust in him, so his plans can come to fruition.

Aventurine's personality is complicated, like a intricate, deceiving web of lies and emotional barriers to keep him safe. He hides behind the facade of smiles and is unreadable, and his past is all but cheery. A slave, (not a sex slave, twitter+Tiktok users need their brain fucking reworked i will cry) a man branded by the IPC, bound to the till his death is what Aventurine is. The IPC is ruthless, evident from multiple world quests, such as the Aurum Street Alley quest, Belobog's debt quest, Chadwick's quest in Penacony, paints them as bad people, a bad organization in general. Hell, even though Topaz isnt like the assholes we've seen, she's far from an angel herself.

Aventurine has gone through many things to have lost the sparkle in his eyes. Take Childe/Tartaglia from Genshin Impact for example, whom fell into the abyss for months, seen all the horrors of it, had to learn to fend for himself because I'm very sure Skirk did not care for him in a healthy sense. We can either assume Aventurine been through something on the same level during his younger days or perhaps, worse.

And no, he is not Dr. Ratio or Sunday's sex slave, I'm looking at a certain artist on Twitter (fuck off I'm not calling it X), its disgusting. Whoever genuinely enjoys sex slave Aventurine is sick in the damn head, no he would not enjoy that kind of Roleplay, as much as i am downbad and indeed filthy with some of my fics with him.

Aventurine doesn't have anyone he can truly call a friend, ship him with Dr. ratio, Sunday, Boothill (yes, its a thing), Caelus/ Stelle, whoever, but in the end, you cannot say he (as of 2.0, this may change) has any true friends he can trust, not even just a bit. Bonds he forms are transactional, maybe not too much on Dr. Ratio (as evidenced by his dejected his looks after Ratio leaves, either from the insult or bc he truly though Ratio cared) and perhaps on the Astral Express's part, but his bond with Sunday? Yeah, its transactional, 101% unless it changes in 2.1.

All in all, Aventurine is my favourite character, i have never wanted to read, write, understand, watch, hell, I've never wanted to farm and pull for a character as much as him. He is a complex, heavy and deep character that I do not believe many can grasp upon properly when writing stories, headcannons or even smut/nsfw works with him in it (shoutout to those who does tho, I love y'all <3).

Draw or write his fanon self, make him a himbo, tsundere, a rich man who's just a playboy, or a blonde with a pretty face, but you cannot say that is him in canon. I may despise some fanon interpretations, but fuck those who merge fanon and canon. He will never be any of the fanon interpretations i mentioned above, and he never will be in canon. Hoyoverse put their whole soul into this man, i can see it, and its brain damaging on how so many people fetishize his past and water him down.

In speculation of 2.1 and 2.2, if Aventurine does live (he prob will, its unlikely he'll be killed before release, Tingyun is a exception because she released before her death), maybe he'll learn how to start to open himself up again, start to fully trust, starting with Trailblazer as his first true friend. Its cliche, typical protag power bullshit, but it will no doubt, be a huge step in shaping Aventurine back into the man he could have been if his planet wasn't enslaved.

Conclusion: He deserves better, both in- game and how the fandom treats him. I love him, he's my adorable pookie wookie shmookie <33

BUONO MARRONA BIANCA in 小悪魔ageha

scan credits @galrevo

castorice 🦋