i’m an accursed sweetheart. my coworkers claimed im a “retail genius”. please don’t bother me when im having enrichment time in my enclosure. thaumiel class blog.
umineko, succession, pokemon, comic books, boardwalk empire, fighting games, camus, quantum mechanics, fear and hunger, oedipus rex, playing with a big red ball in park (and more) fandom space. please enjoy your stay
my old urls used to be @krausswoobifier and @gordons
minors dnf please🫶
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Il Canto Dei Gabbiani (1986) Opening Title
my giallo-style tribute to Umineko, based on Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace
Mordred
This morning at sunrise in NYC, an autonomous group performed a banner drop from the Manhattan Bridge beginning our global day of action against the assault on Rafah. Found on Rosa Booth's instagram
Obama joining a DMMD roleplay discord: uhhhh let me be Clear
NATURE
that poor gay skeleton
The “Jesus Christ!’ took me out.
what is gyatt
I want to make a post further discussion Natsuhi’s relationship/motif with emptiness. An empty womb, trapped in an empty closet, an empty loveless marriage, kinzo’s empty study. After the marriage Natsuhi felt like all that was left was a vacant husk, she built her new self with visceral and viscous pride.
Much like her mirror in the box, she felt like she was now inherently soulless, devoid of life, and could only be used properly to reflect what was around her. A mirror serves best as furniture and decoration, and as a wife she felt as though she must adapt to that.
Natsuhi expert here, it's a nice take, but i thought about it more in a "misfit" way rather than "empty".
Natsuhi's marriage is not loveless per se, they do care about eachother platonically, they just misfit because of gender norms that they're trying to uphold. The Kinzo's study is not just empty, she's not supposed to be there, she's misfit for it, because she was not supposed to be Ushiromiya in the first place. She's misfit for family of generational trauma and abuse, she's trying her best to be a "good wife and mother" in understanding of her born family, but her values are misfit for Ushiromiya family.
[EPISODE 5 SPOILERS]
ahhh ok ok, I see. Tysm for your input!! This does make a lot more sense.
It’s interesting because there is a double entendre of misfit too. For the first one, which I assume you mean, she does definitely feel like she’s misfit and out of place. Hell, even her room is this incredibly poppy purple in contrast to the other rooms and CGs of the mansion which are very mute and regular in their color palette. (Admittedly this is much more evident in the console CGs but you can see a pinch of it in the original ones). Some other great instances are all of the examples you gave above too. As well as of course, how isolated and alienated she feels during scenes with a lot of the larger family scenes (the inheritance discussion specifically comes to mind. Even Hideyoshi and Kyrie seem to be more comfortable with the environment. That’s what’s always weaponized against her. Like “you don’t know what’s going on, you don’t have an eagle, you don’t understand money” etc etc.
The other meaning of misfit, which I originally misread as what you mean, (sorry) is like as a noun. Like she’s a misfit. I think sometimes people underestimate how much of a schemer Natsuhi is. It fits in really well with how willing and indulgent (saying this with love) she is to interact with all of the witches (including Gaap esp which I thought was cute and interesting). If I remember, correctly, the dead Kinzo conspiracy was her idea right? That makes a lot more sense! It also is an ironic contrast to her very conservative values ofc, with her self-fulfilling obligation of being “the wife and mother” being seen as incompatible with that of a mischievous woman. This misconstruing of her being a schemer and a misfit is even contorted and manipulated in a malicious manner by Erika during the climax of 5.
Also ah I should’ve emphasized that when I say “loveless” I do genuinely mean romantically loveless. Like, they love eachother so much in a platonic sense it kinda tears me apart. I think there’s a lot to be said there too about much they hold this like, mutual survival. It’s beautiful and tragic, but then beautiful and touching again. Ugh.I truly truly do adore their dynamic, like if might honestly be my favorite duo in Umineko up there with BeoBat and Shannon/Kanon. Especially in Umineko, which is a series that fundamentally values and emphasizes duos, pairs, couples, etc.
Anyways I’m getting off topic. Tysm for your input!! I really really like this interpretation. Let me know if you disagree with my take again, I won’t be offended. I love discussing this stuff re: Umineko.
Yes, that's exactly what i meant. She doesn't have a say in family conference not only because she "doesn't have eagle", but also because she is easy to get emotional. She's constantly stressed out (chronic pain and fatigue, possibly even depression, she ridiculed by Eva, and all of it while trying not think about incident 19 years ago) and society dichotomy disregards emotions as inferior to "clear logic", so they disregard Natsuhi as a whole person. She cares too deeply and takes everything close to heart, so she's "not fit" for these situations, which is Ushiromiya family.
I wouldn't call Natsuhi a schemer or mischievous person, but i do get what you mean, i think her planning abilities are extension of her anxiety and perfectionism. She anxious about outcomes so she need to prepare to all of them. It's even been stated by Beato in 5 game that Natsuhi thought of every possibility and her level of preparation are at the point when Natsuhi can awaken as a witch if she wants to. Also i feel her willingness to interact and work with witches and demons comes from devotion to help family and from desire of human (pun was not intended) connection because even though she works for the sake of family and all communities she belongs to (In prologue of 2 game Natsuhi was the one to go parent's council/meeting for example), she doesn't really shown to have any close friends. We know that she have... I'm not sure how to say it in English...acquaintance's/pals but she don't really have anyone to talk to about her intimate and personal problems.
Yeah, Natsuhi's and Kraus's dynamic are really compelling and complex, they care about eachother deeply, go out of their way to help eachother, even to the point of self-sacrifice, and arguably that what make it worse, they do what they think would be beneficial for other without talking to eachother, misunderstanding on top of miscommunication. They should just talk about their feelings and change their relationship to what feels best to them, but they will not because of amatonormativity, gender and their daddy issues.
Thank you for replying too
Hmmm yeah I guess it makes a lot of sense for Natsuhi and for the greater scope of the story for her achilleas heel (as perceived by the rest of the family) to be that she takes so much with emotion. Kinzo “declaring” her eagle to be on her heart wasn’t solely a note at having no eagle, it was a testament to how much she cares, to how huge her heart is. The idea of “clear logic vs emotional expression” is one that comes up time and time again. Battler struggles with it in both questions and answers, both on and off the game board.
I think “without love it cannot be ‘seen’” has multiple different meanings imo but this is one of them that it touches on. The concept of reducing Rokkenjima’s residents to plastic chess pieces (viewing them through a logical lens) as opposed to the breathing, living and multi-faceted humans they are, capable of mistake, care, greed, adoration, love, envy, etc (viewing through an emotional lens).
This is why it makes so much sense that her narrative foil specifically (as well as Eva <3) is Erika. Who is a character that only reacts to the mystery wrt the red text. It also follows through to Jessica, who obviously is around Natsuhi a lot more than her dad. Jessica is a character that feels so much pure love and genuine care in her heart. We this especially in episodes 1 (giving her mom the scorpion charm) and 2 (all of the stuff with Kanon).
She also did arguably inherit a lot of hot headedness from her dad though. Which is an emotion often perceived as negative and undesirable, but it’s very much a display of intense love. (Grief-strickenly trying to attack mansion Beatrice in 2, same with Eva in 3, idk if the Ronove fight in 4 is a good example of this but sure I’ll mention it). Jessica’s hot headedness and rambunctiousness, as well as Natsuhi’s emotional expressions and sometimes frantic decision making are both traits that can be perceived as “negative” or “undesirable”. Though truthfully, they also carry incredibly valuable and beautiful weight to them. I can’t find it but there’s some moment in 4 where greed is described as a “desire to keep living” or something like that. Also this.
Sorry, I got off topic again. But I hope this makes sense. Basically Natsuhi’s contrast of an emotional woman stolen away and thrown into an environment that treasures a lot of “logic” and “clear reasoning” is so Umineko. This doesn’t even mention other major aspects of her character I wanna think/talk more about like her diary, her kinzo cope, her relationship to krauss, the mirror in the box, and a lot more. Oh well.
Without love it cannot be seen
it’s been said before but many of you have the same rose tinted nostalgic grip on this tenuous object of 80s american gay culture as classical statue icon having RETVRN guys on twitter do rome
wanna explain further how thinking some aspects of various historic lgbt subcultures are cool is the same thing as being a neonazi
sorry i guess i should be clearer since so many people are going out of their way to put words in my mouth. i admit the wording is pointed but i didn’t intend for it to be spread around so much it was an offhand observation. but do you think the comparison i’m making suggests neutral interest in a plainly accessible past? do you think only fascists are capable of projecting their desires and anxieties onto a historical object in reactionary ways? if you’re so antsy about your own interest and attachment to particular historical narratives maybe you should reflect on that for a bit but if you’re so assured that you don’t have any tendency to mythologize the past maybe consider that this post isn’t actually about you!
