ofamaranthlie:

yut-lung is convinced that ash is destined to be his greatest rival, a decision he made early in the series. at first he denies that he’s anything like ash, not wanting to be compared to a ‘barbarian’. but he changes gears so quickly. suddenly he acknowledges that yes, he is the moon to ash’s sun, his twin mirror – and he needs ash to realize this and rise to the occasion. once he’s eliminated his brothers, it becomes his sole purpose in life (getting ash to be his rival, and eliminating eiji so ash can do this, tho the latter is a conversation in and of itself), and the reason behind his major political moves (siding with golzine, contracting blanca). 

 yut-lung has never not had a rival. he’s been fighting his entire life.

since after his mother was brutally murdered, he always had vengeance on his mind. he knew he was going to kill his brothers one day, but he also knew he had to set something up for himself after that. thus, putting ash on a pedestal he never asked or wanted to be on.

a new rivalry. a new reason to live.

 only when yut-lung realizes that ash will not be the enemy yut-lung wants (needs) him to be does he fall apart. he cannot eliminate eiji. ash will never be yut-lung’s true twin flame, because he has something yut-lung has never had, but clearly desperately wants: love.

that’s the thing about yut-lung: he’s driven by vengeance and a need to have a rival, but beyond that, it’s all rooted to wanting to be loved and maybe love in return.

all he’s known is bitterness and vengeance, and at the end of the manga, he is left with no one to fight but himself. a dark spiral, one sing thankfully saves him from.

I wanted to get into the Fate franchise but I have heard Shirou is just another bland cliche protagonist so I was hesitating. Could you tell why you find him compelling?

Shirou is my favorite! Granted, I am speaking having seen… Fate/Zero, which is a prequel in which Shirou appears in the last episode for like a hot minute, and the Unlimited Blade Works route, which I absolutely loved. It’s going to be a bit challenging to talk about why he’s compelling without giving The Spoiler of the series away, but I’ll do my best. 

So in UBW, Shirou is incredibly flawed. Naive, wanting to save people but also hating himself to an extreme. His sense of self-worth is paradoxically extremely low but also extremely high in that he believes he should be more capable than he is, which then with each blunder only makes him hate himself more. He struggles with the idea of fate and the idea of making his own choices, because he has no trust in himself to make his own choices. And throughout the story he has a very complex arc in which he learns the true value of other people and also himself, and decides to say screw you to fate and make his own choices, to keep trying and keep living, even though he knows he might very well fail. UBW in many ways is about him learning to live even if it isn’t stylish, and I found that beautiful.  

I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, but what’s your personal favorite top 10 AOT characters?👀 I already have an idea of some of them, but wanted to here more of your thoughts on them

Haha, well, it does change a lot, but the top five are pretty locked in! 

1) Armin Arlert. I love his development and how relatable he is. He’s the opposite of the “Gary Stu” claims I see thrown at him. He’s got a major flaw–his own lack of self-worth hence his sacrifice–and embodies the themes of empathy and compassion with a balance of needing to survive. 

2) Eren Jaeger. A strange MC in that he’s not exceptionably likeable, which of course means I like him. I currently want to slap him for his bullshit but he is extremely well done and flawed to an extreme, but his love and passion for his loved ones and what he believes in–and right now all he believes in is his loved ones–gets me in my kokoro. 

3) Historia Reiss. I LOVE A QUEEN. No, but she’s excellent representation for LGBT people, and her conversations with Ymir and decisions to live in the cave are still some of my favorite moments. 

4) Annie Leonhart. She needs to come back soon *sobs* But I find her arc incredibly interesting, because she is a person who would love to be kind, but whom the world never showed kindness. 

5) Mikasa Ackerman. I’ve written metas on her arc and how great it is before. She embodies the series message of “the world is cruel but the world is also beautiful.”

6) Jean Kirchstein. I love seeing him go from selfish dick to . fantastic leader. 

7) Levi Ackerman. One of the few mentor figures I can recall who also has a powerful AF arc. I love him. 

8) Gabi Braun. She’s a great character suffering in a cruel world, and despite the fandom hating on her, she represents the hope of the series. 

9) Falco Grice. Who also represents hope in the series and is a great foil for Jean, Mikasa, and Armin, oh and also Historia. 

10) Reiner Braun. Redeem yourself Reiner I believe in you.

I am curious, why didn’t you enjoy “Brave”?

Take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt since I’ve only seen it once many years ago! and it is solely my opinion and if you love Brave please love it and enjoy it and know that you are entitled to disagree! I also don’t hate it, for the record, but I am just very “meh” about it so. 

but this gif sums it up:

Like I get it you’re a cool Disney Princess film who don’t need no man. Or this one:

“I’m not like a regular Disney Princess film. I’m a cool Disney Princess film.”

Essentially I just didn’t think it was a good film, and despite being an ardent feminist myself, I was kind of like *eye roll* with how hard it was trying to be feminist because it seemed like it was more concerned with how it was perceived than with telling a good story. It focused on its message–which was a defensive message even–at the expense of like, everything else. It relied so much on telling instead of showing with “I’ll be shooting for my own hand!” and like a dozen other lines that were shade at their previous films. If you want to make a good modern feminist princess film, Frozen or Moana are good contrasts that show instead of telling. Elsa and Moana don’t wind up with anyone and they doesn’t need to. But the point of their films is something other than “I’m a different kind of princess.” Merida’s conflict with her mom was definitely the best part of the film, but I felt like the “I’m different!” parts overshadowed the rest of it. 

Hi!I have been dead on tumblr so I missed some things.Your favourite Banana Fish characters and why? Have a nice day!

Ooooh what a great ask!

1) Yut-Lung Lee. 

He fits all my favorite requirements to the point where it’s almost hilarious: long hair, affinity for needles, sad family situation, angry petty murder child, moon association. But in actuality I think he’s an incredibly complex character, an antagonist but not a villain. His foiling with Ash is superb. You can’t hate him if you like Ash, and his desperate desire to have hope, to have someone to love him, is absolutely gut-wrenching–especially as the actions he takes to get those and to lash out at others who have what he does not, actually push what he wants away. As @aspoonofsugar​ noted to me, in the latest episode, he walks off in the direction of Eiji after his suicidal tendencies were called out by Sing, while telling Sing to leave him alone. He’s so focused on Eiji–what he doesn’t have–that he doesn’t realize what he’s looking for is right there. Fortunately, Sing runs after him.

2) Ash Lynx. 

Like, I never love main characters, especially not ones whom everyone else loves. Eren Jaeger is my favorite main character (besides Ash) precisely because even in universe, he’s nothing special and isn’t well liked. Ash has smarts, looks, prowess with a gun and knife, and everyone adores him. And yet, he’s still so flawed and realistic that I can’t help but adore him too. He wears his pain on his sleeve while still trying to appear tough, and watching him learn vulnerability that won’t be used against him with Eiji is absolutely beautiful. It gives me hope.

3) Sing Soo-Ling. 

I love him. He’s like the moral compass of the series, which is funny because he’s a 14 year old gang leader. But I love his relationships with Yut-Lung (Yut-Lung has the chance to be a good big brother to Sing, contrasting how his brothers treated him), Cain, Ash, and now Eiji. 

4 tied) Shorter Wong. 

He was such a good best friend character. He was so loyal, and his death really profoundly changed the series. He might have been a murderer, but he loved the people close to him dearly, and they loved him back, and it’s hard not to see why. His death was incredibly well done. 

4 tied) Eiji Okumura. 

I love Eiji. He’s not useless at all despite what some people say–he’s someone afraid to live and learning how to via Ash. His love for Ash is beautiful.

4 tied) Max Lobo. 

Ash’s surrogate dad and big brother all in one (fitting since he was Griffin’s friend). He’s such a good guy, and he loves Ash so much despite how flawed their relationship was at the beginning. I also hope the anime touches on Jessica and their relationship more as well. His trauma stems from what happened to Griffin, and you can tell he doesn’t want to lose anyone afterwards, but he learns via Ash he can’t force people to do what he wants. Yet he can still love them. 

7) Cain Blood. 

I really, really like him, even though we haven’t gotten a lot of him in the anime yet. But his relationship with Sing and with Ash strikes me as brotherly as well, and both of them do need a big brother. I really want to see more of him.  

Why do you think people tend to demise Kaneki’s abuse and traumas? Sometimes i feel that people get into this competition of who suffered the most of who was the one who was abused the most, which I Think is sad and wrong. You are so Brave to share your experience! You are such a kindharted person I can tell.

Yeah, the thing is, you can’t really compare trauma because each person responds to trauma in different ways because we each have different experiences preceding the trauma even if we share a trauma, and also different genetic makeups, so yeah lol. It’s not a competition. My heart breaks for Kaneki’s trauma, and his struggles to cope with his terrible childhood (and his coping mechanisms like his seeing himself as a protagonist) are part of why I found his character so relatable and why his character honestly saved my life at one point. All abuse is wrong and sad, and there isn’t one right way to cope with it. Of course, there is also still no excuse for taking your pain out on others, but understanding isn’t inherently excusing, and understanding someone I think builds a necessary bridge between people, and between characters. Empathy is Good. 

Thanks haha; that’s very kind of you. I have my moments tbh where I’m grumpy or negative or jump to conclusions, as many of my friends on here could tell you! But I do think it’s important to be like “I was wrong, sorry, I’ll do better” as we are all imperfect humans at the end of the day. And I do think kindness is so, so important and powerful, so I try!