happy-making things
So yours truly spent the last 6 days sick in bed (after attempting to be like ~normal people~ and taking cold medicine and dragging my ass to work when I was sick, but guess what apparently ~normal people~ things don't work for me, WHAT A SHOCKER) and then after 6 days in bed my back is KILLING ME like it hasn't in... a very, very long time.
My current disability level is: unable to put on my own socks. Like I seriously tried to put on both my socks this morning and just... gave up halfway through the second one because it was so frustrating and painful and I just couldn't do it.
So of course - I'm back at work today? Barely able to stand up and all that good stuff. Don't ask me why I'm at work, just don't ask. Because I was raised by ex-Soviets, because I don't fit into any mold or definition of "push through it and perform" anymore with my body's limitations, because I have a new boss who's terrible at HR stuff, because, because, because. I don't know. This is my life and i'm just trying to live in, one debilitating-pain filled day at a time.
So, with that out of the way! Let's talk about happy things instead.
Yuri!!! on Ice. The show that's taken over my twitter! I am SO HAPPY I waited for S1 to finish and for everyone else to watch it first and for Russian speaking friends to give me their opinions. SO GLAD. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this less if all of the above had not been true.
But as it is, my god, friends, MY GOD. This show is just pure joy and shininess and happiness wrapped in a nice bow. It was so UPLIFTING and HAPPY and honestly I could just watch that opening theme whenever I need a pick me up. WHAT A GOOD.
What surprised me a bit, I think, from how fandom talked about it, was how much this show was just... a standard anime series? I mean I haven't watched anime in a long time, but this series was just... a well written yaoi anime series? It had the same tropes, the same narrative arc, the same everything? Like it felt very familiar and comforting and like many things I'd seen before? Just, on the well done side, with a lot of optimism and a really cool message and just a lot of heartfelt joy.
I'm in no way an expert on any of that, of course! Like I said, I haven't watched any sort of anime in a while, but I was just surprised at how... conventional it was, I guess? Based on the fandom reactions I'd read. It also made me think that fandom's reaction to the season finale was maybe influenced by this show being watched in "real time" by so many people who... have not necessarily watched this genre of anime before? I don't know. The ending did not surprise or particularly disappoint me, is what I'm saying.
The main thing I was worried about was the Russia fail, since at least 2 major characters are Russian, including half of the main pairing. My thoughts on that are: I need to separate the show and the fandom here. Very early on I suspected I'd be able to enjoy the show Yuri on Ice, or the fandom for Yuri on Ice, but probably not both.
So, show-wise, honestly nothing about this show bothered me, I'm not even entirely certain why. Yes, almost none of the Russian text they used was right, yes there were random Russian exclamations that were silly and made no sense, but ultimately I can't even nitpick these things because none of the characters were actually... Russian? Nor was Russia itself actually Russia? It was just... another prefecture of Japan that didn't have any Japanese food and had a few quirks that the creators had looked up on wikipedia.
I mean all the characters - the Italians, the Canadians, everyone - were actually Japanese, on an intense, fundamental level, so. And I wasn't angry about that, or surprised! (Again, I've watched anime before, and this isn't unique to Japanese entertainment anyway.) This is a silly, 20 minute show with a 12 episode season, that doesn't take itself too seriously and has nothing profound to say about the skating world (but rather has things to say about people as human beings) so like, they have an all Japanese cast. That's fine! Even if some of those Japanese characters happen to be "Italian" or "Russian".
What worked for me, I think, was that they didn't lean on any Russian sterotypes with the characters themselves. None of them were violent or gangsters or oversexualized or prostitutes in a way that pinged me as Russian stereotypes. Russia wasn't portrayed as backwards or overly conservative compared to Japan or as the home of brutal methods beyond what was normal, and just. Again, this is largely because Russia didn't exist, really, we simply never left Japan, but still in most shows I'm used to there being a lot more kitsch and a lot more stereotypes thrown in, and here there was none of that.
There was no attempt to make the audience feel like this is ~REALLY RUSSIA~ by googling a few Russian things and throwing them in in ridiculous ways. There was no "here are standard narratives about Russia so let's use them", either. I mean, Yuri's grandpa and pirozhki, but IDK it didn't feel egregious to me? Maybe because again, this wasn't an angst show and it didn't take itself that seriously.
Maybe it's just that whatever attitudes exist towards Russians in Japan don't affect my life on a daily basis the way attitudes from Western media do? Maybe, to a degree. Except I've seen Russians in Japanese entertainment before, and they were still mostly gangsters and prostitutes, so.
Anyway, this was great, precisely because of this delicate balance where no one was really Russian on the one hand, the show didn't really take itself too seriously, and there was very little Russian/Soviet kitsch being used as shorthand.
(If I had to pick one particular moment for "wow, I can't even BEGIN to approach this from a Russia fail perspective because NO ONE HERE IS RUSSIAN" it would be Victor getting drunk and taking his shirt off at dinner or whatever, and saying "let's go to an onsen!" It's weird and impossible to explain why that scene was so fundamentally Japanese to me - a Russian dude could definitely get drunk at dinner and start yelling about going to a banya with his friends. But I just... don't buy Victor the Russian guy FOR A SECOND, doing that or acting that way in theses specific circumstances, and I do however completely buy Victor the Japanese guy doing those things, so. In that scene I literally laughed out loud because it was... so Japanese and SO not Russian. Not in a million years, for me at least.)
However, this means I can enjoy the canon of the show, but it kind of doesn't say anything about the fandom. Or at least, the fanfic. Because once fic starts straying from very delicate balance the show maintained, I suspect it's going to start pushing my buttons. So, I suspect I won't be consuming a lot of it. (The art and meta are still great though!)
Anyway, I also loved ALL THE CHARACTERS (except creepy possessive brother dude) and the skating world and how accurate and simultaneously heightened and ridiculous it was, and Otabek, fandom's favorite, and Pichit, and just, EVERYONE. Such a joyous, lovely show. ♥
*
YULETIDE :D :D :D :D
I come bearing the fic I got + 2 recs!
Things By Witchlight (1861 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Society of Gentlemen - K.J. Charles
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dominic Frey/Silas Mason
Characters: Dominic Frey, Silas Mason
Summary: In this year of our Lord 1819, in the tail-end of December, a boy is hanged at Newgate for unnatural vices.
I asked for Dom/Silas and I got this lovely, broody fic that's them living in the complicated moral world they inhabited in the book, which I so loved.
What He Was For (1020 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Society of Gentlemen - K. J. Charles
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: David Cyprian/Lord Richard Vane
Characters: David Cyprian, Lord Richard Vane
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Post-Canon, PWP
Summary: Richard wasn’t stupid; he knew that David’s attention was half on him and half on this new thorny problem. He also knew how to distract David effectively.
This is such a lovely porny fic in the same universe! I actually suspect both fics were written by the same author, but I have no basis for that suspocion except the fact that they're both SO GOOD and writing in this style is not easy.
three-body problem (15152 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Beverley Brook/Peter Grant, Beverley Brook & Thomas Nightingale, Peter Grant/Thomas Nightingale
Characters: Beverley Brook, Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale
Additional Tags: Polyamory Negotiations, Future Fic, Magic Made Them Do It, Spoilers for The Hanging Tree, POV Female Character
Summary: “But what if he’s not interested?” Peter asked.
Beverley groaned. “I cannot emphasize enough how that’s not my fucking problem.”
This is such lovely, lovely polyamory fic, of the kind I actually see a lot more rarely these days, because it's so difficult to pull off. The Beverly POV in this is just so great. It's like everything I loved from the book without any of the parts I didn't.
comments on Dreamwidth
My current disability level is: unable to put on my own socks. Like I seriously tried to put on both my socks this morning and just... gave up halfway through the second one because it was so frustrating and painful and I just couldn't do it.
So of course - I'm back at work today? Barely able to stand up and all that good stuff. Don't ask me why I'm at work, just don't ask. Because I was raised by ex-Soviets, because I don't fit into any mold or definition of "push through it and perform" anymore with my body's limitations, because I have a new boss who's terrible at HR stuff, because, because, because. I don't know. This is my life and i'm just trying to live in, one debilitating-pain filled day at a time.
So, with that out of the way! Let's talk about happy things instead.
Yuri!!! on Ice. The show that's taken over my twitter! I am SO HAPPY I waited for S1 to finish and for everyone else to watch it first and for Russian speaking friends to give me their opinions. SO GLAD. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this less if all of the above had not been true.
But as it is, my god, friends, MY GOD. This show is just pure joy and shininess and happiness wrapped in a nice bow. It was so UPLIFTING and HAPPY and honestly I could just watch that opening theme whenever I need a pick me up. WHAT A GOOD.
What surprised me a bit, I think, from how fandom talked about it, was how much this show was just... a standard anime series? I mean I haven't watched anime in a long time, but this series was just... a well written yaoi anime series? It had the same tropes, the same narrative arc, the same everything? Like it felt very familiar and comforting and like many things I'd seen before? Just, on the well done side, with a lot of optimism and a really cool message and just a lot of heartfelt joy.
I'm in no way an expert on any of that, of course! Like I said, I haven't watched any sort of anime in a while, but I was just surprised at how... conventional it was, I guess? Based on the fandom reactions I'd read. It also made me think that fandom's reaction to the season finale was maybe influenced by this show being watched in "real time" by so many people who... have not necessarily watched this genre of anime before? I don't know. The ending did not surprise or particularly disappoint me, is what I'm saying.
The main thing I was worried about was the Russia fail, since at least 2 major characters are Russian, including half of the main pairing. My thoughts on that are: I need to separate the show and the fandom here. Very early on I suspected I'd be able to enjoy the show Yuri on Ice, or the fandom for Yuri on Ice, but probably not both.
So, show-wise, honestly nothing about this show bothered me, I'm not even entirely certain why. Yes, almost none of the Russian text they used was right, yes there were random Russian exclamations that were silly and made no sense, but ultimately I can't even nitpick these things because none of the characters were actually... Russian? Nor was Russia itself actually Russia? It was just... another prefecture of Japan that didn't have any Japanese food and had a few quirks that the creators had looked up on wikipedia.
I mean all the characters - the Italians, the Canadians, everyone - were actually Japanese, on an intense, fundamental level, so. And I wasn't angry about that, or surprised! (Again, I've watched anime before, and this isn't unique to Japanese entertainment anyway.) This is a silly, 20 minute show with a 12 episode season, that doesn't take itself too seriously and has nothing profound to say about the skating world (but rather has things to say about people as human beings) so like, they have an all Japanese cast. That's fine! Even if some of those Japanese characters happen to be "Italian" or "Russian".
What worked for me, I think, was that they didn't lean on any Russian sterotypes with the characters themselves. None of them were violent or gangsters or oversexualized or prostitutes in a way that pinged me as Russian stereotypes. Russia wasn't portrayed as backwards or overly conservative compared to Japan or as the home of brutal methods beyond what was normal, and just. Again, this is largely because Russia didn't exist, really, we simply never left Japan, but still in most shows I'm used to there being a lot more kitsch and a lot more stereotypes thrown in, and here there was none of that.
There was no attempt to make the audience feel like this is ~REALLY RUSSIA~ by googling a few Russian things and throwing them in in ridiculous ways. There was no "here are standard narratives about Russia so let's use them", either. I mean, Yuri's grandpa and pirozhki, but IDK it didn't feel egregious to me? Maybe because again, this wasn't an angst show and it didn't take itself that seriously.
Maybe it's just that whatever attitudes exist towards Russians in Japan don't affect my life on a daily basis the way attitudes from Western media do? Maybe, to a degree. Except I've seen Russians in Japanese entertainment before, and they were still mostly gangsters and prostitutes, so.
Anyway, this was great, precisely because of this delicate balance where no one was really Russian on the one hand, the show didn't really take itself too seriously, and there was very little Russian/Soviet kitsch being used as shorthand.
(If I had to pick one particular moment for "wow, I can't even BEGIN to approach this from a Russia fail perspective because NO ONE HERE IS RUSSIAN" it would be Victor getting drunk and taking his shirt off at dinner or whatever, and saying "let's go to an onsen!" It's weird and impossible to explain why that scene was so fundamentally Japanese to me - a Russian dude could definitely get drunk at dinner and start yelling about going to a banya with his friends. But I just... don't buy Victor the Russian guy FOR A SECOND, doing that or acting that way in theses specific circumstances, and I do however completely buy Victor the Japanese guy doing those things, so. In that scene I literally laughed out loud because it was... so Japanese and SO not Russian. Not in a million years, for me at least.)
However, this means I can enjoy the canon of the show, but it kind of doesn't say anything about the fandom. Or at least, the fanfic. Because once fic starts straying from very delicate balance the show maintained, I suspect it's going to start pushing my buttons. So, I suspect I won't be consuming a lot of it. (The art and meta are still great though!)
Anyway, I also loved ALL THE CHARACTERS (except creepy possessive brother dude) and the skating world and how accurate and simultaneously heightened and ridiculous it was, and Otabek, fandom's favorite, and Pichit, and just, EVERYONE. Such a joyous, lovely show. ♥
*
YULETIDE :D :D :D :D
I come bearing the fic I got + 2 recs!
Things By Witchlight (1861 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Society of Gentlemen - K.J. Charles
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dominic Frey/Silas Mason
Characters: Dominic Frey, Silas Mason
Summary: In this year of our Lord 1819, in the tail-end of December, a boy is hanged at Newgate for unnatural vices.
I asked for Dom/Silas and I got this lovely, broody fic that's them living in the complicated moral world they inhabited in the book, which I so loved.
What He Was For (1020 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Society of Gentlemen - K. J. Charles
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: David Cyprian/Lord Richard Vane
Characters: David Cyprian, Lord Richard Vane
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Post-Canon, PWP
Summary: Richard wasn’t stupid; he knew that David’s attention was half on him and half on this new thorny problem. He also knew how to distract David effectively.
This is such a lovely porny fic in the same universe! I actually suspect both fics were written by the same author, but I have no basis for that suspocion except the fact that they're both SO GOOD and writing in this style is not easy.
three-body problem (15152 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Beverley Brook/Peter Grant, Beverley Brook & Thomas Nightingale, Peter Grant/Thomas Nightingale
Characters: Beverley Brook, Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale
Additional Tags: Polyamory Negotiations, Future Fic, Magic Made Them Do It, Spoilers for The Hanging Tree, POV Female Character
Summary: “But what if he’s not interested?” Peter asked.
Beverley groaned. “I cannot emphasize enough how that’s not my fucking problem.”
This is such lovely, lovely polyamory fic, of the kind I actually see a lot more rarely these days, because it's so difficult to pull off. The Beverly POV in this is just so great. It's like everything I loved from the book without any of the parts I didn't.
comments on Dreamwidth