[ SECRET POST #336 ]

[degrees.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #336 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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5. [ not fandom ]
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32. [ not!secret ]
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Notes:

Out again, Christmas shopping/making a buttload of cookies! You know what to do!

Last day to submit for next week!

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #048.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, [ 1 ] not!secret, [ 1 ] not!fandom, [ 1 ] repeat.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Saturday, December 7th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[thano.livejournal.com]

37. 8D I just wanted to defend Garnet, not because she needs it or that OP hasn't gotten enough abuse (she's gotten puh-len-ty, I think), but just because everyone else seems to have had their little piece of the nerd-rage pie. x3 My fandom is underrepped, dammit!

So, Garnet. No memory, very little guidance, a queen for a mother, and a cushy, comfortable lifestyle. So what does she do? Well, of course, she ditches all of that for a high-rolling adventure with very little in the way of food, shelter, creature comforts, general help, and relative safety, because, you know, a dutiful daughter and princess does all that. Plus, she gets awesome "How to be a normal non-royal person" lessons. XD And after the destruction of Alexandria, she is noticeably less happy. She goes mute for a quarter of the game, for pete's sake. If she were more conventional, she'd do the old Japanese "do my best/work my hardest/everything will be fine if we all work together" shtick in all of three seconds and get right back on the ball. Not Garnet. She crumbled, and I love her for that -- for not having the mental strength and fortitude to handle the annihilation of her beloved country, and generally not pulling through as a positive figure for her surviving Alexandrians. Then, after some thought and introspection and the examples she sees her friends set, she eventually gets her shit together and her priorities straight and eventually sets Zidane's shit straight and when he disappears her shit remains completely together until they're reunited. To be able to handle that after a meltdown is growth. She is a kind healer who loves the main character, yes, but for god's sake, she drugs her entire entourage (sans her knight because she's practical like that) so she isn't followed while she carries out a infiltration on her own country, something she was told specifically not to do by people who genuinely cared about her well-being because doing so was stupid and dangerous and generally unsmart. If that's not bucking authority, I don't know what is. 8D No YN here, preez move on.

[inksmears]

THANK YOU.

12

[(Anonymous)]

Twelve, you're not from The Succession by any chance, are you? (Damn source material has be avoiding certain sections of the alphabet for variable designations in math...)

Re: 12

[o-bliterate.livejournal.com]

Surely they must be! That being said, pairing designations always helped me with variables in Algebra. XD;

[rem-sama.livejournal.com]

24. While it looks like you already know a blanket statement like that doesn't actually work, I guess I'll step in for the other side of the equation: a person who learned how to grow up through Disney, watching these characters face difficulties and trials by fire and somehow making it through. If they could do that, I could take what the "normal" world could throw at me, right? While I resolved to have that kind of determination, to believe in myself the way a lot of those characters did.

Besides, a very applicable saying of my mother's is this: "The day you grow up is the day you die." Retaining at least some of that magic and wonder helps to cope with a lot of the ugliness that exists in the real world; while I agree that getting stuck in a fantasy world and refusing to come out is by no means healthy, I hope you don't mean we should go without one completely.

37. Oops, looks like someone else did it first. Guess the RPGs are just catching up! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators)

I'm not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing, I'm just surprised that no one's mentioned that hey, it's not just the Japanese; we're just as guilty of a similar stereotypical trend here on the other side of the Pacific. Though comics are certainly a whole other can of worms.

24 OP

[(Anonymous)]

I would never imply that in my life. Fantasy does a lot of good, but it does a lot of harm when overloaded, as any good thing. I know a lot of people who are just fantasy addicts and can't come to terms with the real world, and one of the biggest recurring factors is Disney. And age group.

I'm like you in that I use it for strength and for positive thinking, and damn it's helped. I don't deny that. (Naruto, for example, is one of my fictional heroes. I love the idiot.) But I've also used fantasy too much in my time, and it's done a lot of damage. I'm not whining and saying "poor us Disney fails you fucked us up pay therapy billz plz D:" I'm perfectly aware that as an adult, it's up to myself to be aware of and change negative thoughts and behaviors, but not everyone is.
I made this secret very badly, because my hope was that it would be a...hm. A push? If there are people who are like that and don't know why, I wanted the secret to help them think about it. And maybe Disney isn't at fault for them at all, but at least they can think and identify, and from there can change so that they're no longer hurting themselves with an overload of fantasy.

#39

[sazzrah.livejournal.com]

Okaaaaay... Illidan and Malfurion are brothers who were in love with the same woman. It's a big part of what destroyed their sibling relationship and you want them to bang like rabid bunnies?

I'd say "whatever floats your boat" but I personally thing you need to go find another boat to float in. o.O

Y'know, I wasn't going to reply to any of these, but...

[(Anonymous)]

I think if people in fandoms learned that people fap to whatever they want to fap to, and it doesn't matter if that isn't necessarily what YOU fap to but that's okay, we all still like the product the fandom sprouted from...we'd have a lot less stupid, horrid wank for people to point and laugh at.

I mean, seriously, if you took out the "shipping wars" in Harry Potter, the fandom would still be just a little crazy, but not batshit insane.

So, yes, to answer your question, Illidan and Malfurion are two brothers in love with the same woman. However, I'm a sucker for brotherly love, and I felt that their deep bond was broken by a set of tits. I'm not expecting the next novel to have them boffing like rabbits, I know for a fact it'll never be canon, but for crying out loud, it doesn't HAVE to be. It's my personal fap of choice, and whether or not you want to sail on the bonnie USS Stormragecest is your choice. I'm sailing that ship until Warcraft isn't fun anymore.

Not to say that I dislike Tyrande (well, game!Tyrande, Knaak is a pile of shit that needs to have his pen taken away, GOD she was such a Sue in those books), I actually respect her quite a bit. I love her and Malfurion's relationship, and the tragedy of Illidan being misunderstood at nearly every turn.

...

Oddly enough, it's almost precisely this sentiment that made me have to admit it in an anonymous secret rather than just ship the hell out of it with my own name. Though it would have been less of "gosh your slash pairing is the stupid" and more of "gosh you like slash you're stupid".

[sopoliini.livejournal.com]

41.

Yeah I'm really late to the party and everything has been said about that book already.
Predictable plot, every cliche in the genre is present, the writing isn't anything special and I have the distinct notion of having read the story before in a much better version, so yes, a literary value of zero. But I devoured them and it's the best sin I've commited in a while. Those books are like little petit-foures. They taste a bit too sweet, but they're so easy to swallow and you can't help but take another one.

[prettyparadox.livejournal.com]

I agree. I couldn't care less about Bella fucking Swan, please die, but the Cullens are pure win.

#7

[windtear.livejournal.com]

8( (((HUGS)))

Seriously, YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING to deserve that. Okay? If you feel you can, please try to talk to someone about it.

As for your brother... people who do that are usually so fucked up themselves that loving someone else isn't really something they do well. If he could have he probably would have but he's fucked up so he can't. Which IS NOT YOUR FAULT. Again, if you can, please, tell someone; people like this generally don't stop until they're stopped, so any girls younger than you that he has access to are at risk.

23

[biases.livejournal.com]

MARRY ME.

FOR SUCH AN UGLY MAN WITH SUCH AN UGLY PERSONALITY, HE SURE DOES PULL THE CHICKS. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

#23

[e-corgi.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, THANK YOU.
I thought I was the only one. Jeezus christ.

47

[comixologist.livejournal.com]

No one will see this, but I must say it.

WTF Y HLO THAR HIDAKA KEN. Part of me feels that whatever fic you're referring to can only break me. And part of me is just so damn curious. ::hides::

Re: 47

[blinkidybah.livejournal.com]

ahhh icon!

37

[harukami]

You know, I get what you're getting at, but I think you came the wrong way at it with the Yamato Nadeshiko thing, because a lot of those characters are really badass, and not "men-pleasers" or docile.

Like -- oh, Kairi. I know you put in KH1 Kairi, so I'm not touching KH2 Kairi in my comment here, because she HAS grown up a year and her motivations and actions she'll take have changed. So just on KH1 Kairi -- yeah, she's a "princess of heart", but that doesn't automatically equal docile and gentle and kind. (I note that Belle is a Princess of Heart, and she elbowed some guy in the solar plexus and rescued herself when captured, in the same continuity.) Yeah, Kairi's role towards the end of the first game is to step back and not go with Sora, and just "always be with him" because her heart was with him, which can sound very... "female character only exists to highlight the male protagonist". But this is the same Kairi who skips school, who had planned to escape normal life by running off with two teenage boys (which, you know, has its own connotations, even though they're untrue in this case XD), who is a lazy layabout who can accuse others of being lazy while avoiding work herself. It's also the Kairi who's been running around inside Sora, observing the goings on, and it's a Kairi who, when she woke up from her coma, didn't look around in confusion -- the very first thing she did was launch herself to try to catch Sora, like a boy would for a self-sacrificing female character. I've always liked her final decision not to go along, not because it pushed the female character aside to make room for the male, but because it was something not done out of a whiny, clingy desire to be included -- instead, the question she asked was one of whether or not she'd be useful, and when sora said no, she agreed to stay behind so she wouldn't be an impediment. Which, honestly -- she has no fighting skills, no magic, and no weapon. I'd have thought less of her as a person if she'd insisted on going along and would have had to be protected -- instead she ignored what she wanted and was responsible about it. It always bugs me when that decision gets read as a "womanly" one instead of one any reasonable human being in her position should make.

Or ...Aeris. I'm really surprised to see her on a list of "Yamato Nadeshikos" because she's not the quiet gentle woman who sits at home and suffers (I actually can think of very few video game characters in that position. There's secondary characters, like Kushi in Okami, who are supposed to be that archetype, but even they show bursts of fiery spirit XD). Aeris is a gentle person, who dies in love and sacrifice (though not for a man but to save the. You know. Entire world). She's 'special', and not human. But at the same time, she's a street kid who grew up in the slums, laughs about the chance to get to dress a guy up in drag and prostitute him to a total asshole, and hangs around outside a whorehouse (if you choose to go into the Honeybee inn, anyway) where she stiffs the sexist assholes out there by charging them different prices for her flowers based on how bastardy they're being to her -- she uses her cute, sweet 'charm' to get away with it, too, because they pay up. Aeris is, when push comes to shove, a deeply good person who wants to save everybody and the whole world, but so is ... you know, Barrett, and Tifa, and Yuffie (though she's more localized), and ...just about everyone. The game is about characters with hometown attachments trying to save their hometowns, the thing about Aeris being a Cetra is that the whole world is her hometown. With that in mind, her motivations fall right in line with everyone else's in the game, and fits perfectly into the theme. Yeah, she has the power to back it up -- but so does everyone else; even if their hometown has gone to ruin (Barrett's, Yuffie's), there are options that can be taken through the game to bring it back to how it should be -- and because Aeris's hometown is the world, her level of ability reflects that. There's just cost as well.

Re: 37

[harukami]

I could go on about some of the others, but I see some of them being defended in the comments, and yeah. *g* Also, when push comes to shove, I also hope that -- well, if you write slash, you do it because the men are the characters you're interested in instead of the girls, not because it takes the woman out of the equation. The latter is a pet peeve, though. *g*

I respect what you're saying -- I hate when female characters exist only to support a male, or only to be a self-sacrifice, but most video games have stories good enough to support something other than the Yamato Nadeshiko trope. Have you played Digital Devil Saga? I highly recommend it -- on the one hand, I think you'll probably be bothered by Sera falling into the archetype (And god knows I've argued against that before because it's always seemed really unfair and not taking her situation into account), but the main party healer is Argilla -- who's a female healer who's actually just your party mage, and a demon cannibal who eats things with her boobs and was officially the group's sniper before they all turned into demons. She's got some "extra-feminine" traits, like being the only one who resists cannibalism for a while (though there's a very strong male character who also does, which is found out about later in the game and takes that out of an anti-feminist perspective), but she's badass, strong, and just kind of awesome. And has breast-mouths, who doesn't like those? I think you'd find it an enjoyable way of handling the "party healer" trope (though anyone can learn healing skills, and I usually end up also making Cielo -- male -- a healer XD).

[(Anonymous)]

7) I thought I was the only one.

[zephyr-design.livejournal.com]

7) This secret obliterated every other one from my mind.

I'm in no place to say anything, but I'd recommend you, as everyone already said, to get help from someone you trust - maybe a doctor, who won't say anything to anyone without your consent, and will guide you in this matter. Sexual abuse isn't affection, and your brother needs assistance too, so he won't do that ever again to anyone.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

I have no words better than this.

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

So much word on #8.


Also, I completely understand where #26 is coming from. Only, I freely admit to reading even half-decent stories and only avoid badfic.

#47

[sevendials.livejournal.com]

[tulleskirt.livejournal.com]

41. HOLY SHIT SO MUCH TRUTH. The protagonist's name is Isabella Swan for crissakes.

#20

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

HELL YES DWARVEN FEMALES ARE SEXY. Proportionally, they have the biggest racks of any female of any race... yes, including the night elves!

(They also have really tiny waists to fill out that incredibly hourglass figure -- people just don't see it all that well because, well, they're so close to the ground. :p

31- What fandom?

[(Anonymous)]

What fandom is 31?

[inkytwist.livejournal.com]

43. YES.

9

[flowerings.livejournal.com]

I love that show. ♥

[gratuity.livejournal.com]

14. I don't like Heroes, but I think I'm in the minority. I do, however, like the cute Japanese guy, and not because he "plays to my inner weeaboo". He's just cute and likeable. :]

37. I don't like you. Please leave.

#35

[bleedingsand.livejournal.com]

One of my friends is fairly sexually active. She constantly says stuff that makes me look at her and think "Oh, to be that innocent again." Sex =/= lack of innocence. Hell, I was corrupt and evil long before I had sex. Ask my family, given how many times I broke their brains.

33

[cantinera.livejournal.com]

I am so curious about #33. I have no clue what it is.

Re: 33

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know either--and no one here seems to have called it. I'm going to guess Virginia Woolf X Megatron, unless someone steps forward and corrects me.

41

[(Anonymous)]

I am SO with you. I don't understand why anyone likes those books... the writing style is fairly adolescent, there is hardly any plot at all, and the characters are flat and boring. People who love it and think it's a wonderful example of gothic romance and a perfect vampire story have obviously never read Anne Rice.

[lil-lost-kitten.livejournal.com]

The problem is that in Japan, all of these issues are tied together. Since it's believed that only "the Japanese" (which doesn't include anyone from Zainichi Koreans to Chinese to anyone with non-Japanese national origin or appearance features) can truly practice Shinto or Bushido, that automatically makes them "superior." If the beliefs opened up, then this would not be racist, but it's like if fundamentalist Christianity had an "only white people may apply" sign on it.

Ah... I see. I thought it may be as much. I probably shouldn't have been making so many presumptions without having a clear background on the Japanese cultural view on such things (you probably know more about that than I do). So yes, I can see why you might feel he has racism issues. Although I am still hoping that it was his own view and not that of the racist nationalists. I still doubt that this will have an effect on me liking his early music though.

At least I know more of the situation now. Thnx hun.

[hindsight.livejournal.com]

34: INORITE. I-I can't believe how a series like this can slip under the radar :(