As One Of The People Who Voted For Jin Guangyao - I Want To Make It Very Clear That This Wasn't Meant

Oooh this is interesting. When I write gay couples (in fan fiction or in original fiction), I usually depict them as an egalitarian's wet dream. (I'm shamelessly borrowing that wording from somewhere, but I cannot for the life of me remember where.) Hold on, my couples are always like that, but with straight couples I sometimes feel like I have to make more of an effort to make this evenness seen, if that makes sense.

Now I've read a bunch of YOI fan fiction, some very recent one, among them, only a couple of months ago, that depicts Yuuri as the sole provider of household chores. With one particular creator, that became so glaring that to me Yuuri seemed to be more a glorified maid with benefits than a partner, and I wondered, what on earth is Viktor doing while you slave away? Sleep? How did he survive before? Yuuri, of course, is completely grateful that he's allowed in Viktor's life and of course he's doing what seems to be his tasks by default.

Now I can totally see Viktor having a cleaning service. I can also see Yuuri saying that this is really frivolous and unnecessary and they can do it bloody well themselves. I can see Viktor saying, yeah, great, knock yourself out. But I can't see him letting his partner do everything without lifting a finger like Yuuri is his demure wife in some male boomer's utopia.

I was aware of this entire uke/seme division and that there are people who see a clear divide there, but I have dismissed it because it's completely ridiculous to think that the preference towards being receptive or active in bed equals personality traits and what the person is expected to do in the household. This is not how people work, pure and simple, it's dated, it's harmful, and above all those, it is plain false.

Now かっこいい is probably the exact word I'd have used for Viktor. It's the word Yuuko uses for Viktor in the flashback. In the anime, however, Viktor has several moments, where I think かわいい is much more fitting a descriptor for him. (Where he's fallen asleep against Yuuri on the plane, for example.) In YOI, both characters can be assertive and cautious and foolish and kind and harsh and soft. Just like people in real life. Reducing them to this flawed uke/seme duality does them a huge disservice. It makes them so much less human.

Of course this is just a 0730 opinion that deviates miles from the original post and not any sort of deep wisdom or insight.

Today's translation #460

Go Yuri Go!!!, Yuri!!! on ICE official fanbook, Jun'ichi Suwabe interview

Part 4.

-- Please tell us about a scene, in which you had trouble playing Victor.

S: The honest answer would be "all the scenes", but if I have to pick up some, then I will say it was the beginning of the show, episodes 1~3, I think? It was really tough for me, trying to understand the nature of Victor Nikiforov. It seemed to me that I didn't have enough information to create the character as one realistic, living human being - well, one reason was that it is an original anime. I don't usually have to worry a lot about how I should express emotions of characters I play, but as I've mentioned before, in case of Victor, I often was asked to play him in a completely different, almost opposite, way to what my image of the character was. It was me, who played the role, but I don't really feel that I did. Probably because often I was expressing [in my performance] different emotions than those of Victor that lives inside me.

-- What the directing was like during voice-over recording?

S: If I played the character going based on the context of the lines I was saying and additional information written in the screenplay, Victor would become a cool (かっこいい) character. But I think that the directors wanted Victor to be, first and foremost, not so much a "cool character", but "a genius that don't fit the standard". I think it was like a trial and error method for us to get that right. I was often asked to do multiple takes like: "It wasn't bad, but lets try something different".

-- Victor's "Vkusno!" was so cute. Was that you who came with the idea to say in that way?

S: I said it that way during a test recording and I wasn't told anything about it, so I said it in the same way during the actual recording.

[Notes: I must have stop reading this interview on the Makkachin vs. Yuuri answer, because it really surprised me that he has said that Victor wasn't supposed to be a "cool character"...

A large part of YoI fandom in Jp were fujos absolutely obsessed with gender norms and who is seme who is uke blah blah... (I've ranted about this before).

Seme should be cool (かっこいい) and uke should be cute（かわいい）period... And based on that cute Victor arts were according to them "against canon".

It's really interesting, because before this guidebook was published uke-Yuuri fujos had a massive meltdown over the art that was drawn for it, with Yurio in the center and no rings.... It was then slightly redrawn (but Victor still has gloves, so "no ring").

There was so much anti-fujos dog-whistling in YoI, and reading this interview I wonder if maybe this "Victor not cool, but cute" and the weird, slightly anti-Yuuri answers (the Makkachin vs. Yuuri etc.) were because of that... It would take me a lot of time to summarize for you the whole history of this behavior from Avex&co., but one day I'll do that 💀]

THIS IS SO GOOD.

they're really pretty shit at sex at the start but they get better

[ao3 link]

Hello! Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to five other writers 🥰

Haha, this is fun:

Air (and the sequels): Because a massive ton of research went into my first ever hard sci-fi fic. That thing had so many comments on the original platform, too, but it no longer exists, which makes me a bit sad. (Star Trek, K/S)

Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead: Because I'm really, really proud of this one. There will be a sequel, too. (TGCF, Beefleaf and Hualian)

Counting Blurry Stars: Because it has what must be the most wholesome pair of greenflasgs in history. (Yuri!!! on Ice - it's marked incomplete, but I thought it was finished at the stage it's currently at, haha.)

Dye Their Flowers With My Blood: Because it's the fic my younger self would have loved: A redemption story for at least one of a group of villains. (Inuysha, but a Shichinintai fic.)

Tug-o-War: Because it took me ages and the thing fought back, but I love what it became. (Witcher x Chronicles of the Raven; several rare-pairs: Hirad/Ilkar, Thraun/Will [which I'll tell everyone who listens is canon], and Regis/Shani, which blindsided me a bit.)

reblog with one creative goal that you would like to pursue in 2025 in the tags

it doesn’t have to be ‘big’ and there is no pressure to complete said goal. but i’d love to hear from writers, artists, performers, academics, designers, coders, and so on! 🤍

if it’s a creative outlet, it’s included. let’s inspire each other ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - There Gloom the Dark, Broad Seas

When yelling on the scaffold, choose your words with extra care.

I'm currently watching the MDZS donghua with my Mom - and yes, I'll make a list of her opinions again when we're done, but my schedule right now is crazy, so I don't get to sit down in peace as much as I'd like.

This isn't about that. This is about me warning her that I'll sit her through The Untamed, eventually. (Assuming I'll survive this. Every time Jin Guangyao shows up on the screen a beam at him, actually whooped in his first scene because it's so, so late in the donghua and WHAT AN ENTRANCE THEY GAVE MY LITTLE GUY, and I've said I adore that man. She's going flay me alive because she's not going to feel the same way.) She's all for it, but I warned her that the special effects are ... ahem. Not it.

Her response: Is it phallactite-level bad?

Me, trying to process this question for a minute and failing: WHAT-level bad?!

Her giving me a huge grin: You know, pallactite. Like the one from Kirk.

It took another hot minute for me to get what she meant, but then I told her that I knew she was okay with the horrible effects and props from Star Trek, but it's one thing in a no-budget 60s show and another in a modern one so I wanted to warn her. I also said the props and costumes and what not are good and SOME of the effects are, too, but she shouldn't think too much about how physics work most of the time.

(Look up the scene in 'What Are Little Girls Made Of' with a stalactite. Or just look for Kirk and stalactite. The scene is about a minute. If you find a still of Kirk holding a huge, unfortunately shaped prop - yes, that is, in fact, a real still.)

Now keep your fingers crossed that I live long enough to do this.

Progress Report: In Truth No Beauty, in Lies No Refuge

The first draft of my sequel to Avenge the Living, Heal the Dead, is - as of now - complete. Now I have to proofread and edit - heavily, in a few spots.

I have heard that whole thing about gardeners and architects. I've always thought of myself as the latter: I usually know when I start writing where I'm going and how I'll get there. This time, I am really glad I didn't post while I wrote, because I wouldn't be anywhere near the finishing line if I couldn't go back and adapt to changes in my plans. (That is why one of my older fics, Tug-o-War, took me almost five years. I've since learned a lesson: Finish before posting.)

So I'll need a bit for this process, then I'm sending it to my beta. And once it's back, I can start to post.

The title will be In Truth No Beauty, in Lies No Refuge. My working title was 'High Water Over Hell', but I was increasingly unhappy with that (because anything that would have made that make sense never made it into the text). I'll let you know when it goes to my beta and when she's cleared it. :)

This is the sequel to No Shadow to Run Away From.

Living together is hard.

It’s a canon-compliant continuation, starting just after the end of episode 10 and going on well beyond the plot of the series (eventually). Part 4 is work in progress and will be published when I’m done, but the first three can stand alone (seeing how I didn’t even know I’d write a sequel).

Don’t be confused by the gratuitous Vitali (that is the musical score), that’ll come up. Eventually.

Rating: Teen and Up Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Fandom: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)

TGCF meets John Dowland

Okay, but this isn't the ultimate He Xuan song, I don't know any more.

I never reblog anything but I have to do it with this one one more time! We can do it, come on! Mappa is letting us down, let's show them how much these two mean to us!

The Anime Binge-Watcher's Queer Anime Ship Tournament!

The second round rages on! This match-up has me absolutely terrified that my number-one pick is going to be crushed by the titan that is Victuuri. But I can hold out hope, right? Right??? Cast your votes now!

All Round 2 Match-Ups

Rules and Full Bracket