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LPW (Last Post Wins) v5


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#2901
PItiful Boar

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At the heart of this series is a bit sympathy for the devil. 

To up it bluntly - boredom. You want the devil to run amock and bring fire and destruction on the planet, but he can't. Instead, he becomes a maid. 

 

It may not necessarily be a bad thing. Poki likes to point out that it could be a sign of adaptation as we tolerate living one another in a more confined space. The world has arrived at a point where there are simply no room for the kinds of dramatic wars of the past. If you bring appocalypse back into the picture, then all of a sudden men would have their old jobs back again. Instead of serving coffee and cleaning rooms they can pick up a weapon in defense of their love ones. Like Nazi generals at the Nurembourg trials who said they wanted to defend western civilization. 


You look at the Nazi generals now and you go, now that's quaint



#2902
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I win 


I T ' S   O N L Y   F U N   I F   T H E Y   R U N


#2903
penrosecat

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at least contribute



#2904
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le chevalier d'eon - this gem of an anime series has international intrigue with black magic and soul posession and spy v spy and pretty boys cross-dressing 

Why isn't the transgender community/fujoshis/historical society all requiring this to be mandatory watching????!!!

 

I think I have to watch it a couple of days especially the later episodes to get the full taste out of it


Edited by Feishy Pit Boar, 21 April 2019 - 09:47 PM.


#2905
pokari

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It was kind of unclear to me what it wanted to achieve with its gender-bending (I watched it almost a decade ago, mind) and I can't remember a bloody thing about the plot and I recall my reaction at the time was kind of like, "this is fascinating and interesting yet somehow kind of stuffy and boring despite all the intrigue, bloodshed, magic etc".

I might think differently if I watched it today, but in general it had the fatal flaw that despite my best efforts I couldn't really get attached to any of the characters.

#2906
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Which is a curious assessment that you would find it stuffy and boring despite all the intrigue bloodshed magic and crossdressing

Did I mention cross-dressing?

 

I don't think it's a bad thing not to get attached to the characters as it's not particularly character driven, more theme driven or plot driven. They're all purists, idealists, so not surprised if it's not your thing.


http://walterjonwilliams.blogspot.com/2008/12/reviews-too-late-le-chevalier-deon.html



#2907
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I mean, I might feel differently about it if I watched it now; I know my tastes have changed over the last decade (the most recent evidence of this, although this is off-topic, was coming back to read Gokusen again and being quite charmed by it instead of having the very mixed feelings I had about it the first time) and I think I watched D'Eon around the time it came out.

But, as you say, it is also true that my patience for stories that are not character-driven is limited (I say "limited" with precise meaning here—I might enjoy a short story here or there without likable characters, but never a novel).

As an aside, I'm puzzled as to why I should care about crossdressing very much in any story where I'm not attached to the characters. Intrigue, bloodshed, and magic can stand on their own to some extent as visceral or cerebral indulgences, but surely crossdressing is purely a character phenomenon—that is, surely without character interaction it's pure aesthetics; just people wearing unusual clothes? :'p

Edited by pokari, 23 April 2019 - 01:53 AM.


#2908
PItiful Boar

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That was my sarcasm... fujoshis... bane of the earth 



#2909
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What's your beef with fujoshi? (Unless that was sarcasm too. You should know by know my sarcasm detector is broken. But, like, are we just talking generic homophobia here? Dislike of communities that do a lot of non-canon shipping? Something else?)

Crossdressing isn't really a shoujo-demographic specialty anymore, though—I see about as many manga aimed at the surprisingly-large shounen crossdressing niche, these days. And it was never especially a fujoshi thing in particular. Though definitely more a girl-audience thing. But I digress.

#2910
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fujoshis are the scourage of the planet ... they are heretics. The only true love is GL not BL. They should be dragged out onto the street and publicly executed.



#2911
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Ah, okay, fandom rivalry.

There's definitely crosdressing in GL too, though :'p I'll grant I can't remember the names of any of it that I've read though.

#2912
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uh no? we're talking madoka x homura here



#2913
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Speaking of GL, I really liked https://mangadex.org/title/36034/jewelswhen I read it yesterday. Nothing revolutionary, I just quite like romances that take the long view like that, when focusing on only the brief section of life that makes a good story is the norm.

#2914
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urgh that's no GL


where's the heroism? the tragedy? 


tbh BL does exist, but it's on the opposites of the battlefield, where men know their mortal enemies better than themselves - like achilles and hector. Gods weep when their swords/spears clash


GL exists too, but it's when women are willing to live for one another, like homura taking on the living for madoka - anything less is cheap



#2915
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I know you're trolling but all I can do is laugh at "spears clashing" uwu; The finest of ancient Greek traditions!

Although to rant a bit, GL's love of tragedy as a genre as a whole, is something that pisses me off actually. Like, somehow GL gets more romances where you're like "omgfg just twist the knife one more time why don't you". Now, in real life I expect lesbians have more poignant drama than gey men on average—at the very least in our society, with the gender expectations that come with it—but that doesn't seem to be where it's all coming from? It seems more like the audience is supposed to be eating this stuff up, with popcorn in hand, and I find that vaguely mysterious and distressing. (Just like I find BL's issues with consent to be somewhat mysterious and distressing, really).

Edited by pokari, 05 May 2019 - 12:03 AM.


#2916
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I don't understand why people say I'm trolling -esp. when I am serious. 

 

BL can be tragic too. Did you ever see clamp's X-TV? That ending is one of the best I've seen


Edited by Feishy Pit Boar, 06 May 2019 - 06:30 PM.


#2917
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Oh, were you being serious? My apologies if I've misrepresented your statements.

Uh, duh, yes all orientations of romance can end tragically. There's boatloads of tragic BL; I can't even touch the "classics" of shounen-ai because they're all about anguished longing, bitter passion, betrayal and death, and while things have mellowed out a lot since then on average, some definitely carry on the torch.

(I never watched or read X but I am aware of that of which you speak. At least one of the members of CLAMP really loves over-the-top dramatic tragedy (bordering on indulgently melodramatic) that much is clear.)

It may just be that I'm falsely biased here, and reacting strongly to certain tropes that frustrate me that I see more in GL—like the classics, "I love you, but this isn't real love/but I'm going to go get married to some guy 'cuz, y'know, it's a shame you're not a dude". Soft little heart-killing tragedies, not the sort of thing that gets a manga a "tragedy" tag; that's really what I'm complaining about.

Edited by pokari, 06 May 2019 - 09:28 PM.


#2918
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yah that doesn't even qualify as love, more like, infactuations, like the teenager/Twilight kind

i blame hollywood 



#2919
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Infatuation has definitely been around before hollywood or Shakespeare wouldn't have written a play about one hormone-infested Montague falling "in love" with one hysterically romantic Capulet and then committing suicide because they can't communicate worth shit and think dying to prove an empty point to the room at large is going to get them somewhere...

So, yeah, there have definitely always been people like that since time immemorial, as part of the human condition—falling for someone without getting to know them, too drunk on hormones to see straight, at which point it's pure luck whether you'll actually get along with someone once the haze clears...

...That's not the sort of thing I was talking about at all, though. XD I think you are perhaps taking the opposite away from what I was saying from what I meant, but, eh, no biggie.

Edited by pokari, 07 May 2019 - 12:57 AM.


#2920
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i finished tales of zesteria - the self-sacrificing hero trying to combat the chaos and disorder of the universe. Hmm is evil the same as chaos? If violence is necessary for order and morality then couldn't chaos be good?