#anna gets asks

hahaha i figured you didn't mean it as a bad thing! i'm just a 2012 lok fandom survivor lmao so I'm always prepared

BUT while there's no way to know for sure if they made percy look like mako on purpose, i'm fairly certain that it was for multiple reasons:

Percy's initial design--both for his official character art on stream (art by Kit Buss) and initial concept art by Phil Bourassa, the lead character designer, look a bit different:

Percy is actually in his early 20s, so you can especially see why the initial LOVM designs were changed to emphasize his youth, but note that he also didn't have the sharkbrows, the duckbutt hair, etc.

2. We know that the CR cast are big ATLA fans. Keyleth's story is very obviously pulled from heavy ATLA references (Janet Varney even voices her mother in the show), Sam Riegel's daughter's favorite cartoon character is Korra (she has taste!!), and Percy and Keyleth were best friends on stream. I wouldn't be surprised if it's an in-joke visual reference to make Percy closer to an Avatar character for that reason alone--each of the core cast got input on their character designs and redesigns, so Taliesin would have definitely had some say here. But the Titmouse crew are also big anime and ATLA fans, so there's no possible way in my mind that they accidentally settled on a design that is just so Mako that he looks like a palette swap reskin or Video Game Character Player 2.

It's extremely possible that the similarities were coincidental or for ease of animation, but my instinct is that it's not entirely accidental, especially since the people working on the show would definitely notice it. so that's just my guess

long story short: yeah

Halla! Tusen takk for asking :D

27. Do you like your cereal crunchy or soggy? -> Crunchy!!!!!!!!!!!

41. What can you hear right now? -> “Obvious bicycle” by Vampire Weekend, because I’m listening to it. Also rain!

it’s funny you sent me this bc i was just thinking about this the other day. yes of course, and i always will. he was one of my favorite characters of all time for many reasons: the kindness, the growth, even the rage. but i cant move past who watsuki is and who created kenshin. that reminder is always there. the thought is there!

and as heartbreaking as it is how a character who was and always will be beloved to me is so tainted, it’ll never be as heartbreaking as watsuki’s actions were for real, human children. which is not to say that fictional characters can’t have very deep meaning, of course they can, but for me that will never trump the possession and dealing of obscene amounts of child p*rn.

so. it’s not even just about pirating — it goes without saying no one should ever give a single cent to rk media. but let watsuki fade into obscurity. don’t give him attention, don’t talk about the manga or movies or anime or whatever else, let it fade.

LMFAJGFKFJJFIGU LMAOOO RETURNED SIMPLY TO DRAG ME SENSELESS 😌 THE BIPHOBIA NEVER ENDS

absolutely!! i had meant to post a comprehensive post far before this, and then i’d meant to re-read it, but... well, i’ll blame a mix of adhd and pandemic distractions. 

i love this series a lot, and i think it’s most impressive to me how much we can see cashore improve as an author with each book. i cried at the end of winterkeep. i felt palpably the sense of grief and sorrow from her characters, and it was heavy and cathartic and an incredibly emotional experience. frankly, i was wowed by winterkeep. graceling will always be my personal favorite, but winterkeep i think is the best.

this will probably lack more details than i would like to include on my thoughts as i haven’t gone for a second read yet. but i loved the mix of voices and perspectives (fell in love with the keeper on page two, and holy shit, how dark things became with adventure fox and the actual tears i cried over him and bitterblue). it was lovely returning to bitterblue, giddon’s perspective was excellent and amusing to me (the character growth on him--Immense), and lovisa! what a good character! i have always loved that cashore does not need to make her protagonists “likable,” exactly--lovisa does objectively bad things, but we can see it and feel it, we understand her, and as i have experienced emotional abuse from my own family i ached with her grief and her pain. she was a teenager in all the ways a teenager really exists, proudly and shamefully and with room for growth, and i think she was a wonderful addition to the lineup.

(i did spent the entire book internally shouting WHERE IS KATSA because i will always love her but that is just because i am me)

i am really excited that we might be getting hava as the next main character, if i remember someone saying from one of cashore’s book tour interviews...? i loved her for many of the same reasons i love katsa--bitterblue was right, hava does remind me of her, and it is absolutely a compliment--and her dual act with giddon was excellent. and her bond with bitterblue, as they are sisters, was a wonderful thing to touch on as well. hava is one of the few people who can still understand the effect leck had on her country and continent--and speaking of leck, this was the first book where he was not the villain (directly or indirectly) and that was very exciting as well!

the moment i clocked it was going to happen all i could think was how important the rest of that development was going to be and how cashore had to proceed very carefully. and i think no matter what, not everyone would be okay with it, and that is completely understandable. how it did end up playing out was, for me, all right in the end--of course if someone disagrees, i can definitely understand that point of view as well. 

i don’t believe that age gaps are inherently bad. however, the context of when a relationship develops and the ages at which the two partners meet are the most important factors for whether or not i think it enters the realm of being bad. i don’t see an issue with a relationship between two people meeting at the ages of 50 and 60, for example. but if they’ve known each other since--say--10 and 20? yikes. of course, since bitterblue and giddon were introduced to us at 10 and 18, respectively, it doesn’t make for a great setup.

so it was important to me to know the nature of their relationship at those younger ages--if they even had one at all!--and how and when did it grow (in any sense). there isn’t any evidence they interact in graceling. from there, we don’t have any sense of their having even been introduced to each other until bitterblue, when she is 18 and he is 26. and to be fair, that’s not a great look for a relationship between them, either. i don’t think they were close? she attended council meetings--he does grow closer to her in this book, as they comfort each other. so from what we see of them in bitterblue--and if i remember correctly, which i might not--i don’t think the two of them ever had much of a friendship or even an acqaintance-ship until she’s in her late teens. maybe i just hope that, because otherwise i will have a much bigger problem, but i believe that to be an accurate reading.

from there, how does cashore handle the question of power imbalances? i do think overall she is incredibly conscious of power and who holds it: this very topic even arises in winterkeep, including what factors matter, like gender and size. i was very happy with that discussion. i would have liked to see her look explicitly at age in this case, which she unfortunately did not, so that’s a criticism of mine. for someone who is very concerned about relationships and power like cashore, i am a little surprised she didn’t include it! i will give her the benefit of the doubt on this one, though, if you remember some of what she’s talked about on her blog regarding her own experience with sexual abuse and pedophilia. while she is of course not infallible, i do think she tries very hard to be a responsible writer.

i find it very important as well that bitterblue has multiple romances and sexual partners between bitterblue, where she first has feelings for saf and sleeps with him, and winterkeep, where her relationship with lovisa’s uncle (can’t remember his name right now? help) is in part what kicks the whole thing off. giddon, to his credit, does seem to pine silently and privately. he doesn’t display behavior to me that can be read as grooming or predatory. additionally, bitterblue has far more wealth and political power than giddon; she is self assured at this point and supported by plenty of people; and by the time anything even remotely happens between them, she is in her mid-twenties and he is 31.

it’s the context for me that made me okay with it in winterkeep. and again, i certainly understand the criticisms and am not saying everyone needs to agree, i’d be happy to have further conversations around it. (i’d like to point out saf and skye as another “bwuh?” couple with an age gap--though i was very pleased to see our former male romantic lead, whom we already knew was bisexual, find a boyfriend. yes, bitterblue, you’re right he has to stop falling in love with royals, though!) the timeline of development, the mutually-respectful rapport between them, and balance of power are crucial here.