#karras

this page is so beautiful

Because I'm losing my fucking MIND rn ??

Also all of the songs on this album are like "i was possessed by a demon and rose from the dead" but this one gave me an aneurysm

Which means I just finished The New Titans Annual #6, the one where Kory's marriage-of-state husband is murdered.

And look, I actually am totally willing to watch the writers explore themes around how being a part of an all-powerful hereditary monarchy that you truly believe has a duty towards the state/planet/people comes into conflict with things like family, love, or even basic personhood.

Myand'r as a fucking terrible father who was willing to sell his daughter into slavery versus his role of King and how that lead to the justification of it being one life (even his daughter's) to preserve all the lives on the planet. How he had watched his mother pay that price with her own life after every other royal family member died fighting to avoid it and she finally couldn't take the suffering any more.

Koriand'r suffering repeatedly at her sister's hands, terribly, over the course of a lifetime, and yet being forced to accept her father's will and her people's will in crowning Komand'r Queen or risk another civil war and all the casualties that endures.

Kory being forced to endure exile and then the indiginity of being summoned, commanded by the sister who has harmed her deeply. Because Kory has been raised to be free in her emotions, yes, but before even that, to be dutiful towards her people and obedient to the Crown. Because, again, if she doesn't it will be the rest of the planet that suffers, not Komand'r...

But at what point does she get to say no to her own suffering? When does she get to do less ruthless calculus?

Karras gets some of this too. Married for duty not love, despite desperately wanting to be with someone else, despite seeing how it wrecks both his and his intended 's lives, because the peace has to be kept. Challenging his long lost sister because of how she has used Tamaran 's people for her own gain and threatened a whole other planet, then dying even in victory.

Even Komand'r being rejected due to a disability and then finding acceptance from the people around her and a reconciliation (it seems) with her parents when she became useful as Queen, not because anything about her person had changed. (If anything her person got fucking worse.)

There is a really interesting conflict & dynamic to explore there! A whole question of what's owed to the society versus the individual and what it looks like to deal with a family where their love for you will never be their first priority, much less shielding you from harm.

And yet...

The writers ended the issue with Blackfire and Starfire hugging and reconciling. And man, that just felt like a cop out to the extreme.

I'm not sure that the conflict they set up could be ever fully resolved, but I absolutely do not buy it being ended with a demand followed by a hug.

And honestly, I know they spent quite a lot of time on the love triangle angle of this plotline (Kory, Dick, and Karras) and had Dick tell off Kory's father for her suffering.

But I wish they had allowed Kory to grapple with that conflict more outside of her romantic life and more in terms of dealing with what has happened to her.

At what point does duty become self-harm... And is that ever an excuse to escape it if lives hang in the balance?

This is Road to Gokkan mods' first published King-Ohger fanfiction! :D

November 26 marks the anniversary of King-Ohger episode 38 airing in Japan. This story takes place three days after the events of episode 38, so we chose to post it on November 29.

We wanted a story that builds upon what canon offered from episodes 5 to 38. More importantly, we wanted to have a story that provides proper closure to Rita's storyline related to Karras and Shiron's passing. As amazing as King-Ohger's overall story is, we felt closures were missing for certain smaller but still crucial character-centric storylines. Rita's story related to Karras and Shiron was one of them, especially with what was built up in episodes 16 and 30. This is our attempt to insert a story without diverging from canon.

This specific chapter also introduced a headcanon we have about Rita and their relationship with their parents, thought up based on these factors:

Episode 38 revealed that their parents are alive, and Rita does see them, possibly regularly, even if potentially not frequently, given how busy Rita is.

Hirakawa Yuzuki has stated in interviews that, as part of her interpretation of playing Rita, Rita sees Karras and Shiron like parental figures,

Many components of Rita's scenes and their backstory reflect the sense of isolation Rita holds.

It was established that the King of Gokkan is not generally liked by Gokkan inhabitants.

All castle staff/guards we see in Gokkan wear large hooded cloaks that cover their faces and bodies; we have NO CLUE who they are.

Headcanon:

It's protocol that all familial relationships of the Gokkan King and their aides are kept secret, and even existing records are erased. Except for their spouse, all family relations of Gokkan Kings are untraceable to avoid unnecessary risks, due to the animosity the King usually receives from their subjects as the Supreme Chief Justice. This is also why all prison guards and judicial staff wear large hoods to cover their faces, to prevent becoming targets of retribution. Anything that puts Gokkan's neutrality at risk is prohibited.

Rita is the only King whose parents are confirmed to be alive and available was certainly a plot twist we did not expect in episode 38. We wanted to create a premise that adds to the lore of Gokkan's system, and have that be the reason for the apparent lack of parental presence in Rita's life. That this was a result and another weight all Gokkan King and Chief Justices share and hold, and not a personal circumstance.

By choosing this route, several things are achieved from the mods' perspectives:

It continues what TakaMina did with episode 38, subverting the "tragic backstory to be revealed" trope for the introverted, quiet character. We are not adding further personal circumstances into Rita's story, beyond what canon provided us in Episodes 16 and 30.

It helps justify why Rita's parents did not appear (that we know of) in the final battle against the Uchu in episodes 48 - 50.

It explains why Rita, Morf, Karras, Shiron and (ex-)prisoners are the only Gokkan people we ever see with uniquely identifiable appearances in Gokkan castle scenes.

It explains how Rita would see Karras and Shiron as special and familial/parental. In Rita's formative years, even if they had their parents available to them, they could not spend time freely with them in public, but with Karras and Shiron, that was not a barrier that would hinder their interaction.

It also adds a layer to Rita sharing Morphonia’s backstory with Kaguragi in episode 45. Besides it being a personal story and that feeling uncharacteristic of Rita, Rita is revealing state-level information about an aide’s private life to a foreign head of state, creating a sense of conviction in how far Rita was willing to go to reassure Kaguragi on Morphonia's character, to get Morphonia immigrated and away from the harsh life of Gokkan.

Similarly, this premise also suggests a similar conviction that Morphonia had already shown simply by accepting the position of being Rita's aide years ago. That such a stipulation exists even for accepting the Gokkan King's aide position would likely turn many away from it, but Morphonia is willing to take it, despite Rita's conflicting wish to protect her from it.

Anyways...

We need to talk a lot more about the abuse Kory's parents put her through