straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2024-08-11 06:18 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2024-08-11 06:18 pm
284 | media thoughts: more aerois & a baihe short film
► It’s been a while since I last updated with my thoughts on High Rollers: Aerois. I’m still making progress on it, though less swiftly than I would like—currently, I’m on episode 74. It doesn’t help that I’m… not exactly enthusiastic about the current arc, though there’ve been new elements added to it that have peaked my interest now.
I’m just not an outer space person! Okay, yes, technically this is “astral space” and the “astral sea” and “astral planes”, not outer space and different planets, but the vibe is still very much outer space and interplanetary travel. I have discovered in the last five years or so that there’s certain types of sci fic that I do very much enjoy, but ultimately, I’m a fantasy person, and I’m listening to a D&D podcast for the fantasy vibes!
But, like I said, there have been things that I am enjoying. I rather liked Hadriel, even if he was ultimately (I assume) a very minor NPC. And I have a fondness for Thalia’s crew, particularly Big Cat (surprise, surprise) and Kyrie!
To my surprise, I’m also a little intrigued by the thought of Lucius/Kyrie? I say “surprise” because, until now, I didn’t think I shipped Lucius with women! The whole Faeth subplot was another slump-y moment for me, and I was very relieved when it turned out to be a platonic marriage of convenience instead, even if I didn’t still didn’t like it very much. And while I love Lucius and Nova’s interactions, it’s always been firmly in the realm of “this is a great friendship”.
And Lucius and Kyrie’s interactions do work for me on a friendship level as well! It’s just that I’m also feeling this level of “hmm, maybe…?” that’s never been there with Lucius’ other interactions with women before. I really like the chaos of their initial interactions (Kyrie throwing him out of the turret in a fit of embarrassment! and then going “oh no did I kill him???”), and Lucius trying to get to know her better and working on figuring out how to best adjust his behavior (and that of the rest of the party) in order to make her feel more comfortable and less embarrassed around them is very sweet. I loved her sharing the music she likes with him!
Also, Kyrie herself is just adorable. A harpy who is an incredibly skilled gunner and has a literally enchanting singing voice who also happens to have crippling levels of social anxiety? The contrast of those traits really works for me. And the image of her covering her face with those big clawed hands whenever she gets embarrassed is, again, adorable.
Where I am, the party is just about to go meet with Zaxravos (I think they just saw the asteroid that is their meeting point?), which, again, not too excited about this plot point. But the character interactions are carrying me through, and fingers crossed that I’ll get more excited again when they get back to Aerois.
Also—this was further back, but since I didn’t make an update about it then, I just want to note that I did enjoy Sentry’s “becoming the Prime” arc! Maximus is a great NPC—he definitely hit me hard in my love of “enemies who respect one another”—and the whole “worst fears coming true” moment during that final trial really worked for me. I always find moments like that so fascinating.
► Last night, I watched a ten minute long historical baihe (that is, f/f) short film called Deviance over on YouTube. It's been on my "watch later" list for a while; I believed I was originally linked to it via![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
baihe_media and that it was subtitled by douqi (the mod of that community).
I mostly liked it! But what I didn’t like soured it for me, unfortunately. This is historical f/f teacher/student romance with a cheeky pining student and a more aloof and stern, but secretly affectionate teacher. It has a more serious, realistic tone, in that Zhenzhen’s—that is, the student—upcoming unwanted arranged marriage is a big part of the plot.
Zhenzhen herself is super cute. Her pretending to have not learned the material properly so that she can spend more time with her teacher at the beginning really set the tone of her character, but I also like that she gets emotional complexity in how she handles her feelings about her upcoming marriage throughout the progression of the film. Also, she looks stunning in those wedding robes
I was also fully sold on her side of the romance. But… while her teacher’s interactions with her in the present day were also good, one that I just couldn’t get over was the way her teacher was constantly having flashbacks to her teaching Zhenzhen when she was a little girl? As in, a literal prepubescent child. Like, literally every time we see some of that aloof facade fade in favor of her softer feelings for Zhenzhen, it’s paired with a flashback of bby!Zhenzhen, and that ended up making the romance fall apart to me.
I kept getting the impression that Zhenzhen is in love with her, but that she sees Zhenzhen as a daughter-figure (with her unhappiness over Zhenzhen’s marriage being because she doesn’t want Zhenzhen to be unhappy). And if I try to read it through the lens of her also being in love with Zhenzhen, I find myself massively squicked simply because of how strongly she seems to associate Zhenzhen with her child self.
I did also kind of found myself wanting this to be a tragedy. Admittedly, the ending is a bit ambiguous, but something about the way this story was told made me feel like it could’ve worked really well as quiet, subtle sort of tragedy. I love that ending scene where Zhenzhen flees to the schoolroom and catches her teacher in a moment of vulnerability, particularly that moment where both of them are staring at each other without needing to say a word, all of their emotions and heartbreak written so clearly across their faces. And the thought of them having that poignant moment of unspoken confession before Zhenzhen turns back and goes to Do Her Duty™ by marrying this person she doesn’t care for and thinks will make her unhappy… it’s the kind of quiet tragedy that imo would’ve really worked with the realistic tone of the rest of the film, and one that I would have enjoyed in this particular instance.
Despite me spending all these words on the things that didn’t work for me, I did otherwise really enjoy this short film! That’s actually the reason why the element that squicked me frustrates me so much—because otherwise, this is absolutely something I could’ve seen myself requesting and offering in fic exchanges, and just being fannish about in general. I was very absorbed in the story, and, like I said above, I really really loved Zhenzhen as a character.
I’m just not an outer space person! Okay, yes, technically this is “astral space” and the “astral sea” and “astral planes”, not outer space and different planets, but the vibe is still very much outer space and interplanetary travel. I have discovered in the last five years or so that there’s certain types of sci fic that I do very much enjoy, but ultimately, I’m a fantasy person, and I’m listening to a D&D podcast for the fantasy vibes!
But, like I said, there have been things that I am enjoying. I rather liked Hadriel, even if he was ultimately (I assume) a very minor NPC. And I have a fondness for Thalia’s crew, particularly Big Cat (surprise, surprise) and Kyrie!
To my surprise, I’m also a little intrigued by the thought of Lucius/Kyrie? I say “surprise” because, until now, I didn’t think I shipped Lucius with women! The whole Faeth subplot was another slump-y moment for me, and I was very relieved when it turned out to be a platonic marriage of convenience instead, even if I didn’t still didn’t like it very much. And while I love Lucius and Nova’s interactions, it’s always been firmly in the realm of “this is a great friendship”.
And Lucius and Kyrie’s interactions do work for me on a friendship level as well! It’s just that I’m also feeling this level of “hmm, maybe…?” that’s never been there with Lucius’ other interactions with women before. I really like the chaos of their initial interactions (Kyrie throwing him out of the turret in a fit of embarrassment! and then going “oh no did I kill him???”), and Lucius trying to get to know her better and working on figuring out how to best adjust his behavior (and that of the rest of the party) in order to make her feel more comfortable and less embarrassed around them is very sweet. I loved her sharing the music she likes with him!
Also, Kyrie herself is just adorable. A harpy who is an incredibly skilled gunner and has a literally enchanting singing voice who also happens to have crippling levels of social anxiety? The contrast of those traits really works for me. And the image of her covering her face with those big clawed hands whenever she gets embarrassed is, again, adorable.
Where I am, the party is just about to go meet with Zaxravos (I think they just saw the asteroid that is their meeting point?), which, again, not too excited about this plot point. But the character interactions are carrying me through, and fingers crossed that I’ll get more excited again when they get back to Aerois.
Also—this was further back, but since I didn’t make an update about it then, I just want to note that I did enjoy Sentry’s “becoming the Prime” arc! Maximus is a great NPC—he definitely hit me hard in my love of “enemies who respect one another”—and the whole “worst fears coming true” moment during that final trial really worked for me. I always find moments like that so fascinating.
► Last night, I watched a ten minute long historical baihe (that is, f/f) short film called Deviance over on YouTube. It's been on my "watch later" list for a while; I believed I was originally linked to it via
baihe_media and that it was subtitled by douqi (the mod of that community). I mostly liked it! But what I didn’t like soured it for me, unfortunately. This is historical f/f teacher/student romance with a cheeky pining student and a more aloof and stern, but secretly affectionate teacher. It has a more serious, realistic tone, in that Zhenzhen’s—that is, the student—upcoming unwanted arranged marriage is a big part of the plot.
Zhenzhen herself is super cute. Her pretending to have not learned the material properly so that she can spend more time with her teacher at the beginning really set the tone of her character, but I also like that she gets emotional complexity in how she handles her feelings about her upcoming marriage throughout the progression of the film. Also, she looks stunning in those wedding robes
I was also fully sold on her side of the romance. But… while her teacher’s interactions with her in the present day were also good, one that I just couldn’t get over was the way her teacher was constantly having flashbacks to her teaching Zhenzhen when she was a little girl? As in, a literal prepubescent child. Like, literally every time we see some of that aloof facade fade in favor of her softer feelings for Zhenzhen, it’s paired with a flashback of bby!Zhenzhen, and that ended up making the romance fall apart to me.
I kept getting the impression that Zhenzhen is in love with her, but that she sees Zhenzhen as a daughter-figure (with her unhappiness over Zhenzhen’s marriage being because she doesn’t want Zhenzhen to be unhappy). And if I try to read it through the lens of her also being in love with Zhenzhen, I find myself massively squicked simply because of how strongly she seems to associate Zhenzhen with her child self.
I did also kind of found myself wanting this to be a tragedy. Admittedly, the ending is a bit ambiguous, but something about the way this story was told made me feel like it could’ve worked really well as quiet, subtle sort of tragedy. I love that ending scene where Zhenzhen flees to the schoolroom and catches her teacher in a moment of vulnerability, particularly that moment where both of them are staring at each other without needing to say a word, all of their emotions and heartbreak written so clearly across their faces. And the thought of them having that poignant moment of unspoken confession before Zhenzhen turns back and goes to Do Her Duty™ by marrying this person she doesn’t care for and thinks will make her unhappy… it’s the kind of quiet tragedy that imo would’ve really worked with the realistic tone of the rest of the film, and one that I would have enjoyed in this particular instance.
Despite me spending all these words on the things that didn’t work for me, I did otherwise really enjoy this short film! That’s actually the reason why the element that squicked me frustrates me so much—because otherwise, this is absolutely something I could’ve seen myself requesting and offering in fic exchanges, and just being fannish about in general. I was very absorbed in the story, and, like I said above, I really really loved Zhenzhen as a character.