Misty Moors

Forget the memories of yesterdays past
Say goodbye to the nameless days
So as to become completely changed
I'm following the road I can't turn back on.
-Hello by Jet Sets

Welcome to MistyMoors.Com, the InsaneJournal of Caithyra.

Here you'll find fan fiction, fan art, original fiction, original art, random musings and other stuff I might write about.

This post is to clarify some things as well as giving you a place to send friend requests. Though I only rarely F-lock anything.
( Fiction Length Terms )
( Fiction Category Terms )
( Advent )

I haven't posted for a while, mainly because I've been doing a bunch of other things, and one of those things have been to read Arthurian lore, in which I suddenly discovered a Mary Sue.

Sir Lancelot du Lac, to be precise. Created by Chrétien de Troyes, we are introduced to Arthur's best friend (Lancelot), Guinevere's lover (Lancelot), the best knight of the Round Table (Lancelot), a foreign knight of the same nationality as the author (Lancelot), who have princesses such as the Fair Maid of Astolat dying because he does not return her affections (Lancelot), who is the best friend of all the noble knights (Lancelot), who is raised by the noble Lady of the Lake, AND is the son of a king (Lancelot), who is goddamn glorified at every turn (Lancelot).

( What other characters had to pay to have Lancelot on their side... )

Something tells me that if Chrétien had written his stories today, he would be ripped apart by the internet for creating such an obvious Mary Sue and writing so many beloved characters OoC.

Thus, if Black Hole does not catch on sufficiently, I think Lancelot du Lac would do as well. After all, it beautifully illustrates how fan fiction, and its tropes, aren't exactly new-fangled ideas dreamt up by the internet.

Okay, so I have donated to the Red Cross to help with the Japanese disaster (this also includes other affected countries).

And then I went to deviantArt, and saw how people tried to one-up one another on the moral grounds of their sympathy for Japan was much better than other people's sympathies and that if someone didn't fit their image of proper sympathy (like hating/loving anime, having Japanese relatives/being without any links to Japan whatsoever and other contradictory requirements), they should just stop donating and praying because their money/prayers are impure and immoral and icky.

Seriously, it's a fucking war between people who are fighting about being Japan's best (and ONLY) supporter.

And no one seems to get why this is wrong. (There's a third faction of EDGYness!!!1!!1one! who goes "who cares about Japan" and "I'm so fucking tired of Japan!" and other anti-Japan messages.)

So here's a tip to everyone who wants to keep their sanity: Do not go to deviantArt.

Okay, so there was this chart that didn't really get its point across very well, and because of containing several fandom favorites and real women was pretty much discredited.

So I'm gonna talk about other strong, and female, characters.

Actually, about strong, FEMININE characters.

( Just because they're pink, it doesn't mean they're weak )
EDIT: Seems like I wasn't clear enough (my bad!). I don't dislike it when women/girls/females in general show masculine traits, or are tomboys. My problem is if they are put above feminine girls as better role models, not because they are more ambitious or powerful, but simply because they show masculine traits (also, I have a problem if they are weakened by showing feminine traits, as in, a tomboy gets her hair done and suddenly spends an entire soccer game, in which she's a player, trying to avoid getting her hair messed instead of going for the ball.). I also don't condone of female characters who refuses to climb down a fire ladder because they'll break their nails.

It's all about balance, and as it is, a lot of media doesn't have this balance (in which we get weak, exclusively feminine characters and strong, exclusively masculine characters).</strike>
EDIT2 (hopefully the last one): I worded the original post poorly, and somehow wrote something that wasn't my intention.

My intention was to advocate strong, feminine (as society sees them), characters. Instead of designating the token feminine character as the weakest character (as Digimon often does), or making tomboys become weak if the admits to liking something feminine (as Shugo Chara did), or, in the case of a love confession, making a female character weaker and a male character stronger just so that he can protect the new (because she was a fighter before!) damsel in distress (Bleach did this, Naruto did this, probably quite a few others as well).

Unfortunately, I worded things clumsily and made a point I didn't intend to make.

So, I've been thinking about moving away from home, which also means interior decoration and arrangement, which lead me into Feng Shui.

Now, according to Eastern Zodiac I'm a Fire Rabbit/Cat. My Kua number is 2 (West). I'm born in September, 17:00 O'clock, Autumn.

The base values of the Rabbit/Cat sign is Wood (which is the creator of/eaten by Fire), East and March, 05:00 O'clock and Spring. The complete opposite of my birth alignments (well, at least it wasn't Water).

At least they're both Yin?

Anyway, on the Western Zodiac I'm equally confused, you see, my Sun Sign is Virgo, the Maiden. So which two Conjunction Suns do I have? Venus and Mars. You know. The goddess and god of sex who got caught mid-coitus and paraded around Mount Olympus.

Other Suns that I have? Saturn (Y'allo there, time god that is the progenitor of all gods), Neptune (You raped Medusa, you're officially on my shit-list) and Pluto (despite the Persephone thing, he's my favourite of the three brothers, but that ain't saying much, considering that his competition is Jupiter and Neptune).

Oh, and I also have an Ascendant Sun that says that I'm contrariwise. Yeah. You think.

My Moon Sign is Capricorn, which means that I went from human woman to a fish-goat thing. Apparently this means that I'm emotional but hides it beneath a veneer of cold competence, so it's agreeing with Ascendant and Eastern Zodiac there.

Oh yeah, here's the rest of the planets:
Mercury: Virgo (Hey, it actually matches up! Yay for clear messages!)
Venus: Virgo (Contrariwise, again.)
Mars: Virgo (Lulz to be had.)
Jupiter: Aries (So, leading god with leading zodiac.)
Saturn: Sagittarius (The arms of a clock-face, maybe?)
Uranus: Sagittarius (Uranus was the guy whose cut-off genitals produced Venus...)
Neptune: Capricorn (The fish-goat thing is probably one of Neptune's kids or something.)
Pluto: Scorpio (Death and deadly creepy crawlies apparently is a very sexy star combination.)
Lilith: Leo (Lilith is a hypothetical black moon of Earth.)
Chiron: Gemini (Remember all those stories about twin terrors and their poor teacher? Yeah.)
Ceres: Sagittarius (Harvest and hunting, why not?)
Pallas: Scorpio (Sensual Scorpio and Virgin War Goddess?)
Juno: Pisces (Marriage and fishes.)
Vesta: Cancer (Fire and crabs. Or, alternatively, fire and moon.)

So I've got lots of Virgo and Sagittarius. Who are symbolized by a virgin and an arrow. Yeah, real subtle, stars. But really, according to my (free) chart, I'm supposedly Sensually sexy/cold maiden all rolled into one.

According to the houses, I will be happy when I'm old, and should be an adventurer-artist by trade. Yet I'm not a traveller, and I'm always going to search for something better.

So, I'm going to be Indiana Jones with a paintbrush?

As you can see, I'm getting some conflicted messages here. Anything else?

Oh yeah, I'm born in the North, but my cosmic birth direction (both Eastern and Western) should be South.

So, should I put the aquarium against the South-East wall of the office, or against the South-West wall of the living room? Should I paint the bedroom green or purple? Is it bad qi to have the office and living room in the same room? How about the sea-view, should I choose an apartment with South, South-East or South-Western views of the sea? In what corner should I put the stove? The air-cleansing palm tree?

WAIT! it gets better! If you count Ophiuchus into the Zodiac? I'm not a Virgo, I'm a Leo. And the above Western Zodiac stuff changes.

Well, if I get apartment 13 on the 4th floor, maybe it wasn't meant to be. Or maybe it was and my contrariwise cosmic nature will turn those two numbers lucky for me.

So, anyone else tried to interpret Feng Shui for their own home?

All artists should read this article, no matter if they are planning to make a living off their work or not.

Please spread the word about this article as far and wide as you can (even if it's just a post in your journal/blog/twitter/facebook/fanfiction.net profile/random note on kitchen table), and help put an end to the exploitation of artists (seriously, calculating some of the current commission prices versus average time to make the art comes in way under minimal wages in many cases).

This article perfectly illustrates why we should spread the word. Basically, it's an article which teaches people to screw over their illustrators.

[Trigger warning like whoa. And not just about the rape joke, but also about the dismissive comments of alleged allies of minorities.]

Penny Arcade jokes about rape.
Shakesville is not amused.
Pandagon and a bunch of other feminists sites tells those humourless feminists to lighten up, because they're smearing all other feminists with the humourless label.

Penny Arcade releases a mansplaining non-apology, plus infests the comments on Shakesville.
Shakesville points out that it's a mansplaining non-apology.
Pandagon and company lambaste the mansplaining non-apology, but at the same time lambaste everyone who found the joke tasteless, unfunny or wrong, by telling everyone that rape-survivors are not a monolith, and in the same breath says that the monolith of rape-survivors do not need trigger warnings, yeah, they contradict themselves so bad.

Don't you just love how Pandagon attacks other feminists for being humourless when they don't share their view on rape jokes? That they don't get that trigger warnings are for people who need trigger warnings and not just every rape-survivor ever.

That people should be allowed to joke about rape because if you strike rape from the comedian's repertoire there's no humour left in the world!!!!11!!one!!!

Oh, and just because prominent people says something on their OWN sites means that we can never criticise it!

This blog has a pretty good view on things. Also points out that the rape joked about in question is male-on-male rape. And not just male-on-male, but male-on-male bestial prison rape. *Insert your own Bubba the gorilla-like prison room-mate jokes here.*

And it's being defended by many, many feminists sites.

Many goes on and on about how feminist the PA guys really are, and how one should cut them some slack. That they do not need to examine their privilege. Bookshop over at Dreamwidth has already pointed out the White Male Nerd and His Cult of Awesome.

What gets to me is how dismissive many activism sites have been towards Shakesville's concerns. They're copying word for word all the sexist responses that they usually revile. They attack Shakesville for being sex-negative, humourless, second wave feminists. They tell Shakesville not to drag them down. THEY ATTACK A FEMINIST, TELLING SAID FEMINIST NOT TO DRAG DOWN OTHER FEMINISTS!

Yeah, who is undermining who, I wonder? Especially since Pandagon undermines themselves by saying that rape-survivors are not a monolith and that rape-survivors do not need trigger warnings and can suck it up and not be so fucking humourless. They are basically saying that yes, rape-survivors are a monolith that behaves the way [Pandagon] say they do.

Yeah, I'm just going to concentrate on creating my new Gundam/Macross layout over here.

Friends of Lulu might shut doors forever coming this September, and I'm not terribly surprised. Aside from the tax-thing, I don't think I've heard anything from FoL for a while, and I frequent comic/webcomic/manga/anime/games sites. You'd think if they're active and committed to creating a buzz around female comic creators, I would have seen more evidence of them existing.

It seems like they've been lukewarm for a long time now, it's like they got the women through the comic doors, yet never planned farther. The awards are nice, but doesn't create much buzz with new fans. All major cons should have been plastered with FoL-supported stuff, there should have been a promotional magazine where prospective female creators could send in short comics in order to get seen. There should have been pushes for visibility, not just for women, but for the organisation itself, for donations and deals and so on.

There should never have been more than a week of inactivity, at most a month during the slowest season. During the busiest season, which is probably summer, you shouldn't be able to visit any of the major con blog posts without someone mentioning that "yeah, Friends of Lulu were there too, they did a panel and then [published female creator] signed merchandise and comic books, oh, and they had a one-dollar bin of short comics and there was this awesome...".

Visibility is the key to activism, visibility and trust. Unfortunately, current Friends of Lulu have neither.

The good kind of shock. You know why? Because they fixed Ranka in the movie! Now she cares about Ozma and doesn't run away from her responsibilities, though even with the previous friendship connection she was given with Alto they have no lover's chemistry (in my opinion), more like big bro/lil sis chemistry. Also, they aged her looks by making her less wide-eyed and just looking generally older than the TV series, even going as far as having her state to Ozma that she's not a child anymore.

I can't wait to see the "Universal Bunny" and "Obelisk" parts in HD! Sheryl is all kinds of awesome in Obelisk!

Mary Sue and I go waaay back, in fact, back when we used to chill on sunny afternoons with a strawberry cake, she was known as Nancy Drew. As time went by, I learnt her other name, Mary Sue, but then, as even more time went by, I met people who weren't Mary Sue being called that, and I choose a different and less gendered descriptor: Black Hole.
( A Rose Renamed... )

Okay, so the Spring 2010 anime season is under way, and with it, several Mahou Shoujo series have started (and continued). Since Shugo Chara! opted out this season, I decided to see what's else is on offer. Let the battle commence!

( Jewels, rainbows and quaint little cafés, here I come! )

Okay, so I read Gakuen Alice manga on recommendation from a few people, because it apparently matches the rest of my interests (Reverse Harem, Magic, School, Alice in Wonderland inspired and so on). Because it was recommended to me, I actually read 50 chapters before I stopped.

Okay, so we have our heroine, Mikan, who is 10 years old, but with the mentality of a 5 year old, and your typical shoujo heroine.

Mikan also happens to be the most stupid kid on campus, and her special ability (called "Alice" in this manga) is to nullify the other kids' abilities. Unfortunately, she forgets that or doesn't even try to use her Alice when it could save the day. When she's fighting enemies, she only uses it in emotional outbursts, instead of, you know, just using it.

She has two love interests in her own age, who are also walking shoujo clichés. One is sparkly, blond and the nice and kind guy, who is best friend with the black haired, abusive asshole who is the REAL love interest.

Okay, so Asshole, upon meeting Mikan uses force to hold her down and strip her of her underwear, just because he can. Then he perpetuate this sexual assault by refusing to use her name, but uses the patterns of the panties he stole as her nickname (Polka Dots, if you're wondering).

Of course, he's supposed to be the "cool" type and Mikan is obviously a silly little overemotional girl for being upset.

Sparkle maintains that Asshole is just misunderstood, and Mikan sets out to befriend the guy who held her down and stripped her of her underwear.

I'm not even going to touch that a teacher uses Sex Pheromones on his middle schoolelementary school students as punishment, and sometimes a whip. Mainly because when the teacher isn't doing this, he's actually the only sane and likeable main character in the whole manga.

Of course, Asshole and Best Friend has a fanclub, who makes Mikan's life hell during the beginning arcs. And there's a teacher, who, even though he knows that Mikan couldn't possibly have committed the offence, punishes Mikan instead of the students that he knows are responsible.

And Mikan just bears this. And wants to befriend her tormentors.

There's a completely screwed up class system at the school, and for a moment, you'd think that Mikan wants to fight this system.

She just advances through it.

Mikan is constantly bullied, sexually harassed, and a completely useless damsel-in-distress who stupidly runs headlong into dangers time and time again.

Are we supposed to find it sweet when Asshole flips her skirt in order to find out her current pattern of panties in order to update the nickname? That he's just being a young boy who teases his crush when he forces kisses on her, and then belittle her when she's upset?

Fuck this shit. It has pretty much every victim blaming on the block perpetuated by villains and heroes alike. And it's a popular manga targeting a middle schoolelementary school demographic, telling them once more that women are gatekeepers of sex, and when they fail to protect it (even when force is involved), they are to be blamed, and if they're upset about it, they are just irrationally upset about something that's their fault.

Of course, it is glossed over with a middle schoolelementary school veneer, so it's just cutesy fluff, right? </sarcasm>

It's fucking Hana Yori Dango in middle schoolelementary school. You know, the one with "if you leave me, I kill someone and it'll be your fault for leaving me!".

Remember how everyone was angry about The Last Airbender getting white actors for main character? How we got ONE actor of colour? Guess which action figure that got whitewashed?

In other news: Marvel is creating a comic series for girls named Her-Oes, which, aside from being a clumsy name, abbreviates as H-O, or HO. It will be joining Marvel Divas and Gotham City Sirens in the "you just don't name a comic this and expect girls to buy it" pile.

Comics tries to break into the female market. However, for employing professional writers, they don't seem to get what words mean, or what happens when you put out products under labels with those words.

Lets see...
( What's in a name? )

Okay, it seems like I have to cut this year's advent series short, because with preparing the launch for my webcomic (on New Years) and all the other stuff, I found that I simply don't have time to write a short story a day.

Um, sorry everyone.

Ugh, I don't feel so good.

( Advent 03 )

Okay, so this one sucks, but I have a lot on my plate this December so some of these will suck because I don't have time making them better.

( Advent 02 )

It's the first of December, and you all know what that means, right? This is a continuation of #12 that I wrote last year. In other news, I got the Swine Flu vaccine last Friday, and I now feel fine, dad's still down for the count however.
( Advent 01 )

Spoilers for the latest Naruto Chapter below.

( In which even Lee facepalms )
So, from now on, joining the cries of "QUESAAAADA!!!" "LIEEEEFIEEELD!!!" "KUBOOO!!!" I will start with "KISHIMOTOOOO!!!".

Other People Weighs In:
ccsharumun
fated-bliss
Random Curiosity

Once upon a time, there was a place called Hollywood. They suddenly liked comic properties and started making movies.

Then they planned to make a Justice League movie. Only problem? All white cast, so they choose John Stewart, the black Green Latern, to represent the Green Lantern Corps.

Now this is awesome because then they would have been able to ride on the popularity of two really popular cartoons. In fact, when most non-comic fans are asked about Green Lantern, they might not say John Stewart, but they sure as hell mention "black male one".

Hence, for this generation, John Stewart is the iconic Green Lantern.

But a generation or so ago, it was a white male named Hal Jordan (and sometimes, white male Guy Gardner).

Then the JL movie is scrapped in favour of a GL one.

Guess who they decided to cast?!

Way to show just how unfashionable you are. Nowadays no one knows Hal, they know John. And not only that, Hal's only fun around Green Arrow (who isn't a Green Lantern, and wont be in this movie), while John can carry several movies on his own (though it would be even better with the Flash, the Wally West one, you know, from the immensely popular cartoon?!).

And so, comics join the cartoons, games and anime in this Castingfuck Comedy.

See also Jake Gyllenhaal as a Persian prince in Prince of Persia.
Justine Chatwin as Son Goku, a Japanese character named after the Japanese name of a Chinese classic story character.
Nicola Peltz as Katara, an Inuit inspired character from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

And that's just three of the characters, just wait until you see the rest of the casts.

So lets take a swig of some Whiskey and dance the Tango Foxtrot, because if last year was the year of Dead Snipers, then this year will be known as the Year of Racist Hollywood Adaptations!