ポスカラフ

Victor Nikiforov through the years.

Adopting all of them!! 🐱🐾

Been wanting to draw dragon boy for a while so

yea well. yo mama

:)

Eclipse of the Sun in Venice in July 8, 1842 by Ippolito Caffi.

THISSSSSS

Hera and Persephone

Episode 119 was very striking to me, in many different ways. Hera’s speech/internal monologue in the cold open is quite possibly one of my favorite lines in the series. It gives us so much information on her character we’ve never seen before, and it’s powerful and tragic. 

There’s a lot to unpack there that I can’t get to in this post, and it makes me even more curious about her past than I already was…But there’s one particular aspect of it I want to unpack, because that little speech made me realize something important about her character I never saw before. 

I was already very struck in ep78 by just how sweet and gentle Hera was in the past. (Actually I was struck by the contrast between then and now in ep20). She’s so badass today, and can even be rather cold at times, it’s strange to see her as this sweet and innocent, warm and down to earth girl scared of a little blood. It almost doesn’t seem like she’s the same person.

It’s especially strange when compared with how she interacts with Eros and Artemis later in ep119. Despite knowing how she acts in modern day, I was actually surprised at how she treated them. 

Despite being Queen, she treats Persephone with kindness, (a kindness that allows me to see that that sweet girl she once was is still there). Zeus is the main person we see her treating more coldly (with good reason), so I kinda thought she treated most people like Persephone and was surprised at her almost callousness towards Eros and Artemis. 

The one thing I was surprised (but not ungrateful) about in her treatment of Persephone is that she is almost obsessed with her vision of Apollo. It made me happy that she is so concerned for Persephone, but I also wondered why the Queen of the gods put so much of her time and energy into this minor goddess and a vision. 

But when I was saw these shots of 119…

And they finally made me connect something. 

Young Hera…

Reminds me of someone. 

And suddenly, when I connected that, a great many things about her made sense to me.

She treats Persephone the way she does, with such kindness, wanting to protect her, she is so reactive to her being hurt by Apollo…because she reminds her of herself. 

She sees this sweet, on innocent girl, who loves the Earth, and her mother, and (who would kill for) her friends, but who is lively and full of fire…and she sees herself. 

Why, in the end of ep119 she even becomes Persephone, further cementing to me that we are supposed to see the connections between them. I’m guessing she’s the only one with that power, and that’s why they asked her to do it, but I still think the implications are interesting. I wonder if it’s possible the reason she was able to pretend to be her is because they’re similar (or were once).

In the myths Zeus preys on Hera’s kindness…and ends up raping her, forcing her to marry him. I don’t know if that happened in LO, (I sincerely hope it went differently)…but if it did, it makes even more sense why she’d be so reactive to Apollo raping her. 

Let’s not forget (though I’d very much like to)….

I do actually like Zeus in LO, but he does do terrible things at times…and this ^^ is probably my least favorite line from him in the entire series right now. But if it’s true he raped Hera like in the myths…the connections are even stronger. Apollo even talks about making Persephone his Olympian…I really hope that’s not how things went down with Zeus and Hera back when…but it’s very possible.

Hera is as angry as she is at Apollo because…that’s what happened to her. except this time, she can do something about it. So she is going to (see end of ep120).

She reacts the way she does towards Hades way back in ep20

because she is so scared what happened to her is going to happen to Persephone.

At the time I thought she was just being nice to, and protective of, her, like any older woman should hearing that kind of talk. But it’s more than that. I think perhaps those lines could be applicable to her own past self too. Perhaps she was young and impressionable…and didn’t argue with Zeus. (I could see Zeus trying to impress Hera with little trinkets like he does Semele…and maybe if Zeus did make a speech similar to the one Apollo made Persephone…maybe Hera didn’t argue…)

Hera sees this sweet, down to earth girl, who loves the earth, and her mom, and is wild and free…and she doesn’t want her to be torn apart for Olympus. For a god. For a king. For a marriage…Like she was.

They call Persephone “something nice” in ep20, and she hates it…because that’s exactly how she was treated.

If Hades is going to be with Persephone, she wants to make sure he isnt going to treat Persephone like Zeus did her. (Notice that she only checks Hades as an acceptable suitor for Persephone until after it’s clear he’s moved on from her. …I guess that was a test?? I’m not super familiar with the myths, just a few stories).

It goes without saying that I’m super excited to see what she does to Apollo in the next chapter. But I also am really hoping we get to hear more about their pasts at some point. Why is she his “golden traitor”? How did she get that scar? There were so many things that intrigued me. And how similar are Hera and Persephone, and Apollo and Zeus really? maybe the past will answer.

Hello! Thank you so much for running this blog, it’s been really helping me out. I haven’t been feeling great these past few days and was wondering if you have any recs for fics that you have found lifted your mood? Silly, fluffy, or just a fic that is immersive and really takes your mind off things? Sorry that it’s not specific, I am sure anything would be fine. I’ve been loving all your other recs too!

Hello nonnie, I'm sorry you're feeling that way. I think we're collectively feeling varying degrees of sadness these times, moreso for people with pre-existing mental health issues, due to the pandemic. Personally, it's been this way for me for more than a year now because of a devastating loss and I think I'll never be the same again. I just hope that things get better as time passes. And I try to get all the happiness I can, however fleeting it may seem, from things (and people) that make me happy.

So for my go-to fics, please check out "personal favorites" in the masterlist since all the fics and authors I love are all there. But for something more specific, I'd definitely mention:

Just Hold On (We're Going Home) by @kiaronna - This is the YOI fic I've reread the most (like, more than 10 times) because for me, it's just so perfect! I come back to it every time I want to feel a certain way because hnnng All. The. Feels!!! Tbh, angst comes up more than fluff in me with this one. I cry literally every reread. Don't get me wrong, it's not that sad and it definitely has a lot of fluffy/funny scenes but Idk, the feelings it evokes in me, man! Hurts so good!! (There's this particular scene/line that just really gets to me.) I think it's also because of the catharsis I feel every reread (since I always have a good cry but it has a perfect resolution) that this story has a special place in my heart.

on growing; by @crossroadswrite - Another one that I always come back to when I want to feel happy. It's a kid fic (Yuri as a toddler son of Victor is gold!) so lots of family feels but there's also friendship, romance, love of oneself, one's work/passion, and fandom--basically also all the things why I love YOI! This fic is really funny too, it makes me laugh out loud! But there are also certain moments that are really serious/deep, it keeps you on your toes (and might make you shed a few tears). I'd also be remiss not to mention the A+ social media posts. In short, this fic has everything and I love it!

Winter Song by proantoganist (I'm so sad that she deactivated her social media accts edit: she's back as @proantagonista) - This is one of, if not my most favorite YOI fic! It's a canon fill-in-the-gaps fic then continues beyond canon events and I can't gush about it enough!!! The writing--characterization, plot flow and pacing and development, and prose--just !!! (sorry if I'm incoherent and this is just really full of exclamation marks but I feel like I can't articulate enough how much I love this fic.) Just, if you love YOI, then you should definitely read this fic.

The fics above are more on the lengthy side so if you want instant gratification, I also recommend these collections of one-shots:

Drunk on You by kiaronna - A collection of Victuuri soulmate AU one-shots and every single one is 👌👌👌

Three Prompts AU Collection by rinsled05 / @dreaming-fireflies - Ficlets of integrated prompts/AUs (e.g., serial killer, fairy, culinary), this is full of originality and creativity

I hope this helps, dear nonnie. I'm really glad this blog and my fic recs can help you in some way. ❤

(P. S. Writing why I love and recommend these fics is such a good exercise and feels more personal since I just normally do my usual format of reccing fic with just the title, author, rating, word count and letting the summary speak for the story. Can't do this for everything tho so I'll be back to regular programming. Just know that the fact that I rec something in this blog means that I really enjoy(ed) it, can guarantee that it's good, and would love for other people to discover or be reminded of these gems too.)

Ok but imagine genshin and hsr mcs switch places for a day, the chaos hsr mc would wreak upon teyvat, they waltz up to enemies and just bonk them on the head with a baseball bat because peace was never an option no matter what universe

ok but the trailblazers shouldn't be let out to roam around an open world like teyvat, no one would be safe

can you imagine those raccoons being out in nature?? the boar and bird population would never recover

them gliding??? omg,,, they wouldn't bother getting a gliding license and would just fly around illegally

meanwhile everyone over in hsr are pleasantly surprised at how helpful and kind lumine and aether are (and how clean they are)

Whoever in the Star Rail team thought of adding a minor "story line" where the Trailblazer is obsessed with looking at trash cans with March 7th and Dan Heng as the unwilling audience is a GENIUS and should be given a RAISE

Bonus: Now they can bond over staring at trash cans