IntenseDebate - innocent

6 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Slings &... · 0 replies · +4 points

“Everyone cries when they’re stabbed! There’s no shame in it!”

It’s probably a good thing I don’t have reason to quote this line more often in my daily life, but gosh do I love it.

6 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Yuri On ... · 1 reply · +8 points

This episode introduces Mila Babicheva, she of the impressive talent in weightlifting and teasing Yurio. He calls her "hag" because, obviously, he is a brat, but also because the word hag in Russian is "baba," as in Baba Yaga. So it's a play on her last name.

Finally, and I wish like heckfire I could find the tumblr post where I read this (I'll link below if I can find it), the title of the anime is itself a play on words. The Japanese for "on ice" is apparently a homophone for "love." V oryvrir vg'f gur fnzr jbeq Lhev ubyqf hc nf uvf gurzr sbe gur frnfba ng gur raq bs rcvfbqr 5.

I also highly recommend this lengthy analysis of the translation from Japanese in episodes 1-6, with spoilers (I think?) for the whole series.

6 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Yuri On ... · 5 replies · +13 points

A few notes on wordplay, because there’s a lot going on and it’s great. I should preface this by saying that I speak not a word of Japanese nor of Russian, so this is entirely based on meta from other people, which I will try to link to where possible. Corrections welcome.

There's this whole complicated joke going on with Yuri's last name (Katsuki), and his fave food the pork cutlet bowl (Katsudon). Both sound like the word for victory/success, which is why Yuri eats katsudon when he's won a competition, which is apparently enough of A Thing in Japan that the wiki page for katsudon mentions it. So when Yuri and other characters talk about him as a pork cutlet bowl that's part of the joke being made. This association with pork presumably also relates to why he gets called "piggy" as an insult. There’s been some argument that that pejorative is not quite as harsh in Japanese as in English, and is even less so in Russian which has its own conventions for endearment, but I have no idea how much of that is fans wanting to undercut how harsh it sounds coming from Victor, especially in combination with all the other fat shaming in ep. 2. We can probably definitely assume that Yurio means to be insulting, though, since “wanting to be insulting” is pretty much his ground state.

6 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'The Scienc... · 0 replies · +7 points

Being a 90s kid, all I could think of during the babies swimming discussion was:

7 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Thief of T... · 0 replies · +4 points

And can we also get him to read a particular Connie Willis novel?

7 years ago @ Mark Watches - The Mark Watches sched... · 0 replies · +5 points

SO EXCITED for Slings & Arrows, you don't even know. <3

7 years ago @ Mark Watches - Mark Watches 'Deep Spa... · 0 replies · +2 points

Agreed. I think he's also the kind of traditionalist who doesn't whole-heartedly believe or want the things he says he believes, but sees this as a failing in his part and is all the more defensive of them as ideals. He argues for women being entirely submissive, but is mainly attracted to independent, dynamic women with absolutely no time for that attitude. (Dax, Pel, his Cardassian professor ex-girlfriend) But he forces that role on the women he feels he has some claim on/right to boss around (extremely grossly in the case of the Dabo girls, extremely ineffectively in Ishka's case). God help any daughter he has.

That said, (a) it's still super frustrating to watch him waffle, because the beliefs he espouses are just so gross and in no way as funny as some of the writers seem to think. He's effectively wavering between being a flawed-but-likeable character and being a complete waste of space who's never really called on the real damage he does.

And (b) it really undercuts the realism of his behavior when it's contrasted with this wildly unlikely mass societal change that's enacted in literally a couple of years. Apparently all the Ferengi needed all this time was the right sassy woman behind the throne! That's how overcoming oppression works, right? /:

7 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Carpe Jugu... · 0 replies · +17 points

I've always suspected that Brutha's grandmother, who was so stern and so keen on organizing the village stonings, was very like Granny Weatherwax, without an established institution of witching or a local Nanny to balance her out.

7 years ago @ http://markspoils.blog... - The Black Market · 1 reply · +4 points

Due South 1-6: " Cvmmn naq Cebzvfrf": http://markdoesstuff.fetchapp.com/get/09ca57ee

And, because I accidentally bought another copy of it before finding this month's video, 14 copies of last month's dS video, 1-5: http://markdoesstuff.fetchapp.com/get/b8c2aef5

7 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Carpe Jugu... · 1 reply · +43 points

I read the hard life bit as kind of the opposite: that they're a happy and loving couple, but they're also poor in a way where only hard work can stave off the constant threat of starvation. If Mrs. Ivy lives, she can get a job as a wet-nurse, which will bring in a little more income and give her a chance to heal physically and emotionally before they try again to have a child; if she dies, there are no safety nets for Mr. Ivy and the child, and no matter how hard he tries, how would he care for a newborn in the midst of grief and back-breaking labor?

That said, it's a wonderfully subtle scene where a lot is implied as much as stated, and that different readers bring different things to it kind of just makes it more powerful.

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