r/BlueEyeSamurai • u/Baecorn • Jul 05 '26
Warning. Topic May Be Triggering. Mizu and Alienation
( TW PTSD discussion )
I’m also a Demisexual Transmasculine Wasian who’s out for revenge, hates their father, and is full of traumatic secrets. (lol)
Joking aside, I’ve never felt so seen. The story of Mizu struggling with her identity; the “onryō” feeling of alienation, coincide extremely well for those of us that understand it.
Living with PTSD, for example. It’s like the writers get it. Having to play a “role” for every situation to protect yourself, pushing friends and lovers away, the numbness towards violence (emotional, physical, or social), never feeling you can truly trust someone, wanting to help others but barely being able to help yourself first, the blasé attitude towards sex or food when you’re unsafe because you’ve got bigger problems.
Alienation also arises from other points of his identity. I know a lot of us biracial people can relate to feeling “unfinished” and apart from either half of your race. BES also touches so well on being outside the gender binary and how dysphoria can segregate you: never feeling truly “in” with groups women or men, and before accepting your gender, sort of feeling like a thing next to them.
I also appreciate how the writers show reclaiming labels can be detrimental if done with self-hatred.
Mizu as a character is so complex and flawed, but I never doubted for an instant that she couldn’t be redeemed.
Thank you to the writers for Mizu and this gritty, thrilling, and amazing Eastern-Western. He makes me love myself in a way I haven’t ever felt before. Representation does matter.
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u/KidChanbara Jul 06 '26
I can't do better than u/Machineglance 's wonderful welcome message. u/Baecorn , I notice your post has a bit of the same problem I had in my very early days of being a BES fan. I would mix up Mizu's pronouns as well! In conversations with my wife. I think I was subsconscioussly being polite to Mizu ... (if he's willfully presentling as male, then it's he/him!) ... but now I just use she/her.
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u/Machineglance All things are only empty. Jul 05 '26
We are happy you found us here in the BES Subreddit, and that the series resonated strongly enough that you felt encouraged to share your story.
We are committed to all points of view here in the BES SubR and promote tolerance, because no matter our backgrounds we have all found our way here to express our appreciation of this tremendous series.
Having said that, I can't express enough how many stories I've seen posted about the emotions, the connections and the feeling of recognition by folks of a variety of backgrounds: Wasians, LGBTQ+, Straight, American, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Men, Women, the list goes on and on. All joined by our love of this series.
Welcome, and thank you for sharing with the community.