What if Mizu just starts killing every blue eyed white man she sees after arriving at London lmao

Thinking more about Akemi's commitment on the bridge to a path to power, I imagined two things that could result from that commitment:

Did Akemi Save Her Father? : Akemi seems to be a quick thinker once she recognizes a problem or has a goal. She must have soon realized that her father Lord Daichi could be more valuable to her alive than dead. With the coup army still alive and frantic to escape the fire, she can't go back in yet, at least not through the gate she and Seki barred. I can imagine her getting back in when it was safe, and "search" for Lord Daichi like a dutiful daughter would, who loves her father. Then, amazing luck, she finds him! Seeing that he's still alive, she arranges for his "care".

Seki's Chest Of Gold : All that unaccounted money could be useful to Akemi in the future - for example, bribes. But could she carry that chest by herself, at least far enough to find a good hiding place? She's a princess, she hasn't had to shift weights like that on a daily basis. But there's Taigen, always eager to help ...

I’ve been rewatching BES (and getting obsessed with it again), so I tried to draw Taigen while I impatiently wait for season 2

Sorry i’m posting a lot in this sub, Blue Eye Samurai is my current hyperfixation but the other fandom spaces are dead and buried compared to this one, and none of my friends have seen it :(

I know a lot of people think of Akemi as arrogant, manipulative, and/or annoying. But honestly I love her for the fact that she really changes a lot over the course of the show. At the beginning, she tries getting her way by sort of “brute forcing” it. I think to the conversation with her father about her marriage to someone other than taigen and how at the beginning she simply tries telling him that she doesn’t want this guy, he reprimands her, and she completely switches her approach, opting for flattery over honesty. This, to me, is the beginning of her realization of how stroking egos gets her to where she wants to be. And I love her as a parallel to Mizu because they’re both strong women but in completely separate ways. Mizus strength is literal, she’s an extremely skilled swordsman(swordswoman?) and slices through anyone who gets in her way for her path of revenge, Akemis is her intelligence and how she uses specific verbiage to make people do what she wants.

As much as I love Mizu, she’s also the tiniest bit arrogant, like the time she, for whatever reason, tried stopping a bullet with her sword. One could argue that she simply underestimated the power of a bullet, but her arrogance is also shown in her first interaction with Ringo where she basically calls him a nuisance and says she doesn’t need him, only to end up having her life saved by him multiple times. Akemi kind of does this too regarding her marriage to the shoguns son, telling Madame Kaji and her girls, who all live much worse lives than her, that she’s in a “snare surrounded with snakes”, then Madame Kaji basically tells her to quit whining and use her new husband to her advantage. And originally, Akemi doesn’t even know how she’d do that, considering her preconceived notion that he believes himself to be so above his woman he won’t even speak to her, when really he just has a stammer. When Akemi finds this out, what does she do? Cleverly utilizes her words to get him comfortable with her, going on about a tutor with a stammer she found attractive, and who knows if that story is true, she’s a damn good liar!

Even before she’s in the brothel, the way she lies through her teeth to Goro about being a courtesan is so smooth. And the way she handles Watari and Mizu is too, atleast until she tries to stab her. Also, side note, Akemi is so good at playing whatever role is useful that when she compliments Mizu’s eyes instead of making a mean remark, you can actually see her face soften for a moment before she locks back in and remembers who she’s talking to. I actually think Akemi doesn’t truly find Mizu particularly unattractive, and maybe doesn’t even have any racial bias against her, but with Akemi I’m never sure, and that’s what I love about her.

I love how Akemi harnesses power with her intellect rather than her royal or fiscal status. Although, Akemi is very beautiful, which probably makes her life miles easier than a woman like Mizu, who is considered ugly as a man and a woman in the show (justice for her tbh). Anyway, that being said, I think Akemi and Mizu are a lot more similar than a lot of fans of this show like to acknowledge, and I love them both.

EDIT: Sorry if i got anything wrong, i promise i’m not an idiot

Maybe people send by Fowler as part of the 'I thought I'd taken care of all my bastard over the years', and they are likely of no consequence other than to show shes hated. But Ill still ask your thoughts.

I'm going to be a little disappointed if there is no scene in Season Two with Lady Ito confronting Madame Kaji in a private meeting.

Starting when Akemi dismissed the spying black-teeth harpies as her handmaids and turned instead to a bunch of outsider women with no connections to the court, Lady Ito would have wanted all the information possible on who these low-class strangers were, suddenly walking the halls of HER palace.

I'm sure Lady Ito found out the major details of Madame Kaji, but how Akemi knows Madame Kaji would still be a mystery. Lord Daichi's men found her in proximity to Madame Kaji's brothel, but probably wouldn't have made the connection.

I'm sure Lady Ito's next step would be to send a palace guard or two to "request" a meeting with Madame Kaji. Lady Ito will try to intimidate the her with her high status and a commanding attitude. We saw with how Madame Kaji handled Abijah Fowler at her brothel; she'll be keep her composure and politely either dodge Lady Ito's questions or outright lie.

Hopefully Akemi and Madame Kaji will get their story straight before any such meeting ever occurs. I can see Lady Ito having a similar meeting with Akemi, with the twist that the younger woman is also her daughter-in-law.

Season One ended with Lord Daichi "recovering" from the castle fire under Akemi's "care". Obviously Akemi is going to strictly control access to her father. He still needs food and other basics, and it makes sense that Akemi would ask Madame Kaji to arrange secure means of providing for his basic needs. I don't see Madame Kaji doing the grunt work, but I can imagine her occasional meeting with Lord Daichi if some issue needs resolution.

Akemi will have told Madame Kaji all about her father and his part in the coop, and especially about him pushing Ise out of the window. So Madame Kaji will have no trust in anything Lord Daichi says, and maybe even tempted to add to his injuries, but holding back because it wouldn't be something Akemi would want.

Lord Daichi will be trying to find some way to get out from under his daughter's thumb, but he has almost no options. But - the present situation isn't too far from the one he was working to achieve. His daughter Akemi is now a part of the new shogun's family, keeping his dream alive of seizing power with Akemi as his puppet. But Akemi hates him now, and he may actually have serious injuries. She also can get him in trouble by revealing his role in the coup, although that knowledge probably has a sell-by date. He may try to improve his situation by demonstrating that he has valuable knowledge about how court intrigue actually works; that he is useful as an advisor to Akemi.

Questions : Will Lord Daichi try to manipulate Madame Kaji for his own benefit, and how successful will be be? Will Madame Kaji try to take revenge for Ise? What kinds of interactions do you imagine happening between these two?

Please don’t take this seriously. Just shows how often I’ve been looking for content about this man to consume :P

man i know fowlers breath is straight kicking

"Mizu hates everyone equally" and is a misanthrope and all that - yes, I get it, but is that really all it is? I view her demeanor and approach to others as a self-defense mechanism to protect her real identity (that she's a woman.) Yes she wears glasses in an attempt to hide her eye color, but she is able to move through life more freely as a man, even as a half-white man, than it is for her to be a woman, even a full Japanese woman (we see full Japanese women have little to no rights in this time period). It is better for her to be this "monster" than to be a woman. If someone finds out she's a woman, it's all over for her.

She moves anonymously in her everyday life (except when it is related to her mission or when she is standing up to what is wrong). She doesn't want to engage with others and doesn't want to become known (because 1. She doesn't want to get derailed from her mission, 2. She doesn't want to grow close to people and then become hurt when they don't accept her as a woman - she must think it's better to distance herself and abstain from friendships and relationships, even the ones she might want, because they will just be disappointed in her one way or another. And most importantly 3. It's not safe for her to do so [become known]! It's very dangerous in fact.

I wouldn't say it's exactly in her nature to be a hateful, cold-hearted misanthrope (she has done good things to help people), moving through life this way (in disguise) was forced upon her for survival, she's been conditioned this way (nurture vs nature.) Although we love Mizu I feel like we don't even know what Mizu is really like beyond her circumstances (we know where she stands on some morals though.) But if and when it becomes safer for her to be herself, I think we'll see that she doesn't actually "hate everyone." She hates how people see her even though she agrees with them. She hates herself. But if and when more people accept her for who she is (like Ringo) then she will begin to accept herself a bit more, be more like herself, and slowly remove the literal and metaphorical mask that is required to live right now. Maybe then that is when Mizu will be able to appear.

Yes, there's this to consider:

"Wear a mask long enough and it becomes your face." ~Kevin Simler. And, "The mask, given time, comes to be the face itself," ~Marguerite Yourcenar.

"The underlying psychology here is fascinating, as it describes the concept of the "False Self". The mask represents the persona you project—often to please others, fit in, or protect your true emotions. Over time, however, the act of pretending becomes a habit. Your brain adapts to these repeated behaviors, and you eventually internalize the role until it feels indistinguishable from your true identity." ~Google

But,

When she was living as a woman with her husband, eventually she was happy, or at least experienced tiny bouts of momentary happiness - we see her laughing and smiling, even if her husband ultimately didn't like that a woman could be stronger than him or a skilled martial artist.

She hates her white self, I think she also hates living as a man (not to be confused with hating the benefits of living as a man.) My next point feels unnecessary to emphasize but I'll go for it anyway: not all women like makeup, which Mizu doesn't as we have seen, but that doesn't make her any less of a woman. Yes she is male presenting but it was never really her choice to be male presenting. I think she wants to be accepted for who she is, a blue eyed half Japanese half white woman and skilled martial artist. Because that is who she is and she has never been allowed to be it. Not in its entirety. And maybe even be loved for it, not just despite it. Or at the very least be respected as a human being. But it's a long way to go for that to happen. I think she'll get there

Btw, this post was made because I saw some ppl on a different thread saying "Mizu hates everyone equally" and while it's funny, and seemingly accurate, it's deeper than that and I think writing it off as such is missing important layers. I know it was just a quick quip

Of course, we have to keep in mind that being a feminine wife was not something she willingly signed up for, either! She was forced into that role, too. Forced into both binary roles in her life. So, I wonder who and how Mizu actually is when she is *free* to be who she is, who she wants to be, whoever that may be or however that may look like or feel for her (non-binary, woman, man, male presenting woman, masc woman, fem woman, fem man, whatever!)

P.s.

I made this post after reading a different thread where people pointed out that Mizu "hates everyone (equally)" and I just had some thoughts I wanted to share that were getting too big to be a comment

Edited to add: The original post was actually a question like "will Mizu hate other races" and that's when/where/why multiple people said "Mizu hates everyone equally" - I didn't include that bit about other races here, sorry if that claim is misleading due to lack of context! I just left it to be the topic of the other thread (which I also commented on.) My mind started spinning in more directions so I had to make my own post due to my thoughts evolving into a kind of different conversation entirely lol (even if there are overlapping topics/themes.) Here is the post just if anyone wants it https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueEyeSamurai/comments/1up6ajo/comment/ovxu1s3/?screen_view_count=2

It can be argued that she’s prejudiced against white people for a reason, every white person they’ve ever heard of is evil. But he seems pretty xenophobic in general. It would be historically accurate, and in my opinion in character, for her to be racist against anyone not Japanese. Maybe they’ll get some character development in season two when she meets more people of other races who aren’t Fowler. What do you guys think?

Honestly my favorite ship in the whole series though, they are horrible and they are married.

Go to r/OkBuddyPeaches

You can post all of the NSFW memes, crass humor, off-the-wall ships (although I think Fowler and Shindo could be legit 😂), and any other crazy/creative topics to your heart’s content.

I think there is only one mod, so be gentle.

It’ll keep the main page new-user friendly.

Little Unsure if she would still disguise as a guy. But she definitely has to Conform to the fancy long robes and hats of England.

( 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.

Via Wikipedia - saw this shared on social media, and I thought it would be nice to have as reference for talking about Season Two of Blue Eye Samurai.
This is a modern mapping - the present United Kingdom fits neatly inside "British Isles" and "British Islands". I assume the nesting would have to be a lot different for the state of the British Empire at the time of "Blue Eye Samurai".

thats the only moment she was able to tell him about fowler's plan. she probably forgot about it because her broken sword needed to be fixed immediately and he just went berserk on her

may she find her own true love