No introduction. It is just time to write.
Shitetsu Kaneru - the protagonist is what I called down below the theoretical homosexual. He has the gene, it's been triggered, et cetera, but what he does not have is the worldview to see himself as he is. And that's fine, since the worldview won't be widely shared on his world for another four hundred years or so. He's certainly heard of 'buggering men' and 'catamites', but they're in the back of his head; they are but the slough of a decadent Southlander culture. He feels some affection for masculine forms and is left cold to feminine forms, but he attributes this to his isolation from women and to his rightful admiration of and acquiescence to masculine norms. He has had a bit of a crush on Mitsube for a while now, but in his mind it is because he wishes to emulate him.
He will arrive at love with all of the interests in different manners, as will be expounded below, but they all have two things in common - he falls in love with an aspect of the interests' masculinity, and he must awaken to this love, changing his worldview to include the relationship that he will be entering in to.
Mitsube - The main point I wanted to make about Mitsube is that he is out of joint with his time period - in the American sense, he is politically 'liberal' (well, as much as he can be), wishes to treat women, the peasantry, and minorities with equivalent respect (though he's a bit sanctimonious about it), and openly breaks with several samurai moral codes (though that may not be terribly unusual in itself for a wartime warrior class). He is also what we modern folk would call an 'avowed homosexual'. He's still in the closet because nobody who he's spoken to understands what he's talking about, but he's desperate to find somebody who does. I think I'd like to write his route with initial misunderstanding from the protagonist, followed by a spark of insight, and then a pretty standard romantic bidou route thereafter.
Nobuhisa - His is probably the simplest of the routes, since he engages in the culturally-accepted practice of shuudou. He thinks the protagonist is a little old (side note: Kumo, would like to talk about maybe lowering the protagonist's age to 16), but does enjoy his degree of loyalty and energy. For him, this will be a temporary relationship, something to take up only during the cold and lonely months when he's away from his wife. He also enjoys teaching, and wishes to pass on some of his accumulated experience in governance. Shitetsu will have to bug him for a bit, become part of his entourage, and then finally approach him to enter into the relationship.
Jiemon - I have a pet theory that we are all to some degree bisexual, but that only a very small number of people recognize themselves as such because most people cannot conceptualize a member of their non-preferred sex who they would wish to engage in a romantic relationship with. It is only with an unusual person (probably one who closely resembles a member of their preferred sex) or under unusual circumstances that most people could ever consider romance. I wanted to write a story where such a 'flip' occurs. I think Jiemon is kind of on the edge - even in today's world, he would probably consider himself straight - but in the strained world in which he operates, the protagonist's unusual interest, care, and support will spark an unusual feeling within him. Perhaps this won't be a pure erotic romance as we're accustomed to seeing in our stories, but instead a romantic friendship of some sort. But we'll see.
Buichi - Obviously, Buichi's got the most complex of the plotlines, since he has to fight with his gender and his orientation in tandem. He wants to be a man's man, but he's attracted to men due to his biology. And of course, his biology is the one thing that he's fighting against. Is he a straight man? A gay man? A straight woman delusionally pretending to be a man? I would say he is the second, but in his confusion and despair, he floats between the three. I think today, if left to his own devices, he would consider himself a boyish woman, but the pressure for him to take up the male role has actually caused him to become what we call today a transman. The path is going to first be confusion when he tries to act out as a straight man, further confusion as he struggles his feelings for the protagonist, revulsion as he realizes it, despair as he pushes you away, and finally reconciliation as you convince him of who he is.
I'll leave Arihitsu to Kumo, I think.
Jiemon - I have a pet theory that we are all to some degree bisexual, but that only a very small number of people recognize themselves as such because most people cannot conceptualize a member of their non-preferred sex who they would wish to engage in a romantic relationship with. It is only with an unusual person (probably one who closely resembles a member of their preferred sex) or under unusual circumstances that most people could ever consider romance. I wanted to write a story where such a 'flip' occurs. I think Jiemon is kind of on the edge - even in today's world, he would probably consider himself straight - but in the strained world in which he operates, the protagonist's unusual interest, care, and support will spark an unusual feeling within him. Perhaps this won't be a pure erotic romance as we're accustomed to seeing in our stories, but instead a romantic friendship of some sort. But we'll see.
Buichi - Obviously, Buichi's got the most complex of the plotlines, since he has to fight with his gender and his orientation in tandem. He wants to be a man's man, but he's attracted to men due to his biology. And of course, his biology is the one thing that he's fighting against. Is he a straight man? A gay man? A straight woman delusionally pretending to be a man? I would say he is the second, but in his confusion and despair, he floats between the three. I think today, if left to his own devices, he would consider himself a boyish woman, but the pressure for him to take up the male role has actually caused him to become what we call today a transman. The path is going to first be confusion when he tries to act out as a straight man, further confusion as he struggles his feelings for the protagonist, revulsion as he realizes it, despair as he pushes you away, and finally reconciliation as you convince him of who he is.
I'll leave Arihitsu to Kumo, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment