Hakuouki on different levels
Nov. 3rd, 2019 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollI've been chatting with scytale about Hakuouki and I realized it's time for more Hakuouki posts. One thing that has been on my mind: I keep saying that Hakuouki works on many different levels. So let me try to list them.
Levels on which I read Hakuouki:
1. Kinky porn. I never was into the whole vampire thing when I encountered it in western canons but Hakuouki made blood drinking sexy to me. No shame. :)
2. Character studies. Just about every route featured a character that was lovely and worth getting to know.
3. Love stories. Let's not forget the obvious. One thing I like about the genre of otome novels is that what love looks like and means is different on different routes, so it makes clear that there's no one (or no best) way to love. And since routes keep getting added, the possible ways to love are potentially infinite.
4. Thinking about history from different perspectives. The different routes experience the same historical events but the characters understand what is happening in different ways. I find this very powerful.
5. A philosophical dialogue about the meaning of honor and the nature of the good life. Each character embodies different virtues and has very strongly felt opinions about how to live honorably as a warrior in difficult and complex circumstances and they often change over the course of the route. Since I've been playing (and replaying) Haukuouki I've often found that when I'm dealing with a tough real-life question I feel an impulse to replay a certain route, and that might lead me to realize what virtue and what understanding of honor and the good life I need right now.
6. A meditation on the consequences of war and the struggle of living with war-related PTSD. This is a topic very close to my heart and I appreciate the varied possible responses to it in the different routes. Although reading it this way is part of what makes me partial to Sanan for obvious reasons.
Any I'm missing?
I find that my reactions to the routes can go back and forth depending on which level I'm reading on and what I'm looking for. Hijikata, for example, has swung back and forth from being one of my least favorites to one of my favorites.
scytale about Hakuouki and I realized it's time for more Hakuouki posts. One thing that has been on my mind: I keep saying that Hakuouki works on many different levels. So let me try to list them.Levels on which I read Hakuouki:
1. Kinky porn. I never was into the whole vampire thing when I encountered it in western canons but Hakuouki made blood drinking sexy to me. No shame. :)
2. Character studies. Just about every route featured a character that was lovely and worth getting to know.
3. Love stories. Let's not forget the obvious. One thing I like about the genre of otome novels is that what love looks like and means is different on different routes, so it makes clear that there's no one (or no best) way to love. And since routes keep getting added, the possible ways to love are potentially infinite.
4. Thinking about history from different perspectives. The different routes experience the same historical events but the characters understand what is happening in different ways. I find this very powerful.
5. A philosophical dialogue about the meaning of honor and the nature of the good life. Each character embodies different virtues and has very strongly felt opinions about how to live honorably as a warrior in difficult and complex circumstances and they often change over the course of the route. Since I've been playing (and replaying) Haukuouki I've often found that when I'm dealing with a tough real-life question I feel an impulse to replay a certain route, and that might lead me to realize what virtue and what understanding of honor and the good life I need right now.
6. A meditation on the consequences of war and the struggle of living with war-related PTSD. This is a topic very close to my heart and I appreciate the varied possible responses to it in the different routes. Although reading it this way is part of what makes me partial to Sanan for obvious reasons.
Any I'm missing?
I find that my reactions to the routes can go back and forth depending on which level I'm reading on and what I'm looking for. Hijikata, for example, has swung back and forth from being one of my least favorites to one of my favorites.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-05 08:48 pm (UTC)and for Kondou and Hijikata, the honor seems muddled by their ambition
That was why I struggled so much with the Hijikata route. I kept calling him the Bad Decisions Bear because he not only makes consistently terrible decisions but drags everyone else into them. But at a certain point something shifted and I started seeing things from his perspective and reread his route and cried from beginning to end.
And I have zero patience for Kondou, and the hardest thing for me about the Okita route is that at no point do you get to explain to Okita that Kondou was a *terrible* foster dad who treated him very poorly. But I guess Okita will never be in a place to hear that and in a sense it doesn't matter.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-05 09:40 pm (UTC)Hmm, I can see that. I was mostly thinking in terms of the warrior's honor, originally.
Oh, what did Kondou to do make him a terrible foster dad? I sped through that route really fast, so I think I forgot a lot of the backstory.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-06 05:25 pm (UTC)Having said that, there are definitely more positive readings of the relationship in the fandom, and I've seen a lot of fics in which Kondo is great with young!Okita. You could also make the case that none of this was Kondo's responsibility, he didn't ask to be a dad.