The excruciating wokeness of blue eye samurai
For too long I have seen all of the best qualities of both sexes infused into female characters, while all of the worst qualities are inflicted only on male characters. Blue eye samurai is a perfect example of this.
Here is wall of text explaining in excruciating detail why this show is unbearably woke. Laid out in such a way that even the most strident denialists won't be able to 'what does woke even mean' their way out of it. The show hates men, period. And a mostly male audience is expected to consume this product, ask no questions and consume next product.
From the very first scene, and in nearly every single interaction afterwards, all men are depicted as sneering, corrupt, lousy, arrogant, lecherous and abusive. The women are, without exception, noble, fair, innocent, brave, clever, and morally justified in their actions. I will demonstrate this in every scene of episode 1...
In the first scene, three boys are sneaking up to the mysterious 'man'(woman in disguise) to throw rocks at her. She gives them a deadly glare and they cower away. Boys are cowardly trouble makers. Women are mysterious badasses.
Next scene. (Wo)man enters noodle spot. Clumsy dim witted man with no hands serves her while being a chatty airhead. He is good, so he must also be a non-threatening bafoon. Absuive father who owns the noodle spot hits and insults dumb son for being clumsy. Father then obsequiously caters to the sneering human trafficker holding two innocent victim women hostage. Trafficker also hits dumb son and insults him and the father. So far we have the stoic mysterious (wo)man, the two innocent victim women, a dumb clumsy son, a cowardly abusive father, and the evil bully trafficker. Mysterious (wo)man interrupts, cuts traffickers fingers to get info on her targets. Omg such a badass. Haven't seen this exact type of scene played out hundreds of times before. So groundbreaking
Next scene. Clumsy handless guy follows mysterious (wo)man like a chatty annoying puppy. Meant to be quirky and humorous but it wreaks of California writing. (Wo)man is stoic, cold, serious, focused on her mission to track down the evil white men villains of the plot.
Flashback. Blue eyed girl bullied and beat up by 3 boy assholes. She's brave and fights back. Boys insult her and tell her to jump off a cliff. Space rock falls to earth right next to them. Boys run away in fear, girl investigates. Boys are cowardly mean bullies. Girls are brave and inquisitive. Yay. Old blind man digs up rock (with help of girl, hes too weak to do it himself) old blind man raises girl to be a sword Smith apprentice. The sole exceptional good male character so far. Presumably only accepts her because he is blind and doesn't see that she is a female with blue eyes who all men are supposed to abuse and hate for no reason. She learns to fight by watching the old man train other men, grows up and sets off to take vengeance. She now has the speed, strength, reflexes and endurance of a man, while somehow being smaller and having a female body. All the pros of a male, non of the cons of a male or female. Perfect feminist delusion.
Next. (Wo)man enters town. Checkpoint where male gaurd demands pass to enter. A woman and daughter have pass, but gaurd says women can't enter without a male chaperone. Probably a fake rule the script made up to make ancient Japan seem extra super sexist to poor victim women. Her husband died. Guard doesn't care. She literally just sits in the cold with her daughter for the rest of the episode. Men so cruel. Women so innocent. Tragic. Mystery woman gives gaurd bribe. Allowed to pass. Men so corrupt.
Town. (Wo)man asks for information about a dojo. Men brush her aside. (She is disguised as a man but still, men are assholes. All of them). Dojo members lie to her and direct her to a whorehouse. The women there are all seductive but respectful and tell her where the dojo is.. the only helpful and cooperative characters so far. What a coincidence. (Wo)man is followed by clumsy handless bafoon so she pays the whores to keep him occupied while she finds the dojo
Switch to princess character. She must practice pleading with her arrogant tyrant lord father to let her marry a guy she likes instead of the lecherous old whore monger she is scheduled to marry. Father is playing with toddler son who is a rambunctious shithead, throwing things around and making a mess. Father delights in this; its okay, because he is a male! Father is so sexist and biased that he loves his son doing whatever he wants, and says he'll make a great future ruler someday. We are meant to think this is typical ancient Japanese favoritism of boys over girls. The daughter, a poised and intelligent young woman will be married off to an old lecher in order to establish good politics between high ranking families. The son will unfairly inherit power and authority...[ okay side rant. This is such bullshit. The father would be striking the toddler even at that young age and instructing him to have manners, self control and act honorably. The idea that imperial Japan was built by lousy arrogant baffons who let their sons act like spoiled brats is incomprehensibly moronic. The script takes the complex system of rigid gender roles and responsibilities among men and women are bound to and warp it into an absolute caricature where all males are ridiculous woman abusers who do nothing but have fun and power with no obligations while all women do nothing but suffer under their tyranny. In this absurdist depiction of a Japan wherein it would not be possible to conceive of a single family in the nation where a woman is happy and loved by a good, responsible man. End of side rant] The daughter manages to endure the consecending lecture from her father about how women know nothing about the world and must be directed by men like farmers raising pigs. She cleverly convinces father to let her marry a more suitable man that she likes. He agrees.
Next. She sneaks away to tell her bf the good news. He is delighted and they share a nice moment. You'd almost think this guy is a positive depiction of a male. Don't be an idiot...
Turns out he's the old bully of blue eye [wo]man. He's a cruel asshole hanging out with other assholes at the dojo. (Wo)man enters to get information. All the men treat her like shit and deny her. She Beats the shit out of a dozen, poorly trained, inferior male fighters. Complete with nutshots for added man-hate. Then humiliates the bully man by cutting his hair to look like he has male pattern baldness. Peak tumblr fanfic. She finally gets answers and leaves.
(Wo)man takes gold hairpin of bully(given to him by princess chick) and leaves it by the mother outside the town who's still there shivering in the snow. (Remember how cruel men are and how women all suffer)
(wo)man bathes in a hotspring and hears an intruder. It's the Clumsy handless bafoon. (Wo)man confronts him while naked. This is meant to be a reveal that she has been a woman the whole time but its obvious by the writing up to that point.
Thats the first episode. I just can't enjoy shows like this even when the art and action is fairly decent. Every single scene and line is dripping with open hatred of men and nauseating worship of women. Its not subtle. I'm not reading into things. I'm not just so muddled in culture war bullshit that i see wokeness in everything. I will not be gaslit about this. I lost interest in mens rights scene years ago and I rarely think about feminism and contentious gender politics anymore. That was 2014 era bullshit. Even so, this show is just so blatant with its misandry that it becomes impossible to enjoy.
This shit is, to a lesser extent, in almost all of entertainment. But I can still enjoy stuff. It just happened to reach a level in this show where I could not stop myself from posting about it. I suffered, so now you will suffer this post
Here is wall of text explaining in excruciating detail why this show is unbearably woke. Laid out in such a way that even the most strident denialists won't be able to 'what does woke even mean' their way out of it. The show hates men, period. And a mostly male audience is expected to consume this product, ask no questions and consume next product.
From the very first scene, and in nearly every single interaction afterwards, all men are depicted as sneering, corrupt, lousy, arrogant, lecherous and abusive. The women are, without exception, noble, fair, innocent, brave, clever, and morally justified in their actions. I will demonstrate this in every scene of episode 1...
In the first scene, three boys are sneaking up to the mysterious 'man'(woman in disguise) to throw rocks at her. She gives them a deadly glare and they cower away. Boys are cowardly trouble makers. Women are mysterious badasses.
Next scene. (Wo)man enters noodle spot. Clumsy dim witted man with no hands serves her while being a chatty airhead. He is good, so he must also be a non-threatening bafoon. Absuive father who owns the noodle spot hits and insults dumb son for being clumsy. Father then obsequiously caters to the sneering human trafficker holding two innocent victim women hostage. Trafficker also hits dumb son and insults him and the father. So far we have the stoic mysterious (wo)man, the two innocent victim women, a dumb clumsy son, a cowardly abusive father, and the evil bully trafficker. Mysterious (wo)man interrupts, cuts traffickers fingers to get info on her targets. Omg such a badass. Haven't seen this exact type of scene played out hundreds of times before. So groundbreaking
Next scene. Clumsy handless guy follows mysterious (wo)man like a chatty annoying puppy. Meant to be quirky and humorous but it wreaks of California writing. (Wo)man is stoic, cold, serious, focused on her mission to track down the evil white men villains of the plot.
Flashback. Blue eyed girl bullied and beat up by 3 boy assholes. She's brave and fights back. Boys insult her and tell her to jump off a cliff. Space rock falls to earth right next to them. Boys run away in fear, girl investigates. Boys are cowardly mean bullies. Girls are brave and inquisitive. Yay. Old blind man digs up rock (with help of girl, hes too weak to do it himself) old blind man raises girl to be a sword Smith apprentice. The sole exceptional good male character so far. Presumably only accepts her because he is blind and doesn't see that she is a female with blue eyes who all men are supposed to abuse and hate for no reason. She learns to fight by watching the old man train other men, grows up and sets off to take vengeance. She now has the speed, strength, reflexes and endurance of a man, while somehow being smaller and having a female body. All the pros of a male, non of the cons of a male or female. Perfect feminist delusion.
Next. (Wo)man enters town. Checkpoint where male gaurd demands pass to enter. A woman and daughter have pass, but gaurd says women can't enter without a male chaperone. Probably a fake rule the script made up to make ancient Japan seem extra super sexist to poor victim women. Her husband died. Guard doesn't care. She literally just sits in the cold with her daughter for the rest of the episode. Men so cruel. Women so innocent. Tragic. Mystery woman gives gaurd bribe. Allowed to pass. Men so corrupt.
Town. (Wo)man asks for information about a dojo. Men brush her aside. (She is disguised as a man but still, men are assholes. All of them). Dojo members lie to her and direct her to a whorehouse. The women there are all seductive but respectful and tell her where the dojo is.. the only helpful and cooperative characters so far. What a coincidence. (Wo)man is followed by clumsy handless bafoon so she pays the whores to keep him occupied while she finds the dojo
Switch to princess character. She must practice pleading with her arrogant tyrant lord father to let her marry a guy she likes instead of the lecherous old whore monger she is scheduled to marry. Father is playing with toddler son who is a rambunctious shithead, throwing things around and making a mess. Father delights in this; its okay, because he is a male! Father is so sexist and biased that he loves his son doing whatever he wants, and says he'll make a great future ruler someday. We are meant to think this is typical ancient Japanese favoritism of boys over girls. The daughter, a poised and intelligent young woman will be married off to an old lecher in order to establish good politics between high ranking families. The son will unfairly inherit power and authority...[ okay side rant. This is such bullshit. The father would be striking the toddler even at that young age and instructing him to have manners, self control and act honorably. The idea that imperial Japan was built by lousy arrogant baffons who let their sons act like spoiled brats is incomprehensibly moronic. The script takes the complex system of rigid gender roles and responsibilities among men and women are bound to and warp it into an absolute caricature where all males are ridiculous woman abusers who do nothing but have fun and power with no obligations while all women do nothing but suffer under their tyranny. In this absurdist depiction of a Japan wherein it would not be possible to conceive of a single family in the nation where a woman is happy and loved by a good, responsible man. End of side rant] The daughter manages to endure the consecending lecture from her father about how women know nothing about the world and must be directed by men like farmers raising pigs. She cleverly convinces father to let her marry a more suitable man that she likes. He agrees.
Next. She sneaks away to tell her bf the good news. He is delighted and they share a nice moment. You'd almost think this guy is a positive depiction of a male. Don't be an idiot...
Turns out he's the old bully of blue eye [wo]man. He's a cruel asshole hanging out with other assholes at the dojo. (Wo)man enters to get information. All the men treat her like shit and deny her. She Beats the shit out of a dozen, poorly trained, inferior male fighters. Complete with nutshots for added man-hate. Then humiliates the bully man by cutting his hair to look like he has male pattern baldness. Peak tumblr fanfic. She finally gets answers and leaves.
(Wo)man takes gold hairpin of bully(given to him by princess chick) and leaves it by the mother outside the town who's still there shivering in the snow. (Remember how cruel men are and how women all suffer)
(wo)man bathes in a hotspring and hears an intruder. It's the Clumsy handless bafoon. (Wo)man confronts him while naked. This is meant to be a reveal that she has been a woman the whole time but its obvious by the writing up to that point.
Thats the first episode. I just can't enjoy shows like this even when the art and action is fairly decent. Every single scene and line is dripping with open hatred of men and nauseating worship of women. Its not subtle. I'm not reading into things. I'm not just so muddled in culture war bullshit that i see wokeness in everything. I will not be gaslit about this. I lost interest in mens rights scene years ago and I rarely think about feminism and contentious gender politics anymore. That was 2014 era bullshit. Even so, this show is just so blatant with its misandry that it becomes impossible to enjoy.
This shit is, to a lesser extent, in almost all of entertainment. But I can still enjoy stuff. It just happened to reach a level in this show where I could not stop myself from posting about it. I suffered, so now you will suffer this post
