motivationisdead

[motivationisdead]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

WHO IS USING THIS

AN APP??? THEY HAVE A FUNCTIONING WEBSITE

THE LAST FUNCTIONING WEBSITE

[motivationisdead]

I've been thinking about the fandom's attitude toward trauma, and I find it deeply problematic. I'm going to ramble a bit about it.

Here's the thing, either people completely dismiss the element of trauma in the story, or they turn it into a free-pass that can excuse any future shitty behavior from the character.

Specifically, when it comes to Wei Wuxian, I see that his childhood trauma from losing his parents and being left to beg on the streets, and from being made a scapegoat by Yu Ziyuan - who was extremely abusive towards him, both physically and emotionally - to the war, the trauma of being thrown into the burial mounds, and everything that happened from the moment he created the ghost path of cultivation until the first siege of the burial mounds and his death, can all be minimized or all together dismissed by certain parts of the fandom when analyzing his actions in the first life. That's part of why I hate takes that portray Wei Wuxian as oblivious to Lan Wangji's feelings or too emotionally unintelligent to understand the romance, when, actually, there was a ton of shit going on in his life and he absolutely had no energy left to think about romance, of all things. The trauma also becomes progressively more relevant when we look at Wei Wuxian's actions towards the end of his first life - because traumatic experiences kept piling up - and when we get to the battle of Nightless City and later the first siege of the Burial Mounds, it's basically impossible to separate Wei Wuxian's actions and reactions from the trauma he'd endured up until that point.

On the other hand, the certain parts of the fandom really emphasize Jiang Cheng's trauma way beyond the point where it would be relevant to do so.

Yes, Jiang Cheng had an awful childhood because his mother was abusive towards everyone around her. And I can excuse his poor temper when he was a child based on that.

And it's true that losing his parents and sect was traumatic. However, the problem is that in Jiang Cheng's case, his trauma has frequently been used to justify and, in fact, to excuse, all the atrocities he went on to commit in his adult life.

Wei Wuxian, despite his trauma, never became the abuser. In every instance where he used violence, it was either during the war, or he was provoked first. He never took the initiative to be violent or to hurt others otherwise.

Jiang Cheng was completely different. He lashed out because of jealousy and a desire to satisfy his own ego, he betrayed Wei Wuxian and the Wen Siblings, knowing that he owed them his life. And yet, his stans will insist that his past trauma is enough to excuse this behavior. I'm not going to go into how Jiang Cheng's actions were entirely voluntary in this post. Suffice to say that the book makes it quite clear that he turned against Wei Wuxian not because Wei Wuxian's prominence hurt his ego, and the other sect leaders exploited that. But the Jiang sect wouldn't have been in danger had Jiang Cheng chosen not to turn against Wei Wuxian.

I suppose my point is that at some point, trauma can no longer excuse bad behavior. And in this case, when a sane adult chooses to commit genocide, that choice cannot be excused by anything, not even by a traumatic past. When his stans say that he was a victim, they forget about his victims. Sometimes, a victim goes on to become the perpetrator.

In the novel, several characters have extremely traumatic pasts. Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, Jin Guangyao. Most characters, really.

MXTX draws very clear parallels between Wei Wuxian and several of those characters. Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao both have a lower background in a world that bases a person's value on their birth. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both lived with Yu Ziyuan for several years, they both watched Lotus Pier fall, they both lost Jiang Yanli. Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang both came from a lower social background, they were both street kids at one point, they were both victims of societal injustice.

And yet, Wei Wuxian chose to break the cycle of abuse. No matter how much abuse he endured, how traumatic his past, he didn't go on to become the next monster, the next abuser. On the contrary, he actively chose to be kind and just and nurturing. He was only ever violent when he was forced to be so - when he had to defend himself or others. Even in Nightless City, after he'd just lost Wen Ning and Wen Qing, he wasn't the first to attack.

On the other hand, Jiang Cheng, Jin Guangyao, Xue Yang, and many others chose to continue the cycle of violence and abuse. And at some point, the trauma in their pasts can no longer excuse their later choices. Those three characters, for instance - I know there are others but I'm not going to list every single MDZS character with a traumatic past who went on to become shitty people themselves, otherwise I'd be here all day - ruined many lives themselves, often those of people who were completely unrelated to their own traumatic pasts.

And if their actions are excused because of trauma, then what about their victims? What about the Wen remnants, who were old, disabled people, and a toddler, all innocent of Wen Rouhan's crimes? What about the people Jiang Cheng captured and murdered under the suspicion of the being demonic cultivators, on the off chance of them being Wei Wuxian? And the book doesn't even confirm that those people were actually demonic cultivators, they were taken because they were suspected of being such. And nowhere in the book does it say that any of those people did anything wrong at all. And what about Qin Su and her child? What about the entire clan Jin Guangyao framed for murdering his son and exterminated under such an excuse? What about the people of Yi city? What about Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan and a-Qing? What about the nameless, innocent victims who didn't get justice?

A traumatic past can never excuse the trail of victims they left behind.

[motivationisdead]

Honestly if your ‘analysis’ of a character doesn’t go beyond

“you don’t understand that this is a deeply hurt and broken person”

and ends with

“And this is why you can’t say anything bad about them”

Then that’s a bad analysis at best and calling it that is being nice.

“This character has abused kids/taken advantage of women/killed the powerless marginalised people/abused their own power to get their way/etc”

But

“They are a deeply hurt and broken person so it’s fine, they’re just lashing out, they don’t mean it, in my hypothetical scenario they were nice so this actually means they were secretly nice all along, THEY’RE THE VICTIM HERE, don’t look at the victims made by their hands”

Is such a ludicrous way of thinking when analysing a piece of fiction.

This is not analysis. It’s personal fanfiction being posited as analysis because it says that if this character which did terrible things was in a different story then in my mind, they would be the hero. How completely pointless. And also untrue.

If a character when pushed lashes out at the weak and powerless, then it would not matter what story you put them in. Even if it’s a coffee shop AU, they would lash out at whoever they could.

Stop reacting as if people are hating on real human beings when criticising characters as if they all have secret inner lives and eventually grow up and change and not as if they’re fixed fictional creations used as a literary tool to tell a story.

[motivationisdead]

They’re gonna kiss any day now I can feel it

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Need to see more people talk about Hua Cheng’s intelligence.

He literally learnt a language just by looking and studying it despite having no context for it. He has a near perfect memory and can recall multiple facts in any given area. He runs a gambling house and city and manages all the money. He’s picked up multiple art forms and can recreate Xie Lian perfectly down to his exact robes just from memories he had of him when he was a child. He learnt how to use a saber just through watching Xie Lian once and got so good at it in such a short span of time Xie Lian assumed he was a general and then he won Mt Tonglu. Have I mentioned his memory it’s genuinely scary the other immortals in the series don’t have a memory like his. He reads multiple academic essays and books from multiple kingdoms and time periods implying he’s a polyglot on an insane level. He’s amazing at investigating.

HE BEAT MULTIPLE CIVIL GODS AT DEBATING.

Like just incase you don’t get that, these guys got to heaven for being so smart. They were considered good enough to become a god because of their intelligence and he outsmarted them. He’s so so intelligent like yeah he’s great with a sword but that is Xie Lians thing, he’s only as good as he is because he wants to be Xie Lians equal.

This guy spent his immortality learning literally everything (except calligraphy) and he mastered all of it and sure he is immortal but it’s clear he mastered it in short spans of time. He was carving statues like Michelangelo in under 10 years. Again he learnt to be amazing with a sabre while he was still alive so like 3 years max and mostly from memory. He established a full city with labour, homes, jobs and runs it despite dying as a starving orphan at 17.

HE BEAT MULTIPLE CIVIL GODS AT DEBATING.

[motivationisdead]

finally finished this painting i sketched out months ago… please click for better quality i know tumblr is gonna kill it (reference used)

[motivationisdead]

Ah. So evil cackling it is.

Do you think writers cackle evilly late at night in front of their computer and go ‘ah yes this will get the shippers going’ or do they just genuinely not realize they’re writing homoerotic subtext into every scene.

Because at some point there has to be a moment when they realize how fucking gay it looks when they make a male character’s reason for living another male character right? Right?????????

[motivationisdead]

🐱🐱

[motivationisdead]

the "canon isn't real we make our own rules" to "i am begging you people to revisit the source material" pipeline

[motivationisdead]

I'm a fandom oldie and a strong proponent of "ship and let ship", and I defend everyone else's right to ship what they love... But I think that gives people the idea that I like, automatically love every single ship??? Or every single trope?

I don't though!

There are a lot of fandom tropes that are on my "absolutely fuck no" list. There are a lot of irk kinks that are also on my "nope absolutely not" list, too. Personally, this is healthy. I'm able to look at something and go "Yep, I hate it, but it's not harming anyone, so continue to do as you please."

[motivationisdead]

[motivationisdead]

Okay, question for the Percy Jackson side of tumblr.

Do we know if demi-god children also get godly powers or if they are just normal humans?

Maybe it’s never come up because demi-god children don’t tend to live long enough to even have kids, and I can’t remember any adult demi-gods even being mentioned at any point, but seriously how would that play out? Is the power just diluted? Do they inherit one parent’s godly parent’s power over another’s if both parents are demi-gods?

Or is that enough degree of separation from the god that they would be a normal human—which isn’t really how genetics work but otherwise I can’t imagine how we’ve never had a camper that wasn’t directly descended from a god. Like surely that would have come up at some point right?

Do we know???

[motivationisdead]

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

[motivationisdead]

one of the great joys of writing is to suddenly happen upon an amazing epic plot twist that is so perfectly foreshadowed by everything you wrote before that no one will ever suspect that it came as much of a surprise to you as to them

[motivationisdead]

*covered in blood* I'm literally fine guys. im still funny. Would you like to hear a joke Im going to tell you a joke

[motivationisdead]

Madam Yu: *Kicking out wwx after the broken engagement thing* AND STAY OUT

Lan Zhan: Finder's keepers

Wei Wuxian: Where did you come from?

Lan Zhan: Gusu

Madam Yu: What do you think you're doing!!?

Lan Zhan: Going back to Gusu

Madam Yu: With my head disciple!?

Lan Zhan: You didn't want him. I do

[motivationisdead]

Please, spread this for those who might need it right now

U.S. suicide hotline: call or text 988 (available 24 hours)

U.S. trans lifeline: (877) 565-8860 (when you call, you’ll speak to a trans/nonbinary peer operator. full anonymity and confidentiality)

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) – provides 24/7 confidential support and referrals for individuals and families facing mental health and substance use disorders, including panic attacks and anxiety.

LGBT National Help Center: (888) 843-4564

Trevor Project: Call (866) 488-7386, text START to 678-678, or chat online.

Take care of yourself and each other. Please stay safe ♡