optimisticmiraclefest

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imagine you're 16 years old and you have a huge crush on this celebrity that you use as a coping mechanism to get through high school and your shitty home life. then your celebrity crush openly protests against the corrupt government which causes him to get canceled on Twitter and his old boy band kicks him out and his parents get assassinated. then one day you go to the bar and he's there getting blackout drunk and starting fights with people so you follow him around to make sure he doesn't die but then he almost gets hit by a bus so you push him out of the way and get hit by the bus instead. when you wake up in the hospital no one knows where he is but you miraculously have a full scholarship to law school. 30 years pass and you become very successful lawyer. you get a case representing a garbage man who uncovered key evidence in an unsolved murder from 30 years ago. you go to meet with your new client for the first time. it's your old celebrity crush.

that's what happened to hua cheng

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Some Xie Lian drawings cause I love drawing him

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I like that this has happened to Sebastian often enough that he doesn't even react anymore. Just pure resignation.

Even Ciel got a turn:

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cain instinct

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The army really asked "Hey, what do you think would fit the aesthetic of employing vulnerable teenagers to risk their lives over a nefarious goal they don't even know, I'm asking because we want to set up a recruiting event at the Anime Con".

Then some PR lackey was like, "you won't believe it I know the exact show"

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We always talk about Achilles' "eat [him] raw" line in book 22, but I find Hecuba's later, similarly cannibalistic, line to be equally (if not more) compelling

In book 24, right before Priam goes out to retrieve Hector's body, he speaks with Hecuba, telling her where he's going and what he's doing. In response, Hecuba freaks out, telling Priam to stay and mourn Hector within the walls of Troy. During this exchange she says, "Oh would to god that I could sink my teeth in his liver, eat him [Achilles] raw! That would avenge what he has done to Hector--"

What I find most interesting about Hecuba's line is that it is so much more direct than that of Achilles in book 22. In his speech, Achilles adds a few degrees of separation between himself and the act of cannibalism: "Would to god my rage, my fury would drive me now to ... eat you raw." In Ancient Greece, mortal cannibalism was a serious taboo (duh), seen as the ultimate act of barbarity, one which fundamentally separated a person from their humanity. Cannibalism is an act so disturbing, so inhuman, that even Achilles, in all his rage, cannot bring himself to desire it (let alone commit the act!).

But Hecuba, Hecuba doesn't dance around it. "Oh would to god that I could sink my teeth in his liver, eat him raw!" This is a direct wish; were she were given the opportunity and the power, she would eat Achilles. At this point, what does she have to lose? She's already lost so many sons, Troy is in a state of constant distress, and now Hector is gone. Hector, her very own son. Hector, the protector of Troy. All Hecuba has left is rage, a hunger for vengeance. A Rage so potent that it can only be expressed through the most sinful and visceral act of devouring your enemy.

But Hecuba never actually eats Achilles. She doesn't have the outlet that he does; she can't go into battle, can't actually do anything to the man who has killed her son. And so Hecuba's rage, so intensely inhuman, stews within her. And maybe it's because of this festering anger that, in many versions of her story, Hecuba becomes a dog. A beast which, in the Iliad specifically, is so often used as a threat to soldiers and their bodies: "Sooner the racing dogs will eat him raw".

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A thing I love about Hualian is how mundane their grand, epic gestures are when you really look at them.

Aside from their first meeting when Honghong-er fell and Xie Lian caught him in a spectacular, one-of-a-kind moment, most of their big moments are simply showing up and being there or little, private gestures.

Honghong-er is getting bullied and Xie Lian drives the bullies off, then comforts him.

Xie Lian is getting attacked, Hong-er follows along and protects him.

Xie Lian is in a low moment, little ghost flame sits beside him and offers him comfort, a mirror of when Xie Lian offered to be his meaning to live.

Xie Lian and Hong-er both are spiraling and having the worst mental and emotional moments of their lives in tandem and they stay together and find their way through it.

San Lang nearly slipped off that hay cart he chose to meet Xie Lian again on and Xie Lian caught him.

Xie Lian needed a picture on his wall and San Lang made him one, San Lang "needed" and acted as a buffer for him with Nan Fang and Fu Yao, and so on and so on with the balance going from weighed in a onesided way to perfectly even by the end as they spend more time together.

The beginning, middle and end of their relationship is just being there for one another. Showing up and supporting and caring for one another when it matters in big, emotionally heavy moments and little, idle, domestic ways.

You need or want something? I will give it to you because I love giving you things and I love you.

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"But what about Jiang Cheng's feelin-"

I'm sorry I automatically don't process this one since Jiang Cheng has nothing to do with Wei Wuxian's happiness anymore and is irrelevant.

Now, excuse me while I look at all five adaptions that have Wei Wuxian leaving Jiang Cheng to be with the love of his life happily and freely of his own will as they domestically teach children for the rest of their lives.

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Am I Wei Wuxian apologist? Only sometimes out of spite for the awful readings of his actions involving Jiang Cheng. Since I do not know how you get from "Wei Wuxian sacrificed his entire cultivation life for Jiang Cheng" to "He should have asked, treated Jiang Cheng better, apologize to him, live with him again".

Especially when so many of those want active harm on Wei Wuxian again proxy of Jiang Cheng who turned into a serial killer. Along with wanting Wei Wuxian, yet again sacrificing his own happiness for Jiang Cheng to be ungrateful anyways because he still got what he whined for.

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Thinking of that prior post and Wei Wuxian "failing to do the impossible" and Jiang Cheng , despite the translation being very watered down for the actual motto's intent.

明知不可而为之-Míngzhī bùkě ér wéi zhī. If we continue to follow by the Confucian underlying all the clans mottos follow it should more closely be translated as " To be aware it cannot be (changed), but must be." It is the call for action in the face of overwhelming adversity and tribulation due to honor, duty and dignity (regardless of perceived failure) of morals.

In the case of Jiang Cheng, he is well aware of what needs to be done, and does not try to take action against the force of what society deems unchanging, from his lack of standing by Jiang Yanli's honor in the face of Jin Zixuan's insults, to telling Wei Wuxian to be passive in the face of Wen Chao's cruelty, his subservience to his mother's whipping of Wei Wuxian needlessly, to dismissing the Wens safety as a burden. As he says of Jin Guangyao next to Jin Zixuan's prestige as a noble, no one would see the likes of Jin Guangyao as anything more than a door greeting servant. He does not place the honor of real morals before the perceptions of what society has deemed acceptable to overlook and ignore for easy complacency. Madam Yu's own life philosophy is as such that Jiang Cheng remains in the shadow of as an adult.

Wei Wuxian despite perceived failures in the eyes of the world, chose action as he was unable to overlook true injustices that his society did and would overlook for the sake of selfishness. He protected Mianmian due to Wen Chao wanting to use her as a scapegoat sacrifice out of malice because she was repelled by him and he still rebuffed and threatened him knowing this would invite immediate and future retaliation. He chose to protect the Wens due to his duty he felt towards Wen Wing and Wen Ning who protected him in turn and the utter lack of humanity they faced as a family for the choices made by those in power. He realized that society did operate in selfish oppression that may be unchanged, but he did not need to stay complacent himself in his own actions.

Wei Wuxian knew of all consequences his actions would bring, and chose the difficulties of staying true to morals even in failure. Jiang Cheng is resentful that Wei Wuxian remained forever persevering in the face of immorality because he is unable to so as well.

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Those who shall not be named shippers are sleeping on the true OTP of SheYao... our man Su She went and sacrificed himself out of pure unconditional worshipping love and Jin Guangyao was immediately touched he went "thanks for the sacrifice".

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Am rereading the "Schemes of an Official Descendant" cnovel and love how the basic plot structure is just fl being:

"Here is the formidable evil concubine Fang"

"and here is a smart madam of a Ren family branch"

Schemes and pits them against one another bc no one expects a fucking twelve year old to trick them ever

"Now FIGHT!!!!!!"

And by now both the Fifth madam Lin and the Second madam Su got dragged into the metaphorical arena bc Concubine Fang really is that smart and not an easy opponent to handle.....and our lead couple team up to take her out in the end- nothing more romantic than out-scheming your dad's concubine I guess-

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You know, thinking about it, I wonder if the imbalanced as hell line distribution in Kpop Demon hunters' "Golden" was on purpose and it's just one more thing that would have been properly conveyed if it had been a show or at least the 3h movie they initially wanted.

Cause i did notice something similar with Takedown. When I first watched the movie, I immediately came to the conclusion that the girls writing Takedown is a BAD idea because from the fans' perspective, it would simply look like Huntrix goes against any competition that manages to overthrow them. Like, this is such a BAD look on their part and the girls do acknowledge in the movie that Takedown wouldn't connect with the fans. So my instincts weren't off.

Takedown is quite weird within the narrative because of how obvious of a bad idea it is, but now i wonder, too, if that was initially supposed to be part of the point alongside Golden. That the girls are after generations of modernization now so far off the natural root of how the first Hunters used their songs to connect to the people that Huntrix ended up using their music incorrectly.

Which was then corrected with This Is What It Sounds Like where EVERYONE sings. The audience and all the girls (even if Rumi is outweighing everyone in the mixing, doesn't matter. We see on-screen that all girls are always singing post-opening).

So Rumi singing 99% of Golden is the result of Huntrix being raised generations away from the Hunters' roots and generation after generation forcing the one after themselves into higher manufactured idealism. Golden is the song the girls wanted to achieve the Golden Honmun with, so I can actually see it being the case that due to the forced idealism, it was decided that only Rumi's singing is the key to success because she's THE voice of Huntrix, so to archive the Golden Honmun, RUMI has to give it 1000%.

Which is not how it works, hence why the Golden Honmun wasn't achieved. The practice of the Hunters was so messed up through generational trauma at this point that even the highest level of manufactured idealism couldn't do it because it could never replace the root of what their singing is supposed to archive: Community and freely expressing your hope and positive emotions through song that's accessible to everyone. For as drop-dead gorgeous as Golden is, its a very challenging song and clearly meant for you to marvel at Rumi while she sings. Especially the high notes are insane if you wanna do them right, so it all around misses the point of unity.

Which is what the first Generation did and This Is What It Sounds Like, too, as the start of the new Honmun cycle.

Yeeeeeeeaaaahhhh, I'm pretty sure that's was the intention, they just didn't had the needed runtime to properly convey that. All the pieces are there within the narrative, it just didn't come together as a clear through-line to pick up on.

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Scene from The Hidden Oracle chapter 17

Seeing as the book is set in 2011 Apollo really has prophetic powers■|:>

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seb morphs his arm into a sawblade

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worst babysitter ever 💔