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Jiang Cheng having complicated feelings about the Wen (and by extension, Wei Wuxian's actions and saving the Wen) are kinda valid considering that these people literally MASACCRED his own and many other minor sects, raping and pillaging along the way. They would have decimated every major sect if given the chance and indoctrinated them. It makes sense why JC would have trauma, fear and a hatred for them.

How can you not have this understanding and empathy for JC and the Jiang in general, yet feel sympathy for the Wen when everyone turned on them thereafter? And expect LSZ to get revenge for what happened to his clan?? It's literally the same thing. Both are victims of a massacre. How are you sympathetic over one but not the other?

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HHHHHHH HOY BEST TEA???

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💧The Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale💧

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💧The Oratrice Mecanique d'Analyse Cardinale💧

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cyno's comedy act debut in fontaine

(my twitter)

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👋👋 bye bye simulanka you'll be missed :,) dw mini durin took the pic

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Finished Can Ci Pin, time for a review! [Warning: this review will contain some spoilers!]

Priest…that was brutal. You murdered me in cold blood. That was CRUEL. When was the last time a danmei had me crying this hard?!? I genuinely didn’t think you had it in you to do us all like this😭

To start off the review, I will first talk about the plot. The series spans 7 novels, two of the novels being split into two parts along with the extras, resulting in a total of 10 installments, making it one of the longest danmei novels that i’ve read, along with 2ha by meatbun and tgcf by mxtx. It takes place in a futuristic sci-fi society that exists in space, in a world run by technology and Ai with humanity inhabiting not one planet, but instead 8 whole galaxies (no there are no aliens in this series). I guess the reason why it’s incredibly underrated and overlooked, despite being one of Priest’s best works ever (literally on par with sha po land, mo du and lie huo jiao chou), would be its unique and niche genre, not preferred or sought after or appreciated by the majority of the danmei readers in both the chinese and english fandoms. Nevertheless, if you got some time on your hands, i would definitely recommend you give it a go! Priest makes it super easy and uncomplicated to settle into the world with her incredible world building skills (think of the steam punk universe of sha po lang), and the whole plot literally revolves around politics, war, and the struggles between different parties for power, which is smth that’s already pretty popular within danmei!! and the aesthetics are pretty cool too!!! think spaceships and astronauts!! also there are elements of mystery and comedy and action!! come on yall!!!

Now let’s get into the ACTUAL review. In a world where the Interstellar Union is constantly being tossed around like a tennis ball between the Eden Committee and the Military Council (think of the IU as the king/emperor/ruler, the Eden Committee as the prime minister of the government, and the Military Council as the marshal or commander of the military), the struggle for power led to centuries of underhanded and unethical and inhumane tactics and practices being brewed under the surface by all parties involved. On the surface, there was ‘peace’, peace that came at the expense of others, peace that was no thicker than a hair strand, ready to snap at any given second. Our main characters happened to be born in the century in which this fragile and delicately maintained peace is finally shattered, everything fell apart and no more secrets were kept hidden as all was exposed. The story follows so many threads that priest has managed to weave slowly here and there from very early onwards. The first two novels, priest spends them introducing several different plot lines and several different ‘problems’ and ‘issues’ that she later on ties together into one thick huge interwoven heavy plot in the fourth book. Most readers end up abandoning the story after reading the second novel, feeling that the pace is too slow, everything that’s happening is too random and left up abruptly without a satisfying conclusion, there is no one consistent plot line to follow, and the whole thing feels very overwhelming. However, after reaching the fourth novel, where the plot pace is suddenly picked up dramatically and everything becomes set to motion, it is clear the build up was very necessary or else the whole series wouldve turned into one big jumbled mess. There are time skips within the novel, one in the beginning and one in the middle, the one in the middle sort of splitting the series into a ‘before’ and ‘after’. The last detail i’ll mention regarding the plot, would be that the war doesn’t exist between just two sides, it exists between our main characters, the union, two other parties, and the internal strife between the split factions of the union. so you can….already imagine how complicated and intricate this is.

Now onto the characters. There is Lin Jingheng!!! The Man of The Hour. Aloof and cold on the outside, soft and kind on the inside. Ruthless and Merciless on the outside, a big mother-hen on the inside. A former commander turned mafia leader, his heart dead set on revenge, his body a weapon hes sharpened over the years, his life absolutely disposable to him. Keeping his distance, staying away from everyone, closing himself off to the world, he only ever had one goal in mind and it was to tear apart the union that took away his loved ones. Hes the best at what he does and he knows it, and he will absolutely use himself up to the max. He will not hesitate to make cold and harsh sacrifices, if it means he can logically get to his goal as efficiently as possible. Watching him grow as a character, watching him develop attachments and warm emotions, watching him slowly let out his inner child, was worth it. I absolutely love how the more he developed as a character, the more feelings he started expressing, the more bonds and attachments he started to form with those around him, the more he loved, the stronger he got. Unlike what he initially thought, love and affection and care did not hold him back or make him weaker, it only made him stronger and more invincible, ready to take on anything now that he finally has a purpose, now that he has people he wants to protect and more importantly, return to. An absolute favorite of mine, a true gem. His character is easy to grow fond of, and definitely enjoyable to be around.

Next is Lu Bixing, aka, my absolute favorite. Starting off as the naive, charismatic, funny, hyperactive and handsome little engineer and scientist, neither the series nor priest are kind to him😭😭😭😭 priest, you’ve truly put our sunshine boy through a LOT. i’ve cried several times. tears were shed. Lu Bixing underwent a dramatic character development due to extreme pain and trauma (im still recovering from this) and was stripped off of many of his most endearing character qualities to become a sharp blade ready to take on the world. but despite everything, the seed of kindness in his heart wasnt gone, all it needed was a bit of rekindling and healing and by the end of the series, we had our beloved son back again!!! His character started off well, drifted off the rail due to the harsh circumstances, then came back again, stronger and more mature than ever but still retaining his flirty and bright and active spirit and personality. I absolutely LOVED his healing arc, i love how no one gave up on him even when he gave up on himself, and i love how he came back to us again. Priest truly did his character justice, and didn’t let him off to be this “forever cold and heartless because of my trauma” character, the way many other authors wouldve.

One more thing that i loved, is how priest gave detailed and thorough attention to the side characters in this masterpiece of a work. Priest has managed to make sure that almost every important character in the series had a whole backstory and arc going for them, making you care about all of them and get attached and grow fond, even if some of those characters were already dead years before the novel even started. Priest dedicated several extras to some of those already dead but important characters, and it was the best decision she couldve ever made, making you all nostalgic and sentimental while reading.

Now onto the romance, definitely in my top 5 favorite danmei parings. The commander and his engineer. If Lu Bixing was a crown prince, then Lin Jingheng would be his knight. If Lin Jingheng was a sword, Lu Bixing would be his shield. A relationship that is also a partnership, where theyre both standing on equal ground, where they both need each other’s strengths and talents, where they both trust each other endlessly both on and off the battlefield, whether it be with each other’s lives or with each other’s hearts. It’s like those countless queer quoted shows and movies where two generals or two soldiers go through everything back to back, except this is a danmei so they DO end up together and it doesn’t end up being dismissed as a ‘friendship’. I love their hot and cold dynamic, i love how well they complement each other and how they somehow complete and balance each other. i love how they bring out the worst and best in each other. i love how they always wanna live one more day to come back to each other. Also Lu Bixing’s attempts to win over Lin Jingheng in the beginning were a 10/10 entertainment, definitely had us all, readers and side characters, rooting for him and cheering him on to get that cold commander’s heart!!!

This series will make you laugh, make you cry. There are intense action scenes, complex war and politics scenes, brutal bloodshed scenes and extremely funny and light hearted scenes. Even the romance gets its fair share of attention, the relationship building up at a perfect and reasonable and natural pace, as you grow to love the characters individually then love them together. it was cute, adorable, embarrassing, sexy, angsty (oh the ANGST) all at once!

Would definitely be rereading this, would definitely be giving this a 15/10.

[Here is my favorite scene from book 2 (i hope the humor convinced yall to pick up this incredible series!!!)] :

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Very brave of me to make a set of illustrations that's 90% hands

Anyway. This is about my personal theories/headcanons about the vision requirements

EDIT: I made a post elaborating on my theories/headcanons! Check it out if you wanna know a bit more :D

EDIT (again): Just so you know (bc ppl keep mentioning it in the tags), I am well aware Archons don't personally give out visions😅 The Archons' hands are supposed to be more symbolic, since it IS heavily implied they have a subconcious affect on who gets one, even if they don't actually have any active say in it

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Hmm, I think there’s definitely some truth to this, but I also think that it’s a bit more nuanced. Obviously this is just my interpretation, so no hate either way.

Firstly, his tone of voice and his slight smirk(?) when he first spoke against Aventurine, to me, came off as stereotypically smug in a way? For most people I think that smugness is more immediately off-putting than bloodlust, mostly because we see people like this in our daily lives, and it’s more relatable. Now this could mean that he had seen through Aventurine in some way and saw that he wanted to die. But, to me, while I know that Aventurine is at least somewhat suicidal , I really don’t believe he was actively trying to kill himself in Penacony, and therefore Sugilite’s smugness at his deduction of this fact makes a bit less sense. Aventurine put so many plans in place to actually insure his survival (this includes the deal/plan he made with Argenti) and he had least had a hunch that “Death” in Penacony was not actually death, so he seems to have genuinely tried to choose the best plan that he could think of to reclaim Penacony for the IPC. Either way, it seems to me that Sugilite is suggesting that Aventurine had a better option and only chose this path because maybe it was the most fun to him or maybe because it got him closer to Death, I guess.

My point is that I actually don’t believe that that is true; this isn’t supposed to be an Aventurine case study, but I don’t actually think that he sees himself as a slave to the IPC, from which the only escape is death. Whether or not he technically chose this for himself (debatable), I don’t actually believe that he hates his job, his position or the IPC as a whole.

Anyway, long story short, I don’t believe that Sugilite’s perception of Aventurine is correct and this is what makes him feel like he just personally dislikes Aventurine. Or maybe, like Topaz said, he’s just making assumptions which may or may not be true and is making decisions from that.

And since the assumption he’s made is about something so personal, it also adds to the perception of a personal grudge of some sort between them.

As for Obsidian and Sapphire, to me it is very understandable that people do not immediately see their reasons as aggressive, because they explained their reasoning in a passive manner which often indicates that they are broad statements that are applied to everyone/everything in their lives. The only clue we get about Sapphire, is they value their oaths more than they believe Aventurine does. (Since the oath was to treasure the cornerstones like their own lives, they might be right?) Meanwhile, Obsidian’s language was also linguistically passive in that she expresses an equal desire for increase bloodshed everywhere, basically.

Anyway, I really don’t mean to offend you or anything, I just think that there are legitimate clues in the dialogue (at least in the English version) that has led to this perception.

might be kicking a hornet's nest by making this observation

but it's VERY interesting how people immediately accused sugilite of wanting beef and being aggressive with aventurine by voting no because he probably correctly assessed that aventurine wanted to use his death as an out.

meanwhile, everyone ignored the way that obsidian essentially voted "no" purely because she wants more bloodshed and absolutely no one has talked about sapphire saying "no" because of the oaths they'd taken as Stonehearts. like, the only "no" people are discussing and interpreting in-depth as being aggressive and "negative" is sugilite's.

.... makes you think, huh.

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well this pretty much sums up how i feel

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loved the 2.3 scene where they bickered like petty little kids

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it’s such a beautiful day to be an aventurine fan

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Space & Time

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Gangster twins 💥

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Bloodlust

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masterpost

here are all my fic recs from...

aftg - all for the game atla - avatar: the last airbender aot - attack on titan | shingeki no kyojin bsd - bungou stray dogs bnha - boku no hero academia | my hero academia dbh - detroit: become human dc disney - walt disney dn - death note fma - fullmetal alchemist (brotherhood) genshin - genshin impact ghibli - studio ghibli hannibal hp - harry potter + fantastic beasts and where to find them hq - haikyuu jjk - jujutsu kaisen knb - kuroko no basket | kuroko's basketball mcu - marvel cinematic universe mdzs - mo dao zu shi + chen qing ling | the untamed merlin mp100 - mob psycho 100 naruto orv - omniscient reader's viewpoint sherlock svsss - scum villain's self-saving system sxf - spy x family tgcf - tian guan ci fu | heaven official's blessing tmnt - teenage mutant ninja turtles tua - the umbrella academy tw - teen wolf yoi - yuri!!! on ice

i regularly alternate between prompt and non-prompt posts

all prompt posts here

all non-prompt posts here

list of all prompt posts:

amnesia animal bureaucracy/office dimension travel (no crossover) eating disorder/food problems escort/sex work fae harry potter fusion/crossover murder mythical creatures naruto crossover recovery resurrection sixth sense au/ghosts self-harm self-insert/oc-insert sleep social media suicide attempt/suicidal thoughts time loop time travel terminal/chronic vehicle

find me on ao3 at heartofsilverseas

i will mention if a fic is mature/explicit and all its content warnings except for 'creator chose not to use archive warnings'

if i miss any warnings please let me know! same as if i recommend a fic more than once, because i accidentally do that sometimes

fandom (especially anime) and fic recommendations, reviews, and prompts are always welcome!