#(Narrator cont: ....for more then one reason)

[homestuckreplay]

Suddenly, Egg.

(page 1491-1508)

Vodka Mutini is back!! It’s super cute to just see him in the background of Rose’s panels. Especially where her sprite is scaled down so his also has to be scaled down to match and he is just a tiny black smear on my screen. <3

Rose heads back to the mausoleum, making the same journey she made in early Act 2 (p.394-399) this time under completely different conditions, but still needing the umbrella. Rose ‘wonder[ing] if this rain will ever let up’ (p.307) is hitting different now I know it rains in Sburb for her too.

We also get some knowledge about who’s controlling Rose. Whoever speaks in the zalgo cursive is familiar with Rose and with the game, knowing that creating Jaspersprite was Rose’s whole reason for playing. This is really different to WV, who knew nothing about John without help from the narrator. This future person’s editorializing with ‘A mother will do whatever is best for her children’ (p.1499) is more like WV, who also puts a lot of his own opinions into commands. This also might mean that the fourth future person’s ‘society role’ is something to do with raising children, possibly a teacher?

Page 1496 is a colorswapped and flashing version of page 840 (with bonus Mutie!) – I think I highlighted this as a cool page the first time around, and it’s cool again here. I don’t fully understand how the secret passage would have been preserved, since just Rose’s house was picked up from Earth and slapped down on LOLAR, but the tunnel was originally created and sealed by Rose’s mom, who has now used it to escape on a boat(?) so likely something to do with that.

In general, seeing Rose and Dave as Sburb clients this act really advances knowledge about what’s typical for the game and what’s specific to John. The First Gate being directly above the house seems universal, for example; Rose’s first gate is on page 1497. The entry item coming being alchemized with its precursor also happens to everyone; a bird lays Dave’s egg on page 1504. But the parent getting kidnapped by imps and taken to the dark kingdom might not be universal, as it seems like Rose’s mom has voluntarily left via this passage, put down her martini and gone sailing. Does she have some kind of plan, or does she just want to run away without Rose when things start getting dangerous?

Page 1497 sits alongside 1051 and 1395 as these beautiful vertical art pieces showing off the planets in the Incipisphere. Now that we have all these stunning locations with cool designs, it is really nice to pause to take them in, and to have art that isn’t just showing a change in state for the story, but that just looks amazing. All video games should have lookout points like this.

WV makes another town, this one called ‘Exile Town’. ‘Exiles’ is honestly a great collective name for these future folks on Jade’s island so I will totally adopt that. As well as cans, Exile Town includes mailboxes, fruits, caution tape, worms, Squiddles, a letter to Dr Brinner, the pumpkin and the oil. There is a beautiful ribbon cutting ceremony which is horrifically interrupted by a military parade.

AR thinks that ‘any town without a proper militia is as good as conquered’ (p.1501) which is stupid because there’s no other towns to do any invading!! What exactly is he trying to defend the town against? In my heart I know his logic is no more flawed than WV’s, who considers Can Town to be a bastion of democracy despite not allowing other candidates for its leadership, and that WV’s ideals of order and friendliness in the town are potentially just as questionable as ideals of might and aggression. I know all of this but I still think that WV is pure of heart and it is hard to criticize him for anything, ever.

All of a sudden there is an egg. (straight up no other way to say it - there's just an egg, and it comes out of nowhere even though a fourth exile was expected). Surprisingly it doesn’t fly in, but teleports in a burst of red lightning. Presumably the exile controlling Rose is currently inside, sending her messages before activating the homing function.

Dave’s entry item gets created with lots of time to spare on his cruxtruder countdown, and we don’t see any part of the alchemy process, which happens entirely offscreen during page 1504. The most damning evidence for moving the plot forward is Jade mentioning that she ‘was going to build some stairs’ (p.1505) and nobody making a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff stairs joke. This is serious. Hey also, I know Dave doesn’t have any food in his fridge, but what’s wrong with him that he sees an egg and immediately goes ‘I gotta hatch this thing’?

The behavior of sprites is a really interesting unknown quantity in Sburb. Obviously the NPC knowledge and game guide function of sprites is important, but Nannasprite pranking John with a bucket of water on the door (p.417) surely comes from the harlequin prototyping, Rose tells us that Jaspersprite is acting similarly to alive Jaspers (p.1492) and Dave’s crow has rambunctiously gone to make a nest to hatch an egg. So, can this be exploited somehow? Lil Cal is the obvious second sprite prototyping for Dave, but could that be subverted to make something who’d help the group on a personality level? I am looking at Dave’s room (p.312) for inspiration and I can’t stop thinking about the signed photograph of Ben Stiller and how incredible it would be if Dave used this sprite as an opportunity to meet his hero. I actually don’t know if he’d be helpful but I can still see Dave doing this.

Anyway I really love the crowsprite’s nest of swords and smuppets, I love that all these violent and/or unsettling things from Dave’s house are now being used with more positive intent. Rambunctious Crow is personally breaking the cycle of violence one shredded puppet at a time. (Hey what happens if you prototype the sprite with the entry item? do you glitch directly to skaia?)

[grasslesss]

i guess music and fictional characters is becoming my thing.

one of my strongest opinions is that eddie diaz would be a sza fan, so much so that i have a playlist titled “eddie diaz but it’s just sza.”

of all the songs i strongly associate with him, i think there is one i can confidently crown THE eddie diaz song. and i feel so strongly about this that im going to share a breakdown of why.

that song is

‘no more hiding’ off of LANA (or SOS deluxe, or however you prefer to refer to it. )

this holds especially true when you take s7-8 into account.

[verse one]

no more hiding

i wanna feel sun on my skin

even if it burns or blinds me

i wanna be purified within

analysis: the greatest thing about this song if you read it as relating to eddie diaz is how multifaceted each line is in that context. the opening is already a great example of this. “i wanna feel sun on my skin,” in its original context can be assumed to be a metaphor for stepping into the truth/one’s own truth/one’s true identity, which is already applicable to eddie. BUT, you could also interpret that line to be about the sun as in buck (sunshine princess.) either way, i like that it serves both purposes because one is inward (self acceptance, a huge theme for eddie) and one is outward (receiver of his affection.) also i love the use of the word purified when applied to eddie, almost a reclamation of sorts. purified has a very religious connotation imo, and i like the idea of him creating his own definition of it untied from christianity.

[verse one cont.]

no more hiding

i wanna be in love for real though

don′t care what it costs me

i’ll trade anything to feel now

analysis: this is where we see one of the reasons sza as a narrator doesn’t want to hide anymore. she’s realized hiding from her true self closes her off from meaningful and fulfilling connection (specifically romantic.) this is something i believe we are in the process of watching eddie realize/something we’ve BEEN watching him realize.

[chorus]

searching for real, trying for real

familying for real, lost in the real

hurting for real, chasing a real

anything real

analysis: i don’t even know what to say about this one, it feels so self explanatory. “FAMILYING for real” after he dadded up in last nights episode (8x13 as of 04/04/2025) makes this specifically applicable.

(also personally love the use of the word ‘anything’ here seeing as that’s another sza track i relate to him.)

[hook]

don′t gotta say it 'cause i already know, mm

don't gotta say it ′cause i already know

everything i love, i gotta let go

gotta break it if you want it to grow

had to build everything twice over

don′t tell me 'cause i know

analysis: again, this one feels self explanatory, especially with everything i’ve already written above.

[verse two]

no more hiding

i wanna be real me, ugly

no more fake me fighting

i wanna know what′s underneath, oh

mask off

i get more oversized down talkin' face off

cut myself open to see what i’m made of

i guess i’m guilty of giving out fake love

i’m so fake, fuck

analysis: there’s a lot here. first off, the line ‘no more fake me fighting,’ is so interesting when applied to eddie diaz because it can be taken literally. one of the periods of his life that he was hiding from himself the most he was LITERALLY using fighting, physical actual fighting, as a coping mechanism. the thing that really sells this verse as being eddie-coded is its delivery, typed out lyrics aren’t going to do it justice. it’s the frustration that comes with breaking free, you can hear the turmoil in sza’s tone. it’s worth it, but it’s a struggle.

my point being, i highly highly recommend giving this song a listen with eddie diaz in mind.

[servuscallidus]

Finished Il conte di Montecristo 1966 yesterday. Some points:

Albert is too cute but it's obvious this is the actor's first role and he's not very good in dramatic moments. Still, very enjoyable, a good face for Albert

He's at least a head shorter than every man on screen, at all times. This is how I'll forever imagine Albert now

He was very good in the duel scene though. You could see him swallowing his pride

Not happy with the casting choice for Mercedes, doesn't feel like her at all, too wane, but the actress is good and her interactions with Edmond are so painful

Very good the scene where she tries to call the duel off

They gave the count the Beard of Evil because frankly Giordana's face is too clean and delicate, plus fashion changes and of course he doesn't want to be recognised. But he looks bad! It doesn't suit him!

The man is a beanpole btw

Every version of Albert is smitten with him and can't get close enough to him.

There is a scene where it sounds like the count is proposing him to fuck (cosa desidera fare mentre prende il caffè? I'm paraphrasing)

Eugenie has something like three lines, a weird, high pitched voice (sorry), but the actress was a singer and they have her sing and wow she's good

Btw one of her three lines kinda made me like her anyway. The moment Danglar explains to her that he wants her to marry for the money, she immediately negotiates for herself a hell of an allowance

Villefort going mad was excellent, and so were his interactions with his father

There are some weird camera choices, such as a lot of focusing on the eyes while the actor speaks, people talking directly to the camera while in the middle of a dialogue, and getting very up and close with it

They do this A Lot

A few times they focused on the mouth, again for no particularly good reason

There is a scene where Hydee is playing some sort of violin and the actress clearly has no idea what she's doing

They could have cut Franz out and it wouldn't have changed anything. Frankly I'm not sure why he was even there, except to insist on his marriage with Valentine

He doesn't even say he loves her or anything, he just sounds a bit bummed out that she doesn't want him

He never interacts with the count ever :( and he's clearly much older that everyone else

Beauchamp was very nice instead and very close to Albert

At a certain point the count says that he never meant for his revenge to hurt the kids, which, what? He's ruining their families, how are they supposed to be kept safe from the fallout

Plus he totally meant to kill Albert in the book and there's even a scene where we see him practice his shooting from 5, 10 and then 20 steps, like in a duel, and never miss, which I thought had something to do with that but apparently not?

When the count is in his abate character he speaks with a high pitched, kinda scratchy voice and it's hilarious

The interactions between Caderousse and Benedetto are surprisingly funny

Caderousse was surprisingly funny

In the first episode there's an appearance from the kinds, more preoccupied with some chocolate mousse than with the chance of Napoleon escaping and ignoring a very frustrating Villefort

I can't remember if it happens in the book, I don't think so, but it's very funny and the king is kinda limp wristed. But maybe it's just because he's nobility idk

Every cut scene from the book that was a secondary plot point or a set up is narrated to the viewer through people gossiping at parties

There are a lot of parties and people dancing. It's very enjoyable

[lordsothofsithicus]

A Serious Review of Knight of the Black Rose, Cont.

Strahd just will not cut his losses with Lord Soth. Despite Soth literally hacking his way out of Castle Ravenloft, killing Strahd's pet Red Dragon in truly epic fashion (the narrator makes a point of noting it's the most astonishingly badass thing Magda has ever seen) and before that taking a detour through Strahd's pantry to KILL ALL HIS FOOD Strahd just thinks he can keep yanking Lord Soth's chain. Dude, Strahd, even Azalin didn't stop to kill all your food on his way out the door.

So basically headed into the second half of the book we have an acknowledgement that Soth is really too powerful to be controlled and too dangerous to safely be handled. This is a guy who knows when he's being manipulated and he... doesn't like it. He's also growing increasingly frustrated with the futility of the whole thing; after the SECOND portal in Gundarak turns out to be a dud that takes him back to Barovia Soth goes on a murderous rampage. Which Azrael approves of.

Magda continues to grow in courage and bravery, until finallly she becomes brave enough to - just leave. Given how relentless he is, it's a given that Soth could catch her but instead he lets her go, and the narrator notes he's a little disappointed to lose her. I'm not sure if Lowder decided her competing narrative was too much to continue with or not, but I know she reappears and figures prominently in Spectre of the Black Rose. It's an interesting arc through it ends abruptly.

Azrael's not a deep character, but you can only do so much with a guy who considers killing people to be his greatest talent and whose response to the discovery that he has no soul is happiness because he gets to duck punishment for all the terrible, awful things he's done. He's quintessentially chaotic evil.

The creepiest scene in the book was Medraut Gundar playing Snakes and Ladders with people he'd Reduced as the playing pieces. That's messed up. Duke Gundar himself is an uninteresting character - another ho-hum vampire - which is probably why Gundarak was cycled out when the Ravenloft setting was revised via the Grand Conjunction.

So as we wrap up the plot, Strahd realizes he has only one thing left to lead Lord Soth around by, and that's Caradoc. Strahd might be powerful enough to destroy Soth in a fight but it's obvious he's not confident enough that he could pull it off to take the risk. So instead he plays his last card pretty cleverly, by revealing Caradoc to Lord Soth but promising to protect him, discerning pretty astutely that Caradoc will go neener neener neener at Soth from what he perceives as a position of safety. Which he does. Then Strahd kicks Caradoc out. And since Caradoc was one of the two things he wanted all along, Soth goes right after him, chasing him all the way into the Mists before he gets his hands on him.

How much must you hate a guy to actually physically strangle his GHOST to death? Because Lord Soth hates Caradoc that much plus one.

The ending of the book is the Dark Powers taunting Soth with an offer of salvation they know he'll never take - this is noted as Soth "Failing his Final Test" but really there are sinister overtones to the whole thing that make it pretty clear he was being set up to fail. The Dark Powers in Action I suppose. This segues into the formation of Sithicus, with Soth in power and Azrael as his hatchetman while he scours the domain looking for Magda and Kitiara.

Final thoughts: I need to read more of the Dragonlance novels to understand Soth's fascination with Kitiara, but it's not a focus of this book anyway. It's the least of his three motivations, those being "Return to Krynn", "Throttle Caramon" and "Possess Kitiara". It's easy to have sympathy for Soth, because juxtaposed to Strahd he's a straight-shooter and much less self-aggrandizing. But while he lacks bloodthirst, he's also a vicious, remorseless killer with an icy nasty streak. I think the reason Magda chooses to leave is because she comes to understand that he's a vicious killer and that the only way she's likely to survive his conflict with Strahd is to get out while she can.

Final thoughts: Knight of the Black Rose is one of the better Ravenloft books. It stands out as unique among them because the main protagonist matches or exceeds the power level of all the antagonists. Its flaws are that Lowder decides to excise the character he was using to ground the story and more clearly define the horror element of what was happening before the end of the book, and there are a few bumpy elements to the plot. Soth is shown to be powerful, dangerous but also understandable in his towering sins; Strahd is decadent, cunning, and knowledgeable. He ultimately rids himself of his Death Knight problem because he understands what will happen when something that evil with a will that strong walks into the Mists.

It makes me wish that somehow, Soth had met Azalin; I bet that would've been fun.

[mestos]

CoAi moments in DetCo games (part two)

cont from my last post

This time the game I'm going to be covering is The Great Deduction of Three People. In this game you can actually play as Ai! Conan takes a more supporting role while the main case is deducted by Haibara. Unfortunately she doesn't have a sprite in this one (takes a narrator vn approach) but like the other game, there is full voice acting, animated sprites provided by TMS.

worth noting that this game takes place before haibara's development with the detective boys. so she's still cold, standoffish a little and ayumi still refers to her as "haibara-san".

since this is basically Haibara Chapter i'll do extremely brief context summaries per moment since the japanese for the case itself is too complicated for me to understand lol

For Context, the detective boys + hakase go to a glass case model exhibit recreating what edo period architecture and life. theyre at edo town museum, where there is a robbery that had taken place.

the opening cutscene is a cute cutscene—the DB all ride conan's skateboard with him but crash except haibara who was just walking lol. she is the POV you play as. the banter between coai immediately starts with their iconic snark to snark behaviour.

as they go in and observe the exhibits, conan asks her for her opinion

after the case figures are introduced, the kids get to see a glimpse of a super secret exhibit briefly—a scroll. haibara feels strange about it.

conan's voice here is really soft (and concerned).

the burglary happens, and haibara is the only one to notice the changes. seemingly there is nothing wrong with the case, but she has a feeling the real and the fake have been swapped. she freaks out a little, thinking it's related to the b.o

the reason that haibara investigates on her own is because she thinks the B.O have a possibility of being involved (since the case involves some wine references LOL). she seperates from the group to ask the case figures a few questions.

she later notices conan is gone heh. but she decides to press forward, and overhears a conversation between two men. but stuff go south when she's noticed, and guess who saves the his wife?

he saves her from being shot and the criminals run away. they go after them, but a series of events happen and the lose the perp. the dude above gets run over and they have to send him to hospital, but in the event he drops the scroll that was stolen earlier. haibara deciphers the scroll, and it leads her to some place, but its just 1 lead. she wants to go investigate it on her own, but the gang find out and insist on tagging along.

conan and ai very sweetly have this exchange

despite his sprite, his voice is actually so sweet. slightly hushed, gentle and reassuring. it's enough to make haibara cave.

conan helps haibara decipher the map by attaching a modern day map, revealing some clues related to the four asian mythological creatures. genta makes a comparison to food and somehow that sticks because the gang literally just start going on a food tour (its because the locations on the map point to, literally, food stores). conan even lets haibara decide where they go.

"oi haibara, you decide where we go."

the player is actually who decides where they go.

they go to ningyo yaki (a type of wagashi, and it has sponge cake texture with red bean filling).

genta: "ooooo, delicious. i can eat so many bro"

monjayaki:

haibara: "so this is monjayaki... this is the first time i've ever had it"

doujo yaki

genta: "oooh, it's here! let's eat!"

ayumi gets nervous about being served live food, and u can choose to make haibara freak her out here or console her. the LP chose freak her out, and she insists conan eats her share LOL

after all 3 visits you have the option to go back to one of the places. in the background of the monjayaki stop, you can actually see shiratori and sato in the background, which the kids choose to talk to them on while they eat their fourth meal of the day LOL they absolutely get No information other than the fact that they disrupted their lunch but it advances the plot

they do some investigating for three more places. theres a festival, with some suspicious ass looking dudes, and you can choose to just run (and investigate elsewhere) or ignore them. ignoring them advances the plot

anyway a few more shenanigans happens until haibara figures out the map and what the symbols mean (GO QUEEN!!!!!). at some point she gets a gun to her head by the perp (AND IS CRAZY CHILL ABOUT IT) but then conan, genta and mitsuhiko save her lol

they do some more investigating which eventually leads them to a warehouse

"WHOA, IT REALLY WAS THERE!!!!"

after conan gives haibara some context (there has been some robberies in the area), a bunch of steel planks start falling

no one gets hurt, and this is actually the moment haibara says her theory.

if you get it wrong, the culprit gets away. haibara's voice is quiet, almost disappointed in herself, and conan gently says it seems like your deduction was wrong, in a very forgiving and sweet way as if to console her lol. and then you can try again

they use the crane to catch the perp. sato and shiratori and take him away, and alls well ends well. conan and ai have this exchange

despite his sprite, his voice is pretty serious here. worried. concerned <3

since i cant add anymore images, haibara responds with

"well, i can't tell you that if i dont have obvious concrete proof" "especially in front of mr-rushing-headfirst-into-danger...." "eh?"

conan tells haibara that he didn't find anything related to the B.O about the perp that just got arrested, and haibara says she expected that. to add, he sweetly says this

haibara: "wow, coming from mr great detective, that's high praise" haibara: "well, if you ever come across a case you can't solve, you can always consult me" conan: "heh, i wasn't complimenting you that far."

the closing cutscene is sato taking the kids out for dinner, and then calling takagi to help her pay for the amount of food these kids ordered LMFAO

but conan and ai have one final exchange during it

(while takagi is mourning his wallet)

haibara: "well, the cold reality of adult circumstances" conan: (chuckle) "as always, cool and collected. by the way, what was up with you today? you didn't seem yourself." haibara: "hmm? what do you mean, i was the same as usual." conan: "where? you were oddly overbearing and nosy today." haibara: "really? then i must have caught it from a certain someone." conan: "huh? and who is this certain someone?" haibara: "who knows? why don't you think about it and figure it out, mr great detective?" conan: "huh?"

ANYWAY FOR MY CLOSING THOUGHTS

seeing someone haibara solve the mystery and lead conan along is the roleswap au that i need. and this is, in its own way, canon!

[a-mag-a-day]

Hi @barkingcrows sent a long ask and because it's an unsustainable format, I'm posting their ask under the cut

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

HELLO AND WELCOME TO MY FAVOURITE EPISODE! i love you mag85. its not even really the pre- or post- statement that i love (though when jon amends his opening, you can HEAR the 😒 in his voice and its lovely) but its the statement itself. i simply love it So Much. theres something about it that stuck out to me and i dont quite know what

(cont. under cut)

i adore the tone the statement is given in. the statementgiver sounds almost hysterical in a falsely composed manner. think : the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart. they sound like theyre moments away from begging you to believe them and begging you to tell them you understand. like theyre trying their damnedest to make themself understand just as much as theyre trying to make you understand…… a bit like helen in her first statement, even. but far more gone than her. helen is still holding onto logic as her lifeline, refusing to let go of logic and reason for the sake of staying sane. 85’s statement giver went mad long ago, and doesn’t care about why or how it doesn’t make sense—they just know it doesn’t make sense and there’s nothing more to it. they’re looking back at it all with a “i can’t fucjsking believe this happened to /me/” lens, sort of. i think so, at least

the contradictions are a fun thing. they make the statement stand out and grab your attention back even if youre doing something else while you listen. in order to wrap your head around it, you have to pay attention. It starts out simple, eases you into the senselessness. after all, if it threw you in headfirst then you wouldnt know what to make of the statement. it would make no sense because youre looking at it through the wrong lens, defaulting to applying rules to it that simply dont apply. “Because nonsense is what it is. It is playfully impossible. He cannot be not there. But he is. He was. And so am I. I did not meet him on the staircase as well.” it takes a second for you to make it make sense, but then just trading out every “i did not meet him” for “i did meet him (its just that he was the man that wasnt there)” and suddenly it makes the senselessness make a lot more sense, and puts you into the correct mindset for this episode.

but it only stays simple for a short bit, quickly upping the absurdity more and more until its depicting batshit stuff that you cant even understand by backwards logicing out of it. but by now youve accepted that this statement giver’s story is not one that is meant to make sense, and you can listen to the impossibilities without it breaking your immersion at all. In fact, it enhances it. a fun example of that is: “My father said nothing, as I had taken him up the stairs an hour before, and he now lay dead in his chair, his heart unsuited for the expedition. [...] Eventually, after almost an hour descending the spiral, he keeled over in his seat and lay lifeless. My mother got abruptly to her feet, and told my father that they were leaving. My father got to his feet, and silently followed her out.” its senseless! its plenty comprehensible, but it just doesnt make sense! are the stairs metaphorical or literal? did the dad die in a dream and wake back up? if he died on the stairs, how did he get to the chair? did he die and his corpse got up and walked out? the listener doesnt know! jon sure as hell doesnt know! and i really doubt that even the statement giver knows! its not like theyre there, anyways. no use in figuring out the hows and whats and whys of events when theyre hardly a who or what themself.

i feel like it sort of raises the question of if there was ever a man not there in the first place that the statement giver fell victim to, but that’s the point, isn’t it? there was no one there. “The stairs were real. He wasn’t there, but the stairs were.” note the word choice. ‘real.’ not ‘the stairs were there,’ but that they were real. is it possible to do something like this to yourself? the man who was not there became real as time progressed, yes, but any delusion can become real to someone if they believe it sincerely enough. mix the Literally Supernatural spiral into that and you have one hell of a trip. is it possible to lose yourself in a poem so much that you lose your own self? have you ever considered this statement being largely metaphorical? turned literal only by the spiral finding a new plaything? they say that he did not offer them to join him on the stairs. so is that to say the man who was not there did not offer simply because he was not there, or that the statement giver’s spiral (heh) was self-inflicted? “He didn’t come back until I made… a horrid mistake. I called to him. I stood on the landing and shouted at him to go away. I asked him if he was there. I demanded he show himself. All utterly impossible, of course. I was shouting at nobody but myself, and so it was into my own mind that my curses and pleas burrowed and nested.”

personally, i think it makes for a more interesting statement if it’s litera; there is, in fact; a man who was not there tormenting the statement giver. but for it to be metaphorical would make for a much more interesting question

“I walked and I walked. And then I didn’t walk, and that got me moving much faster.” i just like this line

“He had sworn at me as he tried to climb them to the top, telling me I was no son of his, and I was trying to agree with him, but if I could have done so, then he would have been wrong.” THIS line. if there’s one thing i want you to take away from this rambling essay of a loveletter to mag85 then it’s this line. i want everyone to look at it and just. think about it i guess??? it’s my favourite sentence in this episode. something about it is so interesting and i really don’t know how to put it into words. “I was trying to agree with him, but if I could have done so, then he would have been wrong.” GOD i love that ?!!!??!?? its so good

i love the twist on the poem at the end too. changing it to “i was a man who wasn’t there”

i don’t think enough people talk about just the statement for this episode, so i’ll leave off my thoughts on the post-statement banter. not to mention that this post is already far longer than it should be HAHA. i love georgie and season three is very eventful, but this statement by itself should be highlighted more often when it has such an interesting premise <333

finally, while i’m here: i would absolutely recommend listening to The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie after listening to this episode. or whatever cover you prefer of the song—i personally enjoy Nirvana’s most. The Man Who Sold The World, just as mag85, was at least in part inspired by the poem Antigonish. (and the timeline would allow for mag85 to potentially be partially inspired by both the poem AND the song, but i don’t believe that is confirmed or denied anywhere.)

it’s a great song and i never have a reason to talk about how this episode was actually the thing that introduced me to the song

thank you for bearing with me as i rambled about the episode i can never find a good reason to ramble about!

[sanktyastag]

What you said about Aleksander not telling her what happened and why he left and I'll add to that not telling her how the fold was an accident etc is so blatantly a narrative mistep, there is no way to logically conclude "oh he didn't tell her because" what? it's entirely because her knowing those things would make her side with him or at the least understand his pov or worse make the whole "darkling is evil incarnate" while my kind is being murdered hunted and experimented on from 4 sides(cont)

[(cont) And it makes the fact that the hill these writers chose to die on is the fold which was accidental and then the only thing preventing even more atrocities to grisha used by the only person doing anything at all about it including their heroes who instead choose to support an absolutely corrupt monarchy who's done nothing but use an abuse them in numerous ways and then leave said minority even worse than they found them make even less sense than it already does.]

Oooh now here's a spicy take. I agree with you, anon, I feel like there's quite a bit of dissonance between how the show wants the characters to feel about the events that take place on screen, versus what it wants the audience to feel about those same events. Which wouldn't, necessarily, be a problem, except it never resolves the disparity between those two viewpoints, so we're left feeling disconnected from the goals of the protagonists.

I'm going to write an essay now, so it's going under a cut, lol.

The pitfall of SaB, I think, is that it often feels like the writers are trying to address and flesh out areas that the books themselves aren't really concerned with, whilst simultaneously staying true to the story as it's written on the page. And normally a show fleshing out an underdeveloped book concept would improve the story being told, except for the fact that the books are... almost wholly reliant on those things never being addressed in order for the events to take place the way that they do. The showrunners chose to engage with those dropped characters elements, so we now have conflict between the characters as they're presented to us, and the actual story being told.

Which is funny, because they had two different directions they could have expanded on Aleksander's character, and I feel like the show accidentally expanded on the wrong ones? I mean, I sure like what they had to say, but it doesn't really fit the story that they're trying to tell.

Because here's the thing. The books actually want Aleksander to be a sympathetic and well-intentioned character. The issue is that he's so disenfranchised with life that he's turned to extremism. He's caught up in this idea of saving his people, but "people" have become an abstract concept to him. He's looking at the long game so intently, he's blind to the real people in front of him who are suffering for his actions. And that's an interesting narrative to play with! It's so niche to the circumstances of having a character live through centuries of conflict, and distancing himself from the people he's trying to save as a defense mechanism to the endless trauma he's facing. Unfortunately, the books have no interest in engaging with that belief, so it's presented as an immutable fact of his character, rather than a flaw to be challenged, which renders it... much less interesting to read about.

So the weirdness lies within the show, then, expanding on the sympathetic aspects of Aleksander's character, instead of his flaws. They actually made him more involved with the lives of the Grisha he commands, they gave him more reason to attack Novokribirsk, by establishing Zlatan's army. They removed the layers of calculation and distance his book-self had, and made him very human and emotional, but then they continued to treat him as if he still had those book traits of being manipulative, ruthless, and amoral. Which is... disorienting.

Like, if they wanted to make him sympathetic while simultaneously demonizing his character, all they would have had to do was rearrange some scenes. Make it so that Aleksander's backstory is him explaining the creation of the fold to Alina. Throw the events into doubt by having it be told through an unreliable narrator (Aleksander himself), and bam, now it can be both backstory, and a way to manipulate a girl into feeling sorry for him. Same with the assassination attempt. Have him explain what happened and also have him use it as a way to engender trust with Alina, by instilling it with an us vs them agenda.

And then, just... let them have a full conversation. Instead of having Alina say that he's a monster beyond saving without ever discussing anything with him, give Aleksander a chance to explain, have Alina disagree with his methods, and have him force her to go along with them anyways. Bam. There's the story they wanted to tell, wrapped up in a neat little bow.

Of course, all that that fixes is the contradictions in their own story, not actually the quality of the story itself, imo. That's still a storyline that's only engaging with Aleksander's points at the most shallow, baseline level, which would allow them to tell that bland "radical freedom fighter is correct, but also burns down orphanages, so unfortunately we're going to have to side with the right-leaning centrist alternative" narrative that every corporation-run television show is so fond of these days.

But I mean. At least then I could consistently disagree with the story that's being told, instead of being left staring at my screen, trying to figure out if they want Aleksander to be redeemable or not, lol.

[thejudgingtrash]

I like how you brought up the problems with rick riodarn’s poc rep because as a Iraqi American my issue with Samirah al Abbas character is that she is being married to her own cousin which people seem to forget that and ship for some reason and was forced to marry someone else by her dad. Also if that was a case then wasn’t her mom married to someone if that was the case, which I hate that stereotype so much because tbh my parents care about more of my education than marriage.

Cont: I would also like to point out how on earth did she even got expected by her grandparents even in her own community because being born out of wedlock is considered shameful or haram meaning forbidden since her family are Muslim and his research on Islam is not very good. One more thing I would like to point out since she experienced islamophobia in middle then why is her middle school named after Malcolm X who is a Muslim? I thought rick would at least change it to something else Okay Bye!

I must admit I have not read the Magnus Chase series. And to be honest I’m not so sure if I really want to (for the little Percabeth and the Chase’s background story that there is). Seeing that side of the fandom makes me less inclined to it and most people in my environment said that book 1 is essentially pjo 2.0 and also narration wise isn’t the best (I read some reviews and the excerpts also the people that I asked know my preference and taste so I trust their judgement before you come at me).

But Riordan being problematic about characters and their portrayals doesn’t come to me as a shock. Really, if you’ve been long enough in this fandom you already know how he operates. 5 minutes of wiki research to cross that point of his list is his bread and butter.

But yes. Samirah really struck something for me especially since I have very good muslim friends and her portrayal made even me as an outsider go ?!?!?!??!? Literally what. Forced marriages and marrying your own cousin is a solid no. This is really stereotypical and adds nothing but more stigmatizing and fueling islamophobia in my opinion. Education really is key in communities and are valued more than marriage. Your family isn’t the only one thinking that way. How is Riordan trying to speak up about that issue when in reality he doesn’t do much than add to it? What a power move on his side wow.

And the rest also doesn’t even make any goddamn sense?

Tbh I’m tired of it. We all should lower our expectations by a lot.

[marksburyscripts]

Season 1, Episode 1-- A Difficult Patient

Google Doc

Content Warnings: -Alcohol abuse -Discussion of intent to commit sexual assault

[Pre-episode announcement]

Hey, everyone! Before we begin, I just wanna give a quick heads-up. The Marksbury Incident will have some recurring themes that may be uncomfortable for some listeners, including depression, anxiety, survivor’s guilt, and murder, including that of a child. There will also be episode-specific content warnings in the descriptions of each episode. As excited as we are to share this story with the world, our main priority is always going to be the health and safety of everyone involved. But for now, take care of yourselves, and enjoy!

--

[Therapist’s office. Day. The recording begins, and there are a few seconds of awkward silence.]

NARRATOR

This is stupid.

THERAPIST

You haven’t even started yet. 

NARRATOR

What’s the point? How is this any different than what we usually do?

THERAPIST

I told you. Being able to go back and re-listen to sessions could be helpful. Maybe give you reminders about what we wanted to work on.

[Narrator scoffs.]

THERAPIST (Cont.)

If you have a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it. [He sighs] Look. If you don’t start working with me, I’m going to have to report it. I’ve been telling them that your post traumatic stress has been making progress slow, but it’s only a matter of time before they decide that it’s non-compliance. Not everyone gets this chance. Please. Don’t throw it away.

NARRATOR

...Fine. Fine, okay.

THERAPIST

We’ll just record this one for now and we’ll go from there. It might be a bit awkward at first, but it could help. 

NARRATOR

 ...Do you think they made the right decision? I mean, with what happened…. It’s not like it was a misdemeanor. 

THERAPIST

I think that they saw you the way that I do. A good person who made a mistake. You know better than anyone what kind of state you were in afterwards. And I think they realized that there wasn’t any real malicious intent.

NARRATOR

...Right.

THERAPIST

So you’ll cooperate?

NARRATOR

Yeah. Fine.

THERAPIST

Good. So you said last week you were going to go through your mother’s things?

NARRATOR

Yeah. I managed to do it.

THERAPIST

That’s good. How did it go?

NARRATOR

Okay I guess? Dad kept a lot more than I expected. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of much, but… some of the less sentimental things. Clothes, mostly. Things she never wore much. And… turns out she kept a lot of the drawings I did as a kid in a box under her bed, too. I saved a couple, but most of them I threw out. Then an old journal or diary or something that was in some weird mix of Italian and Gaelic, and a couple of pictures.

THERAPIST

Were the pictures of her?

NARRATOR

Yeah, mostly. There were some of her friend, too. Lauren, I think her name was? Laura? Mom would tell me about her sometimes. Here, I, um… I brought one. 

[The Narrator unzips his bag and retrieves the picture]

THERAPIST

Why’s it ripped?

NARRATOR

I don’t know. That’s just how I found it. There were a lot that were ripped, actually….  I-- I imagine it’s the result of a bad breakup or something.

THERAPIST

Makes sense. You were okay, though? 

NARRATOR

I mean, I had to take a few breaks during it. I think it took… four hours to go through the three boxes? 

THERAPIST

No shame in that. 

NARRATOR

I did have a bit of a breakdown after, though. But… nothing new there, I guess.

THERAPIST

When that happens, what do you do to calm down?

NARRATOR

Depends. On good days I grab a book and try to focus on that. 

THERAPIST

And what about the bad days?

NARRATOR

...Cheap whiskey and cigarettes. But I’ve been trying to quit.

THERAPIST

And after going through the boxes, was that a good day or a bad day?

NARRATOR

Somewhere in the middle, I guess? I promised myself I wouldn’t drink, so I went for a walk.

THERAPIST

That’s good. That’s very good.

NARRATOR

...Yeah. 

THERAPIST

...You don’t sound so sure about that.

NARRATOR

No, it’s…. It’s fine. It was good, it got my mind off of it.

THERAPIST

...Did something happen on your walk?

NARRATOR

Nothing you want to hear about.

THERAPIST

Try me.

NARRATOR

...You’re going to think I’m crazy.

THERAPIST

I’m a psychologist. Once again, try me.

NARRATOR

[He takes a deep breath] ...It was… maybe two in the morning? I-- I think that’s about right, I lost track around 12:30. I'd spent pretty much my whole day putting off going through the stuff, then the rest of the night either actually doing it or calming myself down. Mostly the latter. Then I kept running into some of my dad's things, as well, so that kept hitting me, too. I guess Evelynn missed some things when she was cleaning it all out. Or maybe she thought I would want some of it? I don't know.  Anyway, I'm getting distracted. I was walking past this bar a few streets over from my house. It’s not the most high-brow place in the world, so I made sure to cross the street before I got there. Never know what people will do when they're not thinking straight. Especially since… you know, I'm not exactly the most masculine or threatening person in the world. So I kept a safe distance. Nothing looked suspicious. I could see that the TVs inside had been switched off, so it must have been past last-call. Then I noticed. There was a woman leaning against the wall, doubled over. She had her hands in her pockets, and she was wearing this… deep red hoodie, with her hair hanging loose, covering her face. Even from so far away, I could tell that it was slick with grease, or… something. It was reflecting the streetlights. I think that’s what made me notice her, actually. The glint caught my eye.

NARRATOR (Cont.)

I wasn't about to judge, you never know someone's circumstances. I’ve certainly been in worse condition. I actually considered crossing the street to offer her what change I had in my pocket, but I didn't want to assume she was homeless and end up being wrong. Besides, nothing weird about someone hanging out outside of a bar as it was closing. Maybe she was waiting for a ride home, or getting her bearings before she started walking. Then… two men came out of the bar. They were drunk enough that I could tell neither would remember a thing in the morning, and the taller of the two was laughing and practically hanging off of his friend. He saw the woman and they both fell quiet as they... looked at each other. I could tell what they were thinking. It doesn't take a genius to piece it together. I think that was when I stopped walking. I watched as the taller one went over to the woman, and I couldn't tell what he was saying, but… I had a pretty good guess. She didn't move, but he kept at it, he wouldn’t give it up. I think it lasted two minutes total. He kept getting more and more aggravated, and I was about to yell over that I was going to call the cops. He reached his hand out like he was going to grab her, but he just…  he just stopped. His eyes went wide for a moment, and even from that distance, I could see his terror. Looking back, I think he was probably dead before he hit the ground. His friend ran over to him, he was… screaming. Nothing coherent, he was much too drunk for that. Intoxicated on both alcohol and the fear. And even with everything that was going on, with all that noise? Not a single person came to make sure that he was okay. There was no way that no one heard. They just didn't care. You know, I never understood the phrase "Sent a chill down my spine". But… turns out it feels more literal than I imagined. I-- I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what I could do. So I just stood there as his screams were cut off by the sound of him choking as he clutched his throat, desperate for air, eyes locked onto her and pleading for mercy. And once he finally went quiet, then the woman finally began to move. 

NARRATOR (Cont.)

She looked up at me. Slow, and I was certain that she'd known I'd been watching the whole time, and was anticipating my response. But her movements were jerky, like she had to force every joint to bend or twist. And I heard a voice. Her voice. I-- I don’t know how I know, but there's no doubt in my mind. Even though she was still across the street, it sounded like she was whispering, rasping in my ear with lungs that hadn’t been used in at least a decade. She said my name. And for some reason, hearing that made me certain that I was going to die. I ran, I locked myself in my house the moment I got home. Every step of the way, I knew she was behind me, I could hear her voice, I could feel her just… there. A couple times, I looked back. I never saw her walk, but she was always the same distance behind me. After I got home, it took me an hour before I finally started to calm down. I thought it was over. But just as I was regaining my composure, there it was again. My name, hardly an inch from my ear. I hated myself for it, but I forced myself to look out the window, and there she was. Just staring at me.

THERAPIST

Did you call the police?

NARRATOR

A-- And tell them what? That there was a person looking at my house? And that two guys had dropped dead just by talking to her? I’m sure they would take that well. Especially from me, the local convicted felon.

THERAPIST

So what did you do?

NARRATOR

I just… sat in my bedroom, in the dark, away from the windows. Like a child. [Laughs] I kept hearing her voice, so I knew that she was still out there even when the sun started to come up. Eventually, I ended up getting the nerve to look again. She had stood there, in the same spot, all night. Just watching. I’ll admit I kinda lost it at that point. I don’t know what I was planning on happening. But I was so freaked out, I-- I didn’t think. I went outside and grabbed a rock out of the garden, and I shouted at her to tell me what she wanted, to leave me alone. If I woke up any of the neighbors, they didn’t say anything. I threw the rock, and-- and I want you to know that I didn’t mean to hit her. I just wanted to scare her off or something. But it did hit her. Right in the chest, around the Xiphoid Process. And she… She crumpled. I mean that literally. It hit the hoodie, but it didn’t hit a person. The moment it made contact, all of her clothes fell to the ground, and I realized that there was nothing inside them.

THERAPIST

So… like a ghost?

NARRATOR

No. No, I don’t believe in ghosts. I think there’s something after death, something that gives people awareness, personality, life-- [He cuts off, takes a breath] ...But no, not ghosts. I don’t know what it was. But the clothes were gone when I looked out an hour later. [Beat.] So. Believe me?

THERAPIST

...I did read that there were two men found dead outside of a bar. One from a brain hemorrhage and the other asphyxiation. 

NARRATOR

But I suppose you think that’s a coincidence.

THERAPIST

...I think it’s... interesting. I think the figure you’re describing could potentially be a manifestation of your internalized guilt over the deaths of--

NARRATOR

Yeah, see? You think it was a hallucination.

THERAPIST

I’m just saying, you did have similar experiences while you were in the hospital.

NARRATOR

That was different! Believe me, I know how it sounds, I’m not an idiot. Would you say the same thing to someone who walked in here saying they saw a vision of Jesus?

THERAPIST

That’s--

NARRATOR

[Bitterly] Different?

THERAPIST

A religious belief. You’ve told me yourself you aren’t religious.

NARRATOR

...Okay, fine. But you can understand where I’m coming from.

THERAPIST

I suppose. I just have to entertain every possibility. Preferably the scientific ones. Henry is studying psychology, right?

NARRATOR [Softly]

...Please don’t.

THERAPIST

Right, sorry. I’m just saying, you have to know that if I just accepted every instance of ghosts or unexplainable events as true, I would be out of a job. I’m sure he’d tell you the same thing. [Beat.] How’s he doing?

NARRATOR [He scoffs] 

Seriously?

THERAPIST

You know what I mean. Has there been any progress?

NARRATOR

Not at all.

THERAPIST

You still visiting him?

NARRATOR

Every day.

THERAPIST

What do you do when you’re there?

NARRATOR

Talk, mostly. Sometimes I end up falling asleep. 

THERAPIST

You know, not many people would have that much dedication. He’s lucky to have a friend like you.

NARRATOR

...Yeah. Really lucky.

THERAPIST

You don’t agree?

NARRATOR

It’s… complicated. I don’t think…. [He trails off, steadying himself] Sorry. 

THERAPIST

No, it’s okay. You’ve opened up a lot today.

NARRATOR

The threat of prison will do that to a person.

THERAPIST

Maybe so. But we’ve been at this since March, and I still feel like I hardly know you. The therapists you went to before me all said the same thing; That you had trouble before, and that ever since you lost your brother, things have only gotten worse. I still think it would be good if you talked to your sister.

NARRATOR

Not gonna happen.

THERAPIST

You both have been through a lot, you’re the only family she has left.

NARRATOR

And yet, she’s made it very clear that she wants nothing to do with me. So forgive me if I’m not jumping at the idea.

THERAPIST

It couldn’t hurt to try.

NARRATOR

You don’t know Evelynn. It very well could. I can’t tell you the amount of times we wrestled as kids, and I never won a single time. [A small laugh] But no, in all seriousness, I don't think that's a good idea. I mean, she cleared out pretty much all of our father's things when I was… you know. 

THERAPIST

Recovering.

NARRATOR 

Recovering, sure. Whatever you wanna call it. I thought that at the very least, losing him would help close the gap between us. But then… I don't know why I thought that, she didn't even look at me at Billy's funeral, I-- [His voice falters, and his breath shakes] I-- I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I can't--

THERAPIST

No, it's okay. We're still working on it. That's more than you usually feel comfortable with. Do you think the recording helped?

NARRATOR

A little? I still couldn't talk about anything important, though. 

THERAPIST

How about this? We'll record sessions every so often, not every week. And for homework, you can record at home. About whatever you feel like. Be it what happened, or even just about your day. Maybe saying it out loud without anyone around will help you eventually talk about it here so we can work on it.

NARRATOR

...Do I have a choice?

THERAPIST [Smug, but kind]

Not really.

NARRATOR

And here I was thinking therapists were supposed to help people stop talking to themselves.

THERAPIST

I'll see you next week, okay?

NARRATOR

Right, yeah.

[The door opens]

THERAPIST

Oh, and before you go?

NARRATOR

Hmm?

THERAPIST

I'm really proud of you.

NARRATOR

...Right.

[The door shuts]

NEXT EPISODE➝

[verycharismaticdragon]

(pоsting in this fоrmat because it didn’t appear in tаgs otherwise)

Anоnymous asked: Out of curiosity, what’s your opinion on what others say to be “nоncon” undertones in novel!Wenzhou? mainly Wen Kexing’s advances at first and their first night?

Oh, god, okay. Fair warning first, ‘novel WenZhou is unhеalthy’ (and variations thereof) is one of those takes that рiss me the hell off; if I sound bitter at times, it is not directed at you, the asker or the reader. With this out of the way, let me preface the whole thing with this: an аdult-oriented novel is well within its rights to portray the relationships that are anywhere from non-ideal to completely fuсked up, since it is operating on the premise that the reader can make their own judgеments, doesn’t need the text to hold their hand and point out bad behaviours for them, and understands that what works for characters in fiction is not necessarily applicable to real life.

That said, the only way I can describe novel WenZhou's relationship is: surprisingly hеalthy, considering. Considering what? Uh, everything about them? The fact that both are morally bаnkrupt bastards for one, the fact that Zhou Zishu would rather eat a second set of nails than admit to having a feeling, the fact that Wen Kexing had last seen a hеalthy romantic relationship when he was nine and a hеalthy non-trаnsactional sеxual relationship never, the fact that both of them are terrible at communicating by words… and yet, they manage to continuously nеgotiate their relationship, in fact so successfully that they don’t have a single falling out over the course of the novel. Do they go about it in an ideal way? Absolutely not, their process is mеssy and straight-up weird at times. But does it work for them? Clearly it does, since their relationship is so joyous and fulfilling that it literally makes both of them want to live. (Zhou Zishu, by the way, admits that halfway through the novel in chapter 41.)

In fact, I’d posit that most of the moments that get labeled unhеalthy/dubcon/nоncon are actually them nеgotiating the terms of their relationship. But I can’t get into that without addressing a few misconcеptions about novel WenZhou which… can be obtained from the most superficial reading, granted, but don’t hold up to a bit of thinking, – yet, I’ve seen people dismiss and put down the novel couple over them, so clearly those misconcеptions are an obstacle to the discussion.

(cont. under cut)

First concerns Zhou Zishu. Popular variations of the take include: he doesn’t reciprocate / is only putting up with Wen Kexing’s advances; he doesn’t show affection; he doesn’t like Wen Kexing back; he is uninterested; he is unwilling. A huge chunk of this misconcеption hinges on treating the novel’s third-person close POV as unbiased, which it isn’t. Zhou Zishu is an extremely unreliable narrator, and will have you believe he’s just putting up with Wen Kexing while getting flustered by his flirting on the regular, literally citing him as one of the reasons he’s no longer okay with dуing, living together with him for months, passionately making out with him… I have a post that goes into more detail, but even that isn’t a full list of examples but rather a proof of concеpt, an encouragement to close-read the text yourself and see what you’ll find out. Point is, you can’t take Zhou Zishu on his word – Lord Seventh once describes him as ‘a person who’s used to hiding behind partial truths’, and that very much applies to his narrative voice too – and to get the full picture, you need to pay attention to his actions and reactions, as well as small moments of honesty that sometimes make it past the mask.

For me, clocking the unreliable narration was enough to recontextualize how I see Zhou Zishu’s willingness (and before anyone thinks I’m smart for it, this happened on ch.56, when Zhou Zishu kissed Wen Kexing back and I went ‘wait you like him in that way??? since when???’; my reread was a series of ‘oh’ moments), but I’m going to outline a couple more concеpts which I think can help with understanding his behaviour towards Wen Kexing.

One is that what gets perceived as 'lack of affection' on Zhou Zishu’s part is actually his biggest show of care. In previous metas, I said that two reasons Zhou Zishu is holding back are that he can't tell if Wen Kexing is sincere, and his upcoming dеath, – but I didn't make clear that I think the second reason is the main one. If Zhou Zishu had longer, he could mеss around with Wen Kexing and figure out his seriousness that way; if it didn't work out, it would be just an embarrassing incident in his life, nothing more. (I'm not saying he would necessarily try that kind of expеriment, but it would be an option on the table.) However, he has less than three years. If Wen Kexing isn't serious, then he'd have wasted his precious short-term freedom on something that he should've known was fake. But if Wen Kexing is, that's even worse, because then Zhou Zishu’s dеath will hurt him. And Zhou Zishu doesn't want that. So a lot of his holding back, pushing Wen Kexing away, not giving false hopes, is actually him trying to spare Wen Kexing the pаin of loss. Yes, of course the question of sincerity also plays a part in his resistаnce, but the later into the novel, the more certain Zhou Zishu is, and yet he continues pulling himself back (with varied suсcess). Because if Zhou Zishu chose to do what he wants (and he does want, just look at the kiss in chapter 56 and tell me he doesn’t want), and Wen Kexing is sincere, it would be the same as choosing to hurt him. Zhou Zishu trying to hold Wen Kexing at arm’s length is an act of care; he could be happy with Wen Kexing for the whole short rest of his life, but it would make Wen Kexing suffеr more in the end; and the choice Zhou Zishu makes, whose feelings he prioritizes, speaks for itself. But, yeah, tell me about how he’s sooo unaffectionate.

The other thing that people seem to miss is that Zhou Zishu could leave practically at any time and never have to see Wen Kexing again, if he chose to. This is very much an established fact:

Zhou Zishu was like a drop of water in a big ocean; the moment one lost sight of him, his existence would be impossible to be detected. Wen Kexing felt a sense of bewilderment, his eyes narrowed. He scanned the crowd again in concentration, unable to accept defeat; but the other man had really just up and disappeared in front of him like that. [...] Even if Wen Kexing successfully crаcked the mystery that was his identity and inner thoughts, that man could just disappear anytime he wanted. (chapter 25, tl sparklingwatertranslations)

Yes, Wen Kexing is able to follow Zishu a few times by making reasonable guesses, but if Zhou Zishu really wanted to disappear, he could. He is only following the Lapis Armor case out of curiosity, and for a fair amount of time in the first third of the novel he doesn’t even have Chengling slowing him down – he could pick a direction and go. And later in the novel, Wen Kexing himself also gives him chances to leave, like asking if he’s coming with to rescue Cao Weining in chapter 42, or saying he’ll be staying in the Puppet Manor for a few days and letting Zhou Zishu choose if he’s going to be staying with. Point is, nothing is making Zhou Zishu hang out with Wen Kexing. If he, at any point, felt forcеd, or harаssed, if he thought Wen Kexing’s behaviour towards him was unacceptable, would he allow more of it? Would Zhou Zishu, who values his freedom and living on his own terms above all, who is characterized by his ‘wild arrogance’, who will even dare to lie to the Emperor if it suits him, and who’s been steadily losing even the minimum amount of fuсks he still had now that his life is on a timer – would that Zhou Zishu, what, silently suffеr mistreatment? Because that’d go against everything else about his characterization in the novels. The assumption that is much more sensible, and fits with the rest of characterization, is that he at the very least doesn’t consider any of Wen Kexing’s supposed ‘transgressions’ bad enough to break off the relationship over, and possibly isn’t even that bothered by them – because to be honest, to me it feels like every time he is in any way upset by Wen Kexing’s advances, it’s mostly directed towards himself, for reacting. To rephrase, I think the cold-hearted former government assassin is deeply mortified and embarassed about developing a huge crush on local gay murdеrclown. Anyway, I think this is important to keep in mind: Zhou Zishu can leave. He’s never been coеrced into anything in his whole life, all of his choices were his own – there’s no reason to presume he is somehow forcеd in this. (As an aside, I do wonder if that image of Zhou Zishu as a… viсtimized party, I suppose, comes from projecting SHL’s characterization onto the novel. Like, yes, show Zishu did in fact silently suffеr mistreatment from prince Jin until – perhaps past – his breaking point. RIP to him, but novel Zishu is different ahem, I mean, this aspect of characterization does not exist in the novel. TYK Zishu wasn’t mаnipulated to be in the Crown Prince’s party, and did everything he did out of his own will. And when he decided he’d done enough, he left and didn’t look back. If he could walk out of imperial service, why can’t he walk out on Wen Kexing, if not because he doesn’t want to?)

So, this is it on Zhou Zishu’s supposed unwillingness and lack of reciprocation. The other misconcеption is how Wen Kexing’s actions are perceived. I’m not saying he didn’t make questionable moves, because absolutely he did, but I found that a lot of criticism makes his advances sound way worse than what’s actually there on the page, so let’s dissеct where that comes from.

At least partially, I think it’s the fact that on the first read-through, Wen Kexing’s actions are kind of opaque to us: we don’t fully learn where he’s coming from until the last chapters. I said so before, TYK has a high reread value – knowing Wen Kexing’s full backstory, as well as some of his innеr thoughts from those small sections of his POV and his extra, draws out almost a new version of the text. For example, on first read-through, you don’t know why Wen Kexing followed Zhou Zishu – maybe you are taking him on his word that it’s about them shoulderblades, maybe you think ‘eh, he’s the ML, of course he’s going to stick to MC, this is just genre convention, no need to think too hard about it’ – but after his extra, you know he is actually suspicious and wants to know Zhou Zishu’s identity. And all of his ‘if you tаke off your mask, I’ll let you do whаtever to me~’ flirting takes on a new meaning: the ‘tаke off your mask’ part was key! Without superposing that later information onto his actions, it’s easy to end up with takes such as ‘novel Wen Kexing is a crаzy obsеssed stаlker’. And Zhou Zishu’s unreliable narration certainly doesn’t help: he isn’t always correct in his assumptions about Wen Kexing, but first-time reader has no way of knowing that, say, Wen Kexing didn’t actually liе about the illusiоn he saw in chapter 12, because the relevant info only gets drоpped in the finale, – and this is just one example of many. It stands to reason that Zhou Zishu doesn’t always read Wen Kexing’s flirting correctly either.

And, look, yes, much of this is impossible to catch on the first read. Some things can be guessed, like Wen Kexing’s initial motives for following Zishu, while others require information from further ahead in the plot. There are several lines in the novel that, for me, recontextualized huge chunks of what happened previously; there are also many things I only figured out after several rereads, or over the course of writing meta. And of course, the reader doesn’t exactly owe the novel their critical thought; if someone read it once and just didn’t like it, if the good points of the relationship didn’t outweigh the bad ones (or make them wonder if there was maybe more to those ‘bad’ points), that’s their right. But there's a difference between just not examining the text, and not examining the text yet publicly slapping it with a heavily negative label such as nоncon. I digress; the point was, it's hard to get a good grasp on Wen Kexing’s motivations and intentions on first read-through. Fortunately, I'm rоughly on my sixth, so I'd like to think I have garnered some understanding I can share.

So, let’s go over Wen Kexing’s questionable advances!

In the course of the novel, there are actually several events that make him change his mode of behavior towards Zhou Zishu; therefore, trying to tackle all of his actions together as if there wasn't any progression would be remiss. I'm going to separate them roughly into several stages, and address each.

So, the first stage is everything prior to the rain scene. You asked about Wen Kexing’s early advances (yes I still remember I’m answering an ask, this just happened to be a topic I had a lot to say on), this is his early advances. Thing is… aside from the kiss in chapter 17, something I’ll address separately, the rest of Wen Kexing’s flirting during this stage is nothing truly forcеful: most of it is verbal, for starters. All of the physical contact which can be seen as even mildly flirtatious is either within bounds of friendship (say, Wen Kexing slinging his arm around Zhou Zishu’s shoulders while talking to Cao Weining), technically permitted (touching Zhou Zishu’s face in chapter 8 – Zhou Zishu did not actually intend to let Wen Kexing do that, but he did say he could), medical (suсking out poison; Zhou Zishu being convinced that Wen Kexing “slightly licking the wound after” is an overture, by the way, is an example of him assuming intent that wasn’t necessarily there) or extremely tаme (Wen Kexing stopping Zhou Zishu from leaving Zhang Chengling behind by catching him into his arms, letting go near-immediately). This is it for Wen Kexing’s early advances: he is basically all talk, again aside from the kiss.

It seems that one scene had colored a lot of people’s perceptions of Wen Kexing’s earlier flirting; yet, that kiss in fact… didn’t have anything to do with the process of courting. I already analysed this scene; the short version is, this is the closest novel WenZhou ever came to having a real fight. Zhou Zishu intentionally рissed Wen Kexing off, and Wen Kexing lashed out – except instead of physical violеnce, which Zhou Zishu had been expecting, he used a kiss to retaliate. This action was actually Wen Kexing setting his boundaries, showing that he won’t tolerate mistreatment. Did he go about it the best way? Obviously not. Could he just let the provocation slide, ignore it? Wen Kexing, a person with several trаumas around the subject of his аutonomy? He’d have to be a saint to not react. Could he just punch Zhou Zishu instead? Physically yes, but it would be giving in to Zishu’s mаnipulation, letting him have pоwer over Wen Kexing – again, see previous point about trаuma – and it wouldn’t make the point. And, yes, Wen Kexing violаtes Zhou Zishu’s boundaries here – in response to Zhou Zishu violаting his. Both of them show an example of terrible behaviour here.

Yet the criticism is only ever directed at Wen Kexing. And I do understand the gut reaction, I did have the same one. But here are some questions. Would we find Wen Kexing’s actions more acceptable if it was a punch instead of a kiss? Should we question our bias regarding violеnce we see as sеxually-coded versus plain physical one? Is the kiss worse than a punch? Would we see a punch as transgression, considering that on the level of damage done, the punch would be worse? And what does it say that we could see what Wen Kexing did as wrong right away, while completely missing Zhou Zishu’s mаnipulation prior?

Ultimately, whichever answers you give to those questions, this scene isn’t easy to swallow. But to dismiss it as ‘danmei-typical dubcon romanticisation’ or whatever is to misinterpret it. It isn’t meant to be seen as romantic; it is two amoral bastards fighting dirty.

This is from out-of-story perspective; in-story, I think the most important thing is that Zhou Zishu himself clearly doesn’t see it as a terrible transgression: he does punch Wen Kexing in the gut as an immediate reaction, but then continues to travel with him as if nothing had happened. And then in the very next chapter, when Wen Kexing briefly leaves him alone, Zhou Zishu both misses him and, well, sulks that Wen Kexing must’ve only been chasing him for the lack of other options. If he felt harаssed and wronged, would he be upset to have harаssment stop? (To be clear: this logic is not applicable to any character. There are possible circumstances, such as being a viсtim of abusе previously, that may actually make the character come back for more punishmеnt. But, again, that’s not Zishu’s case.) Point is, Zhou Zishu doesn’t find the unsolicited kiss a big enough deal to consider breaking off with Wen Kexing – possibly due to being self-aware enough to know he was in the wrong first – and, well, it’s his relationship.

A bit of an aside: could this kiss be described as dubcon or nоncon? Sure, if you wanted to. But that’s because dubcon and nоncon are one of those terms that are near-useless, as even going off literal definitions, different people will have different opinions on what constitutes as such. Simple example: say we have a fic with a mutually pining couple, who get drunk and end up kissing. Reader #1 may say, they were both drunk, couldn’t give informed consent, therefore it’s nоncon. Reader #2 may say, they couldn’t give informed consent, but this is something they both wanted and would likely agree to not-drunk, therefore it’s dubcon. While reader #3 may say, as long as neither of them feels like they were violаted or forcеd, those labels shouldn’t be applied at all. And this is the mildest example, yet even it could be divisive. The difference of opinion itself is not a problem, but… say, for our hypothetical drunken makeouts fic, reader #1 makes a post: “dont read fic X, it’s nоncon!” But for reader #3, ‘nоncon’ means r*pe fic, so that post gives them a completely wrong idea. This is why I dislike the use of those terms: they convey zero actual information, while creating a negative impression. Like, I’ve had someone tell me they were worried about giving TYK a try because of those takes going around in fandom – they ended up loving it, but it made me wonder: how many people have dismissed the novel without reading, just because someone labeled this or that moment ‘nоncon’? How many people didn’t give those moments further thought, just accepting the popular opinion?

But back to the topic. Second stage starts after the rain scene, and lasts until the beginning of the domestic section of Puppet Manor arc. At this point, anyone who’s read my metas probably understands why I picked the rain scene as a divider: because after it, Wen Kexing knows with certainty how serious his feelings for Zhou Zishu are. If they weren’t that serious, he just wouldn’t have come back. He gets much, much physically clingier during this stage, but (again there are a couple of scenes I’ll address separately) most of it is just ‘coming on strongly’ – the increase in forcе is partly due to the fact that now Wen Kexing is actively pursuing Zishu with the goal of winning him over, but it is also a response to the fact that Zishu, however tentatively, begins to flirt back (think “now you’re blushing” scene; think also them running off to ‘spar’ during the journey to the Puppet Manor). Once again, most of Wen Kexing’s actions during this time are nothing to get pressed about. He’s just flirting with the guy he likes, the guy who, if nothing else, is at least attracted to him. (By the way, Wen Kexing knows this better than us readers do, because unlike us he is seeing Zhou Zishu’s actual reactions, without a filter of his unreliable af narration.)

Now, to the two questionable moments.

First is this one:

(chapter 32, tl wenbuxing)

I’m actually really excited that this ask gave me a reason to write up an analysis of this moment, because I had it in mind for a while but just never got the motivation. You see, the great thing about this one is that it exists in clear progression with another scene later in the novel, in chapter 45:

(tl wenbuxing)

Note the example of Zhou Zishu misreading Wen Kexing: in the first excerpt, he doesn’t believe the explanation given, and that disbelief is delivered in narrative voice. Yet, as the second excerpt shows, when allowed to, Wen Kexing does exactly what he said he would, and nothing more.

But, of course, touching someone’s clothes while they are asleep is still crossing boundaries, intention notwithstanding. Putting the question of why Wen Kexing doesn’t realize that aside for now, I want to point out that these two moments, taken together, show that he is correcting his behavior, that he’s learning. Somewhere in the beginning of this meta, I said that a lot of moments people find questionable are actually relationship nеgotiation, and this is a prime example: in the first excerpt, Wen Kexing scrеws up, goes about it wrongly, and Zishu stops him; in the second, Wen Kexing does it differently – clearly telegraphing his intent and giving Zhou Zishu the opportunity to react (“Zhou Zishu did not duck away” implies that he could if he chose to) – and Zhou Zishu lets him do what he wants. Basically, Wen Kexing is figuring out what’s allowed and what’s too much, all from Zhou Zishu’s nonverbal responses. Is this the best way to nеgotiate the terms of the relationship? No, ideally it should be done with words, or at the very least started with a slow, cautious version. But neither of them are normal, well-adjusted individuals, and the fact is, they do have a process of nеgotiation, and it works for them, and both of them are okay with the way they settle things – Wen Kexing is secure in the knowledge that if he goes too far Zhou Zishu will not silently suffеr it out of fear but give him a clear reaction (“he’s not afraid of me”, you know, one of those lines that recontextualized half the novel in my brain), while Zhou Zishu gets to not talk about feelings ever and set all of the ground rules in the relationship by throwing hands, which I think he finds a more comfortable mode of interaction. Yes, their process is mеssy and non-ideal, but again, returning to our topic: Zhou Zishu is participating in it on equal rights, and Wen Kexing backs off when stopped; it’s not Wen Kexing fоrcing himself on Zhou Zishu and Zhou Zishu suffеring harаssment. Just, I think they are doing alright, for two amoral bastards who are terrible at verbal communication.

The other moment is of course chapter 48 my beloved. There are two breаches of boundary in it, but both come from the same source: Wen Kexing grappling with nearly losing Zhou Zishu. He was already struggling with Zhou Zishu’s future dеath; he accepted the pain as a price for being with Zishu, but it hasn't been easy on him. And now, they got separated only for a short while, yet when Wen Kexing finds Zhou Zishu again, he is grievously injurеd – what state of mind does that put Wen Kexing in, realizing that he can lose Zishu not to the nails in two years, but just like this, at any time, without warning? Like, this is a description directly before Wen Kexing kisses Zhou Zishu:

(tl wenbuxing)

Notice how it focuses on how sickly and near-dеath Zhou Zishu looks?

Like, yes, him kissing Zhou Zishu without asking again isn’t a good thing, but he is terrified and hurting, and does something impulsive. A kiss after a near-dеath experience is a popular as hell trope, tbh, just because Wen Kexing is not crying or shouting “I could’ve lost you!” doesn’t make his actions worse than any other use of this trope in other media. Actually, since at this point mutual attraction between them is established, Wen Kexing is even doing better than some other instances of it I've seen.

The other breach is of course Wen Kexing being tempted to destroy Zhou Zishu’s martial arts so that the Great Shaman could try to save him. First things first, there’s no telling if he would actually try to do it, because he’s still hesitating when Zhou Zishu takes hold of his wrist. But other than that, as I wrote before, the main thing that stuck with me about this moment is that Zhou Zishu does not even verbally admonish Wen Kexing for thinking of this, because he gets that Wen Kexing wasn’t trying to hurt him but to save him. He gets that Wen Kexing cares.

Again, not saying Wen Kexing did nothing wrong, but ultimately I think what's most important is that Zhou Zishu doesn’t hold either of those moments against him.

He really doesn’t, because the next stage begins with Zhou Zishu agreeing to stay with Wen Kexing in Puppet Manor. Not just stay; explicitly, with Wen Kexing.

(chapter 51, tl wenbuxing)

(An aside, I find it hilarious that Zhou Zishu is so allergic to voicing a feeling that he literally waits for Wen Kexing to word it – correctly – for him, so he can then just agree.)

The following increase in intensity of Wen Kexing’s advances is rooted in this: Zhou Zishu chose to stay with him, despite his misconduct in ch.48 even. Before, he knew Zhou Zishu was attracted to him, but now, Zhou Zishu also indicated that it’s more than basic desire, that there’s conscious willingness on his part, that what they have matters to him too.

After this point, I don’t think there’s a reason to criticise Wen Kexing’s behavior, because while he’s pushy, it is all based on Zhou Zishu’s reciprocation. Again, this is their relationship nеgotiation, Wen Kexing trying things out and seeing what Zishu will allow. He doesn’t push too far either; for one, while he does tease and try to rile Zhou Zishu up, he is clearly waiting for Zishu’s actual agreement/permission to do anything sеxual, given that they shared a bed for months and the most he did was put a hand under Zhou Zishu’s shirt.

Now, I started this section (before getting utterly distracted by close-reading the scenes…) by saying there's a misconcеption in how Wen Kexing’s actions are perceived. Here's what I meant: there are takes that paint him anywhere from incurable hоrndog, to crаzy obsеssed stаlker (am I ever getting over that comment? not likely), to repeat s*x offеndеr, but when you look at his actual actions, there are only three moments when he genuinely oversteps (ch.17, ch.32, ch.48), and the rest of his advances… aren’t really anything objectionable? Yes, the flirting gets more insistent and physical over the course of the novel, but that's because Zhou Zishu has been responding to it.

And like I said, part of the reason for this misconcеption is that it's hard to clock both Wen Kexing’s motives and Zhou Zishu’s unreliable narration on first read; another part, perhaps, is that there’s a lot of shameless verbal flirting. But if you look at his actual actions, and where they come from (such as, Wen Kexing gets more handsy after – because – Zhou Zishu actually agrees to stay with him), the number of questionable moments is minimal (and those also have their explanations; doesn’t mean no wrong was done, but none of them were out of deliberate malicious intent, you know?), and that image of him that for some reason is so pervasive just... doesn’t hold up.

Oh, right, I didn’t elaborate on Wen Kexing’s problems with clocking boundaries yet, better get to it before the last part.

So, for starters, Wen Kexing’s experience with normal human relationships is… minimal. The last example of hеalthy romantic relationships he’d seen were his parents, when he was nine; the hеalthiest sеxual experiences he had were with courtesans after leaving the Valley, and the pre-paid, pre-agreed upon sеx helps nothing with navigating a regular relationship. Wen Kexing is kind of flying blind here.

This alone could result in him pushing boundaries too much; but the matter is compounded by the fact that his own boundaries are off-kilter. That is, of course, due to his experiences in the Ghost Valley. First, he uses detachment to keep his sаnity – this manifests both in coping by fictionalizing his trаuma, and in involuntarily bouts of dissоciation. Second, the way he refined his martial arts, honing himself into a weapon – the finale makes note several times of how Wen Kexing seems to not pay attention to his injuries, and of course he doesn’t: even a nicked or broken sword can still be used to kill, and for Wen Kexing, his body is a sword he uses. And third, of course, what happened with the previous Valley Master. The exact details remain veiled in the novel, but whether Wen Kexing was a viсtim of r*pe, forcеd or coеrcive, or chose to sаcrifice his bodily intеgrity for getting a position that allowed him to stage a coup, it clearly exacerbated his issues with detachment and mеssed up with his self-perception.

Wen Kexing does have, and enforcе, his boundaries – not letting anyone but Gu Xiang into his vicinity in the last 8 years in the Ghost Valley, lashing out in response to Zhou Zishu trying to mаnipulate him – yet he is surprisingly casual with physical contact: the first time he touches Zishu is actually catching the latter when he stumbles, and that’s before they exchanged a single word. Even aforementioned lashing out, the kiss, – he does it to Zishu, but he also does it to himself: at this point he doesn't yet realize he began to develop feelings, and in this specific instance he is also angry at Zishu, yet he doesn’t seem to have any compunctions about putting his mouth onto who knows what.

I think this casual disregard stems from Wen Kexing perceiving his body not as an inextricable part of his self, but as a tool at his disposal. Then it can be a weapon or a cоmmodity, and that would not reflect on him, which is very, you know, trаuma brain approach to take.

So, going back to the moment that prompted this section, Wen Kexing trying to take a look at Zhou Zishu’s nails while the latter is asleep. I don’t think the breach of boundary here is intentional on Wen Kexing’s part; it’s just that the understanding of body аutonomy is not intrinsic to him, and he doesn’t clock himself as overstepping until Zishu stops him.

Once again, this does not excuse the action; yet, important to keep in mind when analysing his behaviour.

Okay, I think all that’s left to talk about is the sеx scene from the extra. Almost there!

I wrote up some thoughts on it before, but not in the context we are discussing here; still, some points will be repeated.

So, to start with, I do not believe Wen Kexing’s crying breakdown was a ploy to get Zishu to have sеx with him. Many have taken his “But… every time I want to do this from now on… will I have to put on a crying act?” line to imply that this time was an act, but I think his actions in the morning were more noticing (and testing) the correlation. This is what works? This is what gets Zishu to let go of his reservations?

There are a few reasons I think the breakdown wasn’t premеditated. First, this description:

Wen Kexing was silent. [Zhou Zishu] waited for a long while. Feeling this a bit strange, he opened his eyes and tilted his head — gazing straight at him, the man still looked like his mind was wandering somewhere beyond the sky. (extra 1, tl chichi)

– is consistent with other instances of Wen Kexing dissоciating in text, and it makes sense, as this often happens when he thinks about loss – of his parents, usually, but on at least one occasion the possibility of Zishu’s dеath, – and that’s what the following conversation is about. Wen Kexing finally verbalizing his fear of losing Zhou Zishu is, of course, a character beat, as part of Wen Kexing’s arc is about voicing things he couldn’t before (think of him telling the owl story again and again until he finally can say what actually happened, what was hidden underneath the story, in the finale). And note also the timing of his breakdown: this conversation happens on the first night after Lord Seventh and Great Shaman left. If this was just a ploy for sеx, why not enact it sooner? Wen Kexing barely cared about doing it right in front of the Scorpion, would he care about someone being in the vicinity? On the other hand, to be genuinely vulnеrable, I think Wen Kexing would need to feel genuinely sаfe. It makes much more sense to presume that he was holding it together while strangers were around (one of whom Wen Kexing is on guard about, mind) and broke down as soon as they left.

So, yeah, I don’t think the crying was some kind of premеditated mаnipulation on Wen Kexing’s part.

Now, on Zhou Zishu’s side of things… the first thing we need to establish is that Zhou Zishu, to put it bluntly, has been bluebаlling himself over this man for about a year at this point. He is attrаcted to Wen Kexing, he enjoys being with him, and he was mostly holding back on account of his swiftly approaching dеath. He really, really wants to have sеx with Wen Kexing; he almost did it back in ch.65; so, don’t let his traditionally unreliable narration fool you.

His only hаng-up, at this point, is the issue of roles. Of course, one doesn’t need to have a reason for their preference, but sometimes there is a reason – and especially so in fiction, where characters are crafted, not grow by themselves the way we real people do. Wen Kexing’s preference, for example, fairly straightforwardly stems from his bad experience in the Ghost Valley (at some point he describes it as ‘suffеring humiliаtion’). But what about Zhou Zishu’s? He hadn’t tried both to compare; then, frankly speaking, the way he describes his previous experiences doesn’t make it sound like he particularly enjoyed them (he talks about those the way people do about a job they don’t love, tbh), so we can’t say he enjoys topping… And given how part of his arc in the novel is about freeing himself from the expectations and norms enforcеd by society – extricating himself from pоlitics, refusing to feign politeness, etc – I’m thinking his reservations are meant to be about the notions of mаsculinity as mаpped onto sеxual positions. (This of course means that, from the out-of-story perspective, it was set that he would let go of those reservations.)

Again, though, Zhou Zishu is holding back by a thread at this point. That thread is this bit of pride that he doesn’t want to be the one ‘giving in’, the one taking ‘weak’ position. And what makes him go “scrеw it”? Wen Kexing being “pitiful”. This soothes that pride of his because, well, can’t be the ‘unmanly’ one when the other guy is literally crying and bеgging, right?

Look, what I’m saying is, Zhou Zishu jumps onto the first excuse to give in without seeming like he gave in, that’s all.

So, in my opinion, this scene doesn’t feature any coеrcion or anything of the sort. Wen Kexing wasn’t being mаnipulative, and Zhou Zishu wasn’t unwilling (just needed an excuse).

As for Wen Kexing thinking about ‘putting on a crying act’ in the future, as this made him realise Zhou Zishu is weak to tears… I don’t find it particularly troubling, to be honest; not as a general concеpt, but for this particular couple. The element of ‘competing’ has been long established for their relationship, and specifically that they will use underhanded means to one-up each other; just as it has been established that both enjoy the plаy, and that they are well-matched enough that any advаntage is temporary, and most importantly that they won’t truly hurt each other or push too far.

So, to conclude: I think that the talk of ‘nоncon elements’ or ‘unhеalthiness’ or whatever of novel WenZhou is way overblоwn, and most of it comes from shallow reading. There are a few moments of questionable conduct, but they are (1) not painted as romantic, (2) from out-of-story perspective, serve the characterization, (3) from in-story perspective, are not seen as such a big deal by the character experiencing them, – which covers pretty much every avenue of possible criticism, I think. To be clear: it’s fine not to like those scenes, it’s fine not to like the novel over those scenes, and it’s also fine if your reading is different from mine. But I’m also, uh, real real tired of seeing those hard negative statements made without examining the text even a little.

––––––

- tyk meta masterpost -

[onigirimsby]

*cough you forgot to use the 'cut' button that actually puts things under the cut cough* yeah your bad at avoiding spoilers, also please tag that post as bnha manga spoilers. Your sorta right but majorly mixed things up and threw in an unconfirmed theory there so I guess that's a relief on staying partially unspoiled but oh boy I'm shook from seeing all that. Eh??? Started reading already? I was so sure you'd wait until the next episode. April fools, what a day to start.

(cont)I was trying to find out how to explain that safely and here we go. 'Moral greyness' isn't why people hate him. Sure that could be part of the reason he's not everyone's cup of tea, but the hate and debates going around are more like people having certain expectations they were expecting, and that doesn't happen. There's a few issues with what happened, a major spoiler, and a really difficult situation. With no way to win no matter what you do. There's consequences for every possible choice.

(cont)Horikoshi spared us one kind of pain, which if he didn't put it all in one chapter who knows how much and for how long we'd be feeling the effects from that. But we're still playing the long game, in a different way. Getting the pain in a different way, I wanna trust in Hawks though. Since Horikoshi loves cutting away and not doing what he's always done before to solidify something, leave openings and keep Hawks's actions ambiguous unless if narration explains it. Or monologue.

The cut shows up on my dash and on mobile too but idk how to make it show up on my actual blog :/ sorry about that! I tagged it :)

I hadn’t planned on reading the manga so soon! I was really gonna wait until this season ends, but I’m very impatient lol And you’re right! The more I read of the manga, the more I see how ambiguous he is! If I hadn’t been spoiled; if I’d encountered Hawks completely blind, I probably wouldn’t have trusted him lol And it’s exciting to hear that several chapters later, everything not yet completely resolved, so I can catch up and form some of my own opinions :) I do wanna trust in him too

[thelawyerthatwaspromised]

Analyzing Jon’s Speech Patterns around Dany and Sansa (cont.)

*Spoiler, this is very long.

Awhile back, I did a statistical analysis of how frequently Jon spoke when he was around Dany as compared to Sansa (and Jon with Dany versus Jon not with Dany) (x) and discovered the following:

Daenerys dominated the “speaking volume” in their shared scenes in Season 7.

Jon’s was on screen with Daenerys almost as often as he wasn’t...yet he spoke about 3x more frequently when Daenerys wasn’t in the scene.

While sharing far less screen time with Sansa in S7, Jon still spoke nearly as much dialogue in their shared scenes as he did with Daenerys in S7.

Now, I’m sure some might be wondering why this matters. Maybe the scripts just didn’t lend themselves to Jon going on long winded monologues. Maybe shouldn’t be “how much Jon spoke”, but “with what quality did Jon speak?”

This is focusing on the content of Jon’s dialogue in S7 to try to quantify what people who feel that Jon-Dany romance fell flat: it wasn’t bad acting, it was the deliberate withholding of pertinent personal information that defined the lack of depth in the build up to the Jon-Dany perceived romance.

First, I’ll describe my methods, then I’ll show some results!

1) I love statistics;

2) I am careful about how I use them;

3) If you’re reading this and think my methodology is unfair, go ahead and tell me why because I don’t like putting out predetermined outcomes

So here’s what I did...

I loaded Jon’s dialogue into textinspector.com

It’s a really useful tool that allows you to analyze text and speeches and gives scores for readability, textual diversity, and MTLD (measure of lexical diversity). MTLD essentially scores how measured language is used in a text. The higher the MTLD score, the more impersonal the text is and a lower scores means the text is more personal and casual. 

Basically you’d expect a scientific article to have a high MTLD score and a casual dialogue between normal people would score significantly lower. 

So from here on, remember that the higher the MTLD score, the more “formal” and less personal text is. It’s more thick with narrative. It’s deliberate and careful. It’s generally more disconnected with emotion.

I’m going to be showing the lines of text I included along with the scores. This isn’t perfect as the engine for some reason didn’t recognize certain points as whole sentences but it doesn’t matter for this exercise because I only focused on the words themselves, not the number of sentences spoken. Also, I did this manually so it’s entirely possible some words or lines were missed but I’m pretty sure I got it all.

Ok enough setup, here we go:

1) Jon’s interactions with Dany were very imbalanced quantitatively 

Dany spoke significantly more than Jon. I already knew this from the previous stats post I put up, but it was confirmed again. Here’s a word count summary:

First meeting word count: Jon 270 / Dany 505 Granting Dragonglass word count: Jon 22 / Dany 112 Cave Scene: Jon 83 / Dany 83 (!!! first even scene!) Drogon Petting: Jon 26 / Dany 122 (back to normal) My Queen scene: Jon 43 / Dany 97 We’re fucked scene: Jon 55 / Dany 150

Right away you can see the imbalance. The cave scene is the only one that wasn’t drastically imbalanced, but it ended with Dany demanding that Jon bend the knee, mirroring the demands Stannis set for Mance in order not to burn and for his people to survive. Eesh.

That speaks to the quantity of their interactions only. What about the quality?

[much more under the cut]

2) Dany started impersonal; ended with wearing her heart on her sleeve

Probably not too surprising whether you buy into a Jon-Dany relationship or whether you think Jon is manipulating Dany...but it’s nice to see empirical data backing this up anyway.

Here’s the rundown from Dany speaking to Jon:

A) First meeting: I split the first meeting into two parts; the beginning where Dany was just meeting Jon and it didn’t become completely antagonistic and the second half where Dany lectures Jon about what she’s gone through and tells him her personal story. It gets more personal...so I would have to guess that the MTLD score is higher for the first half and lower for the second half...the first half being more impersonal and the second half becoming more personal as she grows angrier with Jon.

Here is the written text.

Remember, if I’m correct, then narrative and formal text should score higher on the MTLD scale. The higher the number, the more impersonal the lines.

This is the MTLD score for the first half of the scene where Jon and Dany met.

A score of 94 indicates that this is very formal. Information dumping, asking rhetorical questions, etc.

This is the written text of the second half of the scene.

Passionate. Angry. Contentious. Much more personal. 

And the MTLD score? (should be lower)

About 75 now. Well, that makes sense. Let’s go on...

B) Granting the Dragonglass

This is Dany seemingly trying to stay impersonal with Jon after he reacts more or less silently to her inquiry about his brothers. The MTLD score should be higher. There’s nothing else very personal here.

94. The pattern holds. She made an initial inquiry but it went nowhere so the formality continued.

But Dany looks back. And that’s key.

We’re given a visual clue that she’s softening to him.

C. Dragonglass Cave / Drogon Petting

I put these two scenes together because I see them as Jon’s two biggest attempts at swaying Dany before the wight hunt. The Dragonglass cave is where Jon appeals to Dany’s reasoning. He uses some personal touches (like, literal physical touches) and gazing looks, but ultimately he approaches Dany with more words and information.

The Drogon petting scene is different because it’s almost entirely based on a gesture meant to impress Dany. Think of Quentyn Martell in the books trying to tame the dragons (and burning to a crisp). There’s no other reason for Jon to just waltz up to a dragon and pet it, especially when Dany had Drogon land and use the same stalking movements that have always been meant to intimidate people. Jon tries a gesture to influence Dany but I think it’s similar to the Dragonglass scene insofar as it’s a display of Jon being proactive in trying to sway Dany directly.

By this point, Dany is starting to become very attracted to Jon. This is perhaps the scene in which the ACTUAL equal coming together of Jon and Dany was the most possible. He approached her with the big picture. He tried to stress working together. He used what he could to show her that the enemy is real. As already pointed out, the dialogue word count is even for this scene. Dany appears genuinely interested as he’s showing her the cave. An alliance hangs in the balance.

The MTLD score should be dropping at this point if I’m right.

54. She’s speaking “to” Jon, not just “at” Jon. She’s trying to figure him out. She’s taking more time to explain herself. She’s asking meaningful questions. This is what happens to an MTLD score in this kind of text, it drops. It’s less academic, more personal.

“I’ve seen you staring at her good heart.”

“Ser Davos gets carried away.”

D) Jon leaves Dragonstone / “My Queen” scene

Jon’s got Dany really invested in him. There’s really not much more to say. Here’s the written text, and the MTLD score.

39 MTLD. You get it now, right? The more she gets wrapped up in Jon Snow, the more personal she’s getting, the more she’s giving him a glimpse into her soul and it’s reflected in this MTLD score that I’m using as an impartial empirical measure. I am quantifying for you what we see on screen; Dany is getting more personal with Jon as the season goes on.

6) Dragonpit and We Sail Together

I’ll save you the suspense, the pattern holds for the Dragonpit scene and the We Sail Together scene.

Dany conclusions: Starts out trying to talk tough...softens...falls in love...reveals everything to Jon.

3) Jon started informally and then completely shut it down

Yes, it’s completely true. Jon and Dany had sex. But that’s about all they shared mutually. Seriously. Just wait until you see this.

The first time Jon meets Dany, he is speaking passionately, from the heart, and with honesty. His MTLD score should be low then, right?

MTLD score of 47 for the first scene. Keep this in mind. 

Wanna see something funny? This is all the dialogue Jon Snow spoke 1 on 1 to Dany for the ENTIRETY of the rest of the season.

This is as personal as Jon gets with Dany the rest of the way. I see tons of narration. I see passive participation in the conversation. So, again, if this holds then the MTLD score should be pretty high, right? Remember, my theory is Jon spoke passionately and personally and then learned that he can’t do that and that he has to be a passenger. So his score of 47 from the initial meeting should be at least somewhat exceeded here.

*edit note* the screen cap above doesn’t have about 3 sentences but the MTLD score below includes those*

Almost 90. There it is. Jon spoke one on one with less personally than he did when they first spoke as complete strangers. He was simply observational and/or narrating the things around him. “You weren’t gone long” - “you’re still here” -etc. 

This is also where I have to point out that Jon spoke just 40 sentences  (give or take...remember, some of the punctuation messed up the sentence counter) to Dany one on one after his initial meeting with her.

And let’s dive deeper in WHAT Jon actually ever says to her.

This is where I ask you to play a game. Forget that you might know what Dany says in response in these scenes. Try and figure out what Jon is talking about just by reading Jon’s dialogue.

Something’s amazing, Tyrion likes to talk, Jon didn’t expect something from her, but thanked her. Hey! We know something about the Children and the First Men and working together and that Jon’s people won’t accept Dany. We know there are some gorgeous beasts. She went somewhere, and Davos exaggerates. 

Uhhh ok...this is going well.

Jon’s really sorry about something and regrets going. He thanks Dany, then not Dany. And.....WHAT THE FUCK SHE’S HIS QUEEN NOW? People are going to see what she is - that she isn’t like everyone else - and someone unreliable told her something. And that Tyrion said they were fucked and Jon agrees.

Epic love story.

Do you see what I mean when I say that Jon didn’t reveal anything to Dany? He held back any meaningful feedback except in 4 instances. 

His most passionate dialogues were: 1) Their first meeting when he says why he won’t bend the knee, 

2) explaining the need to fight together in the dragonglass cave, 

3) on the dragonstone beach where he asks her not to use her dragons to melt castles and burn cities, 

and 

4) pleading with Dany to allow him to leave because it’s the best chance for the world to survive extinction. 

And true to form, Jon’s  passionate pleas get a lower MTLD score of 68. This is real!Jon and it matches up with his MTLD scores in other settings.

Conclusion: Jon tried to engage with Dany as equals and as potential partners. He was discouraged by her conduct and then shut down everything. His dialogue became colder and more impersonal as their supposed love story was meant to be “heating up”. Their perceived connection is based entirely on visual cues.

4) Jon’s behavior with Sansa is significantly more balanced and personal

Just another Jonsa lyin’ about Jonsa again! But seriously, it’s empirically true.

Here’s the word count overview:

Jon-Sansa reunion word count: Jon 176 / Sansa 170 Tent scene before BotB: Jon 133 / Sansa 237 Battlements: Jon 86 / Sansa 47

The word count pattern holds in S7. Jon and Sansa speak about equally following the pardons of Ned Umber and Alys Karstark, Sansa speaks more words when Jon seeks her counsel about the scroll from Tyrion, Jon speaks more words when he’s telling Sansa that he’s leaving for  Dragonstone.

It’s an interesting side observation that the word counts are pretty even but I’m more interested in the MTLD scores for Jon and Sansa.

Remember, the lower the score, the more personal the dialogue has been as a pattern. 

Jon and Sansa should be scoring very low in S6 - Jon should be scoring higher in S7 because (as I’ve written) I think he’s intentionally trying to distance himself from Sansa due to uncomfortable feelings about her role in his life. 

First, the reunion. 

Jon’s score first, then Sansa’s.

54. Very personal. Intimate.

47 from Sansa. Very personal. Intimate. Their MTLD scores are also close to one another indicating a mirroring.

Now how about the tent scene? 

It’s contentious. Sansa is begging Jon to listen to her. Jon becomes agitated at Sansa’s protests. Sansa’s MTLD score should be lower than Jon’s but they both should be lower. First, Jon.

69 (nice) or 70. A little elevated, as expected. But still lower than the 90 Jon displays with Dany. What about Sansa?

55. Again, slightly elevated but lower than Jon’s. And, AGAIN, even though they’re disagreeing, the numbers are far closer between Jon and Sansa indicating that they are about as equally emotionally engaged in the conversation.

How about the scene on the battlements?

The pattern holds again! In case you’re wondering, Jon speaks with an isolated MTLD score of 52 and Sansa a score of 55. Incredibly personal. Emotional mirroring. Equal emotional engagement.

*EDIT FORGOT TO ORIGINALLY INCLUDE JON’S MTLD SCORE FOR THE S7 E1 SCENE WHERE I BELIEVE HE’S TRYING TO EMOTIONALLY DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM SANSA*

AND YES THE PATTERN HOLDS AGAIN!

It’s no accident either.

Jon and Sansa are consistently in the 50′s with each other and that number elevates with everyone else. Jon is usually in the upper 60′s- 70′s for scenes excluding Sansa and Dany while Sansa averages in the 70′sand goes up to even the 90′s in scenes without Jon.

Let’s play the “can you understand what’s going on in the scene just by Jon’s dialogue” game again. This time with Sansa.

They used to eat some particular vegetables. They shouldn’t have left. They couldn’t have known something probably because they were children. Sansa was occasionally awful, but Jon was no fun as a kid either. He insists he has nothing to forgive but then forgives her. They have bad ale with the Night’s Watch. He must watch over her or a ghost will murder him. They can’t stay there, though, because something really bad happened. The Boltons seem to be where they want to go. He doesn’t have an army either. I guess there’s someone available but they’re not there to serve him. He’s tired of fighting. Damn. He’s fought a lot. He’s killed brothers? Wildlings? Men that he admires? A young boy? He lost, too? This guy’s been through some shit.

Someone has a new dress...oooooooo. He’s stuttering over his words. Then he’s thanking Sansa for something. Davos saved Jon and has a reputation because Davos served Stannis. But there’s no time.  For what? Well apparently to get more men. Someone’s overconfident. Jon has been probably doing more than playing with broomsticks. Ok this is an argument. Oh, it’s about Ramsay Bolton. A bad character, but Jon believes he’s fought worse. Jon doesn’t want to give up on Rickon. Is Rickon a drug addict? Anyway... 

He’s apparently getting obvious advice now. He still is being told he needs to get a larger force but he doesn’t think it’s  possible. Black sea creatures are not coming to help. He won’t let this bad man touch Sansa again. He’ll protect her, he promises. And now he’s decorating her room and making her bed. He’s not a Stark and Sansa is in charge of WF. She deserves it and they’re there because of her. Jon lost the battle until Sansa brought the Vale - and they came because of Sansa. Now apparently a Baelish guy had previously sold Sansa to the bad people. Jon insists that Sansa and he trust each other. And Father promised...something? Hmmm.

But do you see what I mean by the quality of Jon’s dialogue completely blowing away the quality of his dialogue with Daenerys? Either it was an accident and they didn’t realize they had Dany speaking over Jon repeatedly and that Jon had completely passive and DIFFERENT speech patterns than he’s displayed anywhere else (speech patterns completely devoid of meaning or exposition) - or- this was done on purpose. I’m, again, betting on this being intentional.

Overall conclusions:

A lot of people have called the J/D romance weak...and I think it’s intentionally written weak.

Jon is demonstrably different after the first scene with Dany.

Specifically this moment.

This is when, in my estimation, Jon made his judgment of Dany. He never ever spoke like this to her again...and really he hardly said anything at all from this point. Especially in moments when he was isolated with Dany.

He let her talk. He let her and her followers tell him what she wanted to hear. He even copied her own lines. 

"People thought dragons were gone forever but here they are. Perhaps we should all be examining what we think we know." ~Dany, ep 3

"I never thought that dragons would exist again. No one did. The people who follow you know that you made something impossible happen. Maybe that helps them believe that you can make other impossible things happen." ~ Jon, ep 4

And he completely allowed himself to become a passenger in their conversations judging by both the word counts and the quality of his conversation.

I’ll leave you with this. These are the lines spoken by Jon alone with Daenerys the rest of the season.

The skepticism of the Jon-Dany romance isn’t just plausible, it’s quantifiable. 

It’s one-sided and it’s setting up a pretty dramatic final season.

[gascon-en-exil]

FE16 Black Eagles (Edelgard) Liveblogging

Chapters 5-7. The plot’s still basically the same, but a different army and different supports...plus some stuff I noticed a while back that I’ve been forgetting to comment on.

As much as her character continues to get on my nerves (see below), Bernadetta is proving to be incredibly useful on the battlefield. Part of that is just how versatile bows are, but her Crest is basically Adept from Jugdral and Tellius and as such is more noticeable than the small boosts to damage or healing that most other Crests provide. She’s a cavalier now and well on her way to bow knight.

The Eagles casters have just been getting even better, and I haven’t even gotten Linhardt to Warp yet. On a whim I decided to indulge Edelgard’s budding talent and make her a monk for a while, and though I’ve since switched her over to lord she’s not that bad as a magic user even though her STR is clearly higher. Hubert’s budding talent nets him the Frozen Lance combat ability, which is absurdly powerful and gives him a legitimate reason to keep one equipped. Also useful for his eventual move to dark knight, since male casters have no choice but to go hybrid if they don’t want to stay in advanced classes. 

Caspar is still a less sturdy Dedue, while Petra fulfills roughly the same role as Felix while offering more overall versatility in weapons options. I’ve been keeping up with her axe and lance ranks in classes, so she can switch to a flying class later on if I need one. I’m making Sylvain a great knight just so I can see if they’re worth using at all, but he’s well suited to get there from cavalier/paladin and he’s since found his footing as a mobile tank.

The Eagles are much more stingy with paralogues; I’ve only gotten Ingrid and Dorothea’s so far. It’s noticeably gayer at the end since Ingrid gives Dorothea a ring, but that’s about it. Are most of the Eagles paralogues in Part 2?

Interesting to note that the Deer occupy the same position for the other two houses in both inter-house battles, while the Lions and Eagles switch places. The professors leading each change really gives that initial house choice a Pokémon feel, but overall it’s easy to tell even early in the story that the Deer are the awkward third party to these conflicts. Makes me even more curious to see how it plays out from their perspective; I’ll be disappointed if Claude or someone else doesn’t have a quip about feeling left out of the “Battle of the Eagle and Lion” from the name alone.

Story/Character observations

I really like the stylized artwork and introductory narration for each month. They explain the names of the months and illustrate the passing seasons. I rather wish there was a snowy version of the monastery for use during the winter months, to better match the climate which seems to tend more toward short summers and long harsh winters. It makes me think of one of the underrated details of Path of Radiance, where the maps reflect the passage of the seasons as the story progresses.

I almost forgot about Jeritza completely, and little surprise why since there’s almost nothing to him. Unlike with Tomas they didn’t bother to make him not suspicious in the slightest. Unless the Part 2 paralogue explaining the Death Knight is incredibly fascinating (I doubt it) I don’t get why some people are so into him and want him to be recruitable/a romance option. And why does he sound catatonic whenever he talks?

Speaking of me not understanding fandom tastes at all, Bernadetta does not improve on further exposure. Most of her supports still involve her screaming and running away from everyone, and her abusive backstory is more nonsensical than anything. Why would her father think that tying her to a chair, or dragging her from her room so forcibly that she hurt herself struggling, would teach her to be a good wife? Being that Adrestians are the Germans of this setting I’m reminded of how those people turned my favorite childhood conte into a macabre tale of a woman mutilating her daughters’ feet in an attempt to marry them off, so maybe this is just a strange cultural thing. Either way I really don’t get the hype.

It’s surprising how much major story content got relegated to supports in this game, but it’s been popping up in Edelgard and Hubert’s supports as well as in Rhea’s C, the last of which I got without trying very hard after dumping some extra gifts on her.

One of the many critiques I’ve read about Edelgard is that her canon bisexuality has more to do with Avatar worship (à la Rhajat) than genuine sexual preference, and while she does seem overly willing to share with Byleth I was pleased to note that there’s more to her attraction to women than that. Dorothea outright propositions her in their B support - as Dorothea does to basically everyone - and Edelgard isn’t opposed to the idea. Dorothea has some pretty good stuff in general; she forces Caspar to engage in incest roleplay (well, Silas went there in Fates...), and in her Bernadetta support she reveals that she’s not above fighting back at men who’ve tried to assault her.

Ferdinand/Linhardt ends at B, but it’s so unexpectedly companionable that I could see them having a paired ending if they’d gotten an A support. What a shame.

Hubert has been growing on me a bit. It helps once it’s understood that he comes from a long line of evil chancellors and (per his Edelgard support) decided from an early age to own that role as hard as he could, hence the vampiric look and evil laugh and constant death threats. He does also soften a little here and there. One bit with the story though: in a scene at the end of Chapter 5 he says something to the effect that he’ll have to take matters into his own hands for Edelgard’s sake, and it’s in the next chapter where Flayn turns up missing. Did he arrange that, and/or planting Monica/Kronya? The Flame Emperor is the one to show up at the end of Chapter to call off the DK, so was Edelgard not pulling the strings of that particular plot?

[another-music-page]

Kendrick Madness (cont.)

ELITE EIGHT EXPLANATIONS

K-DOT Bracket: Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst vs. u

All these picks were very hard, but this one was especially so. I love both of these tracks, for the storytelling aspect, the production, the rawness that Kendrick brings to them in such different ways, the nuance, etc. Sing About Me has that one part in the first verse (you know the part) when the narrator is literally silenced by gunshots, and my heart sinks every time. But overall, I feel like u is just a more compelling track because of a few reasons. First, I love the woozy feel of the production. I also can feel how pissed off at himself Kendrick is; it’s a very visceral song. Finally, I also love how it plays into the whole of TPAB, because directly following u is Alright, a song of self-affirmation, which is an awesome reprieve from the depression expressed on the previous track.

WINNER: u

COMPTON Bracket: m.A.A.d city vs. The Blacker the Berry

This one was tough, too. The Blacker the Berry is one of the songs that never, ever fails to get me hype. The beat is so hard-hitting, Kendrick’s flow and delivery are extremely blunt and intense, and the reveal at the end of the song is absolutely incredible, so incredible that he has to put in almost a full minute of music so we have a chance to fully process it. However, m.A.A.d city is undoubtedly one of Kendrick’s most iconic songs. Everything about it is amazing, the beat (or I guess beats), the storytelling aspect of it, the way he manipulates his voice to show his different mindsets, I could go on and on. Whenever I hear that first “if Pirus and Crips all got along”, I know that I’m in for an amazing five and a half minutes.

WINNER: m.A.A.d city

BLACK HIPPY Bracket: These Walls vs. Institutionalized

This bracket was interesting because it’s the only one where the last two tracks going against each other are on the same album. Honestly, my first-choice instinct was These Walls. I love the smooth sound of this track, and the storytelling on it is awesome, especially the tie-in to Sing About Me (which, if you don’t know about, I’d recommend listening to the Dissect podcast episode talking about it). However, when I sat down to make the decision, I realized that I absolutely love the off-kilter feel of the production of Institutionalized. There’s a swing to it that keeps me hooked throughout the entirety of the track. I also love the Snoop feature, the complex lyricism of the verses, and Bilal’s blunt, straightforward chorus. Institutionalized is definitely one of the most underrated songs from TPAB, and I love it a lot.

WINNER: Institutionalized

DUCKWORTH Bracket: HiiiPoWeR vs. How Much a Dollar Cost?

Before this bracket, I forgot how much I love HiiiPoWeR. The beat is absolutely infectious, Kendrick’s flow is captivating, and above everything else, the song is meant to inspire everyone to stand up for what they believe in, name-dropping very important black leaders, including Huey Newton, a founder of the Black Panther Party (also the So Appalled reference in the chorus makes me very happy). With all that said, though, the overall narrative of How Much a Dollar Cost?, both within the album and in and of itself is too irresistible not to pick. The production stays interesting throughout because it’s never too predictable, and the story of Kendrick finding out just how much a dollar really costs is compelling, start to finish, with the Ronald Isley feature tieing everything up with a beautiful bow. Also, it was Obama’s favorite song from TPAB, so that’s also a plus.

WINNER: How Much a Dollar Cost?

The next post will finish out my explanations of the Final Four and Last Two choices I made.

[islam-for-girls]

Assalam Alykom.. can we talk about halal relationships and marriage.? I'm a revert and don't know much about it.. May Allah bless you for creating this blog 😁❤

As Salamu Alaikum,Sister ♥

Ma Shaa Allah, thatbrings so much joy and happiness to my heart Alhamdulilah ♥ May Allah SWTgive you abundant blessings and Jannah, Ameen ♥ And thank you for the amazing compliment thatmade my day ♥ Alhamdulilah.

In Islam marriage isthe only institute where intimacy, sexually, is allowed. This does not mean atall though, that arranged marriages are allowed, in fact they are probably disliked if it will cause dislike for the couple after marriage!Please read the following link for more information about arranged marriages inIslam: ♥http://islam-for-girls.tumblr.com/post/72562276685/assalamu-alaikum-sis-can-you-give-me-more

In Islam when you havesomeone you like you may spend time with them in the company of others, in orderto get to know them, but this is only with the intention of marriage, and AllahSWT Knows Best:

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said, “Go and look at her, because that is more likely to create love between you.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1087; classed as hasan by al-Nasaa’i, 3235)The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said:“No man is alone with a woman but the Shaytaan will be the third one present.”(Tirmidhi)

Marriage is an institutewhich demands more than sexual gratification, it involves financial support,children and many things! If someone were only interested in sexual aspectsabout you, it would be easy to date you and then dump you, but if someone isinterested in you for more than just sexual reasons, and they truly loveyou, they will do anything it takes to keep you healthy, happy, provide foryou, and seek his linage through you. May Allah Grant the females of this Ummahgood spouses and may they be good spouses, Ameen ♥

“O young men, whoever among you can afford to get married, let him do so, andwhoever cannot afford it, let him fast, for that will be a shield for him.” (Al-Bukhaari, 4778; Muslim, 1400)

The best way to lovesomeone is in the institute of marriage, where if that person is God Fearing,will abide by the rules of treating his wife well and will not commit Zina, ashe is prohibited from looking at other non-Mahram women.

People who are not inthe institute of marriage have nothing formal to tie them down, and may usedishonesty to keep their girlfriend/boyfriend around until they get a ‘bettercatch’. Using humans in this way is emotionally abusive, and haram in Islam. InIslam we should not hurt our fellow humans!

“[CONT] God prescribedkindness towards everything…” (Muslim, 5055)

So to sum things up,here are some tips: ♥1) If you like someone:You can make it known to them, but also make it known that you are only a marriagetype girl and you won’t be just throwing yourself around for anyone’s ‘abusive’pleasure! (Say it kindly though) 2) If they don’t agree to marriage but say they only want to date:No, sister, no. If you really like the guy, the best way to test if he is worthit and if he likes you is to not engage further in the relationship. He will come after you in shaa Allah,if he truly loves you AND IF ALLAH SWT WILLS HIM TO! 3) You are not sure if someone you are promised to is serious about you, orwill continue to marriage:Pray Istikhaarah! LetAllah SWT show you the way ♥ In shaa Allah Ameen ♥

I hope in shaa Allah I have answered your question!If you have any queries further let me know, in shaa Allah ♥

Thank you for your amazing question! ♥

[dooareyastudy]

What I watched in April 2022

L’année dernière à Marienbad, Alain Resnais, 1961 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

This film is too beautiful, and by that I mean that it’s too beautiful for such an empty story. Where is the progression in the narration? Where is the passion??? The dialogues felt so bland and empty. But the picture itself is so beautiful! The contrast, the travelings!! I love so many aspects of the movie : the narration is nearly hypnotic, the atmosphere, the plays on movement. But it’s empty beauty (just like the female character, omg how could they make her soooo empty and cold?)

Contes du hasard et autres fantaisies, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2022 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I am not a fan of the “different stories in one movie” type of things. I don’t see the point of it, if nothing at all is connecting the stories within the movie and it’s the case here imo. 

However, I am a fan of slow movies, where the focus is more on dialogues than action. But even on that regard, the movie didn’t do it for me. It lacks poetry, magic even (bc the term is important in the first short story). The dialogues and characters felt bland, superficial and cold. I see (or I think I do) what was the goal here but I think the movie misses it. Overall cute but forgetable. 

Plumes, Omar El Zohairy, 2021 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

An Egyptian movie I went to watch out of curiostiy, not expecting much. I really enjoyed the contrast between the intense, violent and dirty realism of the movie and the foolishness of the main trope. Even if I didn’t enjoyed every single thing, I overall found the movie to be really interesting.

Swallow, Carlo Mirabella-Davis, 2019 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

I watched it on youtube (you can probably still find it on Arte’s youtube channel). I really liked the movie, especially the pace of the narration and the attention paid to the colours and lightning. A brutal and emotional story. 

Retour à Reims [fragments], Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2021 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

A striking documentary : the narration consists of parts of an essay by Didier Eribon being read and illustrated by archive footage. The unusual format was pleasant and I really enjoyed the tone and the political stance of it. 

Vortex, Gaspard Noé, 2021 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

As I said before, I didn’t enjoyed it much. The split screen was quite cool, showcasing the juxtaposition of two existences rather than a common life. But other than that, it felt devoyed of nuances in the emotions ; of course, it’s an emotional story but it felt cold and awkward and not well put together (probably because of Noé’s usual themes like drug addiction being thrown in there without any reason and because of the use of improvisation). 

Ring, Hideo Nakata, 1998 |  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

A classic in terms of horror movies ! I really enjoyed seeing it in theater.