#Definitely correct quotes

[ask-synth-safehouse]

Ritsu: "Kill them with kindness" Wrong. PENIS EXPLOSION 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[sh1tpostingonmain]

Pixie: do you ever think about how in fall we celebrate the beauty in death and yet death is still a societal taboo

The Mop: no i just go around scaring people

[svsss-fanon-exposed]

Examining SVSSS Canon: 1/∞

SHEN YUAN'S PIDW-READING TIMELINE

One question and argument that comes up frequently in SVSSS fandom is, how long did Shen Yuan read PIDW for? Was he following it from early serialization, or did he simply binge everything toward the end?

This question isn't exactly one that is easy to answer either-- considering that there are actually various direct quotes that could be read in contradiction to one another regarding it.

Based on the information in the novel, we are left with several potential theories as to Shen Yuan's reading timeline. In this post, I will be presenting these theories, along with supporting evidence from the novel.

Theory #1: Shen Yuan picked up PIDW and binge-read it from beginning to end for the first time in 20 days before dying

This theory is directly supported with a quote:

He’d spent twenty days binging the novel from start to finish, so he had clean forgotten that whump-filled arc of pointless abuse that covered Luo Binghe’s beginnings at the sect, okay?! (7 Seas, Ch. 1)

In the original text, this line is 他可是看了二十天才看完的. Broken down, this is literally "he indeed read it (他可是看了), it took him twenty days (二十天才）to read the whole [novel] (看完的)."

*note 可是 may also be equivalent to "however" or "but" in some circumstances, but is generally used to provide emphasis.

However, depending on where one puts the emphasis and pairs syllables in the last part, there could be different interpretations. If read as 看 完的 it implies "read the entire thing," but if read as 看完 的，it implies "finished reading." I read it the first way, but I don't know if that is the "most correct," so there is some ambiguity there.

It is also implied later that PIDW was already very long and full of plot holes when he began reading it:

So, if back when he’d just opened this baffling book, this Proud Immortal Demon Way, which was so full of landmines that it was practically high art, to the point that those landmines had become its very style... He would definitely have grabbed the brick that was the entire fifty-volume set and showed them what their brains looked like when splattered across the ground. (7 Seas, Ch. 21)

Though this could be related to the final length of the novel, and the "fifty-volume set" is likely exaggeration or metaphor. In one of his forum posts, he also says:

I understand what OP is feeling. I’ve been reading this novel lately, and it’s so damn long—long and pumped full of filler... ...All my fellow readers have already roasted the setting for the last three hundred thousand words, so I won’t say more on that. (7 Seas, Ch. 26)

This part where he says he has been reading the novel lately, implies that he began not too long ago, rather than following it for years. Of course, Airplane already at this point finds his username and comments familiar:

His eyes automatically highlighted that familiar ID “Peerless Cucumber.” (7 Seas, Ch. 26)

So it could also be said that he is downplaying his dedication with that statement. He does, however, state that the other readers have roasted the setting, but doesn't mention that he himself has done so. Additionally, the "three-hundred thousand words" mentioned may refer to the comment section, not the novel itself, so there is still some ambiguity to that point.

Theory #2: Shen Yuan has been reading PIDW long-term throughout serialization

There are multiple quotes directly supporting this theory:

He could guarantee it on all the youth and frustrations he’d wasted following this twenty-million-word-plus serialization for years. (7 Seas, Ch. 6)

and

Everything that had happened before was as unto smoke. From today forth, as he walked the jianghu, he would use this ID, which had been plastered all over the comments section for years. (7 Seas, Ch. 9)

The second quote may refer to comments sections on Zhongdian literature in general, but the first one is more directly referring to PIDW. There is a slim but unlikely possibility that he referrs to the years he has spent within the PIDW universe, rather than just reading the novel. That possibility is made even less likely by the following quote:

Next, let a veteran reader of this novel, Shen Yuan, omit the countless fanservice-y details and concisely summarize the million-word epic for everyone… (7 Seas, Ch. 1)

Where it refers to him as a veteran reader of PIDW specifically (and this TL is consistent with the original implications). It's unlikely for him to be referred to as a veteran reader if he had only been reading the novel for twenty days.

As one can see, if you go by either of the above theories, there are direct conflicts and contradictions, and arguments to be made either way. This could be written off as inconsistency. However, there are two additional options and theories which can resolve those conflicts.

Theory #3: Shen Yuan had been a casual reader of PIDW for years, but rushed to finish reading it through to the end in 20 days

One possibility is that Shen Yuan had been reading PIDW casually over several years, but wasn't caught up by the time his death drew near. Shen Yuan's cause of death is a matter for another post, so I won't discuss it here, but the following quote lends some support to this reading:

“Dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel!” With his dying breath, Shen Yuan spat this final curse. Who could have imagined that an upstanding young man like him—who had properly purchased the website’s VIP currency and read the novel’s official version—would find himself persevering before his untimely death to finish a novel so stallion, so money-grubbing and overly padded, that it left him speechless with rage? How could he not curse? (7 Seas, Ch. 1)

Here, it seems that Shen Yuan may have been aware of his upcoming death, and so he may have wanted to hurry and finish reading the novel before he died. In the original text, the phrase is: 临终之前坚持看完的, which can be broken down as "before his untimely/sudden death (临终之前), he persisted to finish reading [the novel] (坚持看完的）, though this may also be read as "he persisted in reading the entire novel," depending on how one puts emphasis in the sentence (same issue as the first quote in theory 1). 临终 means literally "near the end," but is a term for death or one's deathbed. Another way to translate 临终之前 would be "before meeting his end."

So, because he was persisting/persevering in finishing the novel (either the whole thing or just to the end), it may be that he expected his incoming death, or that he simply wished to persist in reading the novel to its end and his death still occured unexpectedly.

坚持 implies some level of urgency or steadfastness, but it may not refer to reading the novel quickly, but simply dedication to slogging through all of the bad porn and reading it to the end, rendering this theory a bit shaky.

Theory #4: Shen Yuan had been reading PIDW since early serialization, but re-read the entire thing in the 20 days before his death

This theory would resolve all potential conflicts-- making it true that he both followed PIDW's serialization for years and read the whole novel in 20 days. As to why he re-read the full novel, perhaps it was because the final chapter had been posted or was coming up, and he wished to reread from the start in preparation for that-- this could also drive him into an even greater rage about the contents of the novel and how repetitive and filler-heavy it is, as this would become more and more obvious on a binge-reread from start to end.

One weakness in this theory, though (pointed out by @verycharismaticdragon) is that if he read it twice, it would be less likely for him to completely forget details as mentioned in the first quote. Not entirely impossible-- one can still forget details even after multiple read-throughs, but just less likely to completely forget.

Theory #5: When Shen Yuan began reading PIDW, he binged all available chapters in twenty days, before following it consistently afterwards.

(theory courtesy of @verycharismaticdragon)

While this would not be particularly likely if the quote from theory 1 and the quote from theory 3 were linked together, those two quotes don't necessarily have to be linked-- it's possible that Shen Yuan would have binged the entire novel as it was at the time he found it in twenty days, then decided to continue reading as it updated, persisting and persevering because he wanted to reach the end despite the novel's trashiness, and then ended up dying.

Particularly, this makes a lot of sense in the context of the following quote:

Even though this famous Lord Cucumber spewed criticism constantly and without end in “Great Master” Airplane’s comments sections, his subscription payments and demands for updates never waned. (7 Seas, Ch. 26)

If Shen Yuan hadn't been caught up with the novel (as theory 3 would state) then it wouldn't make quite so much sense for him to be demanding updates, and if he hadn't been reading it for even a full month, there was no reason for him to make consistent subscription payments.

*******

Ultimately, which theory you choose to believe depends somewhat on the way you view canon-- whether the seemingly contradicting statements were intentional, or whether they were merely a consistency error.

These are the only theories that I can think of, but feel free to add any additional theories + support quotes and analysis if you have them!

One final note, in regards to WHEN DID SHEN YUAN START READING?

If it's true that Shen Yuan began reading PIDW earlier in serialization, how early was that point? Was he reading it from the beginning, or did he start later?

I personally believe it was later. Though he says he was following the novel for years, that could mean anywhere from two to four years since the total serialization of PIDW took place over four years:

How could someone who’d cursed “dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel” remember ancient content from the beginning of a serialized novel that had been running for four years and covered an in-narrative span of two hundred years? (7 Seas, Ch. 1)

While it's hard to place exactly when he started reading, it seems that Shen Yuan began to read PIDW before the Immortal Alliance Conference arc, as he discusses the novel's online performance before that point:

Before this event, Proud Immortal Demon Way’s performance online had been steadfastly lukewarm. But once the Immortal Alliance Conference Arc debuted, the reviews, comments, subscriptions, and tips all soared into the heavens. It wasn’t only because from that point forward, “Great Master” Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky abandoned the last of his already minimal moral principles... there was another important “it” factor. It was, in fact, the main element that had first compelled Shen Qingqiu to follow the novel until the end. The demonic beasts! (7 Seas, Ch. 4)

It also seems that he wasn't entirely dedicated to reading the novel before then. However, he may have caught up with the serialization a bit later-- for example, if he started reading just before the conference, he would have known that it was a little-known novel before, and been able to watch the rise in popularity in real time even if he himself hadn't caught up to the conference just yet, before only deciding to dedicate to reading the full novel once he caught up to that part.

There are many possibilities and uncertainties in regards to Shen Yuan's reading timeline, but I do think there is enough information here to form decently solid theories-- so I will leave it to my readers to decide, now that the information has been presented, which ones they think are most likely and which they wish to use in their analysis.

[sephirthoughts]

crisis core but if cloud was aware of his cuteness:

zack: hey, tseng, i forgot my wallet at the office. can i borrow ten gil for lunch?

tseng: you being irresponsible with your things is not my problem. i hope going hungry teaches you a valuable lesson

cloud: tseng-gege, can i—

tseng: here's my wallet take whatever you need

zack:

later on the helicopter to modeoheim:

cloud pouting and rubbing his ass: ow this seat is so hard

zack still mad about lunch: why don't you sit on tseng-gege's lap

tseng: wouldn't be any better

zack:

zack: OH GOD GROSS

after they crash in modeo ravine:

zack: fuck! my leg's broken!

tseng: you SOLDIERs are supposed to be tough. use a cure materia and walk it off

cloud leans against tseng: sorry, tseng-gege. i'm a little dizzy

tseng scoops him up like a princess: i better carry you. can't take any chances with your health

zack: what about his rifle and gear?

tseng: good thinking. make sure you grab those. and pick up the pace, will you?

zack: a̵g̴s̸h̴f̷l̸a̶g̶s̴h̸f̶g̷a̵k̷

later outside the mako extraction facility:

cloud shivers: wow it's pretty cold up here

tseng: zack you can handle a few hundred enemies on your own, right?

zack: well not—

tseng: excellent. take care of this and meet us in town afterward. we'll be at the hot spring baths

zack: COME ON, MAN

years later in nibelheim:

tifa: not goin' too fast for you, am i?

zack: of course not. we're just trying to pace ourselves

cloud: actually, my feet kind of hurt

sephiroth turns around: your feet hurt? you are a shinra trooper. when we are in the field, you represent all of us. you should—

cloud: -takes off his helmet-

sephiroth: —be looked after with the utmost care, like the precious treasure you are. as such, i am duty bound to carry you the rest of the way up the mountain.

zack: IT'S ALL HAPPENING AGAIN

tifa: cloud…?

later in the shinra basement library:

zack visibly twitching: hey, sephiroth. what you got, there?

sephiroth reading a book to cloud, who is sitting in his lap: oh, zack, it's you. you'll never believe this. i'm not even human. turns out i was created in a lab, from the dna of an ancient creature they dug out of a sedimentary rock layer. isn't that cool?

zack: HOW IS THAT COOL? AREN'T YOU DEVASTATED??

cloud snuggling up to sephiroth: i think it's cool, sephi-chan

sephiroth: see? cloud thinks it's cool. i guess you just don't get it. actually, you'd better leave. you're kind of killing the vibe

zack: i̴̘̥̕ ̷̨͗͝å̶̱̝ḿ̴̡̕ ̶̰͋̕b̸̢͚́u̴̘̯͊͂r̸̼̭̐n̵̢̿ȋ̵̜n̴͙̠͒͘ģ̷́́ ̶̦̀t̵̼̗͑h̸̠̺̾͒i̷͚̗̿s̴̡̥͐ ̶̤͝f̵̤͐u̴̖͖͌c̷̱̲͑͗k̸͔̃̾i̵̮̥̊n̴͕̆̓g̸̨̒͝ ̴͎̈́t̵̼̞́̍ṏ̸͚w̷̡͗̃ń̸̫̈́ ̵̟̎t̸̞̓o̶̼̎ ̶̢͔̈́ẗ̸̼̩ḧ̵̳̮́e̴͚̋ ̵͎͚́̅g̴̗͒̈́r̸͉̓̕o̴̗͌̕u̶̹̓n̷̛̘̹d̴̙̑

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[theravenloftwanderers]

Curse of Strahd: The Ravenloft Wanderers (Incorrect quotes 2)

Gather around homies the bedtime story is real juicy.

[ironspidersblog]

Tony: [is basically dead]

Hulk: RAHHHHHHHH WAKE UP BITCH

Tony: please tell me nobody kissed me

Steve: we won

Tony: yippee okay no one heard that right? great I’m hungry let’s go get shawarma

Thor, wondering what is wrong with earthlings: ???????

[horror-aesthete]

Birth/Rebirth, 2023, dir. Laura Moss

[invisibleicewands]

The Way, Q&A at BFI - 05/02/2024

"Deep calls to deep" (again).

“We needed someone who could write that and who was… who could handle the epic and the kind of state of the nation and the big issues and the big questions but at the same time was really good at a human story and warmth and and humor… uh and the kind of everyday and James's work, you know, just sort of has all of that.” [...] “It's weirdly, it feels so personal to me even though, you know, I mean I was part of developing it but I didn't write it, James wrote it, but it feels like such a personal, you know, obviously it's set in the town that I grew up in that I live in again now. It's about themes that I'm… you know fascinated by and that mean a lot to me. Um the people in it, you know, a lot of the actors have been friends of mine, you know, a lot of my life… um so you know it feels very real I mean that penguin that we go down the mouth of I've got in my backyard uh so it does feel incredibly personal so I think that makes a big difference obviously, that being able to pour so much of you into it”.

The "penguin", I knew it wasn't a coincidence. And all this movie felt "very personal". We had no doubts.

[thenopequeen]

Aventus Arentino: Look Pa, it's the good cush!

Esper Ironhand: Son, this is Belethor's how good could it be?

[sga-owns-my-soul]

ronon: i think we got the last of the people out. they don't seem to remember being turned into zombies

teyla: that is lucky

rodney: lucky!? are you kidding me? we just saved the whole neighbourhood! maybe even the world! we're bona fide heros! and now we won't even get a parade because no one remembers what happened!

john: well, maybe we're just unsung heros

rodney: but i WANT to be sung! SIIIINNG MEEEEEE!

[ask-synth-safehouse]

"Tei fact! I am 13km away from your location and approaching rapidly!"

"Start running."

[sh1tpostingonmain]

[g0thnico]

Percy, on his first day at camp: Why does this centaur care about wearing a shirt and jacket if he walks around with his ASS out?

[alxclaremont]

so so many thoughts on this race i don’t even know where to start…

it’s just very interesting for me as someone who loves both lando and max to see how people are taking sides and putting blame on one or the other. to be fair there IS technically an answer to where the blame should be put and it is, technically, on max. there were a lot of moves he shouldn’t have made and in all fairness he should’ve given the spot back considering lando had taken it fair and square. that’s not to say that lando is entirely blameless because he really was doing a lot of moves that could’ve ended dangerously but max has also made nearly every single one of those moves before and if anything lando learned from the best. literally these guy’s entire career is driving borderline dirty and illegal and getting everything our of the car they can at the expense of others, even themselves. lando has been driving a bit erratically lately because he’s hungry and he wants that win and anyone, and i do mean truly anyone, would be doing the exact same thing if they were in the position lando is. not to specifically point out names but if it was charles in landos spot he would be doing EXACTLY the same thing. charles is arguably the hungriest out of all of them. he wants to win, he wants to make ferrari proud. if things were going his way this season and looked a little bit more like 2022 where he was viably fighting for the championship, i have no doubt in my mind that charles would be as desperate as lando is now. literally the only difference in this entire situation is that max and charles are better at wheel to wheel fighting but that is arguably only because they’ve been driving against each other for so long and Know what the other would do. this is all to say that i think it’s a bit unfair to be calling lando immature in all of this when anyone that was in his shoes would no doubt be doing the same. maybe there was a better way to go about the interviews and express his disappointment better but this is literally what f1 IS and it’s what it has been and always will be. that’s also all to say that i don’t think max should be villainized in all of this. he is, at his core, his father sons and the same person he was at 14 and 18 and 23 when he was being labeled as ��mad max”. he’s not going to just give up a win like this, it’s not in his blood and i truly think he would rather give up the sport entirely than forfeit a win regardless of whether he was wrong or not. max did the thing he knows how to do best and that’s fight for what he thought was his, as ANY of them would do. same goes for lando. he has every right to be incredibly upset about a race that, all things considered, he SHOULD have won today. these men are going to be fed up and disappointed and angry with each other and they are going to be immature about it because at the end of the day they’re hungry and they’re going to do whatever it takes to win at any cost

[nonbinari-mendoza]

fellas is it gay to be in love with your best friend for multiple years