#I love them and this subtext

[fireheartwraith]

[huachengsromcom]

People call Heaven Official’s Blessing / TGCF a slow burn but Hua Cheng is literally courting Xie Lian like they are DATING. Slow burn who??? They’re sleeping next to each other on straw mats and Xie Lian’s offering to cook him dinner and they’re bantering across THE HOME THEY SHARE like a bunch of desperate hussys

San Lang LEAVES XL WITH A KEEPSAKE OF THEIR TIME TOGETHER SLOW BURN WHOMST

They have A DATE in HC’s armoury where they HOLD HANDS and XL pets San Lang’s quivering sword I-

Hua Cheng basically throws himself at this man he’s like you want a sword?? All of them ?? You want ALL THE SWORDS?? Fuck it take the whole room THE WHOLE ROOM JUST COME VISIT I WILL CLEAN THEM FOR YOU

Like he isn’t the king of a whole realm with shit to do

And this is just the first half of the first book—again I ask the world SLOW BURN WHOMST

[whenfatecollides]

Xena Warrior Princess 6x6 The Abyss

[casscainmainly]

I know people love saying 'Bruce is a girldad' and I totally get it, we want to show how much he loves Cass and that she's his daughter. But Bruce's initial love for Cass was largely predicated on how not girly she was. He openly dislikes her girlhood throughout Batgirl 2000 (including but not limited to: dismissing her civilian identity, berating her for any romantic attempts, weakening her friendship with Stephanie, undermining her relationship to Babs, etc. etc.). Cass' femininity interferes with his ability to project onto her, so a lot of the time he just dismisses it. Is it really a coincidence that Bruce's only adopted daughter is one who wasn't raised as a girl?

[oreo-cookies-fan]

I still can't get over The Gay Montage in XMA. Like, you don't understand. Peter was right there. The moment was dramatic enough. They could make Erik good again by Peter telling him the truth. Or any other character blurting out "This is your son!". It would make so much sense since the whole drama came from Erik losing his wife and child. You don't understand, I was expecting this to happen since the whole heteronormative agenda being pushed our throats in this movie. I WAS SURE THAT THEY'D PLAY THAT CARD BECAUSE EVERYBODY ELSE WOULD PLAY IT BECAUSE IT'S A SAFE CARD TO PLAY SINCE THERE'S NOTHING CONTROVERSIAL ABOUT PARENTAL LOVE!

But they chose memories of Charles! They chose the memory where Charles says that there's good in Erik and they didn't even follow it up with flashbacks with Magda and Nina (so a proof that Charles was right). It's a memory of Charles walking away (and Charles being in danger in present time) that snaps Erik out of anger and grief! And the tear. That one single fucking tear he sheds for Charles!

I'm just ... *screams*

[epiphainie]

i've just finished my s7 rewatch and it's kinda so funny to me how much discourse people created over every bucktommy interaction when their whole arc boils down to tommy being patient and vulnerable with buck and showing up for him. like when you are not wearing shipper goggles under the name of "analysis" and don't try to reverse-engineer every word and look and shot with utmost bad faith, that's what it is. a simple and sweet story of a new exciting relationship with a guy who's understanding and willing to show up. literally the two things buck needs from a relationship but never had with his previous love interests. they are kinda sickeningly sweet and well-communicating actually lol

[dcbnam-aep]

everyone saying alicent is a bad mother and focusing on the moment she left rather than the moments (plural!!) that she stayed. the maesters tell her they’re getting to the hard part and instead of leaving the room she just steps back because she cannot leave her son alone in his state. she tries to become queen regent so that she can act for him rather than provide aemond the opportunity to do more harm. and then, despite her own sick history, she returns to the same bed where she cared for a dying viserys and sits with her son. we don’t know how long she sat there before she left. it could have been hours. can we not give her the benefit of the doubt unlike the men on the council who stripped her of any and all authority despite her proving herself time and time again!?!?

(this is the same woman who Did Not Hesitate to step in front of a dragon to protect her son even though it has been established from ep 1 that she does not like dragons!!!)

I’m not saying she’s perfect - she’s flawed like Literally Every Other Character in the show - but she does love her children and only wants the best for them.

[osamucide]

I dunno if we're still lusting over Akutagawa but I just wanna say that that the idea of him being turned on by gore in horror movies made all the blood leave my brain immediately because I've been having these fantasies about reciting him some disturbing ass poems about, fkn cannibalism or something, whilst jerking him off

um we are ALWAYS lusting over Akutagawa in this house. see below the cut for real lit nerd shit. cw here—handjob, sub!Aku, John Donne himself is a content warning, mdni

This made me think of Donne’s "The Flea"—if you’ve not read it, basically it uses intermixed blood inside a flea as an extended metaphor for sex and it kind of has no business being so fucking hot for how strange it is (quoted below is the last stanza). And I think Akutagawa, in the limited swath of earthly things he indulges in outside of Dazai's approval, fucks with ANY kind of deranged media, not just movies; his beloved touching him while they recite weird poetry? Oh my god. Your mind is huge, anon. Listen—

"Cruel and sudden, hast thou since purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?" you sigh, voice slow, deliberate, hardly above a whisper; you pinch the spine of the leather-bound anthology, balancing it against one of his trembling shoulders as you straddle his waist, sinking your teeth into the milky skin beneath the severity of Ryuunosuke's jawline. "Wherein could this flea guilty be, except in that drop which it sucked from thee?"

Your other hand strokes him, softly, agonizingly; Ryuunosuke's breath is short, rhythmic, quietly frustrated between his chest and his throat as he tugs at the rope binding his wrists behind his back, his fingers flexing wide, curling into fists. When you squeeze just beneath his leaking tip and work your way down his cock, his forehead falls into your shoulder, where he returns your bite through a pitchy groan.

"Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou... Find'st not thy self, nor me the weaker now." You, calculated, roll your wrist faster; his stifled groan gives way to a gasp, an open-mouthed plea for you to continue, and he twitches, hips lurching upward in pursuit of more of your touch. "'Tis true; then learn how false, fears be—"

"Please," Ryuunosuke's voice weaves through yours, desperate and broken amidst cries of your name. "My love, please."

"Just so much honor, when thou yield'st to me," you continue, pausing only to lick across the chain of bruising kisses you've left upon his neck. Pink and needy and twitching like the rest of him, his cock stutters, jumps as pearly white ropes of cum are spurting from him, hitting his pale chest and stomach, dripping over your fingers. You mutter the last line as he sobs, thanking you in breaths so shaky and hoarse and spent that you can't help your satisfied smile; "Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee." ⊹

this ask also made me think of a dissertation I read in my undergrad and it’s called "Raw Metaphors: Cannibal Poetics in Early Modern England" by Amanda Lehr. it’s wonderful and if you’re a cannibalism-in-poetry freak like me DEFINITELY check it out. it's lengthy but so worth the read.

[hoarderheart]

imagine instead of immediately making destiel explicitly canon after they reunite, they instead kept making them do things that could definitely be read as romantic/suggestive but can still be denied if you really wanted to. like if you tried hard enough if you jumped enough hoops and hurdles you can maybe say it’s just bros being bros. guys being dudes. and it starts off mild but then they gradually keep pushing the boundaries for what is suggestive and what isn’t that towards the end of it it’s like they’re having sex without having sex. and then of course to finish it off they finally do make love and it’s the craziest most desperate thing ever. now imagine that. on our screens…

[frontseathater]

writers: yeah we put lots of destiel in the subtext

the subtext:

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what particularly annoys me with the "zelda was always gameplay before story" is that... it's not true? At least I don't think it's true in the way people mean it.

Zelda games were always kind of integrating story based on the standards of the time. When game stories were in game pamphlets, Zelda's stories was in the pamphlets. ALTTP tried to tell a pretty complicated stories with the limitations of the time. OoT was actively trying to tell an epic, cinematic tale packed with ambiance and expand what 3D could offer that 2D games struggled with. Majora's Mask is deeply character-driven in many, many ways. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are both pretty concerned about their stories, down to the point that some people were bored by TP's cutscenes in particular. Skyward Sword, from what little I have played it, is very very invested in its characters and their journey (and 2D Zeldas have Link's Awakening, Minish Cap... None of them are visual novels, but they are concerned with emotional journeys, character arcs, mysteries about their own world...)

What is true is that the narrative wraps around the mechanics, and not the other way around. The mechanics drive themes, aesthetics, emotional beats and character journeys; and that's great. The world is a puzzle, and the world is delightfully absurd when it needs to be, full of heart when it calls for it, dark and oppressive when it suits the player experience.

That does not mean the games aren't invested in their stories. Even BotW has a pretty complicated story to tell about an entire world rather than one specific tale or legend --all of it at the service of the gameplay, which is exploration and mastery of your environment.

So. Yes, none of the Zelda games are million-words long visual novels that care deeply about consistency and nuance; but stories don't need consistency or deep lore to be meaningful and serve an emotional journey. Again: gameplay is story. The two cannot be so easily parsed from each other.

And Zelda as a franchise obviously care deeply about story, characters and setting (and still does right now --otherwise there wouldn't be a movie), even if it doesn't try to imitate prestige narrative-driven games, which is great and part of why I love this series so much. Doesn't mean it couldn't have done better in the past, it obviously could have, but I feel like pretending that nobody ever cared about story or character is just... false? It's a huge disservice to the devs too. Some of them obviously cared immensely.

The "gameplay above story", at least in the extent to which it is paraded today to defend TotK, mostly, is a really recent development. And I think it's one that deserves to receive some pushback.

[starry-bi-sky]

pouring one out for luo binghe in my disciple SQQ fic, poor guy has taken a backseat here. we're nearly 30k words deep and he hasn't even shown his face once. it'll be much longer before he even actually talks to Shen Qingqiu.

(i say im pouring one out but in reality im sitting in my director's chair chewing on a cigar and wearing a beret as he tearily and unsuccessfully pleads with me for more scenes with Shen Qingqiu)

[pantsaretherealheroes]

edwin and niko's budding friendship is so special and important actually

[windwenn]

Im midway through season 5 of the x files and i cant tell whether the writers created a highly compelling love story by accident and were genuinely confused by the reaction, or they did it on purpose and tried to gaslight everyone about it for as long as humanly possible

[infriga]

I've been reading the translated novel version of S-Classes That I Raised, and I remember when I was first reading the webcomic version I was curious about why the ship with Yoojin and Hyunjae was so much more popular than any other ship, since I hadn't gotten very far in yet. I get it now. They won't stop fucking flirting with each other every time they're close enough to exchange words.

[ingravinoveritas]

Video from Multibank last night featuring Cherrie, the CEO of Faith in Families from Swansea, with David and other celebs, which was recorded as a callback to the first video of her with Michael (from a different event). Yet of all the people in the new video, David is only one of two (and the first) who mentions Michael. They are so married and it's adorable...