#Positive outcome

[randomreasonstolive]

Reason to Live #8524

  Experiencing a last minute change of plans that ends up going really well. – Guest Submission

(Please don't add negative comments to these posts.)

[metawriter]

Growth Perspective

When the positive outcome of your goal is your focus, obstacles are only tests for your progress – reasons for adjustments or celebration. Take time to give thanks and to gauge whether you will need to adjust or carry on. Everything else is useless. It could be a mantra, but it is more truth. A positive outlook creates trust, trust creates boldness, boldness creates confidence, and confidence…

[desultory-suggestions]

You have to stop ruining things for yourself preemptively because you believe they’ll fail anyway. Give yourself a chance to succeed.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The musical episode.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[pianokantzart]

As it should be.

[emblazons]

♪ know that you'll take my hand—and never let me go ♪

Cloud Strife & Tifa Lockhart Promises to Keep • Final Fantasy VII (Rebirth)

[virfujiwara]

Any The Book Of Life (2014) enjoyers here? Ramble in the tags lol Reminder that commissions are open and I'm making art for your donations and we are raising money for an AAPI charity through this zine, if you or someone you know likes Watcher, check it out!

[mxtxfanatic]

Hm, I know I said at least in my first reading of mdzs that I felt like Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng were actually friends as kids, I would like to remind folks that the catastrophic breakdown of their friendship was not because of some misplaced care but because Jiang Cheng is a stagnant character whose whole role in the story is to be the one who never learns, changes, and grows past his insecurities and resentments. They were always going to fall out with each other, even if the Sunshot Campaign never happened, even if the Wen Clan didn’t exist as a subjugating force terrorizing the other clans, because no matter how much Jiang Cheng cares about anyone, he will always place his personal resentments first.

I’m so serious: reread the pre-fall of Lotus Pier parts of the novel (flashback extras included), and tell me how many times Jiang Cheng says something genuinely nice about or to the benefit of Wei Wuxian without prompting. Point to me places where Jiang Cheng puts himself on the line for Wei Wuxian that is not him distracting the Wen. Compare the number of unambiguously positive interactions they have to the number of interactions they have in total, and I bet you’ll see that the positives are laughingly scant. Most every interaction they have together, Jiang Cheng is being a negative nancy. He’s the type of friend who, if you said “Today is a good day!” would snidely respond back, “What’s so good about?” before loudly complaining about what a nuisance your happiness is. Jiang Cheng is the type of friend that tells you that everyone else hates you because you’re so annoying, and you need to do something about that because he also finds you annoying so you should be lucky he “puts up with” you. And all of this negativity can be directly traced back to the resentment Jiang Cheng feels caused by his own mother projecting her insecurities onto him. Jiang Cheng, who cannot grow, learn, or change, is unable to extract his own self from his mother’s insecurities, ending up inheriting them as his own, instead.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like teen!Jiang Cheng is some irredeemable monster (that is reserved for his adult self), but Wei Wuxian already shows signs of being tired of his attitude as kids. He snaps at Jiang Cheng rudeness in the lotus pod seeds extra. He constantly admonishes Jiang Cheng about his blatant disregard for the lives and safety of other people. Most of the time, Wei Wuxian won’t even engage in the petty little remarks that Jiang Cheng makes, just treating it like nobody had spoken at all. The only times Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian move as a unit is when they have a common enemy—like Jin Zixuan—but without that, they are only held together by the fact that…they’ve been friends for a long time.

And this kinda leads me back to the point about the yunmeng friendship not being able to withstand the test of time even without an outside conflict: I would place the point of no return for their relationship at Wei Wuxian killing the xuanwu of slaughter, not at the fall of Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian is one of two individuals that killed a mythological bloodthirsty creature responsible for hundreds of deaths, spent a week in a coma from his injuries and lack of immediate care, and what does he get for it? Jiang Cheng shows up with soup gifted to Wei Wuxian by Jiang Yanli, except he’s eaten all the meat out of it. Jiang Fengmian gives the most lukewarm praise to Wei Wuxian for his achievements��which Wei Wuxian neither complained about nor called him out for—because they were both trying to be mindful of Jing Cheng’s insecurities, and Jiang Cheng still made it about himself. When Madam Yu storms in to yell about how Wei Wuxian is a “bastard child” and he’s just trying to show off, Jiang Cheng consciously and unambiguously sides with his mother. Wei Wuxian had to drag his feverish body out of bed—after just awakening from a week-long coma—to placate pity-party Jiang Cheng, and the only thing that makes him feel better is not promises of continued friendship but of servitude. Even if at this point Wei Wuxian was still viewing Jiang Cheng as a—admittedly caustic—friend, Jiang Cheng’s view had fully transitioned from “annoying friend my mother hates” to “the servant I need to keep in line lest he overshadows me.” If anything, the fall of Lotus Pier, the debt placed on Wei Wuxian by the Jiang leaders, and the subsequent war probably allowed their friendship to last longer than it naturally would have (remember, they are only united against outside forces).

All this to say that while Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian may have started out as genuine friends in their childhood, their transition to enemies has absolutely nothing to do with that care. Sometimes we fall out with people because we just do not like them as people. Jiang Cheng’s resentment prevented him from appreciating Wei Wuxian as a person, leading to the end of their friendship and their descent into eventual enemies. Not misplaced or warped care, just pure, undeniable resentment.

[angel-lockhart]

Angel confessed his feelings to Ice as soon as he could speak again; long before the Final Days. They then married on the next Valentione's Day.

They're absolutely going to Tural together, and he does not hide his ring nor his feelings for his husband from anyone. ♡

[Longer story under cut, (for mentions of trauma,) if interested in reading more.]

He'd lost his first love, G'raha, to the Crystal Tower, and though he never stopped feeling things for Raha, he eventually accepted that he'd never see him again in his lifetime.

He later met, fell in love with, and accepted the proposal from Taiga. His time spent with him was frought with issues from outside parties, and when he finally broke free of those and mostly recovered, they ended up assisting with the battle at Baelsar's Wall before they could truly settle down with each other.

After losing his first husband to the battle at Baelsar's Wall; among many other traumas that day; it all drove him to a terribly dark place. Ice rescued him from that place; a stranger he had never met and knew nothing about. He could've left Angel to recover alone, but he didn't. While being nursed back to health, Angel recognized the feelings he had.

So, when Angel realized how he felt, the first words he forced out were "I love you, Ice," followed by a terrible apology and attempted explanation that he'd rather say it and be rejected than not say it and lose yet another person he felt that way about.

Fortunately, Ice returned the feelings, calmed his Anxiety down, and allayed his fear.

Their relationship moved pretty fast, and this time, Angel was the one who proposed. He even managed to make the bands to be used in the ceremony.

Neither of them regret how fast it went, and Ice is probably the best thing to happen to Angel in a long time. It's because of his husband's support that he's gotten a lot better, and he knows when he has trouble with anything, Ice will be there to hold his hand through it.

It is that strong bond that kept him from losing to despair during Endwalker. His understanding of how someone can hit that point and not think twice that made it all the more difficult for him... but on the flip side, that deep understanding bolstered his resolve to make it through. He refused to give in to that dark feeling ever again, even when he felt the temptation deep, deep down.

#WOLpromptAday

March 4, 2024

Did your WoL confess their love and/or take their eternal vows near the final days or long before? Are they going to Tural with their partner? Have they told anyone else about their adoration?

[chamerionwrites]

While I’m up here on the good old niche soapbox, I bring a sort of “Plenty of fannish criticisms of the Jedi Order are fairly silly, but the only thing sillier is watching George Lucas’ Massive Systemic Institutional Failure And Collapse Trilogy and deciding that one of the central institutions the story is about is doing a bang-up job 10/10 no notes” vibe to the fandom that many people really don’t like

[formulation-nation]

I want to sit down with Logan Sargeant and have him just speak forever so I can take notes on his inflection and word choice because some of it is so affected by his time in a predominantly European sport like half of what that boy says is NOT what a Miami native would say

[mzannthropy]

This is from the teaser trailer. I expected Sam Claflin's Edmond to be older than the book Edmond at the beginning of the story, but no older than early 20s. (Pierre Niney's Edmond was 22.) Also his imprisonment at Chateau D'If lasts 15 years, not 14 (the voiceover says "quindici anni", which means fifteen years, if Google translate is right). Not that it makes much of a difference. I guess we're getting a late 40s Edmond, as opposed to early 40s? Surely he's not over 50? Sam was 37 at the time of the filming.

All of this shouldn't matter anyway, but. We're not getting Edmond x Haydee endgame, are we. The age gap between the actors is only 10 years, that's not a lot. But. Sigh. They're not doing it, are they. Although, considering that Haydee is supposed to be a "brave and empowered woman" I don't see why she can't decide for herself that she wants to be with him.

Sam said at the red carpet at RFF that Edmond is left unsatisfied at the end. Which doesn't point to Edmond x Haydee ending. But if it means that he won't end up with Mercedes either, than that's good. I'd rather have him single than with her (yeah, not a fan of that ship, sorry!).

Yet I will hold on to the book ending until you pry it out of my cold dead hands. Maybe I should get myself a clown outfit like Albert.

[the-fire-within0]

Libra in Mars

I remember having someone I knew personally getting the "ick" from my Libra being in my Mars. Never understood why. I know it's considered in detriment and not the ideal placement for Libra, but being mocked for it never made sense to me.

From my understanding, for anyone with the same placement, the reason Libra is considered in detriment is that Libra's ruler is Venus, while Mars rules Aries and Scorpio. When Mars is in Libra, it doesn't flow as naturally compared to its complementary counterparts.

People with Libra in Mars often struggle with asserting themselves, preferring to avoid conflict and relying on others' opinions or assistance rather than their own independent drive. This tendency can lead to scattered energy, a lack of follow-through, and misdirection, as well as possible procrastination.

Don't think that's the be-all end-all or that it means it's a "curse." We don't want that kind of black-and-white thinking when we're talking about astrology here.

For the positives, Libra in Mars tend to be very justice-ridden. They prefer equality, balance, diplomacy, and fairness. They might also love the idea of collaborating with another person who share the same common goals. They're not too fond of the idea of direct confrontation, however would prefer to resolve conflicts through discussion and compromise, using tact and diplomacy to maintain harmony. They'll do a lot of thinking before settling on something.

Much of their motivation and energy could stem from appreciation for beauty, a sense of fairness, and the pursuit of balanced relationships. They may direct their energy towards artistic pursuits, creating something beautiful, and advocating for justice.

[things-methinks]

HOW about an Oscar win and Lestappen podium at Spa?

[quicksilversnails]

One detail about the Your New World ending that I can't get over is how it specifically avoids using the phrase [Slay the Princess].

The red-text dialogue options describe killing her, ending her, destroying her, ridding yourself of her, putting her down, not needing her, and so on, but never, ever, slaying her. Your final choice is to [Destroy her], and afterwards the text simply reads "she's gone".

The choice of wording seems very intentional, right? The game's literally called "Slay the Princess", and the act of killing her is described using those terms for the vast majority of the game. So what does its absence mean for this ending?

My first thought was that it was because you didn't use the Pristine Blade to end her. The lack of blade might play a part in it (as I'll expand on later), but there are already a few cases where you get the option to [Slay the Princess] without the blade, like trying to slay the Shifting Mound before the vessels appear, or slaying the Fury with nothing in Contrarian!Fury. There's something more here, I think.

The choice of words could also represent the emotional separation between you and the Narrator. In this ending, the Narrator is irrelevant to you. He’s “a lesser thing that could never hope to understand you”, an obstacle to your awakening. Your final monologue spares no thought for the well-being of the people inside the world, who the Narrator sacrificed everything in hopes of saving.

Contrast this with A New and Unending Dawn, where you do actually [Slay the Princess] using the Pristine Blade given to you by His construct. You quote the Narrator directly if He told you about you and her containing parts of each other, and you generally can be much more sympathetic towards Him even after His obliteration.

In Your New World, even though you technically destroyed her like He had wanted, you didn't Slay her. You didn't do this for Him, or for His world: you did it for you, and for Your world. You cut yourself off from understanding Him, just as you cut yourself off from understanding Her.

In a similar vein, I think the choice of words could also represent a separation from the terms of the game itself.

Slay the Princess is a game filled with repeating symbols and choices: woods, cabin, blade, basement, chains. Slaying her, or freeing her. Narrator or Princess. Dying and restarting and dying and restarting. Even at the end of everything, these same ideas return: you can choose to leave the cabin with her, slay her, return to the beginning, and so on. (it's a very cohesive narrative like that)

But by seeking out this ending, you're breaking the boundaries of what's typically possible in this game. You're not slaying her, and you're definitely not leaving with her. You don't go to the cabin, you don't find the blade, you don't get "outside help".

The whole game is centered around learning about the Princess and yourself through your shared experiences and developing relationship, but to get this ending is to reject any meaning the vessels may have had to you, and thus to reject her role in the game's narrative.

Meanwhile, by not Slaying the Princess, you reject the Narrator and the construct itself, the construct that was built from nothing in order for you to complete that single task, the construct that constantly limits your choices. In this ending, you reject all the choices that were given to you by the game's typical structure and make your own, new choice.

The game constantly reminds you that you'll need the Pristine Blade in order to stab her in the heart: you'll need it if you want to do this right. But what if you're not interested in "doing this right"? What if instead, you choose to do something cruel to those around you (and cruel to yourself) for the sake of exerting agency in a construct where agency is taken from you?

As the Shifting Mound herself says in response to tossing the Cage's head: "That act was your final assertion of will over chains".

For better or worse, there is nothing and no one left to chain you down (except for you).

[serpentface]

What's the Wardi cultural take on Akoshos sleeping with/partnering with/marrying other Akoshos?

It's not highly regulated to a degree that there are overwhelming cultural norms about it. There's a lot of societal focus on akoshos being theoretically suitable sexual partners for both men and women due to being dual-gendered, but not to an extent that relationships with One Another are stigmatized.

They also largely get to escape from the most severe concerns about penetrator/penetrated power dynamics because they're not regarded as Men (they're regarded as dual-gendered, and they're a female social class on every practical level), there's no status of manhood to Lose by receiving sexual penetration. The only real thing you see in that department is people assuming that one acts as 'the man' and one acts as 'the woman', but this is largely due to preoccupation with a notion of sex being Penetration With A Penis (and that Penetration With A Penis means that one person is in a Man's Role and one person is in a Woman's Role). But this will not be regarded as unnatural as in same-gender male relations, akoshos will Have to take up a position in this sexual dichotomy if they want to have Real Sex (Penetration With A Penis) with each other, and this is not unnatural and doesn't involve gaining or losing status since they are simultaneously male and female, not men.

So like you might see individual culture critics finding stuff to nitpick about it as their annoyance of the week or a singular Guy here or there who thinks it's weird, but this isn't a widespread norm. The vast majority of people don't give a shit about akoshos having sex with each other. The worst thing you're likely to experience Solely by virtue of being in an akoshos-akoshos relationship is someone asking you (probably with genuine curiosity) which one does the man stuff and which one does the woman stuff.

Akoshos also don't experience Hard expectations for marriage (though there are societal pressures that make marriage an attractive safety net all the same, ESPECIALLY marriage to a man) so unofficial life-partnerships between akoshos are pretty much the Only same gender partnerships between unwed people that are going to go unquestioned. ((Sworn brotherhood is technically a same gender life partnership for men that is Functionally similar to marriage (in that it's a kin-making practice between unrelated adults), but the tradition is Built upon the assumption that both parties will be married to women and that a primary goal of this kinship is to provide security for both parties' wives and children)). Marriage obligations in general are more lax in the economically secure but not Wealthy lower mercantile classes (as obligations to support and perpetuate one's family are universal, but these obligations can be filled simply by having at least One son who can get hitched, and marriages in the lower classes have no political functions and therefore there's less reason to ensure All your children are wed (there's still incentives like dowry, but this is not desperately needed when a family is economically secure)). So akoshos in this class group tend to have a Lot more freedom in terms of their life arrangements and chosen partners (though still experience the limiting frameworks of structural misogyny in other capacities).

The only thing that is out of the picture is akoshos/akoshos marriage. Marriage in this society has a predominantly reproductive function, the concept of reproductively non-viable marriages is generally considered absurd. This is not JUST this culture's form of homophobia, as marriage is a very practical arrangement at its core - both in a reproductive capacity and as bedrock for the patriarchal blood-kinship family system that forms the core social unit. The idea of same gender marriage isn't just absurd because 'ewwww weird' it's like, that Cannot work within this system, it Cannot fill core functions of what a marriage intends to do here, the ways on which marriage and kinship are BUILT makes same gender marriage practically (rather than just socially) untenable.

The sole exception to the 'marriage = reproductively viable" rule is that akoshos can be married to men (which in practice is almost always as a remarriage after a man has secured At Least an heir). This has a Little bit of internal logic here in that they perform predominantly female social roles (thus are suited to being a wife, even if they can't bear children) (and also on practical levels of them having the same legal status as women) but it's really more of a 'this is just how it's always been' kind of thing. A lot of the older pre-Wardi identity dual-gender roles that got mashed together under the 'akoshos' name would have involved marriage to a man as a second wife/concubine, in addition to his primary wife who would bear his children. Men potentially having multiple spouses has not been retained as a cultural practice, but the notion that an akoshos Can be a wife to a man has survived into modern day legal and doctrinal practices around marriage.

So like this being said, marriage as it is legally defined is only between a man and a woman, a man and an akoshos, or a woman and an akoshos. In practice the latter two are comparatively VERY rare- a man/akoshos marriage cannot provide children (though an akoshos can practically fulfill all other obligations and duties of a wife), a woman/akoshos marriage Can provide children (and while akoshos cannot function as a male heir, these children Will take their akoshos-parent's family name (though the wife retains her father's family name)), but akoshos are legally grouped with women in terms of rights and privileges (including being permanently under legal domain of their father unless they have been legally handed off to a male husband) and Cannot provide hard power patriarchal support that this family system is built upon and therefore depends upon, which makes these marriages socio-economically insecure. They can obviously still be a good partner and parent, but this is not the same as having the Legal hard power of a patriarch.

Akoshos marrying each other would be reproductively and socially nonviable, and is treated as a similarly absurd concept to a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman. It's just not a part of the marriage and kinship framework, it's not a thing that you can Do.