#STORY MOTIF??? IN MY LMK SHOW???

[imminent-danger-came]

i’ve been watching lmk with my irl friend, and i told him abt mk’s reflection motifs (since ur post abt that rewrote my brain a little bit) and now whenever mk’s reflection shows up onscreen we just start pointing and going “REFLECTION MOTIF!!!” like that one meme. we’re just out here doing this

I'll have you know this is exactly what I look like while watching this whole damn show

[oathofkaslana]

so i was busy/not in the mood when cyno's second story quest came out, and therefore missed all your ramblings, and i am not scrolling back a whole month

so. what were the thoughts. why did you hate it. 👀 (aside from. general hyv racism i didn't think it was that bad? but i am not at all as interested in cyno lore as you are and so i open the floor to you)

YIPPEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok i honestly dont think its the worst ever or anything i did like a lot of it its just that explaining what i dislike about it and my disappointment in it takes up a lot of words and that in time makes me dislike it even more :'''

i have a list of things i liked and didn't like here (lmk if you want me to send it in dms instead :3). long story short: i hate the way it portrayed crime at the beginning (specifically with the arrest) and i hate how normalized it treats arrests, especially with the arrest being of a child with dark skin. i hate the way they write the temple of silence as an extension of their religious racism by villainizing them and that feeding into their very very binary view on racial prejudice. and i also just think they wasted a lot of opportunity.

honestly part of me is hung up on the fact that it just wasn't as cool as i wanted it to be which yk whatever. and part of me is also upset at how much cooler it couldve been even if they decided to make the truth as mundane as it was. even if they didnt decide to make the temple of silence as important as i wanted, i feel like they underutilized particular characters in favor of marketable relationships they know will sell (ie: 4ggravate). for example :i feel like it didn't focus on sethos as much as it should have either, given that they're literally narrative foils. ideally, the quest should've focused primarily on cyno's relationship with cyrus and sethos with a parallel between cyno & cyrus || sethos & bamoun. they introduced sethos wayyyy too late imo. it doesnt help that i dont really like the pacing of that half of the quest. it felt kinda awkward which sucks since its the literal meat of the story.

also more of a general complaint that becomes relevant here: but i hate the way they separate characters into cliques and never allow them to venture outside of their clique. (re the 4ggravate thing. them and desert gang can and should coexist i hate mhy). this is pertinent because i really really feel like the story wouldve been much better off if cyno had brought along candace who was designed as a foil to him. (both of them having motifs of the eye of ra/eye of horus, candace being representative of night/moon and cyno being representative of the day/sun via the eye of ra, both being guardians of sumeru, both wielding the same signature weapon, etc.). candace is also yk. the guardian of aaru village, the last surviving village apart of deshret's kingdom which, given the lore of the temple of silence feels like it shouldve been brought up at least once. especially since candace's family lineage is portrayed as being blessed by deshret in particular.

AND!!!!!!! FUCK THIS IS WHERE I START GETTING AYRUGHRUYIRGHRU!!!!!!!!! okay my interest in cyno's story does heavily skew towards his relationship with family and his culture as a person from the desert that was raised in the rainforest but clearly dons desert cultural clothing. the fact that the 3.1 desert gang was composed of two characters from both the desert and the rainforest, and that being representative of the unification of the desert and the rainforest since it shows them working together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND! i think its important to note that a big point of contention in 3.1 was the fact that cyno is an unfamiliar face in the desert. the people of desert are scared of him and don't trust him!!!!! that has to make him feel like shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! especially since he started telling jokes and playing genius invokation to make people less afraid of him!!!!!!!! the cultural disconnect between him and the desert people makes me so fucking ill because its not like he's treated the best in the rainforest either as a child from the desert and as a kid who needed protection from the akademiya's wants to weaponize him (at least im assuming thats what the windblume conversation meant bc if he did mean the temple of silence it would kinda fuck w the continuity a bit by making the lore dump redundant.)

cyno reconnecting with his culture with the introduction of sethos and the temple of silence wouldve been sooooo interesting to watch! especially if candace, his foil, was there!!!! candace being a child of the desert raised in the desert and never has any plans of leaving because her duties and wants are so deeply intertwined with the culture in aaru village!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it also sucks because cyno's affiliation in game is literally with the temple of silence, not teh akademiya. seeing him fight as a representative of the akademiya makes me feel like they did nooot think his story through before they released him. AND WHY DOES HE NOT SHOW MORE INTEREST IN RELEARNING ABOUT THE TEMPLE OF SILENCE I DONT FUCKING GET IT. SUMERUS ARC IS ALL ABOUT RECONNECTION WHY DOESNT CYNO GET TO RECONNECT WITH HIS CULTURE IM SOOOOO......

ok thats basically the largest chunk of it :3:3:3:3:3:3:3

[fluffypotatey]

Don't cancel me Fluffy, but I like to separate LMK from the OG text. NOT because I hate themes and motifs and classical novels, nah. But rather for the regular amount of separation fans need in acknowledging when the show puts its own spin on things. And also because a subsection of fandom is very persistent that everything that happened in JTTW is canon in the exact same way to LMK and like to bash on characters for that. A lot different from writers pulling inspo is assuming LMK is a 1:1 adaptation when even the writers said it wasn't what they wanted.

yeah see that’s different (also i don’t have nor want the power to cancel you)

my personal beef is when people butcher the themes and character dynamics from jttw. (Tripitaka for example 🤨 like wtf is UP with that???? also, HISTORICAL CONTEXT PPL 👏👏👏👏👏I WILL TAP THE SIGN HOWEVER TIMES I NEED TO!!!! this story is old, old so reading with footnotes that provide context on what the original meant to convey is ok. if you need it for Shakespeare plays, then you’ll need it for the older shit too) lmk very clearly isn’t being an honest adaptation and this story is old as balls so i don’t expect it to. if it holds the heart of the story then it’s an A in my book.

Red Son’s origin isn’t even the same from jttw, and PVD is shown to be more of a threat than she was in the book. so, lmk is taking plenty of creative liberties where they feel they need to.

my thing is mostly with the Western audience who aren’t as familiar with not just the og text, but how much this story has an impact on a lot of cultural stories in Asian countries.

in a way it’s like Arthuriana to me (except jttw is older than Arthuriana lol) because there’s not a lot of “canon” beside Arthur is king, dies in the battle of Camlann, Merlin is a powerful wizard, Morgana is an important antagonist, and Mordred makes the killing blow. but despite that, many Western audiences are vaguely familiar with the legends enough to have their own interpretations. some people like theirs to be closer to the course materials and some like to keeps theirs a little loose

there is a ton of jttw adaptations (you can go ahead and watch this video by The Dom where he lists a plethora of adaptations from the most “honest” to the least) and i am sure many Asian cultures and communities have their own personal interpretations and omissions from the legend

so yeah. long story short: when it comes to lmk, i agree that ppl should if he holding the jttw as gospel since it is used as a source of inspiration (sure the main source but you get what i mean). however, that shouldn’t discount it from your analysis and interpretations when looking at the themes and character dynamics

[slayerkitty]

helloo!! sending you the ask as promised :)) firstly, how are you? how’s your health? hope you’re feeling better now!!

so here’s what i was thinking, completely entertaining the thought that ep1 & 4 of OF were in fact referencing SKAM. the reason i even thought of this comparison between OF & SKAM was because of the title cards in ep1 & 4. as i was researching, i also found that texting between characters which was used as a motif in SKAM, also shows up in in OF ep4 between nick & top (i’ve attached screenshots for all of this). however, for reasons such as the fact that the narrative frameworks used in OF don’t repeat in a linear pattern and that there definitely has to be a reason behind why a particular narrative framework was chosen for a particular ep, i think the reference runs deeper than just the title cards and text trails. given your post on narrative frameworks in OF & the super tiny discussion we’ve had in its comments, i thought i’d ask you for your opinion on this :))

title cards part 1:

SKAM:

ONLY FRIENDS:

text trails:

SKAM:

ONLY FRIENDS:

title cards part 2:

SKAM: i’m not sure if we saw title cards of the name/actual title variety in SKAM and i couldn’t find any in my brief YT rewatches also but pls do lmk if u find any!!

ONLY FRIENDS:

lil disclaimer here, i watched the dutch remake of SKAM till mid of s3 (which is the queer season) when it was airing, so sometime in late 2019/early 2020. the original SKAM was also polish so there might be a few discrepancies between the two shows (none that i came across tho) and some gaps in my memory but anyway, coming back to the point.

so for context, the most important thing about SKAM that remained consistent across all of its remakes (i think) was that it told the story of a group of teenagers within a high school in whichever city the show took place and while each season had a new protagonist/core characters etc. they were all connected and were friends w each other (for example the protagonist of s3 was classmates w the protagonist of s1 (and as far as i remember friends w her boyfriend?) so more like everyone was a friend of a friend/classmates etc.). this meant that while each season dealt w a different couple/core group of characters, these characters and their plot was still impacted by the side characters, the side plot lines, the past, the present etc. and vice versa.

now, one thing that i noticed in both ep1 & 4 of OF was that we seem to move away from the typical couples and get a larger peek into the relationships of all the characters, their dynamics w each other, different past storylines etc. more than in the other 3 eps. ep1 was obviously more of an intro/context-setting episode where we were introduced to each character, the different relationships we’re to get etc. but ep4 specifically went more into the past of the friend group, top & sand’s past, explored vulnerability in nick & sand’s friendship, the whole ordeal with ray & mew. it essentially explored relationships between characters from different couples (in both the past & the present), that we otherwise haven’t seen much of at all. do you see the similarity i see?

now where am i going with this? idk either, this is the point where i get stuck. now while all of this could easily be chalked off as part of building the plot in OF and have no connection to SKAM, i am just not able to ignore these similarities. i also didn’t go too deep into my own research/exploration of this similarity so there might be stuff that i missed (pls pls tell me if u think i have) but i think a deep dive is extremely worthy here. further, i think that as more eps air, and we get to some new narrative frameworks/old ones repeating, we’ll probably be able to identify patterns better and get more insight into this similarity and arrive at the purpose/rationale behind the other narrative frameworks.

what are your thoughts @slayerkitty? do you see what i see or am i trying to connect dots that are worlds apart? cant wait to hear your thoughts on this!!

also also, so i have been reading the ephemerality squads posts on voyeurism and how OF explores this motif and i found some really cool connections to SKAM in this regard. i’ll not go into too much detail here because this ask is already miles long but apparently SKAM poland played a lot with the use of social media in its show and the characters had real, live instagram accounts that fans could access between airs. additionally, when SKAM poland was airing, the official SKAM website would apparently drop 5-minute clips of the show at the same time as when the scene occurred within the show’s universe (as in if two characters had a chat at 9.30am on tuesday morn, the scene would drop at the same time) throughout the week at random intervals and then these would be compiled into the final, weekly episodes. i’m not sure if the show intended to incorporate these in the context of voyeurism, but do you see the controlled voyeurism similarities?

Aww, thank you for asking. I'm doing a bit better, not quite 100%, but getting there.

Oooooo you gave me some stuff to chew on.

I'm not sure if the days are an homage to SKAM or not, but that is a very iconic shade of yellow, so I can't rule it out. P'Jojo did say there was more to the whole day's of the week thing because it was a way to show how structured Mew was (apparently it got cut). I think I'm gonna add this to my narrative frameworks post as a visual moment for episode one.

Text trails are harder because it's very common for shows to do this. I don't know if we can correlate this back to anything specific because I think it's just a sign of the times with phones. Having said that, you could be right and combined with the yellow text cards...

So I have watched all the queer seasons of all the SKAMs, lol (except newer seasons of SKAM France cause that show is on like season 10 omg), and pieces of other seasons. I do not recall if the titles ever appeared on screen, I will have to look into that. If they did, that could possibly lean us toward more certainty.

Now I've seen people mention that OF is more along the lines of Queer as Folk, which P'Jojo has referenced, but I wouldn't necessarily shoot down the core friend group being a kind of homage to SKAM either. It's not a perfect parallel either way. (And yes, Isak and Jonas are BFF, and Jonas dates the main from season one, though they break up later, and omg, I forgot her name).

YES!!!!! The way that SKAM airs to this day (I think France, Germany, and maybe Italy are the only ones still on air, but apparently Korea is gonna try their hand at it next year??) is that clips drop during the week at the time they take place. So if the characters are doing shit at 1am, a clip is dropping at 1am. Then, at the end of the week, the network airs all the clips together as the epiosde on tv. SKAM was revolutionary and wild. They did social media, too, and the nature of its release combined with that does have a very voyeuristic vibe as well.

Season three of original SKAM (Norway) was also an homage to the late 90s film William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, so it could fit in with the late 90s aesthetic we've picked up on in OF.

I think you are definitely not wrong to have made these correlations - I see them, too! I think we might need a few more episodes before I wanna weigh in with any certainty, but I am like this right now: 👀👀👀👀👀

[sc3n3kitt3h]

now. tell me about your ocs. like in general i mean

ok!!!!

this is tekz!!!!! she isnt really an OC but whatever. im stealing her. She came from an abandoned 4-part story on deviantart in 2009 called wolfs life!!!

you see!! my sibling collects vinyls and cassettes and cds and shit, right? they get them from bandcamp and he likes this one artist called OK glass!! Ok glass used to go by the name dictionary attack and one of his old, extremely obscure songs was called WOLFS LIFE 3. (it probably would have become lost media if he hadnt archived it lolz. this isnt particularly relevant i just think my sibling is really cool XD) anyways they showed it to me cuz the song and by extension the story was TOTALLY my kinda thing!!! and it WAS!!!! the song goes super hard. Its pretty much a narration of wolfs life 3... there arent any songs for the other parts. nobody knows how mr. john dictionary attack (idk his name LOL) found the story. Pretty much nobody cares about it except for my sibling and me. This song is a fucking treasure and both it and the story are such relics of their time that i cant help but absolutely ADORE how silly they are!!! Anyways the story itself is about a girl named Tannika, who goes by Tekz!! She has a crush on a boy who sits next to her in math class and a preppy best friend who ends up ALSO having a crush on the same kid which in 2009 translates to them being RIVALS!!! Anyways one day on a full moon tekz turns into a white wolf which is the rarest and presumably most magical type of wolf!!!! She turns into a wolf on full moons or when something romantic happens between her and her crush. Theres a reoccurring motif of one of them going "can i borrow a glue??" and them both going "red in the face". During math class. Anyways im OBSESSED with this story and the song. Wolfs life only ended up having 4 parts, one of which was never actually a part of the series itself for some reason!! And the story hasnt been updated since, yknow, 2009. So ive taken it upon myself to revamp it and make everyone emo!!! surprise user wildspiritwolve on deviantart!!!!

Anyways yeah. the song is so insane. i love it. Literally some 13 year old writes a really cliche self-insert story about wolves and uploads it to deviantart in 2009. 2 years later some random dude finds the 3rd part SOMEHOW and makes a song out of it that nobody cares about. in 2021 the song almost becomes lost media but luckily it doesnt because some random kid downloaded it. Said random kid shows it to their autistic sibling (ME!!!!). Said sibling becomes extremely attached to the song and its characters. Every part of this story is so obscure and weird!!!! My versions of the characters are pretty much my love letter to the internet, which allowed this chain of events to occur, much to everyones horror.

Heres Wolf's life 3 in all of its glory:

here are some links to the original story:

and this one is chapter 4!!:

sooo. thats just 1 of my ocs. the others dont have as much irl backstory to them but lmk if you wanna hear about them too!!! i hope you enjoy!!!

[andro-dino]

I DIDNT SEE THE OC ASK POST ORZ

for ezekial and luther 1,2,28 .... and ykw fuck it 11

Do they have any motifs?

Luther has 2 kinda. One was a little intentional the other just kinda came as a bonus. His main one is like, angelic imagery. That’s mostly from one of the first scenes of the story I came up with, where Ezekial is first brought to see Luther, who’s standing above him with light shining from behind him, and that with his hair kind of creates a halo kind of look and Ezekial remarks to himself that he looks like an angel. And yk, that whole like, white/light blue being angelic/pure idea with his color palette also kinda reflects that, which is both reflective and subversive to his character. Reflective in that it shows how he likes to be extremely clean and put together, but subverts how he’s involved with very dark things. His other motif only just occurred to me, that being space/moons. His planet and moon earrings weren’t really meant to be anything more than a cool design choice, but I realized that a lot of scenes I’ve pictured where he’s more vulnerable and open are at night and/or under the moonlight, so that motif has become a bit important to his character. You could also definitely draw some sun and moon imagery with him and Ezekial from that.

Ezekial doesn’t really have concrete motifs in the same way Luther does. There’s a couple reoccurring ideas that surround him, like scarring, loneliness, and loyalty, but I haven’t really given him strong specific motifs. I guess the main one that you could argue for that I’ve been thinking about lately is kind of like, wearing over time. That applies to the story and their dynamic at large, but specifically with Ezekial, there’s a lot of focus with him having to accept that things are not the same as they once were, as well as visually, his design changes and wears with time, both with him getting more and more scars and with his clothes gradually becoming more scuffed and dirty with the more experience he has. This also juxtaposes Luther, whose design is very clean and sharp and put together.

Describe their voice. Do they have a voice claim?

I always struggle finding voice claims for my characters bc I have such a specific vision in my head that nothing feels completely right for them, but I’ll try to get as close as I can.

For Ezekial, my first thought was Aoba from the beastars dub (I think. I was specifically thinking of the “hey, legoshi already knows her name!” line and I’m pretty sure that’s aoba but idk). Looking up a couple voices, I think also a bit of Ash from fantastic mr fox, though very slightly lower for both of those. Also also a smiiiidge of mk from lmk. Just a bit. The idea for him is to have a voice that’s very smooth and nice, pretty average tbh, and usually very bright but occasionally able to slip into a darker tone. Idk though, I feel like he’s really hard to place and I don’t even know if I really like any of these all that much for him, but it’s the best I got 😭

Luther’s voice I imagine closer to the lower end but also not particularly deep, very soft and level, kind of that back of the throat kind of sound. It’s really dumb but specifically I thought of that one clip that’s like “SHUT UP. SHUT UP. IM GONNA KILL THE NEXT PERSON I SEE I SWEAR TO GOD” but JUST for him yelling. The line I was imagining him saying in that tone was “Don’t you get it!?” and it works oddly well. Otherwise, it’s kinda like a mix between lilac cookie’s eng voice and sal fisher. Another one I found specifically looking at voice claim compilations that’s random as fuck is Wesley Gibson from wanted??? no idea who that is or what that’s about but I think his voice fits really really well for Luther.

Are they a dog or a cat person?

Ezekial likes both and he wouldn’t be able to choose, though probably leans a little more to dogs.

Luther you’d think would be more of a cat person, given his everything, but he actually prefers dogs because they’re easier to train and more obedient. He doesn’t dislike cats though.

Have they ever fallen in love and with whom?

I mean, there is a LOT of longing between these two, especially on Ezekial’s end. He’s been in love Luther since they were really young but I think he didn’t really realize that for a long time. At some point it kinda registered for him but even then I don’t think he ever really said it out loud to himself. It was never really some big revelation or anything, just kind of putting a word to a feeling that’s always been there.

And I’m not gonna lie and say the feeling isn’t reciprocated, but that’s something Luther hasn’t thought about in years and still hasn’t yet to really understand himself. The mix of emotional suppression and catholic guilt made a cocktail of self denial and inability to really accept that thought when he was younger, and in the present it’s far worse and far more repressed, and he has a long way to go before anything begins to change with that.

It’s actually interesting because this is also a scene I thought of pretty recently. After their reunion, once the tension has settled past the initial Luther-being-willing-to-kick-Ezekial-across-the-floor-without-a-second-glance phase, one of the conversations they end up having is Ezekial asking Luther if he’s dated anyone since he last saw him, to which Luther respond “I don’t think you could really call it that.” He asks the same question back at Ezekial and Ezekial responds “Yeah, I don’t think those really count either.” And that surprises Luther and he give a little “Huh.” And Ezekial asks what that’s about but Luther just says it’s none of his concern (really he’s surprised because Ezekial’s always kinda been a romantic, and he’s dated a couple people before when they were younger. “And I mean, Ezekial’s an attractive guy, and he would probably be a good partner, how has he not had any good relationships since high school?” (<- clueless))

[starseverance]

✍️ for any F/O you like!

Hi Rose! Thank you for the ask! This one will be interesting, I'll answer it for 🪙!

✍️ Describe some of the major themes or motifs apparent in your ship's story or relationship.

Just a warning for those who might be uncomfortable with it: this post does touch on some unhealthy relationship dynamics although I'm not sure how to describe it. If you'd like me to tag it as something, lmk!

Fate, Free Will, and Inevitability

These three terms can encompass all of the other things I could call themes of my self ship with 🪙.

Do people have the ability to change their fate? Or is whatever outcome of them trying to do so already inevitable? Perhaps the bigger question is whether or not it even matters.

While it doesn't always apply, I like the old saying "Character is fate." In this context, it means that things could have gone differently if people had made different decisions, but the characters in question would never have chosen differently. Fate is fate not because we have no control over our lives, but because we do.

In my S/I with 🪙, my goal, despite having never met him, is to save him from his fate. His fate being dying (and the fact that it's specified in canon that if he didn't die then, he'd have been killed just over a decade later.) While it's not completely inevitable, its one of those classic "overconfident villain doesn't realize how formidable the heroes until it's too late," situations. He may be a genius, but he's too arrogant to consider expanding the list of people he finds to be genuine threats.

To help him avert his fate would be to seal my own. 🪙 has very much set a precedent for how he handles those who have outlived their usefulness, learned too much, and/or made mistakes. It's not even a question of "how could I make myself too valuable to kill," or "how can I avoid earning his ire," because there would come a time when it would become unavoidable.

I would be knowingly and willingly putting myself into a situation where I'd be putting him above my own wellbeing and self preservation. He wouldn't have an uncharacteristic show of kindness or mercy, regardless of how helpful I was or how endearing he found my hopeless obsession with him to be. I'm still not sure how our story would end, but I do know that endings are unavoidable. Everything we do shapes our futures, and all we will ever be is ourselves.

If you've made it to the end, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! If anyone would like to send me more asks from this game, the link is right below!

[amjustagirl]

NIKKIIII omg a dinner party sounds DIVINE (especially since all I've had to eat rn is plain food because my brother got a stomach bug so we all have to eat nUtrItiOuS food:')) buttt im going to a (small) party on sunday so theres hopefully going to be good food there(DOUGHNUTSS AHHH)🥳plus its my best friend's party who I havent seen in a year?? now so eeee!!! also your Osamu teaserrr😫 u really have some beautiful works here<33 uhh this is so out of the blue but do u h any writing advicee😓🥺💕

Nanini! Oh no I hope you didn’t fall ill yourself? Enjoy yourself at your party, hug your bestie and eat all the doughnuts you want to your heart’s content! I love hosting dinner parties at home cos you don’t have to worry about dressing up and paying ridiculous prices at restaurants (HAHA imma cheapskate like that). 

Ty for your love for my little fics! 

What sort of writing advice are you looking for? I don’t claim to be a good writer tbh, but these are my thoughts / reminders to myself when I write - do let me know what specific writing advice you want cos I’m more than happy to chat in greater detail: 

Show don’t tell - this is so so important! It’s the difference between saying - “he is happy” versus “the corner of his eyes crinkle in delight”. Trust your readers to be intelligent enough to grasp your meaning ^^

Emphasise on characterisation - always think whether what your character is saying / thinking / doing / reacting is in line with his or her personality because that will influence the plot! 

Be sensitive to rhythm and pacing - I try to give my characters space to breathe and feel in each of my stories by including little scenes for them to flesh out their interactions with each other (while also helping the plot to move along). Lmk if this bit is unclear. 

Motifs and Imagery - I fall back  on this tactic a lot in my long fics especially. I think about what imagery / motif fits the character and weave it into the story accordingly (e.g. Atsumu // Storm, Sakusa // Broken Compass, Akaashi // Silence, Yaku // Home, Iwaizumi & Oikawa // the sun and stars). I find it really helps me in my creative process? 

Ok I should probably shut up for now cos again I don’t think I’m good enough a writer to have any standing to dole out advice but I do hope this is helpful - and of course, I’m so happy to see you drop in my inbox!!!! 

[wangzapper]

6,19, and 51 for the fanfiction ask?

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

I think the first thing I ever remember shipping was zutara in ATLA, I didn’t do much shipping in my weeb days, I was more of a self-insert kinda gal, then when I was into SPN in high school I was a big destiel shipper, then for Star Wars I guess my OTP’s are gingerpilot, kylux, and finnrey (finnpoe is also up there, I really just want people to be happy)

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Not really honestly.  Most ships that don’t do it for me I just feel indifferent towards honestly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

 I LOVE how people are so supportive and open with their emotions!  Sometimes I get comments on my fic that are just like “AAAAAAA I CRIED” and it makes my day!  It’s so fun to actually know when your writing gets an emotional response from someone!  I do sometimes wish that I got more feedback on like, what people thought of the actual structure of my writing - if the plot makes sense and is compelling, if people pick up on and enjoy the little motifs and recurring themes in the story, and if anyone wants to start a fanfiction book club where we read each other’s fics and analyze the shit out of them lmk!  But just in general, I love how forthcoming people are with comments on fic! I’m trying to be better about leaving comments when I like someone’s work, because I know how much it means to me, and I want to be better about showing other people the same warmth I love when they show me.

FANFICTION ASKS

[angstandhappiness]

INTERESTING IDEA TO CONSIDER

“Mei! You have to stop. I know you’re upset, and that’s okay! I know what it’s like to have a power you don’t know how to control—

—to feel like the fate of the world is in your hands

and you have no idea what to do!

((How do you still not see that he has no idea what he's doing? How about this for a plan: stay down MK, or I will put you down.))

But you always have my back, and help me through it. We, will figure this out!

Together!”

[imminent-danger-came]

I might be misremembering but I assumed the "just a story" line in AHiB was referring to the legend of Wukong sealing away DBK, not JTTW/SWK's existence as a whole

I guess if you wanted to you could interpret it that way (and it is totally applicable there), but it also applies to the broader narrative in lmk itself. Jttw is also notably referenced a decent amount throughout the "A Hero is Born" special:

Tang: “The thing you need to understand about the old legends, is that the story is never finished. There maybe be no more pages left to turn, but there’s always more to the journey."

Which, this line by Tang is the first instance of story motif in LMK as a whole. It's then "book ended" by another narration by Tang later in 3x14:

Tang: “The curious thing about legends is the way we can continue to be moved by the same stories. We’re comforted by familiar tales of friendship, courage, redemption. At times, the path of the hero might seem unclear, and the stories chaotic and directionless. Sometimes it may seem as though we’ve ended back where we began, but it’s clear to see how much we’ve grown on the journey—for although the story is over, there’s always room on the shelf for another.”

Like, even if some details don't match and some things changed, the AHiB special is foundational. It's constantly referenced back to in one way or another, and is the first instance of a significant amount of motifs and themes, for example:

Hand Motif

Reflection Motif

Theme: Identity (1) (2) ("You might have that old fool's staff, but you are not the Monkey King." in AHiB -> "Well, I'm not the Monkey King! Okay!" in RoTSQ)

Running Away

Theme: Self Belief ("Just believe in yourself! Even a smidge makes all the difference"/"Nothing is impossible if you just believe in yourself!" -> "It's always my fault!") (1) (2)

Turning Around Motif

Kneeling Motif

So, when thinking about "the story never being finished", it reminds me of MK's recent conflict of wanting things to stay the same, of not wanting to move forward:

MK: “Honestly? I’m kinda liking the world as it is, right now. So...if it could just stay like this, forever? That would be awesome.” Sun Wukong: “Yeah well...forever’s a long time bud...trust me.”

(4x01 Familiar Tales)

-

MK: "You ever wish things will just- stay like this, like they are right now?" Sun Wukong: "Pssshhkk, where's the fun in that?"

(4x14 Better Than We Found It)

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Ultimately, MK wants his story to be finished, but that's not how it works. There is no "final chapter" so to speak, there's just life, and you have to keep going and picking up the next book and moving through the next chapter.

I made a whole comic around this idea if you wanted to go look!

But yeah, DBK's sealing is the first instance in a long line where the story "isn't finished" because the seal doesn't hold, and plans move forward. This happens again with LBD and then later with Azure. It can even apply to things like the Samadhi Fire (and most likely the Jade Emperor's Seal in the future)—supposedly, sealing these things away should have been the end of the story, of their story, but it wasn't. So it's interesting to take that line and use it as a sort of framework to view the rest of the show in

[imminent-danger-came]

Hello friend. At first, I thought it was a joke that there's a Lego show that people love. I've seen you post about it a lot so I figure it's just one of those things that maybe a couple people really really love otherwise, whatever. But I just sat that clip of that characters death and it made me realize I know nothing about anything ever lol. What is the Lego show about? What do you love about it? I'm just super curious

Well. Okay. My embarrassment aside, I totally get it—it is a lego show, but it's my lego show and I'll gladly tell you about it!

(my apologies this got a little long)

*inhales cigarette* I remember starting to watch lmk (Lego Monkie Kid) and not expecting anything except some very pretty animation—it's just legos, right? And then it completely blindsided me. Then I did some digging and realized it's a modern retelling of Journey to the West (jttw—one of the great classic chinese novels), and that half of the whole reason this show exists is to retell a familiar tale to the modern age. That's how the show opens, and that's how s3 ends.

And, at the risk of sounding a little deranged, I'm going to say that the show being legos is thematically relevant. It legitimately adds to part of the story they're trying to tell—and the story Lego Monkie Kid is trying to tell is legitimately very solid. It's super good. They completely blew me out of the water with season 4.

So. The first special and s1 isn't anything too unique on a first watch through. The characters are charming and the show is very pretty, but it's nothing I'd write home about (though, 1x09 is very good—in my opinion—and 1x10, the season finale, builds plenty of intrigue).

But here's the thing: legitimately so much is set up in s1 and you don't even realize it, and it's STILL being re-contextualized well into s4.

So, then the s2 special happens right after s1, and it's like, alright! The plot seems to be going somewhere! We get introduced to a few more antagonists and the status quo from s1 is already somewhat disrupted. But then the last half of s2 comes around. And they're all bangers. 2x05 Minor Scale is GREAT. 2x06 is pure game motif. 2x07 gives us backstory and continues the main protags negative character arc. 2x08 is one of my favorites in the whole show. By this point you realize how consistent the character writing is if you've been paying attention. 2x09 is the beginning of the end. 2x10 ends the season on quite the cliff hanger, and it's like. HOLY SHIT. WHAT IS THIS ABSOLUTE GEM OF A SHOW.

s3 is lovely, and the end of the s3 special has one of my favorite scenes in anything. s4 is so ridiculously good. Lmk honestly has what I would consider to be god tier pacing. They have 10 minutes to achieve their goal, and by GOD are they going to do exactly that.

But like, what do I love about the show specifically?

The animation. The characters. The themes. I kid you not a major theme in s4 of the show is the fact that every single thing you do leads to pain. Being the hero or the villain, it doesn't matter—you cause suffering and destruction with every step you take. You hurt the people you care about. No, seriously. I'm not kidding. THAT'S one of the main focuses of s4, and oh boy is it a wild ride. You get used to legos crying. I am unironically expecting s5 of this show to be a tragedy.

I can not recommend it enough!

(If it's your thing that is! I TOTALLY get not being able to look past the legos, and the fast pacing isn't for everyone.)

Anyways, here's a bonus gif of Mei to end off!