#So it's getting ragged (just like him)

[mikkeneko]

....now considering whether I want to write a 'Find the shapeshifters' fic for SVSSS too

[qiu-yan]

MDZS and asshole victims: thoughts on the second siege of the burial mounds scene

this post is not about morality judgments. this post is about reader sympathies only.

one rather clever rhetorical trick MDZS employs is putting all the more background "surviving victims of wei wuxian's actions" into one big angry mob at the second siege of the burial mounds, instead of letting them crop up anywhere else in the story. it's easy for a first-time reader to write off the guy who lost a leg at nightless city, or the guy whose parents died at nightless city, because both of those guys are being dicks. they're part of an angry mob baying for wei wuxian's blood--unfairly baying for wei wuxian's blood, because this time he didn't even do the thing they're saying he did. by putting these two victims into a mob of not just fellow victims but also unaffected individuals (ie. sect leader yao, who just showed up for kicks), the story can effectively equate these victims' grievances (ie. "you killed my parents") with unreasonable mob rule--even if these two things might not actually be equivalent.

the effect of this rhetorical trick, then, is that the reader can at once perceive the themes about mob mentality MXTX wishes to convey, and also effectively write off the victims' complaints. "yes, i did that to you, but i literally died already, what more do you want me to do? shall i walk on my knees repenting?" becomes easier for the reader to accept. and more importantly--wei wuxian's likability as a moral and just protagonist is not impacted.

ngl tho. it would be a bit more difficult for the reader to write off these victims' complaints if, instead of meeting said victims in an angry mob, the reader instead met these victims almost anywhere else. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you killed my parents" at the second siege of the burial mounds, we instead met him getting smashed at the local bar and crying about how his parents are dead. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you chopped off my leg" as a member of an angry mob, we instead met him begging for alms on the side of the road because his disability rendered him unable to work in a wuxia-esque setting. or imagine--if either of these background characters, overcome with survivor's guilt and trauma from nightless city, hung himself in his bedroom, and the next day his body was discovered by his 15-year-old daughter.

all of these scenarios are entirely plausible. you could easily include any of them into the story without changing the main plot at all. but suddenly shit just got a lot more depressing.

however, no such scene would ever be included in MDZS. the reason is that, as a work of fiction, MDZS's single most ardent goal is for us the readers to conclude not just that "we like wei wuxian as a character," but also that "wei wuxian is ultimately a morally righteous person." when the narrative focus shifts onto the people who were actually helped by wei wuxian's actions (mianmian and her family, lan sizhui, the few months of dignity the wen remnants were afforded) this becomes much easier for us to conclude; wei wuxian does indeed look like a hero. but the more narrative focus is given to the negative impacts of wei wuxian's actions--the more the "victims of wei wuxian" (whether actual victims or not) are given a face, instead of abstracted away by broad summaries--the more the reader might side-eye wei wuxian instead. every new victim given a name, given narrative attention that isn't just focused on making them look like an asshole, arouses the reader's sympathies in the opposite direction--and thus increases the risk that the reader might ultimately disagree with the novel's conclusion of "wei wuxian is a righteous person."

tbh, this does not seem like a risk MXTX particularly wants to take. instead, she's mastered the art of writing Asshole Victims.

which is an entirely valid writing decision, because imo basically every work of genre fiction out there does this to some extent.

[kodasea]

Babygirl (my heart)

[rox-of-iu]

ayo guys guess what time it is again :)) 💜💜

spoiler warning for cultivate ch 41-46

hehe finally scrambled brain enough to be able to catch up and cultivate makes me go 🥰🥰😌🤗😊😊

cultivate of course by @neonghostcat beloved

[blusandbirds]

eli moskowitz - "am i making you feel sick?"

[ohsweetflips]

anyways thinking abt the amount of people involved in jin zixuan’s death is gonna make me a little insane. like u have wen ning who physically did it. wei wuxian who lost control. jin zixun who planned the ambush. jin guangshan who gave the fucking order to kill wei wuxian in the first place because his son *checks notes* wanted his wife to be happy. the many other people in jinlintai who knew that the ambush was going to happen. and then jin guangyao. oh boy. jin guangyao knowing about the ambush, being involved with the hundred holes curse, hating jin zixun, and then sending jin zixuan to the site of the ambush like. buddy how many birds did u kill with that stone.

[oddly-casual]

Mutant Mayhem spoilers

It’s such a small moment and maybe I just have brain rot or something but in the beginning when Splinter is talking abt why he hates humans it’s Mikey specifically that chimes in with that little “you don’t know that.” And just UGH

Even just by his tone you can tell that he knows his words aren’t going to change anything because they’ve had this conversation too many times. But also Mikey was the one Splinter almost lost that day, like if Splinter was any slower Mikey would’ve been gone.

And you just know in the minds of children Mikey equated their isolation from humans as being his fault because he almost got ran over as a baby.

Like I don’t wanna say it because sometimes leads to unnecessary angst, but children who grow up isolated from everyone else believing that they can’t confide in their parent often blame themselves for their parents decisions.

Donnie and Raph back talk and make fun of Splinter the most but Mikey does it like once and Leo does it never. So you can tell Leo and Mikey don’t get upset with their father, they get upset with themselves for the way things are and I just

[caterpillarinacave]

idk personally I think at the end of NATM1 Ahkmenrah should have gotten to have Cecil dragged back to his exhibit and have his hands cut off, as would have been an the appropriate punishment for a grave robber in ancient egypt, but that’s just me

[busiest-bee]

Redesigned banban!! Still don’t think I’m happy with it but oh well

Here he is Pre and Post Everything Going Wrong™️. This redesign is also sorta part of a rewrite I have that lives pretty exclusively in my mind bcuz I’m way too lazy to write it down and also my writing skills Suck.

Here’s some fun facts tho!

-In this rewrite the mascot experiments are not clay monsters brought to life, they are instead Sickeningly biological. Bcuz I think that’s super cool (euphoric bros rlly missed the BIGGEST body horror opportunity ngl)

-His mouth isn’t stuck like that he can move it freely, including his tongue. He just has a very Large tongue that doenst fit right in his mouth so it just ends up flopping out, making him look Very silly.

-his lab coat is a sort of comfort object for him, considering how he believes himself to be Uthman. I don’t know if it’d be sadder for him to have taken/stolen it after everything went to shit, or if maybe it was custom made for him after the whole Learning He’s Not Himself situation to try and get him to be cooperative

-his ‘horns’ are soft and emote like ears. They don’t have any actual hearing functionality, so he has like. Bird ear holes on the sides of his head that get hidden by his fur

-I don’t have it fully mapped out in my mind, but him losing a big chunk of his tail felt..on brand? Poignant? Fitting? Idk something abt it makes me sad and he is a sad wet cat of a man so I had to. He probably lost it the day everything went wrong in my rewrite, maybe an emergency door shut on him and cut his tail, maybe it got ripped off. Who knows…

[astronomodome]

Feeling conflicted about the cyberpunk thingy impulse is going for because like yeah it’s a great theme and I like the aesthetics a lot but what I really like most about cyberpunk is the themes of corporate alienation and/or transhumanism etc etc which I know will not be addressed at all and in fact it’s kind of stupid of me to expect that at all from a minecraft series. Does anyone else get that or just me

[izzibeeb]

I understand what this post is getting at but also it’s so funny like hey man. how would you have handled the blood feud

[3416]

Matthew Knies Media Availability | 11.08.23

[ratatatastic]

happy dumb ekky penalty of the day. on this episode of puck over glass. in a tied game. where said tied goal was a ppg. can you tell he also thought it was quite dumb of him to do too? can you? can his screams of agony move you to come to that conclusion as well?

its the "are they gonna call it please dont call it god they have to call it but do they have to? do they really? just because multiple men shouted OUT and pointed at the puck as it flew out doesnt mean they have to call" of it all before yes they do it call it ekky of course they do get your ass to the dumb idiot box

new york rangers @ florida panthers | 12.30.24

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

I only care about insignificant things, so. here's an ow2 junkrat edit where his left pant leg matches his right.

[p3achj3llyf1sh]

I fucking hate him so much if miguel has zero haters i am dead

[eightdoctor]

the gallifrey chronicles is going to transmogrify me into nothing more than a feral bloodthirsty beast and not in a good way. not in a good way in the slightest

this 👆is me right now