#THIS GUY IS A GENIUS WITH WORDS

[lastofthe20thcenturygirls]

(ln8 spoilers) jinshi thinking except for my godly looks i am just average and then his smartass goes and kills around five birds with just one brand. someone whose status is so high that even his name can't be said by anyone except the emperor jinshi branded himself with the crest of the empress vowing loyalty to her assuring her he doesn't wants to take the place of her son. one-upping his "bro" with this who refuses to let him leave the line of succession wouldn't let him become a commoner doesn't wants to let him become a servant to the royal family. only slaves get branded and if this ever got out there will be chaos in the court. gyokuyou tho considers jinshi like a brother and he did swear loyalty to her but if she ever tried to cross his family her clan's brand on his body would be enough to prove her as an adultress which would be bad for her and her clan.

and jinshi did this in front of these two people and maomao so now she is the only one who can see him naked and the emperor cannot order him to marry anyone which was something that was definitely gonna happen had he not done what he did. as a bonus he gets to spend more time with maomao after a long time and he did all this while saying the exact words: empress gyokuyou, your enemy i shall never be in front of maomao reassuring her because she once muttered i don't want to be an enemy to empress gyokuyou and he had heard her but before he could tell her that he had no intention of doing that either he couldn't because of the lishu incident. one of the major reasons maomao hadn't accepted her own feelings for jinshi one of the obstacles he promised to remove for her. even though he doesn't even know that maomao's concerns about her becoming gyokuyou's enemy had to do with his birth secret his true status. that no matter what he is the rightful successor. something jinshi himself isn't even aware of and yet without knowing that he did this to deal with it all in a single way most preferable to him: masochism

[meetmeinhellcroutons]

Currently rewatching MisMag s1 and something sounded AWFULLY familiar… AABRIA IYENGAR THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE

[mihotose]

[six-of-cringe]

I think that one of the reasons why people misinterpret Wylan's character and arc, among others, is because they misinterpret the relationship between him and Kaz. This post has kind of mitosised off from the BFWP (Big Fucking Wylan Post) I'm writing because it's a bit of a different focus and constitutes its own post.

A lot of people talk about Wylan's character and development as though it's meant to match Kaz's - starting out as a nice kid who the city forces to become amoral, indifferent to violence, and well-versed in crime. These qualities are usually talked about with a weird reverence as an irrefutable symbol of "badassery", as though it's always a positive development for any character regardless of the story's narrative, which annoys me but is not the topic of this post. That's part of the BFWP's job.

Following Kaz's exact development is not the point of Wylan's character. The point is that Kaz and Wylan narrative foils - very similar in many ways, but with a fundamental difference that creates the "broken mirror" effect/shows how they could have turned out if they'd chosen differently. I think that difference is how they respond when they climb out of the harbor after their respective betrayals. Narratively, Ketterdam represents a very harsh system that presents the people struggling there with very few options. You can either choose to ditch decency, play by the Barrel's rules, and live, or you can hold on to decency and die.

When Kaz returns to the streets after Jordie's death, he chooses the first option. He copes with what happened through ideas of revenge, and to survive long enough to see it he quickly turns to thievery and violence. He thinks to himself after he robs a kid for money and food that it was much easier to survive when you've left decency behind. He survived through violence, creating the Dirtyhands persona around himself for protection.

When Wylan has to fend for himself, he choses the second option. He finds "honest work" at the tannery, where they exploit workers and expose them to toxins. He wonders if he'll live long enough to use his savings to leave the city, or if the chemicals would kill him first. He was smart enough to steal and survive, but he chose decency, and with it, he chose death. There are a number of reasons why he chose differently than Kaz despite their similarities - his older age and thus more developed moral code, having no one to avenge but himself when he believed himself worthless, his more privileged upbringing, and his relatively low drive to live. Alone, he would have died.

Then Kaz steps in. Kaz's role in all the crow's lives is that, intentionally or not, his ruthless rule of the Barrel creates a sort of haven that allows them to survive where they would have died had they stayed alone. Wylan is a really clear example of this, and though Kaz's intentions were at least partly self-serving, his involvement both kept Wylan from dying of exposure or street violence as well as prevented him from needing to do the more terrible things that it takes to survive in the Barrel. Throughout the books, we see Kaz kind of taking the brunt of enacting violence in Wylan's place - traumatizing Smeet's daughter, killing the clerk on the lighthouse. Wylan could get by making explosives in the workshop rather than having to shoot or stab or beat the life out of people. And at the end of the series, Kaz sees to it that he never will have to. Of course Wylan did bad stuff to survive when working with the Dregs, it's the Barrel. But the extent is greatly lessened because of Kaz's involvement.

Wylan's arc was never about becoming comfortable with violence, or becoming just like Kaz - the way people characterize him as some sort of ruthless murder mastermind is inaccurate and redundant with Kaz's character. He isn't nonchalant or celebratory about crime or death or violence by the end of the book. He doesn't HAVE to become like Kaz, because Kaz himself gave him the space to continue being decent, intentionally or otherwise. Understanding that dynamic is important to understanding what Wylan is like as a character and as a person. If you assume Wylan's trajectory is to become "Kaz 2.0", then you're going to mischaracterize him. I've seen posts about how Kaz was the Jordie that he didn't have to Wylan, and I think that makes a lot more sense. Because Kaz is willing to do the horrible things in his stead, Wylan has the third option otherwise impossible in the Barrel - maintaining his decency and surviving.

[alohaasaloevera]

Au where Lance works a normal 9 to 5 (or as a nurse???) as a single dad and Keith is a mechanic at an auto shop??

It’s either a rivals-ish mutual pining slow burn 7-15 chapters 60k+ fic or a friends with benefits type of situation also mutual pining slow burn 7-15 chapters 60k+ fic.

Basically Lance moves into this new neighborhood to get away from the past (which is mainly his child’s mother and some other toxic people/environments (not his family or Hunk though)), and is immediately known as the hot, single dad who recently moved to the neighborhood, before he meets Pidge, a former child prodigy now genius software engineer. Pidge and Lance form a close bond with each other and Hunk even meets up with them a few times!!!!

Lance also hears about the young, hot mechanic down the street, and that’s kinda where their rivalry starts (along with other events).

In the mutual pining rivals au they keep getting put in situations where they have to compete, and then they become rivals, but they’re also hopelessly pining over each other and adore the other a lot. Cue Lance’s child accidentally calling Keith “Daddy” and everyone freaking out.

In the fwb au Lance grows a pair and pins Keith to a wall before making out with him almost immediately (like in the first few chapters), which also leads to mutual pining. They’re still “rivals”, though. Rivals who secretly make out and cuddle with each other, but that’s not important (it really is).

YOO???? I MIGHT’VE MADE A BANGER AU???

[giddlygoat]

i just know steven was very concerned hygiene but dr two brains gotta be fastidious as hell. not necessarily in the neat freak / tidy workspace way, but i bet he can’t stand feeling dirty or living in a nasty environment. everything has to be clean

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Going back into my cave after this but Wyllstarion x The Princess Diaries au. Wyll as Mia, Astarion as Nicholas, Tav as Andrew. You understand.

[aroacettorney]

ludger cherish in his past life was obviously a villain/anti-villain lover and nuance understander, considering the IDs of most of his pseudonyms were either a serial killer, an ethical gentleman thief, a genius mastermind with a good public reputation, or a criminal turned detective. so it would be really ironic if he truly believes that only the outcomes matter regardless of the good intentions or that there is no redemption path for criminals of any kind since that philosophy is much closer to copaganda than caseys belief in values of justice.

[deadbeandrop]

i Do think it's funny how much dead bean drop has specifically like... been such a starting point of everything that's been going on in my mind but they really did just manage to hit a bullseye being all like "oh yeah and lumpus and slinkman went to camp together as kids" like Ugh. You can't just say that to me. Come on. look at this Stupid thing

"and there's so much potential there" - ME ABOUT PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING I'VE EVER GOTTEN MY HANDS ON

[padfootastic]

just gonna drop this here no context

[snzical]

im ngl i keep laughing at that one post that was like "you guys will NOT SURVIVE OTHER WEBSITES they do NOT WORK LIKE TUMBLR" like what are you talking about. genuinely what are you talking about.

[changelingbaby]

i miss the days before genius lyrics. my dad played me joni mitchell all the time in the summer evenings and one day i went "'hey paradise, put up a parking lot' doesn't make any sense what is she talking about" and he just paused and went "yeah, what the hell"

[goldensunset]

FINALLY

[nerdyenby]

Fair warning that I have never been and will never be normal about Leanna Firestone

[coquelicoq]

oh no this reality dating show is really sweet actually. this was not supposed to happen. crap. crap. i didn't sign up for this!

[cassmouse]

Okay. Okay okay okay so I am very very close to the end of Bunny I probably should be finishing it but this is so obscenely horrifying, hallucinogenic and absolutely fucking devastating that I can't physically bring myself to