#The sus does not equal love nor does romance

[clownsuu]

The fact that you depict characters as both aroace and in relationships makes me actually so happy because everyone always thinks that shipping is off the table for those characters and forgets sex/romance stances exist, you filled me with so much joy ;w;

It’s a weird stereotype indeed smhh (harmful even) making it sound like individuals who are aro/ace are incapable of being/falling in love- or just being able to feel love in general

[convenientalias]

Would you like to rate Mei Changsu?

When I was writing the Nam Seon-ho post I said he was the best blorbo and even as I said it, a shock of conscience said "ARENT YOU FORGETTING SOMEONE" so thank you for asking my other blorbo so I can ease my conscience.

A couple notes:

you don't know the strong urge I had to say MCS was "untouched by history" lols BUT I TAKE MY ASK MEMES VERY SERIOUSLY I DO NOT JOKE AROUND

I mostly am happy with MCS having no canonical romance bc I think sometimes you have a plotty revenge show with an ensemble cast and you don't NEED a romance and focusing on a romance would just be distracting BUT at the same time there are some scenes with Nihuang that absolutely murder me with pining and also of course I do enjoy shippy fanfic with him so in a sense yes I do want more romance but also no. Same goes for sex!

I have little interest in an MCS with less trauma, "freedom" from his obligation to seek revenge/justice, or a surviving family, bc for me so much of his character (at least in canon era) is built on the fact that he's gone through this tragedy and has this drive to see his goal through (as well as the fact that he's keeping secrets, which derives from the tragedy too) that when you take that away, he becomes less interesting to me. "Lin Shu" is a less interesting character to me than "Mei Changsu" or "Su Zhe".

Isn't Mei Changsu's life hard enough without him having to deal with consequences for his actions? That one time with Jingrui was hard enough.

I gave Seon-ho a 10/10 for intense, complex and fruity but: 1) Mei Changsu, if left to his own devices, will scheme revenge but will also just chill with Fei Liu, so he's able to be less intense on occasion, 2) Mei Changsu is complex of course but once you know his secret identity and the goal that drives him he gets much simpler; if/when ppl in the capital knew these things about him, he would get much easier for them to understand, and 3) MCS does give slashy vibes sometimes and at times he pines, banters, etc, but love and attraction are not his driving force nor his focus, see above on sex and romance. Anyway I can buy a gay MCS, a straight MCS, an ace MCS, or a bi MCS equally, whereas I find it kind of hard to not interpret Seon-ho as gay. That said, such things are hard to quantify.

Thanks again for the ask!

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Vid - The Untamed

I could say this was my attempt at meta on an underappreciated character and that's why I wanted to vid Wen Ning…

Nah, I just think he's hot.

Wen Ning has this adorable babyface and big eyes. Just my type. And then he got a goth makeover and became a creepy zombie, increasing his hotness by ten thousand times. The Living Dead was everything I wanted except for dubcon possession porn, and it both irritates and cracks me up to see how many people find it OOC and badly made. I agree the colors are an abomination though--but more on that later.

I like Wen Ning the best because 1. He's hot and 2. He's one of the most competent characters and compromises his morals the least. Mianmian might be one up on him given how her story turns out, but in a whole series of craven idiots, I like the suicidally moral characters, especially when they're competent.

And also JC. Because I like his face. (What? I never said my Untamed feels were deep.)

I wanted to make this vid last year, right after Escapade. I spent forever finding a song, and I'm glad I did it then because it was a nightmare. I can find love songs easily, but I don't really care about WN/WWX, nor would most love songs fit that. It's clearly one-sided, but WN is also clearly totally happy to follow him around forever. Happy love songs are out. Pining angst is out.

WN is also motivated by high ideals more than specific family feelings. WQ wants to protect her family. WN wants to repay his debts. WN is a shy doofus on the surface when we first see him, and he acts flustered around most of the older characters, but this is deceptive. I feel like the most revealing scene is when he pops up at Lotus Pier, ready to grab JC and take on his entire clan. In what universe was this a good idea? What is he even doing there? Why did it actually work???

I wanted a song that encapsulated WN's quiet stubbornness. The trouble is that like 99% of popular music is either about romance or about being a confident badass, and most of the confident badass music is "Fuck you, ex boyfriend, I'm stronger now". I did not want an ex boyfriend song. A bunch of other songs are macho, flexing dudes talking about how they'll win the sports competition. Obviously, that was out. There are a very few songs like Try Everything, but they're awfully perky for covering Wen Ning's entire story, including him getting, you know, gruesomely murdered.

I honestly can't remember how I found the song I picked. I was probably listening to Happy Hanukkah on endless repeat and saw it in the Youtube sidebar. (Look, it's a great song for all times of year. Shut up.) Matisyahu has many amazing songs that build and move in ways ideal for vids.

I then sat on this source/song combo for a year because, well, it sure was a year. But when we got close to Escapade, I realized I wanted to finish it for the con.

Clip choices:

I'm not going to include the full lyrics on their own since they're in English and on every lyrics site. Instead, I'm putting the relevant bits between my explanations of what I chose and why. A lot of it came together quickly. I knew I wanted to include cute WN moments, like him being bullied by kids, and they wouldn't fit in the main narrative, so I had to put them in the intro.

Feel like the world don't love you They only wanna push you away Some days people don't see you You feel like you're in the way

I had a lot of trouble with 'push you away' since, generally speaking, no one does push him away. However, this is a vid from Wen Ning's own perspective, so it felt like an acceptable match to use the part where Wen Qing tries to leave him behind as they go on a hunt. She's objectively correct to do so given what happens, but Wen Ning is clearly upset that she tried. He doesn't want to be protected, especially at the cost of other people's safety.

Today you feel as if everyone hates Pointing their fingers, looking at your mistakes You do good, but they want great No matter what you give they still wanna take

I was very clear from early on that I wanted to use 'mistakes' for what Wen Ning is actually upset about: ruining Jin Ling's life. Of course he feels super guilty about what he did, despite it not being his fault, but the specific fallout Wen Ning is going to care about is a kid's feelings, not the political drama. That gave me the idea for what to do with 'good' and 'great'. More than most characters in the series, WN is not impressed by the power structure or reputations--scared, yes, but not impressed. WN likes bringing people food, at little things that are quietly good, and their society does not value that. (Cf. everything about Jiang Yanli's betrothal before Jin Zixuan catches feelings.)

'No matter what you give' I used for a shot that is probably not going to read as anything in a convention vidshow. He's bruised up, so I was hoping it would read properly visually. The actual context of the shot is WN having been thrown in the dungeon for being a traitor to the Wen. And yet, when the Wen are defeated, does he get a pardon? Nope, ignominious death. It really didn't matter what he did: these factions are all thoroughly corrupt and the entire system is garbage. It's all power-hungry assholes and sanctimonious prisses ripe for manipulation. All that mattered was that he was a Wen, and the Wens were either on top or being exterminated.

Give your love and they throw it back You give your heart they go on attack When there's nothing left for you, Only thing that you can do, say

The next part is WWX being an ungrateful little bitch. He's understandably stressed, but it still cracks me up that he's all up in WN's face and WN is literally only there to help him. WN might feel an obligation, but WWX sure isn't earning it here.

'When there's nothing left' I wasn't sure about. WN hitting rock bottom is arguably when he gets killed or maybe when they're in the burial mounds, but that didn't work with my structure. I chose to put a montage here of all the times that WQ tells him to stay safe by ditching WWX. I sympathize with WQ, but as WN comments in one of these scenes, he's following their own family code that she taught him. WQ cares so much about protecting WN (and the rest of their little part of the clan, but let's be real, it's mostly about WN) that she's willing to collude with a mass murderer just to keep him safe. Maybe it's only because he's a younger sibling, but WN seems to see things a lot more clearly. I laugh every time he's like "Uh huh, uh huh" as she lectures, and then the next scene is him running off to do something dangerous again.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

For this round of the chorus, WN is burning his Wen clan membership in a fire, and the heroic thing is running away, living to fight another day. WN has no ego, nor would ego be helpful here.

Buuuut, equally, being an actual warrior means hurting people, and while he was literally mind controlled into murder, that still couldn't have happened if he hadn't been already involved in violence and fighting. Violence you regret is also part of this life, and so is accepting responsibility for your actions. (Sure, he's very literally not responsible here, but WN doesn't know that at the time and doesn't feel that even later.)

There's some things you should let go, They're only gonna pull you down, Just like weight on your shoulder They are only gonna make you drown

I swear The Untamed has the best casting for a variety of face types. I recognized everybody from the moment they appeared… Except for Su She. Whom I forgot entirely and couldn't recognize at all. Doh.

It wasn't till I was clipping the whole series for this vid that I realized that the reason Wen Ning gets possessed here is that he's the only one to notice Su She's plight and go to his aid right away. I think on first viewing, I read it as him just getting possessed before he could get in the air, but that's not what's happening at all. His dumb ass stayed behind to try to help someone. Seriously, fuck Su She. They live in a grotesquely shitty power structure, but WN responds in admirable ways, while Su She just whines that he's not on top.

We all swing high, we all swing low, We all got secrets people don't know We all got dreams we can't let go, We wanna be brave, don't be afraid

WN's secret is that he gets possessed so easily and why. WQ is refusing to tell WWX in this scene, but he has figured out something is up and gives her a talisman for WN, which shows up later in the plot to great emotional effect--though not in this vid, alas.

The butterfly reveal was one of the first things on my timeline as I recall. I have Many Feelings. Also, this is me, so yes, I totally ship them. >:D

WN and WQ showing up to accept responsibility is kind of a dumbass move, but it's definitely brave. I enjoy how WN just keeps barrelling through the plot in a way that should mean he's the cute woobie who dies early on to prove the world is bad… and that instead leads to him being one of the strongest fighters, making it through the series, and finding A-Yuan again. (Though, okay, he did that first thing also. Heh.)

I ended on Jin Ling because I was so struck on rewatch at how the juniors first meet Wen Ning.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior, Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

I dimly recalled this fight, but it wasn't till I was clipping that I realized just how much focus each of them gets and how WN is literally strangling them and such. I just remembered him fighting people, not who. It's hilarious how quickly after this (in their timeline) we have doofus woobie WN being cute and them being like "He's my murder zombie! ♥"

For this chorus, I focused on that change. WN is rescuing them. "Yesterday" is their scared faces. Here, being a "warrior" is apologizing to JL. And maybe WN doesn't really owe an apology, but JL does deserve one. Almost no one in the series seems to give a shit about how JL is feeling.

And then my favorite scene with my two faves! WN is finally telling JC what he has probably wanted to for ages. WN is a wuss when it comes to himself, but he gets righteously pissed when someone else is being mistreated. The yesterday he's letting burn here is his promise to keep quiet… along with viciously burning down every bit of self perception and hubris JC ever had. Ouch!

Your heart is too heavy from things you carry a long time, Been up you been down, tired and you don't know why, But you're never gonna go back, you only live one life Let go, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go,

Bless the sequel movie for literally being entirely about Wen Ning's internal struggle. The way he breaks free of the bad guy's hold is by accepting the past and letting go of his guilt over things he can't change.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

He's just so hot in this movie! This first chorus is him coming out of the hallucination, having beaten his self doubt and then beating on the villain.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Okay, in actual canon, JL mostly joined them because he was competing with LSZ like the bratty little asshole he is, but I wanted to highlight how JL got over himself enough to join the other juniors on team WN. Also, WN defends both him and LSZ in this scene in ways he couldn't back then.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Fight like a warrior,

This I wasn't planning on at all. As I was clipping the whole series, I was thinking that WN's possessed footage here wouldn't be narratively useful since he went and got taken over again, but when I rewatched for visually impressive stuff to use interstitially, I realized that--holy shit--he's defending Jin Ling in this scene. And he succeeds. I included both a shot of Jin Zixuan, which everyone caught in the vidshow, and a shot that nobody mentioned: Wen Ning's bloody fist after ripping JZX heart out to go with Wen Ning's bloody hand on the sword in the present as he struggles to keep it from Jin Ling. Here, fighting like a warrior means keeping the sword off of JL, even if WN can't defeat the spirit or resolve the entire situation himself.

ALSO I HAVE MANY FEELS ABOUT JC JUMPING IN FRONT OF JL.

Today, today live like you wanna, Let yesterday burn and throw it in a fire, in a fire, in a fire, Live like a warrior

Sometimes, WN is not that sweet. He traps this dude in a hell of his own making instead of letting him kill himself because Wen Ning can be a vindictive little bitch. And then he strides off into the matte painting sunset.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Other vidding notes:

I totally wanted to do something with Chinese characters, but there wasn't really space, and after much dictionary-searching and asking, it's clear that Chinese does not use morality metaphors involving a compass pointing true north. But that effort was not wasted since I needed a good font for my other vid.

Vidding The Living Dead turned out to be a pain. I had completely forgotten it was in another aspect ratio. The shots look much more beautiful before one crops them. That said, none of them are that beautiful because the entire film has this atrocious green color filter over it. It's like they're all wading through mud at all times. Ughhhhh. I spent so long trying to fix the color on that final scene to be at least a little pretty for my vid.

Still, the film had exactly the emotional tone I wanted. It very much skewers the fanon that WN is entirely the bashful wimp he appears to be on the surface when we first see him. It makes overt the change that we see over the series. It's also fundamentally different because it's a situation where WN is the senior person and in charge of someone. We've seen him babysit a small child, and we've seen him around the juniors with lots of people of his generation also there, but we've basically never seen him out from under WQ and WWX's thumbs. It's only natural that he's acting more authoritative here. His smackdown of the villain is very much in line with how he treats JC during the golden core reveal. WN is not a forgiving guy when he thinks someone has been selfish and awful.

Throughout this vid, there are shittons of color, speed, and motion effects. I don't normally use a lot, but it turned out to be a lot of fun this time. I should find another project to use effects on.

The vid:

Available on AO3.

[bloodraven55]

that line in 1 thin/g refers to torchwic/k this is why I don’t believe your analysis. A song about a rs which isn’t romantic just like atm. Ship songs have thought to be 1 sided love & it’s not. boo-p (Nor*), dct(pyrra*) & lmfn (su*). It’s going to be funny when BS becomes canon & not bb. Kerr/y was put on the spot of course he’s going to respond just like if he was asked about any other ship he’d given the same response. WR held hands & got coffee (m0n0 too) 2 so does that mean romance?

Weis/s made rub/y coffee & they held hands too but I guess since it’s not bb it can’t be considered romantic. You bb shippers will take any interactions between them as romantic. Zoomed out touching foreheads is romantic but a zoomed out cheek peck nope it can’t be romantic because that’d mean bb can’t happen. & I’m sure Kerr:y would give the same answer about any ship if asked about it onscreen.

And you know why she wasn’t accepting of su/n’s advances was because of her past relationship with Ada/m. Last time she fell for a good looking dude he turned into a monster who didn’t listen & actually care about her/equally. Unlike Ada/m su/n actually listened & she eventually saw that he wasn’t like Ada/m & she eventually fell for him. Ya/ng is a partner & best friend who she won’t leave because of that nothing romantic about it. Just like ili/a difference she actually had a 1 sided crush

You’re blocked for the seventh time, my dude, but please stop embarrassing yourself in my inbox. You’re just making yourself look like such a fool and it’s genuinely starting to get sad to watch.

I don’t even know where to start unpacking this idiocy but for the laughs let’s try.

1) Of course the line about the “candle’s flame” in One Thing is about Roman? When did I ever say it wasn’t? And I don’t know why you believe I think Roman and Neo’s relationship was romantic because I don’t... at all. In fact I strongly dislike the idea of shipping them and see them as totally platonic.

Is it because of my headcanon (i.e. something I don’t necessarily believe is whatsoever canon or true, it’s just a fun idea) that Neo is trans because if so I still don’t see how that would mean romance between her and Roman unless you actually don’t even slightly understand what being trans means.

And as for All That Matters not being romantic just like One Thing, well... yes, All That Matters isn’t romantic, it’s just indicative of feelings stronger than friendship. Whereas in One Thing Neo specifically refers to Roman as her friend. Both songs contain very strong emotion about the person they’re directed at but the context is entirely different since One Thing goes out of its way to platonicise the relationship and Roman and Neo never had a three-season long arc building a romance between them the way Blake and Yang did.

2) Ren and Jaune never showed constant annoyance towards Nora and Pyrrha respectively and both actually had serious emotional conversations to advance their relationship before becoming a couple (Jaune and Pyrrha about Pyrrha’s destiny and Ren and Nora about Kuroyuri and the Nuckelavee). Something Sun and Blake have never had, while what they have had is Blake being irritated by him non-stop for a whole season until he backed off to be her friend instead.

And what Blake and Yang have had is... serious emotional conversations about Adam and both of their personal issues (about Yang’s abandonment issues in Burning the Candle and Blake’s self-perceived problem of running away at Mountain Glenn) which they’ve never talked to anyone else about, much like Jaune and Pyrrha and Ren and Nora and utterly unlike Blake and Sun. Try harder, moron. Also it’s very funny how now you use R/enora as an example of a romantic relationship here whereas before you denied it being canon but I wouldn’t expect any less from you at this point.

3) Blake and Yang’s embrace and forehead touch was zoomed in and close up for most of the scene and only zoomed out at the very end after they’d already had their moment. Blake and Sun’s grandmotherly cheek peck was zoomed out the whole time and lasted all of one second.

The insane reaching you're having to do by this point is only making me think you’re absolutely terrified of B/umbleby happening to have to constantly spam people with so obviously objectively false bullshit like this instead of having some confidence in your opinions and just watching the show to find out what happens.

4) It was Strawberry Sunrises, not coffee, that Blake and Yang got together in After the Fall but I’ll let that slide. And I also never said anything to do with that nice little early moment of friendship between them meaning it was canon but then strawmanning is the only way you can even vaguely pretend to have a point that makes sense so whatever. No, two people sharing a drink together doesn’t mean romance, the three-season long arc Blake and Yang shared that tied their personal storylines together irrevocably and linked into the main plot that directly paralleled Yang with Blake’s ex who identified Yang as filling the same role in Blake’s life as he used to (i.e. that of a romantic partner) means romance.

But of course you’d rather pretend that none of that means anything and make yourself look like even more of a colossal idiot because Adam never showed an iota of jealousy towards Sun and instead instantly dismissed him as merely Blake’s classmate. If that had been the other way round you would be jumping on it as evidence of B/lacksun, though, and we all know it.

5) Blake and Sun never became a couple because she was still feeling the effects of Adam’s abuse? Well, Blake and Yang managed to develop the beginnings of a romance perfectly fine during the same time period because Yang actually showed Blake that she understood her, and also never stalked her halfway across the world and reminded her of Adam but sure. Maybe you’re actually right.

But even if that was the case all it would prove is that Sun has no clue how to correctly approach Blake romantically as an abuse victim, and adding to all the times canon showed how little he understands her, so it would still only further prove that B/lacksun wouldn’t work as a romantic relationship instead of the other way around.

I’m not going to give you another proper response after this, because I have better things to do with my life and the only reason I replied to this one was because your “arguments” were somehow even more nonsensical than usual and it was actually fun to point out just how completely garbage they are, but I want you to think long and hard about whether the better thing for you to do would be to continue pointlessly harassing people and making yourself look like a creepy insecure pathetic loser or to just leave people the fuck alone and see what happens in the show if you're so certain that you’re right.

Because you see, I have never ever even considered going to the tags and blogs of people I disagree with, let alone sending them hundreds of cowardly anon asks spewing shit at them. And the reason why is that I’m confident in what I think will happen and even if I’m wrong I’ll be able to handle it just fine with simply some disappointment before I move on.

But clearly you are far less secure in your opinions which is why you feel the need to seek attention this way even though it achieves nothing and only makes you seem like a complete asshole. So honestly even in the ridiculously unlikely event that you’re correct and B/umbleby never becomes canon, I’ll still feel like the winner here. And if B/umbleby does become canon, I won’t find it “funny” that B/lacksun didn’t, I’ll just be happily enjoying my ship and staying in my lane, because unlike you I’m not a petty douchebag.