#also we technically have two sets of tragic lover they're one of them

[meraki-yao]

So I found this on Weibo and I couldn't stop laughing. This is incredibly niche but I feel the need to share and explain this to my friends on this side.

So the bottom half is the photos that we initially thought were the royal suitor photos before the movie came out, then realized it was in the texting montage, then confirmed by Matthew that this actually isn't Alex and Henry, it was Taylor and Nick chilling between takes.

NOW, the photo on top is a still from 1987 TV show adaptation of one of the four Chinese Classics: "The Dream of the Red Chamber". That is the main couple reading another classical Chinese novel (yes this is very meta) "Romance of the Western Chamber" together, and I think this book that they're reading is the first romance novel/love story to have the couple be in starkly different social standings yet be together in the end.

This isn't a case of parallel in the same sense as my posts putting firstprince and Rapunzel x Eugene or Simba x Nala or Jack x Rose together and finding similarities. In fact, the couple from Red Chamber is nothing like firstprince or Taylor and Nick, not even remotely close, and their relationship ended in tragedy: spoilers, the girl died of a broken heart and the boy lost the will to live and became a monk.

But the point here is that this pair? This is our culture's Romeo and Juliet, our Pyramus and Thisbe. This scene in particular, this imagery of them reading in the garden together, has the same significance as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Like, if you ask a Chinese person for an imagery from classical literature that depicts love, this is the image most people will say.

AND SOMEHOW THIS PHOTO OF TAYLOR AND NICK THAT WE ALL THOUGHT WAS ALEX AND HENRY LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME AS IT

This is the most random connection and it's definitely a stretch but as someone who cried over the ship in the top half at the age of 11 I am so fucking amused by this comparison

[theblueescapist]

Final Fantasy XVI

I have just finished the game, that I started in July after I finally managed to get a PS5 (yes, I'm slow).

Random comments below the cut

The Good

Yes, favourite character is Dion, obviously, but I was surprised by the tiny margin he has for me over...Clive. That I like Clive more than Joshua was also a surprise.

Dion is just...the best?? He is so awesome?? I fail to understand how Squeenix produced such awesomeness?? He's just so magnificent?? Clive may be the protagonist, but Dion is the one who's coded as the (tragic) hero of this game. And yes, he died, but Clive dies too, I don't think it's fridging the gays in his and Terence's case (yes, I am aware that Terence is technically not listed as dead after Twinside got absorbed into Origin, but what exactly do you think is the cause of Dion's desperation when learning from Clive what happened to the city he recently sent his lover to?????); also, the other two gays survived, so that's something at least. Dion is just an unbelievable character with a fantastic arc, I was waiting for Squeenix to stumble with him, and was so pleasantly surprised when it didn't happen. I would have liked to see more of his relationship with Terence, and more of Terence in general, because I do have some issues with the power imbalance in their relationship. They're adorable together, but Dion also has a lot of chemistry with Joshua, who he recognizes as his equal. Apparently in the Japanese version Terence is listed as The Love of Dion's Life (TM), but...I mean, I don't think I'm imagining there was something there, on Joshua's part, at least.

Clive is just...a solid mass of good? He's relentless without being cruel, caring without being overprotective. That he manages to learn to trust people again despite the entire shitshow of his life after Phoenix Gate and before Cid, is saying everything about him. Also, he's just...a gentle person, with very few hangups, and those mostly get resolved. I think that he didn't set out for Origin with the intention to die there like Dion did, he truly meant to come back if possible. He wasn't sure that he could, but he would have if he could have. That's why it's such a sad blow for him when he realizes his body is going to give up on him after all. Yet he doesn't hesitate, because that's not who he is. I do think he's dead, though; I actually don't understand how people can claim otherwise after that ending. Yes, we don't see his whole body turned to stone, and something could have happened to revive him after Jill realizes he died. But. He was meant to write that book, Harpocrates wanted him to; since it ends up being Joshua who writes it, instead, I don't think he made it. Besides, the only person who could have revived him was perhaps Joshua himself, if Clive handed him back some magic besides healing his body, and we know that Joshua can heal flesh, but not that he can turn people back from being stone. I don't think it's possible for Clive's death to be retconned in a DLC in a logical way either.

(Sidenote: I love Noctis more than Clive, but I do believe Clive is the better protagonist, and arguably the better person. The two timeskips work in Clive's favour, because he was given the time to grow as a person. Noctis spends his single timeskip alone, and had no such luxury. Although they both sacrifice themselves for the good of the world, Clive got to live the life that Cid gave him, while Noctis totally lost those ten years --"grant [...] one more day inside this life" indeed.)

Joshua is lovely too, but we never see him struggle and resolve his personal issues like we do for Clive and Dion, we always witness him having resolved them already, and that makes it more difficult for me to relate to him. I just adore how much he and Clive love each other, though, it's so nice to see other types of love being validated so much in any media form. Joshua would have totally been the playboy character had this been a different game genre. I do believe he loves Jote; but he 1000% has something going on for Dion, too. Clive knows Joshua feels something important for Dion, he wouldn't have made his condolences to Joshua upon Dion's death otherwise. Also, Joshua is even more well adjusted than his brother, possibly because he at least was actually loved by their mother.

I didn't believe I could love another Cid as much as Raines, but okay, this one got me. ^_____^ And if the whole Benedikta stuff had been handled better, I actually think I'd have loved him more than Raines, but as it is, they're on equal footing. He's just such a fun character that his depth is totally unexpected. What a role model.

Uncle Byron is love!!!!!!!! The game improves SO MUCH after he's introduced. He's just a ray of sunshine.

Three over four of the most badass NPCs are women, and one of them is a madam in a brothel. It's so nice to see female characters with real agency, and they are so different from each other too! Martha with her pan was so iconic?? And Isabelle was so much better as a diplomat (and as a person in general) than stupid Quinten. And Eloise was smart and tragic, I hated that she got the short end of the stick.

Most of the scenery is so fucking gorgeous

The Bad

All the most powerful dominants belong to men, and female main characters are generally sidelined. Shiva is technically the first boss, but not really. Jill just gives her up to Clive because she loves him. Jill had the potential to be an iconic character like Yuna, and instead she got deliberately benched (read the interviews). Did they think that she would eclipse Clive or something if they gave her more screen time and developed her more than her extra short arc? That's like, not having faith in Clive as a character. I mean, we got more quests for Mid than for Jill, there's clearly something wrong there. Why do we never find out what happens to Lady Marleigh? Don't tell me Jill just left her in the Ironblood's hands without even a second thought! Benedikta is the first real boss for a reason, Garuda is a joke. Benedikta is probably the worst-handled character in the entire game, while she could have been a solid villain like Anabella.

It irritates me so fucking match that elemental magic has no place in this game!!!! If there's a Bomb and I'm freezing it, you need to have me make more damage, FFS!!!!

Why is called "party" when I can't control party members?? Playing as Jill or Cid would have rocked. At least we got to play as Joshua a couple of times, but it really sucks that XVI followed in FFXV's footsteps on this matter.

(this is just a pet peeve of mine) Why is Leviathan "lost"????? Lost where????? I want my favourite element!!!!

The Ugly

I'm very glad the whole "Final Fantasy's answer to Games of Thrones" thing was mostly exaggerated, but I really could not stomach the sexual violence in this game. I couldn't stand it in FFXIV either, and seeing it make a comeback here soured me a lot. It was bad already with Benedikta, but... I'm sorry, but seriously. Child rapists in Final Fantasy is a huge squick for me, it's the one reason why I'll never love this game as much as some other ones. Yes, it's more explicit in the Japanese version, but what exactly do people think Jill meant when she told Clive what she expected would have happened to her if she hadn't awakened as a Dominant???? Jill was 13 at the time she was taken by the Ironblood. And the child they use as leverage against her was much younger. What do you think she would consider so abhorrent as to murderously literally skewer Imreann over it??? These horrifying things happen all the time in the real world, I don't need them to happen in the videogames I play as well.