#and also oblivious to their meta status

[vm-haunts]

Red Hood Is A What Now?

Fact one: Red Hood is not a single person. No one agrees on how many guys are in the rotation, or whoever they might be, but everyone that works for Hood knows the boss isn't a single person. Hell, half of them had seen more than one Hood showing up to meetings by now, it's far from a secret.

Fact two: the twins, Jay and Gales, are connected with the boss. Again, nobody agrees on how exactly, but they most definitely are. Maybe they're Hood's son, maybe they're younger siblings. Maybe they're sugar babies even. Whoever they are to Hood though, it's clear that they're trusted enough to stand in at meetings when Boss is unavailable.

Fact three: the twins are metas, honestly it's really obvious in the way their eyes and hair change color like a mood ring. Nobody bothered mentioning it cause that's pretty much all there's to it, just some cosmetic change that isn't even helpful.

...

Or, Danny and Jason is somehow running a gang together, the bulky Red Hood armor is very good at hiding silhouettes actually, and the two are known metas to literally every body except themselves.

[elvisqueso]

Pochontas (1995)

wiggins meta under the cut

here's the thing: ratcliffe is constantly being explained as a representation of the forces of greed and racism and colonialism/imperialism (arguably this can translate to capitalism as well), but what about wiggins? what is his role? he most obviously plays the role of the Fool, and provides a character for ratcliffe to have consistent dialogue with. but what does he represent?

i have a theory that wiggins is meant to represent the ethnic english, the culture of the english, and the willing servitude of the english to the evils of imperialism/greed/racism in exchange for a sense of superiority and security. wiggins is, paradoxically, both above and below the settlers in terms of status. he's a servant, but he serves the highest ranking man there. he's a yes-man, but he's also brutally truthful (spelling out for the audience ratcliffe's motivations and the immorality of the settler's presence and actions).

wiggins is also a caricature of the english to a T: he resembles many a self-styled stereotype of the typical englishman in english comedies. he's prim, a bit fussy, obsessed with gardening, a bit oblivious and silly and somewhat incessantly cheery. he's drawn, also, like an english caricature. his teeth and upturned nose in particular stand out to me.

the line "and he came so highly recommended" from each of these characters is so fascinating because of this because it highlights the mutual consent of these two allegorical characters to be involved with each other and subscribe to a master-servant dynamic, wherein ratcliffe has invested in wiggins to be useful and efficient, and wiggins has invested in ratcliffe to provide security both financially and socially. ratcliffe find's wiggins's personality (the cultural quirks of the english) trite and unnecessary. wiggins found ratcliffe's extremity to ultimately be outside of his own best interests once it could no longer protect him (ratcliffe being no longer able to provide the status and security once he was put in chains).

we can't be sure if wiggins has truly learned a lesson, however. he remains in America with some of the other settlers instead of returning to his homeland. we don't know what he intends to do there, or why he's made this choice. perhaps he's going to try turning over a new leaf and assimilate to a new society. perhaps he's going to try and influence his way into a similar position as before. in any case, we know wiggins's core motive is always going to be self-preservation. what that looks like without ratcliffe and the protections of aggressive imperialism, we simply don't know.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Kairi

kairi is the third protagonist of the kingdom hearts series and the third member of the destiny trio, alongside fan favorites sora and riku. sora/riku shippers HATE kairi, and will go out of their way to discount her at every turn. the hate for her ranges from typical "she's a boring bitch" to fans of soriku making five-hour long video essays reassuring their fellow shippers that the big bad kairi won't show up in the next installment – to quote one video, "she's in a box. she's on the shelf. four walls, no door." kairi is the greatest bogeyman the soriku fandom has ever known, to the point where most of said video essays and fanon meta posts focus not on why sora and riku should get together, but rather on why they don't like kairi.

Literally has a 100+ page Google doc fan theory writing her out of the narrative and putting all of her (few) canonical accomplishments onto half of the popular m/m ship (soriku). Don't even get me started on how her memory was completely written out of the canon plot of re:coded. KH is a nightmare to explain so dude trust me she is THE victim of yaoi

She is so fundamental to the plot and themes and narratives of game and yet it is near impossible to find anything about her thats not ship bashing pre-mlm with the other two characters. I dont even care if she ends up with one of the main characters i just want fans to see her as a cool character to love or like, anything other than “annoying comphet girl.” You can write your mlm but pleaae stop inventing comphet where it doesnt exist. She does not even get to spend time with sora ever?? Why does everyone see her as a threat and a thing to destroy?? Let her have friends so help me

Misa Amane

she gets treated in-canon the way fandoms treat female characters that Threaten an m/m ship. it's like, "oh why don't you go sit in the corner and be pretty, misa, while the Men have intelligent conversation and pretend they aren't ten seconds from fucking each other, doesn't that sound nice?" it's infuriating. and MAYBE it's better now but i remember her getting treated the same way in fanfiction too, like we all need to do just as badly by our female secondary characters as fucking tsugumi ohba, but with the added insult of making her be alternately oblivious of the relationship between light and L or actively trying to sabotage it—incompetently, of course, because god forbid misa be allowed dignity or moments of cleverness.

she's one of the first characters I think of when I consider old school fandom misogyny. The annoying bitch and clingy crazy gf allegations were AFTER HER ASS. She's also a lot more intelligent than people gave her credit for, but most seem inclined to take the Very Biased word of our unreliable, narcissistic narrator and his homoerotic arch nemesis and claim that just because she's bubbly and into romance that she's also a complete moron. Which is blatantly untrue. Everyone was afraid of Misa girlbossing too hard. Killing people and devoting yourself to the deranged twink of your dreams even though you know he'll never love you back??? Having a hardcore goth aesthetic and being so Hot even literal Death Gods are into you?? God forbid women do ANYTHING!

Not only is she the victim of yaoi culture, she is the victim of early 2000s misogyny by an author that wanted to introduce a girl character because he knew his male rivals were getting too homoerotic. She is a goth bimbo icon who portrays what I think is one of the few callouts for stan culture and what parasocial relationships can do to both the stan and the idol. The fact that she is a toxic fan of Kira and also hot, funny, sociable is tragic in its own way, which I think the author did try to touch on but was too misogynistic too really get through. Of course, she was reduced to villain status by the fandom and anime alike because she got in the way of the supposed romance in their psychological horror anime.

[agentc0rn]

Pokemon XY Parade Scene Analysis - Desire to learn, Request for Guidance and Acts of Penance

ok havent done a scene or character analysis in a while but here's one for the XY ending and the king himself-- 11 years late but hey, time shouldn't really prevent you from re-evaluating media, right?

**long thread ahead

Ok so. When you/protagonist become champion at the end of the game, which professor sycamore coordinates a parade for you, in a simple way it's both a celebration as well as a coronation. In a technical meta narrative sense, being champion means you’ve finished the game, having defeated the big bad evil and pokemon league and all that. But from the narrative point of view, you've become more than just a champion by title. You've become a hero by saving the world, and the champion elevates your status further. You represent the epitome of a trainer by the virtue of your skills and friendship with your team.

And that's why in that specific scene, AZ comes to the protagonist to request for a battle. I mean technically you could just ask anyone else regardless of status what battling and trainer means. But since in the game we're the only one who he interacted much with, we're also the closest and viable option as not just a source of knowledge and experience, but also a trustworthy acquaintance for him to learn more of the world. Given the context that pokemon were used as tools and weapons back then, AZ wants to know how things have changed and how Pokémon is viewed differently through the concept of a trainer from someone who has great experience and strength of overcoming challenges.

He also probably knows that monarchy is not present in modern society anymore, but may see us, a trainer, who ascended to the status of a champion, as a close equivalent of a monarch. In general, we can kinda see how champions are leading figures of the league but also representatives of the region (more emphasized in the anime and manga). Plus, the way he just casually walks through the red carpet, which is kinda funny and makes you think where is security (it's like you walking through the red carpet to talk to a celebrity lol)? that particular moment, it suggests that part of him still bears the mantle of a king in this display of behavior and attitude. In that regard, it is a metaphorical presentation of passing the crown - the state of Kalos and present is entrusted to you for paving the way to a better future. And what I like about this scene is that you have a former king asking you to teach him and do a demonstration through a battle. It is in a many ways beyond a simple request - it is an indirect way of reliving his long-standing struggle with grief, apathy, hatred and obliviousness to it the world, a desire for much-needed guidance, advice and help to better understand and integrate with the current way of life.

What is also unique is that it’s a reverse of this dynamic of the elderly teaching or exerting authority onto the younger generation. This symbolic battling, served as ritual-test for both AZ and you - the former to challenge his view on the world and the latter to be that example, showing what it means to express your understanding and relationship with your pokemon using the techniques and physical exertion of battling. You show how battling evolved past the violent acts of killing and now as an alternate mode of communication, recreational outlet and development of mutual understanding. Now that is not to ignore that battling still has its part in creating conflicts and interference either of course.

Moreover, once you beat him, his growth is shown - he openly acknowledges his deed and comes to terms with the past by confessing directly to you that he was the one who built the ultimate weapon rather than the third-person narrative he used in his previous encounters. Adding further, it demonstrates shows how this battle meant a lot for him because now everything is clarified and he is at last relieved of his long-carried burden of self-loathing. The battling provided an answer and emotional relief, as well as an expression of penance.

And i guess you could also insinuate that being defeated in a battle was a way of humbling him, and that engaging in a battle makes him feel like a normal human again, rather than the god that he was identified as for the longest time.

And because of that change, it made him return to his former self, which as a result Floette comes back. Although we don't get to really see how she was there in the sky in the first place, it is explained by Sycamore that she was watching him and waiting for him to be the man he was this whole time.

So the parade becomes a site of miracle, happy ending and hope for the future. You helped grandpa return to his self and in turn Floette comes back :)

[snazzyladreal]

Metadede headcanons

Ft. Transfem Meta and Bisexual Himbo Dedede

She sit on his shoulder/arm like a bird and uses this to cuss people out

Meta still can’t cook for shit

Dedede can barely cook but makes the sickest chocolate chip cookies this side of the galaxy

Meta can carry Dedede around and this results in the ‘mah wweifie iss sooo stroong’ cringe affect

Once Dedede got a ball of yarn out of curiosity and Meta immediately just acted like an excited kitten

Meta has (kinda reluctantly)let Kirby and Sailor do her makeup before

The statues from the ‘Sworn Partners’ fight are now in a garden under their bedroom window

Meta tried baking a cake for her hubby’s birthday once

Bandana had to drag her away from the fire that started

If anyone misgenders Meta, be prepared to be threatened by a penguin while his wife flips you off

‘Meta Knight’s Revenge’ happened before they started dating

After the Halberd crashed, the entire crew showed up on Dedede’s doorstep, drenched in water and looking slightly like sad cats

“hey, sooooooo, we need a place to stay for a bit….”

”meta what the fuck did you do”

Meta would just leave flowers on Dedede’s window sill cause she suck ass at flirting

Imagine - lil borb meta flying and carrying big ass penguin husband with one hand

she stronk

Mets just sinks into the fluff of Dedede’s robe

literally looks like the top of a grape with wings in the fluff

she can and will sleep like this

Meta’s (semi-jokingly) pissed that her husband has better boobs then her

”HIS are all natural, and I had to pay to get these motherfuvkers!”

Dedede makes sure to kiss all of Meta’s face scars whenever she takes her mask off around him

You ever seen a penguin king pet his sleeping bat wife like she was a cat?

well now you have the cute mental image

Everything is okay once you cuddle in the world’s comfiest bed with piles of blanket around

They spar as date nights sometimes

Meta’s got some jealousy issues based off insecurities

but then her husband kisses her and she feels much better

Once meta put fake lashes on her mask to try to get people to gender her correctly

she was so pissed off when it actually worked

Dedede couldn’t stop laughing

They both adopted the dee twins separately before they were married

Meta is the scariest of the entire family

you put pickles on someone’s burger when they asked for none?

prepare to have your head added to the wall above a fireplace somewhere

They also have the biggest table in the castle filled with food for eating contest dates sometimes

Dedede loves listening to his wife infodump about the stars and constellations

everyone in the kingdom thought they were oblivious idiots in love until they announced their wedding

Meta can see UV light so sometimes she actually thinks her husband is glowing when her eyes are just being like ‘ooooo pretty light’

Meta is moronsexual

they do each other’s make up

ddd is a fucking master at doing eyeliner

the queerest straights you’ll ever meet

[rahirah]

On Getting William Laid

OK, so I will happily concede that the writers probably wanted the audience to see William as a virgin. BUT they never stated that outright, and if you are like me and wish to buck the popular fanon, here is some ammunition for you.

The most common objection I see to William having done the deed are:

He is a Victorian and Victorians are famously prudish

He is shy/awkward with women

He is uninterested in mere carnal desire until Dru comes along

To take these in order – the Victorians were only prudish in public. They were obsessed with sex. You repress that much, man, it‛s gonna come out somewhere, and in works such as My Secret Life or The Romance of Lust boy howdy does it. You name the kink, and the Victorians were into it – or at least, the men were. (I am far from an expert on Victorian porn, and I am not aware of any aimed at women, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't any, or that women might not co-opt porn aimed at men if that was all that was available.) Voyeurism! Scat! Masturbation! Incest! Lesbians! And that‛s only one chapter!

Moreover, prostitution was absolutely rampant. It wasn‛t just brothels; there were sex workers all over London. And the brothels ranged from dingy dangerous dives to expensive gentlemen‛s clubs. In fact, GillO once wrote extensive meta on how, if you analyze the historical anomalies of the costuming and language used at the party where William was turned, the only logical explanation is that it was being held at just such a high-class brothel.

Which leads into point two. William is awkward (to a point; he does not seem to me to be particularly shy, just kind of... oblivious to social cues) around women of his own class (or possibly of higher class, depending on how you see his and Cecily‛s relative social status.) However, it‛s very unlikely that he would have been equally awkward with women he saw as his inferiors. And a middle or upper class Victorian gentleman would have very much seen A) servants, and B) prostitutes, even high class ones, as inferiors. (The way Spike treats Harmony is very much in line with the attitude Victorian men had toward sex workers. Whereas he sees Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce as ‟ladies.‟)

And lastly, point three. I submit to you that William Pratt is in fact HORNY AS FUCK. Yes, he wants marriage and true love, but (whether or not he would admit as much to himself, or anyone else) he also wants to get it on. The godawful poetry he writes to Cecily is full of equally awful sexual innuendo.

My heart expands 'tis grown a bulge in it inspired by your beauty effulgent

His heart isn‛t the only thing expanding and bulging, I tell you what.

Oh, lark, grant a sign if crook’d be Cupid’s shaft.

‟Cupid‛s shaft‟ is crooked, huh? Remind you of anything?

BUFFY: Uhh, you're bent. SPIKE: Yeah, and it made you scream, didn't it?

Now mind you, I‛m not gonna argue that William was out there banging the maids every weekend. I‛m just saying, the guy was almost thirty, and lived in a milieu wherein if he wanted sex, he could stroll down almost any street and get a quick knee-trembler (and it was pretty much expected that a gentleman would do so, because a Real Lady, such as they might be married or engaged to, wasn‛t supposed to want sex at all except as something to be endured for the sake of children.) Maybe William never, ever took advantage of the mountain of social privilege he was standing on. But I don‛t think it would be utterly impossible that he did.

Your Honor, I rest my case.

[shen-liqin]

I’M IN SCIENCE CLASS RN BUT I GOT AN IDEA FOR AN MXTX CROSSOVER

So I read in a meta post that it was mentioned in canon SVSSS that Airplane bro has written other stallion novels and that PIDW is just his most successful.

What if prior to writing all these stallion novels, he wrote MDZS and TGCF. It was smth he genuinely enjoyed doing but it didn’t really earn him cash bc it didn’t do well (IMPOSSIBLE I KNOW) so he kinda forgot about them. Both stories were finished though.

Bruh what if Wei Ying and Lan Zhan end up in SVSSS bc WY was messing with some talismans and ended up transporting them there. Meanwhile Xie Lian and Hua Cheng end up in SVSSS because of a mishap in Heaven.

I can already imagine Qinghua shaking when he sees these four and getting slightly emotional because they were created when he was still hopeful and somewhat naive regarding how he would get his income.

Shen Yuan is internally fanboying because as a dedicated fan critic, he also read MDZS and TGCF and greatly enjoyed it. Like yes my man is oblivious as fuck regarding romance as a whole, but he could care less about the main pairing being gay. He was only reading them for the lore.

WY and LZ are lowkey panicked but I can see WY somehow getting along well with SY because they end up bonding over being constantly wrecked by their husbands.

XL and HC are confused and kinda wary but they warm up to Bingqiu and Wangxian after a bit. Binghe prolly tries to give XL some cooking advice with HC lowkey breathing down his neck because if Binghe ends up unintentionally insulting XL then they’re definitely gunna have a problem.

Ngl I can kinda see Hua Cheng and Lan Zhan kinda doing their own thing in comfortable silence because if their mutual understanding of each other in terms of devotion. Binghe joins them from time to time when all three of their husbands hang out by themselves. Like I can imagine Lan Zhan composing a new song, Hua Cheng making a mini statue, and Binghe making everyone a meal.

Meanwhile Shen Yuan and Wei Ying end up convincing Xie Lian to do all sorts of ridiculous shit with them. If you guys are questioning why Shen Yuan would agree to any of this my answer is simple, this man may be a lofty immortal but he’s still a shut-in from the 21st century. He has a lot of semi-pent up crackhead energy.

Xie Lian is confused but he’s enjoying himself so he doesn’t question it and is just enjoying having some new friends. Wei Ying just wants to encourage the chaos.

WAIT FUCK WHAT IF WEI YING MEETS QINGHUA-

Lan Zhan and Mobei-jun are going to be drinking vinegar because if their husbands end up having a conversation then everyone is screwed.

Wei Ying is a genius, but Qinghua deadass created the mechanics of MDZS, TGCF, and PIDW. My man has a shit ton of knowledge and he’s gunna use it. Pretty sure Qinghua and Wei Ying end up doing most of the with figuring out how to send everyone back to their of worlds.

[sil-and-seals-blog-something]

Yeah. At this point, the JLD have log books describing each incident in detail, a day counter, and each close call caught on both sides. After they learnt that the reason the three were on Earth together was for the rehabilitation of two of them and vacation for the third. So far, pretty good rehabilitation, if the notable bonds with normal humans are any indicators (and the obliviousness to the whole super stuff). The teen Leaguers definitely set up betting boards. They’re vague enough that JL members can pass by and be told that it’s just some JLD bets about a scenario. It’s literally just JL or Ghosts with numbers and bet amounts under. Danny’s made a bet. He’s under the JL side as DP with $20 on it.

Also, Captain Marvel being let in on it is great. If he could afford it, he’d probably join the bets. Somehow, this leads to Billy Batson getting invited to the Dark household. He’s pretty sure Danny didn’t sus his identity out, so how did he end up here? (Fenton Luck, that’s how)

Danny can absolutely help it, but he won’t. Seeing no one react to it often makes him pretty happy cause “Wow, the people of this world are pretty chill”, even after he learns about metas and how they probably think he is one.

“Threaten to destroy the world if left alone?” Pariah gets suspiciously anxious for a few moments after that comment because that’s really really close to the answer. But he channels to old person vibes he’s learnt and brushes the comments off with a chuckle, just saying that he raised his boy well and that Dan decided to keep an eye on him in his old age. When those around him don’t seem to notice anything off, he lets out a huff of relief, he really needs to practice control over his expression. Little does he know, someone noticed the anxiousness and is now just stuck with the confusion of wondering why Mr. Dark was so anxious at that.

Side note: I love that they’re straight up using their names. They’re not hiding their status at all on that base. Like, imagine imagine meeting a family legitimately named the exact same names of powerful, supernatural entities and one of them is genuinely just uncanny valley 24/7 while the other two sometimes loose that normality that is almost too normal. It would leave the supernaturally inclined wondering if it’s a coincidence, the literal powerful entities just deciding to take on mortal disguises, or some weird third option?

After reforming Dan, Danny gets it into his head that he can reform Pariah Dark too. He takes a break from his kingly duties to go down to Earth. Both as a way to teach Pariah the wonders of humanity and to make sure Dan has actually changed his ways.

[grewlikefancyflowers]

‘Intrusion’ extra, what it says about Jiang Cheng’s role in MDZS, and how Wei Wuxian looks back on his past with the Jiangs

I said back in like June that I’d write meta on this and then put it off for a few months, oops! Here we are, finally!

First things first, both the ‘Intrusion’ and ‘Iron Hook’ extras are not just silly romps featuring married wangxian and fanservice, as some people seem to believe?? I’d say both of them clear up pretty neatly, for those that are still confused, points of contention in the fandom - such as Wei Wuxian’s heroism, and Jiang Cheng’s role as an antagonist. Specifically, if his actions were justified or sympathetic, and if he was punished unfairly by the narrative.

The first and most obvious statement made in ‘Intrusion’ is the parallel between the story of Young Master Qin (YMQ), and JC and WWX’s youths. I’ll summarise quickly the relationship between YMQ and the fierce corpse that has been bothering him.

They grew up together in YMQ’s grandmother’s house, since they were a similar age they played together

The fierce corpse (FC) was a servant in YMQ’s grandmother’s household

The grandmother took a liking to FC, and he was in some ways treated less like a servant, and more like a member of their clan, and was allowed to attend school with the other boys

YMQ specifically notes that his grandmother used to praise FC a lot

YMQ describes a story at the school in which someone answered a question, and FC incorrectly claimed he answered wrongly. When FC pushed the matter, the other students became annoyed and drove him out of the class

It is very heavily implied (to the point where ‘implied’ isn’t really the right word) that ‘someone’ was YMQ, that he had actually answered the question wrongly, and that he felt shown up by someone he felt should be below him proving so, and that he led the other boys in driving FC away

FC left the school and didn’t attend again

I probably don’t need to lay out where the similarities are…?

In response to YMQ’s story, Wei Wuxian (rhetorically) says this - ‘“Regarding the solution to that problem, in the end, who was right and who was wrong?”’

Aside from just exposing the kind of person YMQ is, in reference to a story wherein ‘FC’ is clearly a stand in for WWX, and YMQ for JC, MXTX’s decision to highlight specifically that it was FC that had the right solution to the problem is not insignificant. Nor how she specifies that he was the instigator of FC’s expulsion, while hiding behind the mob mentality of the other students.

Another interesting detail is that YMQ deliberately obscures the truth throughout the chapter, because despite his refusal to acknowledge it, possibly even to himself, he knows that between him and FC he is the one in the wrong. Similarly, JC obscures the truth about WWX, to the wider cultivation world during the period of WWX’s ‘downfall,’ (Ch.73) but also, more importantly, to JL after WWX’s death. JL believes that WWX ordered WN to kill both JZX and JYL (Ch.42). Of course, if JC did not have a guilty conscience, he would not feel it necessary to lie about these things. Or rather, convince himself that they are true, as he still blames WWX for the deaths of his parents’ and JYL and the end of the story (Ch.102).

YMQ’s attitude about servants is bad enough that it upsets Sizhui quite a lot, and shortly after their interaction with him, we have this exchange between LSZ and Wangxian.

‘Lan SiZhui thought about it, “I do not know either.” He responded with honesty, “He never did anything truly evil, but perhaps I find it difficult to deal with people of such character. I do not particularly like the tone with which he mentioned the word ‘servant’…”

He paused at this point. Wei WuXian was oblivious to it, “Typical, typical. Most of the people in this world looks down upon servants. Servants sometimes even look down upon themselves… Why are you two looking at me like that?”

Halfway through, he interrupted, not knowing whether to laugh or frown, “Stop—is there a misunderstanding here? How could I compare? Lotus Pier isn’t the usual household, after all. I’ve beaten Jiang Cheng up way more times than he’s ever beaten me!”

Lan WangJi didn’t say anything, but instead gave him a silent hug. Wei WuXian couldn’t help but smiled. He hugged back, stroking Lan WangJi’s back a couple of times. Lan SiZhui coughed. Seeing how confident Wei WuXian looked, not at all sensitive to the word ‘servant’, he was finally at ease.’

There’s a lot going on here...

Firstly, WWX definitely does not think badly of himself because his father was a servant, because WWX doesn’t think badly of servants. It is also true that Lotus Pier wasn’t so strict with hierarchy as other sects (Ch.51, Ch.71), and that WWX and JC sometimes playfully fought on equal terms in their youths. But WWX was also very clearly treated badly in the Jiang household due to his status, notably by YZY (Ch.51, Ch.56, Ch.57, Lotus Seed Pod extra), JC does also repeatedly enact real physical violence against WWX, that he simply brushes off (Ch.56, Ch.59). You could argue that the example from Ch.59 is under extenuating circumstances and therefore should not count, but the same excuse cannot apply to Ch.56.

Knowing this, Lan Wangji’s response to this, to hug WWX, does not feel casual at all. Instead it comes across as if he is offering comfort, which WWX accepts.

Finally, this exchange finishes with ‘Seeing how confident Wei WuXian looked, not at all sensitive to the word ‘servant’, he [LSZ] was finally at ease.’ To me, this seems to suggest that the entire purpose of this was not at all reader directed exposition about how good and equal the Jiang household was, but rather a WWX-typical veneer meant to appease LSZ’s concerns (taking a moment to quietly fangirl about how good MXTX is at ‘show, don’t tell’). Also suggests that WWX is aware on some level that he was treated badly, and LWJ is too - presumably, it is something that they have spoken about.

Continuing with the story of YMQ and FC…

YMQ returns to his home village as an adult wearing a jade pendant that belonged to his now deceased grandmother

FC asks to borrow it, YMQ allows it, thinking FC is missing his grandmother

FC returns telling him he has lost the pendant, YMQ thinks he has actually sold it, and has him beaten, it is very heavily implied that he breaks his leg

In the present, YMQ admits that he doesn’t actually think FC would have gone so far as to sell something of his grandmother’s

This is reflective of JC’s attitude towards WWX throughout his life, with regards to how he frequently comes to the worst conclusions about him, without having any real evidence, and lashes out at him for it. I spoke about this a bit before here. Most notable example is probably during their conversation in the demon-slaughtering cave wherein they discuss WWX’s defection, and JC decides that WWX is acting carelessly and playing the hero, though admits himself that WWX is following the Jiang Sect’s teachings, then declares WWX an enemy of the cultivation world behind his back.

The ambiguity of FC’s death, and YMQ’s role in it discussed in part 3 of the extra is referencing WWX’s own death, and JC’s role in it. In the end the conclusion is that whether or not YMQ was responsible, FC did not hold him to it.

In the end, FC is content to simply throw some fruit, and punch YMQ in the face in vengeance for his death, and even goes out of his way to avoid hurting LSZ when he is fighting him. He returns the jade pendant, that he really did lose and not steal, and goes back to resting peacefully.

WWX, LWJ, and LSZ’s views on YMQ’s fate are as follows

‘Lan WangJi gently tugged Lil’ Apple’s rein, his voice calm, “He was fortunate.”

Wei WuXian agreed, “Indeed. Young Master Qin has got quite the luck.”

After some time, Lan SiZhui finally couldn’t hold his words back any longer. Sincerely, he spoke, “But I still feel that only one punch might be a bit insufficient…”’

JC didn’t even get a punch to the face. I’d say he got off very lightly indeed.

[cherchersketch]

I’m the Tyrant’s Secretary

I think I started reading this because it was similar to For Better or For Worse, except this time the sibling she wants to save is just her brother, so there wasn’t supposed to be a romance. Oops. But also the plot turned out more meta than I expected, which I really love. 

Summary Our girl gets isekai-ed into a novel and realizes she’s the sister of a soon-to-be overworked minor character. So to prevent her bro from dying because of a secretarial mistake, she takes on the job instead. Except oops 5 years later mr tyrant king doesn’t want to let her retire. Also, the OG FL is nowhere in sight? But wait, plot twist, the OG FL is also another isekai-ed person. *dundundun*

Tropes   - isekai-ed but I’m just an extra!??!?   - what do you mean I’ve drastically changed the plot the original FL and ML definitely still belong together   - it’s hot/funny in manhwa but a tyrant would not be this attractive IRL   - literally everyone ships it but the 2 main idiots   - plot twist! The OG FL is the villain! :0

FL - Rosaline Beryt

- poor overworked secretary - girlboss, the real (administrative) power behind the throne lol - 100% oblivious to love

ML - Emperor

- 100% oblivious to love - of course his backstory is quite depressing like all ML tyrants - honestly quite a decent person to people he actually loves - tapas comments keep describing his crown as a blinged-out Burger King crown and now I can’t unsee it lololol

Rating: Yes PLEASE READ THIS  Status (as of 28 Oct 2022) Still ongoing. 

Same Same but Different   - Author of My Own Destiny / I became the Wife of the Male Lead      - What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim

full rec list

[xhanisai]

Hi how are you, I'd like to know what you think about how well adhd characteristics fit Marinette. (things like her feeling of time, her planning 2 events (like her babysitting and her being at the statue reveal) at the same time etc). There are some great meta about how it influences her decisions with chat noir too.

Marinette having ADHD makes perfect sense to me- especially since I also have it too and we share characteristics. For example:

- When things don't go according to plan or if even the smallest things go stray, she starts panicking right away and catastrophises.

- She extra analyses every single little thing and is a perfectionist.

- She's hyper-fixated on Adrien.

- Her thought processes always tend to go off tangent.

- She's not good with expressing her actual emotions and thoughts and feelings through words.

- She internalises her sadness.

- She can be a bit oblivious with other people's feelings towards her.

- Her plans are always complex and requires plenty of methods.

- She's very smart and has a variety of skills in plenty of things such as engineering traps, secret codes for the miracle box, designing and not to mention that she got full marks in Physics in the Ladybug episode.

- She's really good in working under a lot of pressure or in important times when needed. She usually won't panic during the hardest of battles against Akumas.

There's probably plenty more to add to this list but mom is calling me for dinner lmao.

[fangirleaconmigo]

You’re welcome! Ahhhh so glad so glad.

I also LOVE when Regis calls him “our minstrel”. I feel protective of people twenty years younger than me, I can’t imagine walking around 400 some years older than my friends 😂. The perspective Regis must have. And that’s a sweet thought to think he might remind Regis of someone in his past.

And as for Dandelion’s personality, I have also seen a lot of people headcanon him as ADHD. His additional traits, especially the fact that he was thought of poorly by his professors (lazy, rake, etc) but then walked in the day of the exams, aced them, graduated summa cum laude and was offered a teaching position, it feels quite familiar. He’s chronically underestimated which is a very common experience for ADHD people as well. So, autistic and ADHD readers often see themselves in him!

The ironic thing of course is that on the surface, and in ‘normal’ society Dandelion has more privilege and is afforded more “normality” by society than all of them put together. Girls swoon, fans praise, and his status gets them out of scrapes. (Of course his behavior is usually what gets them into the scrapes) But he is a gorgeous blonde famous minor noble.

And yet he left and changed his name and gave it all up. And for a time, Geralt tells Angoulême at the end of Tower of Swallows, Dandelion did not run in high society like he does by that time.

It’s like he left, gave everything up, lived socially in the gutter, and it was his success in poetry and singing that puts him back in high society.

So he clearly left home and changed his name and moved in the lowest social rungs for a reason. (Fans can fill that in, it’s prime real estate) He Chooses instead to be on a terrifying, horrifying, brutally violent quest with Geralt. It doesn’t seem like a rational choice at first blush. Like when Milva meets him, the first thing she does is look around at the corpses and the vomiting poet and is like…*gestures at the soft blonde man* what is this man *doing* here?

(ETA the quote from) Baptism of Fire

Milva yanked an arrow from another of the dead bodies and examined the bloody arrowhead. Dandelion mumbled incoherently , bent over in a courtly-but-somewhat quavering-bow, then dropped to his knees and vomited.

"Who's that?" the archer asked, wiping the arrowhead on some wet leaves and replacing it in her quiver. "A comrade of yours witcher?"

"Yes. His name's Dandelion. He's a poet."

"A poet," Milva watched the troubadour wracked by attacks of dry retching and then looked up. "That I can undersand. But I don't quite understand why he's puking here, instead of writing rhymes in a quiet spot some where...."

Indeed! There’s are layers under there we can guess at. And when he is with the hansa, you can see there are all these traits he has that are totally oblivious to social cues. For someone so socially successful in the larger sense, he is not actually able to read a room or conform.

A lot of that is probably for humor sake, but it is also quite a well developed part of his personality, being socially successful but somehow socially inept as well.

I’m always a sucker for those characters too, the ones who don’t fit where they’re born and pay a steep price to get out and are rewarded with a found family that loves them. (Gee why do I like that, no reason I’m sure) The ones who fit outwardly but not inwardly (goddamnit I’m calling my therapist)

And Regis is absolutely the member of the hansa who is the most patient with him and accepting of him when he can’t read a room or when his curiosity and feelings outweigh social conventions for him.

The good thing about fantasy epics is that you have so many tidbits about characters you can headcanon in a lot of different directions.

And the witcher books characters always have a lot of layered traits that are even often in tension witch one another, so they feel real, and are fun to examine and play with both in meta and fic.

I've been going through some of your posts about Geralt and Dandelion's friendship in the books recently because... well I'm back in my book/game phase I guess and I really wanted to know if there are any other Dandelion friendships you like from the books and why? Like him and Zoltan or with the other Hansa etc? [Personally I'm a big fan of what little we see of him with Regis and it always makes me weepy that he wrote a biography about him in the games and fondly remarks abt him smelling like herbs all the time]

Awww yayy thanks for spending some time on the ol blog. I absolutely love this question. I don't get to talk enough about Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, and his relationship with Dandelion (for the newbies, that is Jaskier's name in the books) is so lovely.

Dandelion and Friendships

For those who are just joining us, Tea is talking about my series about Geralt and Dandelion's friendship in the books.

I have also written posts about Dandelion's friendships with Ciri and Zoltan:

Dandelion and Ciri

Dandelion and Zoltan

And for this post, I'll focus on Regis and Dandelion's friendship, which I absolutely love.

Dandelion and Regis Friendship (books)

What really strikes me about Regis and Dandelion, is just how patient and kind Regis is with Dandelion. Sometimes it is almost like he’s dealing with a child he cares about. Considering Regis’s age (over four centuries old), Dandelion (approx in his thirties when they meet) IS a child. 

On top of that, Dandy’s personality is rife with traits often associated with kids:

insatiable curiosity to the point where he endangers his own life, (when they go into the forest or sea, Geralt has to essentially, follow right behind him like you would a toddler),

hyper enthusiasm about every discovery he makes, (he whispers in awe when he sees mandrake for the first time, that’s just how he reacts to everything new)

his inability to censor himself or stop asking questions even when everyone else wants him to shut up (he will ask until he understands, no matter the social cues happening)

the way he will act incredibly transparent and awkward while thinking he is being subtle and smooth

Perhaps that is why Regis seems to be so indulgent of him. And somehow their personalities just fit naturally.

Regis’s most annoying trait is to lecture people at length like a professor and cut people off who are asking a question, since he is too eager to answer it. The vampire loves to hold forth on a topic.

Dandelion’s annoying trait (one of many, bless, we know he can't keep it in his pants either) is to ask questions incessantly. In that way, they really kind of fit together. 

Geralt loses patience when Dandelion is being socially inappropriate by asking too many questions. Geralt really values discretion and manners.

Regis is more willing to spend time explaining things and to open up.

Early in the hansa's time together, (before he manages to surprise folks several times over) Dandelion is often seen as the one who is in way over his head. Everyone else is a warrior or a soldier. Dandelion is the soft one. To add to the indignity, Geralt is angry at him during Baptism of Fire because Dandelion keeps forcing him to make friends (well, to ask for help)

Yet Regis, the new guy, is the one who always makes sure Dandelion isn't embarrassed or ashamed.

Here’s a few examples.

When Dandelion is given a bloody head wound by an arrow, the poet is howling and shrieking. He thinks he's dead already. He is not a stoic man. It is played comedically, but Geralt is also legitimately terrified that he will lose Dandelion. That bit is not played comedically.

But given the circumstances, the rest of them could be forgiven for rolling their eyes at the poet's dramatics.

But Regis (who is treating his wounds as the resident barber surgeon) does not.

Regis speaks to him so soothingly, and kindly. (I am omitting the Geralt dramz because I will get off topic lol)

Dandelion groaned and took a sharp intake of breath....

“I’ll put in a few stitches,” Regis said...”Be brave, Dandelion.”

Dandelion was brave.

“Almost done here,” Regis said, setting about bandaging the victim’s head. “Don’t you worry, Dandelion, you’ll be right as rain. The wound’s just right for a poet, Dandelion. You’ll look like a war hero, with a proud bandage around you head, and the hearts of the maidens looking at you will melt like wax. Yes, a truly poetic wound....”

And when it is revealed that Regis is a vampire, and Dandelion is afraid of him, Regis is incredibly patient and kind about the whole thing. He does not take offense. Geralt does! (Ironic, considering Geralt ran Regis off, but Geralt, bless, is dealing with a clusterfuck of feelings about the vampire and everything else going on in his life.)

But yes, after Geralt tells Dandelion about Regis, Dandelion is scared, and wants to seek reassurance. But the poet (unbeknownst to him it seems) is awkward and bad at it. He tries to bring up the issue with the subtlety of a sledge hammer.

Dandelion...deciding to clear up the uncertainty..began as soon as they set off. With his usual tact.

(I like that. His usual tact. Meaning, zero tact lmaoooooo.)

“Milva,” he suddenly called as they were riding, sneaking a glance at the vampire as they were riding, sneaking a glance at the vampire. “...I fancy eating a hunk of real meat for a change! How about you, Regis?”

Yeah. Real subtle Dandelion.

“I beg your pardon?’ the vampire said, lifting his head from the horse’s neck. 

“Meat!” the poet repeated emphatically. “...fancy some fresh meat?”

“Yes, I do.”

“And blood. Would you like some fresh blood?”

“Blood?” Regis asked, swallowing. “No. I’ll decline the blood. But if you have a taste for some, feel free.”

Geralt, Milva and Cahir observed an awkward, sepulchral silence.

I love that. Awkward sepulchral silence. Dandelion causes a lot of those. But Regis does not dismiss him or laugh. He reassures him.

“I know what this is about, Dandelion,” Regis said slowly, “And let me reassure you. I’m a vampire, but I don’t drink blood.”

The silence became as heavy as lead. But Dandelion wouldn’t have been Dandelion if he had remained silent.

But Dandelion wouldn’t have been Dandelion if he had remained silent. (sorry I am laughing every other line at this part)

“You must have misunderstood me,” he said, seemingly lightheartedly. “I didn’t mean-”

“I don’t drink blood,” Regis interrupted. “...I gave it up.”

Dandelion doesn’t know what that means and keeps pestering Regis to explain. Geralt is embarrassed and tells Dandy to shut up.

However, Regis opens up around the camp fire that night. He tells his life story, and says he hasn’t drank blood in fifty years. Dandelion is incredulous. 

“Not at all?” Dandelion said, and stuttered. But his curiosity got the best of him. “Not at all? Never? But...?”

Geralt is embarrassed again and shuts him down again. Regis, by contrast, is patient and defends Dandelion.

“I beg your pardon,” the poet grunted.

“Don’t apologize,” the vampire said placatingly, “And Geralt, don’t chasten him. I understand his curiosity.”

Baptism of Fire 291-295

That's right. Don't chasten him Geralt.

Regis and Dandelion also just have a wonderful dynamic of picking on each other.

Dandelion teases Regis about his long ass name.

And Regis has a great time teasing Dandelion lovingly. In one scene, Geralt and Regis team up to pick on Dandelion and the secretive way he treats his writing. Dandelion has stolen some paper and pencil from a Lyrian military convoy and is writing whenever they make camp, but gets testy whenever anyone gets near him or looks at his manuscript.

Geralt is good-naturedly giving Dandelion a hard time and Regis jumps in with such adorable relish. (Also, in this scene, we find out that Regis actually named Dandelion's memoirs)

"Indeed," the witcher joined in...."You've become devilishly touchy, Dandelion. One cannot fail to notice that it is somehow connected to the paper which you have recently begun to deface with a bit of lead while we camp." “It’s true,” Regis agreed, “our minstrel has become touchy, not to say secretive, discreet, and loving of solitude recently. Oh no, having witnesses when performing his natural needs doesn't bother him at all...His shameful secrecy and oversensitivity to being watched extends solely to his scribbled notes. Is, perhaps, a poem being written in our presence? A rhapsody? And epic? A romance? A canzone?”

He's like, you don't care who sees you piss and shit, but oh this you care about. lol. Tell us about the poem. But Geralt objects.

“No,” Geralt retorted...”I know him. It can’t be verse, because he’s not cursing, mumbling, or counting the syllables on his fingers. He’s writing in silence, so it must be prose.”

“Prose!” The vampire flashed his pointed fangs - which he really tried not to do. “A novel perhaps? Or an essay? A morality play? Dammit, Dandelion! Don’t torture us so! Reveal what you are writing?”

Dandelion says it is a memoir called Fifty Years of Poetry. Regis says that A Half Century of Poetry sounds better.

“Thanks, Regis, Something constructive at last.”

P 88 -90 The Tower of the Swallow

I admit I'm such a sucker (hehe no pun intended) for whenever Regis's fangs are mentioned, whether he is hiding them, baring them, or unselfconsciously showing them during a warm, silly moment with his friends. (Sobs, I love this vampire, seriously I need an intervention)

Regis also comforts Dandelion openly when the poet is doubting his courage or fitness for a task.

Later in the book, Geralt volunteers for a bloody job/violence for hire that terrifies Dandelion, so the poet protests the plan. Geralt insists he’ll do it alone.

But no! He has a hansa now! He won't be alone! Angoulême volunteers to go. Cahir says he’s coming with as well. Then Milva insists she is coming.

Dandelion freezes.

It would be like the LOTR ‘and my bow and my axe’ yadda yadda scene, but if there was one person left and when it got to them, everyone turned around and looked and they are just standing there frozen like....motherfuck this is scary idk idk wtf do I do. And the way this next paragraph is written, it pleases me.

Dandelion...was evidently struggling with his thoughts. And the thoughts were winning.

lmaooo

And Regis jumps in "kindly." He shows solidarity with Dandelion, and takes the heat by calling himself a coward.

“Stop meditating, poet,” Regis said kindly. For there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re even less cut out to participate in a bloody swordfight than I am. We weren’t taught to carve up our neighbors with a blade. Furthermore...furthermore..,” he raised shining eyes towards Geralt and Milva, “I’m...a coward,” he confessed curtly.

They keep arguing amongst themselves because Geralt believes they have been spied on. And Regis is just...always soft with Dandelion. When Dandelion starts guessing about who is spying on them, and is beginning to ramble incorrectly,

“You’re mistaken, Dandelion,” Regis softly interjected.

The Tower of the Swallow p 182

It's Regis's gentleness that just fuckn kills me. That's always the character that's gonna get me right between the ribs with a shank. (Metaphorically, Regis is too gentle for that)the one that lives in a horror filled, violent, cruel world and is still just kind, even to the loud, awkward, soft, obnoxious poet who is in over his head and is afraid you'll bite him in his sleep and who shrieks when he is wounded.

Geralt and Dandelion are so sassy and old/married with each other, deeply, proudly loving in actions, but always bickering.

It's sweet to see Dandelion have a friendship like the one he has with Regis.

It is so nice to hear that the games continued his love of Regis. (I haven't played them, so I get my info about them from you guys XD)

So thanks again for following me and for the ask! I hope I've done ok answering. I also love Dandy's dynamic with Nenneke and ofc Yen, but I'll stop there.

Hope your week goes really well. x

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml Meta analysis: Adriens current absents, season 4 structure and theory on whats to come

Here I am back again with my endless rambling.

I'm just as worried for our cat son as everyone else (maybe even more) which is why I tried figuring out for my own sanity why he is so absent currently.

Upfront I wanna warn yall that I wrote this post in one rush this night and therefore had no time to do alot of editing. So things can probably get a bit more messy than usual but I tried to write it clearly, while writing 2 other ml essays as well. This is the one drawback of having so many episodes in such a short time, I have no time to write my posts x3 I had another theory planned for before Optigami airs but I don't think I can manage before tomorrow.

But let's not waste any more time. Grab a snack and here we go:

It's 2am right now but I think I just realized why Adrien/Chat Noir is being sidelined so much recently.

Sure, yes, it'll come into play in the very obviously set up Ladynoir drama later on but what I wanna talk about now is more the structure of how s4 is most likely written in terms of both Marinettes and Adriens side of the story. And then deep dive a little on why I think so.

You see season 4 is now reaping what has been built up from s1-s3, but this also includes that you have to take the time now to properly recreate the new possibilities out of the loose pieces of the broken status quo.

Seriously, season 4 has to handle and reinvent ALOT. The show got now officially announced to have 7 seasons, which is exactly the amount of seasons Astruc said they have story for. I couldnt find the official tweet from Thomas himself but I one from another source:

And now look take a look at the possible shows structure:

- s1-s3 was the first status quo and built up everything so now they can pay off after pay off while...

-... S4 is now the transitional season where the old status quo gets left behind as we work towards the new one.

-I have nothing to proof this of course, but in the same sense it would now make sense that s5-s7 where/are planned to play out under the final status quo. If I'm not wrong at first the show was under contract for 5 seasons, which would mean that after the transitional season 4 there was only 1 season of the final status quo for sure. Still, done right it could have been worth the wait. But this isn't where Miraculous will end. The show actually got the 7 seasons the creator wanted and THIS is how I think the long term plan makes the most sense. Nothing all too complicated but still hella effective in its execution.

But now back to our two main characters, because Marinettes and Adriens development are the two aspects that will raise the show to the intense heights of the s5-s7 status quo.

From s1-s3 Marinette was the active player but she was hardly involved with the actual PLOT of the show, since most of the plot and backstory of the show lies directly with the Agreste family. She only started to get her own plot when she literally created a new one by getting involved with the miraculous lore, because the closest Marinette got to the Agreste plot was "The collector".

Adrien in the other hand was always literally right in the middle of the plot but he wasn't enough of an active player to bring us further either.

Season 4 is now going to add the missing parts for both of them and as the very beginning of the season showed us: there are going to do it SEPERATLY.

This is why "Truth" and "Lies" have been structured the way they are (One Marinette-centric the other Adrien-centric). Yes, Marinette and Adrien are meant to end their story victoriously together, but they are simply not the people they have to be to become such a powerful team. Certain aspects of their journey they have to do... basically disconnected from the other one. The "Miracle Queen" endcard shows it quite nicely as well where they are heading now: away from each other.

Obviously the season started with Marinette growing into her new guardian status including everything miraculous related, since she is the main lead and because the new ways the episodes can now utilize everything Miraculous need to be established first before we deep dive into the messed up Agreste mystery.

So while I totally agree that it is annoying to get so little Adrien/Chat Noir content currently I also understand the practicality behind it. As I said, before s4 Marinette was the active main character who mostly didn't really have her own plot. So now adding her plot aspect and have her ACTIVELY figure everything needed out means that right now Marinette/Ladybug is the active focus main character who is solving a huge part of her s4 character arc. That simply drowns out Adrien as the currently still mostly-inactive secondary main character who, yes, may be right in the middle of the shows emotional + villain plot/lore/backstory, but that side of the story simply isn't in focus at the moment.

And I gotta say, I'm kinda glad they're doing it this way. Because I'm gonna be honest, when the season starts giving us Adrien/family Agreste episodes like "Lies" and "The collector" (in this case "Gabriel Agreste" for example) again, I don't want the narrative to be forced to spend time with something guardian lore based just because they didn't took their time to do it earlier.

So, as we see on the s4 episode raster "Gabriel Agreste" is episode 9. Honestly, I expect most of it (especially the ones near the beginning, so ep. 5 included) til that episode to be Marinette based the way everything else til now did (besides Lies obviously and Guilt trip didn't hardcore focus on Marinette/Ladybug either and that's because it's after "Gabriel Agreste") in the spirit of "Truth". It's just the needed set up from Marinettes side of the story and I can live with that.

Because we actually saw the change after "Gabriel Agreste" already in "Guilt trip".

I don't know why some people pretend like Chat almost cataclysming himself after hearing how guilt-eaten Nino is for Adriens sake isn't a huge indicator that the episodes afterwards will not only acknowledge but also DEAL with Adriens/Chats situation and problems. Remember, we are talking about CHAT NOIR here not Adrien Agreste. The show has always portrayed and acknowledged ADRIENS issues very straight forward and with the proper seriousness (especially when it comes to his family), whereas Chat Noir was often mostly used for comedic purposes with some exceptions of his problems being properly delt with (since Marinette/Ladybug was mostly oblivious to them, since Adrien keeps them hidden so well). But now in "Guilt trip" LADYBUG was confronted head-on with just how much negativity Chat has inside and how quickly and extremely he drowns in it.

Sure, correct, the episode also has his negativity "washed away" rather quickly by Ladybug opening up to him on how important he is to her

But this is in character for both of them as "Lies" very clearly showed us that the way BOTH OF THEM behave here is where the problem lies. There Ladybug was freaked out after Chat threw his life away once again but quickly accepted Chats very direct avoidance of the confrontation, since he seemed to be alright to her.

Something I also find noteworthy here is that Ladybugs dialog is "Seriously, you need to stop doing this to me!", which is.... a VERY Marinette-centric way of acknowledging the problem.

It completely shifts the issue away from Adriens extremely alarming self-harmful/suicidal tendencies and instead only calls out how it affects Marinette (whose feelings here are definitely valid, don't get me wrong!). It showcases perfectly how unaware Marinette still is of her partners inner tumult at that point and also parallels how Marinette called Adriens life "perfect" at the beginning of the episode (This is no shade towards Marinette, in general the entirety of "Lies" is about showing us just how harmful Adriens Chat Noir persona actually IS to him so these two moments of her being oblivious to Adriens and Chats immense problems very much fits into that episodes narrative and sets up what's about to come. I still have an entire essay in the making for "Lies" but, guys, it's just getting longer and longer. I suck xD).

So the fact that an episode after "Gabriel Agreste" brings this scenario back, just a little different but ALOT more revealing of Adriens immense problems to his partner, is VERY telling. Besides other things it tells us that this happens at the beginning of the arc that deals with (at least) Chats issues since Ladybug is still way too quickly too ready to accept her partner as "completely fine" again just because Chat makes it seem that way (while some negativity increasing guilt bubbles still to stick to him.).

And yet, others have already pointed it out that Ladybug IS noticing what Chat wanted to do and reacted accordingly...

she just didn't speak of it the way it is because it overwhelmed her, which calls back to Ladybugs "You have to stop doing this to me!" dialog.( For a great breakdown of her dialog HERE is a link to @flightfoot​ post)

In "Lies" Marinette was way too stressed by her new guardian role to even consider Chats side of it and therefore only spoke of her own, but in "Guilt trip" she's already past that stressful arc. So here she is immediately able to recognize Chats suicidal action for what it is, come to his (much needed) aid and lift her partners spirit the best she can by emotionally opening up to him (which is something we KNOW is incredibly hart for Marinette).

The difference between her reaction in "Lies" and in "Guilt trip" shows that Marinette has her guardian role already mostly handled and is now mentally able to be there for others again, so the extremely Marinette-centric "Truth"-like episodes are mostly passed. Now the episodes can bring Adrien/Chat Noir more into the game again and even shift to "Lies" - like episodes because MARINETTE can pay more attention to him again and isn't faced with something new, important and overwhelming Miraculous related every step she takes.

And THAT is extremely fair from a narrative standpoint.

---

I really need to stop elaborating so much on these posts because I'm only NOW actually getting to the point of where Adriens journey will disconnect for a while from Ladybugs. Sorry guys.

Okay, to understand where I'm going with this I will have to quickly explain how I always saw Chat Noirs place in the Ladybug+Chat Noir vs Hawkmoth war ever since s1.

Because here is the thing: Adrien wasn't able to truly leave the battle field ONCE since the origins. Marinette was completely out of Hawkmoths and Gabriels reach once she detransformed, which balances out her basically being the personification of the good sides force. And Gabriel literally decided whenever or not the battle is even ACTIVE right now! Besides that he is in complete control of his own actions and environment, which gives him all the necessary time, safety and downtime he needs to act as the personification of the evil sides force.

Marinette and Gabriel always knew when they were safe and off the battle field, but ADRIEN never had that and it left him LITERALLY right in the middle of both Ladybugs and Hawkmoths sides.

You see, because before Adrien became Chat Noir he basically was part of Hawkmoths side just by default. He was born into this family, that's his father and lost mother and everything he knows. Adrien didn't/doesn't even have to KNOW that he is part of Hawkmoths side, he's his son at some level he just IS! And I'm not saying this as anything negative, Adrien coming from Hawkmoths side is literally the reason why he became Chat Noir!

Because whereas Gabriel is having the time of his damn life as evil terrorist, created out of tragic and sinister circumstances, ADRIEN on the other hand couldn't handle his families environment and very same circumstances anymore and accepted the role as Paris' hero to escape his heritage for a while.

Keywords being: a WHILE.

Something unique about Adrien I always loved is the fact that he is the villains abused, isolated and overworked SON, who becomes a hero to escape his depressing life and YET it was never Adriens intention to LEAVE IT. Adrien merely wanted to use his time as Chat Noir to let of some steam and breath freely while doing some hero work so he can go back into his civilian life and try to one day successfully ment his broken family. He couldn't handle the current situation anymore but he still always saw worth in his family/father. I have SO MUCH respect for that!

But him not intending to leave his family and instead regaining strength as Chat Noir to continue to hold onto it came with the downside of him not being able to fully become part of the good sides people/force either. Hence why Adriens/Chats place always felt so lost in comparison to Ladybugs and Hawkmoths clear positions. He's caught in between their extremes trying to balance out BOTH at the same time. What an impossible task!

So he couldn't put in the same focus as Ladybug into being the good sides force because he is literally burned out from his civilian life on Hawkmoths evil side. But he also couldn't be involved as an ACTIVE member of his fathers evil force, because he chose to find refuge in his friends and as a hero on Ladybugs side.

Adrien unknowingly is part of BOTH the shows two extreme moral sides of good and evil and this season we will see Adrien/Chat Noir grow into his own within BOTH sides as well.

Because he simply couldn't have done so right away in s1. Now after 3 seasons Chat Noir is more than solidly established as one of Paris Heros and his time with Ladybug, the other heros and his normal friends helped him greatly to find his place on the good side. "Lies" set this up as Chat Noirs arcs starting point that now he has to stop connecting "being heroic" strictly with following Ladybug (as Marinette is the STAND IN personification for the good side, she's still a flawed human being like everyone else and not the ultimate force of perfect and good. Big difference.) just as he has to start looking past his fathers sympathetic moments/qualities to see that Hawkmoth isn't a 100%, inhumane monster just because he is the stand-in personification of evil in their fight, but the man he calls Father and still needs to be taken down. (I talked about this in more detail on THIS post)

Adrien has to seperat himself from Ladybugs path and focus on his family and I believe it'll start with the much dreaded (but expected) Ladynoir fight.

Funnily enough, what I'm talking about was actually already set up in "Frozer" I just didn't remember that for a bit. In "Frozer" we saw Ladynoir having a fight which caused Chat Noir to go his own way in the episodes battle.

I always found it interesting that the episode didn't had Chats decision, to not follow Ladybugs lead here, turn out to be a huge mistake. Almost every other show would have done so but now I think I understand. This episode and s2 in general SET UP the s4 conflict, s3 LEAD UP to it and now s4 DELIVERS it.

So what happened in "Frozer" is a direct parallel to what about to go down:

Ladynoirs fight will cause Chat Noir to not simply  follow Ladybugs side anymore the way he used to, but note, he DOESN'T leave the good side AND they make up again in the end after Chat saves Ladybug from the akuma. He just does things on his own because he isn't on great terms with her for a while. "Frozer" showed Chats decision to not only NOT be a mistake but also a necessary part of defeating the akuma, just the way it'll be in s4. Damn, Adrien breaking away from Ladybugs side, the way she (unintentionally tho) did at the beginning of the season, to focus more on himself and his family will be the game changing factor, when Adrien will have his completing arc where he goes from "not active character within the villain/backstory plot" to "ACTIVE character within the villain/backstory plot".

And we already saw with Marinette how many fast breakthroughs we get through these completing arcs. Which is also a reason for why Adriens/ Chats arc comes later in the season, because BUDDY. Once Adrien starts to actively uncover his families mystery and fathers secrets Gabriel is SCREWED! Adrien will gain the needed inside knowledge that complements Marinettes Miraculous power; and reunited they can take on whatever the hell kind of scale the Agrestes plan actually is.

So how to end this post? My biggest intention was to raise hope for everybody (myself included lol) who is right now very concerned and upset about how side-lined our boy is at the moment. But I prefer doing so in a way that actually works with canons context instead of sugarcoating what I don't like. And Adriens/Chats current position I definitely do NOT like but accepting it as realistic outcome from s1-s3 and set up for the escalation for both Ladynoir and his home situation gives it the proper purpose and pay off (narrative and character wise) that it SHOULD have.

Basically, the endcards of "Truth" and "Lies" show it perfectly.

It looks like ShadowMoth is turning a blind eye towards Adrien/Chat Noir because of Ladybugs new guardian status and "greater importance". But Gabriels tunnel vision on Ladybug will leave him vulnerable to his own sons secret actions against him and Gabriel won't see it coming until its already too late.

[evilmortys]

okay,  so,  here  are  my  thoughts  on  the  finale,

i’m  gonna  start  with  the  things  i  didn’t  like,  just  because  of  who  i  am  as  a  person!  my  feelings  are  mixed,  but...  looks  lovingly  at  evil  morty.  he  truly  was  the  only  exception  as  usual  ♥

i’m  not  going  to  lie,  this  whole  thing  felt.  rushed.  although  some  of  rick’s  meta  commentary  about  not  touching  citadel  shit  because  it  was  canon  and  he  and  morty  were  supposed  to  be  going  back  to  lighthearted  one  off  adventures,  and  “the  second  he  reveals  that  he’s  evil,  we’re  out”  made  me  laugh,  it  also  felt  very  disingenuous  and  ham-fisted.  having  him  do  all  these  fourth  wall  breaks  honestly  took  away  from  the  impact  of  what  this  episode  could  have  been,  but  whatever.  

i  just  got  the  vibe  that  they  wanted  everyone  to  stfu  about  the  citadel  and  evil  morty,  so  they  quickly  stuck  together  this  episode  that  dealt  with  fans’  demand  in  one  fell  swoop  so  they  could  move  on  from  the  existence  of  both  plotlines.  i  honestly  thought  it  was  a  bit  wasteful  since  tales  from  the  citadel  resonated  with  a  lot  of  fans  and  it  was  an  interesting  bit  of  worldbuilding  with  compelling  narratives  going  on.

you  already  all  likely  know  how  irritated  i  am  with  morty’s  character  degrading  so  much  once  again.  this  entire  season  has  been  building  him  up  to  becoming  so  much  more  capable,  only  to  wrench  it  away  from  him  again  by  instead  having  his  co-dependency  with  rick  ramped  up  to  the  point  it  was  literally  out  of  character.  this  has  come  out  of  nowhere.  at  no  point  in  the  show’s  entire  run  has  morty  ever  been  this  needy  with  rick.  

again,  i  feel  like  this  may  have  been  written  around  what  eventually  ended  up  happening  at  the  citadel,  with  the  revelation  that  mortys  are  ‘bred  for  forgiveness.’  it  would  have  been  far  more  compelling  for  our  morty  to  have  continued  to  go  down  the  path  of  being  decidedly  unforgiving  of  rick’s  bullshit,  thereby  making  him  deviate  from  the  norm  in  a  similar  way  to  evil  morty  himself  and  implicating  that  the  cycle  of  a  morty  going  to  these  extremes  is  going  to  be  repeated  once  again.

rick  did  not  deserve  or  earn  voicing  the  recognition  that  his  dynamic  with  morty  was  toxic,  and  abusive.  are  you  fucking  kidding  me?  the  smartest  man  in  the  universe  only  JUST  clocked  onto  that?  bullshit!  he’s  known  all  along,  and  he’s  been  using  it  for  his  own  gain!  he  doesn’t  get  to  just  say  it  with  that  regretful  voice  as  if  he’s  been  clueless  /  oblivious  to  it  this  entire  time.  they  just  wanted  the  audience  to  feel  sympathetic  for  him  by  throwing  in  this  tidbit  and  a  tragic  backstory,  as  if  that  even  sort  of  makes  up  for  everything  he’s  put  his  family  through.  

abandoning  the  people  you’ve  hurt  is  ALSO  abusive  and  toxic  behaviour!  he’s  done  it  time  and  time  again!  how  is  acknowledging  the  fact  that  you  hurt  people,  that  you  hurt  your  family,  the  people  that  love  you  despite  the  fact  you  objectively  don’t  deserve  it,  then  ditching  them  once  again  instead  of  staying  with  them  and  improving  as  a  person  and  helping  everyone  heal  from  what  you’ve  put  them  through,  ANY  BETTER??  he  never  changes!!

i  also  couldn’t  really  process  the  fact  that  rick  just  handed  morty  his  portal  gun  like  it  was  nothing--  i  feel  like  him  topping  it  off  and  using  it  behind  rick’s  back  should  have  been  a  bigger  deal  than  what  it  was.  also,  morty  would  not  break  a  guy  out  of  a  mental  asylum  without  a  second  thought.  he  simply  wouldn’t  do  that.

we’ve  fallen  right  back  into  the  status  quo  of  morty  being  stupid  and  rick  being  the  smartest  one  in  the  room  who  always  knows  what’s  going  on,  even  when  he  actually  shouldn’t  for  the  sake  of  a  few  meta  jokes.  which  is  more  annoying  than  i  can  put  into  words  tbqh

obviously  i  hated  all  the  parallels  they  were  attempting  to  make  between  rick  and  morty  having  a  romantic  relationship  and  “breaking  up.”  never  has  morty  behaved  so  uncharacteristically  in  any  other  episode  of  the  show.  it  honestly  felt  disrespectful  to  all  the  growth  he’s  had  as  a  character  to  reduce  him  to  something  so  pathetic.

i  guess  this  is  less  of  a  thing  i  disliked,  and  more  of  a  commentary  on  rick’s  character?  but  once  again,  his  hypocrisy  really  leapt  out  at  me  once  it  was  revealed  that  he  always  has  a  hand  in  bringing  together  beths  and  jerrys  in  order  to  ensure  that  more  mortys  will  end  up  in  the  multiverse.  i  find  it  unbelievably  sad  that  he’ll  willingly  ensnare  the  two  of  them  in  the  throes  of  a  relationship  that  he  knows  is  likely  to  become  toxic  and  cause  the  both  of  them  to  be  miserable  throughout  their  time  together;  they’re  rarely  happy  /  compatible  together  and  always  end  up  sticking  it  out  for  the  kids.  it  also  makes  his  constant  shitting  on  jerry  even  more  egregious  and  almost  serves  to  call  his  love  for  his  daughter  into  question  for  me.  he’s  using  her  as  a  means  to  his  own  ends  by  manipulating  situations  so  she’ll  meet  jerry  and  they’ll  likely  end  up  together.  

don’t  get  me  wrong,  i  actually  really  loved  the  fact  he  had  a  hand  in  founding  the  citadel  he  now  loathes  so  much,  and  i  think  the  constant  creation  of  mortys  as  grandsons  ‘bred  to  forgive’  ricks  is  so  fucked  up  and  awful  in  the  most  intriguing  way.  it’s  akin  to  him  fiddling  with  the  concept  of  keeping  mortys  in  constant  pain  to  cloak  his  comings  and  goings  around  the  multiverse  (on  paper,  morty,  on  paper!),  except  this  time  he  did  it  in  reality.

evil  morty.  oh  my  god,  evil  morty.  my  saving  grace.  my  ray  of  light.  i’m  so,  so,  so  pleased  with  the  way  he  was  handled.  while  i  admit  i  was  looking  forward  to  more  of  a  slow - burn  thing,  getting  a  bit  of  insight  into  his  presidency  and  possibly  exploring  a  dynamic  with  him  and  c-137  (we’ll  get  to  that)...  i  honestly  still  really  loved  what  ended  up  happening  with  him,  even  though  i  still  believe  on  some  level  that  they  just  wanted  to  tie  up  his  narrative  thread  so  fans  wouldn’t  remain  fixated  on  him.

of  course  he  did.  of  course  that  motherfucker  rick  created  a  boundary  within  the  infinite  multiverse  that  ensured  he’d  always  be  the  smartest  man  within  it  as  far  as  mortys  and  other  people  in  his  life  were  concerned.  i’ve  always  found  it  odd  that  such  universes  were  never  brought  up  even  in  passing;  the  nature  of  infinite  possibilities  always  dictated  that  someone  smarter  than  him  must  exist  out  there,  and  that  worlds  existed  where  he  was  nobody  special.

him  being  morally  gray.  i  could  cry.  i  was  clinging  on  to  the  hope  that  it  would  be  shown  he  hates  ricks  more  than  he  looks  down  on  mortys,  and  it  absolutely  was.  while  he  was  okay  with  killing  and  hurting  mortys  to  achieve  his  own  “selfish”  ends,  it’s  clear  that  he’s  unhappy  with  the  cycle  of  abuse  from  their  infinite  grandfathers  that  pushes  him  to  these  extremes,  loathes  the  concept  that  mortys  are  not  supposed  to  defy  their  ricks.  “if  you’ve  ever  been  sick  of  him,  you’ve  been  evil  morty  too.”  he  hates  ricks  FAR  more  than  he  does  mortys,  and  you  can  pry  that  from  my  cold,  dead  hands.  he  believes  mortys  are  beyond  help  because  of  the  way  they  stick  by  rick--  the  fact  they’re  literally  created  with  being  yes-men  for  rick  in  mind.

he  didn’t  seek  to�� make  changes  for  the  greater  good  of  other  mortys  within  the  citadel.  i  think  he  understood  on  some  level,  it  was  impossible.  i  think  he  has  this  belief  that  other  mortys  are  part  of  the  problem,  because  they  perpetuate  the  cyclic  dynamic  of  toxicity  and  harm--  they  don’t  move  to  break  free  from  it  the  way  he  does,  and  so  he  feels  no  guilt  leaving  them  behind  while  he  breaks  into  the  aspect  of  the  multiverse  where  rick  has  no  power.  it’s  honestly  heartbreaking  that  he’s  come  to  have  a  mindset  like  that.  

i  think  seeing  c-137  reach  out  to  help  rick  up  once  again  instead  of  accepting  what  i  hope  and  pray  was  a  semi - genuine  offer  to  join  him  as  he  departed  was  just  yet  another  instance  of  him  witnessing  a  morty  doing  the  most  to  save  the  man  who  makes  their  lives  a  living  hell.  if  he  was  truly  unsympathetic,  he’d  have  made  no  such  offer.  if  he  thinks  a  morty  is  capable  of  pulling  away  from  the  hold  ricks  have  on  them,  he  wants  them  out  of  this  shit  just  as  much  as  he  himself  wants  to  break  free  from  it.  i  think  he  has  the  mindset  that  i  know  they  tried  to  play  it  off  with  “haha  the  other  seat’s  a  toilet,”  but  i  don’t  think  that  was  the  case  and  they  were  once  again  just  undermining  the  moment  for  no  good  reason.  SCREAMS!!  don’t  get  me  wrong  what  he  did  WAS  selfish  and  evil.  but  in  a  way  you  can  understand  where  it  derives  from

again,  it  REALLY  irritates  me  they’ve  undone  so  much  of  morty’s  character  just  to  ensure  he  wouldn’t  end  up  taking  evil  morty  up  on  his  proposition.  if  morty  had  retained  even  a  tenth  of  the  character  growth  he’s  been  having  from  late  season  four  until  towards  the  end  of  season  five,  wherein  it  began  to  unravel,  he’d  have  left  rick.  undeniably.

the  yellow  portal.  oh  my  god............

it  made  me  so  fucking  emotional  to  see  that.  he’s  won.  he’s  free.  

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 25, part one

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Holy crap, Episode 25! We’re halfway through! *Cue Bon Jovi*

Hunt Invitation

After taking a nice long break to watch Word of Honor pick lotus pods, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli return to stressing over the shitshow that is the post-Sunshot cultivation world. Jin Zixuan has come to invite them to the Phoenix Mountain Hunt, with a special invitation from his mother to Jiang Yanli. Jiang Cheng reacts to this in a mature and reasonable manner, while Wei Wuxian...doesn't.

On the surface, Jiang Cheng has matured in recent months; much more than Wei Wuxian, with his secret burdens, has. But it's only on the surface, as we'll see later in the episode, when Jiang Cheng's insecurity will take the reins.

Jin Zixuan is adorably pleased by Jiang Yanli's acceptance of the invitation. Wei Wuxian is less pleased, but sort of tries to suck it up. 

Jin Zixuan kind of undercuts the romance of his errand by asking Wei Wuxian for the Yin tiger amulet as soon as Jiang Yanli is out of earshot. 

As always, Jin Zixuan makes an impression by being the best Jin currently in existence, but the Jins are terrible. JZX is working to advance his dad's ambitions, and as such he is currently Wei Wuxian's enemy.  

(more after the cut)

Opening Ceremonies

There's a bunch of cultivators arranged for the opening ceremony. Later someone will say that this is more than 5 thousand people. Ok, sure.

As I've said before, it's best to think of it like a theatre production and assume the other 4,900 people are offstage or, you know, painted on the backdrop.  

The young lead cultivators from the four main clans are standing together. Nie Huaisang is trying out some new body armor.

The clan leaders are seated up on the stage, along with Jin Furen and Jiang Yanli. Unfortunately Jin Furen doesn't seem to have a personal name that I can discover. Her title Fūrén ( 夫人)  means she's the primary wife of the head of the family, according to this excellent meta. 

So “Madame Jin” is a decent translation...if you're French?  I feel like instead of English subtitles including borrowed words from French (”Marquis” in NIH), Greek (”Water of Lethe” in WOH), and other European languages, we could try borrowing Chinese words instead. Jin Zixuan's mom is titled, not named, Jin Furen. Since we don’t know her actual name, I'll call her that and abbreviate it JFR.

Wei Wuxian's childishness continues at the opening of the hunt, as does Jiang Yanli's encouragement of his childishness. I know she's had a rough couple of years, and it's understandable to want to baby her little brother out of a sense of nostalgia. But it's not good for him, and she shouldn't do it; she should encourage him to be more mature, just as she does with Jiang Cheng.

War Crimes Contest

Jin Guangyao says they're going to have an archery competition, and they're going to liven it up by endangering some prisoners. These prisoners are Wens in Wen cultivator uniforms, meaning they're not the noncombatants that were being hunted down earlier. But they’re still helpless people in chains. 

There are three different reactions when the Wen prisoners are brought out.  All the Jins are pleased, or neutral. All of the Jiangs, including Wei Wuxian, are upset.

The Nies and the Lans, what we see of them, are a little shocked, but not obviously upset. Based on those reactions, it seems like this is a maneuver that in-world is considered shocking and cruel, but not necessarily unethical or immoral.  Shocking, cruel displays of power are pretty normal in this world; remember when Wen Chao lit a Lan cultivator on fire just to say hello, and nobody complained? 

This whole scenario, of course, has been designed to provoke Wei Wuxian. One major goal of this event, and the whole reason for wanting Wei Wuxian to come,  is to get the Yin Tiger amulet.  Making him lose his shit in front of 100 5000 cultivators is a good step toward compelling him to hand the amulet over.  

We see Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli both signaling Wei Wuxian to keep it together, and he takes a step back and tries to chill.  

Meanwhile, Jin Zixuan seems annoyed by all this, and goes to take a shot at it, making it clear from his demeanor that this is easy and JGY is making a show of nothing. 

He hovers in the air and makes a perfect shot, pleasing most of the crowd and impressing Jiang Yanli. 

Then his cousin Jin Zixun taunts the crowd, challenging anyone to do better.  This presents a bit of a problem for Wei Wuxian. For the sake of the Wen prisoners, Wei Wuxian should just take this taunting and let the contest end, if no-one else is willing to take a shot. But for the sake of the Jiang Clan’s status, and his continued control of the Yin Tiger amulet, he needs to put the Jins in their place.  

Every Day is Blindfold Day

This moral dilemma is resolved with an abrupt tonal shift, where the humanitarian concerns of all parties seem to vanish. Wei Wuxian flirts embarrassingly with Lan Wangji and then goes as far over the top in besting Jin Zixuan as it's possible to go.

The flirting hits differently, incidentally, when you edit Jiang Cheng's annoyed reaction out of it: 

Lan Wangji doesn't seem embarrassed by Wei Wuxian's request, despite it happening in front of 100 5000 of their fellow cultivators. He looks Wei Wuxian straight in the eye for longer than necessary before turning away; it’s not exactly stern disapproval. We’ll get very used to this look, in Wei Wuxian’s second life. 

Fortunately, Wei Wuxian carries a blindfold with him wherever he goes, (gifset here), and he is such a good cultivator he can hit 5 parallel targets simultaneously without even holding his bow straight or tightening the string.

(OP fixed the angle of the bow for this gif, which is why everyone is standing on a hill in the background).

Everyone is pleased by this shot except Jins Guangyao and Zixun; even the Jin cultivators are clapping, and Madame Jin is presumably this happy any time Jin Guangyao’s plans go wrong.

With that they start the hunt. Jin Zixun challenges Wei Wuxian to do the whole hunt blindfolded. Wei Wuxian agrees, but the censorship committee said no, apparently, so we don’t get to see that.

Flute Hunting

We do get to see Wei Wuxian luring monsters into his nets by being too sexy for his robe, too sexy for his robe, and playing the flute.  

We also get to see Jiang cultivators looking puzzled while random monster roars happen in the woods around them. We do not get to see any monsters, which is probably just as well.

Jiang Cheng is annoyed and concerned, muttering "I told you not to overdo it" which means he didn't, you know, tell Wei Wuxian NOT to do this, just not to do it quite so well. Jiang Cheng knows what Wei Wuxian’s abilities are and he is making use of him, as he should, but he doesn’t have the courage of his convictions. 

Tree Confession

Wei Wuxian sees Lan Wangji and starts to say hi, but then he has a desaturated flashback to Lan Xichen telling him to back off, so he stops himself.  But then Lan Wangji comes over to talk to him.

Lan Wangji starts off talking to him about his latest anti-resentment musical discoveries, and Wei Wuxian pushes back, even calling him Lan Wangji, but gently.  Wei Wuxian asks "who am I to you?" and Lan Wangji turns the question right back at him, then waits a looooooong time, eyes downcast, while Wei Wuxian thinks of a serious answer.

Wei Wuxian says "I used to treat you as my zhījǐ" --which, as we’ve discussed before, is variously translated soulmate, confidant, intimate friend--with a strong meaning of "the person who truly knows me." Lan Wangji says "I still am." Coming from Lan Wangji, who NEVER says how he feels about Wei Wuxian or about anything, really, this sounds a lot like a confession of love. 

It definitely takes the form, visually, of a love confession, as Lan Wangji speaks, then gazes at Wei Wuxian while he waits for a reply.  Wei Wuxian's reply is this:

I don't think Wei Wuxian is oblivious (I'm speaking strictly of CQL, not MZDS, as always with these posts; they are different works). I think he loves Lan Wangji back, and knows it. But Chenqing and everything it represents are between them.

Lan Wangji is quite literally NOT his zhījǐ any more, because he doesn't truly know Wei Wuxian right now. He loves him desperately, but he doesn't know about his core, and hasn't accepted his cultivation method.  So Wei Wuxian answers his confession by showing him Chenqing, effectively declining to accept his still-conditional love.

Snake Measuring

Next we get terrible hetero courtship in the form of Jin Zixuan finding snake discharge on the ground and talking to Jiang Yanli about comparative snake measuring. Seriously: that is the actual conversation that they are having.

Jin Zixuan boasts for a bit, and then awkwardly tries to ask Jiang Yanli on a date. When she turns him down he gets mad, because he's a typical heterosexual dude even though he's secretly a delightful person...very, very secretly. Jiang Yanli, for her part, can't string a fucking sentence together to save her life whenever he's around, so she's not helping their mutual understanding. 

Lan Wangji attempts to hold Wei Wuxian back from beating Jin Zixuan’s ass yet again, but eventually JYL wants to leave, JZX tells her to wait, and WWX intervenes. Why doesn't Jiang Yanli have a maid or Jiang cultivator with her while she's on a date, incidentally? These kids are confused about whether they're doing feudal patriarchy or whether they're doing modern social life.

Jin vs. Jiang

Wei Wuxian jumps in between Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan, which JZX objects to. Jin Zixuan has no fucking business objecting and Wei Wuxian is 100% right, at this point. As soon as WWX shows up JZX should hand her off to her Shidi, bow, and leave her the fuck alone. Instead, he draws his sword on Wei Wuxian, and kind of on Jiang Yanli since she's right behind Wei Wuxian.  Fortunately, Lan Wangji blocks him. 

This instantly blows up into a Jiang-Jin Clan conflict, with Jiang Cheng unfortunately absent since he let his unmarried sister go off in the woods alone with the son of the Cultivaton world's most famous lecher. It looks like it’s a personal conflict, but since Jin Zixuan already told Wei Wuxian directly that Jin Guangshan wants his amulet, any arguments between them are part of a larger power struggle. 

Cousin Jin Zixun comes running up to start shit. Wei Wuxian pretends--I am SURE he's pretending--not to know who he is. The dude hassles Wei Wuxian every time he sees him; Wei Wuxian is a troll, and right now CJXZ is butting in to something that doesn't concern him. Rather than argue, Wei Wuxian insults him by telling him he’s not memorable.

Jin Furen shows up with several maids and cultivator dudes in tow, which is the proper way for a highborn woman to wander around in the woods. She also brings Clan Leader Yao, because if it's Wei Wuxian Blaming Hours, Yao is going to be there.  

I initially found the deep friendship between superhot Yi Zuyuan and dumpy Jin Furen implausible, but then I remembered that my lifelong bestie is a smokin' hot redhead with impeccable fashion sense, while I am a roly-poly nerd.  Friends don’t always match. Also, Jin Furen's actress, Hu Xiaoting, looks like this: 

...so she is actually hot in real life. Not as hot as Zhang Jingtong (who plays Yu Ziyuan) but literally nobody is as hot as Zhang Jingtong. Don't @ me, you know I'm right.

This is a heck of a long scene, so we’ll pick it up in part two! 

Soundtrack: Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi

Writing prompt: Newly-divorced, cold-hearted CEO Yu Ziyuan buys an apartment next door to newly-divorced, warm-hearted pastry chef ...uhh let's call her Jin Dàngāo (蛋糕), sure. She can name her business after herself. 

They discover their daughter & son are in the same college class, and so they meet up over coffee....several times...trying to matchmake their hopeless, hapless kids, while bonding over their own terrible (former) taste in husbands. Who will Cupid strike first, the kids or the moms?

[so-youre-unattached-like-me]

Development Under Baskerville's Skin; Bring a Map, Shoot the Dog 

+I don't know if this has been mentioned before or not. Go on and enjoy then, I think?:)

The Map

In THoB, when John is reading the map, Sherlock stands in a higher place but doesn't know about their location on the map. 

Being conscious of things doesn't mean you understand them, I believe.

Sherlock views a big picture; he sees what is next to what, not knowing why they are there, not knowing about some parts' identity. He is almost unable to find the way.

John, on the other hand, has the map. "He sees the WAY", he has the power to zoom on each part and guide Sherlock into them. He is aware of their past, their future, and their destination. In contrast with Sherlock, he doesn't know about the bigger picture; he can see the little steps, and the different ways. Though he is not aware of the storyline's aim.

Now, it is about their knowledge of their relationship, and relationships in general. John is familiar with romantic and sexual relationships, and Sherlock sees the aim - love/sex - but doesn't know about the steps, and ways.

We know how small objects like phones can resemble abstract ideas, right? Special places are just the same. [For instance, I refer to this meta about The Gherkin (X) from @i-read-your-writing-upside-down ]

The Minefield.

Sherlock asks about it, "what's that?" John zooms, sees the warning signs, and recognizes, " A minefield?" He tells Sherlock. 

So if the whole map scene is about their role and status in their relationship, Minefield, I assume, is the queer nature of it. Sherlock notices. (He is not sexually oblivious at all( ASIP, ASiB mostly, and JIM MORIARTY) )

John is FAMILIAR with this danger. Being queer. His sister, remember? Also, we expect him to be dealing with his sexuality crisis, keep in mind.

He sees danger, he sees a minefield, "made because they(army base) have always been keen to keep people out." And if we analogize the army base to John's deep desires in their relationship, it starts to make sense.

No one from the outside exactly knows what's going on in the army base.

John is interested in him, he grows attached to Sherlock, and he likes to be around him. He may feel something for him. These are locked in the army base. But apparently, the minefield - their relationship being queer - won't allow anyone including himself to step in, to touch his desires, and maybe to let them out.

So, John recognizes the minefield (danger+queer), is conscious of the stages in their relationship (not necessarily wants to proceed all the track, at least for now), and is willing to keep his cravings and desires for himself, untouched.

On the other side, Sherlock, the genius, can see their situation from above (their relationship), and is introduced to John's minefield, which he can already notice. "clearly." And yes, he knows how love and/or sexual appeal works, yet is foreign to the steps. (I'd like to say, not a virgin)

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Driving. Army Base.

Sherlock is driving -> directing John and also the relationship THIS CERTAIN TIME because John is overly insecure to do so.

At Baskerville doors, he is afraid of getting caught, but they enter anyway. In my opinion, that's an excellent portrait of John's feelings, and his heart. There are guards, but they let Sherlock in, even if it is temporary and under special rules.

They (Sherlock, in particular) use Mycroft (=brain)'s card to enter the Baskerville.

Also, Sherlock uses the brain to have some time in Baskerville (John's desires are there) to finally reach a conclusion.

Meaning: Sherlock approached John's emotions through his brain. "Slightly oblivious about emotions" against "sentiment"?

Not the best decision, we will see.

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Laboratory

He leads John again and tests him, with his very own desires.

Sherlock has seen the dog, he got scared. He wanted to know what is John's reaction when he is confronted with a vision of the dog. He is using tricks to see if John is the same as he (check the love interest, may I say??)

They were the same; both were terrified.

So, what is this dog that scares them like this?

The dog is something's symbol, "couldn't bring themselves to have it put down," which Sherlock doesn't get it well but accepts, as it is sentiment.

Let us take a wild guess, could it be related to love? You see, sentiment!

To make the answer clearer, let's talk about some other scenes too.

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We have an explosion.

John has seen explosions, far too much, as he would say. The minefield is queerness. He and Sherlock witness a glimpse of what may happen there. What COMPELLING one - in our case, John - to run towards the army base will bring to them. John, on subtext level, has assumably witnessed these explosions before, with Harry and their parents. Or that's about himself, maybe?

As many ppl have explained, John and Lestrade are not very shocked by the explosion as they've seen it before. But notice how Sherlock is startled.

He once again sees what love/sexual intrest can do. His brain dictates that he must remain out of it, exactly what he has been doing for years.

Now that he has seen the depth of hazard with his own eyes- his own senses - will he avoid approaching it? We have the answer right after the explosion, in the next scene.

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Sherlock admits his mistake.

So his guess about the cause was wrong (not sugar-> the fog). He tells John how he wanted to solve the problem there "in a totally scientific laboratory condition." And he wanted to see how the experiment (being drugged to see the dog) would affect John's average mind. It went wrong, as the aim was pretty sentiment and the approach was not.

Sherlock himself was TERRIFIED. He lost his trust in his own senses.

Here I take one of the dog's meanings as "an experiment in love" and "dealing with love/being attracted"

they both got frightened. Both tried to express their fear to the other one. They couldn't reach a common conclusion. Not until they are in the Hollow.

I'll skip Henry and Sherlock's conversation, H.O.U.N.D, and Henry's therapist because it would get so so long.

Now Lestrade, who certainly plays an important role in subtexts [ a brief explanation in @cheuwing 's post about him , ecp the mentor part], is there to help them, literally.

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Failures

Lestrade is with them in Dewer's Hollow, without his ring (coming back from a failure),

Sherlock thinks it's about the sugar(failure, he then changes his method, using MP, second attempt, you can say successful as it saved Henry),

Lestrade shots the dog and misses it (failure)

John shots, the dog falls (very close to the solution, but false. Like the sugar), the dog is not completely dead, he shoots again(second attempt successful)

So they see Lestrade's defeat (sorry, Greg) and learn one or two things; try again to find the solution.

In the end, they discuss the sugar (false approach). Sherlock, at last, admits he was wrong and promises, "won't happen again." He means, "I won't FORCE you to explore your deep and locked desires anymore. I saw the danger."

Though, it's clearly not the end. This episode showed how he is eager to change according to new circumstances, so he tries again -> another approach.

"Gotta see a man about a dog." 

____

I'd like to bring up one more thing shortly, and here it is;

mirrors

Sorry about the pic, Gary

Here we have Gary and Billy, the couple in an established relationship. By looking at their clothes, names, and mirrored behaviors, we assume Gary is John's mirror, and Billy is Sherlock's mirror.[ I refer to @johnlockelephant 's post about Gary and Billy]

Also, I like to highlight Gary and Billy's parallels to what we see in Johnlock, through s1 and s2.

Gary is the one who communicates, and so is John. They are better in terms of interacting with people. See how the exchange between them is smooth? Even with a slightly sensitive subject - for John - they can continue.

Then Billy comes, and he is not very the same; he is reckless and doesn't avoid topics just because people may feel uncomfortable - there you go, Sherlock.

John's mirror tends to remind Sherlock's mirror when things are not a bit good; Parallel. (John does it literally every episode, but I like to mention the first minutes of TRF)

In the last minutes of THoB, too, we see Gary chatting a little with customers. Billy probably just serves the food. Only work-related conversations maybe. (Johnlock version, well… every episode) Though he - Sherlock's mirror- talks to john.

I'm no expert in drinking metas, but I found milk/WKD interesting.

And what I extremely love is Billy's lying.

It could be related to other episodes, or not. But I'll link it to TRF.

Billy=sherlock lies to protect Gary=John.

One of the lies is so freaking obvious and very much easy to see through - "It's me. It was me." about the meat, AND "I'm a fake," which John easily pushed away.

Honestly, I'm not sure about Gary being unaware of the dog and all, but presuming he didn't know a thing, the second lie comes to the light: lying about being alive. Billy kept the dog alive, without Gary knowing. so did Sherlock( well, that was about a much more serious matter, but whatever.)

AND SHERLOCK GOES TO GARY TO TALK ABOUT THE DOG, GARY=JOHN, to learn more

- In conclusion, Sherlock tries to lead the relationship, and John, to face his desires. He fails, claims his mistake. He promises that this is not going to happen again, and actually tries to learn from his mistake. To learn about John's feelings through John himself.

and that's it^^ thanks for reading!!

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p.s: The thing, is I feel there is more subtext here. Especially about the "dog" and "see a man."

p.s 2: The Hound alongside the Hollow are Sherlock's fears, which I may talk about later (if there's not already a post about it)

If you have something in mind or have read a related meta, please add it!

If you don't want me to tag you or link your post tell me please!

English is not my first language, so if there's any mistake, LMK!

Asks are appreciated very much ~