#and doesn't even feel remorse?

[blooming-periwxnkle]

It's kinda crazy when you think about how Ming Yi is basically the less ghastly version of He Xuan. And he was there by Shi Qingxuan's side for centuries, and yet Shi Wudu never found out. He never recognized him.

Imagine being in He Xuan's shoes - like this guy pretty much ruined his life and is indirectly responsible for the deaths of everybody who was dear to him. Shi Wudu rarely descends. But on the eve of Hanlu, he went down to check if he really died or not. He Xuan remembered his face. It probably haunted him during his times at Mt Tonglu, but when he finally meets this person, there is nothing on his face, no shock or horror.

He forgot him, forgot the face of the boy whose life he ruined.

He never bothered to remember. As if he never had a life.

It kind of reminds me of this scene from a manga called Yona of the Dawn. The protagonist is a princess who's on the run. She had lived a sheltered life and was trying her best to adjust to her new life. One day, she had to hunt a fawn for food, and one of her friends asked her if she would be okay with watching it, and she replied that she isn't. It's still hard for her. But she said that in the palace, thousands of animals were slaughtered every day to feed the royal family, and she never paid attention to it. But now, if she averts her eyes, it would be like refusing to acknowledge that the poor creature had a life.

Shi Wudu ruined his life for the sake of his brother, but let alone remorse, he even forgot what he looked like. He was there by his brother's side for centuries, and yet it never struck him, not until the moment his survival was on the line. If he was guilty, would it have changed anything? Would it bring He Xuan's family and the life he lost back? No, but at least it would ensure that his life meant something, anything.

And even after he recognizes him, his first reaction still is not guilt, not remorse. But a question, "You're alive?", perhaps an indirect way of saying, 'did I make a mistake that day?' Or 'did I fail to clear such an important evidence of my crime?'

The person whose life and afterlife is a consequence of his crime, the first thing he says to him is that.

"Noble people really are forgetful'', and He Xuan really meant it. He experienced it himself. For centuries.

[casualavocados]

Don't you push me. You said you would always look at me. ...You asked for it yourself.

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 09

[dollypopup]

. . .this reply is just. . .I'm sorry, but it's not it. Yes, they are both at fault, but the blame is NOT equal between the two of them. And, frankly, I'm tired of a young female character who is trying to learn and do better and BE better (yes, I'm talking about Eloise) getting constantly smacked down by an echo chamber fandom. Was it wrong of her to rip up her room? Yeah! But. . .uh. . .prioritizing Penelope's privacy in holding a secret that has deeply hurt people over the privacy of EVERYONE ELSE in the entire ton is just. . .hmmmmmm

the Queen was after Eloise because *checks notes* Penelope endangered everyone she knew by goading and undermining the Queen. So. . .the Queen was after Eloise. . .BECAUSE of Penelope.

In what way has Penelope helped out the Bridgertons w/ scandals instead of making them worse? I'm genuinely asking (it's been a bit since I watched) but as I recall, Daphne ended up in the Berbrook situation BECAUSE Penelope constantly said Daphne didn't deserve to be diamond. It was Violet who helped Daphne, not Penelope. In fact, every time Penelope writes about the Bridgertons, she exacerbates the situation: she does not 'fix' it. Nevermind the fact that such 'help' was unwanted and unsolicited. Penelope decided to do what she did without consent from any party involved. Can we agree that's messed up?

I can never stand this point. 'She tried to talk to Colin and Marina and they didn't listen'- no, they didn't give her an answer she wanted. Listen, I'm a hella Polin shipper (though the fandom's version of Polin makes that very difficult. Hallelujah for the book version) but we need to stop woobifying Penelope and acting like what she did was oh so altruistic. She told Colin that Marina loved someone else and he told her he'd be a hypocrite for holding that against her. (so he's a bad guy. . .how?) and Marina was in dire straits. Her situation was quite literally life or death. Her cousin coming to her and saying 'hey, don't marry him, he doesn't deserve to be tricked' is up against her mind with 'if you don't marry him, you and your baby will die'. Idk about you, but I know which I'd choose.

And yes! I also get what Penelope did, because if I found out my close friend was about to get tricked and potentially get their heart broken, yeah, I'd speak up! You know what I wouldn't do? Publish about it in Village Voice. Penelope could have gone to Violet or to Eloise, even to Anthony. It could have been handled quietly, Marina's safety could have been prioritized. But Penelope didn't care about Marina's safety, and let's not sit here and act as though she did what she did because she wanted Colin to have a happy life w/ any lovely woman- she did it BECAUSE she had feelings for him. If that weren't the case, she wouldn't freeze him out after he said he won't date her. Nevermind that it wasn't actually any of her business, and that they both gave her an answer but it was one she didn't want to hear. Penelope took matters into her own hands without their consent, but worse than that is. . .she's not even sorry. Even when Colin expressed guilt, saying he could have done more for Marina, all Penelope was thinking about was how to get him to 'not give up women'. That's messed up!!! How can I root for a character who throws a pregnant woman under a bus and then doesn't even APOLOGIZE?

Eloise didn't love LW? Maybe in S1 she did, but S2 very much challenged that waaaaay before she knew who LW was. Eloise was educating herself on feminist matters, meeting up with the laboring class and consuming texts that made her think. Is she perfect? Hahahaha, no. Do I think some of her feminist takes weren't it? Yeah. Did I find the scene where she, a privileged society woman in all her finery was talking down to Theo, a working class man, a lil hypocritical? Yeah. But Eloise makes up for that, she recognizes that she's speaking out of her bum, which is why she comes to Theo again and again for his insight after that first scene, recognizing that her privilege as a rich person superimposes that of her being a woman in such an instance. It wasn't realizing LW was Penelope that turned her off, it was that she realized that LW was shallow and misogynistic which. . .

SHE IS!!!! LW IS shallow and misogynistic. Come ON they threw in Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication on the Rights of Women. We're gonna act like Penelope writing about debutant number 4 getting a little too close to eligible bachelor 6 is anywhere close to that? It shouldn't be! Because Penelope is a 19 year old girl and she's making mistakes and she has a loooooot of internalized stuff to go through. But when it comes to accountability (forget blame, let's talk ACCOUNTABILITY), honestly, VERY little in the Polin fandom is actually put onto Penelope. I'm not talking outside of it, but this fandom in particular is an echo chamber.

Look at me, you've swung so far in the other direction that you're firmly in la la land. Penelope has made horrible, life altering mistakes. Without Philip showing up out of the blue, Marina would be destitute, dead. If it weren't for Eloise's family, she would have likely been arrested or hung. This is not to mention the quiet moments of ruin she's orchestrated, on purpose or otherwise: the Modiste she ran out of business with a slut shaming comment to Cressida, the women she's unknowingly trapped by reporting on their dealings, the staff who will almost certainly be punished for 'letting the secret out of the household'. And, speaking of sexism, "Eloise is, most likely, the most privileged, hypocritical and self-centered character" . . .really? I don't know if I'd rank her above Anthony S1 (even Anthony S2, let's be real). Fife? Lord Cho? Maybe we're just talking women. How about Cressida? Even PENELOPE? (who has POWER as LW that other women don't, thus having more privilege than most women in the ton, as well)

I think there's too much excusing of Penelope's actions. I'm not trying to excuse Eloise's, it IS fucked up that she invaded Penelope's privacy, she needs to apologize. But also, Penelope has sooooo much she needs to apologize for, too. First, even. Her intentions are one thing, but the outcome is really what matters. Eloise betrayed Penelope's trust by ripping up her room, yes, but Penelope betrayed Eloise's trust by writing about her entire family behind her back, including her, lying to her face repeatedly, and holding onto the secret for YEARS whilst Eloise confided in her.

They're both at fault, but the idea that they've caused equal levels of harm is laughable at best

Still mad about Eloise thinking she had the right to tear up Penelope’s room the way she did, trying to act all tough like you didn’t just severely invaded someone’s privacy.

[luminaryofblood]

... Really though, how WOULD the Hornsent view Morgott or Mohg? WOULD they revere them, for the aspects they bear - the horns, the tail, the wings - or would their hatred toward Marika be that strong that, even for the omen twins, they would still hold contempt?

[transmascutena]

thinking about how akio sees his younger self in utena and wondering if there's any fondness there. doesn't change the horror of what he does to her obviously but i do wonder

[bonkalore]

Poor little meow meow literally moments before he commits multiple atrocities~ <3 uwu

SPOILERS: he sacrifices Shak and then opens the coffer with all the Dread magic and unleashes hell on earth

[rainybraindays]

Okay, apparently shutting the fuck up was never an option but the way no one likes to look at the marina situation and go "wow what the fuck is wrong with portia"? Crazy.

Like she immediately didn't like her, not because of anything she'd done, but because she took attention from her daughters no matter how bright she dressed them.

It didn’t matter that the main reason is that, honestly all 3 of her daughters are painfully awkward, and in ones case literally 17. It didn’t matter that Marina was only there at her fathers instance, or that theoretically through having someone thats clearly popular in her home she could have used it as a jump off mark to match her daughters, she was seen as her big hurdle to marrying them off. Marinas immediately othered, to the point that when shes being dressed the maids helping put on her shoes is enough to piss Portia off. She immediately puts Marina in the same ring as her daughters, fight for my attention and maybe maybe it'll be positive. But Marina doesn't do that because she doesn't want to even be there.

And then they find out she's pregnant and shes othered even more. She immediately tries to send her back, and when she's not allowed to do that shes locked away and the other girls aren't even allowed to talk to her. She literally tries to freeze her out, like Marina has any say in being there in the first place, before lying to her about her being abandoned by George.

She makes no attempt to find out if George has family, she doesn't care enough to try even though that would have been a way to get rid of her "problem". She tries to push Marina onto a man old enough to be her grandfather and slaps her across the fucking face when she tries to stand up for herself.

Theres no concern for her safety, for the babys safety, just getting her out of her house as fast as fucking possible, and I'm meant to be surprised that when Colin saves Marina from her elderly suitor she turns her attention to him?

Like the nicest guy, who everyone likes, who's attractive, who isn't multiple decades older than her and most importantly not going to literally assault her? Yeah not a big shocker. Should she have lied to him? No, but she wouldn't have had to or felt the need to if she wasn't in the most hostile fucking house. Even Penelope, who she likes, why does everyone forget that she fucking likes Penelope and viewed her as a friend, becomes aggressive towards her. Shes cornered, shes scared, and all of this could have been avoided if Portia was a slightly better person and said "hey soilder boys not written back, you're gonna have this kid, does he have any family?" instead of setting this entire mess in motion.

[clownprince]

Wauuhhhhh... ok but the bittersweetness of a joker redemption arc... bruce knows he's trying and he loves him for trying but he can't forgive him for what he did... no matter how hard joker tries he can't undo the past... it's so... I love you but I can't forgive you I know that you're trying and I wish that it was enough... I love you and I love what you've become but I still hate you for what you did... no matter how hard he commits to his recovery he can't bring back the people he killed and maimed and the lives he ruined... he can't un-inflict the trauma... he can't reverse the past and make it so Jason never died and Barbara never got shot even if he desperately wants to... but at the same time he's trying SO hard...

[primoresplendens]

"Death is just an escape" is one recurring thesis in LoH that I love so much. There is no hell for you to go to. This life is all the chance you will ever get to be guilty. There is no atonement in serving literal dirt time in blissful unconsciousness, forever.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Howard Carter bonding with Barnes but not as much with Zolf and Wilde because "he is not Sasha" and it shouldn't matter but it does (and they are at first mean about it as well) is a headcannon that can be so special.

[navree]

Let's be honest, and I say this with full offense, Lucerys Velaryon is the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Dance of the Dragons. He is meant to be a sacrificial lamb to kick off the entire war proper. If we had gotten a full season of development with him like we did with the younger cast in Game of Thrones, I guarantee more people would've felt something. The only reason I personally feel bad is from a baseline level of empathy, because he was a child who was placed in an unwinnable situation due to his mom being completely irresponsible with him and his brothers.

However…

The comparison between Lucerys and Aemond is no contest. Love him or hate him, Aemond has an actual personality and goals when we first meet him. There's enough dimension in Aemond as a child to showcase the potential for sympathy between him and Jace at the funeral, a scene they didn't need to put in, but they did, which emphasizes his own innocence. Even before he breaks bad fully in S1E10, he's still far more compelling to watch due to the number of scenes allocated to him and his dynamic with other people.

This is where you and I are going to disagree just a bit, because Lucerys does do something in S1E07 and S1E08. He gouges out the eye of a family member and petulantly whines that he “didn’t do anything!” when confronted with the possibility of getting in trouble for it, then years later has the nerve and complete lack of sense to giggle at the person he permanently maimed only hours after his legitimacy was publicly called into question (again) and resulted in a murder. The narrative (perhaps unintentionally) glosses over these moments in favor of portraying him as good, whereas if you read between the lines, you can see that as being an oversimplification. The problem is that because S1 was truncated, secondary characters like Lucerys don’t receive screentime dedicated to portraying anything other than a single personality trait. Unfortunately, because of his role in the text and the way it was adapted for television, there was never a chance that Lucerys would be interesting.

I don't even have anything to add, this is just objectively correct.

[birkholtz]

They should invent a buying things you want that is not so so so stressful

[izzyspussy]

why are they laughing at him as he gets straight up killed??? he doesn't deserve this! he's a sweet kid at heart! he literally just needs one (1) real friend!!

[the-busy-ghost]

Warning- this is a very petty post, but I think I'm entitled to at least one petty, pissed-off reaction every time I finish a classic novel that hit harder than I expected so take this as my quota for the year.

Also spoiler warning for a book that came out over a century ago but still, I didn't know the plot going in so don't want to ruin it for anyone else, if you haven't read it shut your eyes. (Also Local Tumblr User Going Wild Over Book Published a Hundred Years Ago That Everybody Else Already Read should probably be categorised as akey part of indigenous tumblr culture at this point).

Anyway I just finished the War of the Worlds and in between studying I've thinking about Themes and Motifs as you do, and idly looking for further analysis. I then accidentally ran into an article called 'A Quiet Place II Succeeds Where the War of the Worlds Failed' and:

Now I haven't seen any of the Quiet Place films, this is not a rant against them and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But re: the ending of The War of the Worlds, I have to ask, did this guy somehow miss, uh, the entire point of the book or am I just utterly insane?

[aserpent]

btw my lucifer's intentions for tempting eve with the forbidden fruit were two-fold: he did wish to gift humanity knowledge, for he thought living in paradise was not worth the ignorance.. but he's also incredibly petty*, and he wanted to prove a point to The Lord, because he'd already begun waging war with lilith at his side at this point and he was feeling a lil bitchy about it.

[nozomijoestar]

Took me a while to realize but I can see similarities in how Asuka seems to process grief and how Guts from Berserk also processed his grief after the Eclipse. They both get so overwhelmed by the wrong that happened to them (father's hospitalization vs the Eclipse and a lifetime of misery) their reaction isn't to seek comfort in others or help/protect their loved one who needs them after the tragedy, it's to go off and inflict their pain on others to self soothe, as if that'll release the feeling from their minds.

The difference is that Guts was called out for this by Rickert and Godo. He needed to snap out of wanting to prioritize ridding his own pain to remember Casca needed him, and that Casca even in the state she was in was all the good in his life who went through the same experience with him. Guts had to remember he loves Casca more than he wants to self destruct. Like Godo told him he was a sword called fear with cracks in it. He feared sitting with his pain and grief and seeing it on the person he loved after so much violation. He feared vulnerability.

Asuka doesn't do this reevaluatation and has no one to call her out for her self destructive coping canonically. She can't sit with anything bad or face looking at it on a loved one either. That's too bad and helpless of a feeling. She's just as much made of fear (primarily from any helplessness as much as violations of her inner ethics) which fuels her anger, but her one personal attachment to her father who needs her isn't enough to make her want to reevaluate what she does at all. Instead his tragedy is the permission she needs to self destruct and destroy in the process, not like Guts who always told himself everything was for Casca and the fallen Hawks, who always reminded himself of the pain to justify the bloodletting.

Unlike Guts I think she'd be stubborn even accepting to listen to someone pointing her behavior out. Though her anger toward Feng did start out carrying a reminder this vengeance is for Dad even if it kills her in 5, even in 5's branching narratives that excuse falls apart when she continues in the tournament for her own pleasure during her route. The moment vengeance is achieved critically injured Dad is out of her mind. Her behavior during 6 repeats this process, preferring to hurt herself and others rather than sit to process a shitty feeling over her and the world's situation. Like Guts in this state she pushes away anyone and everyone else including any comforts because the anger isn't resolved, the fear isn't resolved, the pain isn't resolved.

They're both used to everyone being against them and having to fight for survival until they found joy in it as a side effect. And because of that independence born from isolation when something like the tragedies that happened takes place they put resolving their pain not on sharing with others but into scorching the earth along with themselves.

I don't say this either to imply they're exactly alike or that they have enough similarities to make a true character comparison because they absolutely don't. There's also some stuff I'm leaving out simply because Guts is a far more complex character in ways where there's nothing from Asuka to compare against (I would say Kazuya is the closest, more fitting Tekken comparison for substituting Guts vs Asuka style notes). I just find it interesting that even across wildly different stories the outline for an angry, self destructive, terrified person who thinks self destruction makes them strong and puts them in control uses a lot of the same foundation. And the contrast in their depths really shows how far you can push the concept depending on what you want or need for the character.