#and has very little screen time

[alibonbonn]

the Rilakkuma jammies set is complete! night night :3 [ˢᵗᶦᶜᵏᶦᵉˢ ˢʰᵒᵖ]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

A lasting impression

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[crowfeathers]

he LOVES sunsets above the water

[relatablepicturesofdoofenshmirtz]

CATU: Complete (3.0)

Hey, everyone! Once more, CATU has been reblogged (along with Seasons 1-4). Instead of starting up the reblog cycle from Season 1 again, I'm going to wait until the new, post-finale seasons of PnF are released and then post those so there won't be a several-year wait time until the new screencaps are on this blog.

[least-carpet]

Hiiii, if it's not too much, can you describe the biggest differences between the live action characters and the novel characters in MDZS? They are a lot, so I will love even the difference between few of them! I haven't seen the live action and I don't know if I will ever, but I am curious, considering all the meta. Anyway, thank you in general, even if you don't answer!

Hello anon! This has been in the inbox forever because there are soooo many ways to answer this! However, let me be transparent that I've watched maybe like 1/10 of CQL. Among other obstacles, I simply do not care that much about Lan Wangji and he's always there (even though Wang Yibo is giving it his all... it's not his fault I'm a hater...). Chewing through a book with Ms. Mxtx's commentary was just more enjoyable to me, and even then, to be honest, I still liked SVSSS better. (I just love Shen Yuan/Shen Qingqiu so much. That dude is wild.)

Still, the live action definitely affected how I understood certain characters (...primarily Nie Huaisang) and made me interested in relationships that I didn't pay any attention to in the novel. (I freely admit that the nieyao brainrot is 100% CQL's fault.) Also I found Wang Zhuocheng's Jiang Cheng very cute and loveable. It definitely contributed to my Jiang Cheng Brain Disease.

LISTEN. HE HAS BIG SAD EYES AND THE MEANEST SNEER AND HE MIGHT BURST INTO TEARS AT ANY TIME. HE IS A BABY. A baby who could kill you with his terrifying lightning whip! But a baby nonetheless, to me.

So if you want someone with a real and knowledgeable opinion on the live action, I'm probably not the right person for that! However, here's one difference that changed a bunch of stuff about the characters that I found compelling in the novel: the second flautist.

CQL adds Su She as a second flautist doing unorthodox cultivation in a couple of different places, including at Qiongqi Path, where he seizes control of Wen Ning and is therefore responsible for Jin Zixuan's death. Removing the responsibility for Jin Zixuan's death from Wei Wuxian creates a bunch of cascading character and relationship implications that I don't love.

Firstly, all of the people who cautioned Wei Wuxian against his unorthodox cultivation are now... wrong. If he never lost control, then actually his assessment that he could maintain control wasn't overconfidence, it was just true, and he was persecuted because the Jin needed a scapegoat and wanted the Yin Tiger Tally, not because his cultivation path actually involved significant risks and drawbacks. (To be fair, the Jins actively exploited those drawbacks, the public perception of his cultivation, and Wei Wuxian's failure to manage his reputation. But it matters whether the risks exist or are just made up.)

Secondly, removing his responsibility for Jin Zixuan's death transforms both Wei Wuxian's character and how we understand his relationships with Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Jin Ling. Because, in the novel, he kills Jin Zixuan under duress but also after a lifetime of conflict with him. Like, he hates the dude, he doesn't think he's worthy of Jiang Yanli, and he's not willing to examine his hatred and resentment even though Jiang Yanli loves Jin Zixuan and wants to marry him, even after she marries him and has a child with him. (I would argue that a lot of the resentment is because of the eventual marriage; by marrying Jiang Yanli, Jin Zixuan becomes legally recognized family to the Jiang siblings, while Wei Wuxian's relationship with them has no social recognition; I think Wei Wuxian is deeply threatened by that but can't articulate it.) It's a huge failure! Like, dude, you loved someone and you killed that person's beloved spouse. That points to a certain degree of repressed jealousy, possessiveness, longing, arrogance, the list goes on... I am so compelled by that conflict, and the adaptation just erases it.

This also affects how we read Jin Ling's relationship with Wei Wuxian. In one scenario, a teenage Jin Ling is (eventually, minus one little stab) ending the cycle of violence by not seeking vengeance for his father's murder. In the other, it was actually someone associated with Jin Ling's paternal family that killed his father, and he's maybe just... coming to terms with that? One of these scenarios is so much richer and more interesting.

How it affects the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian is a little more subtle. It locates the responsibility for a lot of the harm done to the Jiang siblings with the Jin sect, not with Wei Wuxian, removing some of Wei Wuxian's culpability in the devolution of his relationship with Jiang Cheng. If Wei Wuxian isn't guilty of wronging the Jiang family (and instead is also a victim of the Jin sect), then all of Jiang Cheng's rage and betrayal was misdirected. They were both tricked. In some ways, maybe that's easier to patch up after canon? (I wonder if this is why many CQL yunmeng shuangjie reconciliation fics have Jiang Cheng apologize to Wei Wuxian, but not the other way around?) But it's so much less interesting to me!

Finally, it removes Wei Wuxian's tragic flaw! Dude is legitimately a genius but he's got hubris coming out of his ears and it fucks him up big time! This is classic stuff. Please stop flattening my boy!!

[epiphainie]

i genuinely do not care if the time jump between season 7 finale and season 8 premiere is like 6 months or a year or ten years or that bucktommy will have been dating for centuries in 8x04 or whatever. i dont care about in-show time, i care about the time i had them on screen and i will be pissed af if they move in together that early

[airenyah]

ok but you know what's kinda funny??

this past week and then again when i started the episode i was thinking how there hasn't really been much interaction between mawin and tinh? like, we're in episode 8 already and i still don't feel like tinh likes mawin back (in a crush sort of way)?

and the funny thing is that roughly halfway through the episode i was contemplating this and then went "ok but what if. and hear me out. mawin and ton lmaooo". bc they've been interacting quite a bit recently, you know? and i was just mostly thinking that as a joke

AND THEN. IN PART 4. MAWIN AND TON?? HELLO?? MAWIN GETTING STOOD UP BY TINH?? TON RUNNING INTO MAWIN AND HANDING HIM THE FLOWERS???? HELLO?????????

i thought i was joking but. am i onto something here?????????? help????????????

[silverskye13]

Trying to analyze the tropes in my own fics to see if I think they're successful as component pieces and getting so confused I give myself psychic damage send help

[moeblob]

Demyx (my beloved)

[soapbubbles511]

Thinking about the concept of redemption in ofmd. It comes up a lot in regards to Izzy and whether he can/will/should be redeemed. I regularly see this idea that of course he'll be redeemed because that's what kind of show this is and if he doesn't they'd be going against the message of the show.

Does the show actually care about redemption though? Because I don't know that it does exactly.

The central struggle is characters trapped in lives that make them miserable. Trapped by the expectations of society and the people around them and who they think they're supposed to be. And the idea that it's never too late to let that go and live the life that you actually want. That's not the same as redemption. It's not about trying to be a better person exactly but living as the authentic versions of themselves.

And the character has to want that. They have to want to get away from how they've been living. Want to change the direction of their lives. And the narrative has to want that for them.

The other part of it is, who's story is the show telling? Right now it's Stede, Ed and Jim. That's it. They're the main characters. Those are the three that we've seen flashbacks for. We've learned about their families and childhood. Those are the three working through variations of the same central struggle. But it's not positioned as them needing to be redeemed.

Stede had his life planned by his family and society and had very little say. He had an arranged marriage and was expected to produce an heir regardless of what he wanted. Ed initially built the Blackbeard persona to serve him, but now feels trapped by it. And was told from a young age what kinds of things people like him deserve to have. Jim was raised to avenge their family and hunt down the people who killed them. All of them feel trapped by those expectations and are torn between the things pulling them back into those boxes and letting themselves figure out what they really want to be.

The narrative doesn't feel bad about enacting violence on anyone pulling characters back into their boxes. Sword through the eye. Burned alive. Snail Forked. Cannon balled. Kill a couple husbands. It would have fit perfectly well into the show's narrative to have Izzy actually tossed overboard after conspiring to bring the navy down on the Revenge followed by being a terrible captain. Except he hadn't finished his role in Ed's narrative yet.

Everyone else is a supporting character. Like any show as it progresses, we could learn more about some of the characters. More characters could get a central arc, including an Izzy redemption arc. But that's not guaranteed to any of them. Most of them will get some side plots but are primarily serving at least one of the main three's story in some way. And once their narrative purpose has been served, that could be it. Like we'll likely never see Mary again now that Stede's made peace with leaving that part of his life behind. Izzy's arc could end with Ed leaving that part of his past behind, regardless of where Izzy is going next (as long as where he's going next isn't to cause more problems).

[miodiodavinci]

head in hands like "maybe i should have realized this about myself sooner" as i am surrounded by neon flashing signs that Very Clearly Indicate the thing i should have realized about myself sooner

[cuteniaarts]

Part 2 of my set of presents for my dear @katkastrofa’s birthday, combined with a small belated commemoration of LaF’s tenth anniversary :)

I know I’ve said it countless times yesterday, but once again, happy birthday, Kat!! I hope this year brings you many, many good things, everything you deserve and so much more. Thank you for being my friend <3

[cuteniarose]

Personally I find it really funny that based on what the twins said in the Book 2 finale re: having to tell their mom about what happened to Unalaq, it's literally canon that Unalaq's wife a) exists, b) is alive, and c) is just chilling in the Northern Water Tribe

She took one look at all the spirit fuckery her husband was getting up to and went "Well that's none of my business" and honestly I respect that

[toytulini]

me, stupidly and weirdly resistant to listening to audio books vs reading a physical book for no real reason: man i wish there was a way to like, read a book while i crochet like i do with tv shows and movies and podcasts

[fashion-foxy]

I want the managers of Mattel and MGA doll drops and the descendants writers to lower my coffin into the ground so they can all let me down one more time

[bleaksqueak]

Insomnia is letting up off and on, but I'm still super jelly brained from it case in point, I want to continue back with posting WIPs for the aired pages, but I can't remember what page I left off on now lmao (guess I'll have to dig through my blog to check... eesh. at least it's decently organized by tags?) Not a result of goo brain, really, but equally "AUGH" is that I let my screen protector go for too long without replacing it and now it's slick as snot and I don't have a replacement handy to put on it. This isn't a resulting consequence of goo brain but it does mean I'm going to be trying to draw without any traction while I'm already loopy. Good times ahead!