#and very badly do i want to be able to read chinese (＠_＠;)

[jade-len]

so today i tricked my very straight male friend into reading svsss.

okay look, i wasn't planning to at first and it's not like it was completely my fault. he wanted to read it!

i was showing him how badly they fucked up mu qingfang in the donghua by comparing it to the english novel design (he said that mu qingfang went from looking like a soft dilf to a predator registered on the epstein island list). and then, i showed him how different some of the other character designs were like gongyi xiao's ("he looks like he'd be a genshin character" -friend, to eng novel design) and luo binghe's ("lowkey, he kinda gives airbender vibes" -friend, to bunhe eng novel design)

so that was all i was gonna show him, nothing else. but after seeing them, he goes, "these designs actually look hella cool. what's the book called?"

now, do i:

A. tell him the name, eventually revealing that it's a danmei when he looks it up?

B. just straight up tell him that it's a danmei?

C: don't tell him the name just yet, spill the summary, get him interested, and tell him to not search anything up about it because there's heavy spoilers and it will reveal them the moment he types it up on the search bar

i go with C, obviously.

me: so, basically, some guy named shen yuan transmigrates into an incel harem male power fantasy novel where the protagonist, luo binghe, has hundreds of wives. thing is though, the guy pretty much took over the body of binghe's teacher he had when he was a teenager, who turns out to be a really scummy dude. and now he has to be nice to him so that the protagonist doesn't rip off his limbs and put him into a pickle pot in the future to suffer for eternity.

friend: that sounds hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

me: yes it is, and you should read it. it's like. my favorite novel at the moment. but don't search up anything about it because people spoil that shit. i'll let you borrow my novel

friend: nah don't worry, i'll just pirate it

friend: wait. does it have pictures?

me, my plan coming together: yeah, it has pictures. buuut, when you pirate it, it doesn't. trust me dude, i tried and was severely disappointed. plus, the physical copy is so much better

friend: fuck yeah ok thanks

me: hold on though. i'll text you later to see if my friend who's borrowing it rn is done reading it

he's hyped. he's excited. he craves a good book and a good transmigration interpretation. he's especially happy about the fact that it takes place in a chinese setting with cool powers and an actual good main character. "this sounds so good, god i wanna read it so bad."

i tell him that binghe is actually adorable, too. that it's pretty much found family! my friend then asks if shen yuan adopts him and becomes a father figure or something.

and i said "yes". you know, like a liar. (the father figure part probably isn't a lie though)

now i'm gonna give him the novel tomorrow! of course, i'm gonna cover the chapter 2 bunhe sexual awakening scene with washi tape and say that my baby cousin (sorry baby cousin, you would never <\3) scribbled all over that paragraph with her markers, and since i'm a neat book freak, i put washi tape and just wrote the scene! i don't know if that's really all too believable, but he didn't seem to care that much. just a simple "if my baby cousin did that to my book i would punt them into the sun"

i think what'll be more hilarious is the fact that you can't really tell that svsss is a BL. especially not volume 1. there's like, only a few lines indicating, but if you remove the baby binghe sexual awakening scene then you probably won't be able to know (...if you don't really read romance or anything. idk he's kinda dense anyways). so let's hope he gets attached and has a slow descent into the homo before i drop svsss vol 2 on him!

ok anyways i'll update you guys later with a reblog. maybe in about two or three days lol

(also don't worry, we already fuck around with each other on a daily basis like this. he's already tricked me into reading some manga i was unprepared for, and i thought that it'd be funny to mess around with him using svsss this time lol)

[hernakedmuse]

It's Over (An Eddie Munson x Horror!Bimbo Angst Blurb)

---

Synopsis: No warnings except for necromancy, worshipping death goddesses, and zombie boyfriends.

This is after the event of '86, I read that a lot of people left Hawkins, Indiana, lets find out where they went.

(Unedited and very short)

🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇 🦇

Everyone moved.

‘85 was already enough, then ‘86 just took the cake to be perfectly honest.

It began with the well to do families of Loch Nora, like the Harringtons and the Carvers and The Cunninghams, and then everyone else eventually followed.

People didn’t even want to be in the state anymore to be perfectly honest, and somehow a good amount of people ended up moving to the Chicago suburb of Glenview, Illinois.

The Wheelers, The Hendersons, The Sinclairs, so many fled to Glenview.

With it’s picturesque Autumns and Dickensian Winters, this was the place to settle.

After losing a lot of their children, people tend to want to go as far away as they were able.

And when Dustin and Moth brought Eddie back from the dead, Glenview was where Moth brought her Eddie.

She took her revived Eddie with her in his old van (Wayne gave her most of his possessions, it’s definitely what he would have wanted.) , packed her things and ignored her parents' pleas, and drove up to Illinois. She took her savings, the birthday money her grandparents gave her, to rent a four bedroom house in Glenview, with Robin and Steve.

She well and thoroughly felt like Kurt Russell from escape from New York.

When Eddie died, she was either going to respond with suicide or bringing him back from the dead, summoning all her dark forces from Hel, from The Morrigan  using her own blood, his belongings and an exchange.

And who was that sacrifice?

She needed a good one, and she knew what it meant and how severe it was to exchange one person's life for another but she needed Eddie, she needed him so badly.

She found his father, Alan, living in Indianapolis on parole, she lured him in to let him know his son had died, and as he accused his cause being drugs accused her kind, sweet, quirky Eddie of being a low life, she wrapped a chord of Eddie’s guitar around his neck nearly severing his head off, and it was the final ingredient to the recipe.

It wasn’t all roses when Eddie returned from the dead.

He was still learning to be alive again, sort of in a vegetable state. It had Steve and Robin worry about her and fall into depression, but she never gave up, and in between working at a strip club in Chicago, she was trying to get him to remember, she refused to give in to bringing the dead back is a mistake and there are consequences, with Lilith on her side she refused.

One year later, while she was making a Chinese dumpling soup she got from a magazine, she heard a groan like someone was stretching, like someone was waking up from the best nap of their life, and her heart fell in her stomach when she heard the upbeat familiar voice say “Fuck I’m stiff, shit that smells so good, what are we having Moth?”

[slamdunktheories]

Inoue explains his thinking behind Slam Dunk's ending

There are two revealing articles about this with some interesting insights (parts in bold are mine for emphasis). The first is a chat between Inoue and Fujimaki Tadatoshi (creator of Kuroko no Basuke) which was published in Jump back in 2014.

Some excerpts:

Fujimaki: At what point did you decide that the Sannoh match would be the last match in SD? Inoue: When I drew the IH bracket. Fujimaki: So you'd already decided that there wouldn't be any (match) encounters with Morishige and Tsuchiya? Inoue: "There are these types of people at the national level" was the idea I wanted to convey. In real life, we often have such instances too, where we want to face off with someone but we end up not being able to. Fujimaki: At the time I thought Morishige was the "Final Boss". Inoue: Yeah, it may have created a bit too much anticipation for the readers. But without that type of character, it wouldn't feel like a national tournament, would it? It wasn't depicted in the manga but maybe [Morishige] did make a big splash in his own right. Fujimaki: That's true. That part did feel very realistic. Inoue: The other thing is, I really hate the type of storyline where only the main character gets to win, win, win in order to push the story forward. In the Shoyo match and Sannoh match, I did decide beforehand that Shohoku would win. But when I was actually drawing it out, I became so emotionally invested in the opponents and it felt awful depicting their loss. To think that after the Toyotama match, I'd have to still draw that sort of hardearned win/ heartbreaking loss 5 more times - I just couldn't do it. Apologies about Morishige and Tsuchiya! (smile)

More snippets of this article (in Japanese) here.

The other is a chat between Inoue and his mentor Houjou Tsukasa (creator of City Hunter), which was published in 2016 in Grand Jump. 

Excerpts:

Houjou: When you were working on the final arc of SD you came by my manga studio to hang out. Inoue: I did? Houjou: Well, it was less to hang out and more to work on a draft of some chapters. At the time you were deep in the Sannoh match and you were muttering "how should I continue the story after the Sannoh match..." I just said offhandedly, "Well, if they gave it their all in the Sannoh match, it wouldn't be all that bad if they got slaughtered in the next match." Inoue: Ah, I was probably at your studio looking for some affirmation on that point. Houjou: When I read the final chapter in Jump I was so happy. Jump is all about friendship, hard work, victory yet here the home team lost badly in the end. Inoue: I got the sense that manga is an incredible thing as we reached the final chapter of the story - the people who were depicted in the series still continued living their lives, just that it wasn't depicted. In fact, those characters are still living their lives today.

Source article for the above (in Chinese) here

So in short, it looks like Inoue did have a good sense of when he wanted to end the Slam Dunk story but was still wrestling with the idea when it came time to execute it. After all, having the main characters lose was just not a thing. So he ended up at his mentor's manga studio to mull over it/get a second opinion and turns out his mentor had the same train of thought as he did.

It also stacks up with things he'd said in the Switch interview (published 2012). I personally love that Inoue is always looking to reflect reality/the truth in his manga rather than to go the conventional route of dragging out a popular story for the sake of milking it.

His stories are grounded in reality and he's not going to be persuaded to drag them out for the sake of selling more volumes/making more money if the message he wants to convey gets lost. There's integrity in his stories and for me, that's what makes his stories timeless.

[rainbowsky]

Hi, how do you know Jackie Chan is a part of LOCH? I’ve been trying to find as much info on this film as possible and I never came across anything mentioning Jackie Chan. Also this film is already a big budget film, which is also the reason why I feel Tsui Hark chose Xiao Zhan specifically because he’s number one in popularity and with immense popularity he comes with good acting so it was a win-win but although I want this film to be released internationally really badly especially my country, I still fear being disappointed. Would they really invest in an international release? and is there a way if fans could get their messages across to them asking for an international release? because i will honestly cry if xiao zhan’s first movie (during my time as his fan) is released and i as a die hard fan can’t even watch it on big screen!! 

This is in reference to a previous post.

The full cast has not been officially announced yet, but it was all over the media at the time of GG was announced as Guo Jing. You can find articles mentioning it just by Googling. There were several big name actors mentioned in smaller supporting roles, and it actually caused a bit of controversy at the time among netizens (who, of course, always stress out over who can do justice to their favorite literary heroes).

Feng Shaofeng - Genghis Khan

Hui Yinghong - Li Ping

Jackie Chan - Hong Qigong

Official accounts haven't confirmed (or denied) these widespread rumors, but we will likely know a lot more soon. The film is slated to be released for Spring Festival, which is the second weekend in February. No doubt there will be some promotional materials, etc. coming out in the next couple of months.

As for whether it will be released abroad - I honestly don't get why fans are always hand-wringing over whether their films will be released internationally. I find that confusing as heck.

It is safe to assume that pretty much all of their movies will be released to international audiences. It would be odd for them not to appear outside China.

Keep in mind that - alongside non-Chinese speaking international audiences who take an interest in international films - there is a huge population of Chinese people living all over the world. In my region, for example, 20% of the population are Chinese Canadians. There is a demand outside of China, for Chinese films.

Legend of the Condor Heroes is one of the most popular novels in China, and is appreciated all over the world. It's an outstanding book. I urge everyone to read it (or enjoy the audiobook). I can't overstate how good it is.

GG is also very popular, and his international fame is growing. Films stand to make more money the more screens they're seen on. It's simple math.

This film WILL be seen outside of China. Any agonizing over whether it will is a waste of one's mental health. It's going to be a big release. It will be seen far and wide. It's will probably make a lot of money. It's got a good formula, a good director, etc.

And even if it doesn't come to some countries - as with all of their projects - it will eventually end up on streaming services. You will get a chance to see it.

Edit: as I said in the comments of this post, there will always be some countries where there really won't be legal options for viewing. That's just the unfortunate reality of the situation. In those cases, there is no shame in watching a pirated version. I feel that it is better to watch their projects, thereby being able to write a review and promote the project to other people, etc. than to not watch them at all.

As long as we are supporting the film financially if there is any option to do so at all. There have been people who have bought tickets for their films in regions that they are unable to travel to, just to support the film. People can also buy tickets for other fans who cannot otherwise afford to go.

There are also often official merchandise and things like that which can be purchased from anywhere in the world.

You can also contact your favorite local streaming services and request for those projects to be made available to you. The more fans who express an interest in their films, the more likelihood a streaming service will make an effort to obtain rights.

There is no guarantee, of course, but it's worth a try. I also encourage people to be patient, because it can take a while for a movie to make it onto streaming platforms. Just because it is available in some regions and not others doesn't mean it won't eventually make it on to yours.

As long as we are supporting to the best of our ability, that's all that anyone can do.

[eliotquillon]

Drabble req: the first time chameron say "I love you" to each other. Cause you know it was messy and you know they didn't say it at the same time.

obligatory @all-pacas already has a fic about this that is VERY GOOD and you should read (https://archiveofourown.org/works/57257620) but:

“I love you,” Chase blurts out while they’re doing the dishes; he washes, she dries, because when she first started staying at his apartment she was aghast to see water spots on all his dishes and broke her self-imposed rule to never clean up after a man just for her own peace of mind. Cameron freezes, hand gripping a pasta bowl with the edge of a dishtowel, and Chase adds, “You don’t have to say it back.”

It’s early to say it. Too early to say it, Cameron thinks; ever since her husband died, she’s been a big believer in the six month rule, unwilling to allow herself to be caught off-guard again. Words mean things. She knows it’s different, for men, read a psychology case study about how they almost always say it first in heterosexual relationships, but it doesn't change the fact that this is still too early. They've barely been together for two months, if you don't count their bout of casual sex beforehand. Cameron has a sinking feeling that Chase probably does count it. Which would make it closer to three months, but that's still—

"It was just dinner,” she jokes, trying to deflect. She’s been trying to ease herself into letting him into her life; he doesn’t have a drawer at her apartment yet, but they go to her favourite Chinese place often enough that the staff have started to recognise him, ask how that nice British boy is doing on the rare occasion that she still goes there by herself. She never corrects them. It feels more intimate than just sharing space; if they break up, she’ll probably never be able to go back to that Chinese place again. Or she will, out of spite, but it won’t be the same. “Though their egg rolls are pretty good.”

“You don’t have to say it back,” Chase repeats, flushing pink—she tells herself it’s just steam rising up from the sink full of dirty dishes and hot water—“but don’t make a joke of it, Allison.”

Cameron swallows. “I don’t know what to say,” she admits, which feels worse than the joke. Admitting she doesn’t know what to say is tantamount to admitting that she hasn’t considered loving him yet, that she’s nowhere near ready to say it back; if she’d seen it coming, she would’ve had an answer prepared. Something nice, confident but not glib—thank you, maybe, or I really like you, too. She doesn’t like this off-kilter, unmoored feeling. Maybe it would be easier, if they were at her apartment and if she could stare at the kitchen wall to collect her thoughts without seeing Chase everywhere, but they aren’t. It isn’t.

“That’s alright,” Chase says kindly. She forgets, occasionally, that he is capable of graciousness. It’s still strange, sometimes, interacting with him outside of the gilded cage of the conference room. They drive to work together, and a part of her is always a little bit surprised that they go their own separate ways; that this isn’t some elaborate charade, and that one day they’re not both going to walk up to House and go we really had you going, huh? Not because things are going badly. If anything, it’s because they’re going well. If she pretends that she’s pretending, then maybe things won’t hurt so much if they end. “I can take over, if you want.”

He means the dishes. Cameron smiles, relieved. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?” she says. “I’ll have a better answer next time.”

It doesn’t mean she’ll be ready to say it back then. But it’s a promise, sort of. Eventually. Eventually, Cameron thinks, and she sets the pasta bowl out on the rack to dry.

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 4 Thoughts

Chapter Four for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group! There will be a bit of a rant in this, especially about the first official title Sun Wukong gets.

Anyway we got Horsegirl Wukong in this one! Yippie!

Plus I would like everyone to see the horses from the 1964 Havoc in Heaven movie. Look at them! They are so pretty with their cloud manes and so cute when they frolic about and interact with Sun Wukong!

He puts so much effort into caring for the horses! And is really nice to the other stable workers as well, I don’t think he really cares much about hierarchy outside of actual work perhaps.

However I will forever be salty towards Heaven for messing up so badly in this. They were halfway there as well with giving him the perfect job, something he liked to do and did very well! But they didn’t give him a special title to reflect/acknowledged his actual power.

Nor did they explain how starting of low and ascending through the ranks works, which might have been able to prevent the outrage as well. They know that they can just explain things to Sun Wukong, the Gold Star literally did so at the Gate. And then the Jade Emperor even acknowledged that the Monkey King didn’t know how things worked yet!

Honestly at that point the only reason has to be that they wanted to mock him. And given the first official title he receives… not only is it conceived as an insult, but as if that wasn’t enough already the big reason why it is so is a practice that I would definitely deem animal abuse.

Hence why I will never call him that or even spell out the title.

Now factor in that Sun Wukong is a major family guy and it gets even worse with the history behind the title essentially being his kin getting enslaved and mistreated. I don’t think he actually knows this though. I’m just saying the Havoc in Heaven could have happened early.

And for what reason did they do that? He was very nice to the Gold Star inviting him to a banquet right away and at court once he did find out that he should pay respect he did bow.

Later this gets contrasted with the Monkey King appointing the one-horned Demon Kings proper positions. He is arguably displaying how he does a better job being a ruler than the Jade Emperor in this case.

Something to lighten the mood again after this lengthy rant, Sun Wukong sharing the wine after he’s officially given the title of Great Sage Equalling Heaven! He’s such a sweet guy! When he’s treated well.

With how often they mention everyone not daring to get in his way, yet he is still said to “fight his way out” I don’t think he is actually doing much more than waving his weapon around in threat if anything. It definitely can’t be actual fighting since nobody dares to engage in combat with him to begin with.

The German translation is coming in with some interesting trivia once again! The red and yellow robe as it is called in the Anthony C. Yu translation that Sun Wukong gets from the one-horned Demon Kings is actually more of an ochre yellow robe [褐黄袍 hèhuáng páo] or the colour of an Ancient Chinese emperor’s robe! This is also confirmed in the Audio Drama.

[doitinanotherlanguage]

2024 Mid-Year Language Learning Recap

中文 / Mandarin Chinese

🎉 Goals reached so far: I got back to studying Chinese! I reviewed New Practical Chinese Reader 1 and 2. Now, I'm starting on the third book in the series. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: My primary goal is to reach A2(/B1) level in Chinese (~HSK3). To do that, I'm planning to finish New Practical Chinese Reader 3, and start on New Practical Chinese Reader 4 (hopefully, I'll be able to complete that one entirely too this year).

Español / Spanish

🎉 Goals reached so far: I did a lot of revision for Spanish in 2023, so for the first half of this year I've basically just been chilling when it comes to Spanish, not doing much active studying (just watching youtube and movies). 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Continue to keep up my Spanish level (~B1) with Spanish readers (Better Reading Spanish and Read & Think Spanish).

Français / French

🎉 Goals reached so far: I basically spent the entire spring in revising my French, because I had a short trip to Paris (!!!) in May. I revised all my study materials from A1 to A2/B1 in preparation. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Right now, I feel like I'm somewhere around the A2 level maybe - my speaking is only so-so, but my reading is very good (probably my English and Spanish help a lot!). For the rest of the year, I just want to concentrate on upkeep because the spring revision was quite intense. So, I'm predicting a lot of French movies and youtube in my near future lol.

ภาษาไทย / Thai

🎉 Goals reached so far: I just started learning Thai in late spring this year! So far, I've learned to read and write, and I'm now starting on the basics. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Attain the A1 level by completing Easy Thai. Although, honestly, I'm learning Thai just for fun right now, so I'm mostly studying it this year when/if I have the time.

한국어 / Korean

🎉 Goals reached so far: I revised my A1(/A2) materials. I haven't really touched Korean in a while, so I'm really looking forward to getting back to it! 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: I want to finally finish Continuing Korean so badly! I've been picking it up and putting it down for several years now, and I really need to just stick with it for once and just get it done. So, if I have the time this year, that's my goal for Korean.

English

🎉 Goals reached so far: I haven't really been actively studying English for years now, so I didn't have any goals for English this year. Although, I do now have a job where I get to use English from time to time and that's fun. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: Basically, just keep getting better at using English at my job (e.g. there's a lot of specific vocab related to the field, and sometimes calls with English-speaking clients are a bit of a mess because neither of us knows the right words in English lmao). I also really want to get better at "Simple English/Plain English". Because a lot of my clients are immigrants and our only common language is English (which is a second language to both of us), I'd like to be able to speak more clearly and understandably.

Svenska / Swedish

🎉 Goals reached so far: I did a bit of Swedish revision in the beginning of this year (for job purposes) but I'm really lacking in motivation for Swedish... I need to use Swedish a little bit in my job so I'm trying to let that push me a bit to try to do at least something related to Swedish sometimes, but it really is hard when I just don't feel like it at all. 🎯 Further goals for the rest of the year: I guess my biggest goal is to find motivation for learning Swedish. It's never been a language I've been interested to learn for it's own sake (it was an obligatory subject at school), but it's useful for job prospects so... I'd really like to be able to use it more fluently because I've learnt it for so many years. I just need to get myself more hyped to be learning Swedish.

[7ndipity]

Shipping game! Hope I’m not too late. :D

Hello! Congratulations on 2k and Happy New Year! I read your stuff over and over again, and it honestly got me through the final difficult (for me) stretch of 2023. I suspect you and your work will be helping me through 2024 as well. :)

I’m a plus-sized curvy girl, but no matter how big I get, I’m still hourglass-shaped, and losing weight doesn’t affect my chest size as much.

I love anime, (Korean, Chinese, or Japanese) dramas, role-playing video games, reading, music, languages, sneakers, and shopping.

I have two boxes in my room that are just full of merch, and I never go out without at least one BT21 bag charm on each bag I’m using.

I studied ballet for a little over 12 years, but I think I sing better than I dance. I stopped doing both when I went to med school, but now that I’m working in my clinic, I’ve been able to get back to these loves a bit. :)

I’m a Leo, but living in a perpetual state of feeling not quite good enough.

I’m the youngest in my family, so being submissive is my default, but can go all dominant if I want something badly enough. ;)

I love being looked after, and looking after someone else as well.

Thank you so much!

Omg, as soon as I started reading your description, my brain just went 'JiminJiminJimin!'😂, so I'll say Jimin, and to a lesser extent Tae!

You and Jimin have a lot of similar interests, and kinda like what I said abt Hobi in a earlier request, having a partner that has a similar love for dance(and music), especially a style that matches or blends with his so well, would be extremely appealing to him! I feel like the two of you would just mesh really well. He's also a very caring person and likes taking care of his loved ones, so y'all match well on looking out for each other(Also Libras and Leos are really great matches for each other!)

For Tae, again there are several similar interests and traits, but I just feel like he would be kinda smitten with you! Like he would find you so sweet and soft and cuddly, and he would be so fascinated by your mix of skills and knowledge!

Hope this was alright!💜

[bonefall]

Hi! I just saw the saltlick post! While the really common use of saltlicks is for livestock, they are also placed in forest areas that hunters have access to in order to draw deer to that area. It’s possible that the farmer located near Windclan could have once owned the forest Thunderclan lives on and used it for hunting, putting up saltlicks in the area, before later selling that plot to the treecut place in TNP. I could imagine this still being a salt source even after they move to the lake territories. A small patrol could be sent out with a container of some sort to just scratch off whatever amount they would need for brine

Not sure if there are and UK hunting laws that butt heads with this idea but I’m a strong supporter of your “cats should cook” idea lol

It's not very likely. The "Deer Stalking" (they don't call it hunting for some reason? england wyd) laws that would conflict with hunting in the area is that it's a popular hiking trail; hunting there would be a massive hazard to people walking their dogs as well as the sawmill workers who work by tallpines.

That aside I went and read The Deer Act of 1991 and I couldn't get any conclusive answers on if salt baiting was banned or not, so it's probably allowed, but when I dove a little deeper into hunting culture in the UK I wasn't able to find anything on baiting at all.

I did find, though, that hunters in the UK like to hunt by moorland, and the Deer Act of 1991 doesn't apply to problem deer that are eating crops provided you can produce evidence that the species of deer you're shooting has been what's causing problems... but in that case, salt baiting might be illegal because then you'd be attracting them to the property.

The law is also a lot stricter on the native deer species, reds and roes, than the invasive Chinese Water Deer and muntjac.

So anyway the most likely deer hunting is done on the border of WindClan and ThunderClan, and salt baits are unlikely... and that's depending on whose permission the hunters need to not be arrested for poaching; it's likely the White Hart Wood is owned by the Chelford Council or the operators of the Chelford Mill. The Windover Moor is probably owned by the owners of the Windover Farm.

I have never gone "deer stalking" in England so I'm not sure what that mess looks like legally LMAO

Stealing Salt From Livestock

[ID: Two sheep licking a red salt block]

Some people suggested this too, but the problem is that the Forest Clan cats try not to steal when possible. When they do, they try to lift plants. Wheat, crops, catmint from gardens, stuff that won't be missed. ShadowClan also scavenges from the Carrionplace, where twolegs don't care if something goes missing.

WindClan actually tries to "pay farmers back" when they have to swipe wheat for tunnelbuns in hard years, by catching and leaving some rats and crows.

If SkyClan was at the Forest territories they'd be ALL over this. They'd hook a rope through that block, tie to to the biggest warrior they have, and tell Thickbutt to HAUL ASS before the farmer saw them. Then they'd smash the block into fine, fine grain.

Salt Access: BloodClan Trade Expansion

But as-is, the only salt the Forest Clans can access on their own is the natural salt in the roots of certain plants, and they could lick the Thunderpath in winter if they really wanted.

You know who does have salt though? BloodClan. LOTS of it. Road salt in Winter, discarded salt shakers, unguarded restaurants full of bags of salt... They wouldn't even understand why the Forest Clans want it so badly and be shocked when they learned that salt isn't just naturally occurring.

SO, there could be a brief period after TPB where the Clans trade with BloodClan, suddenly have easy access to salt, and find out what it's like to NOT have fleas for the first time in their lives. They'd think it must be why stars are white, they've never seen anything that could smite bugs the way salt does.

[saltqueer]

Ask Game Answers

Last song: The Dogs of Rotterdam by The Barons of Tang

Colour: yeah agreed, deep rich greens are great

Media: Yeah fatt is great, go read the manga for dungeon meshi it's so damn good. Go watch Scavenger's Reign. Read The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison. These are more recs than what I'm currently enjoying ah well.

Flavour: Sweet

I've forgotten the rest so have new questions.

What kind of animal are you picking/stuck with as a familiar if you became a witch?

Do you have a garden? How does it grow?

If you got shrunk down teeny tiny and became a teeny tiny cowboy, what bug are your riding off into the teeny tiny sunset?

Do you have any good hats?

What can you do that most people cant?

witch familiar: i don't have a pet right now, i think i would go for the classic cat. i like big fluffy grey ones

garden: yes! there are two vegetable garden plots here. the growing environment is very different from where i grew up, so there's still a lot of learning to do.

there's a couple peach trees that do well, im excited to make pickled green peaches in a couple months! i think this year they'll all be dill or spicy dill. they went really fast, and the other batch i made still has barely gotten touched. there's also a goji berry bush that's very productive. last year i had to stop picking bc i was getting overwhelmed with processing them. we just used the last of them this week, in a ham and bean soup, so I'll be a little more diligent about picking them next year. there's also a couple apple trees, but they do super poorly. i think they have some kind of blight? but idk. they are really small and never put out many leaves. and like two apples max. there's also a pear tree, last year the pears it made were all tiny? OH and chestnut trees. usually the squirrels get to them all first, but last year might've been a mast year, if chinese chestnuts do that?? we had a ton of extras. unfortunately we didn't eat them fast enough, and they're gross and dry now. if it happens again ill make sure we give more of them away

we usually grow lots of tomatoes and basil that do super well. there's also peas, but the rabbits get to them despite our best efforts, so they don't produce a whole lot. we're trying to figure out onions, but i think the soil needs to be softer before they'll be able to do well. its very clay-y. and my dad keeps planting garlic in the spring, even though you're supposed to plant it in the fall. so it never makes it. and my mom keeps planting lettuce, even though it never gets more than a couple leaves and they're always bitter. i think its a waste of time and spacd, especially since she doesn't ever change anything about how she grows it?? just goes oh well that was disappointing. guess I'll do the same thing next year. and it's not like people can't grow lettuce here for some reason, the community farm that food not bombs works with grown BEAUTIFUL heads of lettuce. im also biased here btwn my mom and my dad and their plants they won't change husbandry for bc i like garlic and think it's worth it to make a simple change, but i don't think it's possible to make lettuce taste good. we also usually grow carrots, last year the first planting got too hot and turned bitter, but the second round of them were totally sweet and delicious!! last year we used the second plot to grow buckwheat and it did really badly, we barely got back as many groats as we planted. but it was so fun to watch it grow. there's also a small herb mound that has sage and thyme growing on it. they do well, but my mom never uses them ????? she says its too much bother to leave the kitchen and go get them. i want her to plant rosemary there too, but i haven't managed to get it to happen. we also have an aloe that we keep indoors. i want it to get really big so the leaves are worth it to process for food, but my mom wants it to stay tiiiny. and that's plants!

tiny cowboy: i had to think really hard about this one. probably some sort of weevil? they look cool as hell

hats: OH BOY DO I. i have three hats that are very cool cause i made them! i also have hats that i made but aren't cool, so im not just being egotistical fbfjsjsnan

first up, this stocking cap!

its made of cheap polyester yarn, but the colors are super fun. its also a little too big bc i didn't bother with a gauge swatch, but its pretty much fine

second up, this balaclava!

its made of wool yarn that i handspun with my drop spindles. i picked the colors after sangfielle. and i knitted it, obviously. i wear it to work every day, since i commute on my bike and work outside. i don't usually lay it out like this, so its cool to see how it's stretched out and shaped itself with age (look up #sangfiyarn if you want to see what it looked like originally!)

and, finally, this hat!!

i wore it last night but i can't find it now :/ it'll reappear soon tho for sure. not only is it totally gorgeous, i had to reverse engineer the pattern from peoples process pics on ravelry!! the designer is totally uncontactable. i spent like two months trying to get in touch with her so i could give her $6 for it but nothing came of it. also, the technique this uses creates a wonderful double thick layer of fabric, so its super warm. the yarn is hand dyed, i got it off etsy from a lady who lives in colorado and dyes yarn inspired by colors in nature around her. the green really does feel like a pine forest

special abilities: math. hand spinning yarn. reverse engineer a complicated crochet pattern from pictures. look out my window and see the woods. embroidery? i can do the back of your throat french R. i ride a bike 16 miles every day (e-bike, im not that good at biking anymore). i can truthfully say i've lived in 6 us states. i know how to make twine out of stinging nettle fiber, but im not very good at it. i can say i rode my bike 100 miles in a day twice as a kid, and 50 miles in a day a few times. ive also gone over 50mph on a bike. i used to own a bike frame that was one of 11 or so in the world, but i lost it when i was homeless. does writing in cursive count as something most people can't do nowadays? i know how to dye yarn with goldenrod. i can weave, a little bit sort of. i understand how to construct a fire for optimal cooking something on a stick. i know that the best fire cooking on a stick happens over coals, not over flames (ive spent so much time carefully building bonfires with flames areas and coals areas and then watching people cook hot dogs and marshmallows over the flames 😭😭😭 and then they're like ugh the outside of my hotdog is burnt and the inside is still cold. bro the coals are RIGHT THERE)

[mamawasatesttube]

ao3: "we're an anti-racist organization!"

also ao3:

It is also important that Warnings are well-understood and enforceable by PAC volunteers. The vast majority of all reports about mandatory Warnings must be easy for PAC to rule upon. A PAC volunteer must be able to look at the content in a work and understand without further research whether or not a Warning applies. This matters for both practicality and consistency: 1. If volunteers need to routinely perform external research in order to evaluate tickets, then this will greatly increase the time it takes to resolve reports, which will badly impact our already-overloaded ticketing system 2. If volunteers are not readily familiar with how warnings should be applied, then rulings will be inconsistent from work to work, which is unfair to users

"well our moderator staff are all volunteers who don't necessarily all agree on what racism is" (a fair point) "and therefore we cannot even Try to come up with any sort of standard or attempt to educate our staff to be on the same page" (????)

is there a magical very clearly demarcated standard for what counts as graphic violence somewhere? do your volunteers all comprehend the exact same definition of graphic vs nongraphic violence? or is it just different when it's racism?

An email from PAC about missing such a warning on work is also more likely to be received badly: a central difference between a "Racism" (or "Hate Speech") warning and the warnings we already have, such as "Major Character Death", is that many people read the former as describing a moral failing of the work or its creator, not just a depiction of something within the work. A user who believes that AO3 is telling them they're racist is a user who is more likely to delete their work as a direct result of contact from PAC.

"it might hurt people's feelings if we try to enforce warnings for racism and we don't want to hurt people's feelings if they were being racist on accident!" okay. right. lmao

but i think the most egregious thing in this article might just be this part:

Disproportionate targeting of POC on AO3 by other users is not a hypothetical. For example, in 2019, AO3 was undergoing a migration of primarily Chinese users after a new wave of fandom censorship on Lofter and Weibo (popular Chinese websites). At the time the "Language" field on AO3 fanworks defaulted to English, and it was often overlooked by non-English creators new to AO3. This caused many Chinese works to be posted labeled as "English", and often with the wrong fandom. A portion of AO3's English-speaking userbase began deliberately hunting these works down en-masse. Some left polite comments on the works to request changes to the language and fandom. Other English-speaking users left comments that were belligerent in tone or outright harassment. Some of the people enacting this targeting scheme also proceeded to use automated methods to overwhelm PAC with "incorrect language" and "incorrect fandom" tickets. Altogether, the number of "incorrect language tag" reports increased by 1530% compared to the prior year. PAC1 ended up contacting thousands of Chinese users to ask them to fix their tags. As a direct result of this targeted reporting campaign, a disproportionate number of Chinese creators deleted their works from AO3. This is a racially biased outcome that we do not want to see repeated.

this is so fucking bullshit i am honestly a little speechless. this was not just users using a moderation tool in order to be racist. this was racist site design. why does your statement not at all include that it was directly YOUR FAULT for having the form default to english to begin with??? where is the sense of responsibility??? to act like this is entirely on users and not at all on the otw for including that feature in ao3's posting form to begin with is INSANE levels of clown behavior. they even changed the default on the form - works no longer default to english but instead give you a dialog box sayinig you need to select a language. so they did realize that was wrong of them! and yet in their statement on why they intend to do nothing about racism they admit zero culpability for this event??? hm!!!

like. i'm not an archivist. i'm a layperson. i don't know the exact solution to racism on ao3. but i do know that a) just because ao3 is analogous to a library doesn't mean they cannot moderate at all - most libraries aren't necessarily going to throw out a copy of "birth of a nation", but they are going to shelve it among similar media in a section specific to racism of the early 1900s - and also b) there are definitely poc in the archival sciences that they could hire as consultants to try and sort through some of the many, many issues listed here.

instead they've just come up with a laundry list of excuses as to why they are not going to do anything about the issue of racism on ao3. they state that essentially, if you don't want to see racist works, you're entirely on your own:

We believe that the harassment policy, optional tags, filters, muting, and bookmark features do a better job at helping users avoid fanworks containing content they don't want to encounter. Users who create fanworks about sensitive topics are encouraged to tag appropriately, using Additional Tags if necessary. Other users can use filters, mute creators, or mute individual works that contain content that they find disturbing. Users who wish to screen or recommend works for other users are encouraged to use bookmarks to compile recommendation lists for works that they believe handle a topic well.

and it took them four years to come up with that. okay.

ao3 really wrote almost 5k words to say "umm racism is complicated and hard to deal with so we won't be doing any of that 🥺👉👈" huh

[britneyshakespeare]

I am the most popular and beautiful woman on Duolingo

[fozmeadows]

race & culture in fandom

For the past decade, English language fanwriting culture post the days of LiveJournal and Strikethrough has been hugely shaped by a handful of megafandoms that exploded across AO3 and tumblr – I’m talking Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr Who, the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, BBC Sherlock – which have all been overwhelmingly white. I don’t mean in terms of the fans themselves, although whiteness also figures prominently in said fandoms: I mean that the source materials themselves feature very few POC, and the ones who are there tended to be done dirty by the creators.

Periodically, this has led POC in fandom to point out, extremely reasonably, that even where non-white characters do get central roles in various media properties, they’re often overlooked by fandom at large, such that the popular focus stays primarily on the white characters. Sometimes this happened (it was argued) because the POC characters were secondary to begin with and as such attracted less fan devotion (although this has never stopped fandoms from picking a random white gremlin from the background cast and elevating them to the status of Fave); at other times, however, there has been a clear trend of sidelining POC leads in favour of white alternatives (as per Finn, Poe and Rose Tico being edged out in Star Wars shipping by Hux, Kylo and Rey). I mention this, not to demonize individuals whose preferred ships happen to involve white characters, but to point out the collective impact these trends can have on POC in fandom spaces: it’s not bad to ship what you ship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no utility in analysing what’s popular and why through a racial lens.

All this being so, it feels increasingly salient that fanwriting culture as exists right now developed under the influence and in the shadow of these white-dominated fandoms – specifically, the taboo against criticizing or critiquing fics for any reason. Certainly, there’s a hell of a lot of value to Don’t Like, Don’t Read as a general policy, especially when it comes to the darker, kinkier side of ficwriting, and whether the context is professional or recreational, offering someone direct, unsolicited feedback on their writing style is a dick move. But on the flipside, the anti-criticism culture in fanwriting has consistently worked against fans of colour who speak out about racist tropes, fan ignorance and hurtful portrayals of living cultures. Voicing anything negative about works created for free is seen as violating a core rule of ficwriting culture – but as that culture has been foundationally shaped by white fandoms, white characters and, overwhelmingly, white ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, we ought to consider that all critical contexts are not created equal.

Right now, the rise of C-drama (and K-drama, and J-drama) fandoms is seeing a surge of white creators – myself included – writing fics for fandoms in which no white people exist, and where the cultural context which informs the canon is different to western norms. Which isn’t to say that no popular fandoms focused on POC have existed before now – K-pop RPF and anime fandoms, for example, have been big for a while. But with the success of The Untamed, more western fans are investing in stories whose plots, references, characterization and settings are so fundamentally rooted in real Chinese history and living Chinese culture that it’s not really possible to write around it. And yet, inevitably, too many in fandom are trying to do just that, treating respect for Chinese culture or an attempt to understand it as optional extras – because surely, fandom shouldn’t feel like work. If you’re writing something for free, on your own time, for your own pleasure, why should anyone else get to demand that you research the subject matter first?

Because it matters, is the short answer. Because race and culture are not made-up things like lightsabers and werewolves that you can alter, mock or misunderstand without the risk of hurting or marginalizing actual real people – and because, quite frankly, we already know that fandom is capable of drawing lines in the sand where it chooses. When Brony culture first reared its head (hah), the online fandom for My Little Pony – which, like the other fandoms we’re discussing here, is overwhelmingly female – was initially welcoming. It felt like progress, that so many straight men could identify with such a feminine show; a potential sign that maybe, we were finally leaving the era of mainstream hypermasculine fandom bullshit behind, at least in this one arena. And then, in pretty much the blink of an eye, things got overwhelmingly bad. Artists drawing hardcorn porn didn’t tag their works as adult, leading to those images flooding the public search results for a children’s show. Women were edged out of their own spaces. Bronies got aggressive, posting harsh, ugly criticism of artists whose gijinka interpretations of the Mane Six as humans were deemed insufficiently fuckable.

The resulting fandom conflict was deeply unpleasant, but in the end, the verdict was laid down loud and clear: if you cannot comport yourself like a decent fucking person – if your base mode of engagement within a fandom is to coopt it from the original audience and declare it newly cool only because you’re into it now; if you do not, at the very least, attempt to understand and respect the original context so as to engage appropriately (in this case, by acknowledging that the media you’re consuming was foundational to many women who were there before you and is still consumed by minors, and tagging your goddamn porn) – then the rest of fandom will treat you like a social biohazard, and rightly so.

Here’s the thing, fellow white people: when it comes to C-drama fandoms and other non-white, non-western properties? We are the Bronies.

Not, I hasten to add, in terms of toxic fuckery – though if we don’t get our collective shit together, I’m not taking that darkest timeline off the table. What I mean is that, by virtue of the whiteminding which, both consciously and unconsciously, has shaped current fan culture, particularly in terms of ficwriting conventions, we’re collectively acting as though we’re the primary audience for narratives that weren’t actually made with us in mind, being hostile dicks to Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans when they take the time to point out what we’re getting wrong. We’re bristling because we’ve conceived of ficwriting as a place wherein No Criticism Occurs without questioning how this culture, while valuable in some respects, also serves to uphold, excuse and perpetuate microaggresions and other forms of racism, lashing out or falling back on passive aggression when POC, quite understandably, talk about how they’re sick and tired of our bullshit.

An analogy: one of the most helpful and important tags on AO3 is the one for homophobia, not just because it allows readers to brace for or opt out of reading content they might find distressing, but because it lets the reader know that the writer knows what homophobia is, and is employing it deliberately. When this concept is tagged, I – like many others – often feel more able to read about it than I do when it crops up in untagged works of commercial fiction, film or TV, because I don’t have to worry that the author thinks what they’re depicting is okay. I can say definitively, “yes, the author knows this is messed up, but has elected to tell a messed up story, a fact that will be obvious to anyone who reads this,” instead of worrying that someone will see a fucked up story blind and think “oh, I guess that’s fine.” The contextual framing matters, is the point – which is why it’s so jarring and unpleasant on those rare occasions when I do stumble on a fic whose author has legitimately mistaken homophobic microaggressions for cute banter. This is why, in a ficwriting culture that otherwise aggressively dislikes criticism, the request to tag for a certain thing – while still sometimes fraught – is generally permitted: it helps everyone to have a good time and to curate their fan experience appropriately.

But when white and/or western fans fail to educate ourselves about race, culture and the history of other countries and proceed to deploy that ignorance in our writing, we’re not tagging for racism as a thing we’ve explored deliberately; we’re just being ignorant at best and hateful at worst, which means fans of colour don’t know to avoid or brace for the content of those works until they get hit in the face with microaggresions and/or outright racism. Instead, the burden is placed on them to navigate a minefield not of their creation: which fans can be trusted to write respectfully? Who, if they make an error, will listen and apologise if the error is explained? Who, if lived experience, personal translations or cultural insights are shared, can be counted on to acknowledge those contributions rather than taking sole credit? Too often, fans of colour are being made to feel like guests in their own house, while white fans act like a tone-policing HOA.

Point being: fandom and ficwriting cultures as they currently exist badly need to confront the implicit acceptance of racism and cultural bias that underlies a lot of community rules about engagement and criticism, and that needs to start with white and western fans. We don’t want to be the new Bronies, guys. We need to do better.  

[bigilante]

〖 her best friend ❣ zendaya 〗

「 zendaya x gender-neutral!reader 」 ┅ 「 2.7k words 」

: a.n : back at it again with the unsolicited fics :)) i hope you guys like it 👉🏼👈🏼

⤷ : prompt : separated forcefully or for reasons you can’t control, run into each other again years later on accident.

“Do you think they’ll ever stop making headlines calling us ‘very good friends’?” You halfheartedly laughed at yet another Instagram post by some magazine that showed you and Zendaya out and about LA. “Like, the minute you hang out with any guy they’re like, ‘Oh! Date alert!’ But I’m just your ‘best friend’” You were ranting now, unable to hide the annoyance you felt.

“Why does it matter what they say?” Zendaya quizzed, her hands playing with the waist string of your sweats. She looked up at you from her slumped down position on the sofa, her faint frown making you sigh.

“Because... don’t you feel is a bit homophobic?” You wondered, placing your phone face down on top of your stomach to give her your full attention. The brunette just shrugged nonchalantly and you let out another sigh picking your phone again to close the app, “I’m gonna head out.” It was best to just leave then, you didn’t want to get in a stupid argument with her not before you were set to leave for New York the very next morning. You began to incorporate but Zendaya’s hands gripped your thighs keeping them draped over hers.

“Y/n, come on.” She said, gorgeous hazel eyes pleading at you. What exactly? You had no idea but for a second, you were about to give in however a loud ding coming from your phone stopped you. Your eyes scanned the screen and the reminder that had popped up read ‘PACK ! 4 ! N Y C !’, you sent her an apologetic glance before getting off the sofa, gathering your stuff and petting Noon goodbye.

Zendaya had stood up from the sofa too, watching your every move intently, probably trying to figure out if you were upset with her. The truth was, you didn’t know if you were upset with her or with the media, it was possible that both had a little part in your now sour mood. “See you next week, best friend. Love you.” You joked before swinging the front door open and leaving. The week was going to feel like a month, you knew, but the hope that making that simple joke followed by the declaration would ease things up was strong.

But what did hopefulness ever bring if not disappointment and heartache?

Seeing medium-quality paparazzi pictures of your girlfriend as soon as you landed from a five-hour flight wasn’t exactly the way you wanted to be welcomed to New York. You sat quietly in the back of an Uber trying not to cry as your eyes stared at the images on your phone. A series of pictures of Zendaya and Tom leaving her house, —they must had been taken that morning while you were on your way to the airport— the further you scrolled down the Twitter trends the more you felt like throwing up. Them in his car. Tom’s hand reaching for Zendaya’s jaw. Both leaning in. Kissing. Laughing.

It felt like a punch to the face, it was the worst feeling you had ever endured and the people that caused it were the last you would’ve thought could ever dare to hurt you. Your trembling hands fumbled with the settings on your account, privating it and blocking her and Tom, doing the same with Instagram followed by their numbers on your phone. It felt like doing a cleansing, the pressure in your chest easing only minimally when you locked your phone and looked out into the running city. You wanted to scream and cry, break stuff, throw your phone away and not show to work, you just wanted to go hide in your Airbnb for the rest of the week and pretend you and Zendaya never happened.

The reality was that you two had happened and it was far too hard to pretend it didn’t, your heart ached both physically and metaphorically and you hated every second of it. For that week you spent in New York no one shut up about the photos, every person you worked with had that hot, brand new ‘goss’ about the pair that had hurt you so badly.

You sat in the quiet living room of the apartment you had been living in whilst in the big city, laptop sitting in front of you as you cancelled your flight back to LA, changing the tab to the Airbnb’s one to pay for a few more days. You had been holding yourself together the whole time you were there, work keeping you busy and sleeping pills doing their magic at the end of the day but it could only go so far. Glassy, stinging eyes stared blankly at the empty inbox of your email, the cursed images projecting over the blank space and you just weren’t strong enough anymore, you couldn’t, so you cried and choked and screamed until your throat and eyes were sore; until your whole body was drained of every bit of energy.

Little by little you were sweeping your life clean of her, clearing out your phone’s camera roll, changing your number. Deleting social media was a big no for your job so filtering everything and anything that had to do with them was the only option, that and spending little to no time online. You had stopped to think one night of the what-ifs of the situation, you were aware that Zendaya’s publicist wasn’t so happy about you and her dating publically and Tom’s was obsessed with boosting the Spider-man movies at all cost, still, giving you a heads up about it would had been the right thing to do.

For a year and a half, you made yourself busy, going back and forth wasn’t something you enjoyed but it worked to avoid unwanted visits and accidental encounters. Enough time had passed, you thought as you stopped booking in so many clients across the country and settled back in your LA home. “You know what? I could go for a thick, sugary milkshake, right now.” Naomi told you as you put down your half-empty box of fried noodles on the coffee table.

“Are you serious?” You asked incredulous receiving an enthusiastic nod from your friend. “Naomi, we just had Chinese and you wanna wash it down with a milkshake?” She rolled her eyes at you when you pointed it out.

“Fine, what about Bubble U? Bubble tea is Chinese isn’t it?” She offered, her question prompting you to send her an unamused glare. “Yep, Bubble U it is, then!” Naomi jumped up, going straight to the door. Reluctantly you got up from the floor, groaning all the way to the door where you got ready to go out, “Come on! It’ll be fun!” She chirped while she pulled you out of the house. You hated to admit it but you had completely modified your life after the heartbreak, once you settled back home you barely left it, you didn’t attend parties unless it was for work or go out with your friends unless it was at any of their houses. You didn’t walk around the city that often anymore in fear of bumping into her.

“I miss this.” You sighed as you walked down Chinatown with your friend, the coldness of your drink pleasant against the palm of your hand. “Just walking around town.” You continued taking a sip of the milk tea.

“I still don’t get why you had to stop going out with us.” Naomi said inciting you to turn to look at her, “I mean, I know why it’s just… you didn’t have to stop.” She rephrased it giving you an apologetic glance. You knew how much your friends hated the idea of you not being able to be you after the whole thing with Zendaya and Tom happened but it was your way of coping with it and even though they didn’t agree with it, they supported you.

“Well, I’m outside now, aren’t I?” You nudged her side with your elbow making her giggle as she nudged you back. “Maybe this is me getting back to my old self.” Hope laced your every word as you looked around the busy street. The way the golden light of the setting sun washed over the buildings made the outing worth the risk.

LA was the second-largest city in the United States, with a population of nearly four million that one could think the chances of crossing paths with a lover-turned-stranger was one in millions, yet, there you were rooted to the pavement as your wide eyes stared at the tall and thin figure coming out of one of the many restaurants that dotted the street. “Come on, let’s go back.” Naomi said, placing her hand on the crook of your elbow ready to pull you out of there but something inside your chest told you to keep moving forward.

So you did, you started walking again letting your friend’s hand slip away from you. She was quick to follow, whisper-shouting at you that whatever you were doing probably wasn’t the best idea. The closer you got to her the more nervous you felt, it’s been over a year since you last saw her and god, was she even more beautiful than before; long legs clagged in camel coloured trousers, feet sporting her beloved black converse. Her top was white, a little see-through and you cursed at how much it still drove you absolutely crazy in the most irritating sense.

Curls tucked into an elastic on top of her head in a carefree and relaxed way, a few stubborn strands hanging out framing her face and gracing her neck. She was laughing loudly at something Darnell said, that laugh you had forced yourself to forget but the second it hit your ears, you realised how badly you had missed it. Then everything stopped, Naomi’s panicked telling off, Darnell’s chatting and Zendaya’s laughing. It all had stopped but the rambling around the four of you.

You stood in front of Darnell while Naomi stood in front of Zendaya, your friend’s usually amicable attitude disrupted by the scowl on her face as she glared Zendaya’s way only the brunette’s pupils were set on you with no apparent intention of averting. “It’s you,” She breathed out, hope barely perceivable in her tone. You only hummed at the observation, your eyes moving from hers down to her hands that were gripping the long lanyard that held her phone around her neck. Her nerves were evident then, the intensity with which she clutched it seemed to be draining the blood flow from her fingers. “I— How—” Zendaya tried to speak but failed, letting out a shaky breath. “How have you been?”

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Naomi protested, you understood where your friend was coming from but you also needed that, you needed to speak to Zendaya just one more time to be able to finally let everything go. You needed her to confirm your theory just so you could move on and Darnell seemed to be on the same page as you for he stepped in between you and Naomi, throwing his arm around her shoulders to guide her away from you two. You heard her object some more but ultimately she complied and walked away.

“I’ve been fine. You?” You eventually spoke after short but agonising seconds of silence.

“I don’t know. There are good days among the terrible ones, so... fine, I guess?” She shrugged a shoulder. With a nod of your head, you looked past her over her shoulder to see a man pointing a camera at you, you were about to warn her when she began speaking again. “Y/n, I’m so sorry about—” Zendaya started but you shook your head no making her stop, you realised then that you did want to talk to her but not on the street in front of that many people and certainly not when there were paparazzi nearby.

“Heard the movie did well.” Your tongue betrayed your brain. Zendaya tried to speak once more but you cut her again. “I’m glad it did. Made it all worth it, didn’t it?” You faked a small smile nearly choking on the words, the anxious lump in your throat threatening to cut your airflow.

“No, It didn’t.” Zendaya denied taking a step closer to you forcing you to hold your breath with the sudden move. “I was a total asshole to you before you left, then Marla wanted me and Tom to do that for a while and I don’t even know why I did it.” She ranted in one breath.

“I upset you.” The statement earned you a furious head shake from the tall girl. “I did. I kept bugging you about the articles,” You carried on, inconspicuously your eyes started to line with tears. The more you talked the more you realised that maybe, just maybe there was a bit of blame in you too, however, that didn’t mean Zendaya was absolved from any. “You never said a thing to me about the stunt.”

“I felt like I didn’t need to, I wasn’t gonna do it.”

“But you did. The morning I left LA.” You mumbled, trying to hide from the second man with a camera that had appeared closer than the first.

“Fuck, I know it was a shitty thing to do and I’m sorry,” She took another small step forward.

“You always told me kissing in public wasn’t your thing.” You exposed, tears irrevocably breaking the surface tension and cascading down your cheeks. Flicking your gaze up at her you saw nothing but hurt and regret written all over her gorgeous face and your heart squeezed at the sight. She had never spoken about it and neither had you asked, you just felt it in your heart that she was scared of how the media would treat you both if they ever found out you were dating, you knew the times had changed but there were still closed-minded people that ran gossip magazines and could make your lives a living hell the moment they caught you holding hands in public or worst, kissing.

The murmuring around you increased, reminding you that you were in a very public place crying in front of your secret ex-girlfriend. “Fuck that.” Zendaya grumbled. One moment she was a small step away from you and the next her hands were cupping your face and her lips were softly pressed against yours. The action took your breath away instantly, still, you found yourself powerless against the familiar taste and feel of her and allowed her to kiss you as long as she wanted to in front of how many people she wanted to. There were yelps and gasps all around the two of you and you started to regain conscience and pulled away.

Wide, watery eyes staring up at the girl mere inches away from your face. “Th-there’s pap—”

“I don’t care.” She whispered before she captured your lips once more, this time deeper and twice as intensely as the first time. Your hands scurried to her waist, bringing her flush to your body as you kissed her back gladly, desperately wanting her lips to make the past year bleep out of your core memories.

The night went by slowly as if the universe was granting you more time to spend in the arms of the girl you loved. She never once let a second of silence go by you, filling it with a whispered apology and a kiss. You talked about everything the time you spent apart brought to both of you, she told you about firing her publicist right after the pictures came out, about how she understood why you had cut her off without any explanation and how bad both her and Tom felt with the whole thing.

Articles flooded the internet that very night as well as the next morning, however, neither of you knew of them right away for any device that could be hooked to a WiFi signal was rightfully turned off while you basked in the presence of each other under the covers of Zendaya’s bed.

“Spider-man Star Zendaya shares intense kiss with BFF, Celeb Stylist y/n l/n in the middle of Chinatown! Swipe to see the pictures!”

It might be 2021 but some things refused to change.

【 thank you so much for reading! ♡ please, consider reblogging and letting me know what you thought of this ♡ kit xx 】

[whoneedssubtitles]

aot characters in college

summary: what subjects aot characters would study or teach and what kinds of people they would be in college

includes: scouts + officers

author’s note: this makes me want to write an aot college au eremin fic SO badly!! even if it’s not a full-blown fic, it would definitely at least be a mini series with short stories. lmk if you’d wanna see it!

escape masterlist.

scouts

eren: political science major with a minor in eldian studies. i also think he’d do unusually well in philosophy when he’s pushed to really examine and critique his own way of thinking. the fandom jokes a lot about his obsession with freedom but i’d be curious to see what he’d say about it if he really had the time to think about it in a modern (and peaceful) setting. erwin is his favorite professor, and he’s always asking someone for a pen and paper.

armin: environmental science and applied math double major because his big brain can handle it. i think he’d choose applied over pure math because he values problem-solving and real world applications. he could also do well in premed but i don’t think he’d like how competitive it is. i could see him getting a language citation in arabic or chinese just because they’re so hard. he definitely works in the campus library and has a whole bunch of nice, minimalist stationery.

mikasa: this one was hard because i think her choice in major would be guided by a desired lifestyle rather than a genuine interest. she wants a peaceful, stable life so i could see her wanting to go into premed or business because of the stability. she’d also have a minor in something that would allow her to take classes with a friend! she has a solid study routine and likes working in groups, even if they’re not in the same classes.

jean: government with a minor in communications or visual arts (or both). he is a leader through and through, so i see him as a real humanities kid. i think he’d enjoy communications because it’s more fun than government, but he’s also a good at drawing in canon so he’d take a few visual arts classes. i could also see him getting a language citation in spanish, don’t ask me why. no one sees him working, but he always gets all his work done. tries to slip into mikasa’s study sessions and distract her.

connie: social studies, business, or computer science major because they’re all versatile and i can’t see connie limiting himself in terms of career choices. all the business majors i know are always out having fun and that just screams connie to me. he does his work in big spurts at the last second so you’ll find him in the library at like 2am every once in awhile.

sasha: nursing or childhood education major! i could see her doing well in a field working with children, but i don’t think she’d be able to do the full premed and med school thing to become a pediatrician. she would be every kid’s favorite nurse or teacher. i also see her with an on-campus job with the admissions office as a tour guide. she prefers doing her work in the dining hall between meal times because it’s not too quiet.

ymir: literature with a psychology minor. i just see ymir as egghead smart but she just doesn’t really apply herself. she’s naturally very perceptive, so i think she’d really succeed in both of these subjects. she wouldn’t fully do the readings for literature, but she’d always have the best takes. she’s minoring in psychology to have classes in common with historia. i could see her working in the cafe in the library armin works at. she’s at every party on-campus controlling the music.

historia: psychology with a minor in women, gender, and sexuality studies. she’d be a pretty good student too with flashcards and stuff, and her and ymir would study together often. i think she was in premed but stopped because it was super competitive and actually wanted to enjoy her time in college. not a huge partier, but she enjoys hosting wine and cheese and paint nights in her dorm.

officers

erwin: professor of history and eldian studies who also leads a big research project and mentors a team of phd students. he’s everyone’s favorite professor because his lectures are really engaging and he likes looking at history through a philosophical and moral lens. he stays late after class and during office hours to answer every student’s questions.

levi: i love him as the janitor for the library or erwin’s building and i will not be entertaining any other ideas. he’s the janitor everyone loves because he gives really good advice and always listens to your rants as he cleans. he’ll also wake you up if he notices you’ve been sleeping on your work for a little too long. he gets coffee with hange in the cafe almost every other day, and he always drops by erwin’s office at the end of the day.

hange: professor of biology and chemistry with too much energy. they always have an I ❤️ TITANS mug on their desk but sometimes it has juice inside instead of coffee or tea. hange kind of reminds me of a grad student, so i think they’re a relatively new professor who isn’t that much older than their students. they insist everyone calls them by their first name and like to do lots of experiments in class.

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona.