#does that make it a wise or just course of action? absolutely not

[haltraveler]

Vengeance being destructive is literally one of the oldest literary themes on earth, it’s not some capitalist plot to deny you your mythical perfect glorious revolutionary fantasy. Retributive violence leads to more retributive violence, and generally tends to hurt more people than those doing things wrong. it’s led to countless atrocities across world history.

It legitimately unsettles me how much Tumblr promotes this idea that not supporting killing anyone who has wronged you is some kind of morally treasonous idea.

[storiesconsumemysoul]

Stupidly Long Incoherent Ramblings on Lanfear, Rand, and Egwene

I feel like we are only discussing the Lanfear play with Egwene and Rand as jealous vindictiveness but we are truly not giving her enough credit. Every action she's taken so far this season has strategically resulted in, once again, slowly isolating Rand from his support system. Required conditions to secure her hooks - that have been rudely slightly dislodged - back in him. And in her eyes, Egwene is pretty much the last major obstacle.

By end of S1, Rand was alone, pretty much resigned to going mad and dying in the near future, cut off from all that he has ever known and loved, and terrified of his own mind and body. Selene makes herself a place of safety, companionship, trust, but most importantly, strength. She was the second relationship he'd ever had. With an older worldly woman who still wanted him, a clueless country bumkin. As he put it perfectly, she made him feel like a man (2x4). While he is extremely vulnerable, isolated, and terrified out of his mind, she made him feel stable and capable. That is an incredibly potent connection that does not get dissolved by the reveal of who she is. Especially since all of the reasons why he was vulnerable and isolated are still factors at play. He's still the Dragon. With all that that entails.

In the backend of S2 Lanfear has to resort to explicit forceful methods and make deals and transactions because the relationship has been damaged. But after she gets to be his big savior (2x7) she now gets to go back to building their dynamic again with more subtlety. Namely, by recreating the conditions that got them together in the first place.

We start S3 with explicit acknowledgment that 1) Lanfear is invading his dreams and trying to interfere in his decisions, 2) He is not being swayed and is instead working with friends again, and most importantly, 3) He told Moiraine about it! And what does Lanfear do? Bubble of evil that kicks every member of his entire support system exactly where it hurts them most -> makes them all splinter in different directions -> makes Moiraine (and Lan) her accomplice in that act of betrayal and cruelty establishing some real mutual destruction leverage over Moiraine where Rand's trust and compliance is concerned. Even though he still chooses to not go after the sword, that's still impressive work. And of course, continuously torturing Egwene in her dreams every night since she is the last holdout staying with him.

The scene in (3x5) when Rand says that he and Egwene haven't had a moment alone to talk since Rhuidean really stood out to me since the last we saw of Egwene in (3x4), she was desperately trying to catch his eye. To connect. Of course, since it's clear that Lan and Moiraine hadn't talked either (until settling in from their travels) that tells me that there just wasn't a chance for heart to hearts on the way from Rhuidean. But Lan gets to it basically the moment there is an opportunity because babygirl came out of Rhuidean in absolute shambles and he needed to get on that ASAP. But Rand (who's doing a great job pretending he's not going through it) and Egwene can't work towards reconnecting and really processing the shitshow that is their lives together because ... oh yeah ... Egwene is slightly preoccupied by being tortured nightly by a goddamn forsaken. Lanfear actively and materially benefits from keeping Egwene strung out and preoccupied. I really don't think it's the simple petty satisfaction of it all that she's really after. And The Wise Ones, wisely, prioritize teaching Egwene how to defend herself as quickly as possible over having heart to hearts with her dubious-status-boyfriend. Which means Rand, who is totally Fine(TM) and in no urgent need of a heart to heart, once again only finds real refuge with one person.

Repeatedly triggering and retraumatizing Egwene, who is still stubbornly sticking by Rand, ensures that she continues to have a hard time with intimacy of any kind anyways. Which is in turn also somewhat triggering for Rand since his biggest fear is hurting those he loves. And Egwene tensing up, flinching away, and distancing herself from him - as much as he understands isn't actually about him - well ... still is a particularly rough experience for him too. Their bubble event was truly perfectly calibrated to severely mess both of them up. Add on to that both of their nightmares, the arches, and Rhidean? Yeah. So, naturally, the distance between them grows and grows because Lanfear is pushing all the right buttons at such a crucially vulnerable time for both of them. Egwene needs her own refuge in order to protect herself from even more trauma, and Rand finds relief in the only familiar place of comfort still being eagerly (against his will) offered to him.

And it is so important that he finds his refuge in dreams instead of clandestine real world meetings. For one, it allows him legitimate deniability. He's not like ... seeking her out and he doesn't have control of this space so ... you know? Is it so wrong to soak in whatever comfort he can from the continued invasion of his mind by a near all-powerful being? And I really don't want this to be misconstrued as "oh he secretly wanted it so Lanfear is doing nothing wrong there actually" type of argument. What I'm trying to get at is this: making your target feel complicit in their own abuse because you put them in a position to "enjoy" some part of it is very much so an abuser tactic (the cult dude ritualistically performing oral sex on his victims as part of their initiation into his inner circle comes to mind).

Two, his dreams without her are nightmares where he commits his worst fears. And taking the alternative of having a nice little chat with his ex(?) in their "love cabin of simpler times" sure is a no brainer. The waking world and his dreams are terrifying and painful, but Lanfear can give him refuge in a safe little warm bubble. All for the cheap cheap price of indulging her advances a little. Three, seeing Lanfear in Rhuidean reinforced a thing we have seen him kind of realize but not really confront. Which is that Lanfear (and Ishamael) have a real meaningful connection with some version of him. And he can say all he likes that he's not Lews Therin but it doesn't make the grain of truth there go away (I often think about the strange lovely tenderness he shows Ishamael in his last moments). But like ... the hell is he meant to make of all that anyways? Nothing realistically. Except when he's in this strange liminal "unreal" space ... who can blame him for trying to feel out the shape of that connection?

And four, in controlling the setting of his dreams, Lanfear gets to naturally invoke Selene and all the ways Selene made him feel, all the warm fuzzy feelings associated with that place, and time, and lover. Even while he actively distrusts Lanfear. It's why her "there is a way for me to escape the dark one ... oh what am I saying let me dramatically dip real quick" thing is so effective. She's sitting on their bed, in the warm glow of their cabin, vulnerable and allowing him the opportunity to step into the role of a stable and safe version of himself. The opportunity to be in a place of safety and strength again for his own sake AND be a place of safety and strength for her. Again, that quote about making him feel like a man is so important, especially when he's vulnerable and so terrified of himself. So when he meets Mierin, of course he's going to latch on to her goodness. It's everything he saw in Selene. And everything Lanfear had been subtly priming him into keeping at the forefront of his mind and heart throughout their interactions. She has slowly but surely positioned herself back where Selene was. As a place of respite, comfort, and strength. Of course, of course, he would be tempted by the idea that that version of her can be saved. Can be made real again.

Now the real risk with her shenanigans in (3x5) is that, surely, Egwene is going to tell him that Lanfear has been the one hurting her this whole time. Which could be a massive blow that ruins the fruits of all her work. But I think Lanfear is taking that calculated risk now because she feels secure in her position. Secure enough to forcefully sever the connection between him and the last person in his support system close enough for him to seek in them what he found in Selene. She's betting on his anger being mitigated by growing more desperate for comfort when isolated fully again.

I don't know if this play is gonna work out for her the way she wants. But I can't deny that I respect the hustle. Truly villain-ing at the highest messiest degree.

[deathbxnny]

Genshin men and their dates with you. | Neuvillette, Alhaitham, Childe, Kinich x Gn!Reader

The genshin men brain rot is real-

Content: Fluff, established relationship, dates, Ajaw is his own warning, sfw

Reader has no set pronouns!

((Not proofread))

》Neuvillette

He wants to experience the finer and simpler things in life with you. Whether it's you having dinner in one of Fountaine's most prestigious restaurants or just a calm walk along the beachside, it was all the same to him. Seeing the happy and content sparkle in your eyes left him deeply satisfied with each outing you had. And they were always very special to him, since he rarely had a lot of time to spend with you due to his highly demanding position in the court.

This, therefore, motivated him to plan most of your dates as a way to make it up to you. He felt happy whenever you expressed your excitement to him about them, pride filling his chest at your glow. But he enjoys you surprising him too after long, hard weeks of work. It makes him feel loved to see you put so much effort into him as well, no matter how grand or small the date is.

Being in your presence is more than enough already.

》ALHAITHAM

Alhaitham is very subtle about his affections for you. He doesn't ever outright proclaim his love for you outloud and instead simply settles on showing you the extent of it through his actions. He is very analytical regarding most things, especially you, and therefore is quick to note what you like and don't like to do date wise. He doesn't generally care for what it is, as long as it's private and between you two away from prying eyes.

This often ends with dinners at home, where you cook together or visit the Akademiya's library for new books you could enjoy reading in silence, whilst you cuddle on the couch or in bed. He sees your dates as a way to wind down after a long week of his tiring work, in which he unfortunately barely sees you, if at all.

Your dates are often very simple and quiet, but you both wouldn't have it any other way.

》CHILDE

Dates with him, of course, often end up being very lavish and grand. He wants to impress you and see that happy smile on your face that made his dead eyes glint. But after a while of dating, he would probably start having more calmer and wholesome days with you, that don't make him feel like he has to wow you at any moment. You have to reassure him that he is doing great a lot and also take over planning dates as well. You two essentially just rake turns and go along with whatever the other one has arranged for the day.

It made him feel good to know that it doesn't actually matter what exactly he does with you, as you'd always be happy to spend time with him. It takes a lot of pressure off his shoulders.

With that said, your dates eventually become wholesome baking events with his younger sibling, who absolutely adore you! It warms his heart to watch you laugh and talk to his family like it was your own, and he finds himself unable to look away from you. They may not be the most private or traditional "dates" at that point anymore... but seeing you all together in one place, being happy and content with life, made a part of him heal at last.

》KINICH

He loves spending all of his free time with you, no matter what exactly you do. If you want to go on a walk, he'd lead the way without a moment of hesitation. If you want to go for a swim, he'd be quick to take you to a secluded area only he knows of. If you just wanted to stay indoors and enjoy a nice cuddle session with him, then he'd gladly agree to that, too. He's a man of few words and just lets you take the reigns when it comes to date planning. On special days like anniversaries or birthdays, he'll try coming up with nice activities too, ofcourse.

Unfortunately, however, a certain someone always has to tag along one way or another. Ajaw has a personal vendetta against everyone and everything, so he attempts to sabotage your dates at any chance he gets, just to get back at Kinich. This often gets him banished for a time out until you are done, much to his absolute dismay.

Kinich is just glad that you take it all so lightly, considering how his unwilling partner can be at times...

[tritoch]

Have you got any thoughts to share about Sphene? I saw your post about how misrepresented FFXIV’s female characters are, and I’ve been hoping to see anything more than the typical “Evil AI colonizer etc.” or “Tragic woman who can never change ever” or “Wuk Lamat’s girlfriend”. Maybe our interpretations will differ but I’ll be happy if you can provide anything more complex than those.

Sure! Throwing all this under a read-more for anyone who hasn't finished 7.0 yet. I think I'll probably expand on this more later but wanted to get initial thoughts down. (Note after writing: I meant this to be brief but uhhhh brevity is not my strong suit sorry. This take just sort of ends abruptly because I realize I'm rambling.) Again, spoilers through the end of 7.0 MSQ.

I think Sphene is the sharpest work the game has done yet in casting the antagonist as the noble double of the protagonist (a well it returns to a lot with Emet, and Zenos, and Golbez, and...). But because the protagonist here is Wuk Lamat and not the Warrior of Light, that's also a much more defined and interesting role. To me, Wuk Lamat is, above all, the Righteous Queen, who rules thoughtfully, wisely, and justly, and whose claim to the throne is justified by her moral clarity. Sphene, in turn, is also a wise and good queen, one who undertakes all her actions with her people first in her hearts, a sense of compassion towards all, and a clear eye for the consequences and costs of her intended course of action. And it leads to utter disaster, for her, her people, and the people of Tural. That rocks!

The first half of 7.0 is about justifying the fact that Wuk Lamat's going to be Dawnservant. Wuk Lamat is compassionate, curious, wise, and open-minded. She wins over rebels and malcontents not by asserting her authority or by strength of force, but by taking her obligations to them (as her subjects) seriously. She knows many of her subjects personally and takes a great interest in their lives, and she respects even those who openly oppose her.

And everything Wuk Lamat does, Sphene does to 11. Wuk Lamat respects her subject peoples and is curious about their cultures? Sphene forcibly annexes Yyasulani, but goes out of her way and expends Alexandria's limited resources to enable the remaining Xak Turali to live in their accustomed way if desired (…to the extent allowed by the new permanent lightning storms and the internal conflicts caused by regulator adoption). Wuk Lamat cares about her people not just in the abstract but as individuals? Sphene visits sick kids, knows them by name! Wuk Lamat understands the burden of rulership is too great and cedes half her power to her brother? Sphene recognizes her own weaknesses and makes a deal with the devil to keep Alexandria's culture alive! Wuk Lamat is willing to die for her people? Sphene will forcibly traumatize herself into being a better queen, if that's what rulership demands.

For an expansion that spends the first half being like "wow isn't this perfect candidate for the crown so likable and humble? wouldn't it be nice to be ruled by a good king?," it sure is funny that the final boss is THE QUEEN ETERNAL and she hits you with attacks like LEGITIMATE FORCE and ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY and ROYAL DOMAIN. This, to me, is Sphene's role: she complicates and questions the themes we've developed in the first half. Most importantly to me, she makes us ask: what is devotion to a people or culture even worth?

There's a thing I kept thinking of constantly during Dawntrail, not because I think it directly influenced the game in any way but because the parallels were so stark and startling. It's Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers #18 (2014). Truthfully, I'm not a big comics guy; I only know this sequence because Ta-Nehisi Coates cited it as inspiration for his Black Panther run on Twitter once (I also didn't read TNC's run, I was following him for politics talk). Forgive me, comics people, if I get any details wrong. The parallels are almost comical, though. It goes like this:

A superhuman secret society formed of some of the smartest heroes (and villains) in the land re-forms to oppose an existential threat caused by incursions from other dimensions that threaten to cause literal collisions between Earth and its alternate dimension counterparts. Seeing no other alternatives, they undertake work on a weapon to destroy these other worlds. T'challa—king of a fictional hyperadvanced nation called Wakanda, and also the superhuman Black Panther—meets with his ghostly predecessors, the previous Black Panthers/kings, for he fears the moral stain on his soul and the souls of the people of Wakanda, if they survive explicitly by killing their alternate counterparts, will be too heavy to bear. His ancestors are not impressed.

To them, there is no question at all. A king's duty may be complex in the execution, but it is simple in its conception. Your people come before all others. Always. This is, must be, the fundamental ethic of a good king. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of the social order on which this imagined good monarchy is built. In a situation like this, the only option is to do what you must to protect them. "Will there be a cost? Yes. Might the universe burn? Let it. . . . You will kill them all if it means Wakanda stands. The golden city must never fall."

"I will do what I must" is Sphene's guiding principle. It is so important to her that when she recognizes that her sentimental attachments are making her waver in her duty, she severs them entirely, sacrificing her whole identity to the throne. It is also implicitly Wuk Lamat's position: she has no choice but to fight Sphene because to do otherwise would be to fail to protect her people. In fact, it's briefly even sort of the Warrior of Light's position, as when you tell Sphene before her trial that you understand what you must do, which is shut her down to protect others.

(One quick thought about the Warrior of Light: one cool thing about the antagonist this time being a double in a more exact way than Emet or Zenos is that it means other characters get a chance to relate to her differently than Wuk Lamat. The Warrior of Light, for example, is pressed into her service immediately upon your first meeting as the Queen's Champion, there to defend her if need be against all evil. This role is further affirmed by both robot Otis and Endless Otis, who essentially hand off their role as her knight to you, and reinforced when you flash back to the "might I call upon your aid" moment right before the end. Except, of course, you are loyal not just to her, but to the principles she represents, which her own acts betray, and so your ultimate act of aid is to essentially pass judgment on her and execute her. In a sense, you become the internal safeguard that a political system is supposed to have to protect against this very issue, and which Alexandria explicitly lost when it cast out/forgot Otis. Very Voeburt/ShB tank quests, it owns.)

But really, it's Sphene who embodies this sort of grim logic best. Aside from her transformation into the Queen Eternal, it's also why she suggests you simply become Alexandrians. It's the only way for her to reconcile her values and worldview, which have backed her into a corner where preserving Alexandria has come to mean a maximalist declaration of war on all life outside its borders because the kind of absolutely pain-free life she envisions for her citizens is completely unsustainable.

In this reading, one of Sphene's main beats is to unsettle what has preceded her in MSQ. In nearly all respects, she shares your values. She prizes life, is curious about other cultures, believes in the greatest good for the greatest possible number. But she is also a queen, and therefore irrevocably (in her eyes) tied to her state. Gulool Ja Ja and Wuk Lamat (and Koana) are the mythical wise rulers, thank god--but what if Wuk had inherited a Turali state that wasn't desperately in need of cross-cultural understanding, but one in a state of war? What value would her deep love for the people of Tural have held then? Sphene says, it would have held no value. If the survival of your people means harming the innocent, you harm the innocent. Kingship allows for no alternatives.

But she also concedes, in the very next breath, that she is still kind of wrong. Because what happened here was not inevitable, despite her programming (a brief note: to me Sphene being programmed is exactly the same as Emet being maybe-tempered, it's a fantasy gloss on the idea of social and cultural education. "I was programmed for this" is really no different from "I was trained and educated for this"), because the truth is that this kind of thoughtful, principled devotion to the state and its people is also a form of sentimental attachment, in the end. One that is maintained not because it is natural, and necessary, but because the monarch, too, likes it, and gets something from it.

In so many ways, in so many senses, the monarch is the state. Kings and queens may fancy themselves merely a reflection of their people's needs and desires, but of course even a cursory glance at history will tell you that far more often, states reflect their rulers. Sphene and Wuk Lamat both suggest that their conflict was inevitable, but was it? Or is the truth, as Sphene glancingly acknowledges here, that she turned her own fears and desires into the same policy goals that led to this tragedy? And if so...what does that say of our Good Queen, Wuk Lamat? Perhaps this could be different if they met earlier, says Wuk Lamat. But when? When did Wuk Lamat ever not love her people so dearly that she would not have sacrificed herself for them, or caused mass death for the sake of their survival? When did Sphene not believe the Endless to be people, or the preservation of Alexandria to be the most important thing? Maybe she means "had we met before you met Zoraal Ja," but of course, we the player actually saw their meeting. And we know that Sphene even then was not the hapless naif she'd like to pretend. She always knew exactly what she was doing.

We know the price of this kind of thinking, this Hobbesian view that states are engaged in a struggle of all against all. Living Memory lets you walk through it. To preserve Tural, we exterminate the Endless. We befriend them, learn about their lives, promise to remember them, and then we destroy them and their homes, leaving nothing but a bleak blank landscape and the sound of wind. This is what Sphene would have done to Tural and Eorzea. Indeed, it's what she's already doing to the people of Yyasulani, because no amount of well-intentioned aid can make up for trapping people under the dome for 30 years and systematically eroding their culture through the resonators.

To me, this is what makes Sphene really work, that way she has of forcing Wuk Lamat and the player to commit the same kinds of sins she has. We'd like to think ourselves better than her, but of course, we've already reconciled with and integrated Mamook's brutal eugenicist regime back into Turali society well before we ever met Sphene. At the end of our long "wow isn't having a wise queen cool???" expansion, we are met with "Legitimate Force" and "Absolute Authority" and see them for what they truly are: nothing but tools of violence. No longer does the idea of the Warrior of Light hanging around Tural as Wuk Lamat's advisor have the same attraction, now that we have been reminded of the way the putatively unquestionable logic of kingship can ultimately lock even the wisest and kindest rulers into a path of war and exploitation and destruction.

I think Sphene is FFXIV's most interesting and nuanced depiction yet of a leader. She really, truly, wants nothing more than to save her people and protect them from pain. But even seemingly loving and compassionate goals like these can readily lead us down dark paths. She's a "hard men make hard choices"-type character, a noble but misguided opponent, but as a loving and elegant fairy queen instead of a grizzled knight or extremely sad man. She fucking rocks.

[little-one-eyed-monsters]

Hi, I'm very (very!) new to the BL fandoms. I'm still figuring out what is what, so the SmartBoom news is the first major event I see unwind in real time. And I have a question - call me crazy, and maybe I am, but is it AT ALL possible for all of this to be an outlandish PR stunt?

Because 1) it makes literally zero sense, business-wise, for Smart to be doing it, according to the info those statements revealed themselves;

2) it's WAY too much on the nose with the basically verbatim situations we saw in the series to be just a coincidence, and

3) companies won't care if they seem like the Bad Guy here in the end, because they are universally hated anyway; however, if played right, and if the boys are made to seem to be "fighting" with them, and "prevailing", united Jin-Akin style, this might become this giant, transcending the screen "love-that-conquers-all", and turning the CP of SmartBoom into something legendary, iconic, and with potentially cult following. And turning them into a staple that surely will be supported/watched by EVERYONE in whatever they put them in - if for nothing else, then for the "Davids in love sticking it to the corporate Goliath" principle alone. All the while the corp guys preserve their power and control, because however (if at all) successful the stunt, they still stack the deck, and hold all the cards and power.

Obviously all of it sounds like some 3-rd rate series cartoon vilain plot, but didn't all analysis and metas posted lately claim how excessively greedy companies have become for engagement, trending, buzz, and popularity, and how they would do ANYTHING to get it, at the expence of everything and everyone? Would any stupidity, trick or stunt be too low to sink to, if it gets them there?

(That ask would make sense only if we DO observe some "heroic" actions and reconciliation, of course. If the ship sank, it's obviously just a few short-sighted guys in a petty, nano-dick measuring contest, ruining a good thing for literally everyone involved, including themselves. It's just, I always prefer to believe that when it's about big business and money, there's some convoluted, sinister plots at play, rather than plain, old, trivial, ABSOLUTE CORP STUPIDITY.)

NewbieAnon

Hello NewbieAnon and welcome to BL! I promise you we're not always putting fires out here 😅 It can actually be really fun, you just need to find the right ones to stan. And thank you for the ask!

Gosh I hope you can make sense of my very long SmartBoom posts 😅 I know I often write very long and very tangential, so please excuse the excessive blabber.

Anyway, first off, I LOVE your take on this! I really do. In fact, I'm hoping and praying that your hypothesis prevails, because if this PR stunt is a bamboozle to just hype the coming seasons, then I will take back everything I've said about these companies and will support ALL of their projects, even for other pairs, moving forward. Yes, it's greedy and manipulative, but if it means a career for their employees (not just Smart and Boom, but their co-stars, the people behind the scenes, their personal teams, their managers, etc.), then I will let the hustle absolve all sins.

On the outset, this social media bickering DOES look very stupid, right? Especially for industry veterans and definitely in 2025. Everything actually looks pre-planned and very in-series adjacent that someone even said this all feels like a Top Form episode, and I would agree with you my friend, if this was the first time this ever happened.

Sadly, in Thai BL (and so far, only in Thailand. Taiwan, Korea, and Japan producers have not exhibited the same issue, particularly because they don't establish branded pairs), this has happened many times over: companies screwing over their talents and the pairs just because they wanted a larger cut of the profit pie.

Before the pandemic, aside from GMMTV, branded pairs usually belonged to different companies or managements. Thai BL at the time was so new and not well-established, that bigger companies didn't see the benefits of investing in it-- often just loaning their dormant actors to indie BL producers for a quick paycheck. Most often, the prod houses who make BLs cast newbies or independent actors for their shows. Branded pairs aren't as big a deal as it was back then too, and cps weren't expected to do actual couple activities after the airing of a show. In fact, fandoms mostly just named themselves 😅 none of these naming ceremonies and hashtag nonsense. GMMTV really was the only company to commit to the concept, and they were rewarded handsomely for it (but maybe that's a post for another day).

The in-fighting was more common then because of this. PerthSaint was one of the first non-GMMTV pseudo-branded pairs to come out of early Thai BL, and they had a MASSIVE fanbase, but because they belonged to different companies that absolutely hated each other's guts, the pair perished before it ever became properly established (they never even had a joint fandom name. The Trigon fandom was supposed to be Saint's solo fandom name that bled into Perth's, which was then adapted for both of them). The show 2Moons had such a well-documented indie company vs. affiliate producer fiasco that they recast EVERYONE three times just to get the project off the ground. My Engineer the Series was another example, which spent two years in production hell before debuting with a cast of loaned and newbie actors, before promptly dropping said cast and never speaking of a season 2 they announced before airing Season 1. I've mentioned MewGulf and ZaintSee already because they were casualties too, but I have a few other examples (and these ones were actually established). First, OhmFluke: Ohm Thitiwat was a Studio WabiSabi talent, and given the number of continuous projects he had with co-star Fluke, you'd think the latter was a WabiSabi talent too. But he never formally joined the company, and after years of fighting with said company (and the affiliate producer WeTV *sighs*) to give him proper compensation for their project 609 Bedtime Story, Fluke Natouch officially left the branded pair. My most recent casualty is actually KaoUp (the same Up Poompat who is now in an actual branded pair with Poom Phuripan of My Stand-In), because though they only had one project together, they consistently appeared in each others' content and sponsorships. When Kao Noppakao signed a contract with Channel 3, the company entered a deal with Up's independent agency JustUp to loan Kao for BL projects with his brand partner Up, but a year later that deal also fell through, and Up found a new acting partner from Channel 8, who agreed to loan their dormant actor at the time, Poom Phuripan, to IQIYI.

That is to say, that not all BL branded pairs coming from different companies automatically fail, or get in a fight with each other's managements. I mentioned UpPoom up there because Poom's case is very unique, and might be more related to your ask than you think 😅 Poom was loaned by Channel 8 to IQIYI, (similar to what GIR did to Smart), but they had no intention of letting him go or establishing him in a branded pair outside of their company (he had a hetero semi-pair in Channel 8 already). After My Stand-In's runaway success, Poom actually terminated his contract with Channel 8, paid the fine and almost sued them for contract breach, left the company, founded his own studio Phumipatsorn 1997, and launched jointly with JustUp as an official affiliate. They are now in talks to do a second BL project with *sigh* WeTV. They have joint Youtube content and music, which is different from their individual solo work. This UpPoom blueprint is very similar to Billkin and PP Krit, who created individual companies after Nadao Bangkok went under, but continue to work together and do cp activities. They recently aired a bromance movie titled The Red Envelope.

YinWar is actually the best case scenario for a couple like SmartBoom, because Yin Anan and War Wanarat left BOTH of their companies and made their own JOINT company (YWPB Entertainment, what absolute BADASSES), and now they do BLs and cp activities that they chose for themselves.

This is all a very long-winded way of saying that Newbie Anon, though I love your take on these shenanigans, realistically I think GIR and HDL/TaiLai are being DEAD SERIOUS about their spats on social media, and that though these may be good PR, their tiny, money-hungry brains PROBABLY haven't figured that out yet.

But I mention UpPoom, BillkinPP, and YinWar because these three couples used their very public company woes to actually CATAPULT them to bigger fandoms. They know that airing and framing their against-all-odds story (which actually happened to them too, these companies were dead serious when they placed all three in hot water), to the masses would help their careers more, and this PR actually HELPED THEIR CAREERS. They sell out literal stadiums just for fans to hear their successful cp stories. If their companies cannot transform this bad press to loyal fan engagement, then I hope SmartBoom WILL, and use this PR nightmare to come out better and stronger for the sake of their careers.

Sorry this was so long but I hope it helped answer your ask even a little Newbie Anon! Welcome to the kooky world of BL!

[peterm4rker]

CAN I MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS? ── a maeda riku smau

0. outfit repeaters

★ @/ynswrld ;; film and cinema major yn ln is not the biggest fan of summer. she loves having free time from uni, of course, but summer means going back home and that means being bored out of her mind at all times. the only thing that could ever save her from her perpetual boredom was her friends, and sometimes even her little brother and his best friend. she is a ballet burn out and the only one in her friend group's old dance crew who didn't end up pursuing her old passion, but found a new one she liked better.

★ @/ynshell ;; yns priv.

★ @/minjaejae ;; dance and music major kim minjae forms 1/6 of the outfit repeaters and is the sole reason for the gc name. he met yn in their middle school dance crew and never let her go after that, they even dated for a brief span of a year and a half. their break up only brought them closer as the platonic soulmates they always were, and he strives to find her a guy who won't care about his presence in her life.

★ @/minjun_park ;; dance major park junmin has been friends with yn and minjae since their middle school days, when they were together in the dance crew. he has been by their side through thick and thin, when they got together and when they broke up. he is annoyed at them 99.99% of the time, but still wouldn't change them for absolutely anything.

★ @/onecoolmf ;; art major choi sumin is just along for the ride, or that's what he wants people to believe. he is the youngest of the bunch, leading that one year difference between them to give his friends free reign in being as annoying as they could be. he is yn's advisor through life, because even though he doesn't act like it sometimes, he's one wise little kid. he met yn at an art class, trying to save her from a failing grade.

★ @/spidergirlcore ;; acting major shin ryujin met yn through a project where she needed a leading actress. they clicked immediately and became close friends faster than minjae, sumin and junmin could even blink. she had a little of a hard time getting into the friend group since she was the only one who had not known them since they were kids, but after making many new memories together, she is a vital part of their little group.

masterlist ⋆ next

𐙚 blues corner ;; this does not reflect on the idols actual personality and actions, just my vision of them for this specific smau. i forgot to post this yesterday please forgive me🙏🙏🙏 𐙚 tag list ;; @winwintea @neozon3nha @kittydollzz @sleepyvic @injunnie-lemon @jovialdelusionbouquet @n0hyuck @julsinglee @leejenoenthusiast @morkiee @taroddori @mrsjohnnysuh @sunghoonsgfreal @dudekiss3r @m1ng1swife @grlscrushing @flaminghotyourmom @secretvivii @ballsa420 @sillyyuz @sunghoonsgfreal @insbread @222brainrot @va1entinaa @ayukas 𐙚 back to the main masterlist 𐙚 please do not copy, adapt or steal any content !!

© peterm4rker, 2025

[beannoss]

SxF RA 2025: volume 1! (pt 3)

My last post on volume 1, just some additional general observations I had in the re-read! Just a head's up that where the other two posts had no spoilers for future manga chapters, this post does have a few vague and also one or two more specific references to chapters not yet animated.

I was super curious if Twilight's motif of ash floating around him would be there from the start and it absolutely is! The motif is of course especially utilised in Twilight's backstory, but I'm thrilled by the tragedy ❤️‍🩹 that it's been in play since the very beginning.

Once again I look up what Strix means and once again it leaves my brain immediately because I don't understand how it's connected to the mission (from wiki: "a bird of ill omen, the product of metamorphosis, that fed on human flesh and blood") Actually now having typed that and pasted in what it is, I'm like: ... okay so probably this is referencing war and the toll taken on all the Forgers and those they're working to protect in their respective country's pursuits thereof. And then the mission itself is to seek prevention of more. GOT THERE IN THE END maybe

I was intrigued that Twilight is directed to look out for "seditious" activity from Donovan, given WISE is a Westalian organisation... It makes me wonder if maybe WISE's goal/first choice is actually to try and bring in Ostanian authorities to deal with Donovan, assuming they can find the evidence they need for it (and something that Ostanian authorities would actually act on, seeing as they seem fairly inclined towards fascism themselves)

I've talked a fair bit about Twilight's first thoughts about a spouse and family (on the right) but now I'm hung up on the next reference (left) that eluded me when I did my first analysis. Liabilities, huh. Bounces off of Yor's strongly held belief that a happy home life and family to cherish make her better and strengthen her resolve...

Endo may change things of course, but I also snagged on the description of Anya's abilities as an "unintended consequence." To me that potentially implies telepathy wasn't the pursuit of experimentation, which also potentially means Donovan was not pursuing telepathy either, for himself or as a tool. (however, with chapter 111, I suppose it can't be ruled out entirely...)

Anya noting that if anyone found out about her powers, she would have to run away... I wonder... foreshadowing...? I very much hope not but... 😬

I already talked about chapter 2 a fair bit, but this made me laugh. Random dude in the back is so right 😂 they're both odd balls 😊

Loved that chapter 3 gave us a li'l taste test of what it would be like for the Forgers working together. Yor into immediate action; Twilight puzzling things through; Anya giving the missing piece. Moments of emotional sweetness. It's all there! We're only missing Bond!

To Hemlock's point in this most recent chapter, I wonder how accurate his read was... after all, this was only days after Yor had met Twilight and Anya... She definitely has grown and changed and is increasingly thriving as herself, but I find it hard to believe that Yor wouldn't have done this before... Maybe the difference is how much she's now looking at the world around her and engaging with it?

Of course they're all motivated by multiple things, but in line with thinking about Yor & normality & acceptance, I'm now also pondering this panel, and Twilight wanting more recognition than he gets...? (I wonder if this moment also informs how often he thanks Yor for things 👀)

Sharon at the Eden Academy interviews! I don't think I noticed her before!

Henderson's face here made me laugh out loud gjdasklgjksa

I wouldn't be me without a TwiYor note, and I am once again fixating on... well several things here but most especially the circled thing in the left-most panel and Twilight's phrasing specifically... "isn't even" is doing a lot of work there already... the mutual affinity between them really was strong right off the bat, eh? We see it most with Yor but yeah, this is a pretty loud admission!

Also on the above, whether intentional or not, Spy x Family has also 100% always been to a degree about gender and queerness (if only insofar as: "not normal" -> non-normative -> queer) for every member of the family. It is one area also where I wish I better knew Japanese cultural norms and societal philosophical underpinnings. It's a story clearly informed by collectivism, but there are blatant underpinnings, frequently made explicit, about liberation from societal expectation and pressures and... ahhh I'd love reading a Japanese feminist's take on the series.

and finally this gag, from Chapter 1 "hundred faces" chapter 4 "thousand faces" I, alas, don't think it continued onto million, billion, endless faces but I sort of wish it would XD

<- part 2

[bunji-enthusiast]

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙨

Haven’t really seen anything for Rae (x reader wise) just yet sooo… I wrote something super quick with her and red hood!reader. your gender is up to you :}

It wasn't often that there was any sort of recreational break for the supers in the world of aliens, super-powered and genius beings. All equating to mass destruction and death threats every single week, the toll it takes is immense without a doubt.

So you, an infamous vigilante decided to take it upon yourself to take your girlfriend out to a proper date. Something sweet and casual, without all the constant worrying over if 'I'm going to be next' or 'I can't keep doing this.'

"what even are you doing?" Rachel grins, trying to stifle a laugh at your actions. You just perk up with a lop-sided smile, jabbing a pointer finger and deftly wagging it.

"just watch okay? promise yer gonna like it." You reply, tugging out the ends of the picnic blanket.

"okay, okay." She concedes, crossing her arms as you continue fluffing out the blanket. Trying to ensure each and every crevice was perfect, then moving onto with laying out the plates and the food. It was all very domestic, surprisingly. Not unlike your usual vibe.

How did this just happen? You sent the shrinking hero a message of course, one of your rare, dumb but adorable ones. Normally you would send short---curt messages, however, what you sent this time was what really had her.

Heyyy, uh. Can you come over here if you got a minute? got something I think you'll like. :))))

Safe to say that she was absolutely caught off guard by that, but Rachel wouldn't have missed out on something like this. Besides, the effort was nice, not so... chaotic in the midst of what it's like being a guardian of the globe.

You were indefinitely wrapped up in your efforts to make sure the layout was perfect, okay enough to sit down on. You then stood back up with a triumphant stance, hands balled up, resting on your hips. "There we go, this is our little lunch for the afternoon."

She giggles, taking easy strides over to the setup as you grin at her; clearly very proud of your efforts. Also simultaneously embarrassed, but you went through with it. No turning back.

You know what it was like having your life on the near brink of death damn near everyday, but it was something you committed yourself to. Rachel on the other hand just borderline lived with this lifestyle her whole life thanks to her parents, from what you knew. But you held commendable respect for the woman, despite her fear against each and every villain, she does her best.

And you like to think; you do your best too.

it's not as if you were a complete stone cold asshole, you were still human too. One of your graces was being able to protect others, Rachel in particular. While you were initially reluctant and closed off, afraid to form bonds with others. She just... stood out to you, your heart was just enraptured by her beauty and humane kindness immediately. It genuinely confused you how she was here in a place like this, being a hero. She deserved so much more, live a life the way she wanted to.

Though it was obviously her choice, her terms. So for now, you'd support her, and take care of her when neccessary. It was in your nature, as much as you tried to push that part of you away. That fractured piece of your human nature eventually made its way back thanks to her, it was like she was a missing piece to the puzzle you've mulled over for so many years.

You sit down at her side, taking off your signature helmet. "Hope it's good, cause... I practiced like a shit-ton to make sure it wasn't horrible to taste." You admit shyly, rubbing the back of your neck. She simply nods, her eyes softening with affection. Her hand reaches for yours, and you take it, interlocking fingers.

"its fine," She mentions your name. "thank you." You return the sentiment with a small tilt of your head.

"Im glad."

[sincerelyamee]

So I just read your reply about nine-tailed fox Spices and Istg I’m gonna cackle.

Let’s not pretend we don’t all know Gojo is gonna try his absolute best to cha-cha real smooth into the DMs of the really pretty widow of the King of Curses. And obviously the poor grieving madam deserves something (coughsomeonecough) to take her mind off such sad things. Like c’mon, the guy’s been dead for centuries, who could blame Gojo if, in his boundless benevolence, he wanted to make a beautiful lady happy after spending that long guarding a grave?

On the other hand… The elders are gonna have a conniption when their prized weapon of war starts courting the wife(???) of mother-flipping Sukuna.

Alright, so operating within the premise we’ve set for this new AU, the power dynamic between Gojo and this version of Spices would shift completely. In the main timeline, no matter what happens between them, they’re still fundamentally teacher and student, savior and the one being saved. That imbalance shapes their interactions in a big way.

For example, early in the prequel, Spices was deeply insecure, always worried that her actions might disappoint Gojo or make him stop liking her. She still did what she thought was right, but the fear lingered. And that same imbalance kept Gojo from making any moves too. He was afraid of scaring her off, or worse, making her feel obligated to reciprocate. So they danced around each other for seven whole years.

But in this AU, where Spices is a Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit, the entire dynamic is flipped. According to folklore, nine-tailed foxes grow more powerful and cunning with age, so by the time she and Gojo meet in the modern era, she might be the closest thing he's ever had to an actual equal.

Imagine: Gojo strolls into this mission like he always does, ready to one-shot some ugly special-grade curse, as usual, only to find a very pretty young woman lounging on a couch, casually reading or typing away on her laptop. Because of course Spices is still obsessed with learning in every timeline. Now that she doesn’t age or die, she’s making the most of it, devouring knowledge, keeping up with modern science, writing research papers like she’s on her 13th PhD.

She’s lived through the rise and fall of empires, watched revolutions unfold, witnessed scientific breakthroughs firsthand. Maybe she’s even befriended a few historical icons along the way - why not? She’s contributed where she could, lived countless lives, fought Kenjaku once a century just for tradition’s sake, and is now besties with Tengen.

So when Gojo shows up to “exorcise” her, she just gives him one look and goes, “Ugh, another insufferable Sugawara. Go home, boy. I’ve got a research paper due in three days and I don’t have time for this nonsense.”

Maybe Gojo tries to fight her anyway. After all, a job’s a job. But he’s too bewildered to go all in right away. Besides, he probably thinks he doesn’t need to. She, on the other hand, actually has a paper to finish, so she lightly kicks his ass, pulls a few clever tricks, and sends him packing.

Now intrigued, he keeps coming back. And every time, she’s got a new surprise waiting for him, just enough to outmaneuver him, never enough to hurt. Slowly, Gojo starts to realize that she’s not bloodthirsty, doesn’t eat humans, and isn’t causing any harm. In fact, the local people love her, whether they know what she really is or not.

So with every visit, he drops more of the “exorcist” act and starts poking around her life instead, asking questions, pestering her about her research, being his usual noisy, shameless self. Not in a hostile way, just… Gojo being Gojo.

She absolutely cannot get rid of him. Eventually, she’s so fed up she writes to Tengen like: “There’s this loud, obnoxious boy who keeps bothering me. He’s distracting, he talks too much, and I’m falling behind on my research. Order him to leave me alone.”

Tengen, unhelpfully but wisely, replies: “Well, it has been a while since your last relationship. Maybe it’s time to let someone in again.”

Spices is unconvinced. Determined to avoid Gojo, she starts working in other places—libraries, cafés, random rooftops—but he shows up everywhere. (Reverse roles, baby—he’s the one following her around now!) And before she even realizes it, those encounters start feeling a lot like dates.

Meanwhile, the Council possibly under Kenjaku’s influence takes advantage of her distraction. They break into the tomb to steal Sukuna’s remains… only to find absolutely nothing. Because of course she had accounted for that risk ages ago. The remains were never there to begin with.

She just likes living in that particular place because it used to be their home.

Now, though? Someone dared to wreck her sanctuary.

And that... That was a mistake. Now it's personal.

[semi-imaginary-place]

"This manga is heavily a Buddhist story, which is mostly the reason for the morals, choices, and consequences of the story falling flat for many westerners. It'd be too difficult to go into everything in one comment, but the most important thing is Ichikawa's criticism of Pure Land Buddhism.

In this branch of Buddhism, people can basically pray to get into the Pure Land, rather than having to do the work themselves. Gemstones also can't get into the pure land and thus are exempt from samsara, the karmic cycle, which was the main inspiration for the series and something Ichikawa sought to change in the story.

The story depicts Ichikawa's rejection of Pure Land Buddhism through Adamant's burden of existing solely as a tool to pray humanity away and his eventual breaking free of this role to be able to live with the gems full time during the 10,000 years. It also sort of paints the lunarians as lesser for convincing themselves that they need someone to pray them away when they didn't. But the biggest example is regarding which character actually got the better ending, because the way I see it, and the way Ichikawa seems to see it, everyone other than Phos got fucked in the end.

Over the course of the story, Aechmea paints nothingness as a serene realm of nonexistence that is free from the suffering of the living world, but by the end, it seems clear that nothingness is just another state of existence and everyone there is still a part of the eternal cycle of everything being remade into everything else. Taking this into account, why would you want nothingness when you can make peace with existence like Phos ended up doing? Despite everything he went through, it's only because he actually put the work that he was given the opportunity to find his purpose, reflect on his life and actions, and be happy with the pebbles. Things didn't go how he planned, but he did end up getting everything he wanted.

A lot of people will say that the message of the manga is that existence is suffering, but I think the ending makes a good point that it is equal parts suffering and happiness. Likewise, the manga does a good job painting humanity as a force of destruction, ignorance, and shortsightedness, but the ending shows that there is still pureness and wisdom in it.

Probably the biggest takeaway should be that good and evil and other black and white ways of looking at things are rarely any use in a world as nuanced as ours. And that seeing the world this way will only lead to confusion when those you see as good are getting punished and those you see as evil are getting rewarded, when in reality, the universe could not care less what you are. Everyone is just the result of their own actions and the influences of the world around them and we're all going to die and go back to being stardust eventually anyway."

"The lunarians were all able to pass on their own, but their insistence on someone else doing the work for them was an attachment that kept them from that. Shiro and the game board fulfilled their desire to see Adamant again and were able to go to nothingness without him praying for them."

"They got what they wanted, but what they wanted doesn't seem to be what they thought it was. Rather than a state of absolute non-feeling, it sounds like they're just getting put back into the karmic soup of the universe a bit sooner than Phos, Brother, the pebbles, and everything else eventually will. Except the lunarians and gems weren't wise enough to come to terms with that inevitability.

Most of this take comes from Brother's conversation with Phos in chapter 103 regarding living in the present and not worrying about the future that's beyond your control. But even ignoring this part of it, I still think the series makes a good case for existence, even including the worst of it, being a better deal than absolutely nothing.

This is not to say that Phos didn't experience far worse than anyone else in the story, only that the kind of growth he went through requires a degree of hardship. Phos post-prayer seems to agree that everything he went through, despite how unfair or traumatizing it was, was necessary and worth it for him to have the clarity and happiness that he has now.

A part of Buddhism is realizing that you can't change most things and accepting things the way they are. Basically, things don't always go the way you planned and finding value in the way they did rather than dwelling on things out of your hands is a form of personal growth that one should strive for.

Phos made peace with what he was dealt and used those experiences to make himself and those around him better off, spending eons of happiness with the pebbles. The lunarians rejected this way of thinking and endlessly sought to change their fate, wasting the existence they were given before inevitably getting thrown right back into a new one. They squandered their chance at what Phos attained and will have to start from scratch in their next form. When everything you have ends eventually, it's the present that really matters, not the outcome."

(CrashDunning)

[angelinthefire]

I thought it would be fun to talk about all the musical segments in season 2 of Arcane. Here's where you can find other posts.

"Cocktali Molotov" and pit fighter Vi!

Is this a perfect montage? Maybe.

This starts with really building up Jaw-Guy. The camera spends a lot of time on him, his muscles, his roaring, people cheering for him. Just for Vi to take him out in one punch. Like she's the baddest bitch there is. Fighting-wise, she's at the top of her game.

But she's at the bottom of a pit. And that's what the lyrics of the song are about, her being at absolute rock-bottom. Her trademark characteristics of her hair and her face tattoo are blacked out.

But when we start, she looks determined, and angry, and clear. That's what we're going to watch change through the course of the song.

Instead of going chronologically through this, I'm going to jump around. Because there's a few threads.

A big thing with this segment is repetition. There's a few things that does. 1) It's useful for story-telling. When something repeats, the things that change with each repetition are highlighted. 2) It builds rhythm, and tension. Sometimes that can feel like a sense of monotony, but that means you're all the more anxious for that rhythm to be broken. 3) Repetition builds meaning. When something happens the first time, you just get a surface-level understanding of it. But with each repetition, something more is revealed, and that meaning is then projected backwards as well.

The thing that's repeated most is, no surprise, the action of Vi punching. That might seem obvious. But the reason I raise it is that when the segment starts out, Vi is kind of professional about it. She's sharp, she's training, she's winning, she's making money.

And there's a rhythm to it. She faces opponenets, she punches them, they go down.

Then part way through there's this shot, that breaks the rhythm.

It's not the normal way she's been shown fighting. We don't see her fist connecting, or her opponent's face, or her face. It's just Vi wailing on someone who's already down.

And that's the turning point of the segment. When things *really* start going downhill for Vi. This is not a job for her, this is personal. This isn't her making a living, this is her trying to punch out her demons and failing.

And then we get these shots of her looking super dazed and out of it, a far cry from how sharp-eyed she was before.

The way these shots cut back and forth show that there's no differentiation for her between life in the ring, and life outside, it's all a fight.

There's that lack of differentiation as well in the club scene, when Vi hallucinates Caitlyn, but really it's Tongue-Guy.

(I also want to say, they really captured the look of club photos so well.)

Vi is in the club, and she's in the ring, and it's all the same thing. And when Vi recognizes the Tongue-Guy, she gets this look of absolute revulsion.

And she's in the ring. This is not a reaction that it makes sense to have in the middle of a fight, these are not two different scenes cut together. This is Vi, in that moment, in the club, feeling like she's in the ring. And reacting like it.

I want to jump now to what I think it the most narrative-like thread in the segment. And that's Vi's relationship with Loris. Again, told through repetition.

There's these repeated shots of them at the bar.

Each one of those is a different instance. They're friends. They're celebrating. Then in the third shot, Vi is out of it, Loris takes her drink away. He's trying to look after her. Then they're estranged, Vi has been pushing him away. Then Vi is alone.

There's also the repeated shots of Vi making her way home from the bar. First with Loris' help, then when she pushes him away, then when she's alone.

(In that first shot he's just lifting her feet over the step. It's kinda sweet?)

Of course, when she's coming home is also when she sees the Kiramman banner hung in the road, reminding her of Caitlyn.

This is *right* outside her door. She is not escaping it.

She's fighting, she's going out and drinking and partying. She's trying to escape. Loris is partying with her, and he's even trying to look after her a little. But he can't help, because Vi cannot get away from what's haunting her.

Vi's inability to escape what's haunting her is also reflected in the scenes at the bar, with the coins dropping on the table and spinning. There's an interesting thing with the coins.

Instance one of the coins spinning:

It's the first thing we see after Vi's introduction in the ring. It gets the story going. And it's associated with drinking, partying. Ballin' at the club, spend all your money 'cause today's payday, etc.

Instance two:

Vi is fighting, coins spinning and falling, her opponents falling. It's like, okay, she's getting paid for this. We knew that, but moving on.

Third instance:

Vi is slipping. And the coin is spinning. This imagery is not about the money.

Fourth instance:

Vi's looking in the mirror. The coin stops spinning, and drops. She punches the mirror, like she's punching herself in the face.

It makes no sense in that context to cut to money in that shot if all it meant was money. But in the third instance, you may have gotten a clearer look at what was on the coin.

I love this so much. This is what montage is all about. Juxtaposing images in a way that gives them meaning that they wouldn't have if they were alone. Repetition adding new layers of meaning so that something that started out appearing simple becomes not-so-simple.

The whole story starts with the coins, spinning, like Vi is turning events around in her head, Jinx firing on the council, killing Caitlyn's mother, everything that happened after. It's always there throughout, spinning in her head.

And she can't escape it! She's trying to escape into fighting and drinking, but she's paid in these coins, and the Kiramman banner hangs outside her door. It's always there. Like she's trapped, in a pit, in a prison cell.

And that's what the lyrics of the song say as well:

So lock me up, I cannot take it Lock me up, I've already lost Lock me up, I've gone and jinxed it Hold my cocktail Molotov

She was in prison for so long, and she's back to feeling like she's locked up.

Her apartment even looks like a prison, a bare matress, a sink, a punching bag. And an ever-accumulating number of bottles.

And then there's other repeating images.

Vi screaming:

The first time she screams it's in the ring, and it's revealed to be victory yell.

(Also: cool how her symbol is the double-headed dog. Which both nods to the theme of duality, and the creature that Warwick was created from, tying them together. Vander and Vi both become these monsters in season 2).

But then it keeps showing Vi screaming.

The second time, she's still in the ring, but she's on her knees. A lot less victorious-seeming.

Then she's on her own. Then we see Caitlyn screaming in her head, and Vi screaming along.

Again, repetion builds meaning. Was it ever really a victory yell in the first place?

And Vi painting her face.

The first time, she's clear-eyed, and she's solidly blocking out her face tattoo. Like she's determined to not face her past.

Then she starts slipping. Her makeup is messier. She doesn't block out her tattoo entirely. Like she can't escape herself.

Then finally, she's totally fractured. She can't face herself and she can't deal with what's happened.

And there's these shots of Vi in the ring that repeat.

Telling the same story.

And because it's been shot the same way throughout, because it shows her trying to do the same moves, when she can't keep it together, the change is that much more apparent. It's not the opponents, or the environment, or the task that's changing, it's her.

Same opponents as the beginning, same kind of shots, same rhythm.

And Vi goes down in the ring, hitting the ground so hard that the film skips, and she lands in her room.

Like she's knocked out by life.

(also those frames look so good.)

Anyways, fantastic scene! Cinema!

And that's what sets her up for the rest of the episode. She needs to face what's happened. Face herself, and her family. She needs to find a way forward, because she doesn't have one here.

That's what the rest of the episode gives her.

[r0-boat]

Games with random play siblings

Wise

Wise it's Good at board games and card games like very good. Like used to be heavy Yu-Gi-Oh Super Fan good (still a Yu-Gi-Oh fan) He doesn't have classic board games either He has a lot of weird board games that you've never heard of before. And he has a whole shelf full of them.

The first thing he does when the two of you open up a board game with a bunch of friends is he will read the rules. And mans reads the rules like he's reading a math textbook an instantly becomes a pro. Then he teaches everyone else at the table.

He loves video games too He has a big ass PC if it's not for work it's for games. However He likes survival or tactical RPG games the best.

He really wants to like horror and he tries really hard but he cannot sit through games with gore or anything involving.

Has been trying to learn D&D recently thinks it would be really cool to host d&d nights at Random Play but decides against it because he doesn't want to deal with the consequences.

Wise has a dark secret. He plays Otome dating Sim games He has a few on his phone. He's also the type too pick the girl character when playing a game.

Belle

Belle wants to be a streamer. BUT HER DUMBASS BROTHER WISE THINKS IT'S A BAD IDEA BECAUSE IT'S TOO MUCH WORK (totally not Belle's thoughts)

Belle absolutely loves action and shooter games bonus points if it's a nice sandbox game As much as She absolutely adores cute art styles and cute creatures She absolutely cannot sit there tactical RPG games or any farming game especially pokémon and stardew valley even though she's probably a huge fan She just can't sit though those games without falling asleep. But she will definitely play with you if you ask And who knows maybe she'll start liking them she's definitely not opposed to trying.

HUGE HORROR GAME FAN. If you even mentioned five nights at Freddy's her head will turn 180° and she'll get possessed by the spirit of Mat Pat himself.

Never Play Mario kart and or smash Brothers with her and if you win you better keep your eyes open when you sleep. She will get you back. She will get you back It doesn't matter on the game or not.

her favorite games are Fps games, She hates them because how mean she gets. And how toxic other people are but she cannot put them down she's addicted, please don't get her into another one.

A huge Kingdom hearts fan (I have no explanation I just feel it in my soul.)

Both

Belle 🤝 Minecraft 🤝 Wise, of course, they play it a lot together Wise has definitely set up a free server on his computer so they can just hop in whenever they want. Wise takes forever to build a super nice house. While Belle has a hole in the side of a mountain with her chests all over the floor in no particular order because she is too busy killing everything in sight.

Belle had tried to get Wise into FNAF. He's having a hard time following it but Belle genuinely looks extremely psyched so he might do more expensive research later.

Despite Wise being a board game master Belle and Wise had never actually played a board game together since it would be boring just to play with two people but now that you're here or their friends come over they are insistent that they have to try a board game. One day their dream is to have a D&D party.

Despite Wise not liking most competitive games or games that Belle has in general He just nonchalantly beats them and makes Belle so pissed that's why he doesn't play with her.

Belle gets so annoyed to see Wise smothering you with affection. Because she's jealous it's not her smothering you with affection. Clingy siblings...

[quitealotofsodapop]

Tripitaka is about to get a crash course in cat instincts. Warm sunny spots are his, he’s lightly pushing someone out of their spot. The pilgrims excluding Wukong found out about the catnip the hard way. Cute thought him just batting at Wukong’s tail like a kitten

Wait does Wukong have an egg during this au or separate from that?

Prev.

me and @soniclozdplove have been goofing with his au a bit in the dms.

Might instead rename the au to the "Tiger Monk" au - Tripitaka accidentally gaining his own demonic nickname over the course of the story.

Tripitaka is completely in the dark instinct-wise. He's not a born demon, heck I wouldn't be surprised if his only contact with cats were fat shrine cats without a hunting bone in their body.

He absolutely shrieks the first time he sees something that looks even vaguely like a snake, prompting the Pilgrims to freak out too for a moment before Wukong turns the "snake" over to reveal it to be just a plantain leaf.

Tripitaka panics the first time he subconsciously marks a tree with his claws (tigers do so to identify territory boundaries), only to get carried away and turn it into a scratching post.

Wukong and Ao Lie quickly discover that their Master gets distracted by swaying/twitching tails, and will go full kitten-mode to play with them. It's good fight practice.

Him and Wukong come to a mutual teaching/learning agreement; Wukong will help his master learn the ways of demons and how to protect himself from harm, and Tripitaka will teach his disciple means of curbing his more violent and impulsive actions.

Like how many demons, living a dangerous existence in the wild where humans and wildlife alike want you dead, tend to say "Hi" through fighting.

Tripitaka balks at the idea, but accidentally makes his first progress by lightly bapping the Gold and Silver twins on their backs when they try kidnapping him. The twins guffaw and mock his lack-of strength, but pointedly untie him and start a normal conversation with the Pilgrims.

See the problem is; demons tend to have non-humanoid forms and silhouettes. They need to prove to the other party that "Hey! I'm not dinner! I'm like you!" and the easiest way is to throw a punch. It's like if you were a deer hunter and everyone wore antlers on their heads.

And Tripitaka is now a type of demon that responds to surprise, or even excitement, with smacking their paws on their target.

Macaque's anger towards the Monk is a little lessened, since he sees that Tripitaka himself is victim of divine punishment, rather than the sole instigator. Laughs his ass off to see this tiger demon practically swimming in a cassock meant for a human, and offers help with the demonic etiquette part of Tripitaka's training.

Meanwhile with Azure "The Dud" Lion;

He still has no rizz. This tomcat getting smacked by eight (Macaque and Yellow Tusk tagged in) different hands whenever he tries flirting with the Buddha's Boy Scout. Also he still has unresolved feelings for Wukong, so his cat-brain isn't firing on all cylinders.

Tripitaka: "I never want to deal with another male cat demon again after that adventure!" The Tiger Power Priest: "Hello my dear Tiger Monk~" Tawny Lion Demon Clan: "We saw him first!" Leopard King of the Southern Hill: "No I saw him first!" The Pilgrims + Macaque: "NONE OF YOU SAW HIM FIRST!!"

The Queen Mother herself gets involved after she peaks down and nearly mistakes Tripitaka for one of her daughters. She thinks of the Human-turned-Tiger as adorable as a cub getting used to their legs. She gives him great advice on their species behaviours, and warns him of further suiting attempts.

Wukong doesn't have an Egg in this Au, but something hilarious probably occurs during the Kingdom of Women chapter;

Wukong: "Master! Me and Wujing managed to get the Spring Water Cure for you and Brother Pig!" Tripitaka: "Don't want it." Wukong & Wujing: "HUH!?" Tripitaka: "If the Buddha has blessed me with a sinless child, I do not wish to reject his gift." Bajie, in the bathroom: "A gift my hams!! Your mother cat instincts are going haywire!" Tripitaka: "Even if that is so, some of my more... undesirous instincts have quietened. I prefer to experience this than what I was suppressing before." (*curls up, purring*) Wukong, turns to Wujing: "Well! I guess we're going to have tiger cubs for the rest of the Journey!" Wujing: "Not exactly. I was in Heaven when the Queen Mother was with her final pregnancy. Celestial and demonic animals can carry their young for many years." Wukong, raises brow: "Uh-huh, yeah. Tell me, how many cubs did she have?" Wujing, gets quiet: "...lets consider that after we reach India." Bajie, pokes head out of bathroom: "Where's it gonna come out???" Ao Lie, giggling: "As if that's an issue for demons!"

[acepalindrome]

I might be naive, but I still believe in people’s capacity to change for the better, even if they have held absolutely abhorrent beliefs in the past.

Here’s a fun fact: in the 1920s, a young Vincent Price traveled to Germany and thought Adolf Hitler seemed like a real cool dude! He got swept up in all that talk about restoring Germany to their past glory (does this perhaps sound familiar?) and was swayed into antisemitism. It was easy to get caught up in it all when someone is passionately appealing to all these things that resonate with you, especially when you’re young and/or ignorant about the world outside your little bubble!

And then he wised the fuck up. He started talking to a bunch of liberals in the 1930s and became friends with the likes of Lilian Hellman, and course corrected so hard that he got grey-listed under McCarthyism for being a ‘pre-war anti-nazi.’ And then he spent the rest of his life publicly supporting virtually everyone the nazis would have happily put in a camp.

So people who voted for Trump in 2020? I’m willing to accept that you had room to change and grow. Maybe you thought what you saw as the good would outweigh the bad. Maybe you thought he wouldn’t really do anything that awful. Maybe you were just ignorant and didn’t realize what you were voting for.

HOWEVER. It’s a different story if you voted for Trump in 2024. This isn’t someone thinking Hitler had some good ideas in the 1920. This is someone who thinks you can morally justify voting for Hitler in the 1930s when it’s abundantly clear what he’s about.

But good news, if you were stupid and morally bankrupt to still vote for Trump in 2024! There were people who kept aligning with the nazis for their own personal gain who managed to do enough good to deserve being remembered well by history! But those people? They had to do a fuck of a lot more than just renouncing Hitler. When you cross a certain threshold, that it no longer sufficient to make up for your crimes.

People who come to mind are Oskar Schindler and John Rabe. Both Nazi businessmen who sacrificed their fortune and good standing to save the lives of innocent people, and who ultimately die in poverty. They weren’t ’good Nazis.’ They did good despite their previous self serving, vile political affiliations, and were able to use their connections to protect the innocent. Schindler protected about 1,200 Jewish workers at his factory from being sent to Auschwitz. Rabe, who was doing business in China, created a safe zone during the Nanjing Massacre and sheltered about 250,000 Chinese civilians. I feel like that’s enough to be allowed to have history remember you well.

In short, if you still voted for Trump in 2024, you don’t deserve forgiveness unless you’re willing to give up everything to help the people you’re hurting with your vote. Words aren’t enough any more. Take real action to fix what you allowed to happen, or I hope you never know peace again for the rest of your miserable life.

[crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf]

Thank @feral-ferrule for reminding me of this little aside. Now ya'll gotta deal with it.

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Dosing the Batch Boys: (Glitterstim)

In Disgrace (ch3) Crosshair and Tah'nyem are dosed with Glitterstim, a psychoactive variant of spice made by the spiders that live in the caves of Kessel. It lets you read minds...This results in their minds slamming together in new an confusing ways, which is fun for their chapter but it even occurs to them that it might be even funner in bed, let's explore that a little.

Though glitterstim is canon it's underutilized and definitely not utilized the way that I do, so this is very HC based. We're also going to assume that the drug doesn't affect the health of the boys in anyway. (Echo, sweetie I worry about you other wise.)

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Hunter-

I think what would get Hunter off the most about being in your brain is the complete confirmation that all of your praise is genuine. All the boys might be surprised at just how attracted clonethirst girlies are to them but Hunter is particularly susceptible to the flattery of it. Ego boosted, the next aspect he would utilize is the direct feedback for how pleasurable his actions were. You'd probably not get to actively participate as much because he would get wrapped up in feeling what heights he could drive you to.

Wrecker-*let me in meme goes here*

What is going on in there? I can only imagine Wrecker's brain being a kind of messy place, sparks flying back and forth, complex equations drawn in crayon... What would be hot about it is just how overwhelmed with his emotions you would get. With practice he might be able to hold back but without it your brain is getting flooded. Joy, exuberance, and of course the sexual pleasure on a feedback loop. Actually, don't do this with Wrecker, you two are gonna fry.

Echo-

You'd have to ease Echo into this, he'd feel a little self conscious that you might feel any discomfort his implants and prosthetics might cause him, and you would, but having that open map would guide you to new ways to comfort him and make him feel good. He'd also find himself enjoying a type of relief basking in your mind. Like Hunter, he'd be enamored with feeling what he does to you and would try to heighten your experience more than focusing on himself.

Crosshair-

Cross isn't a selfish lover, but unlike Hunter and Echo he's very of the mindset that pleasure is a two way street. He'd more than likely take advantage of the connection by doing things that are mutually beneficial and might yield crazy results via feedback a la 69ing. More closed off and focused, Crosshair would have more control over holding your mind on task, easily keeping you away from parts of him he wouldn't want you to see.

Tech-

Where do I start?

Absolute dog shit at staying on task, once you let this little gremlin loose in your brain he'll start to rip you apart like an engine. Good luck keeping him out of your deepest darkest secrets, your half forgotten ruminations, dreams, and whatever other threads he gets his hands on. Not like it'd be much better, but you can also step into the whirring whirlwind resting in his brain pan. A single calculated thought releases so much mental energy you're floored immediately. There's not even sex yet, and since you'd be a helpless kitten of an rc car hooked up to the power of a jet engine you might as well let him run wild kriffing you within full efficiency.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Not that it moves the plot much besides being way too comfortable with each other too quickly, there are lasting effects of the Glitterstim on CrossXTahny.

She never gets a clean slate with the rest of the Batch Boys since she was exposed quite strongly to Crosshair's opinions of them. His opinions of them directly after Kamino. Yeah.

Also more of a fun fact, in case of alternative dimension shenanigans, Tahny would always be able to pick her Crosshair out of a line up. Even if it's between other Crosshair's that had Glitterstim experiences with other Tah'nyems.

Kids got little tan lines in the shape of each other burned into their brains.

[monimccoythings]

Arlong x reader headcanons

Gosh I'd never thought I'd be doing this. After watching the One Piece Live Action I couldn't help but focus on how amazingly portrayed Arlong was, It was not perfect of course, but it was greatly done just like the rest of the series. I never paid much attention to Arlong in the anime, but gosh he was hot in the Live Action. It has to be the voice... Well, given my surprise at the lack of Arlong fics in the monsterfucking website, I decided to put a remedy to it.

Let's make things clear, you are not his equal, in any single way. To him you are just a pet. A pet he's fiercely possessive and protective of, but a pet after all.

To remind you who you belong to he has you on a collar and leash. If he thinks you are moving to far away he just pulls on the leash to bring you back to his side. Sometimes he will do this for no reason just to annoy you. Because he is an asshole.

He won't brand you with a tattoo, that's for official members, not pets. But still, he will make your living arrangments comfortable enough for you to live somewhat decently. "I don't want my lovely pet upset, do I?" He tells you mockingly.

You don't seem to be prejudiced against fishmen in any way, in fact, you didn't even know that there were prejudices. The way you casually talk to them, as if they were not monsters is one of the things that drew Arlong to you.

Even if you don't have any prejudices, that doesn't mean you are automatically okay with your current situation. Arlong is a bully, a racist jerk that would rather destroy everything than having peace between humans and fishmen. He is a coward at heart and will compromise his vision of Fishmen ruling over the seas over more money and power. The way he treats you is degrading, dehumanizing, the only things that keep you in Arlong Park instead of running away are: your inability to outrun the Fishmen and the soft look in Arlong's eyes when he observes you when he thinks you are not looking.

His crew doesn't seem to mind you at all, they keep their distance because they know you are off-limits. However they like to hear your funny anecdotes before you were abducted and they absolutely adore smashing you at cards becuase you can't seem to remember the rules that were explained to you minutes ago. If they had to pick a single human to save in their new regime, it would be you, honestly.

If Arlong is not there, be sure there'll be always someone watching over you, in case you decide to start getting ideas. You feel conflicted about it, on the one hand you feel insulted Arlong feels the need to have someone babysitting you, after all, you gave your word; on the other hand, you kinda feel bad for the fishman that has to begrudginly stay to take care of the annoying human. The best thing you can do is try to keep the dude entertained with stories of the books you have read and the games you used to play back in your island.

Arlong does not mess around. He is a possessive and very jealous fishman. If he sees anyone, literally anyone, start to make advances on you he'll go for the kill. His crewmembers are smart enough to not pull off a stunt like that. So things can go in two different ways: if your would-be-suitor is a fellow fishman he will sent them a death glare their way until they get the memo; however if they are human, it will be the last time you see them. You wisely choose to ignore the small bloodstains on Arlong's lips.

Sometimes, if you are given enough agency and the leash isn't hooked to the collar, you like to sit on the roof and watch the sea, wondering if your family is okay, if they miss you and if they are proud of you. If it meant keeping them and your village safe, you would do it again. After a couple of hours have passed, Arlong comes to collect you. Sometimes he carries you right away to your chambers, but there are times when he just stands there, watching with you in complete silence. You don't dare to wonder what is crossing his mind, still, you appreciate those moments. They show that he could be more than a misanthropist bully, even if it is just for a couple of hours.