#god why do I sound like a cartoon character at that part?!?! lmao

[candyheartedchy]

Tippy Tap Tallulah!!!

[chappell-roans]

off topic but I just saw a post and the whole adults reading watching media for kids or ya is bad discourse is so stupid my god. youre an adult you should be reading Tolstoy like f-

TOLSTOY LMAO.

okay so. in discourse extremes are often bad, i do think people can consume whatever they want but there is a frightening rise in adults consuming exclusively media aimed at children. and not exploring any further. the great gatsby is too hard, i'll just watch moana again. which, is fine. i've seen moana like 5 times! it hit me hard as a young adult! but like i'm not going to only watch those things. and then companies (say, disney, but basically every entertainment company) is listening to this and making things more and more dumbed down and yeah idk. again, really nothing i can do about it and acting like no one should enjoy these things is also unhelpful. but idk i do think something changed and while i (for the most part) aged out of reading john green type of ya fiction (still wanna read his nonfiction ngl), a lot of people haven't?? and IDK. i'm not saying you're wrong and like there's layers to it. there is plenty of children's media that is GOOD and made for all types of people to enjoy, but idk. i think it's the all/nothing mindset i guess sfnldm. (and just to be clear, i know that you aren't asserting everyone should just go live in fairytales and go to disneyland everyday, anon, i truly just am a sociology nerd at heart and so am going to take this opportunity to reference some articles that i read literal years ago fohisd.)

there are some articles i've read about it in passing and they're probably going to sound harsh, take with a grain of salt, i'm not saying it's all right, etc., but i mostly just find this stuff fascinating. articles and quotes below. (i ended up copy and pasting... most of the articles, so i bolded the important parts. siodfnlk again. for general reading and mostly for myself. i haven't even read tolstoy FSDKNJ.)

but i am putting this above the cut:

"But we will never make the world better if we act like this. Thinking of yourself as a smol bean baby is a way of tapping out and expecting other people to fight on your behalf. It also makes you a more pliant consumer. Social media is awash with the idea that ‘it’s valid not to be productive’, as though productivity were the only manifestation of capitalism and streaming Disney+ all day is a form of resistance. It’s much rarer to encounter the idea that we have a responsibility about what we consume, or that satisfying our own desires whenever we want is not always a good thing: “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” has morphed into “there is no unethical consumption under capitalism”." --- Everyone needs to grow up

The infantilization of Western culture

"If you regularly watch TV, you’ve probably seen a cartoon bear pitching you toilet paper, a gecko with a British accent selling you auto insurance and a bunny in sunglasses promoting batteries. This has always struck me as a bit odd. Sure, it makes sense to use cartoon characters to sell products to kids — a phenomenon that’s been well-documented. But why are advertisers using the same techniques on adults?

To me, it’s just one symptom of a broader trend of infantilization in Western culture. It began before the advent of smartphones and social media. But, as I argue in my book “The Terminal Self,” our everyday interactions with these computer technologies have accelerated and normalized our culture’s infantile tendencies.

But some cultural practices today routinely infantilize large swaths of the population. We see it in our everyday speech, when we refer to grown women as “girls”; in how we treat senior citizens, when we place them in adult care centers where they’re forced to surrender their autonomy and privacy; and in the way school personnel and parents treat teenagers, refusing to acknowledge their intelligence and need for autonomy, restricting their freedom, and limiting their ability to enter the workforce."

Visiting America in 1946, French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss commented on the endearingly infantile traits of American culture. He especially noted adults’ childish adulation of baseball, their passionate approach to toy-like cars and the amount of time they invested in hobbies. As contemporary scholars note, however, this “infantilist ethos” has become less charming — and more pervasive.

Researchers in Russia and Spain have even identified infantilist trends in language, and French sociologist Jacqueline Barus-Michel observes that we now communicate in “flashes,” rather than via thoughtful discourse — “poorer, binary, similar to computer language, and aiming to shock.” Others have noted similar trends in popular culture — in the shorter sentences in contemporary novels, in the lack of sophistication in political rhetoric and in sensationalist cable news coverage.

While we might find it trivial or amusing, the infantilist ethos becomes especially seductive in times of social crises and fear. And its favoring of simple, easy and fast betrays natural affinities for certain political solutions over others. And typically not intelligent ones.

Democratic policymaking requires debate, demands compromise and involves critical thinking. It entails considering different viewpoints, anticipating the future, and composing thoughtful legislation. What’s a fast, easy and simple alternative to this political process? It’s not difficult to imagine an infantile society being attracted to authoritarian rule.

Unfortunately, our social institutions and technological devices seem to erode hallmarks of maturity: patience, empathy, solidarity, humility and commitment to a project greater than oneself. All are qualities that have traditionally been considered essential for both healthy adulthood and for the proper functioning of democracy.

Everyone needs to grow up

"You can see it in the widely circulated – and largely untrue – idea that the human brain isn’t developed until the age of 25, which means that anyone younger is still essentially a child. It’s there in the notion that people with ADHD can’t text back their friends because they lack object permanence (a skill that babies develop at eight months old). It’s there in the narrative that, because gay people didn’t experience a normal childhood, they’re living out a second adolescence in their twenties and thirties. It’s there in the hegemony of superhero films and the cross-generational popularity of YA, whose fans insist that grown-up literature is only ever about depressed college professors having affairs.

You can see it in Disney adults; the rise of cuteness as a dominant aesthetic category; the resurgence of stuffed animals; people who identify as Hufflepuffs on their Hinge profile; people throwing tantrums when their Gorillas rider is five minutes late; people lip-syncing, with pouted lips and furrowed brows, to audio tracks of toddlers. Sometimes, it’s less about pretending to be a child and more about harking back to a lost adolescence: narrativising your life like it’s a John Green novel or an episode of Euphoria, bragging about crazzzy exploits like smoking cigarettes on a swing or doing cocaine on a Thursday; hitting 30 and still considering yourself “precocious”.

Most complaints about the infantilism of young people have typically come from the right, which has pointed to safe spaces and trigger warnings as evidence that Gen Z and millennials have been coddled to the point of softness. The right-wing critique of infantilism usually contends that, due to a vague decline in moral fibre, young people aren’t willing to embrace the mantles of adulthood, like moving out of the family home, entering into a stable career, getting married and starting a family.

For the most part, though, swerving these milestones is not an active choice that young people are making: adulthood is something that has been denied to many of us, who couldn’t buy a flat or start a family even if we wanted to. “In an age where so much agency has been taken away from young adults, when they face futures saddled with debt, unable to access the basic material trappings of adulthood, which in turn delays entry into emotional adulthood indefinitely, a retreat into the dubious comforts of a pseudo-childhood will have its pull,” Professor Josh Cohen, psycho-analyst and author of How to Live, What to Do, tells Dazed.

That said, even if the economy is foisting an extended adolescence on us, we can still choose to assert our dignity and refuse to become “baby adults” or 26-year-old teenagers, helpless and dependent. Make no mistake: the capitalist elites want you to think of yourself as a silly little goose.

What would rejecting this helplessness look like? The right see adulthood as a process of settling down, getting married and having children; in effect, conforming to conventional gender roles and being productive members of the workforce. We obviously don’t have to buy into that, at any age. But we can aspire towards a different form of maturity: looking after ourselves, treating other people with care, being invested in something beyond our own immediate satisfaction. Infantilising yourself can often seem like a plea for diminished responsibility.

But we will never make the world better if we act like this. Thinking of yourself as a smol bean baby is a way of tapping out and expecting other people to fight on your behalf. It also makes you a more pliant consumer. Social media is awash with the idea that ‘it’s valid not to be productive’, as though productivity were the only manifestation of capitalism and streaming Disney+ all day is a form of resistance. It’s much rarer to encounter the idea that we have a responsibility about what we consume, or that satisfying our own desires whenever we want is not always a good thing: “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” has morphed into “there is no unethical consumption under capitalism”.

Children are the perfect customers: suggestible, impulsive, driven by an insatiable and replenishable desire for pleasure. This is why, in the 1950s, companies leaned into ‘the teenager’ as an emerging market – you can only sell so many long-lasting household appliances. Adverts today are as eager as ever to speak to us as though we are babies, whether it’s Innocent smoothies telling us not to eat conkers or Heinz ketchup announcing that “adulting sucks”. As Felicity Martin wrote on Dazed earlier this week, pre-teen, teen and young women are increasingly being lumped together, consuming the same culture and being marketed the same products.

In a more subtle way, conservatives self-infantilise by denying their own agency: faced with the supposed “excesses” of the movements for LGTBQ+ rights and racial justice, they see themselves as being pushed towards extremism. But categorising other people as children – who can be overruled in their own best interests – forms part of the same project: in recent years, there has been a concerted effort to raise the age at which trans people can access gender-affirming care. Legislators in at least three states in the US are currently moving to deny this treatment to adults up to the age of 25, on the basis that they are not yet mature enough to provide informed consent. Oppressed groups aren’t always infantilised – in a process known as ‘adultification’, children from racialised minorities are typically viewed as having more agency, which makes them more likely to be criminalised– but the right is happy to deploy a diversity of tactics. Just as it’s a common behaviour in abusive relationships, infantilisation can be a mechanism for political domination and control.

Even if infantilisation is being pushed upon us, even if the helplessness we feel has a tangible basis in reality, even if adulting really does suck, we can still choose to see ourselves as capable of changing our own lives and the world around us. “The harms are undeniable,” says Cohen. “Bottom line: it’s a way of learning to love your oppressor. It takes an acute loss of agency and control and transforms it into a state to be desired and enjoyed. Once you embrace this way of being, the demands and rewards of adult life are going to seem all the more remote and all the more forbidding and unpleasurable.”

[babygirl-diaz]

We've read SamBucky meets Young Bucky and SamBucky meets Young Sam, now imagine Young Sam meets Young Bucky, that'll be legendary lmao

((Hey, anon! I hope this finds its way to you. I basically wrote this as crack. Hope you like it!))

***

“Buck?” Sam asked as he answered the phone. “You must be a mind reader because I was just about to call you. I have a big problem!”

“I have a big problem!”

Their same declaration surprised Sam, but Bucky’s problem couldn’t be as big as his, so he said as much, “I’m sure my problem is bigger than yours.”

“Yeah, don’t be so sure. Because I have an enormous problem.” Bucky huffed.

“Wait… Are we still talking about our problems?” Sam asked when he realized their conversation may have deviated to a very different route.

“Look, Sam, I don’t have time for this. You need to get to New York. Stat.” Bucky practically ordered, making Sam frown.

“I can’t,” Sam replied.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Bucky asked with an edge in his voice.

“I have a… house guest,” Sam replied as he turned around and looked at said guest, who was currently tied to the dining room chair. No, that’s not how Sam normally treated his guests, but this was an exception.

“A house guest? You are such a liar,” Bucky scoffed.

“You don’t have to believe me but it’s the truth.”

“Who is it?” Bucky asked.

“I can’t tell you that. You wouldn’t believe me if I did,” Sam replied and his own voice sounded nervous to him.

“Trust me, after what I’ve seen today, I’d believe in unicorns if you told me they existed,” said Bucky.

The line went quiet for a few seconds, and Sam wondered if Bucky had hung up. He had to admit; he was getting a little worried about his friend. “Bucky?”

“Fine, I’ll come to D.C. Give me a couple hours.” With that, Bucky hung up before Sam could say anything.

“Hello? Bucky?” Sam called out. “Dammit,” he mumbled under his breath.

Sam turned to his tied-up “house guest” and frowned at him. Said house guest was currently struggling in the chair. Sam walked over to the chair and slowly removed the duct tape from his mouth and the man glared at him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” He yelled. “Free me right now!”

“Not until I figure out who--- what you are,” Sam replied.

“I am YOU!” the man replied. Well, he was more like a kid. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“How is that possible?” Sam asked, “You are clearly some kind of--- shapeshifter!”

“Shapeshifter? They don’t exist!” The kid scoffed. He then released a deep breath and said, “Look, I know this is crazy--”

“That’s an understatement”

The kid pointedly ignored him, “--BUT I think I somehow ended up in the future. I mean, look at you, you’re old.”

“Excuse you!” Sam balked.

“I mean, you’re older than me…”

“How are you so chill about this?”

“You’re freaking out enough for the both of us,” the kid replied.

***

It took Bucky a little more than a few hours to get there.

“Well, about damn ti--” Sam said, opening the door, but stopped mid-sentence when he saw Bucky wasn’t alone.

Sam’s jaw dropped open, and his eyes widened when he saw the person beside Bucky. “What the fuck?” Just like Sam, there was a younger version of Bucky standing right in front of him.

Young Bucky pushed Buck aside and got in front of him. “Hey there, doll. I’m James Buchanan Barnes, but you can me Bucky,” young Bucky introduced himself and held out his hand in front of him.

Dumbfounded, Sam took his hand and shook it, but young Bucky held his hand for a little longer than necessary, and then, much to Sam’s surprise, he kissed the top of his hand.

Behind him, Bucky let out a groan.

“Seriously? Do you flirt with everything on two legs?” Bucky asked, sounding exasperated.

“I don’t discriminate, Metal Man,” young Bucky replied

“Metal Man?” Sam raised an eyebrow

“He’s part Metal, part Man, so Metal Man,” young Bucky told him excitedly

“Wow, you really gave that a lot of thought,” Sam said sarcastically.

“Ha! I like y--” young Bucky stopped mid-sentence and his eyes widened almost comically like a cartoon character. “Whoa,” he blinked at something behind Sam, and then, much to Sam’s surprise, he hip-checked him out of the way and invited himself into his apartment.

Sam turned around to find young Bucky carefully approaching young Sam.

“I think I’m in love,” he announced.

“What is happening?” Bucky asked. “Is that--”

“Yep, that’s the younger version of me,” Sam replied, looking at the kid in his military uniform.

“Shit… what is happening here?” Bucky asked again. “Where did they come from?”

“Hell if I know,” Sam replied.

Young Bucky was now on one knee in front of young Sam and staring up at him.

Sam could only see his younger self, who was staring back at young Bucky like he had hung the moon for him. And he suddenly seemed to have forgotten that he was tied to a chair.

“Hi,” young Sam whispered.

“Hi,” young Bucky replied. “I’m James Buchanan Barnes, but you can call me Bucky." He introduced himself but this time there wasn’t any flirtatiousness in his voice.

“I’m Samuel Thomas Wilson, but you can call me Sam.”

“Sam,” young Bucky repeated the name like he was testing it out. “You’re beautiful, Sam.”

Young Sam shyly looked down and bit down on his lips. “You’re not too bad-looking yourself,” he said.

“Sweetheart, do you have a dame or a fella in your life?” He asked.

“Dame or fella?” Sam whispered to Bucky, who just stood there stoic, not saying a word.

“No, I’m single,” young Sam replied. “I mean, this one guy just asked me out, but I was plucked from my timeline and thrown here before I could go on said date.”

“Well, I thank whatever god is out there for that,” said young Bucky. “I would have been really heartbroken if you were taken.”

“Why?” young Sam asked and bit down on his bottom lip.

“Because I think I may be in love with you.”

“What?!” Sam screeched

“Excuse me?!” Bucky asked at the same time.

Both Sam and Bucky looked at each other and rolled their eyes before turning back to the two young versions of themselves.

“I think I might reciprocate those feelings,” young Sam replied, much to Sam’s surprise. He doesn’t remember being this naïve and a complete dumbass.

“Great, they’re in love,” Buck grumbled beside him.

“They’re not in love… they’re just dumb kids,” Sam huffed.

“Which asshole tied you up like this?” Young Bucky asked as he untied Sam

“Him,” young Sam nodded towards Sam.

Young Bucky turned around and glared at him. “How dare you tie up the love of my life?”

“The love of your life?” Sam almost choked.

“Yes, Sam here is the one I have been looking for my whole life.” Bucky took young Sam’s hands as he stood up from the chair and the two of them stared at each other with love and awe. And then they were kissing...

Sam wasn’t sure which one of them initiated the kiss, but soon they were all over each other, kissing like they were two drowning men, holding onto each other for dear life.

“And now they’re kissing,” Bucky commented beside him.

“Wow, thanks for the commentary, Buck. I, of course, can’t see for myself that they’re kissing,” Sam scoffed.

“What do we do about them?” Bucky asked, clearing his throat.

The longer they kissed, the more awkward Sam felt, standing next to his best friend, who he most definitely didn’t want to kiss.

The two kids pulled apart from the kiss, but stayed close to each other and giggled like a couple of schoolgirls. They were whispering something to each other that Sam couldn’t hear.

“Have you ever thought about--” Sam didn’t finish his thought.

“About kissing you?” Bucky finished it for him. “Yes, I have.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Sam asked.

“Didn’t want you to kick my ass,” Bucky replied.

That made Sam chuckle. “I wouldn’t have kicked your ass. Not for that, anyway.”

Soon Bucky’s metal hand found its way to Sam’s, and he took it and intertwined their fingers.

Young Bucky and young Sam were kissing again and Sam suddenly had the urge to kiss his own Bucky. Their young versions soon pulled away and took each other’s hands before coming over to Sam and Bucky.

“We have decided that Sam is coming with me back to my timeline,” young Bucky informed them.

“Uh no, he’s not,” Sam replied. “You don’t exactly come from a tolerant time.”

“I have to agree with Sam,” Bucky chimed in.

“Fine! Then Bucky is coming with me,” young Sam huffed.

“He can’t,” Bucky told him. “He’s not from this universe.”

“What?!” Sam asked.

“He comes from a universe where Peggy Carter became the Captain, not Steve.”

“What the hell?” Sam blinked at young Bucky. A person from a whole other universe. That was crazier than his younger self coming here from the past.

“Wait, you’re friends with Captain America? You’re that Bucky Barnes?!” Young Sam asked, surprised.

“No, that’s him,” Sam said, pointing at his Bucky.

Young Sam completely ignored him and grinned at Bucky. “That’s the coolest thing ever. My boyfriend is a famous historical figure.”

“Your boyfriend?” Bucky, Sam’s Bucky, choked.

And then young Sam and young Bucky were kissing again.

“Wait till he finds out that you’re Captain America,” Bucky chuckled.

Sam glared at him in return. “We’re not telling them anything. We don’t know what the repercussions will be!”

Young Sam and young Bucky were so lost in each other that they didn’t even hear Sam and Bucky talking about them. The young ones finally pulled apart to catch a breath.

“I’m not going anywhere without him,” young Sam adamantly told him and took young Bucky’s hand again.

“I’m not going anywhere without him either,” added young Bucky. “I believe I was sent here to meet the love of my life.”

“He is not the love of your life,” Sam sighed. “You’re kids. How old are you again?”

“I’m 20!” Young Bucky replied.

“I’m 18,” said young Sam. “We’re not kids.”

“Metal Man and Not Sam--”

“Hey! I am Sam.” Sam glared at him.

Young Bucky smirked “Metal Man and Not Sam, you are going to figure out how to keep us together.”

“What?” Bucky and Sam asked at the same time.

“You’re gonna figure out a way to keep us together because if you don’t then we’ll just stay here and mess up your timeline,” young Sam added.

“This is a nightmare. This cannot be real,” Sam said, horrified.

[pumpkinpaix]

Hi! Loving your meta on suibian :)) Just wondering what were your frustrations with cql, especially considered you've watched this in multiple mediums? (I've only watched cql)

Hi anon! thank you so much!

Oh boy, you’ve unlocked a boatload of hidden dialogue, are you ready?? :D (buckle up it’s oof. Extremely Long)

@hunxi-guilai please consider this my official pitch for why I think the novel is worth reading, if only so you can enjoy the audio drama more fully. ;)

a few things before I get into it:

I don’t want to make this a 100% negative post because I really do love CQL so much! So I’m going to make it two parts: the changes that frustrated me the most and the changes I loved the most re: CQL vs novel. (again, don’t really know anything about donghua or manhua sorry!!) Sound good? :D

this will contain spoilers for the entirety of CQL and the novel. just like. All of it.

talking about the value of changes in CQL is difficult because I personally don’t know what changes were made for creative reasons and what changes were made for censorship reasons. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to evaluate the narrative worth of certain changes when I don’t know what their limitations were. It’s not just a matter of “gay content was censored”; China also has certain censorship restrictions on the portrayal of the undead, among other things. I, unfortunately, am not familiar enough with the ins and outs of Chinese censorship to be able to tell anyone with certainty what was and wasn’t changed for what reason. So I guess just, take whatever my opinions are with a grain of salt! I will largely avoid addressing issues related to how explicitly romantic wangxian is, for obvious reasons.

OKAY. In order to impose some kind of control on how much time I spend on this, I’m going to limit myself to four explicated points in each category, best/worst. Please remember that I change my opinions constantly, so these are just like. the top contenders at this specific point in my life. Starting with the worst so we can end on a positive note!

Henceforth, the novel is MDZS, CQL is CQL.

CQL’s worst crimes, according to cyan:

1. Polarizing Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao on the moral spectrum

I’ve heard rumors that this was a censorship issue, but I have never been able to confirm or deny it, so. Again, grain of salt. 

The way that CQL reframed Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao’s character arcs drives me up the wall because I think it does a huge disservice to both of them and the overarching themes of the story. Jin Guangyao is shown to be responsible for pretty much all the tragedy post-Sunshot, which absolves Wei Wuxian of all possible wrongdoing and flattens Jin Guangyao into a much less interesting villain.

What I find so interesting about MDZS is how much it emphasizes the role of external forces and situations in determining a person’s fate: that being “good” or “righteous” at heart is simply not enough. You can do everything with all the best intentions and still do harm, still fail, still lose everything. Even “right” choices can have terrible consequences. Everyone starts out innocent. “In this world, everyone starts without grievances, but there is always someone who takes the first blow.”

It matters that Wei Wuxian is the one who loses control and kills Jin Zixuan, that his choices (no matter how impossible and terrible the situation) had consequences because the whole point is that even good people can be forced into corners where they do terrible things. Being good isn’t enough. You can do everything right, make every impossible choice, and fail. You can do the right thing and be punished for it. Maybe you did the right thing, but others suffer for your actions. Is that still the right thing? Is it your fault? Is it? By absolving Wei Wuxian of any conceivable blame, it really changes the narrative conclusion. In MDZS, even the best people can do incomprehensible harm when backed into corners, and the audience is asked to evaluate those actions with nuance. Is a criminal fully culpable for the harm they do when their external circumstances forced them into situations where they felt like they had no good choices left?

Personally, I feel like the novel asks you to forgive Wei Wuxian his wrongs, and, in paralleling him with Jin Guangyao, shows how easily they could have been one another. Both of them are extraordinarily talented sons of commoners; the difference lies in what opportunities they were given as they were growing up and how they choose to react to grievances. Wei Wuxian is adopted early on into the head family of a prominent sect and treated (more or less—not going to get into it) like a son. Jin Guangyao begs, borrows, steals, kills for every scrap of prestige and honor he gets and understands that his position in life is, at all points, extraordinarily unstable. Wei Wuxian doesn’t take his grievances to heart, but Jin Guangyao does.

To be clear, I don’t think the novel places a moral value on holding grudges, if that makes sense. I think MDZS only indicates that acts of vengeance always lead to more bloodshed—that the only escape is to lay down your arms, no matter how bitter the taste. Wei Wuxian was horribly wronged in many ways, and I don’t think I would fault him for wanting revenge or holding onto his anger—but I do think it’s clear that if he did, it would destroy him. It destroys Jin Guangyao, after all.

(It also destroys Xue Yang, and I think the parallel actually also extends to him. Yi City, to me, is a very interesting microcosm of a lot of broader themes in MDZS, and I have a lot of Thoughts on Xue Yang and equivalent justice, etc. etc. but. Thoughts for another time.)

Wei Wuxian is granted a happy ending not because he is Good, but because public opinion has changed, because there’s a new scapegoat, because he is protected by someone in power, because he lets go of the past, and because the children see him for who he is. I really do think that the reason MDZS and CQL have a hopeful ending as opposed to a bleak one hinges on the juniors. We are shown very clearly throughout the story how easily and quickly the tide of public opinion turns. The reason we don’t fear that it’s going to happen to Wei Wuxian again (or any other surviving character we love) is, I think, because the juniors, who don’t lose their childhoods to war, have the capacity to see past their parents’ prejudices and evaluate the actions of the people in front of them without having their opinions clouded by intense trauma and fear. They are forged out of love, not fire.

In CQL however, it emphasizes that Wei Wuxian is Fundamentally Good and did No Wrong Ever, so he deserves his happy ending, while Jin Guangyao is Fundamentally Bad and Responsible For Everything, so he got what was coming to him (even if we feel bad for him maybe). That’s not nearly as interesting or meaningful. 


(One specific change to Jin Guangyao’s timeline of evil that I find particularly vexing, not including the one I will discuss in point 2, is changing when Jin Rusong was conceived. In the novel, Qin Su is supposedly already pregnant by the time they get married, and that matters a WHOLE LOT when evaluating Jin Guangyao’s actions, I think.)

2. Wen POWs used as target obstacles at Baifeng Mountain

I know the first point was “here’s an overarching plot change that I think deeply impacts the narrative themes” and this second one is “I despise this one specific scene detail so much”, but HEAR ME OUT. It’s related to the first point! (tbh, most things are related to the first point)

Personally, I think this one detail character assassinates like. almost everyone in attendance, but most egregiously in no particular order: Jin Guangyao, Jin Zixuan (and by extension, Jiang Yanli), Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen.

First, I think it’s a cheap plot device that’s obviously meant to enhance Jin Guangyao’s ~villainy while emphasizing Wei Wuxian’s growing righteous anger, but it fails so spectacularly, god, I literally hate this detail so much lmao. I’ll go by character.

Jin Guangyao: I get that CQL is invested in him being a ~bad person~ or whatever, but this is such a transparently like, cartoon villain move that lacks subtlety and elegance. Jin Guangyao is very dedicated to being highly diplomatic, appeasing, and non-threatening in his bid for power. He manipulates behind the scenes, does his father’s dirty work, etc. but he always shows a gentle, smiling face. This display tips his hand pretty obviously, and even if it were at the behest of his father, there’s literally no reason for him to be so “ohohoho I’m so evil~” about it—if anything, this would only serve to drive his sympathizers away. It’s a stupid move for him politically, and really undercuts his supposed intelligence and cleverness, in my personal opinion.

Jin Zixuan: yes, he is arrogant and vain and likes to show off! But putting his ego above the safety of innocent people? Like, not necessarily OOC, but it sure makes him much less sympathetic in my eyes. I find it hard to believe that Jiang Yanli would find this laudable or acceptable, but she’s given a few shots where she smiles with some kind of pride and it’s like. No! Do not do my queen dirty like this. She wouldn’t!

Wei Wuxian: where do I start! WHERE DO I START. Wei Wuxian is shown to be “righteously angry” about this, but steps down mutinously when Jiang Cheng motions him back. He looks shocked and outraged at Jin Zixuan for showing off with no concern for the safety of the Wen POWs, only to like, two seconds later, do the exact same thing, but worse! And at the provocation of Jin Zixun, no less! *screams into hands* The tonal shift is bizarre! We’re in this really tense ~moral quandary~, but then he flirts with Lan Wangji for a second (tense music still kinda playing?? it’s awful. I hate it), and then does his trickshot. You know! Putting all these people he’s supposedly so concerned about at risk! To one-up Jin Zixuan! It’s nonsensical. It’s such a conflict of priorities. This is supposed to make him seem honorable and cool, I guess? But it mostly just makes him look like a performative hypocrite. :///

Lan Wangji: I cannot believe that Lan Wangji saw this and did not immediately walk out in protest.

Lan Xichen: this is just one part of a larger problem with Lan Xichen’s arc in CQL vs MDZS, where his character development was an unwitting casualty of both wangxian censorship and CQL’s quest to demonize Jin Guangyao. One of the prevailing criticisms I see of Lan Xichen’s character is that he is a “centrist”, that he “allows bad things to happen through his inaction and desire to avoid conflict”, and that he is “stupid and willfully blind to Jin Guangyao’s faults”, when I don’t think any of this is supported by evidence in the novel whatsoever. Jin Guangyao is a subtle villain! He is a talented manipulator and liar! Even Wei Wuxian says it in the novel!

(forgive my rough translations /o\)

Chapter 49, as Wei Wuxian (through Empathy with Nie Mingjue’s head) listens to Lan Xichen defend Meng Yao immediately following Wen Ruohan’s assassination:

魏无羡心中摇头：“泽芜君这个人还是……太纯善了。”可再一想，他是因为已知金光瑶的种种嫌疑才能如此防备，可在蓝曦臣面前的孟瑶，却是一个忍辱负重，身不由己，孤身犯险的卧底，二人视角不同，感受又如何能相提并论？

Wei Wuxian shook his head to himself: “This Zewu-jun is still…… too pure and kind.” But then he thought again—he could only be so guarded because he already knew of all of Jin Guangyao’s suspicious behavior, but the Meng Yao before Lan Xichen was someone who had had no choice but to suffer in silence for his mission, who placed himself in grave danger, alone, undercover. The two of them had different perspectives, so how could their feelings be compared?

Chapter 63, after Wei Wuxian wakes up in the Cloud Recesses, having been brought there by Lan Wangji:

他不是不能理解蓝曦臣。他从聂明玦的视角看金光瑶，将其奸诈狡猾与野心勃勃尽收眼底，然而，如果金光瑶多年来在蓝曦臣面前一直以伪装相示，没理由要他不去相信自己的结义兄弟，却去相信一个臭名昭著腥风血雨之人。

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Lan Xichen. He had seen Jin Guangyao from Nie Mingjue’s perspective, and so had seen all of his treacherous and cunning obsession with ambition. However, if Jin Guangyao had for all these years only shown Lan Xichen a disguise, there was no reason for [Lan Xichen] to believe a famously violent person [Wei Wuxian] over his own sworn brother.

Lan Xichen, throughout the story, is being actively lied to and manipulated by Jin Guangyao. His only “mistake” was being kind and trying to give Meng Yao, someone who came from a place of great disadvantage, the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately dismissing him as worthless due to his birth or his station in life. Lan Xichen sees Meng Yao as someone who was forced to make impossible choices in impossible situations—you know, the way that we, the audience, are led to perceive Wei Wuxian. The only difference is that the story that we’re given about Wei Wuxian is true, while the story that Lan Xichen is given about Meng Yao is… not. But how would have have known?

The instant he is presented with a shred of evidence to the contrary, he revokes Jin Guangyao’s access to the Cloud Recesses, pursues that evidence to the last, and is horrified to discover that his trust was misplaced.

Lan Xichen’s willingness to consider different points of view is integral to Wei Wuxian’s survival and eventual happiness. Without Lan Xichen’s kindness, there is no way that Wei Wuxian would have ever been able to clear his name. Everyone else was calling for his blood, but Lan Wangji took him home, and Lan Xichen not only allowed it, he listened to and helped them. To the characters of the book who are not granted omniscient knowledge of Wei Wuxian’s actions and circumstances, there is literally no difference between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao. Lan Xichen is being incredibly fair when he asks in chapter 63:

蓝曦臣笑了，道：“忘机，你又是如何判定，一个人究竟可信不可信？”

他看着魏无羡，道：“你相信魏公子，可我，相信金光瑶。大哥的头在他手上，这件事我们都没有亲眼目睹，都是凭着我们自己对另一个人的了解，相信那个人的说辞。

“你认为自己了解魏无羡，所以信任他；而我也认为自己了解金光瑶，所以我也信任他。你相信自己的判断，那么难道我就不能相信自己的判断吗？”

Lan Xichen laughed and said, “Wangji, how can you determine exactly who should and should not be believed?”

He looked at Wei Wuxian and said, “You believe Wei-gongzi, but I believe Jin Guangyao. Neither of us saw with our own eyes whether Da-ge’s head was in his possession. We base our opinions on our own understandings of someone else, our belief in their testimony.

“You think you understand Wei Wuxian, and so you trust him; I also think I understand Jin Guangyao, so I trust him. You trust your own judgment, so can’t I trust my own judgment as well?”

But he hears them out, examines the proof, and acts immediately.

I really do feel like this aspect of Lan Xichen kind of… became collateral damage in CQL. Because Jin Guangyao is so much more publicly malicious, Lan Xichen’s alleged “lack of action” feels much less understandable or acceptable.

It is wild to me that in this scene, Lan Xichen reacts with discomfort to the proceedings, but has nothing to say to Jin Guangyao about it afterwards and also applauds Wei Wuxian’s archery. (I could talk about Nie Mingjue here as well, but I would say Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen have very different perspectives on morality, so this moment isn’t necessarily OOC for NMJ, but I do think is very OOC for LXC.) This scene (among a few others that have Jin Guangyao being more openly “evil”) makes Lan Xichen look like a willfully blind bystander by the end of the story, but having him react with any action would have been inconvenient for the plot. Thus, he behaves exactly as he did in the book, but under very different circumstances. It reads inconsistently with the rest of his character (since a lot of the beats in the novel still happen in the show), and weakens the narrative surrounding his person.

None of these overt displays of cruelty or immorality happen in the book, so it makes perfect sense that he doesn’t do or suspect anything! Jin Guangyao is, as stated, perfectly disguised towards Lan Xichen. You can’t blame him for “failing to act” when someone was purposefully keeping him in the dark and, from his perspective, there was nothing to act upon.

This scene specifically is almost purely lighthearted in the novel! If you take out the Wen POWs, this just becomes a fun scene where Wei Wuxian shows off, flirts with Lan Wangji, gets into a pissing match with Jin Zixuan, and is overall kind of a brat! It’s great! I love this scene! The blindfolded shot is ridiculous and over-the-top and very cute!

I know this is a lot of extrapolation, but the whole scene is soured for me due to you know. *gestures upwards* Which is really a shame because it’s one of my favorite silly scenes in the book! Alas! @ CQL why! ;A;

3. Lan Xichen already being an adult and sect leader at the start of the show

This is rapidly becoming a, “Lan Xichen was Wronged and I Have the Receipts” essay (oh no), but you know what, that’s fine I guess! I never said I was impartial!

CQL makes Lan Xichen seem much older and more experienced than he is in the novel, though we’re not given his specific age. In the novel, he is not sect leader yet when Wei Wuxian and co. arrive at the Cloud Recesses for lectures. His father, Qingheng-jun, is in seclusion, and his uncle is the de facto leader of the sect. Lan Xichen does not become sect leader until his father dies at the burning of the Cloud Recesses. Moreover, my understanding of the text is that he is at most 19 years old when this happens. Wen Ruohan remarks that Lan Xichen is still a junior at the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign in chapter 61. (If someone has a different interpretation of the term 小辈, please correct me.) In any case! Lan Xichen is young.

Lan Xichen ascends to power under horrific circumstances: he is not an adult, his father has just been murdered, his uncle seriously injured, his brother kidnapped, and his home burnt to the ground. He is on the run, alone! Carrying the sacred texts of his family and trying to stay alive so his sect is not completely wiped out on the eve of war! He is terrified, inexperienced, and unprepared!

You know, just like Jiang Cheng, a few months later!

I see a lot of people lambasting Lan Xichen for not stepping up to protect the Wen remnants post-Sunshot, but I’m always flummoxed by the accusations because I don’t see criticisms of Jiang Cheng with remotely the same vitriol, even though their political positions are nearly identical:

they are both extraordinarily young sect leaders who came to power before they expected to through incredible violence done to their families

because of this, they are in very weak political positions: they have very little experience to offer as evidence of their competence and right to respect. if they are considered adults, they have only very recently come of age.

Jin Guangshan, who is rapidly and greedily taking the place of the Wen clan in the vacuum of power, is shown to be more than willing to mow people down to get what he wants—and he has the power to do so.

both Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan were crippled by the Wen clan prior to Sunshot. And they just fought a war that lasted two and a half years. they are hugely weakened and in desperate need of time to rebuild, mourn, etc. both Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are responsible for the well-being of all of these people who are now relying upon them.

I think it’s very obvious that Jiang Cheng is in an impossible situation because he wears his fears and insecurities on his face and people in power (cough Jin Guangshan) prey upon that, while we, as the audience, have a front row seat for that whole tragedy. We understand his choices, even if they hurt us.

Why shouldn’t Lan Xichen be afforded the same consideration?

I really do think that because he’s presented as someone who’s much more composed and confident in his own abilities than Jiang Cheng is, we tend to forget exactly what pressures he was facing at the same time. We just assume, oh yes, of course Lan Xichen has the power to do something! He’s Lan Xichen! The First Jade! Isn’t he supposed to be Perfectly Good? Why isn’t he doing The Right Thing?

I think this is exacerbated by CQL’s decision to make him an established sect leader at the start of the show with several years of experience under his belt. We don’t know his age, but he is assumed to be an Adult. This gives him more power and stability, and so it seems more unacceptable that he does not make moves to protect the Wen remnants, even if in essence, he and Jiang Cheng’s political positions are still quite similar. He doesn’t really have any more power to save the Wen remnants without placing his whole clan in danger of being wiped out again, but CQL implies that he does, even if it isn’t the intention of the change.

It does make me really sad that this change also drives a further thematic divide between Lan Xichen and the rest of his generation. Almost everyone in that generation came of age through a war, which I think informs the way their tragedies play out, and how those tragedies exist in contrast to the juniors’ behavior and futures. Making Lan Xichen an experienced adult aligns him with the generation prior to him, which, as we’re shown consistently, is the generation whose adherence to absolutism and fear ruined the lives of their children. But Lan Xichen is just as much a victim of this as his peers.

(the exception being maybe Nie Mingjue, but it’s complicated. I think Nie Mingjue occupies a very interesting position in the narrative, but like. That’s. For another time! this is. already so far out of hand. oh my god this is point three out of eight oh nO)

(yet another aside because I can’t help myself: can you believe we were robbed of paralleling scenes of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen’s coronations? the visual drama of that. the poetic cinema. it’s not in the book, but can you IMAGINE. thank u @paledreamsblackmoths​ for putting this image into my head so that I can suffer forever knowing that I’ll never get it.)

I said I wasn’t going to talk at length about any changes surrounding Wangxian’s explicit romance for obvious reasons, but I will at least lament here that because a large percentage of Lan Xichen’s actions and character beats are directly in relation to Lan Wangji’s love for Wei Wuxian, he loses a lot of both minor and major moments to the censors as well. Many of the instances when he encourages Lan Wangji to talk to Wei Wuxian, when he indulges in their relationship etc. are understandably gone. But the most significant moment that was cut for censorship reasons I think is when he loses his temper with Wei Wuxian at the Guanyin temple and lays into him with all the fury and terror he felt for his brother’s broken heart for the last thirteen years.

Lan Xichen is only shown to express true anger twice in the whole story, both times at the Guanyin temple: first against Wei Wuxian for what he perceives as gross disregard for his little brother’s convictions, and second against Jin Guangyao for his massive betrayal of trust. And you know, murdering his best friend. Among other things.

I’m genuinely so sad that we don’t get to see Lan Xichen tear Wei Wuxian to shreds for what he did to Lan Wangji because I think one of the most important aspects to Lan Xichen’s character is how much he loves, cares for and fears for his little brother. The reveal about Lan Wangji’s punishment in episode 43 is a sad and sober conversation, but it’s not nearly as impactful, especially because Wei Wuxian asks about it of his own volition. I understand that this isn’t CQL’s fault! But. I can still mourn it right? ahahaha. :’)

I’ll stop before I descend further into nothing but Lan Xichen meta because that’s. Dangerous. (I have a lot of Feelings about how there are three characters who are held up as paragons of virtue in MDZS, how they all suffered in spite of their goodness, and how that all ties directly into the whole, “it is not enough to be good, but kindness is never wrong” theme. Anyways, they’re Xiao Xingchen, Jiang Yanli, and Lan Xichen, but NOT NOW. NOT TODAY.)

So yes, I’m a Lan Xichen apologist on main, and yes, I understand my feelings are incredibly personally motivated and influenced by my subjective emotions, but no I do not take concrit on this point, thank you very much.

4. all of the Wen remnants turning themselves in alongside Wen Qing and Wen Ning

Okay, back to plot changes. This change I would be willing to bet money was at least partially due to censorship, but it hurts me so deeply hahaha. It makes literally no sense for any of the characters and it completely janks the timeline of events post Qiongqi Dao 2.0 through Wei Wuxian’s death.

It’s not ALL bad—this change makes it easier for the Peak Wangxian moment at the Bloodbath at Nightless City (You know. Hands. Cliff. etc.) to happen, which I did very much enjoy. It’s pretty on-brand for CQL to sacrifice plot for character beats that they want to emphasize, so like. I get it! This moment is a huge gift! I Understand This. CQL collapses the Bloodbath at Nightless City and the First Siege of the Mass Graves into one event for I think a few reasons. One, Wangxian moment without being explicitly Wangxian, which is excellent. Two, it circumvents the Blood Corpse scene, which I do not think would have made it past censorship.

I’ll get to the Blood Corpse scene in a minute, but despite being able to understand why so much might have been sacrificed for the impact of the cliff scene, I still wish it had been done differently (and I feel like it could have been!), if only for my peace of mind because the plot holes it creates are pretty gaping.

The entire point of Wen Qing and Wen Ning turning themselves in is specifically to save their family members and Wei Wuxian from coming to further harm. That’s explicit, even in the show. Jin Guangshan demands that the Wen brother and sister stand for their crimes and claims that the blood debt will be paid. The Wen remnants understand that Wei Wuxian has given up so much for their sakes, that he has lost his family, his home, his respectability, his health, all in the name of sheltering them. To throw all of that away would be the greatest disrespect to his sacrifices. Wen Qing and Wen Ning decide that if their lives can pay for the safety of their loved ones and ensure that Wei Wuxian’s sacrifices matter, they are willing to go together and give themselves up.

So. Why did they. All go?? For… moral support???? D: Wen Qing says that Wei Wuxian will wake up in three days and that she’s given Fourth Uncle and the others instructions for his care–but then Fourth Uncle and the others all go with them!! To die!! There’s also very clearly a shot of Granny Wen taking A’Yuan with them, which like. Obviously didn’t really happen.

Wen Qing, who loves her family more than anything in the world, agrees that they should all go to Lanling and sacrifice themselves to…. protect Wei Wuxian? Wen Qing, pragmatic queen of my heart, agrees to this absurdly bad exchange?? Leaves Wei Wuxian to wake up, alone, with the knowledge that he had not only killed his brother-in-law but also effectively gotten everyone he had left killed also??

I can’t imagine Wen Qing doing that to Wei Wuxian. Save his life? For what? This takes away everything he has left to live for. You think Wen Qing doesn’t intimately understand how cruel that would be?

(Yes, I’m complaining about all of this, but I’m still about to cry because I rewatched the scene to make sure I didn’t say anything untrue, and  g o d  it manages to hit hard despite all of that, so who’s the real clown here!!)

Anyways. So that’s all just like. Frustratingly incoherent. It’s one of several wrongs I think CQL committed against Wen Qing’s character, but my feelings about Wen Qing in CQL are pretty complicated (I love her so much, and I love that we got more Wen Qing content, but that content sure is a mixed bag of stuff I really enjoyed and stuff I desperately wish didn’t exist) and I decided I wasn’t going to get into it in this post. (is anyone even still reading god)

This change also muddles Lan Wangji’s choices and punishment in ways that I think diminishes the severity of the situation to the detriment of both his characterization and his family’s characterization. The punishment scene is extremely moving and you should read this post about the language used in it but. sldfjsljslkf.

okay well, several things. In the context of CQL, which really pushes the “righteousness” angle of Wei Wuxian (see point 1), I think this scene makes a lot of sense in isolation: both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are painted as martyrs for doing the right thing. “Who’s right and who’s wrong?” The audience is asked to see the punishment as “unjust”. That’s perfectly fine and coherent in the context of CQL, but I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting as what happens in MDZS.

Because CQL collapses both the First Siege and the Bloodbath into one event, Lan Wangji’s crimes are sort of unclearly defined. In episode 43, when Lan Xichen is explaining the situation, we see a flashback to when Su She says something along the lines of, “We could set aside the fact that you defended Wei Ying at Nightless City, but now you won’t even let us search his den?” (of course, this gives us the really excellent “you are not qualified to talk to me” line which. delicious. extremely vindicating and satisfying. petty king lan wangji.) Lan Xichen goes on to say something like, “Wangji alone caused several disturbances at the Mass Graves. Uncle was greatly angered, and [decreed his punishment]”. (Sorry, I’m too lazy to type out the full lines with translations, just. trust me on this one.)

Lan Wangji’s actions are shown to be motivated by a righteous love. Wei Wuxian is portrayed as someone innocent who stood up for the right thing against popular opinion and was scapegoated and destroyed for it, having done no wrong. (See, point 1 again.)

In MDZS, Lan Wangji’s crimes are very specific. It isn’t just that he caused some “disturbances” (this is just Lan XIchen’s vague phrasing in CQL—we don’t really know what he did). He steals Wei Wuxian away from the Bloodbath at Nightless City, after Wei Wuxian killed thousands of people, and hides him away in a cave, feeding him spiritual energy to save his life. When Lan Wangji’s family comes to find him, demand that he hand over Wei Wuxian (who is, remember, a mass murderer at this point! we can argue about how culpable he is for those actions all day—that’s the whole point, but the people are still dead), Lan Wangji not only refuses, but raises his hands against his family. He seriously injures thirty-three Lan elders to protect Wei Wuxian.

I don’t know how to emphasize how serious that crime is? Culturally, this is like. Unthinkable. To raise your hand against members of your own family, your elders who loved and raised you, in defense of an outsider, a man who, by all accounts, is horrifically evil and just murdered thousands of people, including other members of your own family, is like. That’s a serious betrayal. Oh my god. Lan Wangji, what have you done?

Lan Xichen explains in chapter 99:

我去看他的时候对他说，魏公子已铸成大错，你何苦错上加错了。他却说……他无法断言你所作所为对错如何，但无论对错，他愿意与你一起承担所有后果。

When I went to see him, I said, “Wei-gongzi’s great wrongs are already set in stone, why take the pains to add wrongs upon wrongs?” But he said…… he had no way to ascertain the rights and wrongs of your actions, but regardless of right or wrong, he was willing to bear all the consequences with you.

I think this is very different than what’s going on in CQL, though the differences appear subtle on the surface. In CQL, Lan Wangji demands of his uncle, “Dare I ask Uncle, who is righteous and who is wicked, who is wrong and who is right?” but the very act of asking in this way implies that Lan Wangji has an opinion on the matter (though perhaps not a simple one). 

Lan Wangji in MDZS specifically says that he doesn’t know how to evaluate the morality of Wei Wuxian’s actions, but that regardless, he is willing to bear the consequences of his choices and his actions. He understands that his actions while sheltering Wei Wuxian are not clearly morally defensible. He did it anyways because he loved Wei Wuxian, because he thought that Wei Wuxian was worth saving, that there was still something good in him, despite the things he had done under mitigating circumstances. Lan Wangji did not save Wei Wuxian because he thought it was the right thing to do. He saved him because he loved him.

He is given thirty-three lashes with the discipline whip, one for each elder he maimed, and this leaves him bedridden for three years. Is this punishment horrifyingly severe? Yes! But is it unjustly given? I think that’s a much harder question to answer in the context of the story.

Personally, I think that question underscores the broader questions of morality contained within MDZS. I think it’s a much more interesting take on Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji as individuals. This asks, what can be pardoned? The righteous martyr angle is uncomplicated because moral certainty is easy. I think the situation in MDZS is far more uncomfortable if you examine its implications. And personally, I think that’s more meaningful!

(Not even going to touch on the whole, 300 strokes with a giant rod, but he has whip scars? And they were also sentenced to 300 strokes as kids for drinking alcohol…? CQL is not. consistent. on that front. ahaha.)

God, every point so far in this meta is just like “here’s one change that has cascading effects upon the rest of the show” dear god, okay, I’m getting to the Blood Corpse scene.

So in MDZS, the Wen remnants (besides Wen Ning and Wen Qing) do not go to Lanling. After the Bloodbath at Nightless City, Lan Wangji returns Wei Wuxian to the Mass Graves. Wei Wuxian lives with the Wen remnants for another three months before the First Siege, where he dies and the rest of the Wens are killed (except A’Yuan).

(Sidenote that I won’t get into: I love the dead spaces of time that MDZS creates. There’s very clear gaps in the narrative that we just never get the details on, most notably: Wei Wuxian’s three months in the Mass Graves post core transfer, and Wei Wuxian’s three months in the Mass Graves post Jiang Yanli’s death. They’re both extremely terrible times, but the audence is asked to imagine it instead of ever learning what really happened, what it was like. There’s something really cool about that narratively, I think.)

The Wen remnants are not cremated along with the rest of the dead. Their bodies are thrown into the blood pool.

At the Second Siege, when Wei Wuxian draws a Yin Summoning Flag on his clothes to turn himself into bait for the corpses in order to allow everyone else to escape to safety while he and Lan Wangji fight them off, there’s a moment when it gets really, truly dangerous—even with the help of the juniors and a few of the adults, they probably would have been killed. But then a wave of blood-soaked corpses come crawling out of the blood pool of their own accord and tear their attackers apart.

At the end of it, the blood corpses, the Wen remnants, gather before Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning. Wei Wuxian thanks them, they exchange bows, and the blood corpses collapse into dust. Wen Ning scrambles to gather their ashes, but runs out of space in his clothing. Several juniors, seeing this, offer up their bags to him and try to help.

It’s just. This scene is so important to me. Obviously, it couldn’t be included in CQL because of the whole undead thing, but it’s such a shame because I maintain that the Blood Corpse scene is one of the most powerful scenes in the whole goddamn book. It ties together so many things that I care about! It’s the moment when the narrative says, “kindness is not a waste”. Wei Wuxian failed to save them, but that doesn’t mean that his actions were done in vain. What he did matters. The year of life he bought them matters. The time they spent together matters.

This is also the moment when the juniors finally see Wen Ning for who he is—not the terrifying Ghost General, but a gentle man who has just lost his family for a second time. This is the moment when they reach out with kindness to the monster that their parents told them about at night. It matters that the juniors are able to do that! That they see this man suffering and are moved to compassion instead of righteous satisfaction.

(Except Jin Ling, for very understandable reasons, but Jin Ling’s moment comes later.)

It’s also the moment that we’re starkly reminded that many of the adults in attendance were present at the First Siege and directly responsible for the murders of the Wen remnants, including Ouyang Zizhen’s father. We’re reminded that he’s not just a comically annoying man with bad takes—he also participated in the murder of innocent people and then disrespected their corpses. But what retribution should be taken against him and the others? What retribution could be taken that wouldn’t lead to more tragedy?

There’s someone in the crowd in this scene named Fang Mengchen who refuses to be swayed by Wei Wuxian’s actions. “He killed my parents,” he says. “What about them? How can I let that go?”

“What more do you want from me?” Wei Wuxian asks. “I have already died once. You do not have to forgive me, but what more should I do?”

That is the ultimate question, isn’t it? What is the only way out of tragedy? You don’t have to forgive, but you cannot continue to take your retribution. It is not fair, but it’s all you have.

okay. so. those were my four Big Points of Contention with CQL, as I am currently experiencing them.

Honorable mentions go to: Wen Qing’s arc (both excellent and awful in different ways), making 13/16 years of Inquiry canon (I think this is untrue to Lan Wangji’s character, though I can understand why it was done), Mianmian’s departure from the Lanling Jin sect being shortened and having the sexism cut out (there’s something really visceral about the accusations against Mianmian being explicitly about her womanhood that I desperately wish had been retained in the show), cutting the scene where Jin Ling cries in mourning for Jin Guangyao and is scolded for it by Sect Leader Yao (my heart for that scene because it also matters so much)

but now!! onto the fun part, where I talk effusively about how much I love CQL!! this will probably be shorter (*prays*) because a lot of my frustrations with CQL are related to spiraling thematic consequences while the things I love are like. Simpler to pinpoint? If that makes sense? we’ll see.

CQL’s greatest virtues, also according to cyan:

1. this:

[ID: Wei Wuxian, trembling in fear, screaming “shijie!” as Jiang Cheng threatens him with Fairy in episode 34 of The Untamed drama. /end ID]

I understand that this is like, a very minor, specific detail change, but oh my GOD, it is like. Unparalleled. Every time I think about this change, I get so emotional and disappointed that it’s not in the novel, because I think it strengthens this scene tenfold. In the novel, Wei Wuxian calls out for Lan Zhan, which like, I get it. The story at this point is focused on the development of his romantic feelings for Lan Wangji, so the point of the scene is that the first person he thinks of in a moment of extreme fear is Lan Zhan, which surprises him. That’s fine. Like, it’s fine! But I think it doesn’t have nearly the same weight as Wei Wuxian calling for his sister to save him from his brother. 

Having Wei Wuxian call out for his sister drives home the loss that the two of them have suffered, and highlights the relationship they all once had. Jiang Yanli is much more relevant to shuangjie’s narrative than Lan Wangji ever was, and this highlights exactly how deeply the fracturing of their familial relationship cuts. Wangxian gets so much time and focus throughout the rest of the novel. I love that this moment in the show is just about the Yunmeng siblings because that relationship is no less important, you know?

Calling out for Jiang Yanli in the show draws a much cleaner line through the dialogue. “You dare bring her up before me?” to “Don’t you remember what you said to Jin Ling?” It unifies the scene and twists the knife. It also gives us more insight into how fiercely Wei Wuxian was once beloved and protected by his siblings. Jiang Cheng promised to chase all the dogs away from Wei Wuxian when they were children. It’s clear that Jiang Yanli did as well.

Once upon a time, Wei Wuxian’s siblings defended him from his fears, and now one of them is dead and the other is using that fear to hurt him where he’s weakest. The reversal is so painfully juxtaposed, and it’s done with just that one flashback of Wei Wuxian as a child leaping into Jiang Yanli’s arms and calling out her name. Extremely good, economical storytelling. The conversation between shuangjie is much more focused on their own stories independent from Lan Wangji, which I very much appreciate. Wangxian, you’re wonderful, but this ain’t about you, and I don’t think it should be.

2. Extended Jiang Yanli content (and by extension, Jin Zixuan and Mianmian content)

Speaking of absolute goddess Jiang Yanli, I really loved what CQL did with her (unlike my more mixed feelings about Wen Qing). Having her in so many more scenes makes her importance to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian a lot clearer, and we get to experience her as a person rather than an ideal.

On a purely aesthetic level, Jiang Yanli’s styling and character design is so stellar in CQL. The more prevalent design for her is kind of childish in the styling, which I don’t love (I think it’s the donghua influence?). And even I, someone who’s audio drama on main 24/7, personally prefer her CQL voice actor. There’s only a few characters in CQL that I look at and go “ah yes, that’s [character] 100%” and Jiang Yanli is one of them. I was blessed. I would lay down my life for her.

I’m really glad that CQL showed her illness more explicitly and gave her a sword, even if she never uses it! Her weak constitution is only mentioned once in the novel in chapter 69 in like two lines that I blew past initially because I was reading at breakneck speed and was only reminded of when my therapist who I conned into reading mdzs after 8 months of never shutting up oof brought it to my attention like two weeks ago. /o\

We never read about Jiang Yanli carrying a sword in the novel, though we are told that her cultivation is “mediocre”, so we know that she at least does cultivate, even if not very well. Highlighting her poor health in CQL makes her situation more clear, I think, and explains a little more about the way she’s perceived throughout the cultivation world as someone “not worthy of Jin Zixuan”. The novel tells us that Jiang Yanli is not an extraordinary beauty, not very good at cultivation, sort of bland in her expressions, and, very briefly, that she’s in poor health. I really love that description of Jiang Yanli, because it emphasizes that her worth has nothing at all to do with her talents, her health, her cultivation, her physical strength, or her beauty. She is the best person in the whole world, her brothers adore her, and the audience loves and respects her for reasons wholly unrelated to those value judgments. We love her because she is kind, because she is loyal, because she loves so deeply. Tbh, her only imperfection is falling for someone so tragically undeserving of her. (JK, I love you Jin Zixuan, and you do deserve her because you are an excellent boy who grows and changes and learns!! I can’t even be mean to characters as a joke god.)

Anyways, I just think the detail about her health is compelling and informs her character’s position in the world in a very specific way. I’m happy that CQL brought it to the forefront when it was kind of an easily-missed throwaway in the novel. It does mean something to me that Jiang Yanli, despite her poor physical health, is never once seen or treated as a burden by her brothers.

Something partially related that really hit hard was this:

[ID: two gifs. Jiang Yanli peeling lotus pods, looking up uncomfortably as her mother loses her temper about the Wen indoctrination at the table from episode 11 of The Untamed drama. /end ID]

D8 AAAAHHH this was VISCERAL. The novel is quite sparse in a lot of its descriptions and lets the audience fill in the missing details, so Jiang Yanli’s expression and reactions are not described when, after Jiang Cheng quickly volunteers to go to Qishan, Madam Yu accuses her of continuing to “happily peel lotus seeds” in such a dire situation.

“Of course you’ll go,” she snaps to Jiang Cheng. “Or else do you think we should let your sister go?”

This scene triggered me so bad lmfao, so I guess it’s kind of weird that I love it so much, but I felt Seen. Something about the way her nail slips in the second gif as she breaks open the pod is like. Oh, that’s a sense memory! Of me, as a child, witnessing uncomfortable conflict between people I cared about. I know this is an extremely personal bias, but hey, so is this whole meta. Because Jiang Yanli is often silent and quiet, it’s more her behavior and expressions that convey her character. It’s why the moment she lets loose on Jin Zixun is so powerful. We don’t get to see a lot of it in the novel, but because CQL is a visual medium, her character is a lot easier to pin down as a human as opposed to an abstract concept.

Anyways, in this moment, which I also think is a tangential reference to her weak constitution (it doesn’t feel like, “your sister can’t go because she’s a girl”; it feels like, “your sister can’t go because she couldn’t handle it”), we get to see Jiang Yanli’s own reaction to her perceived inadequacy. We see it in other places too—like how upset she is when Jin Zixuan dismisses her in several scenes, but this is the one that hits me the hardest because it’s about how her weakness is going to put her little brother in grave danger.

Last Yunmeng siblings with focus on Jiang Yanli scene that isn’t in the novel that I’m just absolutely wrecked over: the dream sequence in episode 28, when Jiang Yanli dreams about Wei Wuxian sailing away from her, but no matter how she shouts, or how she begs Jiang Cheng to help her, she can’t bring him back home.

I’m not going to gif it because I literally just like, fast-forwarded through it and started sobbing uncontrollably in front of my laptop, dear god.

I don’t know where the CQL writers found the backdoor directly into my brain’s nightmare center, but?? they sure did! IDK, I can see how this might be kind of heavy-handed, but it just. The sensation of being in a dream where something is going terribly wrong, but you’re the only one who seems to see it happening? But there’s nothing you can do? I feel like it’s a very fitting nightmare to give Jiang Yanli, who is acutely aware and constantly reminded of how little power she has in the world: not good enough for the boy she likes, not healthy enough to cultivate well, not strong enough to keep her family together.

The whole, elder siblings trying and failing to protect their younger siblings pattern is A Lot in the story, but there’s something particularly painful about seeing it happen to Jiang Yanli because of that awareness. All the other elder siblings are exceptionally talented or powerful in obvious ways. All Jiang Yanli has is the force of her will and the force of her love, and she knows it isn’t enough.

I care a lot about the Yunmeng siblings, okay! And I think CQL did right by them!

I’m only going to spend two seconds talking about Jin Zixuan and Mianmian, but I DO want to mention them.

Anyways, because we get more Jiang Yanli content, we ALSO get more soft xuanli, which is Very Good. Literally my kingdom for disaster het Jin Zixuan treating my girl right!! CQL said het rights, and I’m not even mad about it! I’m really happy that we get to see a little more of how their relationship plays out, and how hard Jin Zixuan works to change his behavior and apologize to her for his mistakes. The novel is from Wei Wuxian’s POV, so we miss the details, alas. Jin Zixuan covered in mud, planting lotuses? Blessed.

I think part of making Mianmian a larger speaking role is for convenience’s sake, but oh boy do I love that choice. Especially the Jin Zixuan & Mianmian relationship. Like, they’re so clearly platonic, and Mianmian is never once portrayed as a threat to Jiang Yanli. They just care about and respect each other a lot? Jin Zixuan’s distress when she defects from the Jin sect gets me in the heart, because it’s just like. God. I think there’s a lot of interesting potential there for her own thoughts re: Wei Wuxian. After all, she leaves her sect in defense of him, but he later kills a friend that she respects and loves. The moments shared between her and Jin Zixuan are minor, but they hint at a deeper relationship that I’m really glad was in the show.

3. To curb the strong, defend the weak: lantern scene (gusu) + rain scene (qiongqi dao 1.0)

I think I basically already explained why I love this so much in this post (just consider that post and this point to be the same haha), but just. Okay. A short addendum.

As much as I love novel wangxian, I really think that including this scene early on emphasizes why Lan Wangji loves Wei Wuxian so deeply. Of course he thinks Wei Wuxian is attractive, but this is the moment when he realizes, oh, this is who I love. Having that moment to reflect upon throughout Wei Wuxian’s descent is so excellent. I have enumerated all of my issues with the “perfectly righteous Wei Wuxian” arc that CQL crafted, but having this narrative throughline in conjunction with the novel arc would be like. My favored supercanon ahaha. (It would need some tweaking, but I think it would work.) It shows us exactly who it is that Lan Wangji sees and is trying to save, who he thinks is still there, underneath all the carnage and despair and violence and grief. This is the Wei Wuxian Lan Wangji loves and is unwilling to let go. This is the Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji would kill for, that Lan Wangji would stand beside, that Lan Wangji would live for.

4. Meeting Songxiao

As much as I love the unnameable ache of Wei Wuxian never meeting Xiao Xingchen and learning only about his story through secondhand sources in the novel (and the really cool parallel to that where Xiao Xingchen tells A’Qing the story of Baoshan-sanren’s ill-fated disciples: both Xiao Xingchen and Wei Wuxian learn of each other only through the eyes of others, and that is Very Neat), I think the reversal that this meeting in episode 10 sets up wins out just slightly.

I said once in the tags on one of my posts that “songxiao is the tragic parallel of wangxian” and like. Yeah. Basically! If we take songxiao as romantic, the arc of their relationship happens inversely to wangxian, and that parallel is so much clearer and stronger when we have wangxian meeting songxiao in their youth.

The scene of their meeting really does have that Mood™ of uncertain youth seeing happy and secure adults living out the dreams that they’re afraid to name. Wei Wuxian’s eager little, “oh! just like me and Lan Zhan!! Right, Lan Zhan??” when songxiao talk about cultivating together through shared ideals and not blood is. Well, it’s Something.

When they meet again at Yi City, there’s a greater heaviness to it. So this is what happened to the people you once dreamed of becoming! Wangxian have already come to a point where they have an unspoken understanding of their relationship, but Songxiao have lost everything they once had. When Song Lan looks at wangxian, it’s like looking at a mirror of his past, and everyone in attendance knows it.

To me, that unspoken parallel is really emotionally and thematically valuable. All that good, and here is the tragedy that came of it.

okay, look! I managed to keep it shorter!! here are my honorable mentions: that scene where Jin Guangyao tries to hold Jin Ling and Jin Guangshan refuses to let him (it’s hating Jin Guangshan hours all day every day in this household), the grass butterfly leitmotif for Sizhui (im literally crying right now about it shut up), the Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing sideplot (look I know it’s wild that I actually liked that given that I headcanon JC as aspec, but I actually really like how it played out, specifically because Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian are NOT romantic—it sets up an unexpected and interesting comparison)

um. Anyways. I uh. really care about this story. And have a lot of thoughts, which I’m sure will continue to evolve. Maybe in 8 months I’ll return to this and go well, literally none of this applies anymore, but who knows! It’s how I feel right now. I cried literally three times while writing this because MDZS/CQL reached into my chest and yanked my heart right out of my body, but I had fun! *finger guns*

and like, I know I had a LOT to say about what frustrated me about CQL, but I really really hope it’s clear that I adore the show despite all of that. I talk a lot because I care a lot, and my brain only has one setting.

anon, this was like 1000% more than you bargained for, I’m SURE, (and I’m still exercising some restraint, if you can. believe that.) but I hope that you or someone out there got something out of it! if you made it all the way to the end of this meta, wow!! consider me surprised and grateful!!

time to crawl back into my hovel so I can write Lan Xichen fic and cry

(ko-fi? ;A;)

[fabulouspotatosister]

just for a day

summary: What’s a little acting between friends? If friends was even the right word.

word count: (idk yet man lol ) 3,373

request:  Hello! I just wanna say your writing is absolutely amazing! If I may, could I request an 11 x reader where the reader’s friends keep bugging them to get a boyfriend, but they say they already do and they have to ask the Doctor to be their “boyfriend” (kind of like with Clara at the beginning of Time Of The Doctor) and eventually leads to feelings being spilt? If not, that’s perfectly fine!

a/n: this got WAYYY too long and for that i am so sorry lmao. i’m writing and posting this on the same day so if there are many mistakes or it doesn’t make sense that’s on me. anyway, i hope you enjoy this fic!

gif credit: @pavel-chekovs

~

“You’re back!”

 You’d expected screaming. You’d expected yelling, and a fair dose of pterodactyl-esque screeching from the students in your advisory class, but what you weren’t expecting was crying. And lots of it. Nearly every fresh-faced elementary student was in tears, some sobbing quietly and some full-on bawling as soon as you walked through the door.

It was nice, cute even, but honestly a little disconcerting.

 “Hi, everyone,” you said, shutting the door carefully behind you. The sight of their crying faces immediately activated your Parent Mode. “Are you all okay?”

 “Perfectly fine!” Marih chirped, president of the class and therefore a little more levelheaded than the rest, which earned her a handful of disagreeing sighs. “What? Guys, you look ridiculous crying,” she continued, as she wiped her cheeks with the back of her palms and gave you a toothy grin. “We’re just happy you’re here again.”

 You smiled at her, and reached out to pat the top of her head. “That’s great and all, but it’s like you guys haven’t seen me in ages.”

 A heavy silence fell over the whole class. You saw students shift in their seats and look down at the floor, suddenly very interested in their black school shoes. Even Jaden, the class’s resident troublemaker, didn’t say a word. Marih cringed, ran a hand through her long dark hair, and smoothed the front of her checkered uniform.

 “How long have I been gone?” you asked, raising an eyebrow. Marih seemed to cringe away at the question. “I thought I was only travelling for a week!”

 “Actually,” Marih said, stretching out the word, “you’ve been gone for three months?”

Your mouth fell open. You stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded, before you dug into your pocket and fished out your phone – she was right, it had been exactly three months and a week since you’d left the school to go travelling.

 You groaned. “Oh, I’m going to kill him.”

 By travelling, you meant time travelling and by him you meant the Doctor. The madman in a box that you’d run off with. You had let him turn your life upside down in the best way possible since he dragged you into the TARDIS, with his stupidly gorgeous smile and eyes and – you were getting off topic. Now you were plotting the murder of the man that you would consider to be the most incredible thing that had ever happened to you.

 “Hey, ma’am?” came a soft voice from the front of the room. Karyll, with her tied-back hair and glasses, looked up at you from her seat. “Why are you looking like you’re going to kill someone?”

 “’Cause I am,” you said cheerily, shoving your phone back into your pocket. Oh, you were going to have words with him, and they would most definitely not be nice ones. “Have I missed anything big? Were you nice to my substitute?”

 A collective wave of disagreement swept over the class, and you couldn’t help but let a smile slip onto your face. These were your babies after all, and if you’d really been gone for three months then they were sorely missing their Second Mom.

 Maybe the tears weren’t that much of a surprise after all.

 “Okay, good morning everyone! Now, if we’re still on schedule, and I really hope we are, we should be talking about integers…”

 The late afternoon sun drifted through the curtains of your classroom, filling the room with an almost hazy glow as you sat with your best friends in a haphazard circle of desks. Your kids had all gone home already, and a little pile of flowers and chocolates sat neatly on your shelves, right beside your lesson plan folders.

 Denise leaned forward to look at them, her curly hair falling over her face. She was the elementary students’ science teacher, and was so well-organized it was almost inhuman. She would have liked the planet where everything was arranged alphabetically, you thought.

 “I’m jealous, my students never give me gifts,” she said as she leaned away. “Sis, where have you even been?”

 “Long story,” you replied, and it was. You weren’t sure if you could fit everything you’d been through – travelling through time, going to planets lightyears away, and of course all of the near-death experiences – into a story that you could tell in under an hour, and you weren’t going to try.

 “And you’ve been travelling? By yourself?” Julianne, an arts teacher, raised her eyebrows at you from behind her laptop. “God, that’s lonely. Oh – unless…” Her calm expression morphed into something truly evil in your line of work – mischievousness. “Unless you had someone with you.”

 “I mean –” Oh no, this was going to be hard to get out of. “I mean, I wasn’t alone,” you said, hoping the smile on your face was enough to mask your utter fear. You knew exactly where Julianne was going and you hated it. “I was with someone.”

 “Ooh,” Julianne said, her grin growing so sly it was sending shivers up your spine. “You’ve been gone three months, has anything happened between you and your travel buddy?”

 Heat rushed to your face. If you were a cartoon character steam would be pouring from your ears. “Why would you say something like that?”

 Julianne shrugged. “We’ve been telling you to get a boyfriend for so long. You said you’d be gone a week, and then you disappear for three months… that kinda says something, don’t you think, Denise?”

 “Definitely.” Denise grinned, and you shot her a helpless look.

 “We’re doing this because we love you,” Julianne sang. The light from her laptop was enough to make her look absolutely menacing. “So? Travel buddy? Or more than that?”

 The Doctor wasn’t just a travel buddy, and he was so much more than that – but you hadn’t found the words for what he meant to you, at least not yet. Companion was enough for you and him, but even then, there was a weight to that word. And there was definitely a weight to your partnership, but you wouldn’t call it… dating.

 Julianne simply waggled her perfectly shaped eyebrows at you. You swallowed. You and the Doctor were a long story too, and Julianne wasn’t going to be happy with “maybe” for an answer.

 The words were out of your mouth before you could stop yourself. “Fine, he’s my boyfriend!”

 I want to crawl into a hole and die was your inner monologue, and your background music was Julianne and Denise’s raucous laughter. I want to crawl into a hole and never have to face the world ever again.

 --

 Smash cut to you, standing nervously in your bedroom, gripping your phone so tightly you were sure it was going to break. Your plans of killing the Doctor for dropping you off late would have to wait. The phone rung once, twice, and you chewed your lip. If he was in the Time Vortex, any version of him could answer the phone and you couldn’t deal with that on top of everything, not today at least –

 “Hello?”

 You heaved a sigh of relief at the sound of the Doctor, your Doctor’s voice. “Help?” you squeaked out.

 “Help?” the Doctor repeated. There was a blaring noise, and then the sound of electricity crackling. Something fizzled and popped, and the Doctor shouted something that sounded like a swear. “Oh, shut it – you – sorry, sorry. You were saying?”

 “Uh, where are you right now? Are you somewhere?” you asked.

 “I’m not somewhere, I’m drifting! Right above Earth, approximately right where you are,” he said. You could hear the smile in his voice. It quelled your anxiety somewhat. “I’m doing maintenance. Agh – ow! I think I can see the roof of your house through the clouds, unless that’s someone else’s house. What color is your roof?”

 You giggled. “It’s brown. You’re in the same time as me?”

 “’Course I am,” the Doctor said. You heard the clanging sound of metal being dropped. “I never left.”

 The Doctor liked to run off on his own when you were home and have his own mini-adventures. He liked to come back and say he’d spent his time with alien royalty, or something like that. But instead he was staying put, he was waiting, for you. It made the next part so much harder.

 “I need you to be my boyfriend,” you said quickly, covering your burning face with your free hand.

 “Oh,” the Doctor said simply. Another clang.

 Oh? “Just for a day,” you coughed. “I kind of said that I had a boyfriend, and that he was my travel buddy, and now my friends kind of want to meet you. It’s my grade’s family day tomorrow, maybe you could, uh, show up?”

 “And be your boyfriend,” the Doctor said.

 You nodded, then, “And be my boyfriend. Just for the day. You never have to show up again.”

There was a beat of silence, and for a second you thought the Doctor was going to say no – he had every right to, of course, and you could just lie and say that he couldn’t show up – but the Doctor laughed, cheerful and warm. “Ding-dong! Okay! What time tomorrow? I have to study, I’m a bit rusty in places.”

 Your mouth fell open for the second time in twenty-four hours. “You’re serious?”

 “Very! Any pet name preferences?”

 You groaned loudly, and the Doctor laughed again. “Shut up!”

 “Alright, alright. Guess I’ll have to do my own research.”

 There was another moment of silence, and when the Doctor spoke again, it was much softer, much less playful. His voice almost sounded fond. “Goodnight?”

 “Goodnight, Doctor,” you said softly, and the call cut off with a series of short beeps.

 --

 Was it a surprise that you barely slept at all? You had spent the whole night with your imagination running at full capacity, your mind latching onto every single thought and concept it could come up with. You slipped in and out of sleep, lying still in bed whenever a possibility popped into your head. To say you were nervous was the understatement of the year – but what was a little acting between friends?

 If friends was the right word for it.

 You waited for the Doctor behind the school, leaning against the concrete wall and watching the TARDIS fade into this plane. Wind blew into your face as the TARDIS groaned and wheezed, eventually materializing in front of you.

 “I’m not late, am I?” the Doctor said, sticking his head out of the TARDIS doors. He grinned widely, his hair falling into his face. You grinned back at him and pushed yourself off the wall.

 “You’re early, which is a first,” you said. The Doctor frowned at you, stepped carefully out of the TARDIS, and frowned some more. “Don’t look at me like that.”

 “I think I’ve earned the right to look at you however I’d like,” the Doctor huffed, adjusting his bowtie. He’d ditched the tweed for the day, it seemed, going with a long green coat that annoyingly complimented his eyes. The frown didn’t last very long, though, because he went right back to grinning brightly at you. He held out his elbow in your direction. “Shall we?”

 “Here’s the lucky girl,” Julianne cooed as you walked into the empty canteen. All the tables were pushed aside to make space for all the games you’d be playing – in the corner of your eye, you saw the Doctor light up at the sight of all of the streamers and balloons. “And here’s the lucky boy – oh my god, Denise.”

 “What?” Denise popped up from behind a large speaker, then blanched. “Oh, now I’m double jealous.”

 The Doctor pulled away from you to lightly kiss both of Julianne’s cheeks in greeting. Julianne looked positively starstruck when he stepped back to stand beside you, quickly waving Denise over. Denise had her mouth hanging open, still clutching a microphone in her hands.

 “Hi,” you said, gesturing at the Doctor, “here’s my boyfriend.”

 The Doctor raised his hand and smiled. “Hello! I’m John Smith, lovely to meet you both. You’re my girlfriend’s girl friends, I assume?”

 “Uh –” Denise blinked owlishly. “Yeah, we are.” Then, quietly and to herself, “Holy moly.”

 You couldn’t help but grin at their flabbergasted faces. The Doctor rested his hand on the small of your back, and you leaned into his touch as if it was the most normal thing in the universe. That was enough to make Denise stumble into Julianne, who barely even reacted, as she was still staring wide-eyed at the both of you.

 “I think we caught them off guard,” you said. The Doctor chuckled and leaned down to kiss the top of your head.

 “You did when we met, sweetheart,” the Doctor said smoothly. Sweetheart echoed in your ears and bounced off the walls of your already racing mind. Your heart stuttered in your chest. That was bad.

 “Oh, are we doing charm now?” you asked. “Are you trying to be charming?”

 “I did say I would study,” the Doctor said.

 “You guys are insufferable,” Denise said, but she was beaming at you. “If you could get your hands off of your travel buddy for just a few minutes, I need help with the mics, the families are gonna be here any minute…”

 Her voice trailed off as she walked back to the speaker. You stood on your tiptoes to kiss the Doctor’s cheek, feeling his skin heat up underneath your lips. “See you later.”

 “…See you,” the Doctor echoed, and bent down to kiss your cheek too. He turned on his heel and walked towards the decorations, softly muttering, “Ooh, balloons! Love a good balloon…”

 You stared at him for longer than you should have, watching him poke and prod at the balloons lying on the tables. He put his face very close to one and smiled at his reflection in the plastic. Affection welled up in your chest, and a tiny smile slipped onto your face.

 “Look at you, you’re smiling at him,” Julianne chimed, sidling up to you and nudging your side. “That’s disgusting.”

 “Says the girl who said I needed to get a boyfriend,” you shot back.

 The Doctor went still for a little bit and turned to face you, smiled and winked, then went right back to inspecting balloons. Julianne made a strangled noise, and you made one too. So he was doing charm, and you hated to admit that it was absolutely working on you.  

 “I meant to say disgustingly adorable,” Julianne said. “You’re so lucky.”

 You gave him another glance as you walked away to help Denise with the mics – “help with the mics” was apparently code for “I’m going to tease you more about your new boyfriend”  which wasn’t helped by the fact that every so often, the Doctor would look in your direction and just smile, which was enough to make you stumble over your own words and give Denise more teasing fodder.

 The parents and their kids eventually filed into the canteen and you flipped into Teacher Mode. You stood next to your students, pinched their cheeks and then greeted all of the parents and got everyone ready for the program. (You didn’t notice how the Doctor mirrored you, standing a little far away and watching, a dumb smile on his face.)

 Julianne and Denise were the emcees for the family day, big smiles on their faces as they rounded up everyone for the games. At the mere mention of games, the Doctor was back at your side at an instant, his eyes glittering with excitement.

 “Please don’t destroy the kids,” you pleaded.

 “No promises,” he replied, and then proceeded to destroy the kids in most of the games.

 The first game had Julianne call out for whoever could bring an item of her choice to the table – the Doctor, with his coat that was surely bigger on the inside, had no trouble pulling out whatever was asked. Even when Julianne started to test the waters and ask for increasingly insane items, the Doctor just kept going. He jumped in joy like a little kid at the win, bounding up to you and pressing a kiss to your cheek. You’d just blushed and smiled, ignoring the butterflies that were multiplying in your stomach.

 The Doctor holding your hand wasn’t new. The Doctor being close to you wasn’t new. The Doctor being affectionate with you wasn’t new. But now it was all under the guise of being your boyfriend. Of course it felt different, but to your surprise and growing horror, it didn’t feel bad.

 The Doctor shouting your name snapped you out of your thoughts. He was standing on a piece of newspaper as Denise started to get music ready, waving his arms to beckon you over. His coat was gone, thrown onto a nearby table, and even without it he was dashing.

 “I need you over here!” he yelled, still jumping excitedly. His hair bounced up and down with the movement. “I need a partner!”

 You let your feet carry you to him, trying to ignore the stares pointed your way. The Doctor took your hand in his and pulled you onto the newspaper.

 “Stay close,” the Doctor said. “I’ve got this.”

 Loud, thumping music filled the air. The Doctor spun you around and you squealed in surprise, moving your feet clumsily to the music. Suddenly, it stopped, and the Doctor pulled you back onto the newspaper. It was a tight fit, and you had to press yourself against his body to even stay standing. The butterflies in your stomach went crazy at the contact, and once again you tried to ignore that, too.

 “What did I say?” the Doctor breathed, his breath tickling your ear, his smile wide and manic. “Let’s dance!”

 The paper got smaller and smaller, and the two of you got closer and closer. Sweat started to bead on your forehead, and the Doctor had rolled his sleeves up in the middle of all the chaos. In the end, it was just you and another pair of parents, tiptoeing on their own folded pieces of newspaper.

 “I’ve got an idea,” the Doctor said, his voice loud over the music. “When the music stops, jump into my arms.”

 “Seriously?!” you shouted, and the Doctor nodded enthusiastically. “You’ve got the balance of a drunk giraffe! You’ll drop me!”

 “Do you trust me?” the Doctor asked.

 There wasn’t any question. “I do!”

 “Then jump!”

 The music stopped, and in the split second where the Doctor stepped onto the now-tiny folded newspaper, you ran and leapt. For a moment, it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to catch you at all, and in your mind you could already see it – you crashing into him and sending you both tumbling to the floor.

 The Doctor’s arms shot out and caught you. Cheers erupted from everyone in the canteen, and behind you your competitors both lost their balance and fell face-first onto the floor. You wrapped your arms around the Doctor’s neck to steady yourself in his arms, feeling him shake slightly as he kept you aloft.

 “We won!” you gasped, still basking in all of the cheering. “As expected from my lovely boyfriend.”

 The words left your mouth as easily as breathing. You smiled up at the Doctor, breathless from all of the dancing. His skin shone with sweat, his hair was a mess, and his bowtie was askew, but even that was enough to make you throw all caution to the wind – still in his arms, you pulled him down and kissed him.

 Cheers erupted from everyone again, but you could care less. The room could be empty and nothing would have changed. As cliché as it sounded, all the mattered was the feeling of the Doctor’s lips against yours. Your hands found their way into his hair and he melted into your touch, pulling you closer to him.

 “You know,” the Doctor breathed as he pulled away, “I don’t want this to be just for a day.”

 “Good,” you replied. You leaned up to press a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Because I don’t either.”

[hirazuki]

I’ve been snowed in since Monday, so I’ve finally been able to catch up on some much needed rest and sleep, and have some energy for hobby-stuff!

I have also made it to season 6 of Winx, here are some thoughts so far:

Man, I miss the cartoons of yesteryear T_T The art style and banter of the first couple of seasons is so nostalgic.

Canon officially stops at the end of Season 3 :)

Faves thus far: Valtor and Riven. Stella is fave fairy in the earlier seasons (I actually don’t really like any of the girls past Season 3, they’re just caricatures of themselves), and Brandon is pretty solid too. 

Seasons 4 and 5 are the definition of “great concept, exceedingly poor execution,” which is a shame. 

Who. THE FUCK. greenlit that god-awful artistic direction in Season 5?!?? Y’all know the one. I’m not even saying this because I’m not fond of 3D in general; it’s so immersion breaking and literally makes no sense at all, what with having to animate the same transformation sequence two different ways?? Why waste budget like that??? And for something that looks terrible. Tbh, the worst animation decision I have seen, and that includes whatever the fuck TDP was. The culprit should be banned from ever working on anything animated again.

Ugh two of my most hated character types make an appearance. The Dumbledore/Hiruzen/Eraqus/Gaius and The Alistair, as I like to call them for brevity’s sake XD

4Kids dub is far superior. I acknowledge that it changed a lot of content especially in the first two seasons, which sucks because I do prefer a lot of the original dialogue, but like... they actually sound like people and not like the same person voiced everyone, equally unenthusiastically XD Listening to either of the other English dubs is painful.

The 4Kids dub also has the best music, both the songs and the soundtrack. Villain themes are 100% okay, Valtor’s theme is 100%, I don’t actually remember if the Trix and Darkar had specific tracks, but that’s who matters so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ lmao

Valtor has absolutely been added to the cosplans list. 

The animation just gets worse and worse the further past Season 3 you get. Like, I get that the style changed and they bumped down the viewership age-range and all that, but the characters all lose their distinct physical characteristics and become more uniform, which is just... boo. Loss of sharp angles and the like. 

... part of me is extremely glad that I didn’t get around to watching this as a child, because even at the age of thirty-three, most of the parental figures in this series trigger me. Special shout out to Mike and Vanessa for being rock stars.

I cry at the utterly wasted potential of multiple points in Season 3. What a perfect set up for Bloom to gain her power-up and add a whole bunch of complexity to the plot (because, let’s be real, the moment Valtor stepped onto the screen in S3E1, the series took on a whole new tone)... that we just sailed by because... deus ex machina prehistoric dragon island??? That goes against all magic conventions that were literally just established in-universe because... idk, protag privilege?? Cowards. And the end of the season offered the perfect lead-in to the subsequent movie; and girls would have had a very handy magical encyclopedia around to consult thereafter; and imagine the sass between the main group and the begrudgingly helpful, formerly villainous not-really-an-enemy-anymore wizard? *Sigh* WASTED.

I have lots of thoughts about the later season fashion choices of multiple characters but. Oritel. Bro. My dude. What are you wearing.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #444

“the monster you made is wearing the crown  /  i’ll be the king, and you’ll be the clown”

Do you take off from school, or work for your birthday? Ha, I used to try to talk Mom into letting me stay home from school... It only sometimes worked. Have you ever created ‘open when’ letters for someone? No. That'd be cute for an s/o, though. What is the best thing about being in the relationship you’re in right now or about being single? Not having to fear my partner leaving because of the struggles I'm going through. Not having to worry about not being enough for another person, because I'm not even enough for myself. Do you have a favourite painting? Not by a historical artist, no, but there is a piece by a deviantART artist called "Denialism" (by NukeRooster/Tatchit, if you're interested) that I adore so much I've actually gotten her permission to get it tattooed one day when I can afford a brilliant artist to do it. What are some of the best life hacks you know? /shrug What makes you smile without fail? MARK LAUGHING laj;sdkafjwlk;erj Do you know what you’ll be getting your loved ones for the holidays this winter? No clue. That's still a whiles off. What is your biggest short-term goal (within the next month)? Just lose a decent amount of weight for a month's time. What will your next tattoo be of? It depends on what cash I have available, really. As much as it sucks, I think my next tat is a whiles off because I just have more pressing things to pay for. Has anyone very close to you ever died? Besides pets, the closest human to me that's ever died was Jason's mom. If you were throwing your significant other/best friend a themed party, what would the theme be? Uh, Frieza-related, obviously. Do you feel prepared for the apocalypse? I don't believe in the apocalypse in the biblical sense of it being determined by an ultimate power, so this isn't something I really think about. Whenever humanity ends, it ends. I don't have a say, so I may as well not obsess over it. Do you think you will have children naturally, adopt, or forgo having children altogether? I'm not having kids, but if I did, I know that either I'd have to give birth to them or my hypothetical wife would for me to feel *properly* connected to them as a mother should. Oh, or if my male partner had a kid from a previous relationship, but I'd have to be REALLY in love with him to feel like that child is also my own. Do you take pictures of yourself on a daily basis? Oh god no. Do you believe in angels? No, but rather just spirits. Is there anything in your past that you used to regret, but now you don’t? Hm, maybe? Does your knee hurt? My knees always hurt. Has anyone ever called you sexy? Yes. Do you like raisins? omg nooooo What is your favorite bug? Butterflies! :') Do you like Scrabble? Sure, it's fun for a board game. Do you have a printer? Yes. What is your favorite food? Cheeseburgers or pizza, probably. I know, so American. Have you ever overheard a conversation you weren’t supposed to? Yes. Do you like ants? They are very fascinating when you really think about it, but I still find them incredibly annoying. Did you like the movie Antz? I loved it as a kid. Have you ever drank goat milk? No, I don't believe so. What’s your favorite video game? Silent Hill 2 and Shadow of the Colossus. Do you like cats? I love kitties!!! :') Are goldfish your favorite fish? No. I think my favorite is probably the lionfish. Do you like vanilla pudding? No. I only like chocolate pudding. What is your opinion on gay marriage? I 100% support it and would fight to the death for it. What is your opinion on gay adoption? Don't even fucking look at me if you see a problem with a parentless child finding a home with two people in love. Who was the last person you had a crush on? Sara. What’s the most expensive piece of clothing you own? I have zero clue. Why do you drive the car you have right now? I don't have my own car. Have you ever seen your best friend cry? Omg yes and it sucks. Are you friends with your neighbors? No. What is your current desktop picture? One of my favorite pictures of my late pup, Teddy. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen out the window of an airplane? Mountains! Does your neighbor have any pets? *shrug* Have you ever swam in a mountain lake? No, but that sounds VIBIN'. Has a cat/dog ever thrown up on your bed? alksdjflk;a;jdfalwe yes Have you ever had a concussion? One or two. Do you know anyone who has a pet gecko? Not currently, I think? I want a fat-tailed gecko, though. :( Would you ever go bear hunting? I wouldn't dare hunt ANY animal. Have you ever seen two movies at the theater in a row? I have not. How many teenagers do you know who have babies? I know no teen personally that has a child, but there were some pregnant students in high school. If you could keep your parents or trade them for other parents, which would you pick? I would NEVER change my parents. Is there a piggy bank in the room you’re in? It's not a "piggy" bank, per se, but my sister got me a skull one that she says is for my tattoo funds. :') How many sets of twins do you know? Two, off the very top of my head. If you have younger siblings, are you very protective of them? Yes. No one fucks with her for as long as I live. If you have older siblings, are they very protective of you? Not especially. Who is your favorite Disney Channel person? Uhhh, maybe Raven Symone? How many pets do you have? Just two. Do you think you will be successful in life? No. :/ What do you have pierced? My earlobes, twice, and my bottom lip. I have been dyinnnnggg for some new ones lately. :/ Does techno annoy you as much as it annoys me? No, I actually enjoy quite a bit of techno. What’s your comfort food? Ice cream. Do you like paranormal stuff? YES. Do you have a favorite stuffed toy? Rebel, my adorable meerkat plush from Jason, and Brownie, my moose from Cabela's. What’s the most exciting project you were given? In a way, my senior project since you got to choose your own topic, but I dreaded the presentation. Do you have a good sense of direction? Not at ALL. What are your favorite colour for a cat? Orange! If you had to live your life carrying a shield, what would its design be? This is gonna sound super, super cheesy, but probably a heart to symbolize how love should and could block the effects of hate and general evil and that we should pursue that instead of violence. Out of all the cancers, which one do you think needs to find a cure first? Oh god, they all do. If I had to pick one though, it'd be one of the inevitably fatal kinds, like pancreatic. What are your general afterthoughts when you’ve finished a book? I feel accomplished for actually reading to a story's completion. How many pairs of glasses (not sunglasses) have you owned? Two, I think? What color is your flash-drive? Hot pink. Have you ever built a sand castle? Yeah. How many houses have you lived in? Six. One I have no memory of. Do you shut off the water while you brush your teeth? Yes. What video game should everybody play at least once? Amnesia: A Machine for PIgs for the symbolism. It blows my mind how most horror fans hate it; it's like they totally miss the point. 100 years from now, what modern things will people look back on and say, “WTF?” Hopefully things like homophobia, racism, misogyny, concepts like those. What is impossible to understand until it happens to you? Mental illness, to name only one thing. What fictional food item from a television show, cartoon, movie, or video game have you always wanted to try? Hm. There's a lot that has looked super good, really. What’s something that gets much more hate than it deserves? Nickelback, lmao. What phrases or sayings drive you crazy? "Everything happens for a reason," "it could be worse/some people have it worse," "it's all part of God's plan," "just think positive"... a lot of stuff. Do you have a deviantART? I do, even though Eclipse made it fucking suck. I only really stay because I cling to the dying hope of being at least somewhat successful on there, and I enjoy keeping tabs on the artwork of the hundreds of people I watch there. Who is your favorite character in your favorite movie? Mufasa, even if he doesn't last long in the movie. :''''''( Have you ever been to Germany? No, but I'd love to! What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. Have you ever been ice skating? No. The blades on the skates scare me. Have you ever taken a karate class? No. Do you have any nieces or nephews? I have a lot, if you include my half-siblings' kids. Do you own an Xbox? Nah, I've always been a PlayStation gal. Would you date someone who’s well-known for cheating? Nope. Would you break up with someone your parents didn’t approve of? No. I'd consider their reasons, but ultimately, it's about me loving the person. Could you be in a relationship without sex? Yeah, sure. It's not ideal, but I mean if the other person is just very opposed, I'm certainly not forcing them. Emotional intimacy is more important to me, anyway. Have you ever been “friendzoned”? Yep. :') Briefly, anyway. Jason tried for my sake, but it was VERY short-lived by no one's fault but my own because all I know how to do is fuck shit up when it comes to him. Which “famous couple” is your favorite? LOOK Mark and Amy are FUCKIN GEMS Have you ever “destroyed” a relationship? Pretty fucking much. Are you the “dominant” or the “submissive” part in a relationship? I'm submissive by nature. Do you think Valentine’s Day is overrated? No, I think it's a cute holiday. Which do you feel is worse of the two to smoke: weed or tobacco? Well, weed has more carcinogens, but at least it has actual health benefits. Who did you last see that you haven’t seen in ages? *shrug* Are you photogenic at all? God no.

[tfw-no-tennis]

beast warhrerhbjgdsf

ok so at the end of the beast wars opening when they go ‘BEAST WARS’ the end sounds all garbled so its like ‘BEAST WARGHISHUDFBJKSFNS’ its really funny

so we’ve watched more beast wars!! woohoo

we've watched thru ep 21 now wrow

I continue to really like this show despite the cgi continuing to be painful

I like the characters and plots a lot...it feels pretty episodic rn but there's a throughline of character development and dynamic establishment that keeps things fresh

plus, new characters!! blackarachnia returned offscreen right after she left I guess, so she's here now...I like how she like immediately has her own agenda and isn't loyal to megatron (or tarantulas, who had a hand in her creation) 

and tigatron!! what a cool dude I love him. he’s so chill, and I like that he’s into nature and stuff, that's awesome. he is super epic and I feel like he’s saved the maximals sooo many times lmao. for some reason I feel like he’s eventually gonna be like ‘no I'm gonna go be one with nature sorry guys bye’ and leave the cast - specifically if we move the setting to space/cybtertron later in the show I feel like he’d stay on earth. that's just my hunch tho idk 

and airazor!!! she is super cool, I like her design a lot. cool bord lady...the maximals definitely needed someone who could fly other than optimus (which, why can he fly, he’s a GORILLA). and airazor is dope, I hope she sticks around

also the pods are a great way to introduce new characters and create conflict - all the eps w/the pods have had great tension, and I like that the good guys don't always win (like when the predacons got a pod to make blackarachnia, and later inferno)

ah yes inferno, that was a fun one - I liked how he was more ant-like and that translated into him trying to protect the pod, calling it ‘the colony.’ he’s so massive for some reason which is kinda funny. also ruth and I both hate that he flies around with his spinning ant ass. cursed 

also ruth implored me to include the fact that we’ve been calling scorponok a beta cuck bc he’s just such a loser hbvjakhdsfnaks

on that note its sooo funny to me that literally all of the predacons aren't really loyal to megatron, w/the exception of scorponok, who isn't very useful anyways. like, we start the show off with dinobot defecting like IMMEDIATELY and all the other predacons are trying to take over or undermine megatrons authority constantly. he doesn't seem to care that much tho which is funny. I feel like they spread out the megatron-starscream dynamic from g1 throughout like all the predacons lmao 

also megatron is so funnyyyyyy I love him lmao. he’s so dramatic, he’s like a theater kid but more advanced - like a classically Shakespearian play actor. 

and I find it funny that megatron like, barely ever leaves the base?? he just kinda chills out there and sends his underlings to do stuff, which they’re almost never successful at accomplishing. I feel like megatron has participated in like 3 fights this whole time and almost never actively participates in the plot, unless the plot is taking place at the predacon base. I wonder if he’s busy plotting or something...

also ruth and I both noticed that the characterizations kinda changed around a little from the beginning, like rattrap being less mutinous, optimus being more understanding, etc; which tbh seems to be a bigger Thing in 90s/2000s cartoons (that is, the whole ‘not having the main cast’s characterizations nailed down at the beginning of the show’ thing)

ok what else has happened...I find it super funny that there's been TWO episodes where megatron tries to reprogram a maximal in some way to give the predacons an advantage, and both times it backfired spectacularly. like, didn't he learn from the first time!? 

the starscreams ghost ep was WILD omg. also I saw that that ep was up next and I was like ‘oh we should watch the g1 s3 ep where starscream is a ghost bc there might be important context we’ll need’ and ruth was like ok fine and then we watched it AND IT WAS SO BAD. MY GOD

like, we watched a fair amount of g1 before starting beast wars, and I’ve watched a couple s3 eps (which, I know s3 isn't as well regarded as the pre-movie stuff, but I guess I must have watched some of the better eps bc they weren't like THIS), so i knew this ep probably wouldn't be very good...but we were NOT prepared for the level of badness we were presented with vbahdjkfhbahsjkdf

I mean maybe we were missing in-show context, but also we just had no idea what was going on the entire time basically. the entire episode was so wack. the only takeaway I had is that octane and sandstorm are dating

anyways enough about g1. the beast wars starscreams ghost ep was actually good, I missed g1 starscream, that iconic bitch...none of the predacons are quite on his level in terms of sheer legendary bastard energies

I liked that blackarachnia was like starscreams protégé, complete with her betraying him at the end lmao 

also idk if this is something we’re supposed to know from the beginning, but ruth didn't realize that beast wars megatron and op aren't g1 megatron and op and she was like :0 when that was kinda revealed this ep - idk if that's a spoiler or not but I already knew that going in lol 

oh and the part where op said ‘LETS MAKE THIS A DOUBLE DATE’ and busted dinobot out of the cr chamber? Gay™

oh my god and that ep where the maximals were stuck in beast form and like, reverted to their animal instincts was...sure something vbhajdkfsnbskjf that was a lot 

it was like a much more goofy version of the stuff in animorphs about the characters being influenced by their animal morph’s instincts (which was almost always presented in an absolutely horrifying manner)

but yeah we have 6 eps left in the season (!!!) which we’re looking to finish soon, I’ll probably make another post for those eps and s1 in general woohoo

[earthstellar]

INTERVIEW: Transformers lore and characters as discussed with my 74 year old mother

Backstory: I talk about fandom stuff a lot with my mom (she’s one of the original Star Trek fangirls so she knows her fandom shit lmao) and recently I’ve been discussing Transformers with her. 

Me and my mom are very open with each other, and we have some interesting fandom conversations. 

Here are some lines from a recent call with her that I thought might be interesting, regarding Transformers stuff and especially some interesting elderly person perspective on Ratchet. There’s also some talk of the theology in Transformers lore, including Drift and Spectralism, and a bunch of other stuff too.

All conversations transcribed from a recent Skype call, with my mom’s permission.

M is my mom, Me is just me-- So that you can tell who’s talking, lol. When other real people are mentioned, their names are redacted and replaced with an X for privacy. 

Getting Started:

Me: Okay, there are a lot of younger fans for Transformers who might be interested in this kind of discussion, but I don’t see a lot of these conversations saved and shared anywhere, so if you don't mind I want to share some of your reactions to learning about Transformers stuff. 

M: That’s okay, very professional of you to ask! The internet is a job now, I guess. I’m being interviewed, fancy. 

On Ratchet’s Age/Health and older people in media:

Me: Ratchet’s the medic, he’s an old guy. Older than a lot of the other bots. In the comics (MTMTE/LL) he has a chronic illness and he eventually passes away from either that or complications related to it, although we don’t see it happen on the page. It made everyone sad; He’s a fan favourite. 

M: I know how that feels, getting old and dying! I had years of thyroid symptoms before they had to take it out, I had endometriosis and they told me I couldn't have you, it’s an unsure thing. Now I’ve had skin cancers removed, I have too much potassium in my blood, I have fibromyalgia. I never expected to live this long. 

Everyone is really just guessing at health stuff. It’s ironic that the doctor couldn’t diagnose himself, but I think he probably knew what was wrong and couldn't bring himself to accept it. Old people might accept that we can’t do some things any more but we tend to be depressed about it. Nobody really copes with it very well, you know X had a stroke and now she’s aphasic, can’t speak anymore, can’t read anymore, and she used to be a nurse. She’s older than I am, but it’s sad. She’s so smart and clever, and we’re just old. It’s what happens. 

I bet Ratchet was scared. As a doctor, he’d know what can happen when you get old and decrepit. I think he was in denial, a lot of old guys seem to be like that. 

Me: He was the medical lead on their ship, the Lost Light. I think you’re right and he wanted to be functional for as long as possible; He wants to be helpful and his job is his life. It would be hard for him; He struggles with retirement in the comics. 

M: Sounds about right. I’m old as hell and I still work! Although that’s mostly because we all need money to live, and not so much because anybody wants to have a job at this age, but still. If he liked his job, he wouldn’t want to be pushed out. I loved working at the park; When I had to quit, it was devastating, but I didn’t really have a choice. 

By the way, the audiobooks you sent me for X have really made her happy, she can read again, sort of! So thanks for that.

Me: I’m glad the audiobooks I sent you helped!

M: They have, you’re a life saver! 

Me: I’m just glad they’re useful for her! 

I think it’s interesting that his age is a part of his character in terms of personality and story arc; Do you enjoy seeing older characters in media that reflect the realities of age and being old, even when it’s difficult or possibly depressing? 

M: Yes! There aren’t a lot of old characters, and the ones that are out there are mostly just joke characters or you never see them too often. I think the creators must think that old people don’t watch TV or anything, but the reason we don’t tune in is because everything is all about young people, and that can be hard. Watching people run around when you can’t anymore can be painful for those of us who have lost that ability now that we’re elderly, or watching kid-focused stuff can make us miss our families. 

It would be nice to see old characters that are included and are competent. 

Me: Representation is important. 

M: Yes. 

On Religion in Transformers: 

Me: So, you work in a church. Just pointing it out so readers know where we’re coming from on this. 

M: Yep, Episcopalian on the beach here, a small church. Services are mostly online due to COVID so I’ve lost hours on Friday, unfortunately... But I’m not complaining. 

Me: And we both like the more spiritual lore type of content, it’s some good shit. 

M: Always love seeing ancient Gods in space! 

Me: So, there’s another old guy character, Alpha Trion, who’s a kind of sage-like mentor to Optimus Prime. 

M: Optimus! He’s the truck! Everyone knows him, he’s the main guy. 

Me: Yep! So Alpha Trion is an archivist, and when Optimus Prime was younger, depending on what version of the story we look at, he also used to be an archivist. 

M: Librarian truck! 

Me: Yes! 

M: I love it. You worked at a library for a little bit. 

Me: That work placement was the best, loved it. But Alpha Trion, depending on which version of the lore we look at, is hinted to be one of the formative deity-entities on their home planet, Cybertron. 

M: Cybertroooooon. Haha! Good robot planet name. I’m into this so far, very cool.

Me: It is! And Alpha Trion is sort of the living memory of the early days of their planet and civilisation, but nobody knows. Everyone just thinks he’s a kind of cryptic weird old guy. 

M: Relatable. I like this concept.

Me: It’s pretty good. So generally, things vary a lot from version to version of the story, but there are usually a handful of beings, early Transformers, who make up the character of their ancient lore. These are called the Primes, named after Primus, who pretty much always is depicted as their main God. Like Zeus, or Odin. 

M: Very cool. Optimus is a Prime! 

Me: Right! In a few versions of the story, he is the final Prime essentially reincarnated. The Thirteenth Prime. 

M: That’s very cool. 

Me: And in some other stories, Prime is mostly purely a title that has political connotations as well; It gets into a sort of weird Divine Right kind of area to help underscore some of the problems in their planetary political structure that led to the conflict that eventually became their civil war. 

M: That sucks, but unfortunately, also relatable. It’s very real world, especially right now. It’s interesting how Transformers is so incredibly in depth; I never would have guessed from the cartoon ads that were on TV when you were little. 

Me: Yeah, they seem to hide a lot of the lore, which is a shame. The comics are more adult than most of the TV shows, I think you’d like them. 

M: Sounds like it. I love the spiritual robot stuff. 

Me: In the comics, there is a religious practice called Spectralism that you might really like. They see auras by filtering different light wave bandwidths through their optics in order to detect mood, and all the colours have meanings assigned to them. They change their paint colours in accordance with those colour meanings as well, on some occasions. Meditation is part of the practice. One of the transformers, Drift, had at least one vision; It’s hinted there might be more to Spectralism, but we don’t see all that much of it in any further detail, unfortunately. They also believe in Primus as a deity. 

M: It’s a shame they don’t elaborate more on it. It sounds very cool, like the stuff we were doing in the sixties and seventies. I bet Drift has some black light posters in his room, we had tons of them. Loved the velvet ones. 

Me: He does have an altar, I think. Or a least a prayer area, it’s mentioned he meditates fairly frequently, from what I remember. 

M: (Starts singing Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple) That was the best, put some tunes on... Good driving music, too! 

On Femme Transformers and Sexism in Sci-Fi: 

Me: So there are some lady Transformers, too! 

M: Ooh! 

Me: There’s Arcee, who is the pink one you probably remember from the ads or the cartoons, and in the comics she’s officially transgender. 

M: Excellent! Trans-formers. Good. 

Me: Yes! And there’s not just her, there’s Nautica and Velocity in the comics as well, plus Elita-One... (I showed her pictures of each.) 

M: I like Velocity. I love the teal, the Thunderbird on the back is excellent. 

Me: I like Velocity, too. 

M: Elita has the head cones, not sure how I feel about that. She’s also pink, it’s hard to keep track of them all. I like Arcee, she has the Princess Leia hair helmet! 

Me: I figured you’d like that. It’s pretty good. 

M: I like Arcee and Velocity the best so far. 

Me: There’s quite a few female or femme transformers now. There didn't used to be, and there were some mistakes made here and there, but nowadays there’s a much wider cast. 

M: That’s good, I’m surprised, but in a good way. There were never women main characters in sci-fi stuff when I was a kid, it’s why Star Trek was such a big deal, and even then, it wasn’t all that great. There was Uhura, Nurse Chapel, but there were a lot of weird episodes...

Me: I love the Romulan Commander, though. 

M: She was the best! Wished we got to see her more. 

Me: Me too. But in Transformers, they’re doing a good job with the female coded characters, as least as far as I’ve seen.

M: That’s good to know. I’m glad that exists for girls who want to play Transformers, too. It always seemed like such a macho thing, the way they advertised it. 

Me: Yeah, that’s still a problem to some degree, but I remember it being way more aggressively worse in the 80s/90s. 

M: It was worse in the 50s when I was a kid! Cooking sets were the girl toy. They made Star Trek for boys, but when all the girls ended up being the main demographic that watched it, they cancelled it. It was Lucy from I Love Lucy who brought it back, I remember you told me that! 

Me: Yep!

M: I’m glad little girls have Arcee. And little boys. They’re robots, they don’t have gender! 

Me: Exactly! 

--

If this kind of interview/conversation excerpt type thing is interesting to anyone, we’re happy to keep doing it! 

Give me questions or things to ask my mom, she’s happy to give you some “old lady perspective”, lmao. ❤️ 

[wollfling]

Hi Allie! I wondered if I could ask you for some advice. I want to draw really badly and create art but I really don't have any skill! I know that in order to get better at art I have to actually do it, but I feel so overwhelmed by how I'm not where I want to be with it right away, and also with where to start with learning to draw. Do you ever feel that way when you draw? And if you do how have you gotten past it?

[I am literally so sorry this is so long oh my God. My mind has been very jumbled lately so I accidentally rambled too much, but I hope it still helps you in any way orz] Oh sweet little anon.. ;^; I do feel that way, a lot of the time if not all of the time! Just recently this week, I felt like I just couldn't draw despite picking up my pencil and scribbling, it just wasn't working partly for that exact reason! Overwhelmed by not being where I want to be with it! These things happen and its frustrating. It's hard for me to imagine as a beginner artist because I've been drawing since I can remember but I will still do my best to offer you some meaningful advice!

But first, to answer your very last question, getting past it can be a little random sometimes. This whole week after being unable to draw, I was laying in bed trying to sleep while reflecting on some heavy feelings ive been having and memories. Suddenly part of an image flashed in my mind and I got up to immediately try drawing it. (The drawing I recently posted and captioned "parade"!) I worked on it completely driven by my heart, and so it didn't matter at the time if it looked good or was anatomically correct, etc. Right now I am working on another heart-driven drawing, but if I tried to work on lets say a study or character drawing instead.. I dont think i could!

My point in all this is that, I think that its important to know/understand why you want to create art, and I think my advice would change slightly depending on your answer. For me personally, I am an emotional artist. I create art that (usually) reflects how I'm feeling or topics I am emotionally drawn to. Illustrations, drawing characters, writing comics, etc.. I think this week, while I'm definitely struggling with my skill level, I was so burdened by some things I've been feeling lately that I couldn't focus on or enjoy anything that I was trying to create, until I was able to release it all in a drawing. (And I'm still not done with them hence why I am now working on another related drawing, but im making SOMETHING and feeling passionate which cannot be said with any of my other attempts this week.) So since these drawings purpose outweigh my current issues regarding my skill, I am able to work on them. If that makes sense?

Okay im sorry with how long-winded this all is so far and all about myself orz but I wanted to give context on how I view art and I think if you asked someone who creates like. Hyperrealistic drawings their answers would be completely different. So! I wanted you to be able to judge if my advice would work for you if that makes any sense at all...!!! Moving on to my actual advice then..!

This is a little general ofc because I dont know what sort of art you are creating, or what your passion behind it is. And if after this you would like to tell me more about your art I would love to hear! 🥺💗 you are welcome to dm me or if you send another anon/ask i think that would be good too since.. well other artists who see can also give their own advice too!

Okay. So anyways lol, first I want to tell you that your desire to create art makes you an artist, despite your skill level. And therefore, everything and anything that you make even now has value. Even if right now you're drawing wonky shaded spheres and cubes! I understand its frustrating when wanting to make something but you feel like your skill isn't "there" and how that can prevent you from making anything to begin with!! But I really want you to try and work through it! Ignore it, disregard it, give your worries about your skill the silent treatment!! And I know its near impossible to do but if its getting in the way of you actually creating well.. thats the worst! We can't have that. If you really want to draw, then you really NEED to draw, you know what I mean? You deserve to draw! The hardest part for like 80% of artists is working around their skill level. I promise you will get there, but for now, you can't let it get in your way. And I realize me saying "oh you feel like you're not good at drawing and its hindering you from doing it? Just do it" sounds like Chad advice but ;---; unfortunately its the reality that comes with being an artist. If you tell me more about what you like to/why you want draw then maybe we can find some alternate lines of thinking that will help you (for example "this tiger i drew looks like shit but drawing all of her stripes was therapeutic and made it worth it!" If lets say you draw as a stim, opposed to "this tiger im drawing looks so bad I can't even look at it anymore " dhsjhd I really hope that this all makes sense lol.)

Moving on, learning how to draw.. this also depends on what you enjoy drawing but my main piece of advice here is study from real life. I grew up drawing cartoons and anime, and now that I want to draw a little more realistically.. its so hard!! If you study real shapes/people/animals/etc it might be easier later on when you understand fundamentals to bend them if you decide to create stylized or surreal art. However if right now you like to draw stylized art, I would recommend to keep working on your personal style while studying from real life on the side simultaneously! Any way you look at it, understanding how shapes, lighting, colour, etc work in the real world will help you out even with the most obscure pieces. And since art is a learned skill yknow you need to build those brain..pathways..and such. Im not a scientist but you get what i mean. Studies are the equivalent to lifting weights! I would recommend the website quickposes (com) they have a library of images that they throw at you at random. The site can explain itself better than I can lmao, check it out!!!

I really hope i was able to offer you something of value here, I didnt mean to ramble so much. I'm excited for you to grow as an artist, I love when I hear about others deciding to learn how to draw ;-; please feel welcome to ask for any clarification (as im having a hard time articulating my thoughts lately) or if you really just want to ask or say anything! ♡♡♡ again sorry if this was more than you bargained for length wise dhsishskshksj

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Avengers Infinity War-First Time Watching Reaction Play-by-Play (Pt. 2)

Part 1

I wonder how many people Gamora has killed? What made her finally snap to not serve Thanos anymore?

How DID Gamora find it? Like, who told her?

How did Thanos capture nebula?

Poor nebula. She’s literally been through hell and back.

Ohhhh she snuck on board...

Thanos you suck so much. You favor one daughter over another.

Oh. Where was said map to the soul stone?

Gosh I feel so damn bad for nebula. She was raised as his daughter too but he tortured her and tore her apart. Nebula never had the chance to be her equal. She deserves so much.

Taught groot as an elective? What about all speak?

Buckle up rocket. It’s gonna get emotional.

Thor is literally all alone. He needs a time to sit alone and cry and break a whole building.

Rocket and Thor friends? Please

1500 years old? Jane, honey, you escaped.

Gotta give it up to Hemsworth’s acting chops here. Especially talking to nobody in reality. Just a bunch of cgi

Ew ew ew eye socket

Should have washed that yikes

Snuck it out by hiding it up your? Huh? You watch too many movies rocket.

Huge title card. Thank you. I wouldn’t have known where we were despite them saying their location many times.

How is that video game battery not dead?

Perceptive rabbit

I LOVE that they used a dwarf to play a giant character!!! This is brilliant! (And that dwarves are giant for some reason lol.)

Soooo again Thanos killed everyone EXCEPT Eitri despite his “morality” supposedly being balance

Poor hands

Poor nebula

Smart nebula

Maybe should have waited to be fixed fully first

Ah crap. SOMEONE PICK UP THE SPACE PHONE

MANTIS

Love how Stark asks for peters help in steering and not Stephen lmao

Nice parking job

Peter, stop popping pop culture refs

Lmao ITS ABOUT TO BE THE ICONIC SCENE

YES PLEASE

Blanket of Death. Capey has a new nickname.

Where’s Gamora

Who’s Gamora

Why is Gamora

What master do you serve?

Jesus?

I mean, yea I do. So does Pratt lmaoo.

LMAO PARKER’S FACE WHEN QUILL SAID THOR WASNT HANDSOME

Storm breaker time baby

“In theory it could summon the bifrost” who theorized this? How do you only theorize and not know?

Oh my gosh mantis is just bouncing around

Mr. Clean lmao

Kick names, take ass

Hey now, these guys saved the galaxy and universe from Ego so lmao

Oh no I know the scene coming up

Poor quill lmao

“I’m half human. So the 50% of me that’s stupid, that’s 100% of you.” “Your math is, blowing my mind.” What’s funny is that Quill’s math was actually completely accurate lol

Stephen having a stroke or a seizure? You good homie?

Soooo if Strange looked to the future and so possible outcomes, what does that mean for the TVA? According to them, there’s ONE sacred timeline, so all other branches are erased (which again messes up what smart hulk eventually says in end game. See kids, this is why you don’t mess with time travel in stories. There’s no way to go back in time without creating a time loop). Ehhhhh I’ll let it slide. Just ignore it... sigh... I can’t help it if I’ve studied paradoxes

Hmmmm not good odds I’ve gotta say...

Watch like, outside of the millions of realities that strange saw, there were like a million or billion more he missed where they won with no casualties lol

Hey Red Skull. Long time no see. How did he get here anyways and why?

Yea you’re prepared all right...

Gotta say, Lord Elrond has seen better days

I’m not ready to say good bye to this Gamora. Gamora and Loki and Nat go down as my favorite characters, gotta say. I know that Tony does and it’s sad, but his feels more satisfying because his sacrifice directly results in them winning. Loki is murdered. Gamora is murdered. Nat died just for a stepping stone for the avengers. She has no idea whether or not they will actually win in the end.

I’m hopeful they may bring Nat back like in the comics, red room clone style.

We got back vision, Loki (kinda), variant Gamora, a new captain America, why not Nat? Yea we have a prequel, but gosh I love her so much.

“You must lose that which you love.” Couldn’t that apply to like an object or something? Could I not throw my Nintendo switch over the cliff? Or my dog? (I would hate that just as much as a person, don’t get me wrong, I’m just curious about the rules)

Yea boohoo sad for Thanos... loses his favorite daughter. I don’t care about him. He deserves suffering.

Poor Gamora doesn’t think he’s willing to do it.. GIRL RUN!!!

Thanos deserves all the suffering.

He does love you Gamora... but that love... it’s selfish. It’s blind... Thanos seems to be a chaotic vigilante who is narrowminded, tunnel vision on his goal with no regards of the cost. But he is evil. If there is ever an alternate route to an end that doesn’t result in the loss of innocent lives, and you know that but you willingly choose the once that costs innocent lives, that is an evil decision. Maybe Thanos isn’t evil, but he’s not good. Far from it. He’s obsessed with this idyllic Utopia but he rushes to one method of getting there. Yes, people suffer. It sucks... it’s unfair... it’s horrible. But it is never the right of someone else to dictate whether or not said person would be better off dead. Who lives, who dies. If Thanos truly was neutral and not selfish, he would have thrown his own life into the mix of the potential 50/50 snap. Thanos is not good. He’s not misunderstood. He’s a murderer. A genocidal cult leader. I have no tears for him. Only for those who suffered more at his hands.

Rant over, time to try not to cry about Gamora...

Her face of realization

Gamora run please

Thanos, I hate you. (Great character her, but not a good person)

Poor Gamora

Oh my gosh the emotion here is great but I’ve heard this sound used as a meme on TikTok too many times aghhhh

Gamora!

What a way to die

I’m crying again. I miss her already...

Who the hell designed this place and put the stone here???? Who did this?

Cry Thanos. Suffer. My only comfort here is that you are sad. You deserve suffering. You really do...

The TVA is laughing here and I’m not okay..

Poor Peter Quill... he’s also lost a lot like Thor, but has had the “luck” of not knowing his family too close.

Wakanda babyyyy

No, you don’t want Starbucks, you want Dutch bros

Lmao I love rhodey. Poor Bruce.

BUCKY BUCKY BUCKY

HUG

NO CMON HAVE A LONG HUG

MALE FRIENDSHIPS ARE SO IMPORTANT.

Yea Shuri show em up.

Okay quick pause, I love love LOVE how Shuri is smarter. It’s a powerful moment for females BUT it’s not done in a way that’s condescending to males! It’s not saying women power because men bad, she’s just good! (And she has had access to technology they never could have but I digress). More of this please Hollywood. Don’t let being a female be the power. I don’t want strong female characters, I want strong characters who happen to be female. Ones who hold their own, have faults like anyone else, struggle, have weaknesses and strengths, but are strong without putting down others. Just a comment, just because a woman character may not be as strong as a man character, that is not saying she’s weak. If you’re the second strongest human in the world, you are NOT weak. You’re just not as strong as the strongest human ever, but that’s nothing against you. LET WOMEN STAND ON THEIR OWN MERITS WITHOUT SEX AFFECTING THEM!

Anyways

I love Shuri

I wish they had more time. She definitely could have done it. But stupid Thanos

Ughhhghhg

I know what many scenes are upcoming... with quill and peter and vision and everyone else

Let👏🏻Bucky👏🏻Have👏🏻Peace👏🏻

Thank you Nat!!! I love that Nat is so protective and selfless.

GET THIS MAN A SHIELD

Bucky needs love please. He’s my stand in, manipulated, greasy, long haired, dark and mysterious, stabby boy. (Also I need Bucky and Loki to meet. But let Loki finish his show (and come out of it alive because if he doesn’t I will sue) and be the antihero hero we need. Please. If he doesn’t get reintroduced into the mcu as a hero I will sue.

Thor, sweetie, are you a masochist?

Back to wakanda

Oh no, bad CGI, floating head Bruce banner. I’ll let it slide... sigh....

Can’t like, you just rain bombs on them forever?

JIBARI TRIBE YEA BOYYYYY

Sorry Proxima Midnight, you look like a frog and your name sounds like a middle schooler’s OC.

How nice. Diplomatic meeting.

“Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood.” Reeeeeeally wish you didn’t say that, T’Challa...

Yay big CGI battle commence! It’s like a really expensive animated cartoon at this point

WAKANDA FOREVER!

Poor Bucky. Forgot this dude doesn’t know much about the modern world.

Ahhhh Kamikazi aliens

I just wanna say that I love that Wakanda still has the artistic culture in their clothing and tradition all the while having badass, super advanced technology.

Why can’t they just rain bombs down the whole fight lol. Rhodey has those super nice bombs, like, do that they he whole time? Please? Why do you not have a barrier around the entire king.

No M’Baku, it’s not the end of wakanda. But half of all life, yea

WAKANDA FOREVER YEAAAAAAA

They should honesty all have nano tech suits like black panther lol. Or iron man suits. Fine maybe the most powerful one with the best quality material for the king, but besides that, yknow.

Wow Steve is hot with a beard.

So much happening at once. Thor, Wakanda, Vormir, Knowhere, am I missing anything?

Okay, but what IS the full force of a star? Like in Newton’s or something? Juls? Is it heat?

What’s this metal? How does it fare with vibranium?

Get off your wooden butt, groot.

“He needs the axe” are you Thor, the god of axes?

Soooo, I thought Thor didn’t NEED the hammer, it just helped him concentrate his powers or act as a conduit. Is that retconned already?

Cmon groot, put down your game. Soooo, is Groot worthy? He technically lifted it. Or is it a technicality because it wasn’t fully finished yet?

Cmon bucky, use that fancy arm of yours.

Wow they’re getting destroyed.

They need wanda to help.

BADASS ENTRANCE BABYYYY

How did Thor know to come to wakanda?

Floaty head Bruce

“BRING ME THANOS!”

Ahhhhhahahaha yeaaaaaa

Cry Thanos. Do it. I hate you.

Much more of a purple grape nutsack.

Oh gosh... I know what Peter Quill is going to do. I still don’t hate him.

“With all six stone I would simply snap my fingers. They would all cease to exist.” Orrrr, now hear me out, I know I sound like a broken record now but... MAYBE DOUBLE THE RESOURCES INSTEAD?? That’s not mercy. That’s not up to you to decide whether or not someone’s better off dead.

Smoosh

Yea quill has experience with the power stone

AIM FOR THE HEAD

Cmon it’s basic zombie tactics

I love peter quill lmao

Go capey!!!

Magic with a kick!

Poor Peter

CAPEY NOOOOOO

Wow he’s OP

Ouch quill just got majorly clotheslined

NEBULA

“Where’s Gamora?” 😭😭😭 SHE CARES AGHHHH

Restrain him! Work it mantis!!!

Why even remove the gauntlet, just slit his throat... kill him....

Quill no... stop being cocky...

Oh no

Quill please don’t

JUST SLIT THANOS’ THROAT

Quill please....

Poor quill. Just lost the person who really really loved him

Okay, I still love star lord. Idc what others think. He reacted realistically. If you hate peter quill for how he reacted, you better also hate Tony Stark for how he reacted to bucky when he learned bucky killed his parents despite knowing for a fact that bucky was brainwashed. Yes it was annoying... yes they were so close, but quill is so human here. I don’t hate him. He gets too much hate for acting like any normal person would have. Distraught, grief filled, he lost his love. Someone who helped him open up and finally move on from his mother’s death and fathers villainy.

Spider man saving mantis gives me life

How did that power stone blast not kill them?

Clearly Thanos has played Majora’s Mask. At least he has good taste.

So close vision.... but I know... I know what happens.

YES BUCKY AND ROCKET GUN CIRCLE.

Lmao give rocket Bucky’s old arm.

“I am Groot.” “I am Steve Rogers.” Comedy gold

Cmon Thor, go after the big one first.

Cmon wanda, save them. We need some scarlet witch magic up here to stop these

Okay that was so cool. AND THEN SHE USED THE BLADES

Oh no but now Shuri is alone

So close yet so far.... Dangit... vision was almost good

Ouch. Bonk to the head

YEA BLACK WIDOW

BADASS TIME

AND OKOYE!!

LETS GOOOOOOO

BADASS WOMEN

Ouch poor vision

Cmon Thor back up vision

Please

Hulk is in his feels

Cmon hulk grow up

Ooooh smart move banner

Aaaaand he’s gone

Giant blade look oit

Corvus, screw off.

YEA STEVE

WHERE IS THOR WHEN YOU NEED HIM

CMON NAT

Oh dang. Nice one wanda. But also, sheesh. Helluva way to go. But no big.

Yea vision. Stabby time.

Now vision and Steve, kiss.

Spider man saving everyone’s lives.

YEA STRANGE

Where was this in New York???

MULTIPLYING

WHY DIDNT YOU DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE????

Oh no

Well then... ouch. Soooo where’s the real stone???

Hey look Tony, you have a fan.

Okay I’m just pissed odd they didn’t just kill Thanos when they had him subdued. Like, worry about the glove AFTER he’s not longer a threat

Oof

Tony is taking a beating

HE WAS STABBED

WHAT

I don’t want your respect Thanos. That’s an insult.

They will remember him. They will remember him Thanos. When he kills you.

DOCTOR STRANGE WHAT?

You really doing this??? I guess he knows what needs to unfold for them to win... dang. I wouldn’t trust him tho.

Peter Quill in berserker mode

Where’d he go?

Name dropping the second movie

Strange knows everything about to go down. Who dies, who lives, what Thanos is about to do... he’s accepting his soon dusted demise because Stark needs to live...

AIM FOR THE HEAD UGHHHHH

Stop teleporting. That’s Loki’s gimmick.

KILL THIS RAISIN LOOKING NUTSACK UGH

Homie way too OP

Poor wanda and Vis...

HER LIP TREMBLE

PHENOMENAL ACTING

SAY I LOVE YOU

I JUST FEEL YOU

AGGHHHH IM CRYING AGAIN

Poor wanda. To have to kill her love... this.. this is a sacrifice Thanos... not your murder....

Wow Steve is holding back Thanos with pure brute

WANDA IS SO STRONG

HOLDING BACK THANOS WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY BREAKING THE MIND STONE

I LOVE YOU

AGHHHHHHHHH

And I know what happens next...

Poor wanda

Piss off thanos you understand nothing

You lost more than she could know? Bull crap. You are causing everyone to lose...

Cruel reality. Wanda has to see him die twice. RIP Vision

RIP half of all life...

AIM FOR THE DAMN HEAD

IF THOR KILLED HIM THEY COULD HAVE USED THE GAUNTLET TO BRING EVERYONE BACK TO LIFE. USED THE TIME STONE TO REVIVE THEM ALL.

How did that not kill Thanos tho. It may not have been a head shot but still.

Lil Gamora

What is this place?

Is this the soul realm?

Thanos, I hope you suffer forever. You deserve all the pain...

Rest In Peace: Vision, Loki, Bucky, T’Challa, Groot, Wanda Maximoff, Sam Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Peter Quill, Dr. Strange, Peter Parker (I don’t feel so good), and everyone else...

Thank you Nebula.

Thanos, you do NOT deserve to retire peacefully—wipe that smile off of your face

Oop, Rest In Peace Maria Hill and Nick Fury too... Motherfu— (so close Sammy boy...)

Yea Thanos you didn’t really think that through. Much more than half will died since other people rely on other peoples lives

Good thing he hit that button last minute huh? I wonder how captain marvel would fare in the TVA? are her powers considered magic? I mean, she clearly doesn’t know everything since she only just learned about Thanos (which is funny because she was supposedly traversing the universe to protect people)

Welp... onto movie two!

[dem-obscure-imagines]

The Time-Traveler’s Daughter

Prince Zuko x Reader Summary: You are where history and prophecy collide, the daughter of a time traveler and a witch, and this has done nothing but cause problems...But maybe getting stuck in another dimension isn’t the worst thing to happen to you. Note: I will probably use this reader again. I don’t know, I just really like this concept. Warnings: None? I’m a hoe for Zuko as usual lmao. (I went way overboard. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is the longest one-shot I’ve ever written for this blog) Word Count: 6k

Being the child of a dimension-hopping time traveler and a witch who knew better had given you quite possibly the strangest childhood you could have ever asked for. Your father’s friends from all over history and the universe were always popping in for a visit, and your mother’s ancestry granted you an education at a magical boarding school.

It was the summer just after your graduation, and so each of your parents had decided to give you a gift. Your mother’s gift was her own coming of age necklace, a powerful amulet that had been passed down from woman to woman, all the way down her side of the family. Your father, as always, had invented something of his own for you, a watch.

This was no ordinary watch, however. The large steel device allowed the wearer to time travel or travel through dimensions as they pleased. It harnessed the same technology his metal glove did. Your mother was a bit on the fence about this gift, but your father insisted that it was time for you to explore and have your own adventures. After all, if he hadn’t gone out to explore the universe, he would have never met your mother.

So, she relented and let you try it out. That was, perhaps, why you were blacked out in a dimension that wasn’t your own. Your head hurt something fierce, and by the time you started to open your eyes, there were two familiar strangers hovering over you. The first was older, his friendly features obscured by a white beard. The second was around your age, shaggy dark brown hair partially hiding his fierce amber eyes. A scar stretched across the right side of his face.

“Oh my God…” You groaned, struggling to sit up.

“I’ll get you some tea. Please be careful.” The first stranger, someone you recognized as Iroh from your years of watching Avatar as a child, told you. “You’ve been asleep for a long while.”

“You’re...Iroh and Zuko…” You mumbled, looking at each of them for a moment. Zuko’s eyes widened and he looked to his uncle for some clue about what to do. Depending on when in their timeline you’d found them, that might have not been the best thing to say. “I’m...I’m not from around here. I don’t know how I got HERE of all places…”

“I thought you were dressed a little strange.” Iroh noted, chuckling to himself. He didn’t seem bothered about your comment, nor the fact that you knew who they were while they were pretending to be simple refugees as opposed to powerful fire-benders. “I’ve never seen clothes like those before.”

In most dimensions, your gray hoodie, black t-shirt, and ripped jeans would have been more than normal. Of course you found yourself in the one where they weren’t. And then there was the matter of your watch, which upon further inspection was broken, sparking and jolting when you rushed to take it off. “Shit!”

“What’s wrong?” Zuko jolted at your sudden outburst.

“It’s broken! Oh my God, my mom’s gonna kill me! I...” You took a deep breath, trying to center yourself. “I can’t get home without it. It’s broken, so I’m...stuck here.”

“What do you mean you’re stuck here? It’s just a bracelet. I’m sure if you explained to your mom--”

“You don’t understand, Zuko. That watch is...the reason I’m here. It’s like a portal. And without it, I can’t get home.” You looked to Iroh. “I, uh...wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t from around here…”

“You’re from another world, then…” Iroh thought about it for a long moment, passing a warm cup of tea to you. “That is quite the pickle. Well, you’re more than welcome to stay with us until you find a way home. Zuko, find our guest something...suitable to wear. Wouldn’t want to draw attention.”

“Thank you.” You were still floored that this was your reality. Your whole childhood, you’d looked up to Iroh. His wisdom and kindness were values you’d appreciated forever. And Zuko...well, it wouldn’t be too far off to say he’d been one of your first crushes, despite the fact that he was animated. Of course, now he was in the flesh in front of you, and it was...different. You couldn’t deny the fact that the prince was handsome.

Zuko left to go to the market and get you something that wouldn’t make you stand out in Ba Sing Se. Meanwhile, Iroh asked about where you’d come from.

“My father is like me. A dimension-hopper. He made my watch as a graduation present. Where I’m from, you and Zuko...you’re fictional.”

“Fictional, you say? Very interesting…” He took a sip from his tea. “So how did you come to know about us, then, if we’re fictional in your universe?”

“Well, you two are characters in one of my favorite cartoons growing up.” You thought for a second. This world you’d found yourself in was very technologically behind the one you’d come from. “Cartoons are like...drawings that move. And they have sound. It’s...hard to explain, I’m sorry.”

“Cartoons sound incredible! It must be such an interesting world, where you’re from.”

“It is, yeah. Where I’m from, the only people with powers are witches like my mom. Like...me. I always thought benders were so cool. The idea that you can just control the elements is so cool.”

“You have magic?!” The old man’s features lit up. “Would it be out of the question to see some?”

“Of course not, um…” You thought for a moment before letting go of your tea cup and letting it float in front of you. When you did it, the amulet around your neck glowed. “I can’t do much. My staff is back home, but without it, I can do some little things. If I had it, I could just...fix my watch. Without it, though, I guess I’ll just have to figure it out.”

“Zuko could probably take you to the market tomorrow to look for parts. Someone around here must have something that could help.”

“What about me?” Zuko entered the house, closing the door behind him. He had a bundle of clothes tucked under his arm. He handed it to you. “I wasn’t sure what size you are, but I think those should fit.”

“Thank you.”

“We were just discussing the matter of (Y/N)’s broken watch.” Iroh explained, motioning to the device that was still sparking every few seconds. “She needs some parts to fix it. I wondered if maybe you could take her to the market tomorrow to get some spare parts for it.”

“Sure.” He shrugged, sitting between you and his uncle. Your heart lurched, and so, you stood up to go to the spare room and change into these new garments. Zuko had found you some naturally colored undergarments with a green dress that went over top. You used some clips to pull your hair back and folded your clothes from home before returning to where Zuko and Iroh were sitting.

The way they both stopped talking and looked up at you when you returned made it obvious what they had been talking about. Well, that, and Zuko’s interested statement, “You’re a witch, too?”

“I’m a lot of things.” You laughed, tucking your folded clothes into the corner of the room with your backpack. “Did Iroh tell you the other thing?”

“That we don’t exist? Yeah, he did.” Zuko looked uncertain as he said it.

“It’s not that you don’t exist.” You walked back to the table and sat down next to him. “My dad explained it to me when I was young like this: there are a lot of dimensions in our universe, and sometimes they leak into each other. Sure, you don’t exist in MY world, but you do exist here. If we’re being technical, most of my dad’s friends technically don’t exist where I’m from, my mother included.”

“Really?”

“Hell, I technically went to school in a whole dimension that isn’t supposed to exist.”

“Well, I guess that makes me feel a little better.” He laughed and shook his head, smiling softly. “It must be weird to...meet the villain from your favorite childhood thing.”

“You’re not the villain.” You told him with an amused chuckle.

He looked genuinely surprised. “I’m...I’m not?”

“Not even close.”

Iroh smiled to himself, going to the other room to get some sleep while you talked with his nephew.

“So...If I’m not the villain, then who is?”

“Your dad.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” He nodded. “So I’m, what, I’m some minor villain then?”

“In season one you were. Kind of. Although that’s arguable, even.” You shook your head, taking in his face in the quiet. There were crickets chirping outside. “I mean, sure, you’ve done some questionable things, but...honestly, you have one of the best redemption arcs in history.”

“Redemption arc?” He laughed. “Me? Really? Me?”

“Really. You’re a fan favorite.”

“People like me?”

“People more than ‘like’ you.” Your cheeks flushed, thinking about it. That you were sitting on the floor next to the love of your seven-year-old life.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Goodnight, Zuko.” You got up and walked to the bedroom, settling into the bedroll Iroh had set up for you.

“Night…” He watched you go, a surprised smirk settling onto his handsome features. Maybe he’d have to investigate that some more…

***

The next morning, Zuko decided to make breakfast for you and Iroh, which judging from the slight burning smell coming from the pan, you learned was not a usual thing.

“I’m really sorry. I tried.”

“Thank you, Zuko.” You laughed, eating it anyway. It wasn’t great, but it was edible, and that was really all that mattered. “It’s actually pretty alright.”

“Thanks. Just, uh, trying to get that redemption arc on a roll.”

“What’s this about a redemption arc?” Iroh asked, amused, as he drank his tea.

“Nothing, Uncle. After breakfast, I’m taking (Y/N) to the marketplace.”

And so, he did. The prince of the Fire Nation led you through the rows of stalls, and you diligently searched for any merchant that might have a little box full of gears and metal bits. Zuko watched you as you went, an unsure expression on his face. How was it that this stranger had wandered into his life and changed so much? Good, changes, sure, but changes no less.

Your face lit up as you approached the stall of an inventor. Among his wares, there was a  box filled with itty bitty gears and pieces, exactly what you were looking for.

“Sir, how much for the...box of gears?” Zuko asked, his hand on your shoulder, essentially claiming you in front of the locals.

“Oh, those? Couldn’t find a use for them, I’m afraid. My eyesight went years ago, so I don’t have the patience to deal with such small parts. If they make the girl happy, then take them. They’ll do you more good than they ever have me.”

“Thank you so much, sir. I really appreciate it.”

“Of course.” The kind old man handed you the box and winked at Zuko. “She’s a keeper, that one. You’ve got yourself an inventor on your hands, boy. Be careful not to lose her.”

“Believe me, sir, I will.” He smiled and the two of you turned, faces flushed, as you walked back home. “Thank you. For playing along.” He said once the market was far enough away.

“Gotta blend in somehow.” You nodded. Of course. Of course that was what had happened. The two of you were just blending in. The love of your childhood life had certainly not just claimed you as his sweetheart in front of an entire market full of people.

When you got back to the house, Iroh was reading, his cup steaming with a fresh cup of tea. You moved your watch to the table and set the box of gears down. In your backpack, you had a pair of tweezers and some goggles, so you put them on and set to work, carefully pulling out the broken pieces and searching the box for suitable replacements.

Zuko watched as you worked, amazed that someone could know how to manipulate such tiny pieces. “How did you...learn how to do that?”

“Many years of practice. My dad is kind of the best inventor ever. He taught me everything I know.”

“Mmm…” Zuko nodded. He wondered what it was like to have a loving relationship with your father. After all, he’d never really gotten that. His mother had been one of the kindest people he knew, but once she’d exited his life, he was left with Ozai, and...well, the rest was history.

“Speaking of parents...there’s a moon in this dimension, right?” You asked. “That’s a dumb question, of course there’s a moon here.”

“There is. Why?” Iroh asked.

“Well, I have to contact my mom. You know, tell her I’m alright. She was worried about this whole dimension hopping thing.”

“Ah, I see.” Iroh nodded. “Well, I’m sure we can help you if you need it.”

“Thank you. Seriously, thank you both. You’ve done so much for me.”

“Well, showing you some basic kindness is the least we can do. I can’t imagine what would have happened to you if someone else had found you.” Iroh lamented on it, humming to himself.

“Me either.”

You tinkered away for a few more minutes before finally finishing. “I think I did it.” You sat up straighter, wrapping the watch around your wrist and looking it over.

“You’re done?” Zuko asked, watching as you stood and started to gather your things. “That was...quick.” You pretended not to notice the disappointment on his face.

“Yeah, I don’t think it was as broken as I thought it was. Well...here goes. Thank you for everything. I’ll come visit if I can.”

“You’re welcome here any time.” Iroh promised.

You let your eyes linger on each of them for a second longer before adjusting the settings and pressing the button on the watch. For a few moments, it whirred the way it was supposed to. And then...everything went wrong. The metal started to get hot. Really hot. The device groaned, pieces grinding against each other. You ripped it off of your wrist and threw it out the window, just in time too, because only a moment later, you heard a loud BOOM and then a cry of “MY CABBAGES!”

“Maybe my...calculations were off.”

“Maybe.” Zuko nodded, looking out the window and then back at you. There was some little piece in him that couldn’t help but be glad you weren’t leaving just yet…

***

When dark fell, Zuko took you beyond the city walls. It was a clear night. The stars reflected off of the little pond, and inside the crystal waters was the image of the crescent moon. You walked over and knelt beside it, reaching out to skim your fingertips along the surface, letting the waters ripple out from you.

When the image cleared again, your reflection was replaced with your mother’s. She looked at you with concern.

“Are you alright? Did something happen?”

“I’m fine, mom. I just thought I’d check in, let you know where I landed. I’m in the Avatar universe. My watch broke on impact.”

“BROKE?!”

You winced at her outburst of panic. “It’s fine, though. Dad said I’d have to learn how to fix it, so why not now?”

She wasn’t listening to you, though. “That’s it, I’m sending your father to pick you up right now—”

“Mom, you don’t even have to. Seriously, it’s fine. Don’t send Dad. I need to figure this out on my own.”

She looked at you, tilting her head in that way that she did when she was deciding to be angry or proud of you. Eventually, she caved. “Fine. I’m not sending your father. But…you call me if you can’t figure it out and I’ll send him in a heartbeat. You don’t have to do everything alone, you know.”

You looked to Zuko, smiling softly when he looked at you with those sharp golden eyes. “Believe me, Mom. I’m not alone.”

You talked with her for a few more minutes before finally dismissing her aura and standing up again. Zuko stood up beside you, looking down at you, waiting for one of you to break the silence somehow.

“You’re taller than I expected you to be.” You told him.

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s weird that…you know, you knew who I was before. Maybe not weird, just…you know.”

“No, it’s definitely weird. I used to watch your cartoon every single day before school. They used to play reruns in the mornings while I was eating breakfast. My parents had to basically drag me away so I could actually catch the bus.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah.” You nodded, and the two of you began the long walk back to the safety of the city walls. But not before running into a bit of trouble first.

“What have we got here? The fire prince and his little damsel in distress? I wonder how much we could get for the two of you…” A group of bandits had formed around the two of you. You looked up at Zuko, his eyes blown wide with panic before melting into the confidence he so often had. Flames tickled his palms before igniting in his hands.

You didn’t have any weapons, no watch, no swords of any kind. You were lucky, though, that the two of you were standing back to back beneath the branches of a great tree. You reached a hand up and the tree seemed to kneel under your control, one of the limbs dipping down, down, down until the wood was gripped tight in your hand. The end of the thin branch snapped off, leaves flying off as the new staff formed, twisting and bending to your will.

“What kind of bending is THAT?” One of the bandits’ very panicked voice asked.

“Oh, I’m not a bender.” You replied, fingers tightening around your staff while the tree stood itself upright again. “But you’re going to wish I was.”

And then the battle broke out. Zuko’s flames blazed any of the bandits that dared to get close to him, punching fireballs at anyone who got too close to you. Meanwhile, you were using your staff, which was nowhere near as powerful as the one you had at home, to send the bandits back with waves of sheer power. Needless to say, they hadn’t ever seen anything quite like the two of you.

A few minutes later, all that was left was a scorched field, a panting fire bender, a tired witch, and a trail of bandits making a run for the woods.

“Where did you learn to fight like that?!” Zuko turned to you excitedly.

You rested your staff against the ground and looked up at him. “My mom.”

“Figures.” He chuckled. “You’re good. And you’ll have to be if you’re going to stay with us until we get your bracelet fixed. Uncle Iroh and I…”

“I know. You’re in a bit of trouble. Maybe you need someone like me looking out for you, huh?”

“Yeah, just maybe…”

***

It didn’t take long for you to fall into a rhythm. In the mornings, Iroh would make tea while you helped teach Zuko how to cook breakfast. After that, Zuko ran the store they were using as a front with his uncle and you helped tidy up a bit. It was only at night that you tinkered with your watch some more. Well, that, or Zuko would take you out to the field to practice fighting. After all, you had a staff to break in.

Fight practice led you to be caught in some precarious positions. Only a few nights ago, you’d wound up pinned beneath him, his breath warm across your cheeks, his shaggy bangs hanging in your face. Something in you lurched, your heart doing a backflip. Never had you imagined, despite your unusual childhood, that you’d ever end up there, your wrists pinned down by rough, warm hands, breaths shallow, lips aching for his. But neither of you acted on it.

Your magic was getting stronger by the day as you became less dependent on your primary staff and learned how to use this new one. Every time you cast a spell, Zuko noticed, the amulet around your neck would glow, as would your eyes. You would meditate on sunny afternoons, and when you did, your form would hover a few feet above the ground. It was mesmerizing to watch, and he often did, only caught by you a few times, causing him to leave the room red-faced, babbling some excuse about going to find his uncle.

Zuko wasn’t sure what it was about you, but he trusted you. He supposed he had to, since you were living in their house after all. Given that he and his uncle were wanted fugitives, trust was a thing they had to be careful with. Yet, the longer you stayed, the less he wanted you to leave…and the less YOU wanted to leave.

In all of your days there, you had yet to see Aang or Katara of Sokka or any other members of the main cast. Just Zuko and Iroh. Not that you were complaining. The fire prince and his uncle were more than fine with you and they had been nothing if not welcoming.

It had been a few weeks since you’d woken up in this place. You were sitting by the window, looking out at the starry sky. Zuko walked in so quietly you didn’t hear him and he sat down beside you, watching the way your features flickered in the light of the lantern.

“Would it be awful…if I said I didn’t want you to leave?” Zuko asked quietly, his voice soft and his expression softer.

“I’d love to stay, Zuko, but…you have a destiny. One that doesn’t involve me, I’m afraid.”

“Mmm.” He nodded. “Right. You know everything that happens, then.”

“Just about.”

“And this…your visit?”

“Not part of the plan.”

“But a pleasant addition.” He amended, reaching out to rest his hand on top of yours. He was so warm, endlessly warm, a result of the flames raging inside him. How someone so broken could be so soft, you weren’t sure, but he was. You were certain you’d never met anyone with a kinder soul. “I could just…go with you.”

“They wouldn’t win the war without you.” You whispered, shaking your head. You looked away from him and instead locked your eyes on the sky. “They need you, Zuko. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph…they all need you.”

“Please don’t leave me.” He pleaded. “Please…”

“Zuko, what am I supposed to do? If I stay here, I’m putting you in danger. I’m putting your whole WORLD in danger! You’re so important to this place. So, so important…”

“So are you!”

“No I’m not!”

“You’re important to me!” Zuko shouted. It was the first time you’d heard him raise his voice the whole time you’d been there. Sure, he’d had little spats with his uncle here and there, but never like this. There were flames flickering in the golden irises you’d come to love. His expression softened when he saw how tense you were. He reached out with a gentle hand and stroked your cheek. “You’re important to me…”

“I can’t be. I’m not supposed to be. I’m not even supposed to exist…”

“But you do. You’re here and so am I. Why can’t you just—”

“You’re supposed to end up with Mai.” You interrupted. He went quiet for a moment. You could have cut the tension with a knife. “She’s your endgame. Not me. You’re going to end up with her and forget all about me.”

“I don’t want Mai anymore.”

“What do you mean you don’t—”

“I want YOU.” Zuko leaned closer. “I don’t want Mai. I want you. Don’t you feel the same?”

“It’s not about my feelings, Zuko, it’s about your future.” You fought the tears that were welling in your eyes, blurring his face.

He was quiet for a long time, thinking. “You can leave this place. You can go home. But once we win the war, I’m going to come find you. I don’t care what it takes.”

***

You could only stall on your watch for so long without letting it be noticeable, but you knew the longer you stayed, the more it would hurt when you finally left. So, after a few tests and the aid of your growing magic, you decided you were finally ready to go back.

“You know you’re welcome here any time. We could use a witch around the house.” Iroh told you, pulling you into a tight hug.

“I know I’ll see you again. I’ll be sure to come visit sometime.”

“You better. I’ll miss you if you don’t.”

Zuko stood there quietly for a moment, waiting for his moment with you. Once Iroh had said goodbye, he left the two of you alone, and it was silent for a little while. Then, Zuko took a step closer, hesitating before reaching out to take your hand. Zuko let out a long sigh.

“You…don’t have to leave, you know. You could stay a little longer.”

“If I stay any longer, it’s just going to hurt both of us more.”

“Yeah…” He was quiet, tilting your chin up so you were looking at him, into those fierce golden eyes one last time. Zuko let his eyes drift shut as he closed the distance between you, his lips pressing against yours for the first and last time. Then, he murmured softly. “I’m going to find you after the war. I don’t know how or where, but I will. I promise.”

“I hope you do.” You whispered back, tears welling in your eyes as you kissed him one more time. And then another. And then one last kiss for the road, and then before you knew it, you were activating your watch. There was a flash of light and then you were standing in your backyard, knees trembling until you fell to the ground, finally letting your tears flow as you realized that he was gone. You’d never see Zuko again.

***

It was quiet in the house without you. Dark. Empty. Zuko missed you. He missed your glowing eyes, your fierce energy, the sight of you floating in the sunlight streaming through the window. This place was so different now. He thought he’d be ready for it, but he wasn’t. He never could have been.

“You miss her.” Iroh noted, watering one of his plants. Zuko only nodded. “So do I.”

It was then that there was a bright flash of light. The same kind that had happened when you’d left him. Zuko sat upright, preparing himself for whatever or whoever was standing there, but to his disappointment, it wasn’t you. However, the stranger standing there did resemble you a bit.

“Are you Zuko?” The man asked, looking over the fire prince. Scar, check. Shaggy dark hair, check. Forlorn look in his fiery eyes, check. This had to be the outcast prince you were so heartbroken over.

“Y-yes, sir. Who are you?”

“I’m (Y/N)’s dad.” He offered the teenager his hand, and he shook it, unsure. “She doesn’t know I’m here, before you ask, and no, I’m not here to take you to her.”

“Oh.” Zuko deflated slightly, listening for what else the dimension-hopper had to say.

“I came to give you this.” He pressed a small metal token into Zuko’s palm. “After the war, use this, and it will take you to her. You’ll know what to do.”

“But how do I—” Before Zuko could finish his question, the inventor was gone as fast as he’d come, leaving him standing there wide-eyed, gripping the disc tightly in his hand. He couldn’t lose this. It was his only chance.

***

For the summer solstice, as you had every year since you were young, you helped your mother prepare the back yard, put up tables, string up streamers, tape balloons into place. You helped her cook food and make punch and make sure everything was just right for when all of her witch friends came over to celebrate.

You were wearing your nicest summer gown. It was yellow, knee-length, and the fabric was covered in butterflies, a crown of enchanted flowers sitting in the curls of your hair. Everything was perfect. Well, everything except for one thing. You’d gotten home from the Avatar dimension about a month ago, and still, you were stuck in a post-Zuko gloom. You didn’t think it was possible to miss someone so much.

You weren’t sure why it was, exactly, that the fire prince had captured your heart. You hadn’t stayed with Zuko and his uncle for all that long. You had only kissed the one time before you left. And yet, you couldn’t help running through all of the memories: that day in the market, your first fight side by side, practicing combat with him in the field outside the city once the sun had gone down, and it was just you, the prince, and the stars. You thought of every meal you shared, every stolen glance, every flicker in the golden amber of his eyes.

There had been a time, once, when Zuko had gotten a cut on his face. Some squabble with some man in the market had resulted in the prince being on the receiving end of a knife. He’d come to you, a little blood dripping from the wound, claiming it to be nothing. The cut had been just above the top of his scar, something you knew he was sensitive about.

“Can I?” You’d asked gently, and he’d nodded, leading your hands up to the spot. Your fingers brushed against his reddened skin as you used your magic to heal him, reducing the bleeding gash to nothing more than a faint white scar.

That was the first time the two of you had been that physically close before, face to face, his lips only a step away. The next was the sparring match near the woods that had led to him pinning you down in the grass. Your heart raced, remembering how it felt to have him. And God, it still hurt.

Liking Zuko had been so much simpler when you were seven and he was a cartoon.

“It gets easier.” Your mother whispered, embracing you from behind. She kissed your cheek tenderly before letting go of you. “I know it hurts now, but it will get easier. You have a universe of possibilities at your fingertips. There’s no need to get tangled up in one boy.”

And you knew she was right. What you were, both halves of what you were, gave you quite the variety of opportunities. But it still hurt.

One flick of her wrist sent the gate at the front of the yard flying open, and minutes later, your mother’s witchiest friends started filing in, mingling with each other under the sun’s bright light. Your father was bouncing around, too, chit-chatting. Some of his friends from other dimensions had shown up, as had some of your school friends, who were dying to hear about your experiences dimension-hopping.

“So uh, have you ever…you remember that cartoon Avatar?”

“The one with the blue people?” One of your friends, Jacob, asked.

You laughed and shook your head as your friend Amber corrected him. “Avatar with the blue people wasn’t a cartoon. She means the one with the four elements and the little bald kid with the arrow on his forehead.”

“Yeah, that one.”

“What about it?” Jay asked, watching your expression. Usually when one of you brought up a childhood show, it was met with waves of nostalgia, not…whatever look you had on your face. “Oh my God, is that where you went?”

“It’s kind of a long story, but yeah.”

“Oh my God, is Sokka as handsome as I remember him being?” Amber gasped.

“Wait, wait, wait, you had a crush on SOKKA? Not Mr. Fine-Ass Firebending Prince of my Heart?” Jade held her heart like she’d just been shot. “Zuko is so hot. No pun intended.”

“And that look has to be for something…” Jacob studied your face when the topic had changed.

“No way, you met Zuko?” Amber’s expression softened.

“I…yeah, you could say that.” Before anyone could ask anything else, you grabbed Jade’s hand and dashed over to the dancefloor, pushing all of the thoughts out of your head and instead giving into the beat of the music. Time didn’t exist anymore, which was evident by just how fast the sun seemed to set, igniting the sky with orange.

Eventually, you wandered to the edge of the dancefloor, where Amber and Jade were. You could tell they were curious, and you couldn’t hide from the questions forever, so in the reds and pinks of the setting sun and the flickering lights of the candles on the tables, you decided to surrender to their inquiries.

“So…what exactly happened between you? You don’t have to answer—”

“I kissed him.”

“You AAAAAAH! Oh my God! Tell us everything!!!” Amber squealed.

“You kissed Zuko.” Jade stated, dumbstruck. “You Kissed him. With your lips.”

“Yeah.” You giggled, shrugging. “I kissed a prince.”

“You kissed a prince.”

“So…are you going to bippity boppity boo yourself back to him?”

“I can’t.” You shook your head. “When I got to him, he and his uncle were still pretending to be refugees. The war hadn’t ended yet, and by the time it does, he’ll probably be in love with Mai. I’m…I’m never going to see him again…”

“Now, why would you say that?”

Your eyes widened, and you traced Jade and Amber’s gazes to a spot behind you. Your racing heart had prevented you from noticing the bright flash of light.

“Holy shit…” Jade murmured, covering her mouth. You were almost too afraid to look.

“Zuko…” You whispered, voice catching in your throat. You felt a large, warm hand on your shoulder. As much as you wanted to turn around to look at him, you couldn’t move. You were paralyzed, frozen by the fear that if you looked, he wouldn’t be there.

Footsteps trailed through the grass, walking around you until he was standing in front of you, as real as you remembered him. His hair was a bit longer now, shaggier, almost hiding his gorgeous amber eyes from you. But his smile was still there, as rare and precious as his smiles tended to be.

His voice was soft and gentle, as gentle as the large hand that rose to stroke your cheek. “We won the war, princess. I told you I’d come find you.”

Instead of replying, you launched yourself into his arms, causing him to let out a soft ‘oof’, his strong arms fastening tight around you. “H-how are you here? H-how did y-you--?”

“Aww, don’t cry,” he cooed, stroking your hair as he teased, “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

“I missed you s-so much…” You cried, shaking as he held you like you were the only thing in all of the worlds that mattered. “I t-think I love you, Zuko.”

“I know you do.” He chuckled. “I love you, too. Took us long enough to say it, huh?”

You pulled your face out of the crook of his neck and stroked his cheek, turning his face towards yours. He smiled softly before leaning closer and closing the distance between you. The crowd of people in your backyard cheered when they saw you and the prince of the Fire Nation locked into an embrace.

“Oh my god, she’s dating Zuko.” Jade whispered to Amber. After only seeing the prince in cartoon form, it was strange to see him here, living and breathing, and as real as you were.

“She’s done what every cartoon-loving little girl has ever wanted to.” Amber agreed.

“I can’t believe you’re here…” You whispered, brushing the bangs out of his face. His hair was a bit longer than when you’d last seen him. You wondered how much time had passed since you left.

“But that’s a good thing, right?”

“A really, really good thing.” You nodded, stroking his cheek as you studied his features, his arms still tight around your waist.

“Good. Because I don’t plan on leaving you any time soon.”

You pecked his lips. “Good.”

Tagged: @rikersgirl22

[doodle-doodie-doo]

Ranting about how Gaz, taster of pork is my fave iz ep bc >:(((

iI wanted to make this rant for a while now so why the hell not, I’ve also been wanting to rant about this ep and why its my all time favorite...because why the hell not... __________ This episode is way above the others for me, nothing can beat this. Ever sense I started watching Invader Zim I wanted an ep like this, and when I first watched it I knew it was going to be my fave and god I was so so exited, where do I start?  I hear some people don’t like this episode because how much Dib abuse is in it, for someone who kins Dib and whenever I see Dib get hurt in the show (which is like every single fucking ep) I feel horrible for him, but in this ep I did not, and I actually found it pretty funny, I laughed. From the start I knew Gaz and Dib where going to be my favorites and the more the show went on the more and more I loved these two and wanted to just see these two on screen, honestly I was starting to get tired of a lot of ep’s just being Dib vs Zim, I really wanted something else, not ONLY in this ep just about Dib and Gaz, how its done is done so so PERFECTLY.  _____________ I don’t want to point out every single part why I like it so much (probably will, anyways) starting off, Dib is fucking adorable in the start, thats perfect for me, LOVE THAT SHIT. That fucking....squeal he did?? yes. Ill take that shit. thank u..... And Gaz just walking in bitching about how Dib ate her food and hes just fucking too focused on his hard drives or whatever, its fucking perfect. Dib just being a fanboy in the start and Gaz bitching about whatever to him is perfect for me,   I think this was the first time we saw Gaz’s room and I love how it’s filled with stuffed animals, that is so perfect for her character you have NO IDEA. And I love what I’m assuming is dragon pajamas, what I love most of all is Gaz calling in her stuff animals to throw Dib out her room, the idea of Gaz having these creepy dolls that come to life is one of the best concepts for her character and I wish people would do more with that. I like how Dib just isn’t down right scared of Gaz all the time, like he is still willing to be selfish about himself, giving her the shadow hog curse and lying ABOUT IT LMAO WHAT AN ASSHOLE. Dib then starts to act fucking dumb af, like “OH NO I DIDNT DO CRAP GAZ 0W0W0W0W0W0W0W0W0W0W00″ But Gaz b like: nah hoe Dib’s still being an ass, then the ep JUST GETS FUCKING BETTER.  One of my alltime favorite things about this ep is that you can slowly see Dib get more and more scared, and Gaz more and more upset, you can tell something really bad is going to happen to Dib at the end, but you don’t know what, and it’s even more scary because its Gaz...THAT IS JUST, SUCH ASMAZING WRITING, I REALLY ADORE SHIT LIKE THAT, GOD.  I love how Gaz dosen’t start getting angry too early, I like how you see her eat every single food and creepy music is just being played, she’s also not eating all the food too fast, you can just FELL SHIT BOUTTA HAPPEN SOON 4 REAL  one of my favorite fucking animation clips from this ep is just when Gaz is eating and just spitting it all in Dib’s face while he’s reading his book trying to fix this curse, you can start to feel Dib, and how much he is starting to panic, its amazing,.  _______  AND THEN THE FUCKING, MASHED PATATO PART HHABSJDGEK THAT PART HAD ME DYING, AND WHEN GAZ OPENED HER EYES WHILE DOING IT IT WAS SO FUCKING CURSED, AND THEN GAZ JUST GIVES UP AND THROWS THE FOOD AT SOME RANDOM ASS AND DIB IS LIKE “NOOO NOT ZITA” ITS SO FUCKING DUMB AND PERFECT I LOVE IT.  I forgot to add this but I love Gaz’s voice through out this and how she is acting, she’s not too too scary (at the start at least) like how shes acting and her voice tone and everything, which makes it even more scary for some reason, like its not overdone, u fucking SCARED LIKE U CAN TELL SOME SHIT BOUTTA GO DOWN.  side note I love how Gaz’s teacher is nothing like mrs. Bitters, its so funny.  ALSO??? ALSO???? I LOVE THE LITTLE MOMENT WHERE GAZ AND DIB IS HOLDING HANDS WHILE WALKING HOME, LOVE THAT, LOVE THAT SOOO MUCH, SO CUTE WTF. also I LOVE THE PIG GIRL THING. Just seeing art for that in that ep is so cool, AND WHEN GAZ IS IN THAT LITTLE PIGGY OUTFIT SO SO CUTE, I’m telling you, Gaz’s animal is Pigs, like Dib’s animal is moths. It fits too well. It’s so so cool to see something crazy and insane happening to Gaz for a change and not Dib and Zim. And its still just as funny, if not, even MORE FUNNY.  and i adore the PART WHERE DIB IS JUST TALKING TO A RANDOM HOBO LIKE ITS SO FUCKING RANDOM AND POINTLESS IM WATCHING THE EP RN AND I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT JUST EXISTS LMAOO  aND it is super super cute when Dib was talking to Zim, just, that part was so perfect, you can tell that Dib really does care. AND HERE COMES THE BEST PART AND THE IDEA FOR MY DEMON GAZ AU WHERE LIKE, GAZ SEEMS LIKE SHE HAS THESE EVIL POWERS, JHONEN CAN SAY “NO SHE DONT HOE” BUT IM LIKE “YEET TEET S I R” THAT, YES YES HELL YES THAT WAS SO SO PERFECT WHAT THE FUCK??  and___ _______ oh my god. oh. my. fucking. god. Like the most funny part of tHE EP IS THE PART WE WHERE WAITING FOR, DO YALL KNOW HOW FUCKING FUNNY IT WAS??? OK, OK.  A LISTEN.  WHEN GAZ FINALLY COMES OUT HER CAGE THINNG, U KNOW DIB BOUTTA GET BLASTED, AND GAZ JUST BEATS THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT HIM, but get this, HE SOUNDS LIKE A SQUEAKY TOY. YES, YES, YES, ALL MY YES, 100/10, 100/10. 100/10.  thtt SHITR....HAD ME DEAD, FUCKING DEAD.  AND THE PART WHERE THEY WHERE IN BEAVER COSTUMES WHERE SO SO ADORBALE, THEY ARE SO CUTE, I LOVE THEM, Dib and Gaz where so so on point in this ep. ________ the shadow hog place,,,,,OH MY FUCKING GOD, HOW, HOW CAN YOU GET MORE PERFECT??? THE PIGS AND EVERYTHING JUST, EVERYTHING LOOKS AND FEELS SO SPOTLESS, WHOEVER DESIGNED THAT  MMMEFNJEFHIE This is when Dib starts to get very protective and this is JUST. WHAT. I WANT. from Dib and Gaz.  PLUS i love the shadow Hog, hes nice.  ONE ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS EVER, LIKE, MAYBE IN THE ENTIRE GOD DAMN SHOW, IS JUST DIB FIGHTING THEM SHADOW HOG GUARDS, JUST, ITS NOT normal Dib abuse like in every ep, THEM HOGS ARE LEGIT BEATING THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT HIM, LIKE DAMN BRUH THEY FUCKING, DAMN, BUT THATS NOT GOING TO STOP DIB, EVERYTIME HE GETS HURT HE JUST GETS RIGHT BACK UP, HE DOSENT WANT GAZ TO GET HURT OR DIE, HE CARES THAT MUCH, HE JUST KEEPS FUCKING, GOING AND GOING AND GOING AND DAMN  WTJHWVWUTD, BRUUUHHH DID YALL SEE THE PART WHEN DIB GOT THROWN BACK AND THE BACKGROUND WAS RED?? BRUH I FELT THAT BRUH, DIB REALLY DID SAY:N BEKFHEJHFJOEFJKFJKLWEHLIFJGEIURGFURWEHGRK  LIKE MY MAN GOT THROWN LIKE THAT LIKE BRUIH KISSES TO THE ANIMATIORS THAT FUCKING, THAT MOVEMEANT WAS SO SO IMPRESSIVE AND SMOOTH HOW TF THEY DID THAT EVERYTIME I WATCH HIM GET THROWN BACK LIKE THAT WHEN THE SCREEN IS RED IM JUST ALWAYS LIKE ‘whoa”  aND gAZ and the shadow hog lord oh my god they are perfect, I love how they just, start dancing in tu tu’s and playing video games and Gaz is just ranting to him about how dumb her life is its all. so perfct. Keep in mind this is both going on at the same time which makes it 100 times better, this is what makes a cartoon so GOD DAMN PERFECT.  pOOR Dib when he comes in he just feels so so horrible, so sorry for Gaz, and the pig lord actua,lly dosent know what to do and gaz is like “yeah punish him lmfao”  AND THEN THE TOILET PART OH MY FUCKING GOD THAT WAS JUST ALMOST AS FUNNY AS WHEN GAZ BEATS DIB AAND HES JUST A SQUEAKY TOY LMAO, it makes it 10000000000 times better because you dont see whats in the toilet and Dibs just freaking out, that is so perfect, that what makes good writing and a joke work, that was perfect.  AND THE ENDING, OH MY FUCKING GOD JUST dIB YELLING IN PAIN, perfect.  Theres jsut so much good shit in this ep that just makes it better than the others. I wanted more of shit like this from the show and etc, I also want more fanart of pig Gaz. Good shit man  

[stuckasmain]

I still don’t think your ready for it, but here’s my Batb Cruise show review:

Yes you read the title completely right, I was made aware of this a day or two ago but apparently one of the Disney Cruises is doing/did beauty and the beast the musical but based upon the live action movie. So naturally a massive fan of the live action I was both shocked and wildly confused, lucky for me I found a video on the entire performance(likely taken from a cruise tv.) from what I skimmed over it looks like instead of full body suits to look like they are it’s going to be regular (human outfits.) and then puppets, so I am Really really interested to see how this goes.

The timing is a little off we skip the prologue (Aria etc.) and start straight in How does a moment last forever... are they placing Belle after it? It was before in the movie. Wait oh my god he’s also narrator- it is the prologue! Pulled a sneaky one on ya.

•Adams dramatic sassy hand movements are my entire life (no dance just this art right here.)

•The enchantress looks straight outa Atlantis but I LOVE the effects used omllll

• MARIE THE BAGUETTES.

•who needs her when you’ve got us (LE DUO OMG- it’s the thing.)

•from what I’m seeing it’s a combination of both the animated and live action, as some lyrics/moments are the animated , like Lefou reverted back to his original sorta idiot phase.

•met HER saw HER *kick* we stan.

•Lefou just waving his bag in the girls face. Legend lmao.

•a LOT more comedy then the movie. When Gaston drops the Boquet Lefou picks it up and smells it and just melts all cute like. My heart?

•”keep moving old legs.”

•Gaston is also a lot more like the animated, more dumbed down for comedic effect.

•so there’s no Philippe so some dudes took her dads wagon. That’s how jumanji started you know smh.

•PUPPETS IM SCREAMING.

Lumire looks like he’s absolutely losing his mind I’m deadddd. Also Cogsworth’s wig is my entire life.

• ok so the beasts voice- he sounds like a Pirate I’m crying “ee stole me rose matey.”

•belle straight up using the stick like a musket

•OML SO I NOW SEE THE EYES ON THE PUPPET AND IM LOSING MY DAMN MIND.

•storage space! Storage space! For all of Lumiere’s shoes! His shoes yes he had a feel large collection of shoes- he rather likes Heels-

Cogsworth.

What?

Stop talking.

•while my love massages my tight caves.

I’ll massage your caves Gaston!

Who has no one snatched you up yet? (He didn’t say girl :0)

•everyones awed and inspired by au

Gaston placing a hand to his chest.

•Gaston kissing his own portait, no bimbettes Lefou sings their line, no Tom , Dick or stanley that I can see either

•they all start russian dancing instead of the stopping/sword fight. Weird flex but ok.

Now the girls are... is that the cancan?

•Fun cult activity’s with friends

•lefou dreamily gasping over gaston along with the women.

•WHERED THE UKALELE COME FROM?!

• they kept my favorite line :)

•So Gaston has the French flag now? Also Maurice runs in automatically? Damn there goes pacing i guess- like aren’t they supposed to be together for at least awhile before going after her jeez

•why’s every single woman in this show use a super high pitched cutesy voice “YeAaA!” Is the audience one year olds and dogs???

•Gaston was a captain :0 Damn high rank.

•or a Budae *laughing* *distant roar* *s c r e a m *

•Madame de Garderobe has me screaming lmaoooo

•Mrs.Potts was a governess? Wack.

•ok so I cant describe the noise i made

L: OH YES! Darling

P: high pitched giggling.

The stage is still black and I can’t breathe-

They were definitely- whatever the equivalent would be of making out

•This plan is uh Dangerous~

I’m-I’m gay for the featherduster. This is not allowed. THEY ARE SO CUTE I CANNOT FUNCTION.

*more adorable couple giggling*

Cogsworth coughing

•food fashion show.. I cannot... I can’t function.

•Lumiere being dramatic:

Coggsworth: if i had hands, I’d slap you.

•*Whispers*Skin.

That’s- that’s not creepy at all lmao.

C’Est LA SALADE I CANT BREATHE WHATS HAPPENING.

•you lost me 2 verses ago now there’s cheese

•no one:

Plumette giggling and calling out everything:

•HOW IS MADAME DOWNSTAIRS IM SO CONFUSED

•OWWWWWWWWEWWWWWWWWWWW.

That hurts.

•ok so Mrs. Potts being a governess in this version now makes sense as she’s the one to start days in the sun instead of the queen/little Adam

•So Candenza is completely gone from this version????? So Lumierè and Plumette get both love lines from the song. Their still busy being cute as hell tho. (Does this imply their also singers? Pretty sure their still just footman/maid.)

•cogsworth now has Mrs.Potts lines but his voice is great.

•instead of soup it’s tea he I N H A L E and belle looks SO done lmao. Also no library?

•oh jeez yea no library just straight into something there.

•oh so the library is now IN something there, alright.

•Adam just DECKS Lumiere. Idk what that was about lmao - showing he’s nice now by uppercutting a candlestick across the room.

• BELLE:D this dork-

•Hes making jokes now.

•SWORDS. FIGHTING.

•”we love you.” But... everyone is still all-

Ok so either Mrs.Potts is a massive liar or they don’t count

•the dress is low key just as underwhelming as in the film

• Adam is trying *SHOVES CHAMPAGNE IN FACE*

•Plumette keeps running on and off stage idk what that’s about.

•the danceeeee

•Adam keeps talking about his mom

•no evermore ;-; my favorite song and it’s gone for a 5 second day’s in the sun reprise.

I’m wounded.

•belle casually taking a dudes knife to cut them free

•I feel like the mob song is cute down a lot, also Lumiere comes in sliding on his knees. Respect.

•”Gaston help.” Is kinda like nothing now as they have been so comedic. I feel nothing.

•i like the way they executed the final fight (beast/Gaston as servents vs the villages was literally nothing.)

•Lumiere sliding in on his knees again *French accent*YAAAAAAS

•ok so the death scene still hurts me like a truck.

Lumire: guys we did it :)

*literally watches the love of his life, his best friend and other friends die(yes it’s technically death.)*

Everyone steps away from the puppet and turns around, the lighting goes dark I’m - ;-;

•the prince is low key better in the suit the guy playing him is uhhhhhhhh I know the whole point is to look past Appearance but who’s dad is this?

•I’m absolutely SCREAMING. Instead of the dramatic one by one they all pop up together and collectively go :00000 what?! Whoa!

•Lumiere and Plumette low key not even a “hi.” Just kiss and start dancing. Mood.

•Ballet attack part 2 and middle aged prince returns.

•No chip or Madame at the end either! :0

•oh wait here’s chip!

Cogsworth melting in the background is me

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬/𝐏𝗼𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐬

so as I’ve said it’s like a mash up of the original and the remake with some of the choices it makes, I think it really makes or breaks some of the characters.

Lefou/Gaston-

Both of them fell back more into their Cartoon counterparts of : here to be the bad guy, here to be funny. Both of them become so overly comedic that you wouldn’t be able to tell who’s line was whos if you were shown them without being told. I think , funny as they were it negatively effected their character’s. Same case with the beast he definitely became more comedic if anything at all.

Lumierè/Cogsworth/Plumette-

These guys I think are the opposite. I think having a slight bit more of the animated made both banter and flirting hike it’s way up. Cogsworth and Lumierè were more showy in their banter , while Lumierè and Plumette were much more loud and showy with banter. Also the accents are art. Mrs. Potts was there to be the mother like figure and not given much of herself

Rip to chip who had like 4 lines and didn’t even show up to seconds before curtain. Also Madame de Garderobe who was there to be a good singer and nothing more as she lost her whole arc.Rip to Cadenza, Frou frou , Chapu and Philippe for being written out all together.

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬/𝐭𝐡𝗼𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬

As I’ve said the changes either make or break some moments, like adding a overwhelming amount of comedy like the og movie. As funny as it was it did not have that same weight/gravity the remake did in its more serious/emotional scenes like the death/human again scenes I felt little here and Gaston betraying Lefou. As well as having the more serious/soft songs as the remake really backfired with so much comedy, and not even the more Witty subtle humor of the movie. Funny, but odd as character choice

So I know you had to cut it down a lot in order to fit it on stage however, nessisary parts or songs (evermore ;-;) were completely excluded likely do to the slightly unessisary over extension of dance numbers in Gaston(that didn’t need it) and Be our guest. Which could have been time better spent.

The servants are the absolute saving grace of this musical. The costumes! Oh!(again cogsworths wig is my life.) the humor! The acting, the singing, the relationships- all of it- all of it. They carry the entire thing, and if I’m honest it’s mainly Lumierè, Cogsworth and Plumette, occasionally Mrs. Potts if you stretch.

[ben-the-hyena]

Ren hoek

Why I like them

Oh boy I didn't get asked about Ren and Stimpy in a long time ! Well I ysed to fangirl over him when I was a mess of hormones who found a rooster roboto hot lmao how pathetic I was. ANYWAY I still love his original accent, his smooth and energetic his animation is, what an ANGRY GREEDY HORNY MANIPULATING douchebag he is while still having a heart deep down caring for Stimpy, his reactions and facial expressions are godly, sometimes when he acts like a real dog he's cute, his psychotic laugh is amazing and scarier than the Joker's to me and I LOVE angry characters

Why I don’t

Well... both Adult Party Cartoon in which he is didgusting, ugly, way too evil and heartless and super toxic to Stimpy, John K's confirmation that indeed it's a real continuation to the series so it is canon while also detailling more of his motives (he is with Stimpy because he has no one else NOOO WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT) and John K himself (man do I HATE this man) disgusted me from him in a away. I unfortunately no longer love him like I used to

Favorite episode (scene if movie)

The iconic episode of his cousin coming over was hilarious and showed how psychotic and creepy he is at his best angers. It was tge very first episode I saw of them and boy did it hook me up back then. Teenage me back then wanting to be an animator ADORED the animation, and my current self the crazy dark humor

Favorite season/movie

Ironically, as much as I loathe John K for what everyone knows him to have done but also to how he has been to one of my friends, the first seasons with John K directing the show and voicing him were the best because that's HIS voice and the animation and drawing style are much more pleasing to the eyes

Favorite line

The whooooole eerily calm threatening calm to Stimpy and Sven in the episode I mentionned earlier. Not only it is VERY creepy and with disturbing sounds and music and facial expressions how he is sooooooo eerily calm about the situation and engulfed with calm fury because his anger we know him for was at its MAXIMUM and couldn't be made of shoutings and yells because it would be physically impossible, it also was hilarious (I used to know it by heart "AND THEN... I WILL... GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT... YEAH... That's what I'm gonna do...") and showed how fucked up he actually is mentally and always on the verge to murder ; I'm still to this day certain he wasn't totally exagerating

Favorite outfit

I'm a sucker for suits. Whenever we see him in one or a tux, I'm like "yes excellent"

OTP

I USED to adore Rempy. I found their care for each other adorable and all the clues and hints made sense for me, I loved how in the end of the day he loved him even if he were angry... but through time not only did he use him more than once (THE PECS EPISODE...), Adult Party Cartoon had Stimpy be canonly in love with Ren (Which I loved) but Ren canonly wanting hot chicks and be with him out of nothing better and actually LOVING using him as a punching ball and shit. That season was both physically and mentally disgusting if it were person and was enough to have me wish Stimpy went for somebody better. Fuck you Ren you deserve nobody

Brotp

VERY similar reasons to the OTP part... time in the fandom ruined their relationship as a whole. GO, STIMPY ! FIND A BETTER FRIEND AND A BETTER LOVER !

Head Canon

He is not actually old like an episode's plot said, he must be like 30's or 40's. He just forgot his age and Stimpy being the ditz he is badly remembered and understood. Ren was not pleased when he found out he depressed over being 70's for nothing

Unpopular opinion

REN AND THE WHOLE FANDOM ARE RUINED THEY HAVE BEEN SULLIED THEY CAN'T BE APPRECIATED ANY LONGER WITHOUT FLASHBACKS

A wish

Why couldn't he have kept his lil tail ? It was cute when it wagged, showed he was a dog more, and we wouldn't have been facing his human-like cheeks. Because it was too hard to animate ? IRONIC from that animator douchebag who wanted perfection

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

I WANT HIM BACK TO HIS OLD SELF AND A WAY TO UNSULLY HIM I DON'T WANT JOHN K TO DO WHAT HE PLANS TO DO BY REVIVING THE FRANCHISE, WE KNOW HE WOULD BE AS FUCKED UP AS HE WAS IN ADULT PARTY CARTOON PLEASE STOP HE'S ALREADY DEAD ! OR HIRE SOMEOBE ELSE WHO MAYBE WILL MAGICALLY MAKE HIM LIKABLE AGAIN

5 words to best describe them

Mean, FURIOUS, crazy, greedy, jerk

My nickname for them

Psycho Chihuahua

[badlydrawnmanic]

time for episode 3 i guess! wish i could focus on the things i gotta do but something’s bugging me and i just can’t, i might have to start from scratch but anyway...

• manic wants to find a place where he belongs... • why were the triplets born in... an alternate dimension??? what • dingo is a tree and it’s freaking me out • sonic: hey did you notice anything strange about that tree   manic and sonia: no we did not see the canine face with stupid glasses staring at us directly as we passed by • the fact that manic’s drums can cause earthquakes and stuff is pretty neat • i seriously feel bad for dingo at this point • there’s a camera angle where it looks like manic’s levitating in front of sonic when sonic is supposed to be dragging him along real fast • i don’t understand why the bad guys are like “lmao nature and clean things are stinky” like i know you’re bad but like ??? man • i think this show would be much more visually appealing if they used brighter backgrounds like in mobodoon • again how old are they supposed to be, it’s their birthday? they’re so small • i know mayor winnieham (how the fuck do you spell that) is a horse but she looks like a soft dragon, she’s so nice and i actually like her voice • hooray for socialism • sonic sniffs and it sounds like jaleel had a stuffy nose that day • horse lady is so nice but a ton of nice people in this cartoon are traitors so i’m like :grimace: • A CHAOS EMERALD • manic is so overwhelmed by the fact that someone cared about him and his siblings that he starts to like fall backwards and the lady has to push a chair under him, he’s crying someone hug this boy • “sonic’s always been cool, having this mondo world as his home” sorta implies that he had adventures before all this, i only say this because i’ve been trying to slap together a timeline and i think i made underground take place between satam and sonic 3? i forget exactly

• h • you’d think horse lady would be more excited that they’ve returned and stuff • gee sonia why does your mom let you have super speed and strength • did she recognize dingo this time?? she got mud on her and immediately attacked him so like... would she do that to anyone??? • the people who wrote this show don’t understand how siblings interact with each other, i don’t call my brother “bro” every two seconds and i don’t think anybody does • okay why does the horse lady say they were born in this nursery room, i would assume that that’s... not true... please tell me there’s a hospital or something in this city • three episodes into the series and manic’s like “i’m gonna stay here and break up the band :D” • horse lady made evil eyebrows i don’t trust her all adults are bad • SONG TIME AGAIN, SONIC UNDERGROUND STYLE • I think this is one of the only songs where manic sings and it’s not even clear that it’s him? i was told that it was him singing • GSDJG MANIC’S HAIR IS BIRDS • sometimes the baby triplets are cute and sometimes they’re terrifying • they reused animation that was used like just before the song started • manic goes “wow” in his normal voice right in the middle of the song • i actually really like this song, but like... the singing voice is odd, a bit nasally. other than that it’s good and i’d listen to it again, like... 9/10 i think, i’ll hum it absentmindedly after the episode is done. if they re-recorded this for any reason or if there was a cover of it i’d be pretty happy about that! • sleet unrolls a huge sheet of paper with absolutely nothing on it • the background characters in mobodoon aren’t as hideous as the normal background characters • sonic leaving fire everywhere when he runs seems like it would be an issue at some point • sleet and dingo are terrorists • they deadass just stole a family’s whole house • THE CHAOS EMERALD • i’m calling it a chaos emerald, apparently it controls the daylight cycle and structural integrity of the whole dimension which is odd • if she’s so worried that mobodoon will fade why don’t they evacuate? unless they can’t without the chaos emerald or something • apparently they can leave whenever because sonic’s back with sleet and dingo • they used footage from this episode in the previous episode’s music segment...? i wonder how production was • sonia and manic fall from the sky • “manic, hold all the important doohickeys while we do the cool stuff” • dingo’s fucking feral in this segment holy shit calm down • the cave of wonders................ • MANIC HAS LITTLE SHARP TEETH • manic did it!! • i still don’t get how mobodoon works • how unstable is that dimension if the chaos emerald being gone for an hour max is enough to make it nearly collapse • sonic called dingo “dingus” and i have no idea how old that term is

• manic looks like a very small child waiting for his mom to say he did a good job saying “thank you” to the grocery store checkout person and that’s adorable but also he looks goofy as shit • this poor boy, i imagine he just wants a mother figure, horse lady has her hand on his shoulder and she’s probably one of the few dependably nice people they’ve encountered in a while • aw, sonic and sonia like... acknowledge that manic is happy here and are willing to let him stay in mobodoon, that’s pretty wholesome. i feel like this was supposed to be an emotional beat but like... bad pacing kinda mucks it up

• “don’t forget to visit” god, my heart, he says it so gently like poor baby • “oh i almost forgot that your mother who has been absent in your lives since you were literal babies and that you’ve been risking your lives to find stopped by during the climax of the episode, my mistake”

• okay, i can see the horse part of her now maybe more of a donkey • “together at last” is one of the audio blurbs they play and they say it like they’ve been separated forever • they knocked sleet back into mobodoon like that solves the problem??? • i kinda like how they replay part of the song at the end of the episode to like... reestablish an idea in a different light? like when it played the first time it’s like “oh i found my childhood home and the place where i came from” and now it’s like “i’ve found the place where i belong with my loved ones” and that’s actually really good imo • i feel like manic has the most potential for depth out of all of them just because if you look any deeper into what’s happening in the show it gets kinda sad? [slaps roof of manic] this bad boy can fit so much emotional trauma in it