#he frustrates me so much bc he made so much context murky for me

[animefreaksince2001]

I have many thoughts about SVSSS. Are they coherent? No, but here’s another one. I’m been thinking a lot about Shen Yuan’s feelings toward Binghe lately. Specifically, his progression of feelings towards falling in love with him romantically. In the context of SVSSS series siblings, MZDS and TGCF, and also outside of it. And, I just have to ask, when tf did it happen?

I’m going to speak briefly on some spoilers here so beware if you haven’t completed the series.

Obviously I don’t think there was a definable moment in MZDS and TGCF where it showed who fell in love at what exact point except for Hua Cheng, maybe. Especially because Xie Lian and Wei Wuxian could be unreliable narrators. But Shen Yuan, imo, was the worst of them. Which caused me grief on several occasions, bless. But this also affected how the audience could see the progression of Shen Yuan’s romantic feelings bc he wanted to stick his head so deep in the sand about it. Clearly, the audience could tell that by the time Binghe was thrown in the abyss that Shen Yuan loved him, yes. Even though Shen Yuan was in denial about how hard he was grieving him, MXTX clearly let the audience have context on how the lie detector determined that was a lie. However, we never get much context on when that love for Binghe turned romantic.

Reminder, this is my opinion based off of reading SVSSS once and given myself a month or two to digest it. I personally believe from the time they reunited after the abyss and then onwards, Shen Yuan never had the chance to formulate a romantic connection with Binghe with all the misunderstandings, denial, near death, and actual deadly experiences in the way. Okay, yes, feelings never wait for the right context or situations BUT let’s ignore that for now.

I could argue right here and now it wasn’t until after the end of the “story” that Shen Yuan allowed his romantic feelings for Binghe to flourish. That he could sort through his feelings and actually engage with Binghe in a romantic context (which is an Herculean task in itself). He never had the time or space for it before with everything that was going tf on.

[rorykillmore]

rachel amber, rory gilmore bc I exist to make you answer questions about her and uhhh bayformers!optimus

fine

FINE

rachel amber

How I feel about this character:  i love her....... honestly i have a weird thing for Dead Girl With Secrets narratives so she was one of the things about life is strange that always really really fascinated me. i’d been (tentatively, warily) looking forward to meeting her properly in before the storm and?? she’s great??? she’s charming and grounded and free-spirited and angry and fractured and sometimes even very troubled and destructive (oh and GAY) and i’m like... i’m literally here for all of these things.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: nathan

My non-romantic OTP for this character: even outside of a romantic context i’ve ofc always thought it would be interesting to see what her and max thought of each other. also maybe her and victoria, i feel like they have a weird and interesting dynamic even though we only ever really hear about it.

My unpopular opinion about this character:  there’s this part of the fandom that’s always trying to nitpick and find ways to prove that she was secretly the most evil person alive or some shit and i’m just like..... or you could relax

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:  i think we all know hahahaha

rory gilmore

How I feel about this character: obviously i am very skeptical and critical of a lot of the choices rory makes and sometimes i’m more frustrated with her than anything but?  i also do genuinely love her? in spite of all of that? i guess it’s just symptomatic of growing up with the show and her as a character, like she’s almost... familial to me. i can’t hate her. but i do find it really interesting to pick apart her character because there are so many unusual directions she goes in. they really aren’t afraid to tear down their protagonists in gilmore girls.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: i’m pretty infamously team jess although my feelings on it are. complicated? i really love jess as a character but i don’t think he and rory have a very... healthy relationship when they’re teenagers. when they’re adults they’re clearly much more well-suited for each other (although honestly at that point i sometimes feel that jess is too good for her, but i teeter back and forth between that and really loving their dynamic) so. shrugs.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: lorelai of course!! lane, paris, umm... emily and richard definitely always have a really interesting dynamic with her. i guess that’s probably it? rory doesn’t really have a lot of friends. it’s a weird thing that the gilmore guys podcast points out constantly.

My unpopular opinion about this character: idk man, the fandom is all kinds of split on their rory opinions from what i know so it’s hard to peg anything as “popular” although... team logan is a pretty prevalent thing and i’m of the opinion that that relationship is all kinds of shitty, if that counts.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: honestly like as much as i go on about how much of a wreck she is, the revival kind of did her dirty. like i’m not sitting here tryin’ to watch her regress through her earlier development. i could’ve worked with the whole “she’s kind of lost, doesn’t have a job atm, has to go home and live with her mom for awhile” thing because in our society that IS something that happens even to people in their thirties! but the stuff where she’s having an affair with logan (which shouldn’t even be a thing because a) she and logan broke up for pretty valid reasons at the end of the original series and b) there was already a plot where she HAD AN AFFAIR WITH DEAN and it ended horribly and she should realistically know better) and acting pretty selfish about wanting to write a book about lorelai without her consent is just... amy sherman-palladino, why. see you made me go off.

optimus

How I feel about this character: bayformers in general is so... dumb a lot of the time, but god do i enjoy optimus. there’s something so, idk, emotional about seeing him in live action. he has such gravitas even despite bayformers being... bayformers. i think if you already come from a place of loving his character, bayformers is at least somewhat rewarding to see him alone. also DAMN do they build up a lot of interesting potential with his anger and trauma that other iterations don’t; i’ll never not wish they explored that with more nuance.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:  no one i guess?? honestly megatron is the only person i ever really come close to “shipping” with optimus in any capacity but apparently in bayformers they’re ~brothers~ (somehow)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: him and all the autobots but especially bumblebee. also him and mikaela just because mikaela’s fuckin’ awesome!!!! and i’d love to see him bond a little more with a human that isn’t like. sam.

My unpopular opinion about this character:  i really have no solid grasp of bayformers opinions... i know a lot of fans are (rightfully) salty but i’m not sure how much that extends to optimus or his arc so???

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: JUST WRITE HIM BETTER JFC. there’s so much interesting shit you could do with an optimus who is slowly beginning to distrust humanity and question himself and i bet 0% of it is in the last knight. thanks michael bay,