#i just absolutely love this character i could give a whole analysis

[arkiwii]

my favorite art pieces of saria are not when she looks super attractive, strong, dominant and sexy. it's when she looks defenseless, when she's casual, smiling, cuddling, or even asleep. i dont want to see her look like what she's pretending to be on the surface. i want to see the adorable, soft, human and sensitive side of her person that we slowly learned to see and to love. its important to me

[arachine]

— what's going on down there?: a dick analysis

ᥫ᭡ featuring :: jake sully, miles quaritch & norm spellman

ᥫ᭡ includes :: their human forms + avatar forms

ᥫ᭡ genre :: mature

ᥫ᭡ content warnings :: talking about dicks obviously, explicit sexual content (?), humor lol

ᥫ᭡ note :: if you know anything about arachine, you know i love a good dick analysis. these posts are intended for comedic purposes only, which means they’re not to be taken seriously.

— jake “ima slut you out” sully

. . . human form .*+!

⟳ length: as we all know, jake’s life on earth was very unfulfilling. he was a man who sacrificed his legs for the fate of the country, only to be disposed of into the unforgiving hands of society, with no way to reap the benefits (or lack thereof) that veterans were promised to receive. and after losing the privilege of mobility, his body changed drastically. he got smaller, his body got weaker, and yet, one thing remained—that dick! jake is a survivor, through and through—his personal motto is: if it ain’t broken, then it’s still working—and boy, he does not disappoint when it comes to the downstairs department. standing tall at 7 inches, is little jake (maybe not so little). when flaccid, his length measures at a solid 5.7 inches. definitely a grower. 

⟳ width: a little bit on the skinnier side, but he knows how to use it and that’s all that matters!

⟳ color: i think for the most part, his shaft definitely matches the rest of his body; though, i can see it maybe being slightly a little more darker at the base, like a very light beige. when he’s flaccid, his tip is a pretty pink, almost like a ballet slipper (aka the best pink). turns into an angry red when fully erect!

⟳ extra:

01. groomed?: jake pegs me as the kinda guy who doesn’t really care? i mean, trimming isn’t foreign to him, because he has trimmed it before, and does so when he notices it’s gotten to be too long…but, i don’t think it’s something that he does often. to him, it’s just hair. he’s on his grown man shit, you know? 

02. curved?: uhm, yes! you know that one beyoncé lyric? yeah. 

03. any veins?: absolutely covered in ‘em

04. how he fucks with it: i’d like to think before his accident, he was a doggy style connoisseur—come on, it’s jake we’re talking about here. can’t nobody tell me otherwise! i just know he had bitches bent over, weaves sweated out, makeup all over the pillows…mans was f-u-c-k-i-n-g okay? fuckingggg. 

. . . avatar form .*+!

⟳ length: the masses may attack me, but it’s time i spoke up. the man has a monster schlong. a cooter cat killer, if you will. if you thought his human form was big, shit, you ain’t seen nothing yet! completely flaccid, his cock measures to about 10 inches. when fully hard, he grows an additional three! talk about impressive…

⟳ width: so thick that it basically slaps his thighs when he walks. the man could create a beat with it, get em into the soundcloud business now!

⟳ color: self explanatory tbh, it’s fucking blue. as blue as papa smurf’s ass. 

⟳ extra: 

01. groomed?: i’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that because he’s an avatar, he grows hair there. even if i’m wrong, i’m right. i don’t give a damn what james cameron says. he’s basically my character at this point, and i will him to have hair damnit! just…the idea of him having a full bush down there, in the wild, all primitive and shit…does something to me. idk. don’t ask me why i’m so nasty, blame my deadbeat father. 

02. curved?: is a banana yellow? there’s your answer. 

03. any veins?: i might have a brain aneurysm just thinking about it, but yes! god, yes. so many…so, so, so many. ribbed for her pleasure or whatever trojan said. 

04. how he fucks with it: is he still the doggy style connoisseur? yes. but now that’s got the strength of 20 men, backshots sound a whole lot like gunshots now. they say every time the mighty toruk makto thrusts into a cunt, a tree falls down or something. so, yes. fucks hard, fucks rough, fucks like he’s on a mission. what’s that one tik tok audio? “rest in peace to all the soldiers that died in the service, i dive in her cervix.” yeah, he lives by that. 

— miles “on your knees, cadet!” quaritch

. . . human form .*+!

⟳ length: just gonna cut right to the chase. he’s huge. like pussy splitting huge. i don’t care what anyone says, you can argue with ya friend, you can argue with ya mother, but you cannot argue with me! coming in at a solid 6 when flaccid, quaritch takes the cake for the biggest cock on this list (at least, human form wise). at full length, he measures to about 7.8 inches! 

‘booooo’ you say, well, guess what? it’s the truth, and i’m just the messenger. whether you hate him or love him, he’s just that guy. 

⟳ width: surprisingly average. but it’s okay, sometimes you can’t have the best of both worlds. 

⟳ color: if my memory serves me right, he was pretty tan in the first movie. so, i’m gonna stick with that and say that it’s a pretty tan that transitions into a pale pink. i don’t know if some of you have seen old dick, but their tips get less saturated with age. it’s a phenomenon (not really, the blood flow to the groin is just a lot slower, which can make it appear kind of gre—anyway, i digress!)

⟳ extra: 

01. groomed?: this man is a colonel, so he’s all about discipline and keeping things nice and tidy. so, obviously, his hygiene reflects that. i don’t think he goes completely bald, but he does give it a good trim. kind of like a fade…just imagine a patch of grey, prickly hair. yeah. 

02. curved?: yes, and since he’s older, it’s probably curved a lot. you could probably hang something on it. maybe a towel, or a lanyard. it’s definitely useful for something!

03. any veins?: god, i don’t know why, but i have it in my head that he’s on steroids. he’s just so buff and strong, and i mean, yeah, he could just be really fit…but he could also be a self-image obsessed freak who takes drugs to be the perfect soldier. the correlation, you ask? well, i just feel like people who take steroids are really veiny, and i feel like his dick would be really, really veiny. so, thus the rant about steroids. steroid dick. 

04. how he fucks with it: don’t let his age fool you. he may very well be pushing his late fifties, but he’s still a young man at heart—and he’s definitely got the sex drive to prove it! i can see his favorite position being something like missionary. not so much because he enjoys the intimacy of it (like being face to face), but more so because he’s got a size kink—and definitely a dacryphilia kink. he enjoys seeing his partners cry, whether in pain, or in pleasure, or both! so, when you’re fucking him, don’t expect anything romantic. he just wants to see your pretty little face all teary eyed and pathetic. 

. . . avatar form .*+!

⟳ length: so big you can see it from space; that’s how the RDA mfs know they’re close, because they can see the tip protruding from pandora. no, but seriously, it’s still really huge. like maybe 12-14 inches—maximum. 

⟳ width: probably twice as thick as a human’s forearm. and god, it’s sooooo heavy. big breeding balls to match. 

⟳ color: blue blue blue…like wet fun dip. with just as many stripes as the american flag or whatever. 

⟳ extra: 

01. groomed?: yes, but the hair is black instead of grey and it’s probably really straight because na’vi hair is straight as fuck. 

02. curved?: sir, yes sir. 

03. any veins?: what’d i say? steroid dick. but even worse (better) now bc he’s so damn tall, he needs all the blood he can get down there.

04. how he fucks with it: has you in all types of positions. his favorites are anything that shows off his new found strength, so i’m betting on full nelsons and mating presses. just fast, powerful strokes. lives by the motto: can’t stop, won’t stop.

— norm “what’s the sq root of 69?” spellman

. . . human form .*+!

⟳ length: i’m sorry to disappoint the norm fuckers (if there are any), but he’s not that big. when he’s soft, his cock measures to about 4.8 inches, and at most, 6.2 inches when hard. 

⟳ width: skinny dick. 

⟳ color: dawg he’s so white, it’s like hella pale and the tip is so pink that when he’s aroused, it looks like there’s something wrong.

⟳ extra:

01. groomed?: like jake, i don’t think he really cares.

02. curved?: straight like a pencil

03. any veins?: like two, and they’re really prominent because he’s so fucking pale.

04. how he fucks with it: i don’t think human norm is getting puss, let’s be real. 

. . . avatar form .*+!

⟳ length: i am a firm believer in N.W.B.C—nerds with big cocks. it’s just the universe’s way of saying thank you, they just…they just do so much for us, you know? norm may not have been packing down there in his human form, but this was his second chance at redemption. he’s now a proud member of N.W.B.C, sporting an impressive 15 inches. you know that one scene in the first spider-man when pete’s looking at himself in the mirror and he looks inside his briefs? yeah, that was norm when he found out. the man got so excited, he accidentally catapulted a scientist out of pandora’s atmosphere with the weight of his cock. joking. 

⟳ width: on the skinnier side but still toe curling, nonetheless.

⟳ color: laffy taffy blue, with little (big) blueberry balls.

⟳ extra:

01. groomed?: no, he’s too busy in the lab and getting na’vi puss.

02. curved?: unfortunately no

03. any veins?: more than before, which he was pleasantly surprised to see.

04. how he fucks with it: norm’s got a big dick, but he acts so shy, like he’s scared of it or something. like stop playing boy and drop them drawls, the fuck? anyway, i think norm’s a sub. he pegs me as the type of guy who likes strong women, women who’ll tell him to shut the fuck up (because he talks so much) and eat their pussies. i guess this makes him a munch. yeah, he’s a munch. ice spice actually wrote that song with him in mind!

© arachine 2023

[starredforlife]

ok top five scenes from the kung fu panda universe (any of the movies, shorts, shows, etc). could be fight scenes, character moments, etc etc so on and so forth

FERN THIS IS SO HARD. FOR ME. UHM !!!!

ESCAPE FROM GONGMEN TOWER please watch it right now please please it's such an underrated scene musically and visually. this is the scene where tigress catches a flaming arrow and that's the exact moment i became a homosexual. vic history. it's also the scene where we see her chops as a leader of the five and the way she's fit into this role to balance out Po so well. and also all her potential as who she could've been, if she'd been chosen to be the dragon warrior herself. but she's not.

MUSICIAN'S VILLAGE I LOVE this scene the way it introduces, to the audience, that the score is going to play a part in the fight scenes of this movie is absolutely magnificent. and the way we get reintroduced to the furious five's + po's fighting style, and it reminds us immediately that they are formidable--and then sets up the inciting incident of the plot with so much mystery (and we see the 2d animation style again too, which has always represented po's inner subconscious. WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THAT FOR THE FOURTH MOVIE. whatever)

i would say the bridge fight (kfp1) and i adore that scene but i have to say, i really love the performances, the ambience, the color boards, the sound effects, and the emotional impact of shifu and tai lung's fight in the 3rd act more. i love when kfp actually invested time in its non-main protag characters. tai lung was an absolutely fascinating villain and this scene just rounds out his character so well

The entirety of the secrets of the scroll short film oh my god i love that one so much. teenage tigress. my baby girl.

FUCK okay and then the fireworks factory (2nd movie) where Po confronts Shen about his past. And he gets shot with a cannon and Tigress doesn't get to him in time. breaks my heart every time. i'm going to include the scene where Tigress and Po fight right before that in the jail too bc the musical score called "Fireworks Factory" starts with THEIR HUG. AND IT ENDS WITH HER RUNNING TO CATCH HIM. AND FAILING. MY BAKA LIFE !!!!! i don't even ship them anymore like i did when i was 14 i mostly just love tigress but their platonic relationship is v important to me. i have to include their hug bc that did irreparable damage to me as a tween. sorry the quality of the first vid is so ass. their relationship in the entire 2nd movie is so good i could write a whole analysis on it probably. it's paining me physically to not include their earlier boat scene talk.

this is also the scene where tigress snarls at the gorilla and that changed my brain chemistry forever.

i love the entire second movie this is so hard for me AUGHHHGHGH okay quick honorary mention: i also love the scene where we see shen fight the three masters (rhino, croc, ox). that quick fight scene is SO well executed. the dialogue and the performances are incredible. i used to have every line of dialogue of this movie memorized and especially loved reciting this scene (skip to 1:10)

and then if i had to pick a moment from the third one it's the one where oogway's statue gets wrecked at the jade palace. it lands emotionally very well for a scene that could have easily been mishandled too comedically or too quickly. like it still gives me chills. and i'm not even gonna touch on the character animation/acting of tigress and shifu here bc GOD. kai's theme does rock also!!! AND i LOVE the colors in this movie SO MUCH holy fuck

and then a minor detail from the first one is i love how the characters act with each other, namely the five and shifu. they clearly have a history and/or comradery with each other. shifu undoing the nerve damage tai lung did in a way specific to each of his students stands out to me in particular.

1 and 2 are masterpieces to me and i have my Things about the 3rd one but overall, a beautiful trilogy. i wish the 4th one didn't exist im killing it with my bare hands. vic hate movie? vic murder it. 5th rule of the streets.

[kissmetwicekissmedeadly]

i'm bad at writing napoleon but i wanna write a oc x napo piece do you have any tips :(

GASP

I HAVE NOTHING BUT TIPS FOR YOU!!! I'm terribly sorry that it took me so long!! I struggled a bit because this kept turning into a character analysis, I hope that's alright 🙏

TIPS ABOUT WRITING NAPOLEON

Napoleon might seem hard to write! How is he both just some guy, but also the man who almost conquered the world at some point? How much does the latter play a part in how he is in his daily life? The short answer is, he appears to be the former at all times until something brings out the dramatic, intense side of him.

Napoleon ends up in the mansion one day seemingly out of the blue, reincarnated as a demi-vampire... Without any answers and any plans for his second life, the way he chooses to live day by day is surprisingly quickly established. He's only been there for a month upon MC's arrival and we already see him following a full schedule - he spares with Jean on a regular basis, tends to the stables, helps Sebastian, runs a whole "school" in the small streets of Paris, has hobbies like reading or visiting patisseries to eat his favorite crepes... This tells us he's very adaptive - and it comes by no surprise, really, the ex-emperor that he is, one that started from a nobody. And ironically ended up being a nobody again in his second life. Interestingly we do see him mop around, questioning his fate. He is in the habit of isolating sometimes - that's how he finds all these little places that he later takes MC to - the garret or the nature spots. He goes on rides often to clear his mind. It's like he tries to keep himself busy but simultaneously needs alone time to reflect on his feelings. In front of others, he's the one ready to take action and to protect, making him the big brother figure in the mansion. In private, and in front of the person he loves, he might become more vulnerable, but still puts their safety and wellbeing first. But this deeply emotional side of him only comes out when the moment predisposes him to. Otherwise, he carries himself rather casually. He'd joke around, tease, find an easy solution to everything - but still try and find that solution. He's always ready to lend a helping hand, to be the voice of reason if he could, to give advice. He's not exactly a workaholic. He's capable of working very hard, but seems to be trying to take it easy in his second life. This could be seen in his sleeping habits, as someone who previously slept 4 hours a night to sleeping a minimum of 7 now (both stated canonly) - and of course he's infamous for sleeping in in the mornings. He dislikes being treated as someone above the others, and on our first meeting with him he introduces himself as just a soldier.

A bit more about writing him being in love...

He's someone who proves his love through actions - surprises, most of all - he loves being spontaneous, taking MC's hand out of the blue and leading her somewhere without giving her a cue. He loves giving gifts, as we see him returning home with a random plushie that reminded him of her or in other cases buying her the jewelry showcased in a shop they passed by if it caught her eye. He's good at cooking and of course that means that he absolutely loves cooking for her. He claims to be bad with words, but that's a massive lie. Once he starts expressing his emotions verbally he can't stop. He says pretty intense things, often talking about the greater meaning behind their silly little romantic doings. He talks about finding the meaning of his life and how he believes in fate now that it has met him with her. That being said, he's quite bad with words but when he writes. His letters are a bit of a mess but he still manages to make them sound serious if he tries, it's just that they lack what makes him so animated, the feelings that normally radiate from his presence.

Writing him talking should look like... short, simple sentences. He laughs a lot (infamous for his prolonged laugh when he hears something funny), does this "snrk" noise, teases a lot... even sometimes uses bolder and harsher words. He's told the MC to straight up shut up before, and our favorite Nunuche sounds a lot more like "idiot" (or the slightly less harsh "fool") in Japanese... he has a short temper, quick to make this face - >:( - but still has great self-control. It takes something big like having MC's life at risk for him to throw himself headfirst into a deadly situation, but he'd still do it.

He contradicts himself in some ways, but that's a human trait. It highly depends on what you're writing! My advice is to not worry too much with him. He could behave like a very simple prototype of the perfect boyfriend, a prince charming. Or he could be covered in blood carrying MC out of a fire and talking about being a monster undeserving happiness. Use him for the story YOU want to write, and know that the people who love him will be happy to read it regardless!

[adickaboutspoons]

Oh boy. Okay. Here we go

A totes calm and measured response to this post over here by @themetabridge. Forgiveness for the whole new post. I had too much to say to fit into what Tumblr apparently thinks is an appropriate length for a re-blog.

First? I mean. Text just means the words and actions as they are said and shown in a given piece of media being analyzed. Which is what I’m here to do with my meta – textual analysis. That’s why I insist on textual support for any argument interpreting the media in question. Naked assertions do nothing to explain how you arrived at your conclusion. Vibes aren’t good enough. Show me what IN THE TEXT made you think what you think, and I will do you the courtesy of the same. Otherwise, I don’t see how we could possibly have much to say to one another.

The fundamental breakdown we are having is that you have failed to provide a textual basis for why you think Ed is a bad person. While I respect your assertion that a person’s essential goodness is predicated on the actions that they perform, I cannot respect the corollary supposition that there are actions that are either “good” or “bad” in a vacuum, as this completely ignores circumstance and motivation. WHY someone does something is AT LEAST as important as WHAT they did.

For example - Stede killed Ned Lowe in cold blood. Does it matter that he did it because Ned “shit-talked [his] friend and damaged [his] ship,” and “fucked Calypso’s birthday”? Does it matter that Ed, the person whom Ned’s shit-talk actually impacted, told Stede not to do it? Twice? Does it matter that Ned was a subdued enemy combatant, and as such could have just as easily been gagged like Hornberry and the overtly racist Wellington, who survived imprisonment and went on to watch Ed and Stede sign the Act of Grace? Do we compare Ned to the French Captain who got flayed for his racist rhetoric, though Ned’s comment was, strictly speaking, about Ed’s class rather than his race? How far are we going to go to disentangle class and race when one absolutely informs the other?

How about a more straight-forward example; Stede set an unnamed man on fire and quipped about it like some asshole 80's action hero. Does it matter that he threatened Stede’s life? How about if, when he did so, he was twenty feet away, armed only with the bottle he had just broken over his head, and there were half-a dozen pirates between him and Stede who all thought Stede was hot shit, and so Stede was in no immediate danger? What if Stede has a long history of people making attempts on his life, and being unsure that he even deserves to live, and this is meant to show that, now that he has something to live for, he’s done with the part of his life where he lets anyone try to take that away from him?

This is what I mean when I say that the show is careful to never outright condemn the use of violence. The narrative tells us clearly that, within the context of the show, some things are more important than an unnamed or one-off character’s life – preservation of one’s own life or the lives of one’s loved ones, dignity in the face of racially-based persecution, resistance to colonial oppressors. The reasons for and direction of violence matters. Context matters.

And speaking of context, you misunderstand me when you suppose that only what literally appears before our eyes counts can be “read into the text”. I refuse to give extra-textual sources of information (such as the historical reality of sergeant recruiters and being pressed into service or the historical Golden Age of Piracy) any weight unless they can be validated by in-text support, because the show itself cares fuck-all about historical accuracy. But extrapolations about the in-show universe based on in-text support are fine.

So, considering that the very first thing we hear in the show is Frenchie’s little ditty about the violent reality of a pirate’s life, and considering Jack’s comment at brekkie about how pirating is an "ugly profession”, and considering what we see of the raids in 1x5 and 2x2, we can reasonably conclude that pirate culture is steeped in toxic masculinity where the expectation of performing violence is de rigueur. Because Ed has carved out a successful reputation as Blackbeard, and because we see the ease with which he can go from being casually conversant with Stede to “giving it some oomph” to scare the location of the treasure out of the French captain in 1x5 with the THREAT of violence, we can reasonably conclude that he can successfully perform the required violent displays of piratical society (or at least, given that we know by his bathtub confession that he has not personally killed anyone since his father, he can adopt a convincing enough posturing that no one would doubt he COULD). From his interactions with Jack and familiarity with “yardies” and “whippies”, and his ruminations about “the old days” of “drinking all day and biting the heads off turtles or making some poor bloke eat his own toes for a laugh”, and Fang’s assertion that Ed made him kill his dog, we can reasonably assume that Ed has a history with casual violence for the sake of fun and cruelty for cruelty’s sake.

However.

I think “the old days” is an important qualifier there. Season 1 Izzy may be frustrated that Ed is not performing Blackbeard sufficiently well to suit him (on that point we can agree), but even by his own deathbed confession “for YEARS I egged [him] on, even though I knew [Ed] had outgrown [the Blackbeard persona]” (emphasis mine, and pin in that for a moment). In 2x1, Fang is crying into his cake saying “I’ve never seen Blackbeard like this” - indicating that the conditions of the Kraken era are NOT the norm. The slivers of Ed we see in 1x3 before the Spanish raid are marked by him speaking calmly and rationally to Izzy (in stark contradiction to Izzy’s insistence that he’s half-mad) never even raising his voice much less using threats or any actual violence to get Izzy to do what he wants. In fact, it is Izzy who suggests a course of action involving very normative piratical violence (“Do we open fire? Or would you rather we just attack them, kill them, throw them out to the sharks, sir?”), which Ed counters with a genteel proposition - inviting (not even ordering!) Stede aboard for a face-to-face meeting. Izzy being comfortable enough to push back against orders (“Oh, Edward, can’t I just send the boys?”) even suggests that he feels no threat from Ed at all. Every indication is that by the time we meet Ed, well before he ever meets Stede, he’s already well past done with violence for violence sake.

When Ed does meet with Stede, before he’d fallen in love (Even though the are the U-Hauliest, I would argue “fascination” with a possible side of “infatuation”, but certainly not yet love), one of the early conversations they have is about the depiction of Blackbeard in Stede’s book of pirates. Ed expresses revulsion and anger that the persona that he’s worked so hard to cultivate has been twisted into a hyper-violent parody - a “Vampire Viking Clown” that’s barely even human, with a head of smoke and overladen with weapons and hardly bears any resemblance to the real man. We’re meant to understand that this is not a valid or accurate representation of who he is. Violence is a normative part of pirate life, but he has “one knife, and one gun JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE” (emphasis mine, again) - he doesn’t shirk from using the tools of violence when it’s necessary, but he is NOT excessively or wantonly violent. 

And we SEE the evidence of this because of how Stede reacts to the way Ed acts around Jack. Jack keeps Ed drunk all day, decoupling his inhibitions from his decision-making processes and, in spite of Ed explicitly saying that he’s mellowed out, Jack eggs him into the kind of hyper-violent Jackassery that is excessive even for pirate society if the nervous reactions of Stede’s crew are any indication. Of course, this is all part of Jack’s plan - to manipulate both Ed and Stede and force them apart - and the reason that it works is because the way Ed acts around Jack is NOT the way he chooses to act under his own volition, hence Stede’s frustration and disappointment.

While I agree that piratical violence is not political praxis, I would argue that, considering that every raid we have witnessed Ed participate in has been against a representative of colonial power and, more often than not, specifically the enforcing arm thereof, it’s not unfair to conclude that Ed’s reasoning goes that if piratical violence is to be done, better against someone who deserves it than not - i.e. those who perpetuate the violence of colonialism. Regarding instances of violence outside the context of raids, here’s where we take that pin out of Izzy. Izzy and Ed are locked in a cycle of abuse over the first season, wherein Izzy decides that Ed is not Blackbearding hard enough, and, because he feels entitled to controlling Ed’s actions, bullies and harasses him into capitulating  - typically in the form of performing violence. Afterwards, Izzy performs some form of deference - apologizing and/or acting as though he’s going to leave, which Ed “talks him down from” and mercifully allows him to stay. It’s why, when Ed sees Izzy packing up a dinghy (lol. With what? It’s not like he’s on his own ship or would have brought his things with him, or sacked plunder from the Revenge. Clearly he was just stalling until Ed noticed him and swooped in to do his part of the cycle) he tells Stede he “should deal with this,” as though it’s tedious, but normal occurrence. I think an important part of this cycle as the season progresses, though, is how Izzy keeps upping the stakes.

So by the time we get to the end of the season, when the last iteration of the cycle starts up again (when Ed is once more insufficiently Blackbearding by being emotionally vulnerable and open with the crew following his return to the Revenge and his stint in the pillow fort (note that Izzy is apparently FINE with Ed not being Peak Pirate, just as long as he hides it away from everyone), and Izzy once more bullies and threatens Ed) this time it is especially cruel - Izzy is a thumb in the wound, attacking Ed at his most vulnerable and saying it would be better if Ed was DEAD than “pining for his boyfriend.” This iteration now also brings with it a history of escalation (first in Izzy bringing Fang and Ivan in to force Ed's hand about killing Stede, lest he look "weakened by the love of a pet" before his crew, and therefore in danger of mutiny, and then by bringing in the British Navy to force Ed to take Izzy back - or rather, to force Izzy back into Ed's life because the terms of the agreement see Ed remanded into Izzy's custody as though he is property to be distributed at the will of the Brits) - an established pattern of the lengths to which Izzy will go to get what he wants, and so a very real threat implicit in Izzy’s warning that “Ed had better watch his step” as Izzy serves only Blackbeard. So Ed gives him what he wants. He Blackbeards it up just like Izzy insisted, and lets Izzy know in no uncertain terms that the insubordination is done. It’s not a "frat boy prank" when he cuts off Izzy’s toe and feeds it to him, or even something from which he's deriving pleasure as he might have in the old days; it’s a calculated, proportional response, done under duress and against his own inclinations, but exactly the tool required to get the message across clearly.

As to the question of why it matters if Ed is bad, first and foremost, because saying that he is bad requires you to explicitly read contrary to the text. If you’re not going to engage with the text on its own terms, I don’t see how you can do any analysis of what story it’s trying to tell. I already discussed the ways in which the narrative is specifically about how Ed is NOT bad, even when he himself thinks he is. I have also discussed how, while “violence is never the answer” may be broadly understood to be the correct way of comporting oneself in real life, the show never condemns violence across the board. The show condemns cruelty, both on an interpersonal and societal level, but positions the use of violence as an acceptable and reasonable response thereunto. It treats circumstance and motivation with nuance and weight. Living within this context, Ed’s use of violence by the time we meet him is well within the normative acceptable application thereof. Judging him by standards outside the context of the story within which he exists makes as much sense as judging the Stede from the show for being a slave owner because that’s historical fact - that’s just not applicable to who he is in THIS story.

But more importantly, it matters because Ed is a POC character. Describing him as “cruel and perverse” for utilizing violence, particularly when the violence he uses is NOT excessive or impulsive, perpetuates negative race-based stereotypes about hyper-violent men of color. Characterizing him as “bad” for his use of violence when other (white) characters, such as Stede, use violence in similar ways, or are cruel or petty, but can still be considered, on balance, “good” means that Ed is being held to a different, higher standard than those white characters, and perpetuates the frankly racist criteria of expecting POC exceptionalism for POCs to be considered for the base-line assumptions of acceptability that are afforded to their white counterparts. Saying that Stede’s love is what changed Ed’s behavior from cruelty to wholesale abandoning piratical principles is not only antithetical to what actually happens in the show, but suggests a read that POC Ed needs a good white man to show him how to behave, a real white knight to tame his savage heart. That’s some real White Man’s Burden shit there, bro. I highly recommend you put it down.

[girlkisser13]

taking the pjo & hoo characters to the eras tour

a/n: hey guys!!! let me know if i should do a second part or a third part but with minor characters.

warnings: eras tour setlist spoilers

annabeth chase

annabeth is 100% a midnights stan. she LOVES "you're on your own kid". she's also a folklore and evermore stan (because of the high vocabulary). she's a closeted swiftie because she got bullied for listening to her when she was younger. when you're going to the concert with her, she definitely devises a strategy to beat the merch lines. at the concert, she wouldn't sing/yell the lyrics with you but she'd have no problem lip syncing along to the music.

annabeth is a devoted swiftie. she loves deciphering all of taylor's easter eggs and analyzing her genius lyricism. she's the swiftie who you wait for to analyze taylor's newest album so that you know what she's singing about and all of the references that she makes Imao. she absolutely slayed her analysis of ttpd and ttpdta.

frank zhang

frank is by no mean a swiftie but after you introduced him to songs like, "the archer" and "this is me trying", our boy was converted into one. i feel like frank would be a nonchalant swiftie, he wouldn't follow what she was doing 24/7 and he wouldn't like obsess over what she's going to do next. frank is soooo speak now coded (i will not he taking any questions).

frank is at the eras tour for the vibes. he'll sing along to the songs that he knows. he's also the designated merch holder. he'd probably dress up as joe (the hat and the denim jacket, iykyk). i feel like he'd enjoy watching the film more than going to the concert because of the difference in atmospheres. however, he still has a great time at the concert.

grover underwood

grover is a evermore stan fr. he enjoys the nature aesthetic and vibe that evermore gives off. he talks shit to anyone who thinks that evermore is her worst album. he's only at the concert to have a good time and isn't stressing about the surprise songs or anything like that. however, he lost his shit when taylor opened evermore with "tis then damn season" and when she sang "tolerate it" (it's his favorite song).

hazel levesque

initially, hazel wasn't a swiftie but just because taylor didn't exist during her time. but after piper and leo introduced her to her music, hazel was converted into a swiftie. she's a fearless and speak now stan.

hazel would be too shy to scream or yell the lyrics with you but she'd happily lip sync along to the songs that she knows. her favorite part of the concert was dressing up. the two of you spend the whole night singing, dancing, and laughing with one another.

jason grace

jason is not a swiftie but he could be converted into one if you were. he's a folkevermore stan fr. he also thoroughly enjoyed tpd and tpdta. like frank, he's definitely a more nonchalant swiftie but he would enjoy listening to your rants and predictions on what she's going to do next.

he would dress up as the heartbreak prince to your miss americana. he would try his hardest to learn all of the lyrics to her songs so that he could sing it with you but because her discography is so vast, he printed out sheets with the lyrics on them so that he could scream her lyrics with you. he'd definitely propose to you during "love story" (if the two of you were in the that stage in your relationship).

we all know that jason emits husband energy and is a natural gentleman. so after the concert you know that that man is carrying you out of there because your legs hurt from dancing and would immediately make you some tea when you get back if you lost your voice too. he would also go and get any merch that you wanted during the concert so that you wouldn't miss anything. like frank, jason is also at the eras tour for the vibes but he still has a great time and is thankful that he gets to enjoy this experience with you!!!

leo valdez

leo's a swiftie fr. piper introduced him to her music and they listen to her new albums together. he excessively hates all of her ex-boyfriends that treated her poorly (joe j, john, jake, etc.). he's also 100% red coded but i feel like he also likes 1989.

leo would go all out on his eras tour outfit. he would create a unique and funny outfit or he would go as lasik taylor. he would happily join in with singing/yelling the lyrics with you. he definitely fangirls at every single song change. his favorite song to sing is all too well (10 minute version). piper also teaches him all of the chants so that he can impress you.

nico di angelo

like hazel, nico wasn't a swiftie at first because obviously, taylor didn't exist during the era that he lived in. but after will and piper introduced him to her music, he got converted into a swiftie. he's a folkevermore stan fr (but more evermore than folklore). at the concert, nico would be too shy to sing the songs and he'd probably lip sync along to the lyrics when he thinks no one's looking. he'd dress up as the reputation era just so he could wear black. he got a bracelet from someone and now wears it every single day. like frank, he'd prefer to watch the film compared to going to the concert just because he's scared of big crowds.

percy jackson

like annabeth, percy's a closeted swiftie because he got bullied for listening to her when he was younger. percy is a 1989 and lover stan. he's 100% a "me!" and "you need to calm down" lover. he also LOVES taylor's ovulation songs. (false god, dress, i can see you, etc.).

he goes all out for his eras tour outfit and probably dresses up wearing an outfit that taylor wore once and expects everyone to know when she wore it. like leo, percy fan girls at every single song change and probably screams the lyrics to her songs louder than you do.

piper mclean

piper is a HUGE swiftie. she's a pop girlie so naturally, she's a 1989 stan. i headcanon that she's a hopeless romantic so she's also a reputation and lover stan. for the longest time, she didn't believe that taylor and joe broke up. (they could never make me hate you joe!!!) she absolutely lost it when taylor annoyed 1989 tv.

the two of you guys went all out for your eras tour outfits and would probably coordinate outfits or do a cute couples outfit. she definitely gets you guys tickets in the pit where the two of you spend the whole time dancing and singing/yelling the lyrics to every single song. piper knows every single chant too (1 2 3 Igb). the two of you spent months making friendship bracelets to trade with everyone and at the end of the night, you guys traded enough bracelets to the point that they go up to your elbows. she definitely experienced gay panic during the vigilante shit choreography.

reyna ramirez-arellano

reyna is SOO speak now coded (better than revenge 👀). she's also a reputation stan. if kanye west has a million haters reyna is one of them. if he has one hater it's her. if he has no haters, she's dead. reyna avila ramirez-arellano hates kanye west with a passion.

reyna would dress up as the reputation era and would probably coordinate her outfit with nico. at first, reyna would be too shy to sing along to the songs but after you danced with her a few times she began to loosen up and she ended twirling you around and softly singing along with you.

will solace

will is obviously a debut and fearless stan. i feel like he prefers old taylor over new taylor but he's still a swifitie regardless. he definitely cried when he found out that taylor didn't dedicate a section of songs for debut on the eras tour. he'd definitely wear a cowboy hat with his eras tour outfit. i feel like he wouldn't yell the lyrics with you because he'd be scared he'd lose his voice but he'd happily sing along with you.

[itsmaferart]

SPY x FAMILY x CHAIR Vol 10 - 11- 12

Continuing with this series of analysis of the covers:

SxF . Vol 10 - Redacted

Unlike all the covers so far, cover 10 is the only one that does not show us a chair, but instead introduces us to [Redacted]. So we can give a little deeper analysis.

We can highlight that behind [Redacted] we can clearly see the rubble of a house of which there is absolutely nothing left, a soldier's helmet with scratches and cracks, the toy gun and a radio that apparently announced the war and the look of a child who has lost all happiness in his life and now must learn to survive with no one to take care of him.

I think it goes without saying that this is the saddest cover of the whole collection so far. But we can talk about the influence of [Redacted] on the current story.

In previous reviews I have talked about how [Redacted] is the basis for the existence of Twilight, the great spy of Westalis, the metaphorical death of this child who has lost his parents and his friends due to the conflicts of his country, and who later, blinded by hatred, would want to destroy his apparent enemies, to finally learn the hard lesson from his father of always longing for peace above all else.

From my perspective the tragedy of [Redacted] is the basis of Twilight, it's why the spy fighting for peace exists, but more importantly, it's what allows Twilight to not be entirely a living weapon serving a specific side. And while Twilight you made remembering her past "Self" is weakness, it is also who reminds her of what is truly important.

And it is [Redacted] who gives authenticity to Loid Forger, who reminds him that in the past he could experience happiness, his more vulnerable and sweet side, a child who could easily cry and wished to be in his mother's arms every night. Someone who just wished for a little love. Redacted] may never come back, but it is because of him that Twilight and Loid Forger are genuine and real.

This is a good time to dry your tears! 😭 

SxF . Vol 11 - Emile and Ewen - Hill House Chair

The Hill House Chair was designed by Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1902 for the Hill House residence in Helensburgh, Scotland. The design has a strong Japanese influence, which Mackintosh incorporated into his work after being exposed to Japanese aesthetics during the Glasgow International Art Exhibition.

The chair is in Mackintosh's "Glasgow Style", which is characterized by straight, simple lines and shapes. The chair, along with the rest of the furniture, was designed to integrate with the architecture and décor of the building, resulting in a harmonious and balanced ensemble.

Both the Willow chair and Hill House Chair are designs by Mackintosh, which is characterized by simple lines, geometric shapes and a modernist sensibility that gives them a unique and recognizable look. In terms of style and architectural context, the chairs have important differences in terms of form and functionality. The Willow Chair is a low chair with a curved back and woven seat, while the Hill House Chair is a taller, slimmer chair with a rectangular back and upholstered seat.

Damian-sama!!

There are two very interesting details that I could highlight and the language of the objects with respect to the chair, and the characters. Unlike Damian, the proportion of the chairs with respect to both children is much more harmonious unlike Damian whose chair stands out easily and its size is huge with respect to his size, indicating that while Damian projects greatness, Emile and Ewen are the complementation, both stand out, but balance each other at the same time, and do not overshadow Damian-Sama!

It is very interesting, given that the chair selection reflects this bond of friends/followers. While the chairs have different contexts, while Willow Chiar's has a primary function, the Hill House has the function of complementing the decor. Pointing out how the personalities of Emile and Ewen is to complement Damian.

Like Becky, the reflection of each other's personality is evident, they are notorious and not hidden. While Ewen has a passion for space, astronauts and the stars; Emile is a lover of sweets and all kinds of junk food. However, in the middle of both of them there is an obvious bond for explorer adventures. Having his picture with Damian in the center, because their bond as friends is very genuine!

SxF . Vol 12 - Sylvia Sherwood - Diamond Chair

The Diamond Chair, also known as the Bertoia Chair, was created by sculptor and designer Harry Bertoia in 1952. It was originally designed for Knoll International and has become a symbol of 20th century industrial and avant-garde design.

Bertoia designed the chair because of his desire to explore new forms and techniques of furniture making. Inspiration came from his interest in experimenting with steel wires, which allowed him to create light and elegant structures.

The motive was to achieve a perfect combination of form and comfort, which would be attractive but also ergonomic and comfortable to use. The chair's curved steel wire frame allows for breathability and provides flexible support, adapting to the user's body. Its design is minimalist and timeless, as well as its versatility and ability to adapt to a variety of environments.

"Stop waiting for easy answers to fall into your lap, Rookie. Use that head of yours to find them for yourself"

Both Fullmetal Lady and Diamond Chair could be described as elegant, sophisticated and modern. In addition, the attention to detail and quality workmanship reflect a high-end personality and refinement that projects the experience Handler has in executing its work. At the same time, its comfort and ergonomics demonstrate a concern for the well-being and experience of the user, which makes it friendly and welcoming, one of the most human characteristics of Sylvia who, although she is a relentless woman, also knows how to relate to her humanity, and reminds her little spies that having a soft spot is part of them.

While the folders and surely confidential papers are shuffled and exposed, reminiscent of Handler's main role, we can see subtly hidden the family photograph that is pierced by the chair leg reflecting the rupture caused by the war of losing her husband and young daughter. For no matter the passage of time, it will always be something that will accompany her.

.

You can read the previous part here

[somewhereincairparavel]

An in depth analysis on Jiper - Why it was much more toxic than we realize.

okay. I know Calypso is known for her horrible treatment of leo, but hear me out, Jason grace was in a toxic relationship without even realizing it. I've recently reread Hoo, and I can't believe that it only just struck me how much of a red flag Piper was in the relationship. I made a whole analysis on this, and I'm going to put it here.

If you are a fan of jiper or Piper Mclean in general, then, this might be triggering for you to read, so I recommend you not to. You can agree to disagree with my analysis, just be respectful about it. I don't dislike Piper, I just dislike the way she is written, so no harm intended on her character.

so let's begin.

♦ She obsesses over him for a long time and then complains that he doesn't give her attention, like mf, he's trying to save the world here. She compares their relationship to percabeth wishing jason wasn't so serious all the time, when she was the one who claimed she liked his rule following nature and chose to date him. Before she got him, she complained that he would never like her, after she got him, she complained that he is too uptight.

Like, him being a rule follower is a part of his personality, take it, or leave it. She really doesn't like him for who he is and seemed very intent on wanting to change his morals. Like wanting his to trash the rules for her, she puts unrealistic expectations on him and gets disappointed when he doesn't meet them.

This highly contrasts Jason's treatment of her, when she vocalises her jealousy of Reyna being so "pretty, powerful and Roman" and jason says that he only wants Piper to be Piper, not anything else. Jason knew better than anyone else what is was like to pretend to be someone he's not.

♦she claimed jason as some kind of prize to drew, I physically cringed when the other Aphrodite kids cheered for her when she when she said jason was her boyfriend and he just didn't know it. Like. Jason said it himself, to Hera, "I belong to no one". If only he'd heard what she said about him behind his back lol.

♦She guilt tripped him so hard till the point he promised her that he would never go to camp Jupiter unless she came along, that's like the biggest red flag ever… Camp Jupiter was like his only home, his sister is busy, his mom is dead, and he wasn't even supposed to go there?

♦she got jealous of Reyna, annabeth and Thalia without any context, simply because they are acquainted with him in some way. Even after all the war chaos, jason reassured her patiently like twice that he only had eyes for her. She got jealous when he spoke about camp Jupiter, is he not allowed to talk about his home, the place he's grown up in for 12 years? She controlled jason like a puppet and took advantage of the fact that jason is very passive and had abandonment issues. If you read into their dynamic, Jason was in an unhealthy relationship without even realising it, because he clung on to anyone who gave him affection, it's honestly sad. He hadn't thought that anything was wrong in their dynamic because of his sheltered upbringing in camp Jupiter and lack of experience in love. His sister was lost for years, his dad is a douche, his mom is dead, so you really cannot blame him for not wanting to leave Piper.

♦ Also, in TOA, she was absolutely despicable, We see that jason is still very confused about why she broke up with him, and didn't properly understand why she dumped him bc he thought that they were still going strong, so we can get the hint that piper never exactly gave him a proper reason or anything and just ended it abruptly. Despite all this, he still respected her choice without any resentment against her, and chose to die so she could have more time with her dad. Fucking thoughtful and selfless.

♦ She doesn't voice out her concerns on their relationship to jason. Only the jealousy thing, but other than that she never seemed to tell jason about her issues she has with their dynamic, jason is more of a blunt kinda guy, so her lack of proper communication really hinders their dynamic in many ways, this is clearly seen in the fact that jason was deluded into thinking that their relationship was going great.

♦ She was also quite cold about their breakup, when Grover asked her why, she said stuff like "you thought what? That we'd be together forever like Percy and annabeth?" Like that's so cold and for what reason?? She ended stuff with him, and was acting like she got dumped.

[Take this single paragraph below with a grain of salt, since this one can only be derived out of assumptions, since it wasnt really confirmed properly, as there seemed to be a LOT going on]

♦ coach hedge and mellie thought he dumped her, so it can be implied that she might have dramatized the break up, if that is true, then she practically victimized herself in front of them. She drew so much attention to herself after the breakup, but then gets all cold when people ask her about it. Leading everyone to dislike jason for the breakup. If she did indeed tell mellie and hedge an aggravated version of their break up, then you can't tell me she did all that "unintentionally". I may sound harsh here but it seemed to me that she just wanted sympathy and attention, it's not all surprising either, considering how she chopped her hair off so that her dad can pay attention to her. So we can see a pattern here, she does go to great lengths to gain everyone's sympathy. I honestly don't know if she does it subconsciously or not. But take this paragraph with a grain of salt, since we dont actually know what she told hedge and mellie, so only strong assumptions can be made.

♦ Mellie treated jason which such hostility that even self absorbed Apollo could take the time to notice it. Jason asked apollo if piper told him that he dumped her or something, so even jason sensed that people were blaming him. he didn't even complain about it either. on the contrary, he literally said it was okay if mellie blamed him and that it was better that way.

”One more thing,” I blurted out. “About Piper. It’s just…you seem like such a good power couple. Did you really—did you break up with her to make it easier for her to leave LA?” Jason stared at me with those azure eyes. “Did she tell you that?” “No,” I admitted. “But Mellie seemed, ah, upset with you.”Jason considered. “I’m okay with Mellie blaming me. It’s probably better.”“Do you mean it’s not true?” In Jason’s eyes, I saw just a hint of desolation—like wildfire smoke momentarily obliterating a blue sky. I remembered Medea’s words: The truth was enough to break Jason Grace.“Piper ended it,” he said quietly. “That was months ago, way before the Burning Maze. Now come on. Let’s go find Caligula.” ‘ ~The Burning Maze, Chapter 23 Last Page

♦ Don't even get me started on how she found someone else weeks after her ex boyfriend whom she was with for a year died for HER. I'm sorry, but I couldn't even think of dating someone else for a long time if I were in her position. It's canon that literally even annabeth cried herself sick when she heard about his death and they weren't even close, and Percy couldn't even mention jason without breaking down, Percy and jason barely knew much about eachother. Heck, even hera, a literal goddess who only saw jason as a pawn, started sobbing at his death. So compared to those, piper literally had the reaction of a stale bread. I'd expected her to react in a similar way to nico, just genuine devastation and anger. Now she is using someone else as a rebound when she isn't even emotionally healed?

Connecting all of these points, it's such a shame how jason got taken advantage of for his passive nature. It dawned on me how jason was SO trapped in the relationship with only Piper as the centre of his world. I know Piper was just a teenager herself, but that doesn't make me feel any better about her treatment of him tbh, she's also seemed to have lots of internal misogyny, bringing down the other girls for ogling at jason as if she weren't the one who did the same like 5 minutes ago. Any thoughts? Rick really fumbled the bag with Piper imo, especially in the trials of Apollo.

[prismatic-starstuff]

actually you know what i'll. give some preliminary, very spoiler-heavy, underslept and stream of consciousness thoughts about the final boss; and by the final boss, i mainly mean—

—miquella, because my thoughts on him at this moment are clearer than my thoughts on radahn. (more on that later.)

(important disclaimer: i don't ship any of the characters mentioned in this post together, and i don't condone the behaviours mentioned. this is just a bit of a character analysis and my personal thoughts at this moment; they could change.)

i think miquella is genuinely all those epithets he has; kind and tender. i think he genuinely did want to make the world a gentler place. i think he meant, in his heart, every single word he said about compassion and love.

i do not think miquella knows what compassion and love are. or how to parse and display them in a healthy way, at least.

because healthy compassion doesn't boil down to 'i'll bewitch you so you're always gentle,' and healthy love doesn't boil down to 'i want you and so i'll take you.' but in miquella's mind, he genuinely believes that this is how these things look, and so those are the tools with which he means to build his new age; truly good intentions, but horribly misguided feelings and attitudes.

in the end, i think miquella is a very sad character. both in the sense of miquella personally being very unhappy, and also the sense that... analysing him makes me sad. because i don't believe he had any bad intentions whatsoever; i don't believe he was this conniving creature with malicious desires who knew full well that he was acting in cruelty... i believe he wholeheartedly thought he was doing good.

and i believe he was scared, and lonely, and desperate.

miquella, cursed with eternal physical childhood and frailty, didn't want the godhood that hung over his head like an inescapable threat. and so, when he found someone whose kindness and strength charmed him - as opposed to him having to do the charming - he clutched onto radahn... far, far too tightly.

and that's not good. of course it isn't. i'm not condoning any of it. but i just don't think it was out of cackling evilness or badness or malice; i just... think miquella really wanted someone to be there for him during the godhood he didn't want.

now, my whole opinion goes in different directions on whether or not radahn was in on this, wholeheartedly, ready to go. if he was, then fair enough, they made a vow in their youth and radahn's no victim. if he wasn't, then yeah, he was absolutely a victim in the situation.

i'm not gonna get too deep into mohg because that's very cut and dry and could take up entire posts in itself; mohg was used. used in miquella's well-meaning plan, yes, but used. which to me is... very odd, because it's making me reevaluate every single thing i thought i knew about mohg at all. it's a weird place to be in.

another thing about miquella is that he seems very much to be a person of extremes. if he's going to claim godhood, he wants to be rid of all that came before; including who he was. he literally went through the land of shadow ripping bits of himself off and out to get rid of them; got rid of a literal half of himself in saint trina.

and speaking of saint trina... i think it is extremely telling that she - literally the other half of miquella - tells us in no uncertain terms to kill him; as a mercy. that speaks volumes about the mental state miquella must be in.

lastly, there's the question of whether that eternal childhood was just physical, or also extended to miquella's mentality. personally, i think it was just physical; what he did exhibited a lot of unhealthy behaviours, yes, but... i don't think the root cause of those behaviours was him having a child's mentality. personally, there's not enough evidence there to believe otherwise imo.

so yeah... tl;dr: miquella makes me sad. he did some very bad things, but i don't think he's a bad person, which makes it even sadder. everything about him and radahn and malenia and mohg is fucked up and heartbreaking. and ultimately, i don't believe he's a deliberately manipulative evil nasty being; rather, someone who's drowning in despair to the point of self-destruction, someone who does not want his fate but is marching towards it as best he can, someone who did truly terrible things in the pursuit of what was at its heart a very innocent goal.

[i-guess-im-into-this-now]

The Apothecary Diaries

First watch of first episode

At a glance, I knew I would like this show, but after one episode I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it.

Btw, do y'all like it when people give their first impressions of your favorite shows/books/media? Or their thoughtful analysis? Or their shit posting?

I do. I'll try to do that for you here.

So I'm watching this on Crunchyroll with English dub. Right off the bat I can tell you that I'm in love with Maomao. The voice actress is terrific, but also the character is intriguing. She draws you in right away with her intelligence, competency, inquisitiveness, daring, sense of responsibility, need for justice and expansive caring for every including strangers. She's got a whole lot of A+ character traits to absolutely love. Considering she wants to keep a low profile in the palace that's going to be a problem. I'm pretty sure everyone in her orbit is going to be sucked in by her and either love or hate her. There isn't a lot of room for indifference with a person this interesting.

The very first scene I knew there was something atypical about this show because a charming conversation between a daughter and her father suddenly had a black and white still frame of the the girl being abducted. The hell?!

That paired with the next scene taking place in a brothel helped me grasp the tone of this show. This show is going to have some more mature themes. Now, I know, I'm ready for it. I think. (I'll be alright as long as there is no boiling of people. I've already had two shows I've watched this year cook people and I'm done with human soup).

So we see a courtesan ask Maomao without surprise:

Have you been wounding yourself again?

To which Maomao replies, as if it's obvious:

Well, yeah.

Okay so self harm is something Maomao does. Perhaps in service of her medical research, but if she's willing to harm herself for this, then she might also be willing to put herself in harms way under other circumstances as well. I think the show is trying to demonstrate that she's self sacrificing here. Love that in a fictional character.

She panics and runs when the brothel ladies tease her about becoming a courtesan. Why? Is she intimidated by intimacy? Has she witnessed the courtesans suffering? Is she afraid that future would derail her own plans? Does she always get this flustered when teased? I'm not suggesting she consider becoming a courtesan but her panic is telling of something more.

She immediately gets kidnapped, which due to foreshadowing we knew was going to happen, but what gets me is her blasé attitude about it. Like it's just an inconvenience and not a terrifying ordeal. I immediately thought they would sell her to a brothel, but she instead ends up doing laundry at the palace. So we learn that Maomao can stay calm in a crisis and this makes me even more curious about her reaction to the teasing by the courtesans.

We find Maomao settled into a life of servitude at the palace. She's accepted what happened even if she is unfulfilled. She misses her old life, including the brothel, wonders about her father and longs for meat screwers, but she's already figured out the ecosystem she's in and how best to navigate it. She's so savy here. She compares the palace to the brothel and applies her knowledge of that complex social system to navigate palace politics. Maomao has already analyzed what would happen if she revealed her competencies, and has decided to lay low until she is able to extricate her self in a couple years.

She tells the viewers what we need to know about harem life and mentions that if one isn't careful they could end up as a concubine. It's a future she wants as little as that of a courtesan, even though she mentioned that low ranked concubines are treated better than the servants. I have to wonder if this is foreshadowing or if it is commentary on the roles of women in this society.

Palace gossip! Oh there's a handsome new eunuch in the palace? Maomao couldn't care less. Well okay.

I'm going to make a few completely unfounded predictions here just to see how far off I am when I watch the rest of the series.

Regarding the hot eunuch:

He's not a eunuch. He's got all his bits and bobs.

He's not just a palace manager. At least not completely. He's probably a bastard son or royalty in hiding or something. He's not nobody.

Maomao is going to be down bad for this dude.

What a waste. Grade A quality genes and no way of proliferating them. -Maomao on Jinshi's appearance

So Maomao can't be bothered to spare a second thought about handsome eunuchs, or nonsense about curses, but medical ailments? Now you've got her thinking. And I love that about her. She knows how to diagnose and treat ailments and she cares so much! She's trying to lay low but her passion and integrity can't be tempered by her very rational plan to protect herself by staying inconspicuous. She knows how to help and feels a responsibility to do so even if that help puts her at risk. Hero qualities right there.

Also, I love a character that is just... better than every one else. Maomao is more informed, experienced and able to diagnose than the court physician. Competency porn yes, please!

Speaking of competency... We need to talk about Jinshi! Our handsome "eunuch" (he's getting that word in sarcastic quotes until I receive proof otherwise). Out of the 3000 people living in the back palace, he deduces which one of them sent a warning to the concubines, and rangles a confession with nothing more than a scrap of cloth. He observed Maomao muttering about needing something to write on, and her mended skirt. He recognized that scrap of cloth as belonging to a servant girl's clothing. He understood the importance of her literacy and cleverly used it as a means to draw her out. Jinshi is every bit as capable as Maomao, and he's out maneuvered her in this. Maomao has met her match.

To Maomaos horror she is promoted to lady-in-waiting and I am here for it! Girl you are in the shit now! She seems really panicked about the new promotion, because she is smart and knows that this new position is fraught with dangers even if she doesn't know precisely what they are. She seems pretty smart and capable but the fact that Jinshi was able to so easily draw her out and expose her means she will need to sharpen her skills. I'm hoping the concubine and Jinshi will be allies to her in the palace.

Her panic about entering the court reminds me of earlier in the episode when she ran from the brothel. Perhaps she fears becoming entangled with any type of social/political group? Does she have more secrets that she's trying to keep hidden?

I just know that this character is going to be put through some trials. But she has so many great qualities and strengths, that I'm confident she can adapt and overcome. I am looking forward to watching her persist and triumph. And maybe cause a little trouble.

There are some qualities that Maomao just can't mute. Curiosity. A thirst for knowledge. And a sometimes troublesome need to right that which is wrong. - Narrator

Episode 2

[cartoon-cass]

Murder Drone episode 7 & 8 trailer analysis

This is the first bit of Murder Drone news we've had in a while so I'm biting at the chance to do some analysis. I'll do new dialog first as there isn't much of it.

"hahaha thanks for giving me the planet. Fricking idiot."

This is said by CYN or Absolute Solver, which ever one you want to call them. At first I thought this was a thing that happen in present time but that seems like a pretty big plot twist to put in the trailer so more then likely it's either what happen when Copper-9 core collapsed or what happened to Earth.

"All I know is I need you. [We'll] figure things out, together?"

I put the "We'll" in square brackets as I'm not a 100% sure that's what he says, theirs a loud crash right before it and there are no subtitles so can't be sure. N is not having a good time, poor baby. I'm guessing Uzi found out about the whole kill all infected worker drones and N is comforting her that he won't kill her.

On to the images now.

This shot is pretty dark and we get no context about it but it appears to be some sort of man made cave system, with wooden support beams and a wooden crate with what appears to be an old timey gas lamp. The hole in the wall is made out of fleshy growths with human skulls and rib cages, the fleshy growths are reminiscent to other fleshy stuff the Absolute Solver has made and the human remains are likely from the scientist or other types of workers unlucky enough to be in the blast radius when the hole was created. My money is on one of those Null black holes like the one Uzi made in Episode 6.

Uzi and N hug UwU. All jokes aside they appear to be in some sort of church, surprisingly clean for what I have to assume is god knows how far underground. The hug seems pretty desperate so they seem to have been separated from each other, as shown in the next shot, also Tessa or Doll are nowhere to be found.

This is the best shot I could get of this scene. N is being dragged on the floor into the hole by eldritch hands, this seems to be the same spot as the first image. N is grabbing something and for the life of me I have no idea what it could be but N seems to think it's important, It's not a core, maybe a human heart but that is a big maybe, but it's my best guess.

Here we see 2 sentinels chained up and a giant church, the sentinels are probably guarding it. At first I thought it was raining in this scene but on closer inspection it's actually stalagmites and stalactites, which means their definitely underground. there's a human skull on the bottom right and in red, possibly blood, is written null, there other words on the column right behind it too but it's to hard to read it.

In this frame you can better see that there's a banner on the church that says, "Lab space for rent" there seems to be red tape on it with other text but that's way to small to even guess at what it's saying. There's also a miner helmet and a bloody pickaxe, given the blood I'm guessing this was for a human and not a drone.

The sentinels seem to be reacting to some sort of light but the source of the light is not seen but it's from above, which is why I first confused it for lightning but given their underground that seems unlikely.

The only thing we see of Tessa and it's slamming Nori's locker closed, there was nothing in the locker if you were wondering. I love the little drawings, hopefully we get to see more of Nori she seems to be an interesting character .

Something weird I noticed is that thing in the bottom left corner it's not there for one frame and the next it's there and I have no idea what it could be. It's probably nothing and maybe just a result of editing for the trailer but I thought I mention it.

Look at them their so cute. I think they heard something and turn around to see what it is, likely after the hug but no idea. the light there facing is red and it persists throughout the next few shots too, maybe it's Doll, the eldritch thing from earlier or both, eldritch Doll.

Uzi is holding a crucifix of all things??? Also Uzi does not seem ok, she seems to move weird.

This frame shows that Uzi has some sort of image on her screen, or her screen is off with no eye lights and it's reflections, it's really hard to tell, but I think it's the first as the frames before this where her head is down has the same thing which wouldn't be if it's reflections.

At first I thought there was a disassembly drone in the background but it appears to be a light fixture, though it doesn't seem to do a lot of help as it's dark as hell down there. Also Rip N's hand. I think there might be a N and Uzi fight but I doubt either of them wants that.

It's interesting their leaning heavily on the Christian theming, it's always been there, the disassembly have wings and halos, head band lights, and where even referred to as sky demons, but they've never been so upfront. If I'm reading them right N is meant to be an angel or a fallen angel and Uzi a demon but what that means for the episode I'm not sure.

[hastyprovocateur]

Another Analysis on Mizu×Akemi

(Because there can never be enough)

l gotta admit it... the show was very ambiguous as to which character ends up with who and under what circumstances they're going to like each other. A lot of people see Taigen and Mizu because Mizu's sexuality, atleast in regards to liking men, is confirmed. She did feel attracted to her husband when she was married and she does associate some strong feelings with Taigen since she imagined that heated fight moment in the brothel when Kaji showed her the threesome. Then again... it's a threesome so there's allusion but no absolutes so far.

As for Mizu and Akemi, even if the two women could move in a romantic direction, they were too tied up in their own shit. Mizu was preoccupied with her revenge which is why she gave Akemi up in ep5 and Akemi couldn't see past her marriage with Taigen not because she thought he was a great guy but because he was the best option. He was close to home and not an entire brute as far as she knew. And then she didn't have a choice in marrying Taka either who turned out to be decent but no man warrants undying love just for being half human.

Needless to say, Akemi was dealing with her own shit. Mizu had Fowler to kill and there was little allusion to romance even if there are strong feelings between the two. Akemi, still, had to mean something for Mizu to flash back the first time their eyes met on the bridge when she was close to dead. As well as the addition of Akemi's knife to her blade. Likewise, Akemi claimed to have searched the onryo's eyes for love. But that's it as far as proof of feelings go. Nothing more Nothing less.

Coming to Mizu, even if her feelings were involved somewhere between Taigen and Akemi, she didn't didn't intervene in ep 8 and set the record straight by setting Akemi free, sending Taigen after her so they can be together and then leaving Ringo with Master Eiji. I was convinced that Akemi was gonna run into Taigen's arms after finding her newfound freedom but I was impressed when she chose greatness instead.

As for Mizu's revenge, she deliberately embarked to London alone. As far as she knows, everyone is better off without her but we see quite evidently that after Mizu's intervention nothing is going to be the same again. This doesn't show that she doesn't care, she does to the extent of resolving everything so they can be happy, but for the sake of her revenge, it is understood that Mizu doesn't want to get distracted from her focus or have a loved one get injured because of her path.

NOW... everything else is speculation. It's anyone's guess so I'll try my hand at it. I'm thinking of the bigger picture here and no revenge story ends in revenge right? It ends with love. And Mizu won't be paired up with a Londoner I'm sure, because her story has to wind back to Japan, where she started.

So who could she end up with? Ringo is her best friend and confidante but the writing focuses greatly on their platonic bond. There is allusion to more with Taigen, who is her childhood bully turned blood brother granted he's not major of a character, the writers downplayed him themselves by not giving him that intense of a character arc like Akemi or a whole change of absolute resolve for revenge unlike Mizu.

Writingwise, Taigen was always kinda straddling the line of liking Akemi but really not, wanting to kill Mizu but really not, wanting honour but really not, wanting happiness but really not. His end wasn't concluded beyond him getting rejected by Akemi and his and Mizu's future was not remotely indicated. If he was on the ship with her, the writers would've shown us but he's suspended midair for the time being.

If Mizu is to have a high stake romance, it... has to be with Akemi... don't you think? Taigen never posed any real threat to Mizu, he can't outclass or outsmart her, they have great camaraderie and that's when he finally decided to treat her decently and going beyond to show loyalty, trust and support for what she does. There wasn't heavy ground for him to dislike her initially either, outside of his own arrogance. It wasn't a big change of character on his part to like Mizu since he's never had sincere grounds for hating her in the first place.

Even if Taigen improves his character in the following season, I can't see Mizu and Taigen being balanced and opposed enough for the two to willingly choose the other against the odds as opposed to falling in love due to convenient proximity. Taigen, I'm sorry to say, seems to blow with the wind and doesn't have much determination for pursuits as far as the writing goes. Pairing that with Mizu's iron will creates dissonance. If Mizu chooses love, it would be against the ODDS of all her other pursuits.

Her rage. Her revenge. Her agony.

And that, I only see matched in Akemi.

Only Akemi could go against her grain as much as Mizu to actually fall in love.

Akemi isn't in love with the Shogun's son, but has accepted him as a means to her pursuit for greatness for the purpose of which Takayoshi is a decent man who is likely to not try and subdue her. I'd go so far to say Akemi has rejected love as a means to survive and is bent on acquiring power to ensure her success so that no harm comes her way because. Just like Mizu, she once fought for love only to get betrayed by it.

Seki brought the Shogun's proposal to Daichi because he'd decided on Akemi's behalf that "Im only doing what's right for you." Taigen put his honour above ensuring that Akemi is not displaced in his absence, Akemi's father had all intentions of carting her off as a commodity to the Shogun's for his own political schemes, telling her that she's "not the hero of his family." And Mizu... also doomed Akemi in the hubris of thinking "She's better off."

In Kaji's words- "You stood by as the guards dragged her away screaming." Akemi doesn't see Mizu as trustworthy anymore, any overture for friendship or romance will take a lot from her end because from Akemi's perspective, she rode back captive on horseback with strange men, coming to terms with that fact that her agency will now be ripped away, her teeth blackened as an accessory to visually appeal to her new family and she'll be forced into her new husband's quarters to commit her "wifely duties." Takayoshi not being a brute was an exeption to the rule and for which Akemi is greatly lucky which makes sense why she's decided to stick by her new means and to work within them.

Circling back to stories... just as all revenge stories end with the prevalence of love so do all stories of greatness. Akemi and Mizu both deserve to be loved and it is evident because that's all they wanted initially. A simple house on the edge of nowhere, a life unremarkable and staid. Filled only by love and the company of two. For both Mizu and Akemi, this dream of love only brought crushing pain, it cemented them into paths where they want anything but love. Mizu in her descent for revenge and Akemi on her ascent to power. Their middle ground is love which they will have to fight towards if they ever decide to meet halfway but god... it would be a glorious fight.

In a future season... if a certain someone... fell in love enough to give up... power... and a certain someone fell in love enough to give up revenge. If the red eyed princess... decided to run away with the blue eyed samurai... in that, I will find peace...

[beanghostprincess]

not anything specific!! you might just start with the few ideas you have i would read it all!!

Sorry for replying so late!! I've been busy 🙏🏻💖

!!!!!! I adore Nirei's character as a whole. Like, I could talk for hours about him. The second he appeared he became my favorite character and I believe it is criminal that we do not get to appreciate this outfit again (not the shirt because apparently he doesn't like it much but the rest of it!!). Please. Please. Please, we need more of his fashion. Just look at him. I think he should take Sakura shopping and torment him as he makes him try different outfits. I think I just miss his silly little glasses and his hair.

This has absolutely nothing to do about analysis btw I just love him too much not to mention every little thing about him.

So uhhhmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm I do not know where to start. As I've been saying... Quite a lot lately... I adore where his character is going. He has gone from being scared and having to be protected to be the one insisting on protecting Sakura instead. And I believe one of my favorite things about this is that his fighting spirit is not something that suddenly appeared with the realization of being weak. He has always wanted to become stronger. He was well aware from the start of his limitations and still fought against those guys in the second chapter (you know. Basically his first appearance). And I think it's very refreshing (I keep saying all Wind Breaker characters are like this, but they are) to see the sidekick of the MC having that motivation before meeting him. What I mean by this is-- Yes, Nirei's motivation now mainly focuses on helping Sakura get to the top and being worthy of being with the rest of them and not be a burden etc etc etc. But that motivation eixsted beforehand and Sakura is just the embodiment of that dream of protecting the town Nirei has. You know where I'm coming from? I don't think a lot of sidekicks who consider the MC to be the best and the chosen one have realistic expectations of them sometimes. But Nirei's perception of him is very ground to earth and I love that. I should stop mentioning Sakura in these things, I swear this ship is not consuming my mind completely and I can see them as separate beings-

Also, something I love about Nirei is how his character has this ability to be able to remember everybody's skills and names because he is pretty observant and analytical. But despite that strength the manga doesn't give us the typical "oh well then he doesn't need to fight anymore because he already helps with this" or the "he actually doesn't feel completely satisfied with that skill so he has to fight whether he wants it or not". It's a mix of both. He keeps that skill and still fights anyway because that's what he has wanted from the start. We love an intelligent fighter (intelligence that, btw, comes from an empathetic side and I love how it's valued in the same way as logical intelligence).

I don't believe I talk much about his sense of justice btw. The way his first fight is literally him going against guys he knows he can't win to protect a girl... The fact that he's constantly doing this over and over again despite being aware that he's clearly not as strong as his opponents. I think Sakura (and the rest too but mostly, you know, Sakura) see this and think of it as the one thing they need to be a part of Bofurin.

His whole character is basically about protecting the weak, following his moral compass and fighting to become stronger and to help Sakura get to the top because he is the embodiment of what Nirei considers the peak of justice and what the town needs. But his ambitions are now more tied to the fact that he also loves and cares for the team (almost right away tbh) and mostly Sakura. He has such a caretaker personality and I adore how they always show that as a strength rather than a weakness.

I don't know what else I could talk about besides his whole character arc being his will of protectiveness being stronger than his fear of getting hurt. And also the trust he places in all of his friends because he is observant, after all, so he reads people well. And I keep saying his character wouldn't exist well without Sakura's but Sakura's wouldn't exist without his either, but you know who wouldn't shine as much either without Nirei's presence?? Suo. We talk a lot about him protecting Nirei and teaching him how to fight, but the protectiveness and undeniable care Suo shows would never be there if it wasn't for Nirei's character! I just love how these three are always so... Intertwined.

If you have more questions or suggestions about Nirei's character please tell me because I would love to talk more about him but idk how to ramble about him without it making 0 sense <333

[pomeness]

Hi!!

I was absolutely amazed by your analysis of Kaiser a few weeks ago. And I wanted to ask if you think that with a therapy he could like honestly love someone??

I've been thinking about it pretty much and I was reading a whole bunch of sites about c-ptsd and narcissistic features but I feel like I'm too dumb to make a statement 😔 i just almost hysterically don't want to mischaracterize him 😭😭

Sorry for all this yapping, have a great day!! <33

Wiiii anon I imagine you're referring to this! Thank you so much ksgdhg I am flattered you liked it this much <3

I want to preface this by saying that Love is a complex feeling and I won't use the term in a strictly romantic way. That + Kaiser is a complex character and I think his actions can't be interpreted through Black and white lens. There's a lot of nuance in his actions and in his emotions and everything I will say is up to my personal interpretation of the character.

Now, to answer your question: yes.

Even present Kaiser is capable of love. Of course, he experiences it in a vastly different way compared to most people and wouldn't manifest affection in a "canonical" way.

Unfortunately, Kaiser has never experienced love, and he's well aware of that, so he has a hard time both to recognise, to express and to react to the emotion.

And he knows that. He knows that when someone tries to give him love, he reacts with violence, because he's only known violence since he was a child. See how he reacted to people being kind towards him for the first time. See how he called Ness "loser" the first time they interacted (and he was supposed to. charm and manipulate him lmfao-- I mean he still managed to do that but it's because he was lucky Ness as well doesnt know anything about love).

Now. Ness. Do I think Kaiser loves him? In his own twisted way, yes. He loves him like you love a pet. He loves him like he used to love his ball. He loves him like his dad loved Kaiser, with violence and control.

Violence is his safe place. So every emotion and feeling he experiences is perceived through violent lens, love included.

And I love LOVE that he is self-conscious enough to know it, yet doesn't have the neccessary means to not fall back into the same loop. At the same time, given the shit he went through, he's already doing amazing lmfao.

Also, I know I've already seen someone else state this but I unfortunately don't remember who it was, Kaiser probably projects onto Ness, the same way he projected onto that ball when he was a kid.

("You beat it up but he still comes back" -> does this imply that Kaiser had loved his father in some ways? Could be. There's lots of grief when it comes to suffering abuse from what was supposed to be your safe person. Kaiser is still in survival mode, which is very understandable, so I don't think he's gone through that part of the process Yet. Anyway.)

In therapy he could learn how to accept love and express it in a way that doesn't cause damage to other people.

Kaiser craves love but at the same time has a hard time receiving it. The fact he barely feels human doesn't help. He's so disconnected from his body and probably has an unstable image of self (look at the tattoos, his hair, etc. He wants to Represent something, he's trying to craft his own image and probably sees himself as a doll to dress up). He also. Doesn't really like himself in general lmao. So he would find it so hard to actually feel loved by someone.

He would also need to manually learn to be empathetic. He's already emotionally intelligent enough to know what to say to make someone feel a certain way, but for now he's just using it to manipulate/unsettle people in general. If he wants to reach his ultimate goal (which is to be actually loved) he needs to make the effort of not letting the mental illness take over.

It will be hard lmfao since he loves LOVES having power/control over people - it's safer this way, so I don't really blame him. You can't get hurt by someone if you control them, right? Right (Rip Ness). But he may eventually come around it in the name of the greater good.

Also!!! A thing he would do when it comes to a romantic partner is to follow the societal expectation but make it bigger. Kaiser would absolutely take inspo from romantic movies, and lowkey highkey use them as an inspiration to properly court someone.

He would do it more as a way to show off and mark his territory/scare away potential rivals. To him, courtship is a power-based game. He puts on a show and makes the effort to appear as the Best potential partner, but thats it. He wouldnt be too interested into actual dating. The chase and conquership of the final price is more thrilling than what comes afterwards. In my mind, he would be the type to flirt around, conquer his "prey", but never take them to bed. The ego boost that comes after knowing someone wants to fuck him has more value than actually fucking them lmao, and the power that comes off telling the person that he is not interested in taking them home? Yeah, that's another thing he would love.

Now, of course, in terms of both partnership and friendship, he may need to have strong-minded people by his side. People he can't manipulate and don't trigger his prey drive narcissistic tendencies.

Someone who doesn't people please and, most importantly, who can partially understand him. Kaiser would hate to feel vulnerable, and his defensive walls are all up high. He needs someone who acknowledges said walls but isn't necessarily interested in breaking in and waits for Kaiser to come closer at his own pace.

The person needs to be sonewhat caring, but not in a way that makes Kaiser want to take advantage of it. He wants to be taken care of, but babying him would be a mistake.

I think the only way to date Kaiser is to skip the dating part. No courtship, no games. At some point, he finds himself lounging in someone's livingroom and decides that the couch is too comfortable to leave. That's it.

At the end of the day, he is nothing but a cat.

[xiaoshengnu]

𝕰𝖒𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖊𝖘 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕻𝖆𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖊 - final review

overview : episode no - 76 episodes, genre - historical (gongdou)

a timeless classic, the slay to end all slays (and I mean literally and figuratively) empresses in the palace follows the story of zhen huan as she experiences life in the palace, hardening her from a sweet young girl to a stony empress dowager. 

l⃣e⃣ t⃣’ s⃣    b⃣e⃣g⃣i⃣n⃣

when I say you will never find a more iconic show ever in the whole of cdramaland, I mean never. empresses in the palace is an absolute juggernaut of a drama, it is absolutely insane, the writing, the drama, the characters, the absolute minute little details and its respect of the viewer’s intelligence- an A* and beyond. and it's internet and cultural presence in china? IN. SANE. 

o⃣u⃣t⃣     o⃣ f⃣     t⃣ e⃣ n⃣

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 9/10

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 10/10

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 10/10

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 10/10

𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕖 - 9.8

o⃣u⃣t⃣    o⃣ f⃣    f⃣ i⃣v⃣ e⃣

𝖍𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖊𝖓 𝖌𝖊𝖒 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖚𝖊 - 💎💎💎💎💎

[ I know that when the drama first came out, it was considered pretty unique for how brutally it presented harem life, but even years later and amongst so many newer dramas which have borrowed tropes and ideas from it, I don’t think you’ll be able to find such an incredibly solid drama. a five gem.  ]

𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖆𝖙𝖈𝖍 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖚𝖊 - ✨✨✨✨✨

[ it is so incredibly long and a pretty emotionally tolling drama - even longer than legend of haolan but it is just incredible, a full five star rewatch value ]

‘keep reading’ for detailed review

oh my god this drama.

oh my god.

where do I even begin? I remember watching my parents watch this drama when was I was still really young so I didn’t know what the show was called and what it was about, and although I didn’t remember the whole of this drama I could still remember some hazy snapshots pretty iconic scenes- like at the end where she does to sleep, or when she gets sent to the island- so when I finally decided to watch empresses in the palace a light bulb went off and I suddenly realised that THIS was the show that I'd remembered from my childhood. THIS was it. so it is quite nostalgic for me. 

it is honestly such a timeless classic, there’s nothing that will ever beat it. nothing. every fucking second of this thing has a purpose, and everything the characters say and do- and even the background of scenes have minute details which relate to the overall plot and trajectory of these characters. like the amount of YouTube videos analysing this one drama is insane. when critics praise a piece of visual art as a “living breathing organism”, “a masterpiece”- they mean this. 

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 9

just. amazing. what can I say. there’s absolutely nothing that can beat this drama with how it wrote the plotting, the intrigue and the absolute cunning the women had to possess to stay alive in the palace. the ending of the drama is literally perfect. SO perfect. younger me thought legend of haolan was good- but compared to this? this is really truly another level. there’s so many instances in the drama where the drama never really tells you what exactly happened, but at the same time gives you just enough information to just guess what had gone on. equally, there are some times where there really doesn’t appear to be any scheming but with close analysis (and with the help of trusty youtubers) suddenly things become thrown into light. 

however, I had to knock down a few points because every plot has flaws and for this drama, I think it was mostly the use of tropes and the ‘female lead syndrome’ that sometimes quite clearly shows in the drama. There are also some areas in the drama where the plot does get shaky, but there is never not a reason why a scene is included in the drama. its just such a watertight drama. if you ever need to learn the art of show but don’t tell, this drama has it all. I love that sometimes it leaves it up to the viewer to work the plot out, which mirrors the way in which the concubines had to guess and predict in order to survive- which wasn’t always for certain or always accurate, almost literally pulling the viewer into the world of harem life.

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 10

I LOVE THE CHARACTERS UGH. I love them. they’re slays to end all slays. from zhen huan (the original girl boss, gatekeep, gaslight- FIGHT ME) to su peisheng- honestly so iconic. every single major character was well written, well developed and multi-dimensional, and no-one was evil purely for the sake of earning the drama cash. everyone in the drama gives you a reason to root for them, I found myself even feeling for the emperor in the end. 

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 10

the production was beautiful- the lighting, costuming and makeup were literally so perfect it's unreal. so many iconic scenes came out of this drama- like the yimeiyuan (plum blossom garden) scene with it's beautiful moonlit set and plum blossom decked in snow.

 I love the designated colour palettes of the various concubines everything seemed very thought out to fit their personalities. consort hua was decked in bold colours and extravagant patterns, consort jing being calm and gentle was consistently dressed in soft blues and greens, while shen meizhuang is seen wearing mostly purples and pinks. one particular costume that lives in my mind rent free is zhen huan’s blue outfit with the white plum blossom embroidery in the episode 28- absolutely stunning.

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 10

honestly, if you took a shot for every time I've described this drama as perfect, you would definitely be on the floor by this point. The acting was absolutely now flawless. at no point in the drama did I ever feel drawn out of the story by the acting- sun li is jaw-dropping as zhen huan, her duality is absolutely insane and her crying scenes- ugh omg so good. 

.

.

𝖇𝖔𝖓𝖚𝖘!!

favourite character(s) :

zhen huan ( if your favourite character in this drama isn’t zhen huan, what are you doing???? she is an absolute icon in her own right. it’s literally impossible to not root for such a wonderful character- team zhen huan all the way )

consort hua / nian shilan ( ik ik, ik now she’s evil and everything, but I love her- she has a baseline which she will not cross and she does have a loyal heart. she loves the emperor almost unconditionally and while she would kill a concubine, she would never harm an unborn child. she seems to care for her servants, who are loyal in turn and I would argue that her being willing to employ a crippled eunuch is a sign of her more softer and caring side. and do I need even mention her snarky one liners?? slay. anyway that’s my essay in defence of consort hua )

ye lanyi ( a queen fr, she takes no-one’s shit )

.

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖗𝖊𝖜 (source mydramalist)

lead actors : sun li, chen jianbin, cha silfun

director : zheng xiaolong 

screenwriter : wu xuelan

[worldume]

do u have any Banjo thoughts? there’s something about the look he had on his face right before he jumped off that bridge. The possibilities of his freakdom r endless me thinks.

about banjo….

banjo is definitely one of the characters in wdbr that i absolutely just want to sit and pick his brain. here’s a summary of my thoughts hc style! i’m on chapter 133!

i’m almost certain he has has some deeply rooted trauma and issues he yet to accept and work through.

i definitely think he has mommy issues— but really it could have been any important adult in his life growing up. evidently, someone wasn’t there for him in a way that a child needs. his trauma his both mental and physical.

just the fact that physical pain equates to love in his head is enough to confirm that for me. banjo is a deeply troubled soul and really needs someone to rewire his mind. but i think his fight with hiragi was the start.

in a relationship, banjo is a yandere or something pretty close to it.. he doesn’t like competition or the possibility of a threat— the thought of someone else having you, stealing you away from him will make him genuinely murderous. but that’s a whole other thing to get into— i’ll have you all here all day.

his darling would absolutely be the light of his world and he’d care the most about what you think. i can see him asking if you like certain things about him— like if he gets a new shirt or maybe he tries a new hairstyle. he’s always asking for reassurance from you. even asking if you think his food order was a good idea or should he have gone with what you got. a simple: “you’re fine, baby. i think you made a good choice.” will ease any worry in his head.

there had to have been something about you to really strike him.. and not to get all killing stalking in here but.. maybe your looks reminded you of his mom— or someone very important to him. or maybe when he was still apart of bofurin, you were the first person to actually be nice to him in a way he has never experienced before and from then it only fueled his fire. a crush that turned into more of an unhealthy obsession.

when you’re mad at him, it feels like the end of the world to banjo. it will genuinely tweak out.. and beg. beg you to “fight” him because at least then he’ll be able to feel something. “hit me— hit me, please! i won’t hit you back—! just please do something!” while he’s clawing at his face.

in the bedroom, he’s naturally into sadomasochism. choking, slapping— biting until there’s blood drawn, its all his favorite. he’s begging for more when you’re riding him and your hands are clasping so snug around his neck that he’s turning red. he doesn’t know his limit and you often have to bring him back down to earth.

DONT SHOOT! but i do think someone more suited towards him is someone who is or can be a dominant in his life. i’ll even give leeway to a switch who leans sub, but unfortunately i can’t see him ending up with a true submissive.

he has a prince albert. i will not be getting into it.

a/n: this is a very messy outline of my thoughts and i really could get into a deep dive psycho analysis of this guy but for all of our sanities, i’ll keep it tame for now because it will get dark very FAST with kanon.

blurb requests are open! — 🛒