#i love my sisters doomed to fail by the narrative

[milezperprower]

having a pretty stressful end to my day so i decided to cool down via doing this

so i hit tadc with my warrior cats ray.... but what if i hit warrior cats with my tadc ray..??

i present to yall- squilfagtha and leafgle.

[wordslikesilver]

I love what this DLC redefined about Melina. I never took to the gloam eyed queen theories, and now we learned about two incredible things in the DLC. The Minor Erdtree incantation finally explains in truth what the concept of Unalloyed Gold is, it is kindness without Order. I take this to refer to one’s love for a specific reason I’ll elaborate on in a moment. This explains several things. First, the flaw Marika discovered in the golden order was its compassion, its love and kindness. No matter what you think of the golden order as a regime, it still had that value of kindness deep down inside and that’s the flaw that goldmask identifies. The flaw within Marika herself that leaves her doomed by the narrative. It couldn’t be the Order that was the flaw, because that’s what failed Miquella when he tried to cure his sister of the rot. Miquella’s entire platform was kindness and acceptance of all. That’s the unalloyed gold that healed Malenia. Marika needed the Radagon aspect of herself to convince her Order was worth it all. And then she’d reached her limit and could take no more of it all. Enough. No more of this golden order. No more Erdtree. No more Elden Ring or greater Will or fingers pulling strings. Enough. And surely there was only one way in all the world she’d cope with the pain of losing Godwyn, of possibly even arranging his death so that the plan could be set in motion.

This is where the most beautiful tragedy of the DLC comes in. Miquella and saint Trina. He severs his love from his existence so that he could become a god. We learn that a demigod/god can sever parts of themselves that become living entities. This is how Radagon came to exist. But more importantly, this is how Melina came to exist. Melina, who fights with the grace of a black knife Numen woman, who keeps destined death sealed within her eye, who dreams of fire. Melina, who is kind and gentle and soft spoken. The girl who knows deep in her heart that no matter how grim it all may feel, there is hope and love in this world. The girl who can cast the ultimate healing incantation, minor Erdtree, and a version of it that we the players can’t even match in size and radiance. The kindness of gold, without order. Melina is Marika’s unalloyed gold, shriven clean from her body and given life. Her love, her kindness and all her weakness, turned into a young maiden who wants nothing more in all the world than to save her own mother from her suffering. Just like St Trina begs us to save Miquella from godhood, Melina begs us to help her free her mother from the prison of the Erdtree and godhood itself.

I love that this DLC recontextualizes Melina’s entire existence as Marika saying “If my love and my kindness are a flaw, then I will use them to burn this fucking place to the ground.”

Put on your tinfoil hat on for this last part but it’s too good not to think about, Melina fights like a black knife and carries destined death within her. Imagine if she was there that night to kill Godwyn. His mother’s love and kindness being the one to kill her most beloved child. Lower his guard, maybe. It’s so fucking raw imagining that and I lose my mind picturing the scene.

[cosmosnout]

KH OC WEEK 20204

Day 3: connections

This took a bit longer than meant, but with the amount of things I wanted to include, it felt important to take my time.

Shiro’s part focusses a lot more on the relationships between them and the canon characters, while Aiko’s, Merin’s, Viktor's, and Tähti’s parts focus on the relationship they have with each other. (And some additional canon characters.)

Also there’s a lot of text here so sorry about any spelling mistakes haha.

Shiro

Xehanort (young)

Helped Shiro to get out of the realm of darkness and is helping them to recover their memory.

I am a firm believer that despite his cold demeanor, Xehanort has the capability of expressing other emotions outside of being a snarky jerk. He just needs to be around the right kind of people to bring that side of him out, and Eraqus and Shiro are exactly the sorts of people to make his brain cells die. /pos

Xehanort’s interest in becoming Shiro’s friend is due to his dreams as a boy of a mysterious child who he believes to be Shiro. (Some lost childish part of him does genuinely wish to be their friend, but he is also quite interested in Shiro’s connection to the keyblade war.)

They spent a couple years peacefully as friends attempting to recover Shiro’s memories, before Shiro uncovered Xehanort's true plans and the two ended up parting ways to fight on the opposite sides. They’re so divorced LMAO

Shiro feels quite betrayed and thinks their friendship was just a plot to get information out of them, while in reality their friendship was still genuine despite Xehanort's hidden motives.

They have a very bittersweet relationship.

Like when you just have that one person who sees right through you and you could just sit in complete silence for forever and still have a good time.

But oh my god do they also just bring out the worst in each other LMAO.

Xehanort is still a snarky bastard 99% of the time, and Shiro is so ready to throw his snarkiness back at him. It is remarkable if they get through a conversation without one of them trying to piss off the other one.

Anyhow they are so doomed by the narrative.

I’ve had a difficult time defining the relationship between these two, but in recent years since becoming aware of my own feelings as an aroace person, I feel like queerplatonic is a really good way to put it. I think that there can be strong emotions and love held between two people without it necessarily having to be romantic, and that’s just as wonderful as any other relationship.

Aqua

The first person Shiro came across once they emerged in the realm of darkness.

Shiro has a lot of admiration towards her and hopes to meet her again!

Shrio definitely has a little crush on her haha

Roxas and Xion

Shiro’s keyblade apprentices!

adopted little siblings

Shiro fought relentlessly to keep both of them safe but ended up failing as they both returned to Sora.

Losing them was a big wake up call to the organization's true nature and Xehanort's sinister plans.

Namine

Little sister<<3

Shiro took one look at her and was like “yup anything happens to her and I’ll make everyone's life a living nightmare”

Got Namine her crayons and sketchbook

Was very devastated when she had to return to Kairi.

Axel/Lea

Pyromaniac besties

Co-paretning Roxas and Xion (platonic)

They became good friends during their time in the organization, and they made an oath to bring Roxas and Xion back after Axel’s recompletion.

Shiro tutors him and Kairi on keyblade wielding, during their time in The Secret Forest.

Ephemer and Skuld

Childhood Bestfriend

Shiro has foggy dreams and visions of the both of them. (They truly haunt Shiro’s life like it’s a full time job)

Even once called Sora “Ephemer” by mistake. They were both extremely confused.

Shiro is actively trying to find them.

Aiko and Merin

The two start off on a bad foot due to a misunderstanding that led to Aiko and Viktor leaving their homeworld. Aiko thought Merin was the one to invade their world with darkness and ended up chasing after her through a dark corridor. In reality, Merin and Tähti were running away from Ansem (SOD) and happened to pass through their world.

Aiko and Merin ended up becoming separated from Viktor and Tähti and end up begrudgingly teaming up to find their families .

During their time together, they end up eventually becoming friends and even end up getting into a relationship together later on.

Their opposite personalities seemed like an issue when they first met, but they grew to love and learn from those differences and they’ve really helped each other to grow as people.

Viktor and Tähti

Viktor was at first very frustrated to be left to babysit a child, but switched into big brother mode pretty much subconsciously.

They’re a funny little duo since they’re both terrible fighters and are pretty much constantly just running for their lives.

Viktor appreciates Tähti’s quiet personality and knows to be patient with them.

Tähti also didn’t care too much about Viktor at first, but seeing him make an effort to keep them safe reminded them a lot of Merin.

Other friends!

Tähti, Namine and Xion!

Tähti met Namine during one of her visits to Ansem’s lab, and after some encouragement from the others, Tähti manages to strike up a conversation with her.

The two have a shared interest in art and like sharing their work with each other!

Tähti also got introduced to Xion through Namine, and despite Tähti’s antisocial nature, the two ended up quickly becoming good friends. (Nothing is as strong as the bond between two neurodivergent teenagers)

I like to think Kairi hangs out with them occasionally, but also she’s kinda busy trying to find Sora :’)

Viktor and Ienzo

Met post kh3 and became quick friends over their similar personalities and shared interest in tech.

Everyone around them was very excited that they were finally making friends. (Ansem and Aiko wiping a tear out of the corner of their eye)

Merin and Vanitas

Weird little brother creature thingy kinda

They met briefly while Merin and Aiko visited the realm of darkness.

They had a short confrontation where they fought with Merin winning.

Didn’t have the chance to talk much outside of that, but I think they have a secret mutual respect for each other due to being similar beings.

Merin and Isa

Got introduced post kh3 and ended up befriending each other as Viktor was spending more time with the apprentices.

They match each other’s tired energy

They like to just kinda sit back and watch as their friends mingle.

@khoc-week

[multidimensionalmusicalmess]

One of the many reasons Arcane is so sad is that there’s a surface-level message in Vi and Jinx’s relationship—that it was doomed to end (or at least stall) in some version of this, because Vi was trying to reconnect with a version of her sister who no longer existed. This is a pretty common take I’ve seen; “Vi could only love Powder, Silco could only love Jinx,” that sort of thing.

But if you look more closely, it's clear (in my opinion) that that wasn't the case at all, and that of course Vi could’ve come to love Jinx—she kept reassuring her that she wouldn’t leave even when Jinx had a gun pointed at her face, and kept trying even after she knew what sort of person Jinx was now. Everything about Vi shows us that she values being with her sister to an arguably irrational degree, no matter who Jinx is.

She wasn’t fundamentally unable to love Jinx; she was prevented from doing so by the tragic structure of the narrative (or, in layman’s terms, all the Stuff that went Wrong All The Time), leaving both her and Jinx to feel like they failed. It always had to end this way, perhaps—but it always had to end this way because of the story, not because of the characters (except insofar as Jinx's insecurity is a plot device).

And, personally, I find that a lot sadder than if they just drifted apart and couldn’t connect anymore.

Plus it makes it really easy to write fix-its, so there’s that.

[mirumirumin]

Found this under a clip of Nanako and Rei's first date ever. The second comment says "they are not lesbians, it's just admiration since nothing is confirmed". This just made me think, how can you watch the show and get those conclusions?

Nanako's first impression of Rei is a direct give-away; she was infatuated by her on their first encounter in the bus. Then, when she found out that they went to the same high school, she became her "fan" instantly... She looked out for her in her free time and took the time to understand her. Interest is a sign of affection, she was so adamant on knowing more of her that she even went to her house and looked after her when almost no one else did; she made her food, cleaned her appartment... She would leave the house at night and stay with Rei just so she wouldnt be alone.

This is one of my favourite episodes: their first date ever. Here, Rei and Nanako decide to skip classes since they missed their bus stop. They go for a walk and she is just so happy with her presence that she wishes she could stop time, to make that experience a timeless memory. They go sit down in the shade, under a tree, just chilling. Rei smokes a cigarette and tells her how a junior wanted to save the ends of the cigarettes to smoke them later; that is something that Nanako did too... And since she didnt want to stay on the same lane as a simple junior, since she wanted to be more than just a fan that liked to smoke her crush's cigarette butts, since she wanted to be seen differently, Nanako asks Rei to let her smoke, saying that "she smokes too". What an obvious lie, she just wanted to impress her. She was about to smoke a cigarette just to get her approval! She wanted to feel validated so bad that she was willing to burn her lungs for Rei... And so she tried, and failed miserably. And I personally think that it was cute. Charming, even. Romance is about trying so hard to impress your loved one that you end up making a fool of yourself.

Rei tells her "Now you know, you shouldn't smoke; it doesn't suit you. I want you to stay just the way you are, always". And that is just so wonderful to me. Telling her that she doesn't have to try hard to look cool because she is just precious the way she is... just like her "Ma chérie la Poupée". The fact that she compared one of her most precious belongings to Nanako just tells me enough (she caught her attention).

And then, Nanako confessed her feelings... She explicitely says "I love you". She doesn't get a response in that moment, just a "Let's go back". Rei couldn't give her a real answer in the moment because her heart wasn't clear yet. I don't mean transparent but, she was so depressed and troubled that she couldn't even consider Nanako's feelings. And that's just her character. She is such a tragic character, a beautiful girl who is given love but can't give it back. An ethereal being doomed to live loveless and miserable, and the moment she breaks that seal (by this, I mean when she finally reciprocates Nanako's feelings, plans a date with her, and her relationship with her older sister gets a little bit better) she has to pay for the consequences. A tragic character doomed by the narrative, who can only suffer and negate any type of positive outcome. That's why she had to die, that's what she had to pay for getting a little bit of happiness.

And Nanako, who is just a ball of sunshine. I wouldn't say she is the opposite of Rei (and that is, by saying that Nanako is a hero and Rei a tragic hero), but she is so different from her. She brings joy to almost everybody who she encounters. She is her parents' reason of joy, her friends love her, her older brother loves her too... She has so much love to give, and Rei was just doomed from the start. It's interesting how Rei was considered an illegitimate child (she was supposed to be Miya's half sister) and later on revealed to be legitimate, and Nanako on the other hand thought she was a legitimate child just to be revelaed to be the daughter of her dad's second marriage. Nothing relevant to say about this I just wanted to point that out.

I'm just blabbering things at this point I'm sorry, I just love NanaRei so much. I think I'll rewatch the series just to keep talking about them haha.

Also wanted to note that the comment mentions "lesbians", but they are not talking about the sexuality of the characters, it's obvious that they are trying to deny the romance between the girls, by how they say "she just feels admiration". girl dpmo

[oddrobyn]

hi friend!! I've been losing it over your li and pen bestie art for the past few minutes I love them 🥺🥺🥺 do you mind telling us more about their dynamics? also I love dice and the commissioners!! would also love to know more about dice and wei <3333

OH MY GAAAHHHH IVE WAITED YEARS FOR THIS QUESTIONNNN

(Rubbing my little hands together) MEGA SPOILERS BELOW BTW IN CASE ANYONE HASNT FINISHED THE GAME

For quick context to anyone who might not know , Li is my builder Oc (first image) and Dice is my non builder NPC type oc who I like to imagine as a potential romancable character when someone else is playing as builder. But in my au where Li and Dice are in the same universe Dice is Li's older sister.

Starting with Li!!

Li and Pen has this sort of crazy friendship when you consider they are selectively mute and the way their personalities are pretty different. Pen is a loud and proud extrovert who can fill a room with his very presence when Li is really mousy and tends to keep to themselves all the while a really affectionate friend. This has given them a sort of platonic lovey-friendship where they're best friends who can say I love you and understand how deeply connected they are as bestie which makes Pen's betrayal /leaving for incarceration a hell of a lot more painful.

Li does have BPD and because Pen was their favorite person this was REALLY rough and there was a LOT of coping they had to deal with because losing the person their whole world revolved around totally destroyed what they had and they basically had to start from scratch socially. Sure they had other friends like Unsuur and Nia and Qi-- but what they had with Pen was so unique and so special that it was really difficult for them to let go despite knowing he's really frowned upon on Sandrock. It's really difficult for them to just "get with the program" and let go of him as easily as the game implies you do when he leaves and often times they get stuck in awkward spots where they have to talk to some of the people he hurt knowing how awkward it is for everyone when the attachment to their friend who turned out to be pretty evil still has a tight hold on them.

I like to think that they try to send letters to Pen secretly once in a while and hasn't gotten a response back for better or worse, but a given explanation is actually that Pen had been throwing them away as soon as he got them because he was scared he would open it and find that Li wanted to officially break off the friendship.

I think before I've compared them to the story of the Scorpion and the Frog, but their friendship is maybe a little more parasitic than that. Pen definitely had ulterior motives in picking to befriend the person who obviously struggled socially and would do anything to keep a friend around, but when they both started having something real the line between something fake and something so painfully real gets blurred and ultimately both of them are unable to let go of each other because of how close they were. They are truly doomed by the narrative I think oughh

AS FOR DICE !!!

I don't believe I've ever done a real deep dive explanation since I was still working out some of the details but I pretty much have something now.

She actually used to do average odd jobs around Highwind to save up money to put towards to her music career that was inspired by old world music she discovered and fell in love with (hahahahaha. Really funny to think stuff like Hannah Monatana and MarinaAndTheDiamonds would be considered old world in their universe) which led to her deciding she wanted to be a music star.

Things didn't go to plan however and although some of the story is pretty lost in the mud due to her shame and refusal to open up about it, her career failed as no one listened to the genre or didn't find it interesting enough. The embarrassment of being unable to achieve the dream she worked all her teen years towards made her incredibly depressed and she actually disappeared for a couple of years with no warning until she one day resurfaced as the bounty hunter/bodyguard/whatever she is today.

She claims to owe a lot of her being able to get back up onto her feet to Yan and Pen, who found her alone in the eufala after getting lost and set her up with a job as "Yan's Personal Bodyguard" as silly as it sounds. But it made him look cool and important, and gave her the money she needed to get back up on her feet so she took it.

She started traveling around the free cities to pick up more bounty jobs now that she had found another purpose in life (though some are pretty sure she's just take out a lot of pent up feelings on it). Even though she had become kind of a drifter all throughout the free cities, at some point, she and Yan started dating and it was about as insufferable of an experience as you'd imagine. The public sweet talk, the constant hand holding, the way that it's so obvious Yan is more interested in her than she Is in him... awful. Owen says his best paid night but worst social experiences come from their dates at the Blue Moon.

Of course, once Yan gets shipped off Dice reveals that she's relieved about his arrest because it was starting to get on her nerves and that she had been struggling to figure out a way to break up with him without a whole spectacle happening.

But just as soon as he's gone, Wei comes to town and she INSTANTLY falls for how much kinder he is. When you spend your whole life around questionable characters you sort of start to just accept that maybe everyone is only thinking of themselves; but Wei was different.

For once, Dice was the one chasing a love interest rather than being the one who was pursued, and as confusing as it might have been at first, eventually they both start connecting and their kind of opposite personalities start to find ways to compliment each other. Wei stops being suspicious that Dice might be acting on his brother's behalf and Dice starts to disappear from sandrock less often in order to spend more time with him.

Owen dreads Friday night dates a whole lot less now lol...

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

Your book sounds so cool!!!

AAAAAA, THANK YOU SO MUCH! It's called The Tale of the Evil Sorcerer/O Conto do Feiticeiro Maligno and it's free to read over Wattpad, but there isn't an english translation and I prob won't do that any time soon, as I'm going to rewrite it someday.

It's about an "evil" sorcerer who kidnapped a princess by accident, only to fall in love at first sight with the knight who came to save her. Things become worse when the princess figures out the sorcerer was never evil at all, but he's so bad at communication that he just let the rumors spread because it was easier than dealing with them, so she decides to strike a deal: She'll help him try to talk with the knight, who also happens to be her BFF, and in turn he will teach her how to be a sorcerer. And no, the knight has no idea what's going on, and he's also been indocrinated his whole life to beliefe that magic = SUPER BAD.

I love these three idiots so much. The sorcerer is called Meia-Noite (Midnight in english), princess is Valentyna, and the knight is Edgar. They share one (1) braincell and are all doomed by the narrative, except the story has a happy ending for everyone. The only villain who's not sympathetic is a transphobe named Joanne Atropa and she's english-coded. This is not a reference to an IRL transphobe/neonazi author, uh-uh, never! Infodump under the cut:

Meia-Noite is a gay disaster who lives in a fortress he found at age 13 in the middle of a jungle. Goth, anxious, and is actually a healer and not a shadow manipulator like the rumors say. He helps people if they get lost and need someone to treat their injuries because his duty as a healer is capable of overtaking his fear of strangers. He's tall with long dark hair but if the wind hits him a bit too hard he goes flying with it, the guy is a STICK.

Edgar is a bi knight who has trained his entire life to protect the girl he sees as a sister. He's autistic, albino and is REALLY serious about his duties as a knight (he's 17) to the point he forgot about everything else. Outside the harsh exterior he's actually a huge sweetie who loves photography and is super curious about magic, but feels super guilty and bad about it.

Valentyna is a lesbian princess who's a prodigy at almost everything she does, but her parents refuse to teach her light magic and she's desperate to help the people of her kingdom. This girl punched Meia the SECOND she was able to do so during the kidnapping, she may not know what she's doing but somehow she is winning the game. She cares so much about everyone around her! Also adopted an albino snake and named it Açúcar (Sugar) 15 seconds after finding her in the palace's gardens.

My girlfriend also wanted to say this:

[image id: "ALSO YOU NEED TO MENTION AÇÚCAR. lovely baby, has never done anything wrong, most important character". end image id]

Some other characters include:

Olhos de Fogo (Fire Eyes), a HUGE dumbass who's also a sorcerer. Pan king, ranked #1 arsonist over three different kingdoms, also ranked most handsome character by the readers (somehow!!!!! People love to thirst over him!) and has a "very gender" title given by me. Doomed by the narrative except unlike the trio he just accepts his fate because he's a huge loser. If this will end well for him or not it's something everyone has yet to see. My girlfriend has this to say about him:

[image id: "i love my terrible slutty son tho". end image id.]

Angélica, Meia's adopted sister, can see the future sometimes and is also a fashion enthusiasts. Use the people in the "fortress" she lives in as test subjects for her clothes, girlie is always tired and a bit terrified of the future ahead but trying her BEST to stay positive. And failing. I want to give her a special treatment in the rewrite because I think she deserves it.

Comandante (Commander), has this name because they're the commander of the non-binary nation. Accidentally misheard Meia-Noite and thought they were supposed to KIDNAP Valentyna instead of politely taking her over for a conversation about why her parents are incompetent at their jobs, now must be the parent friend to everyone. I love them so much, they're an icon to me.

Elisabeth, a princess from a rival kingdom who may or may not be Valentyna's crush. A bit more on the gothic side, had a pretty unusual childhood and her tweenhood was pretty hard. Tries her best to look eloquent and always knowing what to do, but really, REALLY wants to be a bit more loose. She and Tyna will have an enemies/rivals to lovers arc in the rewrite bc why not.

IT/THAT THING/ANYTHING/THE ???????????. A creature that's always watching. Also may be the guy that gave Meia half of his trauma.

The NARRADORA, AKA Narrator, the girl who's telling this story. It's her first big assignment and she LOOOVES saying her opinions about what is going on, much to her professor/adopted father's dismay.

THE NARRADOR, AKA Narrator but masc, is Narradora's older brother and a lot more kept-together than her, except it's all a facade for an equally chaotic creature. Loves gossip.

THE PROTAGONISTA, AKA Protagonist, who's ALSO another narrator. Super insecure because he's still training to be a storyteller, but he has his boyfriend (Narrador) and best friend (Narradora) to help.

THE LOCUTOR, who only appears to narrate like three times max. Older brother figure of the group, a huge cryptid who seems to be the coolest thing ever until you discover he stole an one-night-stand's head for funsies and is yet to give it back.

THE HOMEM VELHO, AKA Old Man, the professor of the group. Never makes a proper apparition but I want to mention him because he's a tired dad, someone PLEASE give him a break.

[ge]

what do you like about rotmhs? like what draws you in?

GAHH IM SO GLAD YOU ASKEDDD at the top of my head thhe top three things i felt really drew me into and made me fall in love w rotmhs is the found family/bonds before blood narrative, the action/fight scenes, and the comedy..

rotmhs is not a romance and i feel like that really pushes people away from reading it, especially folks who were first introduced to east asian novels through bl (specifically mxtxs novels like mdzs tgcf etc etc) which i feel is incredibly disappointing because yallre missing out on a certain depth of writing and nuance you otherwise wouldnt get in a romance focused novel. (orv is another extremely popular knovel with no romance.. if you like orv PLEASE give rotmhs a shot)

rotmhs is about a dead man resurrected a hundred years into the future having to come to terms w the fact that everyone he loved is dead and that the only home he ever had was destroyed, its inhabitants and centuries worth of teachings burned to the ground, and that it was partially his fault these things happened, so in order to prevent a future catastrophe he knows is on the horizon, he trains the youth of this new generation and finds a new home surrounded by ghosts in the wreckage of his home of his past

⬆️…very dramatic but somewhat accurate barebones synopsis of rotmhs which is fairly faithful enough methinks.. rotmhs doesnt make a point of going ‘heyy these guys are family nowww theyre brothers and sisters and love each other like familyyy’ LOL the growth is very subtle and before u can really blink ur like ‘oh man.. chung myung would kill for these kids. obliviously though. i dont think he knows he even likes them’ all the while hes still aching w the loss of his loved ones before.. if we’re being really really honest chung myung, the mc, truly is the star of the show and a character i got attached to incredibly quickly.. hes so stupid but so smart he has so many issues i want to hit him with my car then nurse him back to health just to hit him again

chung myung himself is a whole other thing i could get into but he has so many layers.. so much depth.. on the surface ud look at him and think what a punk but look a little closer and then ud think oh this punk has depression ptsd survivors guilt hallucinations etc etc LIKE DAMN.. I THIUGHT HE WAS JUST A FUNNY LITTLE GUY WHYD I GET SUCKER PUNCHED

what was i even talking about. OH right romance. please please dont let the lack of romance dissuade you, imo it is soooo refreshing to read something that isnt focused on romance like i love yaoi like the next bl reading bitch but damn.. ive always been into found family and while the bl novels i have read did always have a little hint of it, i always wanted more and rotmhs fills that void

(that being said i cant stop yall from shipping if yall want LOL im guilty of shipping charas too despite everythiing i just said… if yall want yalls yaoiyuri fix may i direct yalls attention to the ‘doomed by the narrative, tragic best-friends-to-almost-lovers tangchung’ & ‘love at first sight sweethearts iseolsoso’ ….. :SMILES: I LOVE TANGCHUNG..!!!!!!)

NEXT, the action and fight scenes in rotmhs, even in written text form, are sublime to say the least.. my fail cis dudebro trait is that i love crazy insane adrenaline rushing heart pumping shounen-esque battles so much that i could typically care less for the rest of that specific piece of media as long as the fights are good.. FORTUNATELY FOR ME rotmhs is crazy good at balancing its comedy, action, and otherwise more ‘mundane’ scenes together so harmoniously that its such fun read even when theres no swords crossing or heads being beaten in

also important to note, despite being a knovel w korean naming of characters/places, rotmhs actually takes place in ancient china in a wuxia setting so jumping head first into it wont be all that confusing for first time readers/cmedia fans and u can use ur knowledge of cnovels to fill in the gaps.

theres not really much more i have to say on the topic of fighting, im just personally a huge fan of the crazy spectacles rotmhs brings to the table.

saved this for last but THE COMEDY…!!!!!!!! after being soo dramatic w all my previous points and comments ur probably thnkng rotmhs is heavy and somber w no breathing room.. WELL YOURE WRONG. ROTMHS IS FUNNY AS HELL quips and jokes and simple funny actions and scenes litter nearly every page. i mentioned this novel balances its action and comedy well and im NOT LYING youd think maybe the heavy action and light comedy would awkwardly clash but u cldnt be more further from the truth.. rotmhs wears action and comedy like a pair of twin gloves

rotmhs handles its action and comedy in equal doses and it all fits together like matching puzzle pieces, like i really cant stress enough how fun it is to read. not every fight scene is somber, most of the time its chung myung oneshotting someone by hitting them across the head so hard they pass out..

unfortunately im not really the best at listing instances so its be better for u to go read it for urself but this scene from one of the later chapters is soo funny every time i read it i start giggling

(LIGHT/MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL it probably doesnt even matter u wont even remember this when u start reading)

right so i think thats most of it.. too lazy to read through everything i just wrote so if nothing makes sense… well. …well!

rotmhs deserves to have the same amount of fame as ORV and MDZS and TGCF have and it is my civil duty as one of the oldest mxtx novel outlets on tumblr to put yall on it..

my thumbs hurt from typing so im done now but if u have anymore questions PLEASE ASK IM SO DESPERATE TO TALK ABOUT ROTMHS ok byyyeeeeeeee

[lightandfellowship]

The conflict was planned. Sort of.

A theory I've had bouncing around in my head for a while that I haven't talked about yet: what if Darkness intentionally had Baldr and Hoder turn on each other in front of Xehanort as a means of providing visible proof for the "them vs. us" narrative that it pushes on Xehanort shortly thereafter?

Not to say that I think Darkness orchestrated that whole thing, I think the underlying tension in Baldr and Hoder's sibling relationship is genuine, I just think it was betting on/hoping that the siblings would fail to negotiate as part of it's plan to manipulate Xehanort. It may have even manipulated Baldr's emotions so that he was more paranoid of his sister than he otherwise would've been, if you consider what Odin says here:

In fact, when Hoder drops her Keyblade and reaches out to Baldr (something I'll talk about in more depth in a future post) and Baldr begins to reach out to her as well, Darkness quickly consumes Baldr, prevents them from making contact, and then says this (seemingly to Baldr) right before trying to attack Hoder again:

It's possible that the siblings would have actually stopped fighting right then and there if Darkness hadn't intervened (because it wants them to fight for the sake of its plan, obviously).

Like, for whatever reason Darkness wants Xehanort to go down his path of villainy (it may have something to do with the contents of the Book), and convincing Xehanort of the "them vs. us" thing is crucial to that. And Xehanort naturally is the type of person who won't believe something unless you provide substantial evidence first, so Baldr and Hoder, a brother of darkness and a sister of light, trying to kill each other right in front of him was the perfect piece of evidence for "proving" that light and darkness can not and will never coexist under these conditions. There is something fundamentally wrong with the universe in its current unbalanced state, a conflict that is carved into the DNA of this world, and the only way to fix it? Throw it all away and start from the beginning with Kingdom Hearts, of course. Or at least that's what Darkness is trying to convince Xehanort of, I think.

I think Darkness and the MoM are also trying to make Xehanort think that love is false/useless/actually harmful. Because if two siblings who love each other can still end up at each other's throats, all just because of the conflict between light and darkness, then clearly light and darkness are doomed to be locked in a terrible, endless battle that not even love can put a stop to, right? Love isn't enough, claims Darkness. Love is really just a false light, claims the MoM. Abandon the idea that love is a force powerful enough to save people--it didn't save your friends, now did it? It didn't prevent a brother and sister from trying to kill each other, did it? Become detached and cynical and ruthless instead, they cry. It's the only way to end the cycle, Xehanort!

[scyllas-revenge]

i am re-reading Those Books for the first time since i was a wee bab, and i had to stop to take a minute because i was so overwhelmed - for about the 78th time - but THIS time it was because of boromir, and the fact that he just went on this insane trek alone, away from his men, from gondor, from his family - from FARAMIR -

and i'm thinking about Oh My God Was This Faramir's Quest because the valar or WHATEVER sent faramir the dream to go to rivendell over and over and over, until finally they got fed up and sent it to boromir ONCE -

but also, this could only ever have been boromir's burden, because he would never have let faramir take the risk - and indeed he did not let him take the risk! - because he loves him so much, because he is daring and brave but mostly because he's his brother (i'm not there yet in the book but movie-boromir calling aragorn "my brother" - kill me now, kill me DEAD) and as a younger sister with a big brother i love v much, i get SO SAD AND MOVED by Big Brother Boromir, protector of the small, protector of little friends and little brothers -

it could only ever have been boromir, brave but fallible, to test himself against the ring's thrall and fail - it could only have been boromir who confessed his failure, who gave his life anyway trying to protect merry and pipping, because even though he fucked up, he was still a good person, he was still boromir -

i don't know who else to cry about this to but like. HOLD ON. HOLD ON. I NEED A MINUTE.

Oh poor dear anon, feel free to talk about Boromir with me anytime!! You're absolutely right he was doomed by the narrative- no one else would have gone on this quest but him, and it never would have ended without him falling prey to the ring. He's just so very human and I love him so much

[doizy]

BASARA Gaiden-KATANA Rainbow Story-Ginkgo : A review (?)

When I first read the Katana Short Story in volume 26 of Yumi Tamura's Basara I had the thought that in a fair universe where Basara has the high budget anime adaptation it deserves this story would have had it's own stand alone-ish movie adaptation.

The people who adapted Basara to the stage must have had a similar idea because they chose to adapt this story for the stage.

Like all 2.5 play this play was performed for a limited time, in february 2019 (i think they were only 7 performances in total).

I was pretty curious to watch it so i ordered a dvd off yahoo auctions, and watched it yesterday.

Obviously this didn't come with subtitles, and my Japanese it still very rudimentary so this review is going to be quite superficial, but I was still able to to follow the play pretty well having read the short story it's adapting twice before.

For a refresher Katana is the story of the failed rebellion led by the generation of Sarasa's great grandparents against the cruel and sadistic Lion King, 100 years before the events of Basara.

Our protagonist Tara is a young woman who grew up as an orphan and was painfully rejected and abused by her community as they believed her to be cursed which means that she had grow up without ever feeling love or comfort. She was about to be killed in a sacrificial ritual but is rescued by the rebellion led by Gensho (Tatara and Sarasa's ancestor). She then joins the rebellion, where she for the first time find meaning and a place where she belongs, and we follow her and her companions doomed efforts in their battle against the Lion King.

The story is pretty short (about a 100 pages), which means that the stage play is able to adapt it really well without having to take big shortcuts, and it's folktale like narrative worked very well on the stage i thought. The play is even able to flesh out some bits, which was very nice, they added a lot of banter between our rebels which highlighted their relationship as brothers in arms (even if i couldn't understand most of it...).

Notably we see a lot more of the Lion King (who by the way is played by a woman, a former Takarazuka actress which i thought was neat), with little comedic scene which really show him a a despotic and cruel but also very bored ruler. By his side are two original characters and given their color coding i assume that must be the then Red and Blue Kings, which is the nice touch, they don't really do much in the story though, apart for acting as a leader of enemy troops in battle.

Speaking of battles those were really fun to watch! The choreography felt really dynamic, I loved the scenes with the lions in particular , i think they were inspired by traditional performances and used puppet and traditional sounding music with some nice drums. They were really cool to see!

Something else that was fleshed out in this adaptation is the relationship between Tanmanya and Iris, the stranded European woman he falls in love with. I think this was my favorite part of the show (maybe because i could actually understand some of it since Iris spoke english), it felt very sweet and beautiful (and you know, sad...).

Asahiko also get a flashback scene featuring his little sister that makes the scene where he's tricked into killing her all the more tragic (the flashback scene i wasn't quite able to follow but I'm a bit worried that it had some weirdly incestuous undertone since what i understood of it was Asahiko telling his sister that she's beautiful before she tells him that she wants to become a bride, doesn't seems very tamura esque though, so i might be completely off).

The finale was was very emotional with the tragedy of seing our heroes fails and their swords be scattered across the Japan, but with an added touch of hope conveyed by a cameo by Sarasa and the other heirs of the legendary swords.

If there was something i liked less it was the over reliance on pre recorded lines used for the characters inner monologues, since those are usually some very important lines and it would have been better to see the actors actually perform them in my opinion.

Other than that i thought the performance were pretty good, but without really understanding them i can't really judge, the music was great and really one of the highlights for me. The costume were simple but pretty nice (why didn't they let Asahiko wear crop tops like he does in the mnga though...), i wasn't much a fan of the costume of the King's harem (?) women though, it felt a bit to orientalist sexy costume and less like the interesting byzantine and Japanese style fusion Basara is usually going for.

It was really fun to watch and if you like Basara i can only encourage you to check it out! I think it's available on amazon Prime in japan, so if you have a subscription and a VPN you might be able to watch it there.

It left me very interested to check out the three other stage play that adapt the main story!

[gizkasparadise]

Top ten meaningful impactful nicely handled character deaths. Can be villain. Can be non villains. I would prefer if you add Asian dramas in it. And please explain why

I, for one, truly enjoyed watching Frollo (hunchback of notre dame) fall to his death in a pit of lava because of how absolutely fitting it was

I loved tony stark’s death. I’m actually happy he’s not returning. He got his happy ending with a wife and kids and assurance that he saved the world after all the destruction he brought on it.

I loved the scene in healer of his mentor dying because they gave it a good delivery. Sad. Expected. And NOT brushed aside

yaaaaaaaaaay death :'D. spoilers for series obviously below!

top ten in asian dramas (hard mode: only 1 death per drama)

gu jian, goodbye my princess. xiaofeng's death is a close second. while this character wasn't my favorite, i think this death is the most impactful to me in the drama-- it signals the final point of no return for all the main characters, was absolutely brutal, the ML went full unhinged, and it gave me a montage set to 'love catastrophe' which is an auto ;;

kimura shunji, bridal mask/gaksital. with mok dan/boon yi's as a close second (sorry FLs i really do love you). my favorite drama villain so far. is his suicide a kindness or a curse? i love how fucking bleak it is and how shunji gives kangto absolutely no exit on their final showdown. the fact that it was the ill korean nanny who found him is just a full circle cruel irony that i love

shin yul, chicago typewriter. *sobs in doomed narrative*

dong mae, mr. sunshine. okay apparently this is just becoming a list of doomed second male leads, so-

ali abdul & ji yeong, squid game. they can share a spot since it was the same game. i mostly enjoyed squid game as a whole but some eps definitely hit harder than others -- ep 6 was the best ep in the series & had the most stakes & consequentially hurt the most

ta hwan/togon, empress ki. back to doomed second male leads i guess (although maybe he's the first all along~). im a sucker for couples confessing love on their death beds i guess and it was just such a UMPH scene after so much hardship and atrocities between them

jang man wol, hotel del luna. i love her whole arc and how the hong sisters completely committed to the ending being her having to let go of her past life and move on to the next one despite the ML's love for her

prince wang eun & seon duk, moon lovers: scarlet heart ryeo. babies ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

the passengers, vagabond. i just really, really loved how grief and resilience was portrayed in this drama-- especially with the families of the deceased banding together during the trial

ji hee, moving. JUWON AT HER MEMORIAL SERVICE SOBBING WHILE TRYING AND FAILING TO PUT ON HIS MOURNING CLOTHES FUCKING KILL ME. we know it's coming/doomed by the narrative realness, but gd!

[gravelilyaufgehoben]

The notion of sexual differences in Shinkun-sensei's work is highly contemporary — emblematic even. As a rule, the female characters are mature, managerial, sexless; while the men are juvenile, oafish and hyper-sexual.

It is certainly strange how this structuring binary expresses itself in works which are, at the level of their content, firmly in the domain of "free love", or non-traditional family structures and relationships. In With a Lady Who Likes My Sister there is no yuri love story: the one likes the other's sister (in only a psuedo-erotic way), and the other is mostly confused, ultimately ending up as a sister or platonic live-in partner. In Too Blue to Call Love, the other is chronically cheated on by her boyfriend — who, after a breakup, is characterised as having always been more of a brother to her than ever really a lover.

I am sure these stories are considered mature, maybe even progressive, giving representation to more realistic adult and unorthodox relationships. However, there is in these stories no Love (I mean eros, erotic love). Is it because of the notion of sexual difference underlying the narrative? Why is it that the only relationship possible in these works is familial? — an incestuous polyamory. Indeed, the only sex present is incestuous. This expresses itself most plainly in Too Blue to Call Love: the unfaithful boyfriend, who was, after all, "more of a little brother" (juvenile), pours his broken heart out to the (biological) brother of our protagonist about his failed relationship — and, in an attempt to comfort the cheat, the brother reassures him that nothing has really changed — he always had and so still will have her (his ex-girlfriend) as a "sister" — they just happened to have had sex a few time: which, the brother says, he has also done with his (biological) sister, so what's the big deal? — this he then reveals is a mere joke — but we, the keen-minded reader, see it for what it really is: the moment of truth.

Love does not exist. The men, juvenile, sex-crazed, are merely attended to by the mature, managerial women in the same way they would file away some papers or put up with their annoying kid brother. Surely, there is an obvious way out of this? What genre are we in after all? But no: the women are sexless — and pointedly, the couple in With a Lady Who Likes My Sister literally do not know how. The couple in Too Blue to Call Love is also doomed, I suspect: you do not systematically fail to formulate a relation outside some variant of a sibling tie (with or without sex appended) if you have a sense of what passion is.

Give me smut over this sterility.

---

I did not address the problematic implication of these works that only heterosexual couples are capable of sexuality (horrific as it is), whereas lesbians are relegated to playing house — but certainly, that is the performative effect and logical consequence. Hopefully, this deadlock is overcome at some point.

Footnote: no, I do not mean sex is necessary for love.

[uncleasriel]

via @atamascolily

#thunderbolt fantasy#wuxia fantasy puppet epic#tbf meta#conversations like this are why I love fandom so much#we're all playing in the same sandbox and having a blast trying to figure out what it all means#deep thoughts about puppets

I m SO flattered by your words! I do like to over-analyze media, and seeing someone take my prolix natter and making something robusts from it really makes me smile.

Doomed By The Narrative is the perfect phrase here, since absolutely the case for anyone who is not Lin, Sheng or Lang. Xie, who doesn't choose pride over expediency is ultimately at odds with the narrative itself. We, the audience, are here to see the characters live their ethos to the fullest, and test it - failing to live up to it means "you just won't be that interesting if we keep you around anymore". Characters, for all their likeability, are ingredients and tools the Urobuchi uses to tell the story. If all the juicy bits are used up when a season ends - no point in keeping the empty rinds around, yeah?

The timing of the poems is such a crucial thing here. That distinction - revealing them at the most interesting moment to reveal them - is a nice shift from tradition in away that suits the serial nature of TV quite well. Juan Can Yun's reveal is a key moment for him, and it cements his relationship as the Young Lover over the Young Apprentice, and paved the way for his relationship with Dan Fei to bring them together - the loving but bickering married couple, with Dan Fei as the serious and stern wife, with Juan Can Yun as the amorous, idiot husband. The moment of pursuing the ethos is transformative, turning a punchy shounen lead into a comic relief wife guy - still an archetypal role, but one not limited by strict boundaries.

Lang Wu Yao's growth is especially guaranteed since character design is basically Urbobuchi buttering up his voice actor and the performer of the show's themesong with a super sepcial OC. ;) Snark aside, though, I like that angle of ideological & ethical flexibility- of Lang not being so rigidly defined by his own definitions. By being able to re-interpet his ethos in ways that harmonize with his world rather than conflict against it, Lang is able to achieve character development. I still think he works best as a romantic hero (beautiful, talented, traumatic childhood, being torn between an evil woman and a good one), but one who can leverage his role into being proactive in his life, instead of reactive. $5 says it culiminates in him usurping the throne of Abelizpher through demon law and a refusal to let himself being walked over once he figures his shit out.

As an aside: your discussion in Lang Wu Yao's growth and his views on good & evil, especially through the lens of demons vs humans, tickles me. II find it especially delightful in East Asian media how creatures that are fundamentally devils/demons are shown to be much more human-like than I'm used to in Western fantastic traditions. The cultural Christianity I was steeped in held demons to be a fundamentally different order, incapable of anything like personal relationships and teleologically oriented towards inflicting misery. Seeing a character like Xing Hai be politically loyal to the invading faction that wants to do war, but she personally has no quibbles with individual humans (beyond Lin Xue Ya, but then again, so does everyone) . I rather like how the femme fatale demoness is actually pushed around by both her sister, her sister's awful boyfriend, the Divine Swarm,Lin Xue Ya - and I get the strong impression that she'd much rather be left alone to play with her corpses in peace. In a similar, fanficcy way to my Xie Ying Loa musings, I sometimes wonder if she might defect to humanity if she ever had a good enough motivation to do so. It's a bit of an ask to necessarily have her be morally decent and upstanding and penitent, but having Lang see that humans and demons are similar - and not turn that into an edgy take - could stand much to see someone from the Hell Realms who just can't catch a break and flip off the institutions the come from.

Having gotten my Fanfic impulse out,I think I want to return to Lin Xue Ya and his dangerous level of genre savviness. I think he's something of Urobuchi's author avatar, in a way - he's someone who's frightfully aware of the narratives people tell themselves to get through the world, and using that to play them how he desires. It's very much how an artists work their craft ("All storytellers are liars," as Tanith Lee teaches us). Seeing Lin break the fourth wall IS him screwing with us, as it's Urobuchi doing the same.

I do like that this doesn't make him necessarily infalliable - we've seen him misjudge several people and the kinds of stories they told themselves - and there is a bit of hypocrisy undergirding his conceit that he understands everyone in this show better than they themselves do. I think Lin just might truly be flummoxed and vulnerable to any true soul. Someone who understands their role in the story, and how they fit into it, and openly embraces their desires and misgivings and still does the right thing anyway is just the kind of fool who can overcome someone as cynically conceited as Lin.

You're absolutely correct in your final paragraph, especially: Urbobuchi loves this bonkers little budaixi, and you can tell that he's frolicking as he plays with a centuries-old theatrical convention and gets to play without the same franchise demands that something like Kamen Rider or Fate compels him to uphold. it's Urobuchi's world, and everyone - audience, characters, and production staff - are along for the ride. And I for one couldn't be happier

Some Thoughts on Power Levels in Thunderbolt Fantasy

@jafndaegur got me thinking about this, so strap in because this is a long one!

tl;dr: Narrative casuality is linear for characters and the audience, and non-linear for writers and analysts; power levels in Thunderbolt Fantasy are a perfect illustration of this, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Fight scenes are a major component of Thunderbolt Fantasy, but who wins and who loses is determined less by the absolute power levels of the respective parties, but by the needs of the narrative. There's a tendency to think of it as the other way around because that's how it initially appears to us as viewers--we see the outcome and think one caused the other. However, this is an illusion caused by the way we experience media. From a structural and compositional standpoint, the reverse is true--the story dictates the outcome, not the other way around.

For an example, let's look at Lian Qi's ill-fated fight against Sha Wu Sheng in Season 1. On the surface, it looks like Wu Sheng is considerably stronger, since he was able to kill Lian Qi in one blow. However, consider that Lian Qi's death is required for the story to work--if he survived and Wu Sheng didn't, it would be a different story entirely! This isn't what is usually meant by the phrase "doomed by the narrative," but in this case, it's an accurate description of the situation--there is no power level Lian Qi could possibly possess that would save him from Wu Sheng, since Wu Sheng's presence is required for the story as it stands to work.

Lian Qi's narrative role is to serve as a sacrificial lamb for Wu Sheng--that's his one (1) job and he's very good at it. We know that Wu Sheng is powerful, because he was able to effortlessly destroy a man of considerable skill and power whom Lin Xue Ya had just spoken highly of in the preceding scene. Saying that this means that Wu Sheng is thus a stronger fighter may be true, but it's not particularly interesting as an isolated factoid; what matters is what the fight reveals about the characters (that Wu Sheng is ruthless and determined) and how it advances and serves the story (gets him the Soul Echo Flute and a chance to reunite with Lin Xue Ya).

In other words, strength/power is correlated with victory, but correlation is not causation, even though we tend to interpret it as such because we experience narratives linearly, where cause comes before effect.

The other important thing to consider is that characters in Thunderbolt Fantasy are not simply discrete individuals--they also represent specific moral or philosophical positions. When they clash, the "strength" of the character has as much to do with the strength of this position as it does their physical prowess. This is true for most if not all of Gen Urobuchi's works, but it's more explicitly textual in Thunderbolt Fantasy, because in-universe, the character's "sword" is viewed as an extension of the self; it is primarily through conflict that this self becomes fully revealed.

Perhaps the best example of this is Lin Xue Ya's fight with Mie Tian Hai, in which the latter is fighting to preserve his philosophy that strength through the sword can only be attained a certain way. His physical defeat and the shattering of that worldview occur simultaneously; furthermore, his identity is so wrapped up in this particular point that he immediately kills himself in response.

[As an aside: Mie Tian Hai's suicide out of spite is foreshadowed by Can Xiong doing the same thing in the first episode when Shang Bu Huan defeats him. Can Xiong is not merely a loyal subordinate; he is enacting the teachings embodied by his master. Say whatever else you will about Mie Tian Hai, at least he isn't a hypocrite--he practices exactly what he preaches. There's a reason I refer to the Xuan Gui Zong as a "death cult"!!]

Taken together, these two factors--narrative purpose and philosophical position--provide a useful framework to make sense of conflict, and thus power levels, in Thunderbolt Fantasy. Here are a few examples:

-Shang Bu Huan vs. Lang Wu Yao in Bewitching Melody of the West -- Shang is older and more experienced than Lang in many respects, so it makes sense that he would win out here. However, what settles his victory isn't his physical skill, it's his moral clarity and sense of purpose; he knows who he is and that his cause is righteous.

Meanwhile, Lang is powerful, with martial arts from his unique upbringing combined with the magic of his innate heritage, but he is also confused and morally compromised through his allegiance to the corrupt Xi You imperial court, which ultimately gives Shang the upper hand. Note that this fight ends when Shang directly calls out Lang's ideas of good and evil, and Lang loses the will to continue; his doubts and uncertainty make it impossible for him to win. The climax of the movie is Lang coming to an emotional realization and gaining a corresponding power-up/magical boy transformation to go with it. Changing his philosophy increased his strength, not the other way around!

As Season 2 demonstrates, Lang's narrow-minded focus on good and evil have not changed by the end of Bewitching Melody, he's just altered the definitions so that Shang is now one of the good guys, and taken agency over his decisions instead of being a mindless tool for anyone else. This rigidness will continue to hold him back until he adopts a broader and more mature philosophy. This is especially important, because the Huo Shi Ming Huang fight in S3 demonstrates vividly that Lang's powers are fueled by his emotions; when unchanneled, he is capable of incredible destruction. (There's so much about that scene that is wonderful from an analytical standpoint, but my favorite part is Ling Ya muttering, "Oh, buddy, no" [paraphrase] right before all hell breaks loose; Ling Ya, as Lang's self-appointed mouthpiece, knows what's up.)

-Speaking of Huo Shi Ming Huang, the flashback in S3x06 is one of the few times we've ever seen Shang on the back foot. Not coincidentally, this fight is also characterized by Shang's hesitation and doubts as to the best course of action, which create a cascade of consequences leading to a Bad Ending of Mu Tian Ming's blindness and Shang's subsequent departure from Xi You. I've written elsewhere about how this outcome is also narratively determined in advance by the events of Season 1, which were written first even though they occur later in-universe, to the point where there's an entire mini-arc devoted to showing just how necessary this particular loss was; for better or worse, the entire story of Thunderbolt Fantasy rests on it.

-Xie Ying Luo vs. Shang Bu Huan in S2x09, "The Path of the Strong" - Up to this point, Xie Ying Luo's fighting style has been the opposite of the standard wuxia code of honor--she uses illusions and poisons and takes hostages rather than fight one-on-one. As Lin Xue Ya wryly points out in 2x04, this is the best way of dealing with a powerhouse like Shang Bu Huan (he even says it would be how he'd take Shang down!!!) but it's strongly implied that Xie Ying Luo relies on these methods because she doubts her own strength. [How much of this is due to misogyny is unclear, but there's no question it's a factor; Ba Wang Yu's character in S4 suggests she has taken the opposite approach to the same systemic forces with her emphasis on physical strength.] Xie's arc is characterized by her uncertainty and doubts, which send her on an increasing downward spiral (exposure to Di Kong's nihilism does not help!); even wielding Seven Blasphemous Deaths isn't enough to overcome it. However, after freeing herself from the demonic sword's thrall, Xie Ying Luo makes the unexpected decision to fight Shang one on one with her sword, something she has spent the entire show up to this point avoiding.

This makes no goddamn sense from a tactical perspective, but it's not about tactics or even victory. On a practical level, Xie Ying Luo is saving face--she knows she can't win, but if Shang defeats her and takes Seven Blasphemous Deaths, she can at least say that she didn't completely abandon her duties. She may have lost the fight, but she retains her honor, even if it means she can never return to Huo Shi Ming Huang's service.

Shang recognizes this, which is why he is so gracious to her after her defeat--he respects the courage it took to show up in the first place, and encourages her to redefine what it means to be strong in the first place. Again, we return to the idea that true strength isn't physical prowess, but moral clarity and certainty, which Shang possesses in abundance--and is also willing to pass along to others. Season 2 goes to a lot of effort to demonstrate Shang's mercy and compassion are strengths, not weaknesses, and this scene is further evidence of this.

Shang also believes that fate is not fixed and that people are capable of growing and changing if they choose to do so, which again gives him power over those like Sha Wu Sheng and Lou Zhen Jie, who believe themselves to be instruments of inevitability. (This is also what makes Shang Bu Huan endlessly surprising and therefore interesting and entertaining to Lin Xue Ya, but that's a whole 'nother story.) Unfortunately, Xie Ying Luo is tragically murdered by the very weapon she gave up (and by a man she trusted!!) and never gets to fully realize this, but she tries, damn it, even if it wasn't enough to save her in the end. This is one reason why Lang Wu Yao buries her even though they were enemies, because on some level he recognizes and honors that attempt, despite the fact he wasn't there to witness exactly what transpired.

I should also point out that while moral strength is a source of power, it's not the be-all, end-all--one reason why Lou Zhen Jie is so terrifying is because he no longer doubts. His logic and reasoning might be unsound, but he is so single-mindedly focused on his goal that he can plow through any obstacle single-handedly (pun intended). This is also what makes him such a great foil to Shang Bu Huan on multiple levels; Lou Zhen Jie is what would happen if Shang were evil/misguided/less ethical than he actually was. This is why Shang fighting alone can match Lou Zhen Jie but cannot win without something else to tip the scales.

Here's a fight that's interesting precisely because it didn't happen: Lin Xue Ya vs. Sha Wu Sheng. One reason why Lin Xue Ya refuses to fight Sha Wu Sheng at any point in Season 1 is that it would require Lin to reveal himself openly and intimately in a way he has no desire to do. Furthermore, it would also clash with the needs of the story, i.e., the big reveal of Lin's abilities in the final episode. Lin is so confident in his own abilities that he has no need to "prove" himself by fighting; just as his narrative foil Shang has no need to "prove" his own strength by picking stupid fights and does everything he can to avoid them. The primary difference between the two is that Lin spares his enemies so he can savor their suffering, while Shang spares his enemies so they can do better in the future.

This is why Shang repeatedly and emphatically insists that he and Lin have nothing in common--he sees the commonalities but the differences repel him even more because of it. Note that Shang indirectly critiques Lin's approach when he tells Xie Ying Luo that a truly strong person can spare someone's life and not have them come after him in revenge.... in essence, arguing that Lin's whole approach is fundamentally misguided. (This is also the second time he's done this in conversation with Xie Ying Luo; the first time was in 2x01 when he unfavorably compared her technique to Lin's. For someone who claims to want nothing to do with this guy, he sure thinks about him a lot!) Shang also has no intention of killing Lou Zhen Jie in the climax of S2; all he wants is to take Seven Blasphemous Deaths away from him.

[This leads to fascinating questions like "How will Shang deal with Huo Shi Ming Huang?" and "Can the guy who believes in the supremacy of fate and seeks to become Fate itself ever break free of it?" which I think we'll see in the final movie, so TBD.]

I'll also note that there is a tendency in modern storytelling to have power as the limiting factor for characters, whereas myths and epics give their characters free reign to do whatever they want, and as a story about archetypal characters with superhuman abilities, I think Thunderbolt Fantasy leans more towards the latter in many respects. Characters have exactly enough power to do what narratively needs to get done, no more and no less, so in that sense, it's a very efficient system.

I'll stop here because this is very long and rambling and I think I've demonstrated my point: for something so seemingly obvious and matter of fact, "strength" and "power" in Thunderbolt Fantasy, let alone comparing that of one character to another, is far more challenging than it appears on the surface, and contingent upon both the character's moral stance and the larger narrative of which they are a part. It's both deeper and far more interesting than "Character X is stronger than Character Y" (even if character X is stronger than character Y!).

[pet-genius]

Lily, Severus and Altruism

Lily had to be a mystery to preserve the plot twist around Snape’s allegiance, but on re-reads, it is such a missed opportunity. I personally find myself craving more, as I’m torn between two interpretations of her character. The intended interpretation, I’m sure, is that Lily was a good friend and a good person in a doomed relationship, but many people point out that a good friend would have acted very differently in the courtyard scene, to say the least.

I think Lily was a good friend and a good person, even if she was wasn’t as “special” as the narrative makes her out to be. She was certainly special to Snape (perhaps this is the point?). Another lingering question is how much of the good she inspired in him is her, and how much is him.

Lily has two defining moments, one because it literally makes the story possible and the other because it inspires Harry when James is knocked off the pedestal, culminating in Harry’s ultimate sacrifice that won the war. Both these moments involve Lily stepping in front of danger for a loved one, a move that both Harry and Snape revered and emulated.

Evolutionary psychologists like to discuss two types of altruism, kin altruism and reciprocal altruism. Lily exhibits both, in her willingness to die for Harry, and in her willingness to step up for a friend in a tough position. She doesn’t do everything in her power for her friend, certainly, as she could have disarmed James herself or summoned a teacher, but she does more than anyone else present, and that takes strength and courage in itself. She also appreciates altruism and kindness and family, even if she doesn’t always practice it: she reminds Petunia that Dumbledore was kind in his letter, she reminds Severus that Petunia is her sister when he doesn’t understand why she’s crying over that cow, she respects James for saving Severus’s life (misguided as she is), she chastises Severus for hanging around cruel people…

Her values are clear, and they’re solid, but she has failings, and in my opinion, those failings are a desire to feel special and “chosen” and the inability to see shades of gray, leading to unintentional bouts of hypocrisy (or at least glaring obliviousness). Everyone she’s associated with is gray: young Severus himself, James, Sirius, Dumbledore, Slughorn, and Peter, but she doesn’t see. Anyone who treats her as something special gets a pass, possibly because her parents started the golden child/scapegoat dynamic that Petunia overcompensated for so wildly with Harry and Dudley. Her blindness to shades of gray in the people she likes - and who like her - lead her to make excuses for Severus for years, then give up on him at just the moment when she could have really made a difference in his life. It also costs her her life, as she trusts James and vicariously, Peter. Typical failings and not a hanging crime, normally, but in a world that features Voldemort, she died for them in a display of kin altruism.

Bringing us to reciprocal altruism. She was friends with Severus, and in return, I suppose he spared her whatever unpleasantness he unleashed upon other Muggle-Borns, and she defended him, until the tit-for-tat expired. Reciprocal altruism makes possible society, a community; a reputation as a good guy enhances reproductive fitness (James knew what he was doing leaking the story of how he saved Snape, but not the whole story, and nothing can convince me otherwise). I like to think, though, that truer friends behave altruistically even when reciprocity is not guaranteed, and even when they’re not bound by blood.

Or perhaps in Slytherin, you'll make your real friends. Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.

Lily had a real friend in Slytherin, though he strayed. Without the possibility of reciprocity, and while foregoing any possibility of kin altruism in the future, Snape used any means to achieve his end – protecting her and her kin, and fighting for her ideals, that became his. He could not bear to have his goodness exposed, and it speaks volumes that the thing that bothered him was that he would be protecting “Potter’s son.” The humiliation of losing Lily to his bully and abuser was one thing, but the idea of dedicating the rest of his life to protecting Potter’s spawn obviously remained abhorrent to him – forgive me – until the very end (ugh). It is very hard to believe James would have done anything to protect Severus's son if the roles had been reversed.

It could not be argued that Snape was looking out for his reputation either, as to reveal his goodness would be his doom. Plato speaks of the Ring of Gyges, something akin to the invisibility cloak. His characters maintain that powers of invisibility would corrupt those who had them, that people behave morally and lawfully mostly because others are watching. The perfectly unjust man would grow more respectable with every sin; the perfectly just man’s reputation would grow darker the better he did, and still he would persist. To call Snape perfectly just is absurd, but he does embody the ideal. He didn’t have a ring or a cloak, he had only himself for a mask, and he used any means to achieve his ends, treating his life and reputation as only a resource in the service of the greater goal.

For her.

But not only for her. She was right, ultimately - why should she be any different? The real Lily and the idea of Lily stood to gain nothing from Snape watching die only those whom he could not save. He internalized the values Lily believed in but sometimes failed to act on better than Lily herself.

The Patronus, he was sure, was Umbridge’s, and it glowed brightly because she was so happy here, in her element, upholding the twisted laws she had helped to write.

Umbridge was not being selfish, a hypocrite, or self-serving: she was experiencing the strength and bliss of serving a cause she truly believed in. It was her own version of altruism, proving that noble sentiments can give people the strength to commit atrocities when they don’t have the right values. But Severus did, and his Patronus showed what they were. The Silver Doe was almost like a real animal, beautiful and almost alive, because that was the strength of his faith and his love. He first discovered his altruism because of Lily, but he surpassed her, and it extended in the end not only to people he disliked (or as they are commonly known, people), but to his bitter enemies. Harry learned from him and he did the same, but thanks to the protection afforded by kin altruism, he survived where Severus did not.

Severus evidently experienced very little altruism in his life, and yet he gave so much of it, and that was his true nature, his true end. This cannot be reduced to kin altruism or to reciprocal altruism, but to a higher order, demanding - even spiritual - altruism. Whatever Lily had to do with Severus’s capacity for such altruism, we must thank her.

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

Camila Noceda and Flawed Parenting

A perspective by a flawed person with loving but extremely flawed parents

I’m genuinely baffled at some people’s hostile reaction towards Camila. Like… do any of you have flawless parents that always know the best solution instantly, make no mistakes and never get emotional?

My parents are great. They’re super supportive and I love them very, very much. Overall I think I got very lucky in the parents department.

But god, they are far from flawless. I still live at home, and despite all the good, there’s moments when I can’t take my dad anymore. He’s the kind of dad that stayed up until two am to help me with homework when I was in school, and he does so, so many things to make sure I’m happy. I know that. But despite all of this, I have told my mom in emotional moments before that I’m not sure if I can keep living with him, because for all his good sides, he has a couple of fatal flaws that sometimes make him unbearable.

My mom listens to me and is very open to being educated on certain topics, but she has her flaws, too. She hates when I fight with my dad, and gets so torn up about it that I’ve once apologized to my dad out of fear of her getting into a car crash otherwise. She’s very vocal about certain flaws of mine, and sometimes uses the things she does for me as leverage against me when she gets very emotional.

And both of my parents pay a lot more attention to my brother because he needs it more, because he’s more of a “problem child” while I “seem so capable” even when I’m not.

And guess what? I’m not a perfect child. I make mistakes sometimes, some of them pretty severe. Just like Luz, I’m the kind of person that struggles to communicate certain issues of mine to her parents. I’m stubborn, and when I get emotional, I say very hurtful things sometimes. So do they.

And this has nothing to do with my parents being horrible or abusive. They’re neither of those things.

The takeaway from this should not be that my entire family is made up of terrible people, but that we’re all flawed in our own ways, despite loving each other and trying our best. There’s things about my parents I wish I could change, and there are things about me that my parents wish they could change. And to an extent, that’s perfectly normal.

In our strengths and flaws and frustration with each other, we’re all human.

Specific, spoiler-y Camila and Luz things under the cut since this got very long.

We have no indication that Camila has a pattern of emotionally manipulating Luz. Her “emotional manipulation” as I’ve seen some people put it, is people for some reason thinking that the second you become an adult, you’re suddenly perfect and can no longer make mistakes, lest you’ll be dubbed horrible and abusive.

The whole concept is absurd to me. There is no perfect way to parent. There simply isn’t. Of course, there’s some genuinely abusive patterns that are horrible and inexcusable. But out of the parenting styles that aren’t, which one works depends on a number of factors, one of which absolutely includes that every child is different and has different needs. Camila is an amazing parent for Vee, giving the kid everything she’s ever longed for. She’s not an ideal parent for Luz. And that’s because Luz and Vee have fundamentally different needs.

Likewise, Luz is a pretty great child for Eda, but not a perfect fit for Camila. Luz relates to Eda a lot more than she relates to her mom, and that’s why the two of them have an easier time understanding each other. Both of these mother-child relationships exist, and one is not more doomed to fail than the other, but I think you’ll agree that the better you understand someone and where they’re coming from, the easier it is to communicate, pick up on certain signs, etc.

As mom and daughter, Camila and Luz are both flawed and have issues seeing the other’s perspective because of how different they are. And we should simultaneously acknowledge both of their roles in the issue and give both of them the space to learn and grow past those issues.

Luz struggles to communicate her problems. She doesn’t want to burden people in the demon realm, and it’s a given that this started out as not wanting to burden her mom. So she keeps quiet about her issues. Camila tries hard but can’t read her daughter’s mind, so there’s only so much she can do to understand and help the way Luz needs her to. Hell, Eda, who Luz is a lot more open with than her mom, struggles to help her, because Luz doesn’t tell her what’s wrong. I don’t see anyone calling Eda a terrible mom for that.

Camila tries her best, but she struggles to understand her daughter because of this, and because of how fundamentally different they are. She loves Luz’s creativity, we actively see her supporting it in the new episode—she keeps the weird stuff Luz made because she thinks Luz will regret throwing it away, and even plays along in what she assumes to be some elaborate role play because “she’s glad Luz kept her creativity even though it’s not made things easy for her at school”. But at the beginning of the show, said creativity got out of hand and people got hurt. Luz could’ve gotten hurt. So of course Camila had to interfere. I love Luz dearly, but she thought it was okay to bring snakes to school and set off fireworks inside a school building. Creativity is great. Doing reckless stuff that causes people to get hurt is not.

In sending Luz to camp, Camila tried to have someone else fix her issue because she didn’t know how to help Luz. That was a mistake, and a bad one at that, but she’s realizing that. She looks disheartened when Vee tries to throw out Luz’s stuff, because she never meant to change her daughter or take that part of her away. She just thought Luz needed a reality check—which, for the record, is something the narrative actually agrees with.

Luz spends her time in the demon realm getting reality check after reality check, realizing that even her ideal fantasy world where she has everything she always wanted doesn’t mean she’s free of consequences. She goes overboard constantly, causing:

-Eda to be forced to fly into a trap because Luz is chasing a fantasy (Witches before Wizards)

-Eda to almost be branded by her sister because Luz doesn’t think through why Eda doesn’t use magic to publicly announce her presence constantly (Once Upon a Swap)

-Eda and the twins to get kidnapped by a Slitherbeast because Luz stole Amity’s wand (Adventures in the Elements)

-Her friends to get hurt when she goes overboard trying to help Willow (Wing it like Witches)

-Eda to be captured and almost petrified because Luz thought she could just steal from the Emperor with no consequences in an attempt to help (Agony of a Witch)

I’m like 90% sure these aren’t even all. None of those make her a terrible person, for the record, but as all humans are, she is flawed and makes bad choices. She learns from these experiences and matures, just like her mom had hoped she would at camp. She’s also made friends there, which was another thing Camila wanted for her daughter.

You’ll probably realize that a lot of Luz’s behaviors I mentioned follow one of two patterns: 1. Luz’s idealized fantasy world causing problems, when she walks around with rose tinted glasses and gets people in trouble in the process because she hasn’t thought about the consequences, and 2. Luz trying to help someone she loves, but instead making things worse in the progress. The issue with this one is often that she doesn’t communicate her ideas/listen to the people she’s trying to help—like when Willow and Gus said they’ve had enough of Grudgby, or how she never actually talks to Eda about the healing hat idea before doing something reckless.

…does the latter one sound familiar to you at all? No? Because it’s the exact same thing that Camila did.

Some of the things Luz does are reckless and actively endanger others and herself, and that’s something that I think we need to acknowledge before judging Camila. As Luz’s mom, it’s Camila’s job to interfere in those situations. That she made a mistake while trying to protect Luz doesn’t make her a terrible person, especially as, again, the narrative proves her right to an extent.

I’m not saying her making Luz promise to come back and stay isn’t something that hurt Luz—it absolutely is. But it was born out of desperation. She’s emotional and in shock. She’s so full of pain and regret. She just wants her fourteen year old daughter home safe, and there’s nothing abusive or even morally ambiguous about that.

From Luz’s perspective, what she says is absolutely heartbreaking, but from Camila’s, it’s perfectly reasonable. I doubt Camila has the full picture, but even if she does, she’s had a full fifteen seconds to process that her daughter has not only been lying to her for months, but chose to leave her, and is in the demon realm of all places. Of course she’d be emotional and upset about that! Who wouldn’t? Camila isn’t a robot. If she’d been calm about this I’d be way more concerned, honestly.

My parents don’t get mad that easily, but if I would lie to them for weeks on end, they’d be pissed off too, not even taking the running away from home part into account. That’s a normal thing. People don’t like being lied to. Camila is absolutely devastated in that moment because she’s scared that Luz left because she hates her, when Luz actively states that her leaving wasn’t about her mom—which is another thing we should really be acknowledging.

Abusive parents suck and abuse should obviously never be apologized or trivialized, but saying something hurtful in the heat of the moment isn’t the same thing as being an abusive parent. My parents have done this. I’ve done this. And yes, those things can be emotionally manipulative, but there’s a huge difference in whether that’s a habit or a person speaking out of hurt and desperation in a very specific context. I doubt there’s anyone on the entire planet that hasn’t had a bad moment where they’ve said something like this because they were hurting. People lash out when they hurt, and they beg for reassurance when they’re scared. That’s something we all do.

The whole mindset of “all parents have to be perfect and can never get upset or make any mistakes” is harmful as hell, and honestly also very unrealistic. No parent is perfect, and especially people like me who have a relationship with their parents that’s very good overall should know that.

Once you have a child, parenting is a non-stop learning process, every day for the rest of your life. Taking away that room to grow and expecting perfection isn’t helping anyone, especially not struggling single parents.

And I see Camila as someone who is very willing to learn, because at the end of the day, all she wants is for Luz to be happy. Let’s give her some time to wrap her head around this whole situation. Let’s see what she says once she sees for herself how happy Luz is in that world, may it be via the videos eventually coming through or Camila visiting and meeting Luz’s found family, her friends and her girlfriend.

Ultimately, I don’t think Camila will force Luz to stay at home, but we have to give her some time. She wants what’s best for Luz, and she’s gonna need some convincing that a dangerous magical world is what’s best. I feel like that’s very normal considering the circumstances.

Her and Luz need to work on their communication on both ends, they both have things to learn, but I’m certain they’ll manage to fix their relationship in the long run.

If the bunk bed is any indication, I think Vee is gonna stay in the human realm permanently while Luz sleeps at home but keeps attending Hexside in the daytime. That feels like a solution that keeps everyone happy, and allows Luz to spend time with all the people she loves. I can’t see her being forced to choose at the end.

As a closing statement: Eda isn’t an ideal mom, Amity isn’t an ideal friend or girlfriend and neither is Luz, Lilith isn’t an ideal sister… but that’s because no one is ever an ideal anything. Being flawed is a big part of being human. Everyone has different facets to their personality. Their flaws are what makes them such great, relatable, believable characters.

And I feel the same way about Camila. She’s an extremely believable character that reminds me of my own parents, flawed but very loving nonetheless.

(Also honestly, I think it’s pretty telling that some of you guys immediately bash the black single mom that’s obviously trying her hardest while giving the benefit of the doubt to Alador, who has been portrayed as neglecting and threatened his six year old daughter on screen. This was already a thing before we knew much about either of them, and I’m disappointed but unfortunately not very surprised that it still is.)