#just my two cents here

[erinwantstowrite]

crazy how people will see bruce not wanting to kill because he knows he wouldn't stop and eventually would get out of control because he's severely mentally ill and they think "wow what a selfish asshole"

[an-established-butt-dent]

"What have they done to you,

Old friend."

Trapped in the fade, Solas comes face to face with the remnant of his spirit.

The Dread Wolf was his wisdom, mirror to his pride. In the wake of the wrathful Evanuris, it too, has succumbed to their taint.

Or, where I'm making wild plot speculations surrounding Solas trapped in the fade. while turning my brainrot into art pieces and gifs. I'M PACING MY ENCLOSURE. Looking for crumbs and scrabs of Veilguard. Please Bioware I'm begging, feed me. 😭

[prowling-muffin]

keferons mimics au has me in a chokehold…..

(close ups ;) )

[nija-orita20]

I know that this might be an unpopular opinion, but am I one of the only people that sees the dynamic between Dr. Mel and Dr. Langdon as platonic?? All I see is a mentor being impressed with his mentee and willing to listen and learn, nothing else. Plus, it’d be very weird to ship them romantically, mainly due to the fact that Dr. Langdon has a wife and two children. Lastly, it wouldn’t make sense narrative wise either.

[sleptokne]

thinking about the "show me how to dance forever" and the clues and stuff again and just ... that's Sleep Token. that's the band. that's the band making the whole fandom crazy, having us (jokingly...?) believe that we are cracking the code to the holy grail for them.

we're interacting. we're interested and engaging in the little bits of content we're getting, the mystery that is such a part of the band. interpreting and researching left and right.

and I just love it.

this is how you keep your fans entertained, not a soulless merch drop after another.

the last few weeks to months were pics and videos of the tours, which is great, but also a lot of (justified!) critique about the whole merch and comic situation. I saw it on my dash a lot and I agreed that this is sad and outrageous. because that's not Sleep Token.

it's the label that's currently trying to squeeze as much cash out of the fandom as possible. with very questionable merch items and prices... to put it gently.

and to see how much this small glimpse of what's to come this year has changed the vibe of the fandom (at least on my dashboard) is so refreshing.

you can literally see clear as day what the difference between a soulless label and a passionate band is, and it makes me believe even more that vessel put his foot down in terms of creative output and their music and everything it involves.

if the mystery isn't part of the merch, and RCA only sees a cash cow in the band, at least we can be certain that the band stays true to themselves.

and goddamn, let's crack the code to find the holy grail for vessel.

[ghostofthepresent]

Why I think Shiguang can be canonically read as romantic

(I will only be using the donghua for reference, so no Studio Lan retweeting those fanarts (lmao) nor those especially gay manhwa panels (lmao x2) nor even the songs ("chase you to the end of the world, just to say your name once more" my beloved).

It's important to start off by saying that I'm aware Director Li said they ended up not making Lu Guang a girl because they didn't want romance to be seen as a must in Shiguang's relationship by the audience (and because he feels that "bros can have a good heart-to-heart connection with each other"). In my opinion that was a great move since it allows more freedom with how they write them than they'd have otherwise. I also think viewing Shiguang as queerplatonic is a great read too and it doesn't diminish their love for each other nor the importance of their relationship at all.

With that said, despite Director Li's words, there's been things that had me going 🤨 as someone who likes to adhere to canon relationships and read into the writer's intentions, so I wanted to share why I personally see them as romantic.

EPISODE 2

We've all seen this coming, right? Most obvious parallel ever, and in the second episode no less. We all know the similarities between both relationships, so I will just touch on those I consider the most important ones.

Lin Zhen and Yu Xia have gone to college together, and since then decided to start a business of their own - named after a mix of their names. They've been shown as being really close and having no romantic relationships. Lin Zhen also says that Yu Xia's happiness is her own, and then it's shown to us that she's gone through years of unhappiness just for Yu Xia. I believe you can replace their names with Lu Guang's and Cheng Xiaoshi's in your head without me writing all this again. And I'm not even going to get into the most obvious parallels like the special noodle recipe for each pair.

I think it's safe to say that Lin Zhen and Yu Xia are implied to be romantic. From that "one noodle" scene, to the close shot of Lin Zhen grabbing her hand, etc.

Now, I want to get into a writer's point of view and pose two questions:

1. What's the purpose of this episode, when even those which seem episodic connect to the overarching plot of season 1 (even the missing kid's case, as it leads to the involvement with the police)?

2. If we answer the previous question with the conclusion that it's meant to show us the nature/development of Cheng Xiaoshi's and Lu Guang's relationship, what does that say about it?

"Partner" in Link Click

Continuing with episode 2, what really got me thinking about the romantic intentions in their writing was the constant mention of marriage and anything in relation to it.

(may I remind everyone that the driver's comment was said when Cheng Xiaoshi was complaining about Lu Guang lmao)

They're telling us through "show don't tell" (for example, when Lin Zhen kept on eating the noodle despite knowing they'd kiss) and, also, connotations. They are presented to us as business partners, but then the entire episode goes on to tell us that there's more to them by tying their relationship to things percived as romantic. So what they want to really tell us is that beyond simple business partners, they're life-long partners.

And then, after establishing this kind of connotation to the word partner, Cheng Xiaoshi says this to Lu Guang in the next episode:

This doesn't stop at them. While it's the most obvious example, I think partnership in Link Click is intended to be seen as romantic, or at the very least dancing somewhere close to it. Let's go even further and take a look at our fully canon, heterosexual relationships and see briefly how their story is written:

1. Dong Yi and Xu Shanshan: both of them chose the comfort of each other's presence over moving on with their respective futures. Dong Yi had so much faith in their relationship and their love that he couldn't choose a life/future that didn't have Xu Shanshan - choosing to not go back to his family home nor go to that interview, and instead waiting for Xu Shanshan to define their relationship.

2. Liu Siwen and Ouyang: Siwen spent his entire life training with the purpose of getting his father-in-law's respect and marry Ouyang, going every year over and over to fight him. His perseverance and his undying love for her allowed Siwen to do the (seemingly) impossible.

3. Chen Bin and his wife: they're a tragedy. His wife understood Chen Bin the best, enduring feeling lonely because she loved him and wanted a future with him. But their relationship was cut short, so they promised each other to be together in a future life to make up for the time they wouldn't be in this one.

With this + the pictures I attached, it seems like Link Click has set this theme of "love is a life with you" for its romantic relationships, a partner that will fight to stay because they can't see a future that doesn't have their beloved. Going back to episode two, this applies even to the noodle ladies. When Yu Xia remembered what actually matters to her, she went back home - to the start, to her hometown. And, most importantly, to Lin Zhen.

So why is Shiguang romantic? Why aren't they queerplatonic, or just best friends, or bros or whatever else? Because besides what I said at the start of the previous paragraph, Shiguang's relationship mirrors a lot of the romantic ones. Each story and author writes romance and other kinds of relationships differently, portraying them in the way they perceive "this is what this kind of love is like". And beyond life-long partners, I think that the key elements of romantic relationships in Link Click are the ones I highlighted in bold above in the 3 canon relationships part - which Shiguang shares, too.

(I didn't mention this before with the het couples, but I find it a little amusing that season 2 happened because a man wanted to go to the past and get his wife back (still fuck you Qian Jin) and then we find out Lu Guang did go back to the past and got his boyfriend partner back lmao).

"Friend" vs "Partner"

So where is the boundary between platonic and romantic? What marks the difference between a (best) friend and a partner?

There is, for example, Liu Xiao and Li Tianchen's relationship. They aren't shown to have any kind of romantic undertones and there's even the very real possibility of manipulation on Liu Xiao's side. They're also never labeled as nor call each other partners, but instead Li Tianchen says he "met a new friend" and Liu Xiao says he's "going to meet an old friend" years later. So we could say for now that they have a somewhat close relationship (we see Li Tianchen go against Qian Jin to give the phone to Liu Xiao), but never cross that "friend" label.

We can even bring Qiao Ling and the boys' relationship. She's never labeled as a partner despite taking part in the side job and, more importantly, being super close to both of them. She is very important and a cherished friend to Shiguang, so why not call her partner too? I think it's intentional. Since she's been given a familial role already (calling Cheng Xiaoshi her brother when talking to Li Tianxi), she can't fill a partner role. I wonder why? because it's supposed to be a synonym for a romantic relationship. who said that.

So even best friends (Qiao Ling, arguably what Liu Xiao is to Li Tianchen) don't enter this close space that is being a partner. It's different, it's beyond platonic. Or at least that's what they've been showing us for the past two seasons.

I could go soo much more into this honestly, because I do think the little hints thrown here (the music videos) and there (tiny seemingly inconsequential details) are worth to be looked at too, but I wanted to get into the core reason that makes me go "woah so they're In Love fr". I hope I expressed myself well ^^

tldr; the series shows us a divide between having a (best) friend and a partner, giving "partners" romantic connotations.

[bugtoast]

i’ve been reading up on intersex issues here and there lately, and ngl i think the trans community should, as a whole, make it common practice to learn about intersexuality and the issues that come with the identity.

I feel like the same can be said about any and all oppressed groups, but I stress intersex folks here because it’s pride month, and they don’t get as much support from the wider community, which sucks because they have done so much for the wider community.

TL;DR: Intersex people are cool and we should listen to them more often, because the wider community could learn a lot from them

[1thesewordsaremyown1]

I know there are some bucktommy fans that aren't happy with the Maddie and Buck scene at the end of the ep (for a variety of reasons). And while there are aspects of it I don't like, I think it's actually crucial - for me, it's the scene that TRULY puts buddie to rest.

In the morning after scene with Tommy, if you try to watch it with buddie goggles on, I could *kind of* see how they would claim buddie still has a chance. Buck is talking to his ex, who he just slept with - you could claim that he is in denial because he doesn't want to admit that it was a factor in their relationship (I absolutely don't see it this way, but like I said, I'm trying to put buddie goggles on here), or he doesn't want to hurt Tommy (which he ended up hurting him anyway, but I digress). They even have Tommy scoffing at Buck's denial, and one could interpret that as "well, TOMMY thinks Buck's in love with him!" Which ok, fair enough, but Tommy isn't Buck, is he? The only one who truly knows his own feelings is Buck.

Cue the conversation with Maddie. Maddie, his sister who has always been his sounding board for his relationships, who was the first person he went to when he realised he was bisexual, who he goes to for advice when hurdles in his relationships appear (instead of the person he's actually in a relationship with, but again, I digress). Maddie, who is sitting there basically telling Buck, "hey, if you ARE in love with your best friend, there's nothing wrong with that, and I'll support you." If Buck had any feelings for Eddie, here was the safe space to finally start to address any doubts or potential feelings.

Instead, when asked, Buck gives a firm, definitive "I am not in love with my best friend." Listen to his tone of voice. There is absolutely zero doubt there - he knows what he wants (or doesn't want, as the case may be). Then when he suggests calling and Maddie assumes he's talking about Eddie, Buck gives a flippant "no, I'll call him later" before stating, again, very firmly that he was talking about calling TOMMY.

And all this time, while they are having this conversation, what is Buck doing? He's getting all the tools and ingredients out to start baking again. Even if you dont listen to his words, his actions are showing that he cant stop thinking about Tommy.

Now, I could go on about how I believe they were using Maddie as a stand-in for the buddie fans and Buck as a mouthpiece for the writers to try and shut buddie down once and for all, but that's all conjecture. But everything else i mentioned? That is stuff that was shown ON SCREEN. We heard those words, we heard the tone, and we saw their actions. You can interpret anything however the hell you want, but if you listen to Tim and Aisha when they said "we are going to let what we show you on screen do the talking", what is the show is telling us?

Buck is 100%, without a shadow of a doubt, NOT in love with Eddie.

[liaragaming]

Just adding my two cents, but I didn't personally read Solas's visceral, curling in on himself reaction to be due to Mythal.

When he first sees Mythal, he looks like a sad wet cat man, but that's it. (And this the first time he's seen her since he killed her, so this seems perfectly accurate, imo.)

They have a whole back and forth with each other before we get to the curling in on himself reaction. and he's relatively composed.

Mythal: I pulled you from the Fade you loved and sent you into war. I used your wisdom as a weapon... and it broke you.

Even Solas's "The things that I have done", he doesn't seem broken down yet.

Mythal: Are not for you to bear alone my friend. The many wrongs we did, we did together.

We don't see him breaking down until the "We did together" part, and she's so far away from him at this point.

To me, this whole scene is about getting Solas to let go of the pain of regrets, and that's never been something he's been able to do. Mythal's words are telling him: You are not alone in this. All this pain isn't yours to carry. And that's so incredibly difficult for him to process.

He's been carrying all of this and blaming no one but himself for thousands of years. Of course, he's going to have a visceral reaction to having someone who was there, who participated in those regrets, who he himself killed, telling him that pain isn't deserved and to let it go.

The dagger represents Solas's regrets. He created it to sunder the titans, Mythal was killed with it, he drew her essence from it and then never spoke to that essence again, he used it to create the Veil, he killed Varric with it - all of Solas's mistakes are tied up in this thing and he's trying to give it to Mythal. He's begging her to take this pain and these regrets from him. He doesn't want them anymore!

And then she does exactly what he's asking.

Mythal: I release you from my service.

So many of the things Solas did and regrets, he did at Mythal's behest. And in the final moment, she takes responsibility for those things. She takes those regrets and lets him go.

Finally, he is free.

This scene is about Solas healing. Mythal helps him to do that.

[andromedism]

hear me out: “i love everything about you. i love being near you. breathing the same air,” is not part of a letter to ed. it’s something stede says to ed in person (i speculate in a romantic scene). “dear ed” and “i think of you often, hope you’re thinking of me as well,” are both spoken, but “i love everyone about you. i love being near you. breathing the same air,” is whispered and has an echoey resonance that the other voice over lines for stede do not. they’re from different scenes. i’m all apart!!!!

[galacticlamps]

ok I have A Lot of thoughts about the staircase confession (well really about Edwin's whole character arc, but all roads lead to rome) but for now I just wanna say that, yes, I was bracing myself for something to go terribly wrong when I first watched it, and yes, part of me was initially worried its placement might be an uncharacteristically foolish choice made in the name of Drama or Pacing or Making a Compelling Episode of Television but at the expense of narrative sense--

But I wanna say that having taken all that into account, and watched it play out, and sat with it - and honestly become rather transfixed by it - I really think it's a beautifully crafted moment and truly the only way that arc could've arrived at such a satisfying conclusion.

And if I had to pinpoint why I not only buy it but also have come to really treasure it, I'd have to put it down to the fact that it genuinely is a confession, and nothing else.

That moment is an announcement of what Edwin has come to understand about himself, but because it takes the form of a character admitting romantic feelings for such a close friend, I think it can be very easy, when writing that kind of thing, to imbue it with other elements like a plea or a request or even the start of a new relationship that, intentionally or not, would change the shape of the moment and can quickly overshadow what a huge deal the telling is all on its own. But that's not the case here. Since it is only a confession, unaccompanied by anything else, and since we see afterward how it was enough, evidently, to fix the strangeness that had grown between him & Charles, we're forced to understand that it was never Edwin's feelings that were actually making things difficult for him - it was not being able to tell Charles about them. 'Terrified' as he's been of this, Edwin learns that his feelings don't need to either disappear completely or be totally reciprocated in order for him to be able to return to the peace, stability, and security of the relationship with which he defines his existence - and the scale of that relief a) tells us a hell of a lot about Edwin as a character and b) totally justifies the way his declaration just bursts out of him at what would otherwise be such a poorly chosen moment, in my opinion.

Whether or not they are or ever could be reciprocated, Edwin's feelings are definitively proven not to be the problem here - only his potential choice to bottle it up - his repression - is. And where that repression had once been mainly involuntary, a product of what he'd been through, now that he's got this new awareness of himself, if he still fails to admit what he's found either to himself or to the one person he's so unambiguously close with, then that repression will be by his own choice and actions.

And he won't do that. Among other things, he's coming into this scene having just (unknowingly) absolved the soul of his own school bully and accidental killer by pointing out a fact that is every bit as central to his self-discovery as anything about his sexuality or his attraction to Charles is: the idea that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell"

So narratively speaking, of course it makes sense that Edwin literally cannot get out of Hell until he stops punishing himself - and right now, the thing that's torturing him is something he has control over. It's not who he is or what he feels, but what he chooses to do with those feelings that's hurting him, and he's even already made the conscious choice to tell Charles about them, he was just interrupted. But now that they're back together and he's literally in the middle of an attempt to escape Hell, there is absolutely no way he can so much as stop for breath without telling Charles the truth. Even the stopping for breath is so loaded - because they're ghosts, they don't need to breathe, but also they're in Hell, so the one thing they can feel is pain, however nonsensical. And Edwin certainly is in pain. But whether he knows what he's about to do or not when he says he 'just needs a tick,' a breather is absolutely not what's gonna give him enough relief to keep climbing - it's fixing that other hurt, though, that will.

Like everything else in that scene, there's a lot of layers to him promising Charles "You don't have to feel the same way, I just needed you to know" - but I don't think that means it isn't also true on a surface level. It's the act of telling Charles that matters so much more than whatever follows it, and while that might have gone unnoticed if anything else major had happened in the same conversation, now we're forced to acknowledge its staggering and singular importance for what it is. The moment is well-earned and properly built up to, but until we see it happen in all its wonderful simplicity, and we see the aftermath (or lack thereof, even), we couldn't properly anticipate how much of a weight off Edwin's shoulders merely getting to share the truth with Charles was going to be, why he couldn't wait for a better, safer opportunity before giving in to that desire, or how badly he needed to say it and nothing else - and I really, really love the weight that act of just being honest, seen, and known is given in their story/relationship.

[betryl]

To be honest to me it's not really that big of a deal if someone just genuinely likes TSH's atmosphere and aesthetic and quotes and whatnot. Parts of it are purposefully written to be alluring and impactful and pretty, and I think you're allowed to find them so without it meaning you missed the warning about not idolizing people in pursuit of pointless and shallow ideals. You can be aware of the message and critique it wanted to convey while also just enjoying the book itself from time to time lol. If someone says they have a morbid longing for the picturesque or whatever chances are they know they're not supposed to take it literally or base their whole personality on it, they just think the cool quote is cool. And actually I think letting yourself indulge in Richard's perspective makes you realize even better how skewed it really is and it's the best way to experience TSH

[shoot-i-messed-up]

this panel specifically is so superlantern coded...

[its-maemain]

Okay but Bruce being Bruce Wayne and adopting a bunch of kids, like the elite looking to him and stuff and they want to appeal to him so he supports them and stuff. Stay in his social circle.

So they start adopting children and stuff. Some of them genuinely growing to love them and adopting children of Gotham. Others though, they hate it and the children, so after like 4 months they stop doing anything for the child or just go “I don't want it anymore, it's just…they aren't the right kid for us”

And when Bruce finds out he looses his shit on these people, he is making jabs at them with a strained smile with rage in his eyes. He is making sure those kids get good loving homes, he talks to others who are good and care.

Tim? He finds out these kids are getting neglected and he makes sure those kids get out of their house and then tanks their business, but don't worry, he hands out applications to those who work for them so they ain't struggling to find a job.

Jason seeing these kids were on the street getting homes and being fed and clothed and warming up to them, it warms his heart, yeah fuck these rich elitists but some of them are good. Then he sees the kids who get sent back, who don't get attention after a certain amount of time, he takes the kids and says screw you to rich persons. And works with Tim to take them down.

Damian understands being forced into the home of strangers and not belonging and having to conform to their ways, it doesn't feel good. He sees kids going into these rich homes and having to change themselves, he watches very carefully. And when the kids get sent back, get ignored, oh-ho there's an unimaginable anger he never imagined having. They deserve to be cared for, to be loved, you took them in, you don't get to abandon them.

And Dick, he’s certainly the most proactive. Yeah…he wears the blue suit, but he isn't just in blue, he's a detective. He also has a private investigator license, no matter how much is going on, he will see if you're fit to be a parent. If you don't take care of those kids he will have the evidence, yeah Red Robin will drop evidence on peoples desks but it means so much more with Dick.

I don't know, just thinking about Bruce’s effect on the elite of Gotham that isn't just Batman but just Bruce himself. And then his kids being his little ducks behind him in the change of Gotham.

[arizonaconservativegal]

I am tired of hearing candidates dodge questions by saying they will follow the law when they are running for an office where they would (in part) be able to change the law to be whatever they want to follow.

Say what you mean. Will you push to change the law or will you accept it as it currently stands? And if you're not going to push to change the law, if someone else proposes a change and asks you to vote for or sign their change, what direction are you coming at that decision from?

Honestly I would respect the hell out of it if someone would just say "I don't like this particular law but it's not one of my priorities to change because of x, y, and/or z and if it becomes an issue on its own later, here's where I would be on it."

And leaving all that aside, "I will follow the law" is not something I find reassuring to hear from politicians. That is the bare minimum I expect of you. Why are you acting like it's some great feat or acquiescence?

[faceglitchsworld]

Don't be too hard on yourself