#my point is it could certainly go either way as to whether the show intends a friendship or implication of more

[ingravinoveritas]

Why do I feel like this post just got personal and going in for the attack like she did for the radio one on twitter I'm not shocked or surprised by this cos the behaviour is getting more stranger and nasty and a fan on twitter shared this on her page saying we got ur bk u got a whole army behind u. I'm sorry what army and I'm sure if they spilt the fans wouldn't be behind her them they literally making it worst

What do u think ?

So, I saw/got a whole bunch of DMs over this Insta story this morning, but didn't have a chance to talk about it until now.

My first thought was that this was almost certainly in response to the negative reviews and backlash coming out for The Way in the wake of episode 3. The two biggest culprits in terms of media outlets seem to be the Daily Mail (Fail) and the Telegraph, and while I won't link to them here because I don't want to give either site any traffic, both reviews can easily be found via a Google search. Adding to those were a stream of vicious comments, both in the comments sections on the respective websites and on social media, largely from what seem to be right-wing/leaning accounts and public figures.

Knowing that, it made me think that Michael had to have been aware of what the potential reaction to the show could be. We know he was, actually, because he's talked about it in several interviews over the past few weeks, such as this one. And I think with Michael being who he is, he would be entirely amused at knowing he has pissed off exactly the right people. So while I could certainly see him in private having a reaction like the one in AL's story--more than understandably so, given how nasty some of the reviews and comments were--that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good reaction to have publicly. And I think Michael knows that, too.

What also adds to the disconnect for me is that a few hours later, an article that Michael had written as a rebuttal came out in the New Statesman:

What Michael wrote is a brilliant repudiation of remarks made by a Tory MP--a piece that is intelligent, snarky, direct yet unfailingly eloquent. It wasn't just Michael defending his show, but using it (and Nye) to make a point, to make clear what he believes in, and to stand for the truth. And in much the same way that Michael's acting and oratory skills elevate any piece of work he performs, his writing conveyed that same depth, and it came across as effortless as everything else he does.

Which again left me with that feeling of disconnect when looking at Michael's article side-by-side with Anna's Insta story. It's not even that I disagree with her in this instance, as I do think the reviews were unduly harsh and devolved entirely too quickly into personal attacks in the comments. It's that when it comes to acting/directing, criticisms are part of the job, and whether she intended it or not, an Insta story like AL's conveys a sense of unprofessionalism. And when you put it next to Michael's writing, it looks more like a teenager throwing a fit instead of an adult giving a fierce clapback, which again probably was her intention.

Also keep in mind that everything I just wrote is predicated on the idea that someone seeing this story knows what AL is talking about. But I have to wonder how readily apparent it was, because it's so vague that it would probably be difficult for most people to suss out what she is referencing. So it's confusing to me that she is seemingly charging to Michael's defense...but without actually saying his name or the name of the show. Again, it feels like there is a disconnect/sharp contrast between Anna vague-blogging and how specific and incisive Michael was in that article, and it seems like they're not even close to being on the same page.

Those are my thoughts on Anna's Insta story from this morning. It's definitely a fair bit of whiplash, especially given the drastically different tone of her last few recent posts. But I'm interested as always to hear from my followers with your take, regardless of whether you agree or disagree. Thank you for writing in! x

[76blades]

I can no longer stay silent.

I always feel bad for venting out loud, whether it be publicly or to my Twitter circle (which I have been doing a lot lately, and I’m sorry if it’s been distressing (…my point exactly)). But things have not been ok, nor have shown any significant chances of getting better anytime soon. I know I’m gonna be beating myself up later for posting this, but I’m sick and tired and I can’t stay quiet. I’m desperate for change.

For those who don’t know, Winter’s family (and job) has been severely mentally and emotionally abusing her, and it’s not just because of her gender identity. They’ve threatened and harassed her over her showing any negative emotions, her body, her interests, the food she eats, you name it. Granted, it’s not my tale to tell, but it has been BAD as of late for her, and it definitely has affected me. I might be going through some similar stuff with my dad, but he’s nothing compared to them.

Speaking of, for those who don’t know about my dad, he’s a slightly better version of Winter’s parents; a well-intended asshole but still an asshole. He has caused me to question my sanity and safety several times, and he refuses to acknowledge my anxiety as anything serious, and believes it’s something I can easily control and/or an act I put on. He’s been trying to pull me into college even though I’ve told him several times that I don’t want to, and he’s told me several times that if I don’t follow his advice then I’m only gonna end up nowhere. He certainly doesn’t believe anything regarding Winter’s situation either, and views it all with rose-tinted glasses. 

He also demands to know my entire schedule for the week, that I laugh at his jokes or smile when I don’t want to; and he even touches my shoulders and back without my consent, and he’ll get mad when I express my discomfort. I was dreading having to move back in with him because I knew this would all be happening, only for it to be so much worse. I don’t even feel comfortable recording when he’s home because I’m afraid of him yelling and/or making fun of me. And yet, it’s funny and sad how he’s an absolute saint compared to Winter’s family.

Winter and I have been breaking our backs trying to save up for a new home, but our jobs have been cruel to us on top of our families. We’re being overworked and underpaid, and a good chunk of our paychecks goes towards food and travel expenses. And while we’ve been trying our best to push our comms, we’re still a far way from freedom.

I don’t ever want to come off as a beggar for money, attention, etc., and I feel anxious whenever I boost my comms because of that, and yet I also feel like that’s exactly what I’m doing here. But I need to be transparent with you all about my and Winter’s situation. I am truly afraid that one of might truly snap, with the little remaining of our sanity vanishing in an instant. Tbh I feel like that person is more likely to be me than her. 

Regardless, I’m unsure of what else to do right now other than to keep boosting commissions and whatnot (and I might make a Ko-Fi goal too, idk), but I want to keep finding affective (and healthy) ways to spread awareness of our situation and help bring us a few steps closer to where we want to be.

I know I’ve said that I feel like I’m waiting for a miracle that won’t come, but maybe you all could help us bring that miracle to life. Thank you all for taking time out of your day to read this and support us.

I will be attaching links to my comms and Ko-Fi, as well as Winter’s. If you have any questions or would like to consider commissioning us, feel free to DM or Email either of us.

TLDR: Winter and I are being abused. We're desperate to leave our perspective toxic environments, and we need some extra help.

My Commissions | My Ko-Fi | Winter's Commissions | Winter's Ko-Fi

[antianakin]

What are your thoughts on the 2003 clone wars and its portrayal of the Jedi? I do think it’s a fun cartoon and does work as an episode 2.5. Anakin’s portrayal is closer to the movies than TCW which is either a positive or negative depending on whether you like him or not. We do get some badass moments from Mace Windu and Fordo but the clones are portrayed as flesh droids with only Cody and Fordo having a bit more personality. One thing I don’t like is how it’s propped up by the anti Jedi, dudebro side of the fandom and is used to claim the Jedi don’t care about the clones. It does have a great moment with Barriss and Luminara, though.

So I've only seen like 30-50% of this show because I started watching it back when it was on YouTube a few years ago and then something was weird with one of the videos and it felt like it skipped a large number of episodes or they didn't work or something and I wasn't invested enough to keep trying to find it or to go back now that I have access to D+. All of which means my opinion of this show isn't the MOST informed it could be. Please take my opinions on this show with a grain of salt if that bothers you.

I think that the 2003 Clone Wars is relatively flat as a show, it's not intended to be that deep of an exploration of any of the characters and certainly not of the Jedi or the clones, so trying to see it that way feels like an exercise in futility to begin with. TCW on the other hand, despite its terrible episodic structure, IS sometimes trying to go for deeper explorations of the characters, the Jedi, the clones, and the situation they are currently in. 2003 Clone Wars often represented the battles as fun adventures and nowhere is this easier to see than in the Mon Cala episode with Kit Fisto which was directly adapted into TCW as a full four episode arc. The 2003 version is silly, full of little explosions and Kit Fisto just throwing off his cape very dramatically. The 2008 version starts with an assassination, it introduces a more nuanced political situation between the Mon Cala and the Quarrens, it has a whole coming-of-age story with Lee Char, it gets a little darker with its shark villain and what he's willing to do, and it brings in the Gungans as a legitimate army again. And I feel like that's just a fairly good representation of how 2003 Clone Wars treated its characters and its stories in comparison to how other media has treated the same characters and stories of this time period.

I wasn't that big of a fan of how this show represented Obi-Wan and Anakin either, especially Anakin. I think they leaned REALLY hard into Anakin as the whiny teenager, to an even greater degree than AOTC did in many ways, which just continues to make it unbelievable that he gets Knighted. The entire Knighting ceremony moment was ridiculous because Obi-Wan comes up to talk to him about how he's being promoted to Knight because of his maturity and Anakin immediately refuses to let him finish because he assumes Obi-Wan is coming to criticize him for something and he just starts getting really childish and unkind about it, to the point that he literally is insulting Obi-Wan and throwing Qui-Gon in his face as a comparison. And somehow Obi-Wan STILL thinks he's ready to be a Knight after that interaction, and it's... so so bad. I genuinely really hate the way 2003 Clone Wars handled Anakin's Knighting.

I don't love the way it portrayed Obi-Wan and Anakin in the earlier episodes I saw where Anakin's still a Padawan, there's nothing positive about their relationship. Obi-Wan is just an overbearing nag and Anakin is a childish asshole and there's zero nuance to them beyond that. Even Lucas realized they needed to have some positive moments added in to ensure viewers realized that these two characters were friends who enjoyed each other's company. Just because they struggle sometimes doesn't mean they don't care about each other and the best way to make sure that gets across is to make sure they HAVE positive moments together. The episodes of 2003 Clone Wars that I saw absolutely failed at that.

And when Anakin isn't being a childish asshole, he was being portrayed as basically no better than an animal, which I assume is supposed to represent his darkness starting to grow or something. But it's not some sort of animal instinct turning him into a slobbering beast who can't really control himself, these are active choices Anakin makes out of fear that he allows to become anger. TCW focused a lot more on the anger than the fear, but what I saw of 2003 Clone Wars didn't really handle this well, either. It's a theme that a lot of people who write for Star Wars seem to miss, that Anakin is actively making these choices WHILE KNOWING THAT THEY'RE BAD CHOICES. That's honestly the whole point and trying to pretend that he isn't, that it's out of his control, or that it's some sort of destiny, misses the entire message being sent with his story.

Also whoever designed Anakin seems to have had a pretty major bias against Hayden Christensen because boy is the model for Anakin absolutely fuck ugly for no good reason.

I don't know that there was anything actively anti-Jedi in anything I saw in the 2003 Clone Wars show, but it was also just kind-of intended to be a pretty simple adventure show that didn't allow for a lot of time to explore anything with any real depth.

I don't hate it, but I don't love it, either. I know a ton of people really have a lot of nostalgia for it and I don't mind the episodes in a vacuum, they CAN be fun mindless little visual stories, but I also never think about it much and I have a lot of negative feelings about the way it handled Anakin. But again, I only saw SOME of this show and never finished it, so my opinion is based on what I DID see and doesn't take into account some of the later episodes I never got to.

[youhavethewrong]

Horror/Comedy: The most elusive genre of fiction

 In many regards, it is easy to consider Horror and Comedy to be about as opposite as two genres can go. Horror seeks to cause dread and fear in the viewers, while comedy (usually) seeks to comfort them and improve their moods. A good comedy can help you feel better after a bad day - a good horror can completely ruin a good one. Maybe this is why these two don’t often collide. Another reason could be that although Comedy is easily combined with other genres, like the RomCom, Horror is hardly ever mixed. More often than not, it just branches out into other kinds of horror, like Psychological horror or Slashers.

 However, something that is easy to forget is that Comedy and Horror are far more similar than one would assume. Both rely heavily in misdirection, surprising the viewer with an unexpected result. Both require perfect timing to pull off, and... well, this is not really related to my point here, but both have a tendency to be done reaaally badly when the people making them don’t care. Hack Comedy uses the not-actually-funny shorthand of fart jokes and falling down, while Hack Horror uses the not-actually-scary shorthand of jumpscares and loud sounds. Anyways.

 So if they supposedly go hand-in-hand so well, why is it they almost never meet? How come there’s almost no horror/comedy? Well, for starters, they’re each separately extremely difficult to pull off. Making someone laugh is not fucking easy, and neither is scaring someone. They require tremendous amount of talent and effort to do separately, so at the same time? When they already feel opposite? Forget about it! Secondly, it’s already quite difficult to picture something that is equals parts funny and scary. How would you even do that??

The first thing that came to mind when thinking about horror/comedies were those Scary Movie movies. Though I don’t really think they fall into horror territory? They’re not scary at all, they’re just spoof movies. They don’t even come up with their own ideas, they just borrow from popular horror. And they’re not even fucking funny. Comedy (in quotes) with horror elements, not what I’m looking for.

 Then I started looking for artists that are good at making both Comedy and Horror. The one with the biggest audience right now is obviously Jordan Peele. It’s certainly curious to think how he went from making a sketch show to becoming a horror movie director! There’s certainly a conversation to be had about how making the former helped him become better at the latter. Problem is, he either makes one or the other, not both at the same time. So is he what I’m looking for at the moment? Nope!

 Then my mind then went to a favorite of mine: Jack Stauber. His unique way of creating art has allowed him to make both hilarious comedy and touchingly deep horror. His masterpiece Opal is one of the most unique takes on the Horror genre I’ve seen! It’s not only stop-motion, which is quite rare, but a musical, which is even rarer! However, that one’s just horror. What about his individual sketches? The one that got closest to what I’m looking for right now is Future, though it’s... pretty hard to say it’s a joke? I’m sure some people would find it funny, but it’s difficult to say whether it was intended as such.

 Don’t worry though, I didn’t come here just to talk about an idea that I thought of with 0 examples. The whole reason I wanted to make this post talking about Horror/Comedy is because I watched the perfect example, and it made me realize that I hadn’t seen much else quite like it. And the example I watched came... from The Onion

 Although The Onion hasn’t been on its... best streak lately - mostly reposting articles from 7 years ago and making unimpressive TikToks - the Youtube content they created in the late 2000′s early 2010′s was... brilliant. And I don’t mean that as in “funny”, I mean that as in brilliant. Expertly written, produced, and performed layered comedy that drove points home. In The Know with Clifford Banes, and Today Now! being two of my favorite pieces of satire comedy. The Onion also seems particularly qualified to tackle Horror/Comedy, as the heart of their satire was pushing the inherent darkness and cruelty of the 24 hour news cycle to its highest possible, most absurd degree. And tackle it they did, in their 9-episode mini series Porkin’ Across America

 Porkin’ Across America is a parody of travel shows, where Jim Haggerty, host of morning news show Today Now!, travels around the 50 states looking for the best pork he can find. As this happens, his life starts steadily falling apart in the background, unraveling into a grotesque cacophony of errors. This show is, in my opinion, the best example of the Horror/Comedy genre. Because it’s not just comedy with horror elements, or horror with comedy elements: it’s the perfect combination of the two. The setup - misdirection structure that gives both genres their kick is used in tandem, intertwined. Punchlines to jokes are also horrifying revelations and imagery. I won’t spoil the ending, but I’ll just say this: the last line that is uttered is both the hilarious punchline to a series-long running joke, and such a horrible thing to say at that moment that it will send shivers down your spine. I highly recommend watching it, but be warned: the specific type of horror this show uses is body horror. You’ll be laughing, but you’ll also be extremely uncomfortable by the imagery. Definitely avoid this if that’s not your thing.

 Horror/Comedy is one of the rarest genre combinations in fiction, for a variety of reasons. It’s difficult to pull off, horror hardly mixes with other things, and most people don’t even know it can exist. But it can! And when it’s done well it’s an extremely unique experience, one that I believe is worth experiencing.

 I hope my explanation of this topic was clear enough, and I’m really excited to hear what you guys think! Can you think of any other work that could be defined with this genre? If so, I’d really like to hear it~

 Thank you for reading this whole stupid thing if you did! Yui OUT!

[a-lukewarm-take]

buddy, i understand why youre so confused. cause i am too.

i understand the whole things yeah, the 'harassing people is bad', 'mind your business', etc etc. but other than that im lost on whatever the hell this 'pro' and 'anti' stuff is. ive just been not interacting with that, i think those pro anti people call it being 'neutral' im pretty sure. anyway i think the whole concept is pretty dumb, but its the internet. i wouldnt be surprised if someone doxed someone else over ice cream flavors

what ive for the whole thing is this: pro in proship stands for 'pro' as in 'for' for shipping/ship and let ship, anti is the opposite of that. antis believe that fiction can influence people, pros dont. pros believe what you like in fiction does not dictate your morals, antis dont. etc etc

my tip is this: keep far far away and ignore everything about those two things. if you dont wanna do that, well, try not to get too lost in the sauce while listening to both sides and keep your mind open

sorry if you already knew half of this and this is just kinda null, have a nice day

I'm not big on lables. I think theres a pretty reasonable middle ground to be had but I doubt either side is going to actually listen for long enough to figure this out. It would be nice if they did but, this is the internet.

"Pedophilia is bad" 

can coexist with

 "Fictional characters aren't real and doing reprehensible things to them has no real life victims"

 aswell as

"Fiction and the way objectionable content in fiction is framed has historically been used as propaganda to enable or encourage harmful behavior irl." 

They're not contradictory unless deliberately misinterpreted and exaggerated via a bad faith rube-goldberg of causality.

Books like Lolita play with framing in a way that a lot of mainstream readers miss the point of, especially readers that expect Lolita to spoon feed them the morals as many other books would have. Whether or not a reader is aroused or horrified by Lolita has nothing to do with their own morals and everything to do with whether or not they picked up on the fact that the narrator is an unreliable monster justifying and lying to himself when it comes to the girl in the novel. 

Art is complicated and some audiences, no matter how hard the author tries, are going to interpret that art in a way the author did not intend or even pervert the meaning to support whatever worldview they had before encountering the work.

Sometimes stories show you an oversexualized and glorified depiction of a repugnant act, explicitly because they trust that this framing would make the audience uncomfortable. The titillation is intended only as a gateway to vomiting or a profound sense of horror as it highlights that not all bad things are prevented and that this world will not punish the unjust inherently. It's asking you to wallow in the tragedy. 

There are surely stories that have no such deeper meaning and are quite simply porn. The line is thin and blurry. When you censor one you run the risk of censoring them all because someone unprepared to think critically about what the media they consume is trying to say, is going to miss the point.

Censorship is a difficult thing to manage and everyone has a right to distrust the powers enforcing it. 

You can believe strongly that there is media that does more harm than good whilst also understanding that very rarely is this the direct or intentional fault of the creator or consumers of the work on an individual level. But rather cogs in a larger system to which individuals can participate much in the same way we don't blame the butterfly for the hurricane. You can fight for censorship without shaming or harassing the people who don't want it.

I'm sure someone else could explain this better than I could and I'm open to being wrong about this. I certainly don't have all the answers, that's a part of being human.

-Luke

[glowyjellyfish]

OUAT Rewatch Report Part 4: An Apple Red as Blood through We Are Both, plus Down the Rabbit Hole and Trust Me:

1. ugh poor August. He may have brought it on himself, but he definitely got a shitty deal to begin with—asking a seven year old to protect a baby in a strange world? And somehow magic functions enough to change him back to wood if he fails, but not enough for him to be a living puppet man? Raw deal. Nobody deserves to turn into bad CG and then deaged to conform to an easy happy ending.

2. loooove Mary Margaret’s Mom lecture when she calls Emma out for abducting Henry and abandoning everyone else.

3. Regina really cares about Henry more than the curse at this point. She needed the curse to maintain the life she built, but I do feel like at least half the season she was fighting much more for Henry than for the curse. I suspect that the pilot was set up intending her to be more irredeemable and incapable of love, but Lana Parilla’s performance changed that pretty quick.

4. again I’m confused by the fairies’ involvement in storming the castle. Really, we’re given no reasons why the fairies do anything. So, my theory is that Blue was aware that Rumple made the curse Regina was planning to cast, but not that he was also giving help to Snow and Charming. And she believed that in helping oppose the Evil Queen, they were fighting the Dark One. And I have now formulated a whole theory. It’s not really about good or evil to the fairies, that’s mostly PR. It’s about control over the use of magic. They’ve got a whole industry going, they don’t want freelancers popping up taking their business. They want to control who gets magic solutions and why, they want to control what price is paid, and they behave the way they do for good PR so that people will prefer and trust them. There doesn’t have to be any deeper agenda than that. Blue offers personal support to people whose trust she can gain and fates she can shape. And she offers support to people when her help will mean thwarting or destroying alternate magic users (ie, trying to get Bae to go with Rumple to the land without magic). She definitely seems very invested in eliminating the Dark One.

5. YAY NEAL I’m so excited to see him. I love how his apartment mirrors his father’s homes with his collection of Things. Also love how he has clearly been working hard to do better in the last 10 years. so who sent him the postcard by pigeon? I can’t remember if we’re ever informed about that, but it pretty much has to be August, right? Rumple wouldn’t be so bold and cryptic, and he doesn’t know where Bae is yet, and nobody else would know to alert Neal. Sending an extremely cryptic message is right up August’s alley, at least. I’ll see if the show explains it.

6. I had a whole timeline figured out based on OUATW beginning right after the curse is broken, and I’m trying to figure out whether that is actually correct. Certainly, it either starts during Broken or after the first half of s2 is done—somebody has to be driving Emma’s car around—and the storm at the beginning could be the Wraith attack. On the other hand, Will, Ashley, and Leroy do not act the way anybody acts right after the curse is broken. Will is understandable, he is barely capable of giving a shit about anything without really putting effort into it right now, but Ashley and Leroy? Just being at Granny’s like nothing is wrong? On the other other hand, if OUATW starts later that means Will managed to 100% lay low for the first couple weeks or so after the curse was broken. Not impossible at all, and obviously when s2 was written Will didn’t exist yet so it’s not that big a deal, but… if memory serves, later on when he’s on regular OUAT nobody knows who he is who didn’t know him before the curse? Could he really have never gotten arrested or otherwise made a nuisance of himself and stayed out of trouble for two weeks or however long s2a is, spending his time talking to Jefferson and throwing darts at a picture of Ana? Maybe. I’ll keep watching for timeline clues. I do suspect I am putting more thought into this than the writers did. I am beginning to doubt that this was the best viewing pattern either way. Might be better in the future to complete s2 or the first half of s2 and then watch all of Wonderland. However, even though it wasn’t designed this way, the parallels in watching the episodes interspersed like this are interesting: at the same time Storybrooke is freaking out about their lack of portals, Will just waltzed off into one with the Rabbit. Alice and Will visited Jefferson’s abandoned house, and then Charming tracks him down in Storybrooke. Cora is revealed to be in Fairy Tale Land, and Ana talks about taking over Wonderland. Very interesting.

7. I really enjoy that Dr. whale is just constantly hanging around slightly in the background of the episodes in this session. His big moment of leading an angry mob to confront Regina because that’s how his world deals with this sort of thing was great of course, but I just like how he’s right there when the curse is broken, and shown being distraught, and he’s constantly visible at the front of the groups of people demanding solutions from Charming. I mean, he knows damn well why he was cursed, and even worse than finding out he was cursed and being bombarded with the memories of a. his tragic life and b. that his real self is practically a joke in this world—even worse would be watching everyone else recognize one another and realizing he’s another world removed from the community here. Not surprising that he’s more upset than most, and that he wouldn’t want to talk about it, and that he’d leap to extreme solutions to try to get home (in a few episodes that is).

8. Regina’s redemption begins in earnest here, and I think they did a wonderful job of showing her abusive past and how she continued the cycle without intending to. What bugs me about her redemption arc is that I don’t recall her ever feeling bad or making up for things she did to anyone but Henry. Maybe some of the other main characters. It’s not that they did a bad job with her feelings or characterization, but redemption doesn’t ring true to me if she’s only doing it to please the one person she cares about, and then gets rewarded before she has to put in the hard work. That’s just how I remember it, though. I’ll keep my eyes open. Also, the term wasn’t as heavily used as it is now, but I’m glad the show made it clear that Regina gaslit Henry. I do believe she was doing her best and does love him and was never nearly as abusive as her mother… but she was still emotionally abusive to him, even if she was otherwise a perfect mother.

9. I kind of love Charming struggling to be in charge and maintain order, and really wish we had gotten a lot more episodes of how the town stays functional and solves its problems while the adventure team is out adventuring. Maybe I’m forgetting something.

10. why does Jefferson know that the Enchanted Forest still exists? I guess there’s just… a class of magic people that are portal jumpers, and they have knowledge of other worlds and their magic expresses itself in a specialized way of traveling between worlds that’s different for each one? And for Jefferson, it wasn’t just any hat he made, but this one specific hat that needs ambient magic to function and is able to work separate from him? I don’t think the show ever gives any more explanation than what Jefferson has said so far, so this theory’s as good as any. Maybe he can make a new one only if his old one is destroyed, so he lost his mind trying and couldn’t succeed even in Wonderland because Regina still had his original hat?

Today’s gif selection will be describing Regina, because although I had less trouble finding gifs for each episode I had a good collection for her and she deserves acknowledgement. I’ll probably amass more over time, god knows I’ve already found a few more for Rumple.

[tenebriskukris]

Oshi No Ko Chapter 160 - My Thoughts/Analysis - An Addendum

I was hit by a couple of thoughts that I had while rereading this chapter in conjunction with the last few twenty or so chapters before it and I thought it was relevant enough to add here at the bottom of my usual chapter analysis. More specifically, thoughts about the line that Aqua says to Hikaru about Ruby.

There are two ways to interpret Aqua’s line that Ruby is different from either Aqua himself or Hikaru. The first is that it’s the series fucking up again. By now, the readers are very much privy to Ruby’s black star arc and her own manipulations. That entire arc serves to highlight her own manipulations to find Goro’s killer and avenge him in the same way Aqua wanted to avenge Ai. Now, why would the series choose to hammer in the point that Ruby is somehow different from either Hikaru and Aqua when she herself has manipulated people for some end goal—whether that was a net positive or negative for the people she manipulated—and have Aqua emphasize this point during the confrontation with Hikaru?

It could obviously be a thematic fuck up. The series has fallen into numerous pitfalls in the last act of the manga so it wouldn’t be very surprising that it’s dropped the ball yet again. Even if they wanted to hammer in this point to the readers I’d argue that it simply wasn’t executed very well for this point to be made in the context of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation. It falls flat if you think about it for more than five seconds.

The second way to interpret Aqua’s words requires a bit more critical thinking to achieve. Bear with me for a moment while I go on a slight tangent. There are often at least two—three, if the writer knows their shit—layers of information that exist within every conversation between characters. The first layer is what is written as text. Simple enough—everything the characters say in a conversation.

The second layer is subtext—the stuff that isn’t spoken aloud but instead relies on inference based off of what we know about the characters. An example from the series I love to point out to people is when Mem confronts Aqua about avoiding Kana. Over the course of that conversation Mem comes to the conclusion that Aqua is obsessed with Kana—but Mem isn’t aware of all the facts. Aqua has seen Ai die because of a stalker, and in his mind he can’t be around Kana because he’s afraid of a similar thing happening—not because of some sort of obsession or love, but because he’s concerned with her safety. This subtext is further reinforced both before and after this conversation happens by both Akane and Aqua, lending credence to these facts this subtext is trying to highlight.

Now, back to the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation and the second interpretation of this line. Aqua saying these words to Hikaru certainly hold meaning. We know that Ruby has confessed to Aqua during her black star arc about the extent of her manipulations. Aqua knows just what Ruby is willing to do for revenge and what she’d done to avenge him. If Aqua is still saying these lines knowing exactly what she’d done—he’s willing to look past her manipulations and everything Ruby’s done during that period of her life and is still saying that she’s different from both Hikaru or himself. 

Did the series intend this kind of ambiguity? Absolutely fucking not. This is a series that refuses to show key reveals to the readers, that refuses to take the time to flesh out our characters’ mindsets half the time, that simply wants to speedrun to the finish line to the detriment of the story itself, and most importantly of all, doesn’t pay me to fill in its narrative pitfalls. 

The segways well towards the third layer of information: What the narrative wants to communicate to the readers. We see this well with how the narrative has positioned Ruby as someone who will surpass Ai. Discussions about whether or not it’s a good decision or not or whether or not it’s earned aside, it’s quite clear that this is the direction that manga is taking. I’ll be honest in my own opinions in that I don’t quite think that they executed that plot beat well enough, but the fact is that this idea has been consistently been hammered in time and again by the narrative itself, for better or worse.

This is what the narrative is telling us about Ruby: That she is someone who will surpass Ai. In spite of the fact that the execution of that fact leaves much to be desired in some aspects. The narrative is telling us that Ruby is to surpass Ai without the sufficient buildup or required time for such an idea to organically breathe within the scope of the series itself.

This disconnect between what the narrative is telling us and what we as readers see throughout the series is the reason why the first interpretation of Aqua’s words to Ruby exist. While the subtext gives a believable explanation behind Aqua’s words to Hikaru in this conversation, what the narrative is telling us here contradicts what readers have already seen throughout the series.

This leads into an interesting train of thought. Does one place the subtext implied by a single line over the contradiction of what the narrative has to say versus what is actually being shown when crafting interpretations towards the series? It’s simply a matter of how a reader views Ruby—and by proxy Aqua’s—character. Assuming that one doesn’t believe it’s a mistake on the writer’s part.

Of course, these interpretations can very much exist in harmony. Aqua can be wrong in saying that Ruby is different from Hikaru and himself and also still believe that Ruby is different from the pair even though she’d gone down a similar path. Perhaps they’d talked about Ruby’s time seeking revenge offscreen and got some closure there. Perhaps Aqua had that realization offscreen and is now using it against Hikaru—offscreen yet again. It wouldn’t fucking surprise me at this point considering how much the story seems satisfied with pulling tricks out of its own ass in order to progress the story.

Oshi No Ko Chapter 160 - My Thoughts/Analysis

This was simultaneously a very satisfying and unsatisfying chapter at the same time. I feel like that’s a large issue with the series at large, in fact. High highs and low lows. As always, spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch160 below.

We’re back with Hikaru and Aqua’s conversation—and a small flashback to Akane grilling Nino on her own relationship with Hikaru. Hikaru mentions that pushing someone off in this panel—then immediately backtracking to say he didn’t do any of that. Really bro? I’m not sure if Yura’s corpse has been found yet or if Nino spilled the information that Hikaru had a hand in her death there but I find that strange. 

All he did was talk about Ai. He wouldn’t let us forget about her. He thought that was enough for us to break. It’s incredible how bad this makes Nino and Ryosuke look. The two of them weren’t contractually obligated to be around Hikaru for any period of time—and because of his manipulations the two of them got their hands dirty.

Perhaps I should be a bit more sympathetic to them considering that Hikaru already had a pension for manipulation even at a young age and I’m well aware that cutting toxic friends out of your circle is a chore and a half but considering that Nino was still being manipulated by Hikaru and was an almost thirty year old woman when she was aware of that sort of manipulation from him in the first place—and don’t even get me started on the fact that she was working with him during the movie arc. 

Hikaru asked Ryosuke to deliver a bouquet and then leaked Ai’s address? There is absolutely no way that could’ve backfired on him in the slightest. Please note the sarcasm there. If Ryosuke had been caught by the police instead of hanging himself and he spilled that info to them then Hikaru would be in some real deep trouble. Did he not think that would backfire at all??? There was absolutely no way for him to be sure that Ryosuke would hang himself or get caught by the police or that he or Nino wouldn’t be connected to Ai’s murder. It’s just—absolutely stupid. Ruins the suspension of disbelief.

I do have a small nitpick on this mess though. Aqua says that Hikaru tried to kill Ruby—using Nino as a proxy—but how is he sure about that exactly? Nino might have squealed everything she knows about Hikaru to Akane and that information was delivered to Aqua after the fact since Nino’s capture likely happens chronologically before this encounter but that bit is not communicated properly to the viewer in an easy to digest manner so it feels like we’re just taking Aqua at his word here. It’s such a small thing but honestly there’s bigger fish to fry with this chapter.

These few pages of Hikaru explaining himself are, to me, a load of shite. We’ve already been clued in to the fact that this man is a grade-A liar so I’m not sure how inclined I am to believe him here. I make it a point to never take what any character says at face value unless there’s sufficient reason to prove otherwise—but from both how Nino’s telling the story and the logical inconsistency that Hikaru gave Ryosuke, a stalker with an obsession for Ai, her address—well. There’s more than enough evidence to call bull on this entire spiel—and Aqua does that too.

Ah yes, Nino wanting to kill Ruby and Hikaru not doing anything to prevent it. That is also a bit of a red flag there. Hikaru definitely was aware of Nino wanting to kill Ruby—and he didn’t even report Nino to the police or contacted Aqua or anything. He just let it happen, and in doing so helped kill Ruby by inaction. It does nag at me slightly considering that Hikaru told Nino that they should turn themselves in to the police, but I’m not sure whether to brush that off as bad fucking writing, which would be par for the course with the manga, or more of Hikaru’s manipulations.

Actually now that I think about it, Hikaru calling Nino during that one scene a few chapters back is a massive error on Hikaru’s part. It’s an easily accessible link to the police to link Nino and Hikaru if Nino was ever taken in. If Nino suspected that Hikaru was manipulating Ryosuke and her into trying to kill Ai and or Ruby, and the only reason she didn’t go to the police herself to tell them that both of them were also responsible was that she herself would be implicated in that same murder, if she got caught by anyone after stabbing Ruby it would be game over with Hikaru. Nino could squeal that she had a hand in Ai’s death as well as Hikaru’s part in all of these murders—since they were working together somewhat—and then that’d be game over for Hikaru. The Japanese conviction rate of close to a hundred percent strikes again.

And then there’s the full page panel of Hikaru with black star eyes and grinning like a horror monster. Cute and all, but it’s all style with little substance. I’d prefer a well written antagonist rather than one with a brilliant design but falls flat. There’s a reason I don’t dabble in criticizing the art in the manga, and it’s not because I’m no artist—any concept can perform well as long as its foundations are steady. As much as I love some of the art in this manga, it’s extraneous in terms of the story at large. While, sure, the manga’s art is notable at times, no amount of pretty art can make a pile of shit stop smelling like a pile of shit.

You tortured the hearts of others on purpose and stoked the flames of madness of those who were weak. Considering that Nino had already been captured and also assuming that Akane had conveyed all of this to Aqua beforehand it’s not much of a wonder that Aqua is coming to these conclusions. Unfortunately the manga just fucking refuses to show us how Aqua came to this conclusion and instead tells it to us as though the readers were children.

The question of whether or not Nino is slandering Hikaru like this did cross my mind—but she really isn’t smart enough for something like that in my opinion—otherwise she would’ve found a way to dispose of Ruby without putting herself at risk or made sure that it actually was Ruby who she was trying to stab. Nino fully intended to go down with the ship when she attempted to stab Ruby in broad daylight like this. Not to mention my previous assessment that Hikaru stood by and let Nino try and kill Ruby in the first place still holds weight, so I don’t think what she’s saying is false—at least not without any other evidence.

I see, you’re the same. You have the same eyes as me. And that shot with both of them with black star eyes…Quite impressive ambience. I mentioned before about how I don’t criticize the art of the manga, but this is one of those moments where there’s plenty of style to highlight the substance of the panel. Well done.

Oh, we’re getting a bit of explanation about the eyes. I don’t have the exact interview on me at the moment but I recall the authors saying that the stars in people’s eyes just aren’t visible and are instead just a metaphor or something along those lines—point is, Hikaru and Aqua can’t see the black stars in each other’s eyes. But with his pension for manipulation I don’t think it’s a stretch for Hikaru to shoot in the dark in order to get under Aqua’s skin here. 

Is Hikaru really going on this “we’re not so different” bit? That’s cool and all but usually the villain follows up on this by tempting the hero or trying to break them by talking but this just falls oh so very flat when you think about it for more than two seconds. What is the point that he’s trying to make here? That Aqua and him are the same? Okay, cool. But that’s not right at all. Everything Aqua’s done for revenge has been morally dubious at times as he’d been playing the industry game, but that’s egregious compared to, y’know, the actual literal murder that Hikaru has enabled through his manipulations. It’s not a competition.

It’s true that we’re ugly beings that manipulate people’s hearts, deceive them, and make us obey them for our own sake. That’s more than a bit of hatred towards yourself and Hikaru in your words there, Aqua. I’d even argue that that sort of shine is exactly what a performer needs to evoke emotions in their fans—it’s merely a matter of using that kind of pull responsibly.

Ruby is different. Even now, she’s singing of love. That’s certainly some bias that he has for her, gotta say. Ruby’s black star arc comes to mind as a time when Ruby was manipulating people to avenge Goro but saying that Ruby’s an exception is a bit of a stretch. Though—considering how much Aqua cares for Ruby I’m more than sure that his feelings are coloring his words right here—it’s very in character.

And another few panels detailing how Aqua sees the star eyes and about how these eyes are supposed to convey love…it’s interesting. I’m quite sure we already know for a fact that the eyes are supposed to represent talent or something of the sort from an official interview, but it’s nice to see that the star eyes are used here as a vehicle to display how Aqua views that kind of pull and influence in respects to all the Hoshinos. And that one panel of Ai holding baby Aqua and Ruby…damn. Never forget what we lost.

AQUA WITH DOUBLE STAR EYES??? AFTER HE TALKS ABOUT RUBY LIKE THAT??????? Welp, that’s game. GG WP. 

Well that was certainly A Chapter. With some of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation out of the way I think it’s time to rip out this chapter’s guts.

As a single chapter—I think this chapter did well enough to stand on its own merits. As a part of a greater whole? It misses the mark quite badly in terms of pacing. The aftermath of the Nino confrontation and just what exactly she said and the question of how that was relayed to Aqua are questions that aren’t really necessary for the manga to flow together coherently, but when the manga tries to answer them so opaquely and in the middle of the Aqua-Hikaru confrontation it messes with the atmosphere and the pacing of what should be the main event.

What’s annoying is that this is an issue that could be easily solved by restructuring the order of events. Just focus on the Nino aftermath and squeeze all the info out of her for a chapter and end it off with Akane telling Aqua all of this over the phone before meeting Hikaru. Simple, efficient, and it doesn’t break too much with the timeline. 

One question that I still have to pose is why. Why the hell did Hikaru try to kill Ruby using Nino as a proxy? Obviously doing nothing is easier than doing something since he mainly kills through via proxy and if he didn’t do anything to stop Nino he knew she would make a move on Ruby, but the question of why is still hidden. While I’m now relatively confident that his prior reasons for killing Ai that he’d explained in his previous confrontations with Aqua are bullshit, that still leaves his reasoning for orchestrating their deaths unknown. Perhaps we’ll get a peek in his head before the end? 

In regards to the Nino-Hikaru antagonist fake out—I’m still on the fence on it. I’d been meaning to give my own take on it as soon as this confrontation was dealt with, but I need to see how Hikaru is dealt with before I give my honest opinion on the matter, but I’m not liking what the authors are giving us so far.

Now then—the final panel. This is the nail in the coffin for everyone that isn’t Ruby for the Aquabowl. The last chapter showing that Aqua wasn’t even at Kana’s graduation concert for Kana herself is telling enough, but this final scene showing him with both star eyes about to kill his father for Ruby’s sake is—well. If it was Akane or Kana that Aqua mentioned in this scene then you’d be sure that it’d be a downright slam dunk confirmation towards who would be the winning girl by the fandom but because Ruby’s entire admission in the Aquabowl is controversial as all hell it’s less interpreted in the manner. Bit of a double standard there in my opinion, but I’m sure we’ll be getting more content for us Ruby fans to chomp on. 

In any case, I suspect the manga will be wrapping up soon. With Aqua’s revenge against Hikaru almost certainly coming to pass within the next chapter or so I don’t expect there’s any other plot points that the manga will go out of its way to detail going forward. A quick look at the current chapters in each volume of the manga tells me that the end of this current volume is on the horizon. Perhaps one more volume and another ten-ish chapters to wrap everything up, but truthfully I wouldn’t be surprised if the manga ended with this volume. It wouldn’t be the first time this manga has neglected good writing to finish the story faster.

[mejomonster]

also lol someone said the show “gave them guardian vibes”

idk about THAT

i mean ian yi is dressed DAPPER and all but. but guardian is cdrama xmen/torchwood. a lot lighter in tone/cheaper in budget/more fun campy moments. so far this baby is a lot heavier. winter begonia is definitely much more the vibe i’m getting. (tho winter begonia was in its own league as far as feeling like Movie Quality to me - even tho i didnt finish it... one day)

the sets on it though, nice uvu. really nice. as are the framing shots of scenes, very lovely to watch, and the fight scenes are solid. and the actual buildings/rooms/streets/costumes look so Nice to look at. so like kudos to whoever’s handling those aspects. the script is also a good pace. i’m still waiting to see how i feel about the characters..

its definitely Suspense genre.

[crellanstein]

Prodigious

I find it odd how the fandom focuses so much on Aang’s childhood being ruined when he learned he was the Avatar at 12, but there’s very little talk about how discovering she was the Avatar as a toddler affected Korra’s life and how she was raised.

But we’ll circle back to that...

Because this is a good starting point to talk about one of the most prevalent themes in the story, which the mainstream discussion of tends to only focus on a few characters -- That is the Child Prodigy. 

We’ll start with the two most obvious. The ones we always talk about.

Azula.

The clearest example of your typical child prodigy (if there is anything typical about a prodigy). Azula showed early mastery of very advanced Fire-Bending techniques, and is the only Fire-Bender to use blue flames, which was intended to make her stand out amongst the other villains but is also indicative that her Fire-Bending is more pure and powerful (blue flame is produced when burning pure O2 or fuel without contaminant at a very high temperature). 

All this lead to her being praised and favored by Ozai as a child, but as double-edged swords go, this also meant she had a lot of pressure on her shoulders to never fail, and she rarely did. Her ego matched her talent, and let’s be honest she was the baddest bitch the show had ever seen. Conquering Ba Sing Se, defeating the Avatar in combat, and dropping some of the most devastating lines of dialogue in villain history; she was a force nobody wanted to reckon with. 

And that become a problem for one asshole in particular...

Being jealous of his own child is just one item on a laundry list of reasons why this guy is the worst father in the history of fathers. Azula had begun to outshine him with her victories, and Ozai’s maniacal ego couldn’t handle that, so he left her behind to babysit the Fire Nation while he went out to burn/conquer the world, which also was her idea.

And while this wasn’t the only thing that aided in her demise, it certainly was the final straw which sent her spiraling down into this...

In the end Azula is a sad example of how certain unfair expectations are placed upon talented children, and the more they succeed, the more these expectations grow and weigh on the them until they either disappoint those looking down on them or surpass and embarrass their elders.

It is a lose-lose situation which inevitably destroys them.

There is a similar example of the child prodigy, but his story goes a little different.

Aang.

Even as a twelve/thirteen year-old boy Aang by far has the most impressive stats among any character in the Avatar universe.

Basically mastering 3 of the 4 Elements in less than a year, after mastering Air by the time he is twelve (not to mention inventing his own Air-bending move, the Air scooter). 

Aang is an example of a child prodigy who had too much thrust onto him at too young an age because of the talent he showed; because of this he panicked and ran away, and the world was worse off for it. 

Aang/Sokka/Katara’s story is all about how in times of War, responsibilities normally handled by adults are pushed onto kids who then have to grow up very fast in order to deal with it all.

The message is clear. War robs the young of their childhoods. 

Now, let’s talk about a different kind of child prodigy.

The Unacknowledged. 

Yes, of course I’m talking about Toph, the greatest Earth-Bender to ever live.

Because of her blindness, Toph’s family tried to keep her sheltered and safe by hiding her from the world. Refusing to believe she could ever be more than helpless. Anyone who has seen the show knows that is far from the truth.

But because her potential went unseen, there were some negative effects to her personality. Initially, she resented her parents, and rebelled; which established a certain level of independence, a bad attitude, and a hot-headed streak. Over time spent with the Gaang these behaviors subsided because she finally had friends and they accepted her for who she was. By the end of the series she was fully willing to accept aid from them when she needed it, like holding on to Sokka’s arm in environment where her bending couldn’t help her “see”. 

Toph’s story is a foil to Azula’s, both showed immense talent and badassery, but while recognition of Azula lead to ever-mounting pressure for her to succeed; the lack of recognition for Toph created a need for her to be acknowledged and set an undercurrent of frustration which leads to her acting out in the ways she does.

The lesson to take from Toph’s story is not to shelter your kid from the world out of fear for their safety, and to be open to recognizing their talents, not shun them.

Next are two more Unacknowledged.

Katara and Sokka.       

Their story, and the reason behind their circumstances, is one of the more complicated and nuanced ones in the series, so here we’ll focus on how it fits into the subject of discussion.

Because of the War, Katara was robbed not only of her mother but also of any Southern Masters to train her, and any role models Sokka could have looked up to left with his father to fight. Because of this Katara’s potential and Sokka’s genius went unacknowledged not due to neglect but rather due to circumstance. (Yes, I think Sokka is a genius, how many 15 yr olds do you know that can plan an invasion, design submarines, and spit poetry off the cuff?).

This is a further example of how War robs kids of necessary childhood experiences, and these two robberies had particular effects on both Katara and Sokka’s character developments.

Sokka had the responsibility of protecting his home put upon him at a young age. The men of his tribe leaving prevented him from completing his rite of manhood until the Gaang ran into Bato of the Water Tribe, and early on Sokka was constantly trying to prove himself as a man and a leader. Sokka is one of the smarter characters of the series, but he rarely got credit for it until the third season. Not to mention that because he wasn’t a bender he often seemed less useful than the others. The circumstances of war made his talent go unnoticed and because of that he often was unsure of himself and overcompensated to prove something.

Speaking of talent going unnoticed.

Katara is definitely one of the more talented benders of the series. After training herself for years with little progress, she essentially mastered Water-Bending in a few weeks under Master Pakku. While her anger towards the Fire-Nation mostly centers around the loss of her mother, it can’t be ignored that the delay in her training was a direct result of the Fire-Nations’ actions.  Toph’s anger and frustration vented itself as rebellion. However, the same frustration and anger is within Katara, but because she wasn’t as natural a bender as Toph she sought to learn and be respected, and when that was denied to her is when that anger bubbled to the surface in some terrifying ways. 

While Toph’s talent went unnoticed because of her families neglect, Katara and Sokka’s wasn’t acknowledged because there was nobody to acknowledge it. Because of that both brother and sister wanted to prove themselves to the world.

And then there is Zuko.

I know what you’re thinking. Zuko wasn’t a prodigy, his Fire-Bending skill didn’t catch up with Azula’s until the finale and he never mastered Lightning-Bending, but this section is about the Unacknowledged.

Zuko had many other talents besides Fire-Bending, he was a master swordsmen, and was able to successfully break into every secure facility he attempted in the show (which was almost every secure facility the show featured).  Unfortunately, these talents were never recognized, because the only thing the royal family cared about was bending ability (It’s possible the reason he learned the sword was because he lacked skill in Fire-Bending). 

As per usual with Zuko, this part of his tale is quite sad. Many can relate to being outshined by a sibling, and when it becomes all too clear that one cannot match another’s talent it’s quite understandable to focus on what they do excel at, but even then there is no promise of recognition for their own talent. Zuko was even mocked by his father during the solar eclipse when Ozai tried baiting him into attacking with his swords. 

This lack of recognition is one of many sad aspects of Zuko’s early life, but it is a definitive example of one of the hardest unacknowledged prodigy’s cross to bear. The Outshone prodigy, one whose talents are never noticed because a bigger and brighter star stands in the way of such recognition, and arguably the most frustrating type mentioned here. Toph/Sokka/Katara all came from situations were there was no recognition being given to them or anyone, but Zuko had to bear watching massive amounts of praise be piled on to his sister while he and his accomplishments went by the way side.

Ozai summed up the situation best.

“Azula was born lucky, Zuko was lucky to be born”

Alright now where have I been going with all this?

So, far we’ve covered a lot of wrong ways to treat a child, whether they show talent or not, and how the circumstances of war can also take many things from children.

But what happened to Korra?

(Before we get into to this I should state that I like Korra, and the purpose of this is not to bash her as a character or her arc, but rather to give a little of my insight into it.)

It’s well established that Aang was told of his heritage too young, and that was a detriment on his development into an adult, but what would have happened if he realized his powers himself not long after he could walk? We’ll never know, but we do get to see the effects it had on Korra. 

When she revealed herself as the Avatar, Korra set her entire life in a new direction, and because Aang tasked the White Lotus with finding and training her that direction was out of her control. There are two key differences between Korras’ and other Avatars’ lives.

1. She grew up in isolation on a White Lotus compound.

Every Avatar before Korra we know of spent a portion of their early lives traveling the world in order to master the elements; along this journey they not only learned how to bend the other 3 elements, buy also many things about the 3 other nations and the world they are tasked to protect as a whole. By confining Korra in safety and bringing the masters to her the White Lotus deprived Korra of this opportunity to learn and grow and understand the world and the people within in. It also deprived her of learning modern bending styles until she reached Republic City.

While this might have kept Korra safe from the Red Lotus, it grew within her a naiveté about how the world worked, and because of this when she actually did venture out into the world she was terribly unprepared for it.

2.  She was trained and mastered 3 of the elements by the time she was 16.

Most Avatars don’t know they have this power until they reach 16 and then they spend several years learning to control it. Korra’s natural talent in the bending lead to her training being expedited not by necessity like Aang’s, but due to her talent and eagerness. Korra excelled at the physical part of being the Avatar and because of this by the time she reached maturity she had become over-confident in her abilities and true to what her Fire-Bending master said in Ep.1 she lacked restraint.

I’m not saying her bending isn’t great, but rather because it is so great it’s her go-to solution to anything, and she enjoys that so she uses it with enthusiastic gusto and not a lot of thinking before striking.

This overconfidence coupled with her naiveté of the world is what lead to many of her rash decisions and actions, most of which had negative consequences, and I believe are the reason behind some fan are dissatisfied with her. Aang had been almost the complete opposite, even by the age of twelve he was an experienced world traveler and an incredibly humble guy. 

Some may have been dissatisfied by these character decisions, but they served a purpose, they are only the beginning of her arc. The internal challenge Korra must overcome through 4 seasons is to humble herself before the world, and learn from it. This was finally achieved in the 4th season when the metal poisoning in her body forces her to face others in the world as equals, only then had she completed her journey.

And why did it all go this way?

Because she is a very unique child prodigy, what she demonstrates in the first episode of LOK would be akin to a toddler playing the violin or hitting a three-pointer; she could bend 3 elements close to just after learning to walk. That is the kind of prodigious talent rarely seen because it is mostly impossible. How does a rational person handle a child like that? 

It’s a tough question, and something this essay has been circling around the whole time. Each example here is the wrong way to handle talented and different children, but what is the right way?

As always look to Iroh.

Who treated his surrogate son Zuko with both respect and compassion. 

Unlike Toph’s parents, Iroh worried over Zuko’s well being, but also allowed him to be independent, make his own decisions, and take his own risks.

Unlike the Nomad Leaders, he didn’t want Zuko weighed down by his position in the world and the responsibility that came with, and always encouraged him relax and take advantage of the moment.

Unlike Ozai, Iroh would always be there to support Zuko in his victories and his failures. Iroh shows him the right path but does not force him down it.

And even after Zuko betrayed and abandoned him.

Iroh was never angry with him, and embraced him upon his return.

He wanted Zuko to grow and be a better man. Even if Zuko wasn’t a prodigy like his sister. 

And that is the answer here. The way to raise a prodigy is the same way anyone should raise any child. Love, Support, a Guiding Hand rather than a Forceful Shove, Recognition of What Makes Them Unique, and Forgiveness When They Falter. The problem comes along when you start treating children differently because you see them as different or special. All children are different, all children are special.

Kids are kids, and they all deserve a proper childhood.  

[myckicade]

This is my response to an ongoing conversation. ( @motleystitches and @tikxy have some fabulous insights! ). I'm posting this portion on its own, as well, because... Well, why not, indeed?

To quote the beginning of @motleystitches' response:

This is incredibly interesting, because it leads me to thinking that perhaps Lestat never intended to be in this deep with Louis at all. He didn’t realise what he was getting into when he started the whole hunt-for-a-companion. He knew the “play” of romance, so that’s what he did with his grand gestures etc, but it all comes back to bite him, so to speak and he didn’t like it at all.

Mmmm, precisely. He intended to play the game, and fell head-first into, "Oh, shit." Louis feels like the biggest slap of reality that (I suspect) Lestat has had in a long time, a reminder of that which he can't control. He can kill. He can seduce. But love? Oh, no. No, love can not be kept on such a tether, not when it is him being choked by the reigns. Being Louis' maker, there is likely a pretty serious expectation of adoration from his fledgling, of love, certainly, and not necessarily with the intention of making it a two-way street (beyond those grand gestures).

The truly amusing part is that Lestat is really overthinking the problem. To use an old favourite, he's set up for a game of checkers, while Louis is ready to play chess.

I love your description of Louis as "the most human-ish vampire ever", because that is absolutely spot-on. Louis wants to be seen, to be understood. We wants something real. He isn't taken in by the superficial, and that comes across as the only card Lestat knows how to play. He can wine and dine, he can show off his wealth and status, he can be the mysterious man about town. When that fails to be what Louis needs to be happy, and it makes Louis confused and uncomfortable, there's this sense of, "...-Huh?!" Sure, Lestat eventually says he enjoys the challenge of Louis, but the novelty is quick to wear off. He's faced with it so many times, the resulting struggle to recalibrate leaves him with mental and emotional whiplash.

At some points, it really looks like he doesn't know whether he's coming or going. The argument in which Lestat screams, "This isn't a life!" strikes me, again and again. That he, Lestat, stubborn, headstrong, ever-powerful creature of the night, has been brought to tears over a situation he could have left. He's scared and hurt, stuck in the middle of a situation he doesn't seem to have encountered before, that he put himself in, and he's looking to Louis to fix it. Goodness knows he's tried and tried (and failed and failed) to make Louis happy, and Louis is the only one with the answer of how to make it work. The only one with the power to change it. He's helpless in the face of Louis' depression, and doesn't have a clue what else to try. Nights out don't work. Sex doesn't work. It's an easy thing to take personally. Unfortunately, he turns to that age-old defense: Victim Blaming. I do believe that he genuinely wants Louis to feel better, but that ego response of "Why am I not the answer?!" really, really gets in his way.

And he still has the balls to laugh in Louis' face, when Loius voices the same concern over their relationship. What a dick.

Anyway.

Lestat clearly loves Louis enough to stand beside him, and swirl down the drain with him, but he lacks the capacity for... understanding? Empathy? Patience? To continue on in silence. To some degree, I would argue that he shouldn't have to, either. Argument, within limitation, can be healthy toward working through feelings, and making one's self heard. Getting to the bottom of things, and figuring it all out. On the other side of the argument, Louis does not have to magically be better to fix the problem. I'm just being a broken record about fucking communicating.

The situation with Claudia is a repeat of the same theme, sparking the pattern I had previously mentioned. They wrap the wound (turn Claudia), forgive and forget, and move on. But, eventually, Louis' focus goes to Claudia, a stand-in (though loved) for the family he's already lost. He's once again distracted by something that isn't Lestat. He nit-picks at Lestat for his parenting choices, which, I grant you, don't look great on the surface. But, Lestat is the experienced vampire. I say again, Lestat is the experienced vampire. He knows what it will take for this girl, this fledgling of theirs to survive in the world. Every time he tries, Louis takes issue, because Louis is trying to protect Claudia from what she is. From what they made her. As with his own self-care as a vampire, he's trying to do it in halves. I think it scares him that Claudia is a killer, that she is not like him. That she will grow to resent them for what they have done to her, as opposed to for her. (And, as we've seen... Ta-da...).

But, I digress. Here's Louis, once again throwing criticism at Lestat. Resentment. Just when he thinks he's finally found the answer. After he's helped Louis to attain what he wants. After they have been doing so much better. After he's given more than he had ever intended to the man, and he's still not enough. He isn't enough to make Louis stay without Claudia. He isn't enough to make Louis happy without Claudia. Either he doesn't understand what Louis is going through, or he doesn't give a shit (which I find a little more difficult to believe), and it leaves him with a sense of inadequacy. And he looks at Claudia, and Claudia apparently holds every fucking answer that he has now spent decades trying to find. He's failed, and to a child, and part of him just seems to... give up.

Which brings me to Antoinette. Part of me thinks that, sure, Lestat runs back over to Antoinette, at whatever point, to fill the void of what he wants, but isn't getting from Louis. Someone he can please, and likely with so much ease, I can hear his ego purring from here. Someone who makes him feel wanted, and desirable, and (I'm sure) the complete opposite of helpless. The rest of me, though, also sees this affair as Lestat giving up. Said affair has gone on for all these years, and Louis obviously hasn't moved for a physical separation. The cry for attention has gone unanswered. He's tired of hunting. As you say, he recognizes himself as being in the wrong for it, because he still doesn't want to lose what they have, fucked up as it may be. It reads to me as, "Yes, I've done it. Now, are you going to fight for me? For us?"

Then, re-enter Claudia, and her attempts to take Louis away. No matter what they've been through until this point, no matter how many times Louis has threatened to end things, they are still together. They've weathered it all, for better or worse. If there has been a roadblock? Lestat has destroyed it. Quite literally, he has killed it. But, Claudia? She's a roadblock he can't go through. He can't kill Claudia. For one thing, I do believe he cares about her, much as - again - he claims he doesn't. For another, if he harms her, he will surely lose Louis for good. And, he cares about that. This isn't something he can piss on and walk away from. Louis means everything to him. Claudia is going to win, Louis is going to leave him, and Lestat has no tricks left to try. No amount of recalibration is going to fix it. He's lost, and he can't have that.

If he's going to lose anyway, he might as well become the monster he was always expected to be.

[pumpkinpaix]

hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3

so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?

hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D

anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?

I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D

so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.

However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:

whatcha doin’?

what’re you doing?

what are you doing? [standard colloquial]

may I ask what you are doing?

might I inquire as to what you are doing?

excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?

this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).

different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).

you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.

THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.

lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D

you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.

so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.

hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.

I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:

蓝曦臣道：“你亲眼所见？”

蓝忘机道：“他亲眼所见。”

蓝曦臣道：“你相信他？”

蓝忘机道：“信。”

[...] 蓝曦臣道：“那么金光瑶呢？”

蓝忘机道：“不可信。”

my translation:

Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”

Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”

Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”

Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”

[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”

Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”

you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:

Lan Xichen’s first line:

你 (you) 亲眼 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)？

idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.

if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:

你是自己看见的吗？

你 (you) 是 (to be) 自己 (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 吗 (interrogative particle)？

i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of 亲眼 i’ve used 自己, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (吗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”

contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:

in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 你 (you) 相信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).

chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (是／有) and negative (不／没) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)

regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 相信. lan wangji could have responded with “相信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (相), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!

and onto the last exchange:

lan xichen: 那么 (then) 金光瑶 (jin guangyao) 呢 (what about)？

lan wangji: 不可 (cannot) 信 (believe)

you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply “金光瑶呢？” which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那么 isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out 么 and it would be the same meaning as well.

a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:

“I don’t know” is usually given as 我不知道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (知道). you can pare this straight down to just 不知 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.

ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character 啥 (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什么 (shen2 me). (which means “what”)

so for a standard sentence of, 你在做什么? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 做啥? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.

other slang i can think of off the top of my head: 干嘛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 整 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.

so in the same way that you can replace 什么 with 啥, you can replace 做 as well to get constructions like 搞啥 (gao3 sha2) and 整啥 (zheng3 sha2).

these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.

woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D

this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ´▽` *)

anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.

[the-insomniac-emporium]

Bound Blood (Cassandra Dimitrescu/Reader, Soulmate AU) Pt. 5.5 Bonus

Fandom: Resident Evil: Village Rating: T+ for language Warnings: None Summary: Local feral human spends some time with their new family. Four short bits featuring Daphne (Maiden OC), Bela, Lady D, Daniela, and a surprise guest. Enjoy. Previous Chapters: 1: Sharing Is (Not) Caring; 2: Bloodbath, Baby!, 3: Haunt Me Dearly, 4: Portraits For Ghosts, 5: Heart Of The Matter

5.5: Family

i.

“Wait, you’re telling me that you came here willingly?” You asked, mouth agape, eyes wide. It felt like every time you talked to Daphne she had something incredible to say. Which was, of course, why she was your favorite maiden to talk to. That, and the fact that she had adapted so quickly to your ‘charming personality’. So far she was the only servant you had been willing to be honest with. Mainly about your feelings regarding your blood bond, but also just about your relationship with Cassandra in general. Something about Daphne simply made her incredibly approachable. From what you had heard, you weren’t the only one to think as such, with her being fairly popular among the castle workers.

“More of us do than you might expect. Some consider it an honor to serve one of the four Lords, and Castle Dimitrescu is certainly… nicer than either the factory or the reservoir. Personally, I came here for a friend of mine. She, well, had less of a choice. I couldn’t bear the thought of her being here without knowing anyone, so it felt like I only had one option. Can’t say I regret my decision, if you can believe it,” Daphne explained, folding laundry all the while. At the same time, you carefully sort through the not yet washed clothing, separating them into two baskets. After all, you wouldn’t want Lady Dimitrescu to end up with a pink dress! Technically this wasn’t your job, nor did you have a job at all, but you hated having idle hands- especially when talking to someone who was working. At first Daphne had protested, but she had given in upon realizing just how stubborn you could be.

“That’s… impressive. I mean, holy shit, that's a real ride or die friendship right there. Is she, uh, is your friend still, you know, around?” You stuttered, cursing your tongue for asking such a thing. If the answer was no, you were going to feel like a real asshole. Which, admittedly, you had a tendency to be. But this wasn’t one of the times where it was intentional. Thankfully, Daphne is all smiles, and even seems amused by your spluttering.

“Yes, we’re even roommates. Well, us and five others. Possibly with a sixth one on the way, if we ever get someone to fill the empty space,” she replies, pausing to think. Then she’s back to work, refusing to waste any time. “Speaking of roommates… I know I said I’m not one for gossip, and I meant it, but a little songbird told me that Cassandra seems to be in a much better mood these days. Are the two of you, well, getting along? It would be nice to know that soulmates can overcome even the roughest of introductions.” There’s a hint of something odd in her tone, and you take a moment to wonder what she’s (unintentionally) hinting at. Had she met her soulmate, only for things to go poorly?... Before answering her, you make a mental note, deciding to see if any of the other maidens had a scar across their nose.

“It’s not like she and I are dating or anything. We’re just, you know, not hating each other. Currently,” you said, shrugging. But Daphne raises an eyebrow at you, and you find yourself instinctively feeling guilty, somehow feeling small next to the shortest person you knew. “Alright, alright, we might have… Okay we kissed. And promised each other not to die, because having your soulmate die hurts like hell. Also maybe she showed me her mom’s art collection and I made a joke about the titty sculptures because holy shit, this house has a lot of titties.” At this, Daphne bursts into laughter, grinning from ear to ear.

“Amen to that, for sure.”

ii.

“So… fan of science, I see,” you say, awkwardly, bouncing a little on your heels. Next to you is the eldest Dimitrescu daughter, who had unexpectedly joined your table in the library. There were several other places she could have sat, with both more comfortable seating and more workspace, but for some reason she had chosen here. So far she hadn’t said a word. Hell, you hadn’t spoken to her since your first meeting, where she had suggested killing you. Naturally, you weren’t quite sure what to make of her. Something told you that she felt much the same about yourself.

“Fan of oversimplification, I see,” Bela counters, after a few tense seconds. Then she sets down her book- a heavy text about Romanian avian fauna- to give you her full attention. “It would be more accurate to say that I enjoy studying biology, particularly the branch of zoology.” Well, this conversation was certainly… happening. Honestly, you couldn’t tell whether she was legitimately judging you, or merely chaffing you for her own amusement.

“You’ll have to, er, forgive me for being overly broad. Consider it a side effect of my nerves, those themselves being due to our unsavory introduction. In case you don’t recall, you put that sickle of yours into my shoulder,” you reminded, with a sarcastic smile. To your surprise, Bela chuckles at this, almost as if fondly remembering the incident. Seriously, you think, why did my soulmate have to be from this family?

“Staying silent was an option. Perhaps that would have suited you better?” Bela says, now clearly teasing, smile much more genuine than your own. Knowing she had a point, you’re quick to blush, mildly embarrassed.

“Touche. I am curious, however, why you decided to sit next to me in the first place. I certainly wouldn’t have tried starting a conversation if you hadn’t,” you explained.

“Like I said… I enjoy studying zoology,” Bela replies, with a sly grin. It takes you a few moments to understand the intended implications. Once you do, however, you’re giving her a hard stare. Then you scoot your chair a few inches away from her, in exaggerated movements. “Don’t worry, I was only joking. Though you certainly are an interesting human. Much more, hmm, cheeky? Compared to the servants, at least.”

“Somehow I get the feeling that they simply prefer being alive, as opposed to not being as snippy. Except maybe Daphne, now that I think about it. Very sweet, that one,” you muse. “Regardless, I think I’ll return to my book now, for it lacks a tongue, and is therefore less likely to taunt me.” Doing just as you had said, you open the book, holding it a bit higher than what would be comfortable, so that it becomes a ‘shield’ of sorts. Nothing was quite as satisfying as subtle body language.

Accepting your words with a shrug, Bela also resumes reading, turning to a bookmarked page. Roughly an hour of relative quiet passes. Neither of you so much as glance at each other, not even when she drops the pen she had been taking notes with. In the end, you are the one who leaves first, and finally the silence is broken. You give your goodbyes, and Bela returns them politely. Though you do not know it, she sets her book down as soon as you leave, pausing to think about you. Now that things had ‘calmed down’, it was reassuring for her to know that you weren’t always full of spite. Still, you held onto your cleverness (for the most part), leaving her with no doubt about the universe’s decision. You were her sister’s soulmate.

iii.

“It’s official: I’m lost in a creepy castle. The universe hates me. Probably should have realized that sooner, considering how it decided to introduce me to my soulmate,” you mutter, scowling deeply, as you wander unfamiliar halls. How had you even gotten lost? Sure, you had taken a wrong turn, but it hadn’t taken long for you to realize your mistake! Evidently you somehow managed to make another one while backtracking. Now you were standing in the center of the corridor, hands on your hips, desperate for some maiden to come rescue you. What you really didn’t want was Cassandra to find you, because she’d make fun of you for the rest of your life. It’s not like she had specifically joked about you getting lost before. Except that was exactly what had happened.

A few minutes pass uneventfully. There aren’t even any distant sounds of life; no footsteps, nor echoing voices, nor the squeaking of floorboards. All you can hear is your own breathing. As well as the occasional sigh, admittedly. By this point, there’s a part of you that’s starting to panic. After all, there was a chance that the castle was big enough for certain sections to be abandoned. Hopefully that’s not the case, you think, I mean, they’d cut the power to those parts, right? Here’s hoping… With that in mind, you get back to wandering, figuring that you’d have to eventually run into a familiar landmark. Or better yet, someone who actually knew the castle’s layout.

When salvation at last reveals its holy visage, it is not in the form of a lowly servant, rather the muffled voice of none other than Lady Dimitrescu herself. Neither her exact words nor who she’s speaking to is clear. At first, you can’t even tell where her voice is coming from, but you quickly approach one closed door, then another, searching for the source. Several doors later you’re certain you’ve found her. By then you can tell that she’s not alone. Not wanting to seem rude by interrupting, you take a few steps back, leaning against the wall to wait. For the most part you still cannot make out what’s being said, but a few words do reach your ears.

“-expected more from you. How am I-” the voice gets cut off, not by Alcina, rather a sudden gust of air, akin to massive wings flapping. When the speaker continues, they are both louder and angrier. “Someone is listening. Have you not taken steps to ensure our privacy?” Then the door is swinging open, revealing your soulmate’s mother. At first she’s practically shaking with rage, but her expression turns to shock when she sees you.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Cassandra?” Lady Dimitrescu asks, clearly stressed, as she steps into the corridor. There’s movement behind her, although you cannot make out any details. Besides, you’re quick to answer her, wishing to avoid her wrath (and that of whoever she was speaking to).

“I’m so sorry, Lady Dimitrescu, I was walking from the dining hall to Cassandra’s studio, and I took a wrong turn. I’ve been wandering for half an hour now. When I heard your voice, I thought perhaps I could, well, enlist your assistance. But you were busy, so I figured I’d wait outside. If I had-...” you pause, gulping, as the other figure steps into view. It’s a face you’re all too familiar with. One that popped up countless times through the village, and again throughout the castle, the owner’s name always spoken with acclaim, with worship. Mother Miranda, in the flesh, wings spreading out behind her, somehow cutting a more impressive silhouette than even Lady Dimitrescu. Instantly you’re falling to your knees, knowing that your sharp tongue was no match for this practical goddess.

“Who is this, Dimitrescu? Why isn’t their blood staining your claws?” Miranda questions, gaze never leaving your trembling form.

“This… this is one of my daughters’ soulmates. They were brought in with the last group of sacrifices,” Lady Dimitrescu explains, uncharacteristically hesitant. ‘Twas a true testament to Miranda’s power, as well as her influence, that she could make someone so powerful seem so weak. Which was exactly why you were shaking with anxiety. But to your surprise, the goddess does not immediately order your execution for your trespass.

“And already they know their place, hmm? Kneeling before me?” Miranda says, a strange smile dancing on her lips. Whatever anger she had been feeling a minute prior had faded, though you couldn’t even begin to guess as to why. Regardless, both Alcina and yourself are quite relieved, though neither of you are quick to show it. “Either they have a good head on their shoulders, or you still take care of some of your duties. Very well, they may live. For now. But I expect next week’s report to be far more favorable. I don’t need to remind you of the price for failing me.” With that said, Mother Miranda turned to leave, a swirling mass of dark feathers flying past you.

A minute passes, maybe two, before either of you feel capable of speaking up.

“Let’s get you back where you belong, yes?” Lady Dimitrescu says, quietly, before placing her hand on your shoulder to guide you. Tension hangs clear and heavy over both of you. Even as you walk down corridor after corridor, the feeling does not ease. At least not until you’re back in familiar territory, near where you had originally made your mistake, finally able to breathe a little. It’s here that Lady Dimitrescu pauses to speak once more. “Tomorrow I will assign one of the servants to give you a tour, in the hopes that this does not happen again. Furthermore, I ask that you forget everything you heard earlier, for it is neither your business… or my daughter’s.” You’re quick to nod, and with that she bids you farewell, leaving you alone. Now, you think, was it left from here, or right?

iv.

“I’m just going for a walk. Why do you care so much? It’s not like it’s any of your business,” Daniela assures you, despite the fact that all you had done was say ‘hello’. If this was her attempt at casting aside suspicion, she had done a terrible job of it. What made her so nervous? Was it even worth investigating? Only one way to find out.

“You’re rather bundled up, planning on being out for long?” You ask, trying to sound casual, leaning against the wall as you did. In response, Daniela pretty much stomps her foot. There’s something odd in her expression, however, that implies your question hit a soft spot. Certainly wasn’t what you had expected. “Don’t mind me, just trying to make conversation with my soulmate’s sister. Speaking of her… have you seen Cassandra? Is she, perhaps, going with you?” A little misdirection never hurt anyone. Probably.

“No!” Daniela replies, fast as a gunshot, too much emphasis to be unintentional. But she realizes her mistake as soon as she’s made it, and makes a clear effort to relax herself. “She’s probably in her studio, doing whatever it is she calls art, on the other end of the house. Besides, I don’t want any company for this walk.” For a moment you merely squint at her, unsure of how to proceed. In the end, you decide that it really is none of your business, being more than satisfied by what teasing you’ve already done.

“Alright, alright. Well then, I’ll leave you be. Just… be careful, yeah? If you get hurt, and your mother finds out that I didn’t stop you from going… not sure Cassandra could save me,” you say, with a shrug. At first Daniela can’t decide whether to be upset or relieved, but she seemingly settles for the latter, giving you a brief nod before heading outside. As the door shut behind her, you couldn’t help but wonder if you had done the right thing.

[iamanartichoke]

I wasn't sure if I was going to post this, but I may as well.

I keep starting to reply to things and then stopping bc the words just aren't there, and I suppose I figured out the core of what bothers me so much (and is making me have such a rollercoaster of a fan experience) about the show.

(cut for length)

It's not well-written. My opinion is my opinion, so I'm saying this subjectively, take it or leave it, but ... I feel that it's not well-written. The overall story is fine, and the plot is fine, but I don't know if it's because of the limited number of episodes not being enough to house the story, or because of the relative inexperience of the writer/showrunner+director, or both, or something else, but -

In an earlier reaction post to episode 4, I mentioned really wanting to sink my teeth into all of the subtext I picked up on. That was what made me initially enjoy the episode so much - there were a lot of little moments that I initially felt revealed so much about the characters and about Loki, and I wanted to analyze them. But at some point, as I gathered more information, my perspective changed and now I no longer want to analyze the subtext bc ... subtext = good. Subtext w/out payoff = not as good.

I'll go into more detail in a moment, but I think the tl;dr of it is that I feel like the narrative requires the audience to work way too hard to put together all of the moving pieces here and, like, I kinda just don't want to do that work? Not so much of it, and not in vain. A lot of the enjoyment of Loki's characterization is coming from fans who are rationalizing why he's behaving as he is, but the narrative never actually confirms those rationalizations. It's asking us to figure it out and maybe our conclusions will be correct but maybe they won't, though. At some point, subtext isn't enough without explicit follow-through.

I thought my issue was with the lack of character development - that is, not having enough narrative space to really earn the big things that are happening now, like Loki/Sylvie or Mobius turning against the TVA. And that's still true, to an extent; I still feel like the pacing is all very off and it seems like most of these things kinda came out of nowhere (but are not unbelievable - just undeveloped).

But, yknow, it is what it is, it's a limited series, and I can excuse some things. Ultimately, my issue isn't a problem with what the narrative isn't doing, it's a problem with what the narrative already failed to do and probably cannot recover from at this point.

The narrative has left out significant details that should at least help us do some of the work here. If a person turned on Loki and started episode 1 and had no background knowledge of the character besides that he tried to take over New York - how would that person interpret Loki? Would that person say, oh, well, he's been through X, Y, and Z, and plus A happened, not to mention B, C, and D, so really, it makes sense that he seems off-the-rails, or that he'd want to get ridiculously drunk at the worst time ever.

Maybe we'd like to believe they would, but how would they be getting to that conclusion? The narrative hasn't led them in that direction so, no, they would not say well we have to consider this, this, and that. It would be impossible to really understand Loki as a character from just what we've gotten in the series. The general audience would probably interpret Loki as being out of his element and so it becomes, I wonder how this character is going to get the upper hand here. And, while that's not wrong, it's just so limited.

The narrative at face value does not address Loki's identity crisis from Thor 2011. It does not address his hurt and devastation at being lied to, nor does it address how complicated his self-image is (bc it sucked to begin with and that was before he found out he was part of a race of "monsters," as he'd been taught his entire life). It does not reference Loki being so broken at the end of Thor 2011 that he deliberately let himself fall into the void of space (aka tried to kill himself). It does not reference that he was tortured by Thanos or even that he went through a seriously dark time in between Thor and Avengers, and it absolutely does not reference or address any influence or control of the mind stone.

These are all things that we, the fan audience, know because we've already invested our time into this character's story. But tons of people, the general audience, wouldn't know these things. Or if they did, bc they saw Thor and Avengers, they wouldn't be thinking about them as deeply as we would, nor contextualizing them with how Loki is behaving now, or why it would make sense that he needed to get drunk, or why it's understandable that he needs to keep going-going-going in order to not have a spare second to think or feel.

They'd probably look at Loki, again, as a character who was a villain and is now getting his comeuppance in a place where he has no power or control, and no literal powers, and even when he manages to escape and catch up to the variant, he proceeds to fuck up their plan for seemingly no real reason except that he wanted to get drunk bc he's hedonistic. Which Sylvie even berates him for! I mean. This is not exactly a complex character breakdown, nor a very flattering one, but that's what the narrative has given us.

(If the narrative has addressed Loki's mind control, his torture, his mental breakdown, his suicide attempt, and his general shitty self-esteem as a result of his upbringing, please point it out to me. If the narrative has explicitly acknowledged and referenced these things anywhere and I am missing it, please show me where. Please explain to me how the casual viewer would know any of these things that they need to know in order to actually understand what's happening in this story.)

So I mean, okay, we have a narrative that doesn't paint a full, accurate picture of Loki. Fine, sure. But because the general audience starts out on the wrong footing, they're not going to get out of the overall story what the writers probably intended them to. For example, in episode 3, a lot of us theorized that Loki had some kind of plan - that he broke the timepad on purpose, for some reason, bc otherwise it wasn't believable that he'd be such a failure. But episode 4 revealed that no, there was no bigger plan, Loki just plain old messed up. Which is fine if, again, one is only considering the surface-level portrayal here, but it's not true to Loki's actual characterization.

I mean. Loki is not perfect and Loki actually fails a lot, this is true. He fails for a lot of reasons, but incompetence has never been one of them. Usually it's that either things grew beyond his control, or there ended up being too many moving parts, or he had to change his plan at the last minute due to some roadblock or another being thrown his way, or even that he got in his own way - whatever the case may be for his plans' failures, he was always at least shown to know what he was doing.

That wasn't the case here. The "plan" to fix the Timepad failed as a direct result of Loki's actions, which were careless and made him seem incompetent, like he couldn't even handle this mission. "You had one job," etc. And there were pretty big consequences for this; they were not able to get off-world in time and would have been killed had the TVA not shown up at the last second.

And maybe none of these things matter bc the writers never intended any of this to be a reflection on Loki's character, positive or negative. The situation exists solely because the writers needed to put Loki and Sylvie together in some kind of hopeless scenario so that they could get closer, and thus the narrative could set up their romance. I get that - but, there were other ways to do it that didn't require Loki to look foolish.

Furthermore, the whole reason they needed to set up the romance is to show Loki eventually learning to love himself (like, figuratively but also literally). The audience is supposed to gather that Loki and Sylvie fell for one another, possibly due to the high emotional aspect of, yknow, being about to die (in addition to the variant-bond). The intent is clear: Loki and Sylvie almost die but get rescued at the last minute, having now created an emotional bond --> Loki and Sylvie team up and the narrative further establishes that Loki, at least, has caught feelings --> Loki might confess them but is pruned before he gets the chance --> he somehow survives, he and Sylvie are reunited and don't want to lose one another again, and the combined power of their love is enough to break the sacred timeline and spawn the multiverse, and the reason that the power of their love is so, well, powerful is because it's about self-love and self-acceptance as much as it is about having the capacity to love someone else. The end.

I get all that. The writers more or less said all that. And, I mean, it's certainly not the way I would have chosen to go about it, but it's a fair enough arc to explore. I don't really have an issue with the intent - but my question, however, is this: if the narrative has so far not addressed Loki's background issues (as outlined above), and has furthermore kinda gone out of its way to portray Loki as hedonistic and narcissistic, among other things (like kinda incompetent), and the context the audience starts with is that Loki's this villain who deserves what he gets -

- my question is 1, why should the audience care whether or not Loki gets to a point of loving and accepting himself (thus to make the theme of self-love, via the romance, hold weight) if they don't know that he hates himself to begin with and 2, why should the audience root for Loki to reach that point when so far the perception of him is that he's "kind of an asshole"? if he's a hedonistic narcissist, he probably already has a pretty inflated sense of himself, right? A misplaced inflated sense of himself, at that, because, again, the narrative has made him out to be not that capable of much of anything. (And it didn't start out that way! It seemed to start out with Loki being capable and intelligent but it's like episode 3, in trying to set up the romance, just jumbled it all up somewhere. I think this is why I'm harping on the Loki/Sylvie aspect so much - it's frustrating bc it kinda messes up the whole story and can't even accomplish what it's supposed to anyway.)

Anyway, that's beside the point. What I'm ultimately getting at is, at what point is the audience supposed to get invested in Loki's personal growth journey?

They can't, not really. Without understanding and having the context of everything Loki has been through up until now, and why he hates himself, and why it's so important that he learn to love himself, then the "payoff" becomes kinda pointless bc the significance of it is lost in translation. So suddenly we're left with this romance that comes off as either "Loki loves Sylvie bc of Reasons" (best-case scenario) or "Loki loves Sylvie bc he's vain, narcissistic, and kinda twisted" (worst-case scenario). Neither of these conclusions are what the writers intended or were going for, I'm positive, but there we are, regardless.

In order for the writers' intent in these storylines to land, they need to address the context of what makes these particular stakes high for Loki. So far, they haven't done that. They're asking the audience to pick up on all of these things, and they're showing things that subtextually make sense and are relatively in-character - but only if you realize there's subtext in the first place.

But you can't expect the audience to do all of the work for you. If you don't want the audience to think that Loki is a narcissistic asshole and instead you are trying to convey that, worst-case scenario, he thinks he's a narcissist but is an unreliable narrator, then you have to address that. If you need the audience to understand why you're going the selfcest route and why it's important to explore Loki's capacity to love himself and others, you have to address where that exploration is starting from and why it matters. Etc etc etc.

The narrative isn't doing any of that. And it isn't like it'd be that hard to do it. They don't need to reinvent the wheel here; a lot of the pieces are already there. A few lines of dialogue for context, a brief scene here or there addressing the issues, a little more care and consistency in how Loki handles things - these are all little things that could go a long fucking way in making the narrative stronger.

I'm rambling. My basic point is that my rollercoaster of emotions with this show is because

- as a part of the fan audience, not the general one, I can contextualize and analyze the subtext and come to the conclusions the show wants me to, and thus find the story and the characters more or less enjoyable,

- but I am also going to be using the subtext to come to conclusions that aren't there but probably should be (I think it would be a better story, for example, for Loki to confuse platonic love with romantic love bc it would pave the way to explore just how fucked up Loki's understanding of love - whether of other people or of himself, and the different forms it can take - actually is)

- and when they're ultimately not there, then I think, okay why am I bothering doing all this work just to ultimately feel very unfulfilled? They don't even have to write it the way I would, I'm not saying that, but they do have to do something to make the story feel rewarding.

If we don't get some confirmation of what Loki's been through, and where his headspace is, and why it matters for him to love himself, then the story remains pretty shallow and, for me, it's not fulfilling enough. It's not engaging enough. There isn't actually anything to sink my teeth into, so it becomes kind of boring. Maybe it's rewarding to other people, and that's great for them, but like - I need more than whatever this is.

So I'm just like - well, I had a lot of worries about this show, but my being bored wasn't one of them and now there's only two episodes left and am I really not going to get anything out of this, in the long run? No new canons, no new depths or layers, no new information on Loki's experiences? This is it?

I don't dislike it. I didn't start out disliking it, and I probably wont end up disliking it. I mean, there are a lot of good moments, and good things, and fan service-y things that I appreciate. As far as inspiration for fic goes, it's a goldmine, both plot-wise as well as aesthetic-wise. All of that is great. I don't dislike this show.

But I am disappointed in it, and I feel like I'll be watching the next two episodes lacking the sense of anticipation that would make it exciting. I'll still enjoy them, probably, if for nothing else just the sheer Loki content, but whatever it was I felt watching episodes 1 and 2 is gone and I'm sad about that, too. Because I really wanted to feel fulfilled by this series; I wanted it to fill up the void that Loki's death in IW created three years ago. And I just ... don't feel it. Maybe, maybe that'll change over the course of episodes 5 and 6. I don't know.

Everything that I end up enjoying long-term, I think, will come about as a result of my own interpretations and analysis and while theoretically there's nothing wrong with that, if I had known all I'd get out of this series was more headcanons or support for my current headcanons then, well - that's fine, I suppose, but I'll definitely a little bit robbed.

[kyriolex]

Hello Sunny-Pandas here! Firstly, I wanted to say Thank you for the Follow! 😊 (If you're wondering why I'm on Anon it's because my Naruto account is just a Side Blog lol)

Well I looked at the newest chapter, and it seems like a problem I had with Himawari's portrayal in the Manga seems to have been subdued a bit. While I believe that panel was almost certainly put in there because of the current anime arc, it still helps

I like Himawari's motivation for wanting to be a Ninja in the Manga a lot moreso than in the Anime

But either way, I'm just happy that she's going to become a Ninja in both the Anime and the Manga... Even if the way it happens is a very different way...?

You see, there's been a lot of debate upon whether or not the Anime and the Manga are now at odds with each other. (I mean they ALWAYS have been but this is now possibly the most egregious case that they have ever done)

However, Unlike everyone else, I personally don't really see the current Anime Arc as being too contradictory to the Manga panel? At least not YET anyways.

Firstly we aren't certain how this Anime Arc will end, but I get the feeling Himawari will still remain in the Academy by the time it's over. And if she does then they could very easily just make it so that Himawari just hasn't become a Genin yet by the time she sees the conversation between Hinata and Boruto in the Manga.

Or alternatively, like I said, that panel could just be Ikemoto (or whoever's writing) giving the current Anime Arc a shout out.

I mean there's no way them having Himawari decide to be a Ninja in the Manga at the exact same time as the Anime doing aHimawari Academy Arc is just a coincidence. I refuse to believe that so. Like I HIGHLY suspect that Himawari probably wouldn't have even appeared in this Chapter if it weren't the current Anime Arc going on right now. But you know, that's just me...

But I do have wonder, what's the Anime's reasoning for skipping so far ahead to get to Himawari's Academy days, when they could've waited for the Code Arc to come to pass (or hell even put it somewhere in the middle of the Code Arc)? That Arc is more or less right around the corner in the Anime anyways. 🤔

I've actually got a theory.

I get the strong feeling that the Timeskip is coming in the Manga soon, and if it is, then the Anime rushing to show Himawari joining the Academy might make more sense at least. Because by that point Himawari will be a lot older and a full fledged Ninja

Plus Code is currently releasing an Army of discount Freeza's and starting a War on Konoha, so maybe the Anime Team thought that it would be better if they did the Hima Arc sooner as there would be no time or place for Himawari focus during or after the Code Arc? 🤔

Anyways I am REALLY sorry for this long ass rambling. I got way more caught up into the subject than I ever intended to 😅 I just have a really bad habit of getting my thoughts across, especially if it pertains to Himawari! If you take one good look at my blog, you'll immediately know that I adore that little ball of sunshine! Lol

Hi Sunny-Pandas!

You're right, I don't think the manga and anime are THAT inconsistent. Academy usually lasts a whole year, right? I doubt Kawaki will be at school that long for his mission. This may just take place later in Himawari's school days.

I definitely think her manga motivation for being a ninja is much better than her anime one. Her attitude in the manga has the "wise-beyond-her-years" vibe that I love about Himawari. The anime's reason, however, is "I think being a ninja is fun (and no one in my life has bothered to tell me otherwise because they really want the prodigy Hyuuga to fight)."

That said, I think we all better enjoy the Himawari academy fluff while we can before the discount Friezas destroy everything.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Targets - ao3

- Chapter 3 -

Meng Yao wasn’t supposed to be for sale.

His mother had worked hard her whole life to make sure of it, refusing every offer for him no matter how tempting or how desperate their situation. He was a cultivator’s son, she told him, a sect leader’s; one day, he would return to his father’s side, and if he was going to do that, he couldn’t have his past be marred with scandal. He couldn’t have a slave contract, and he couldn’t have done any work as a whore – it was one thing to do odd jobs in a brothel, but another thing entirely to actually work on your back, and somehow, somehow, someone would find out, and he’d be ruined. They would know.

The only way for him to really make it is if he never did anything like that at all.

So when the cultivator – a real cultivator, from the looks of him, not one of the fakers they often got – walked into their brothel and asked for Meng Yao, his mother said no.

The man frowned, then turned to the owner of the brothel who shrugged, indicating that he was helpless. “The boy doesn’t belong to this establishment,” he said apologetically. “But if the venerated Immortal would prefer something more boyish, I can direct you to some of our more masculine girls, or to a neighboring establishment…”

His voice trailed off when the cultivator pulled out a large chunk of gold, about half the size of Meng Yao’s thumb.

“You can keep it all – if I get the boy, a room, and your word to tell no one else that either of us are here,” the man said.

“No!” Meng Shi exclaimed, but Meng Yao knew from the look on the brothel owner’s eyes that it was too late. This wasn’t a good brothel like the one they’d been in before – the one that had kicked them out when they decided his mother was too old and her health too poor – but a lower tier one, less rich and more desperate. A piece of gold like that was more money than all the girls put together would make in a year.

If they continued to refuse, the owner of the brothel would use force. There were the bully boys at the door – they would grab his mother and drag her away, grab him and throw him into the room, maybe tie him down, rob him of any ability to defend himself…

So Meng Yao put his hand on his mother’s arm. “It’s fine, Mother,” he said to her, hoping to offer comfort where there was none to be had, and then forced himself to smile at the cultivator. “How can this humble one best please the venerated Immortal?”

The man’s eyes flickered between them, and his frown deepened.

“The woman comes with us, same deal,” he told the owner, who nodded, eyes fixed on the gold, and never mind that both Meng Yao and his mother had now frozen in horror. There were women in the brothel who sometimes pretended to be sisters and might even be, it was a popular request by clients, but – his mother… “All right, where’s the room?”

“I’ll give you the best one in the house,” the owner said, tone fawning, and showed them the way.

By the time they were upstairs, Meng Yao was shaking like a leaf and his mother looked on the verge of weeping.

The moment the cultivator closed the door behind them, shooing the owner away, she threw herself onto the floor in front of him. “Venerated Immortal,” she said, begging, and Meng Yao averted his eyes, feeling rage build in the pit of his stomach. “Spare my son, please. I will do anything you wish –”

“You misunderstand,” the cultivator said stiffly. “Your son is safe – as are you. I’m not here for that sort of thing…boy, get her off the floor and seated somewhere, get her something to drink to calm her.”

Meng Yao got his mother into a chair, pressing some wine usually reserved for clients into her hand. By the time he was done with that, he was more puzzled than anything else, even the rage at his mother’s mistreatment fading away into confusion. “What does the venerated Immortal want?” he asked delicately, and the cultivator shrugged.

“I actually have no idea what I’m doing here,” he said frankly. “I received a message from my sect leader that told me to find and secure a ‘Meng Yao, son of Meng Shi’ from Yunping City, and when I asked around it led me to you. I was hoping you could tell me the reason.”

“Your sect leader asked for me?” Meng Yao asked blankly. “By name?”

Could it be – his mother had always said –

“You’re not from Lanling,” his mother said, wiping her eyes, expression back to fierce and calculating. “My boy is the son of the sect leader of Lanling Jin, not…”

She trailed off deliberately.

“Qinghe Nie,” the cultivator said automatically, and even folded his hands in front of him to salute – perfunctorily, but still more than most would bother with for a whore. “The message said only that you were in danger, and that I was to hide you until the sect leader could come pick you up himself.”

So it wasn’t his father, Meng Yao thought, disappointed, but still – a sect leader of a cultivation sect, knowing him by name? Sending a message from far away?

He had no idea what to think of it.

And so they waited, each one sitting awkwardly in their own place, as several shichen passed. It was already evening when there was a knock – at the window.

The window on the third floor.

The cultivator got up and opened it, and a large fierce-looking man carrying three children – one on each hip with an arm around them, and another seated on his shoulders, clutching to his hair like reins – wiggled his way through, shaking all the children off as if his arms were hurting the second his feet were on the ground.

“Is that him?” he asked, nodding at Meng Yao, and the cultivator nodded. “He’s young.”

“Thirteen,” Meng Yao said, and noted that it was probably older than any of the three children who were looking at him in fascination.

“One of Sect Leader Jin’s bastards, Sect Leader,” the cultivator reported, and Meng Yao felt something fall in the pit of his belly at the term one of. There were many like him, then – perhaps his mother’s optimism regarding his reception in Lanling City was as misplaced as her optimism in buying all those pointless cultivation manuals that he slaved over and which accomplished nothing.

“Well, that can’t be the reason, then, or the list would be thrice as long,” the sect leader said, frowning. “I’d even started wondering…no, it still makes no sense. Regardless, no point in waiting around here any longer – I saw two Wen patrols making their way through the city as I flew in, and I have no doubt they’ll find this place soon. We should be gone before they do.”

“If this humble one can ask, what is the honorable Sect Leader’s plans for my son?” Meng Shi asked, ducking her head demurely and looking up at him flirtatiously through her eyelashes, even as she leaned forward a little in a way that set off her shape to its best advantage.

“Oh no,” the sect leader said, and took two full steps backwards. Without the fierce expression on his face, he looked much younger – in fact, Meng Yao thought with wonder and maybe even a little disbelieving amusement, it seemed like this sect leader was most certainly still a teenager, and awkward with it, too. “No, I – I don’t – Gao Jianguo, do something!”

“She’s a whore, Sect Leader,” the cultivator said, rolling his eyes. “They flirt. It happens.”

The sect leader was bright red. The children were all giggling.

“Madame,” he said, bowing to her – an actual bow, respectful, not even the perfunctory dip the cultivator had given earlier, and he didn’t have to call her Madame, either. “Forgive me, I’m not…I don’t have much experience with women. My name is Nie Mingjue, sect leader of Qinghe Nie. I have reason to believe your son is in terrible danger if he remains here, and I intend to take him with me to a safe location.”

“What assurances do I have of his safety?” Meng Shi asked, and Meng Yao knew then that she intended to send him whether he wanted to go or not.

Not that he didn’t intend to go. Such an earnest sect leader, this ‘Nie Mingjue’…even if it was all a mistake or misunderstanding, which had to be what had happened, there were benefits that could be gotten here. If Meng Yao could become a servant there, learn cultivation, he could maybe save up enough to later go to his father’s side – no matter what they asked of him, it would be better than a brothel, especially one where the owner had already seen an indication of Meng Yao’s worth as chattel.

And yet…

“You have my word,” Nie Mingjue assured her.

“I won’t leave without her,” Meng Yao suddenly spoke up, and ignored his mother’s glare. He didn’t want to leave her here. He wouldn’t, not unless he was forced, which seemed likely, but he had to try his best. “If I’m in danger, then so is she. They might want to use her to lure me in.”

“That’s a good point,” Nie Mingjue said, which Meng Yao wasn’t expecting. He even nodded in approval at Meng Yao. “Very well, we’ll take you both with us. Gao Jianguo –”

“The amount I’ve already paid would be sufficient to cover any slave bond,” the cultivator said. His frown suggested he wasn’t happy about his sect leader’s actions. “There will be paperwork –”

“Only for me,” Meng Shi said quickly. “My son is free, and always has been.”

Nie Mingjue looked out the window, clearly calculating – two patrols, Meng Yao thought, this sect leader thought someone was hunting him down for some unknown reason – and then glanced at the two of them. He sighed a little, almost imperceptibly, before firming up his expression once more.

“Take Meng Shi and buy her bond,” he instructed the cultivator. “Collect anything she wants to take with her and take her back to Qinghe through safe routes. I’ll take Meng Yao with me and we’ll meet there.”

“What should I do with the ownership papers? There’s a tax for taking slaves out of the county, and people might notice –”

“Burn them,” Nie Mingjue said, and Meng Yao’s heart gave a sudden thrill of delight. “She can travel as a free woman. Make sure she sees a doctor, if she thinks she would benefit from seeing one, and cover the cost – I want her to arrive at the Unclean Realm alive and well.”

Alive and well, Meng Yao thought, even more delighted. That was a warning, no doubt about it – telling the cultivator not to take advantage of Meng Shi during his trip. And a doctor! With his sect leader ordering it, the cultivator would have to take her to a good one, not some phony sawbones, and she could finally get that cough of hers looked at…

Meng Yao would do whatever this sect leader wanted. Just for that.

(It was more than his father had ever done for them.)

“Can you handle flying with four boys?” the cultivator asked, frowning, and – flying? “Especially if you already came all the way from Qinghe, and through Yunmeng, you must be exhausted –”

“I’ll be fine,” Nie Mingjue said shortly. “He’s thirteen; he can stand on his own and hold onto me, arms around my waist, while I hold on to the others…hey, are you afraid of heights?”

That question was directed at Meng Yao.

“I don’t think so,” he replied, aiming for honest. It seemed to be what this sect leader appreciated, and Meng Yao was good at figuring out and catering to people’s likes. He’d have to exert himself especially this time. “But I’ve never gone higher than the fourth floor.”

“Well, you’re about to,” Nie Mingjue said, and his saber unsheathed itself and floated on the floor. “All right, everyone back on – you can introduce yourself in the air. We still have to make the ride back to the Lotus Pier, and I’m sure your parents are worried sick already, Jiang-gongzi.”

[khentkawes]

Tony Stark-antis need to learn some chill and basic narrative comprehension skills. Like really? Again with this bullshit?

Dude, we are ONE episode into Falcon and the Winter Solider and people are already using it as an excuse to resurrect anti-Tony Stark bad takes. Like... WTF fandom? Do we really have to go through this with every single post-Endgame mcu project? Really? When are ya all gonna learn some comprehension skills and actually pick up on what the narrative is trying to say?

Say it with me: the bank loan scene was a not-very-subtle jab at systemic racism and the way black veterans have been treated in American for decades. It’s not an excuse to anti on about how “tOnY sTaRk DiDnT pAy ThE aVeNgErS CuZ hE’s A eVIL bILLIonAiRe!”

Are you all so afraid of talking about systemic racism that you have to blame Tony Stark for Sam not getting a bank loan? Really? After a year of BLM protests and extensive awareness-raising for systemic racism, and y’all still don’t get it?

That’s the real world issue that the narrative was trying to lay out, and it’s the in-universe explanation for that scene, which is trying to address out-of-universe real-world issues. But now let me be petty and go back to the in-universe issues of whether Sam got paid... because this whole take is just pissing me off and I have to rant. So...

Sam hasn’t had a paying job in seven years, and he chose to leave the Avengers when he defied the Sokovia Accords because he blindly follows everything Cap says without ever thinking for himself. He’s been badly written ever since he showed up at the end of Age of Ultron. And that bad writing means he’s just been playing as Cap’s lackey, and in doing so, he CHOSE to leave the Avengers, to reject a government paycheck, and take his chances on the run for two years as a fugitive. So yeah. Two years, no job, no pay. And as far as we can tell, he didn’t do a whole lot of awesome saving-the-world in those two years either. He was just hiding out with Cap and maybe punching a couple of low-level terrorists or something .There certainly weren’t any alien invasions that he stopped in that time. And after that, he was dust for five years. That’s not his fault, obviously, but no one can expect to collect a paycheck while they don’t exist. That’s why the post-Blip economy is probably a bit wonky at the moment. So in total... seven years. No job. No paycheck. Part of that is consequences of Sam’s actions and part of it was through no fault of his own. But yeah, after seven years with no paycheck, there’s a good chance he’s got money issues. Did banks seize assets of those who were blipped? Totally possible.

But now, in-universe, let’s remember that all this bullshit that antis are spewing about “Tony Stark should have set aside money for his friends and teammates” and “Sam saved the world from aliens so many times, so he deserves a pension” and “Tony could set up a trust fund for all of the avengers because they’re his friends!” Yeah. That’s all 100% BS.

First off, Sam Wilson and Tony Stark are not friends in the MCU. Never have been. In Civil War, Tony said, “I know we don’t know each other very well” because they don’t! They’ve NEVER FOUGHT TOGETHER ON THE SAME TEAM! Think about that. Tony wasn’t an active duty avenger between Age of Ultron and Civil War, and that’s the only time period where Sam was an active avenger. So they were never really “teammates” and they weren't friends. They were, at best, acquaintances or coworkers who never worked closely together.

And during that time, when Tony appears to have had little contact with the avengers, he was bankrolling the team. He says, “what, am I doing here? Running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?” He made the compound and supplied all of the avengers’ tech. He gave them free room and board. It sure looks like they had everything they needed, so it’s entirely possible (even likely) that Tony was paying the Avengers during this time. But that’s all it was. Two years when Sam was an active avenger, Tony wasn’t, but Tony was still bankrolling the team. After that... Sam was a fugitive and then he was dust. So he spent 7 years with no job, and two of those years were by choice, because of Sam’s rejection of being an avenger and refusal to accept a government paycheck. He chose to be a vigilante with Cap, and vigilantism doesn’t supply a paycheck on its own.

And finally... Sam has never saved the world! And he’s only fought aliens during Infinity War and Endgame. So where are people getting this whole, “but Sam should be paid because hE sAvEd tHe wOrLd!”? Uh, no. Not really. He helped in Endgame. He tried to help in Infinity War. And that’s good. That’s important. It’s not nothing. But it’s also not saving the world. In this first episode of TFATWS, Sam literally accepted thanks from a guy who said “you brought my wife back,” when Sam had nothing to do with that. Bruce snapped and brought back all the dusted. Sam had no role in helping for that. Now I get that Sam was probably just being polite. But it’s contributing to this narrative that Sam did more then he actually did. Naw, man. Marvel never cared about Sam Wilson until five minutes ago. So they’ve never actually shown him doing anything that was, well, important. And that’s a fail on Marvel, but if we’re looking at it from a purely in-universe perspective... Sam Wilson doesn’t deserve any more or less than any other government/military contractor. Because that’s what he is now (he’s not an Avengers because the Avengers no longer exist), and that’s what he was up until the last scene of Age of Ultron. Most of his existence, he’s been a solider. He’s a military guy. So if he’s not been getting paid, that’s on the military. Tony, at most, would have paid him for two years of his time and work. The rest is all on the military, including Sam’s current finances.

Which means, you want to blame someone for Sam’s finances and his inability to get a loan? Well, there are three reasons. 1. Sam chose to leave the Avengers to become a fugitive with Cap, which means he had no job and no paycheck for two years. That’s the consequences of his actions. 2. the military either stopped paying him at some point, or hasn’t been paying him enough/quick enough in the past six months since the Blip. Military pay for veterans and veterans’ access to benefits is a real problem, but it’s a military problem. And it’s possible that any back-pay or pension that Sam is owed is tied up in red tape, which is probably only exacerbated by his time as a fugitive (which might mean he was made ineligible for any pension). And finally 3. systemic racism. His sister was pretty clear on the fact that “people like us” are the ones who always seems to be denied loans. She was saying that there is money available for loans, but it always go to white folks first. Maybe try listening to the black character explain why they believe they aren’t getting paid. Sam (when not on the run or blipped) was living a pretty cushy life as a supporting avenger for two years. He apparently didn’t have to think about how systemic racism could affect his family because he was temporarily insulated from it. Now that layer of protection is gone because he’s not living in a cushy compound away from the real world (which, for the record, is probably a good thing. I think the Avengers being so isolated from the real world is probably partially what led to the problems in Civil War). So now Sam is going to be confronted with the reality that systemic racism is real and can affect anybody, regardless of your fame or your job. And after the past year of discussions on race, the fandom shouldn’t be surprised by this narrative.

I am so sick of every single MCU project post-Endgame being twisted by antis who just want to use it to hate Tony Stark. I mean, seriously. Give it a rest, people! Try reading the narrative the way it was intended and stop twisting it for your hate-Tony-Stark obsession.