#no sense in dwelling on it

[timothyslucy]

is it wrong that i blame darden, casey, and severide? i honestly feel like they all contributed o dardens death in some way.

i mean, it's your opinion. i'm not saying none of them made a mistake or the wrong call, i just don't really think it's fair in such a situation like that to place the blame on anyone.

[bitchslapblastoids]

Was thinking about how much of a normo I come across as irl, how I’ve felt a lil odd person out at their shows bc of being a bit older (29) and looking so aggressively normal, how generally confused people in my life would be if they knew about my d&p obsession, how thoroughly i mask weirder traits and essentially codeswitch to suit the mainstream, etc.

i feel kind of fish out of water when I imagine how all the people that populate my tumblr phandom ecosystem are likely presenting to the world irl (I.e. more visibly queer, counterculture, and so on). But then I think maybe the most visible phannies are the ones with the most curated, alt, deliberate daytoday lewks/style? So maybe what I’m picturing is off base? But then I’m also basing this off of what audiences look like in audience footage, m&gs, etc.

Sooooooo i would like to know… do you guys feel like you present as someone who may be Deeply Online and obsessed with two gay nerds from the internet? Or do you hide it and fly under the radar, masking as a total normy and living a double life?

(To clarify I don’t mean you’re like out and about wearing the fringes boob sweatshirt lol I more mean vibes and overall lewk yk?)

[vynnyal]

This is a pretty good point in the wip to share this, methinks :]

Map part for the hole dwelling map, starring... Not my ocs! I wanted to use ocs, but I don't have any-- so I just used the characters from a fic I was reading at the time 😂

Turns out, the symbolism was so much fun to twist into the 11 seconds I had to work with, I ended up going way more complex than I meant to. If you wanna read the fic this was based on, please do!! And tell the author I said hi! :D

[i-dare-say]

You know what I love about Binghe's character? His role in the story and the way it changes our perception of him through the narrative.

We first meet him as this poor boy and we, just like Shen Qingqiu, get swept by the image of the white lotus. He's a teenager, and we're told that at this age he didn't have any of the darkness that would reign over his life after the Abyss. We're only shown an obedient and sweet Luo Binghe. He is the "young and innocent protagonist".

But we know about his future. Shen Qingqiu tells us so many times that the Abyss will corrupt him irreversebly, that he will come back and take his revenge on the scum villain. The problem is that we see the story through Shen Qingqiu's point of view, he is our protagonist, making Binghe our villain. So we read about the disciple days with the constant thought that this boy will one day become the antagonist.

And see, there's a slight difference between villain and antagonist. A villain is perceived as someone with bad intentions, while an antagonist is just someone who opposes the protagonist.

When Luo Binghe comes back from the Abyss, he is both villain and antagonist. He goes against Shen Qingqiu (antagonist), and the story tells us he wants to kill him like the original PIDW (villain).

Then it's revealed that it may not be exactly like that. First, we're shown that Binghe has romantic feelings for Shen Qingqiu (which, yeah, it's obvious to everyone but him, but still), giving Binghe a new possible role in the story: love interest. This immediately reduces the perceived danger of his actions. It brings him closer, it makes him a safer character.

Yes, there are stories with villainous love interests that do horrible shit, but we're dealing with the most common way narratives treat this type of character: generally, the love interest is good. And so, the moment this role is put upon Luo Binghe by the narrative itself, it also influences the reader.

But Shen Qingqiu, and consequently we, don't lower our guard. Despite being the love interest now, we also know that Luo Binghe has conspired to take down his master and organized the sower plague. He's attacked Huan Hua Palace, killed Gongyi Xiao and many others, putting the blame on Shen Qingqiu. By the end of book 2 he's villain, antagonist and love interest.

But it all gets proven wrong. That almost everything that happened to Shen Qingqiu was not because of Luo Binghe. We discover that there are other villains in the shadows.

The sower plague and the the attack at Huan Hua Palace was caused by Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang. Qiu Haitang's involvement and Shen Qingqiu's imprisonment was one of the Old Palace Master's schemes. All of this destroys Binghe's role as villain and antagonist.

This is the moment Shen Qingqiu decides to trust Binghe, pushing the reader to do the same. Because he's just "love interest" now and by the standard conventions, he's good. We trust him to be. Shen Qingqiu himself starts to project onto him that same image of white lotus. Since our image of Luo Binghe was so bad previously, this makes it jump way higher. It lulls us into this much better perception of his character.

The Old Palace Master was a villain and he died, as villains are often destined to. The only obstacle remains Tianlang-Jun, who doesn't harm Shen Qingqiu because of Zhuzhi-Lang's wishes (not an antagonist), but also wants to merge the realms (villain).

So our protagonist and love interest move toward the action, the big battle against the final boss. The villains get defeated easily and after the truth of what happened to Su Xiyan, Tianlang-Jun gives up his plan. His role as villain ends there. But the story has more antagonists to reveal.

Luo Binghe has never stopped being one. The narrative only hid his real motivations and let him cover himself with the role of love interest. And at this moment, he drops the mask and lets all of his feelings out, everything he didn't tell Shen Qingqiu nor the readers. He becomes the final antagonist, the one we've had since the very beginning.

The thing that saves him is his status as love interest, because no, he's not the only one to blame for what is happening. There's Xin Mo, who has fed on his insecurities and negative feelings, and Shen Qingqiu himself. He is the one who has constantly pushed Binghe to the side, believing himself to do the right thing, first by giving Binghe his death and then by trying to keep him "protected" from his father.

In the end, Luo Binghe wasn't a villain. Shen Qingqiu was, and he dies. But since he's not a real villain, he's allowed to come back.

When everything is over, their story comes to an end. The narrative itself leaves them free, to be whoever they want to be.

[mikimeiko]

The Gentlemen | Season 1 (2024), Guy Ritchie

[sticks-stones-sonic-insanity]

Its possible someones asked this already and I just havent seen it yet, but to pose the question just in case:

Bonus question! Does what you WANT to happen align with what you THINK will happen?

I'd love to hear why you chose a certain answer too if you want to explain in the tags or replies! I'm curious what everyone's reasoning is :]]

[adanaac]

HEY GUYS CHAPTER DAY hey anyway did u know about the shen. shinkirou. mirage clam dragon creature. this is one of those things i assumed everyone knew about bc im so in love with it and i think about it all the time

it's so many concepts that appeal to me. a little unassuming creature. the idea of mirages being the dreams of a creature at the bottom of the sea. the nebulousness of the concept of a "dragon". mirages and illusions in general

anyway this is all preamble to show u my son Mirage

(cowboy because he was for a wild west themed minecraft rp server lmao. but also have u considered: cowboy dragon hot?)

im not a writer so i dont have a lot of plot or lore for him or anything but he IS entirely based off the concept of "deserts have mirages. oceans have mirages. the desert conjures up a mirage of the ocean"

anyway yeah i really love this clam thing. one of my favorite creatures ever

[ninashiki]

i feel like almost everything in utena has sort of already been extensively discussed in the last two (almost three) decades of utena's existence (not that there aren't new interpretations to be made, there always are) besides black rose arc (mikage+mamiya+tokiko). which is why they're so much fun to think about. i think the need to read between the lines makes it unfortunately easy to misunderstand or look past obvious stuff if you don't pay attention, but to me it's always been really obvious that mikage's arc is a literal representation of the erasure of queerness in ohtori (society?) by akio/everything he represents. and that's so fucking tragic! nemuro was never able to find a name for his desires. he lived and died as a puppet in the shadows.

[uncanny-tranny]

The whole "humans are inherently awful and bad!" spiel is so tiring to me as a survivor of abuse because it comes off as abuse apologia. If humans are inherently awful, then why should it matter if you're abused - that's what humans do best! Like, genuinely, I think this mindset can harm abuse victims/survivors because they're being inundated with this idea that, well, how bad can their abuser be? All humans are horrific, why complain, why escape, and why try to resist it?

I really wish people would critically analyze where these ideas come from and where these lines of thinking can lead. Maybe it's a matter that I'm looking too deep into, but this very bleak ideology is not going to help in the long run, I think, and some of the first people who are going to be crushed by it are the people who are vulnerable or who are put in vulnerable positions in society.

[muttsterion]

Another Matt quote from the same interview: {This is concerning Butters trying to be the 4th member after Kenny's semi perma-death} "Butters wants to be the fourth guy, but the other guys all liked Kenny better and they kinda wish Kenny was back. So we'll see what happens."

You know thinking back on Season 6 with Butters trying to be put in Kenny's spot...I was kind of mad at him for awhile but come to realize hey the boys were grieving and Butters was there to try to help move everyone forward. Like now I do get with M&T trying to push Butters to be more up and center but I think there could have been a better way than killing off my immortal boy.

Kind of seeing this line as not just Matt and Trey but the main three trying to get Kenny back...like they try to replace him with Butters and then Tweek and it just did not work. Kenny turns out was irreplacable in the end. Maybe he was just standing off to the side or in ghost form the entire time to see if his friends really wanted him around...ha.

On one hand though it gave us Professor Chaos....and a neat lil story of Kenny's absence creating South Park's supervillian that he now on occasion has to confront and sometimes fight as Mysterion....that'd be an interesting twist too if Butters canonically also remembers Kenny's deaths and rebirths...Chaos existing kind of implies Butters would remember having to fill in for Kenny for him being gone for so long....either through death or some other reason he was absent for almost a year...hmm..ha course that's prob not something M&T have ever dwelled about themselves but a fun idea to play with...anyways.

But yeah I'm no longer mad at Butters for him just trying to be there when the other three were just missing their friend...(least that's how I'd like to see it. XD)

[mikaylacarlierose]

Let’s talk about Laudna, cuz lbr this witch is in trouble!

When Fearne used the harness on the shard, Laudna couldn’t even watch. The next time that the group pulls it out, no one in the group even takes into consideration that Laudna is in the same room, Orym uses it, and it results directly in her sucking out the Willmaster’s soul. The very next day, Laudna puts the harness on herself, and uses it to absorb a magical item, and not one person in the group spoke up to say, ‘hey wait, that’s maybe not such a great idea…’

Like honestly, it feels like Laudna had more social interaction with the boat and the rope that she animated herself with a spell that only lasted for one minute, than she has had with all the members of her party combined, over the last forty-eight hours in-game. Her girlfriend has been shamelessly flirting with a bombshell of a druid, who she’s intimately sharing magic with, and is connected to with an actual visible red tether. And the only member of the group who seems to have noticed is the annoying fucking robot that’s whispering in her ear, “Are you jealous? Are you jealous? Are you jealous?” Worst therapist ever btw—honestly, that would make me wanna rip someone’s soul out too.

So, it’s really no wonder when Imogen and Laudna go to bed without speaking, that Laudna reaches out to Delilah for advice and comfort. The whole group knows that Laudna is an insecure fucking mess. They know about her recurring issues of her self-loathing and self-worth. And they know that she’s hyper-sensitive to feelings of betrayal. Like, the whole group has admitted that any one of them could be a ticking time bomb, but imho, Laudna right now is a ticking time bomb, that is just intermittently beeping, and it seems like they’re all just pretending they don’t hear it.

[coiled-dragon]

Anyone ever like... Have a dream where you met someone, and felt like 'ah they are simply a dream conglomeration, not someone real and not someone I should ache for despite the fact I did wake up with a genuine ache in my chest about it'

Have you ever ended up finding that person? Or perhaps suddenly remembered that dream and started wondering if you're imagining those hazy dream-spun reminders...

[weneedatdcharacterwho]

We need a TD character who from the beginning behaves like Zoey and makes himself look like a victim of events they are constantly with the strongest or smartest players, but in fact this behavior is their snake strategy and they do not disclose it in the confessional

The second TD character acts like Heather and out of jealousy starts threatening the first character and then the real nature of the First character is revealed, they threaten the second character that "at least everyone likes me" and "someone like you won't be believed"

.

[cultivating-wildflowers]

I cannot articulate enough how much I want to hear your thoughts on octopuses being capable of sin

I can't remember specifically what brought it to mind, but I think it was some off-hand comment the Sunday school teacher made about original sin and the curse and the ark being a transition out of that age of man and into the next one, with the rest of creation being dragged along with them. Sea creatures weren't obliterated by the flood like land- and air-dwelling creatures were (though I'm sure massive flooding and planetary upheaval wasn't exactly fun for them); they didn't come under Noah's immediate jurisdiction like the other animals. Combining that with what we know of octopuses generally being as emotionally mature and blindly vindictive as a six-year-old, and my opinion is that exclusion from the ark left them fully conscious of Original Sin and fully capable of still participating in it.

It's not theologically sound in any way, but it's wildly amusing to me.

[breeskins]

idk guys the summer kinda was just a blur but i did dwell on the fact that time is irreversible and i will never be able to relive yesterday and everything is changing and rather than actually making the most of the given time and making yesterday something i want to relive i’m just dwelling kinda scary ngl

[anarkhebringer]

Zenos, who is relying on vague advice about "love languages" after hearing his boyfriend mention a cheesy obscure eroge a single time while he was in the room