#of him as he becomes his own self

[tubbytarchia]

I don't know what this is all I know is that LimL Joel makes me really emotional

[generalsmemories]

Aight response was delayed cause I was (and still am) on a cabin. And since I don't like huge texts of words on my blog I've decided to remove the reblog from Vi, but if ya'll want to read what she wrote for more context then please go to her profile <3

I'll put why I believe wholeheartedly on Dan Heng confronting his past is vital under the cut, but be aware that a lot of what I write can contain leaked readables (I haven't gone through the effort of finding out if said leaks have now been released) so be aware that there can be both SPOILERS and LEAKS !

And I speak from the perspective of wanting character development from someone who is a main character along with the trailblazer. In such, wishing him that he achieves happiness after the Xianzhou arc is farfetched and not gonna help with said development.

If anything, the Xianzhou arc is the START of him healing and understanding himself, in no way is this a conclusion because Dan Heng has been running ever since he was "exiled" from Xianzhou. Wishing him happiness now because he's confronted one major part of his past (Which was so to say, destined to happen) is like taking any drop of character development he could have and chucking it down a river.

Without further ado

A very easy answer to the reason why I want him to confront his past and not run away from it and how: I want Dan Heng to actually acknowledge the fact that Dan Feng is very much a fundamental part of him, at the SAME time he is his own person. Something that Dan Heng himself refuses to admit.

For one, let me clarify that I wholeheartedly believe that Dan Heng is his own person. But let's start from scratch as to why everyone keeps saying he is Dan Feng whilst he wants to deny that fact.

We all have come to an understanding that the death of a Vidyadhara as a whole means a complete death and a permament loss of their kind. They're rebortn countless of times, but in the end still share the same essence and soul. So in a literal and biologial sense, Dan Heng is really just a de-aged Dan Feng with memory loss. (Blade also points out that Dan Heng has not experienced death and that a new face won't be able to blot out his past sins, in short DH = DF).

However this one is a personal belief given that Vidyadhara cannot die, which means that every rebirth is just another layer of the same person sharing the same traits but lead a different life - But from two instances have we seen the Vidyadhara picking up the same hobbies and skills as their previous incarnation. One particular Vidyadhara you can meet in the open world who likes to sing, and Dan Heng's previous incarnations becoming the High Elder.

Reasons as to why Dan Feng is still a vital part of Dan Heng that he has to accept in order to move forward:

Even if you were to completely disregard the idea above as my personal belief and not canon, a fact is that Dan Feng had a flawed rebirth. In "An Appeal from the Vidyadhara" (that has been removed from the game as of now or not released yet) it states that Dan Feng should've been regarded as a new being and his sins forgiven because he had suffered the punishment of molting rebirth. However for Dan Heng's case, he can't be judged under the same standard as other Vidyadhara because his rebirth was a flawed one.

The exucivation charm that was perfmoed on Dan Feng was a flawed one (Jing Yuan mentions this under one of the many conversations you can have with him in Scalegorge Waterscape). The flaw was the main cause of Dan Heng being able to access scattered fragments of Dan Feng's memories, and thus finding familiarty in things Dan Feng had experienced (Interacting with the numerous mirages throughout Scalegorge Waterscape whilst doing the main quest will prove that) as such, Dan Heng will inherently in the near future gain access to Dan Feng's remaining memories and experiences.

Which also explains WHY Dan Heng can even inherhit the power of a High Elder despite not being one in this life (These traits were usually the horns and the tail) Additionally, it very much seems like he holds both the Transmutation Arcanum and Orb of Abysm (Two items that will let the user re-experience the events of their dragon ancestors' lives in dreams). He's also able to coordinate extremely well with Jing Yuan despite never having fought alongside him in this life - a lot of things Dan Heng is able to do in his dragon form are things that you SHOULDN'T be able to do as a Vidyadhara who had gone through a normal process of rebirth.

So TLDR: Dan Heng doesn't share the same identity as Dan Feng, yes. But Dan Feng is still and always will be an inseparable part of Dan Heng that makes him whole. Yes the narrative around Dan Heng is that is and always will be a person of his own in spite of the fact that all odds are against him.

HOWEVER, it is important to acknowledge the fact that the theme of Dan Heng's character is "to run away from the past" (It's stated all of the character stories he has) as such he has a tendency to distance himself from his past either due to guilt or fear. Dan Heng is also case in point - a very unreliable narrator. He's been fed information on Dan Feng and his bad deeds since he was done molting - Information that comes from a biased view, of course he's gonna want to not associate with him.

So while it's true that Dan Heng is a person of his own with his own understandings of the world and experiences. Trying to separate him from Dan Feng and his past incarnations to boot would be impossible because Dan Heng's exsistence is fundamentally built upon them. Dan Heng refuses to acknowledge this, even to the point of not wishing to use DF power in his dragon form. The only connection he wants to have with Dan Feng is the shared sin they have.

But let's not forget that the Xianzhou arc is the start of Dan Heng's character overall, and thus the start of his narrative journey now that we have so to say his biggest secret and identity. It is in no way a conclusion to Dan Heng.

As such any future development for Dan Heng's story would be to now forge his own personal identity whilst accepting Dan Feng and every other incarnation as an indisputable but also inseparable part of him as a whole :D

Hoyoverse also have a running theme with these sorta characters throughout a lot of their games. Honkai Impact with K423 and Sirin making up Kiana and most notably Scaramouche and Kunikuzushi in Genshin which makes up Wanderer. All of this have a connection of accepting your past self as a part of you, even if you forge something new.

I want Dan Heng to truly understand himself, both in terms of what makes him different from Dan Feng, but also how he's connected to him. So in no way has he healed from running away because that's all he's been doing. But it's the fact he no longer has to hide this that he can start to figure things out.

With the conclusion of 1.2 main story, even Jing Yuan has specifically said that after Dan Heng helps the Luofu with this crisis, HE personally will see that he no longer is regarded Dan Feng's shadow and no longer exiled. He's free now from that part of his past.

I NEED YALL TO KNOW THAT DAN HENG NEEDS TO FACE HIS DAMN PAST TO ACTUALLY MOVE ON AND NOT KEEP RUNNING.

IF HE KEEPS RUNNING THAT'S LITERALLY CEASING HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT RIGHT THEN AND THERE. DAN FENG IS A PART OF DAN HENG WHETHER OR NOT HE LIKES IT BUT HE HAS TO CONFRONT THAT PAST HES RUNNING AWAY FROM.

There's a reason why he remembers bits and pieces of his past life because he never fully went through the reincarnation process because the high elders didn't want to lose the dragon lineage. It's a reason why he remembers and it's why he also runs away.

But he needs to face said was past involving Dan Feng to be able to actually live as himself SO STOP CODDLING HIM SAYING HE DID NO WRONG HE HAS A SHARED SIN FOR A REASON 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[edelgardism]

“machine connor is more deviant than deviant connor” deviant connor will literally spend the rest of his life fighting his programming and being scared to death that one day amanda will resume control of him

[starry-bi-sky]

yall ever think Shen Yuan went through like, internet withdrawal after being transmigrated into Shen Qingqiu? Like, he's canonically a NEET shut-in who did nothing but spend his time online, you can't tell me that for the first week or first few weeks of being SQQ he wasn't twitchy.

Like, reaching instinctively to his pockets for a phone that wasn't there, having an obsessive itch in the back of his mind that he should check and see if X or Y novel or webcomic has updated -- only to realize he can't anymore and being irritated by it. Wanting to go and see if there's new posts about this or that, but again realizing that he can't.

When he's bored or uncomfortable or just feels like wanting to escape he tries to go for his phone to distract himself, but oops! Not there anymore, and now he has to find a new and different way to distract himself from his feelings. And going through system notifications, quests, etc only does so much.

And there's that Tetris Effect too. SQQ makes a mistake while writing and instinctively goes to backspace on it except hey-ho that's not a keyboard and now he just dipped his pinkie into a bottle of ink or on a still-drying letter.

With him scrambling to fix his reputation and learn how to be a peak lord, I think his abrupt cold-turkey from all things internet would just be another straw on the camel's back that he promptly Ignores until it goes away on its own after he acclimates to his new surroundings.

[mostly-natm]

Lore keeps a baby (out of spite).

[the-girl-with-too-many-ideas]

One thing that I've never seen people talk about is that Shen Jiu would want his body back. Sure, it may be irreparablely damaged and weak, but it's still his body. He never had any bodily autonomy until he joined Cang Qiong at seventeen, so he would fight tooth and nail to get it back rather than lose the right to his body again.

[cookiekitkat8484]

It has come to my attention that people who haven't read the comics don't realise Wallace was the one who harassed scott into being his friend. Like he saw that nerd at uni and went oh yeah that's my guy now. This bitch would not shut up and showed up at his house uninvited to hang out till scott gave in and befriended him, then they got suuuper drunk and scott let him crash at his. He comes to family dinners, is best friends with his sister, and chats to his mum.

He despises envy more than anything and is furious when she tries to mess with his life again and scott gets hurt, so he cooks him breakfast and comforts him. He coaches scott in fighting and helps with strategies so he doesn't get his ass kicked. He bullies him to leave the house because there's a heatwave and he wants to make sure he doesn't get heatstroke. Like they're close enough Wallace walks around in his underwear (though scott whines about it).

I've seen people assume Wallace supports scott out of pity but that man is a bitch and morally questionable (affectionate), I do not think he would put up with it at all if he didn't want him around, especially given he can barely afford to support them both. When they stop living together he doesn't just kick him out it's because their landlord kicks them out, he actively enchorages scott to move in with Ramona out of care for him and offers to stay with him if he needs it, though ends up signing a lease with his boyfriend (in his defence scott didn't ask for him to stay and decided to try make things work with Ramona) but still let's him stay at the new apartment with them when Ramona kicks him out.

Yeah he's mean to scott sometimes and makes fun of him/is brutally honest but he basically became part of Scott's family and part of that is calling people out when they're being a total jackass and teasing them, he's that kinda guy and scott knows that he doesn't actually hate him or something. Yeah scott will do puppy dog eyes if he wants something but wallace is frequently nice to him on his own initiative and scotts not a suck up to Wallace, he can be a bitch right back at him.

They're a really important part of each other's lives. though I can understand people not familiar with the characters who watched the show thinking Wallace doesn't care about scott being gone, literally all the characters reacted super casually. Bryan has tried to clarify his way of trying to cope is him "being a jerk"/disconnecting/acting apathetic. Also in the show o'malley basically confirms Wallace had feelings for scott and that was why he had the affair with Todd and you can quote him on that, aswell as scott admitting how they became roomates was "somewhat gay" in the comics, so there's definitely some weird more than friends emotional mess tied in there.

comic panels i reference under the cut

TLDR wallace lives with him because he cares about him, whether you read that as still somewhat romantic or now platonic, with either interpretations fitting better with different versions of the story

[tea-cat-arts]

I simply think this fandom doesn't give Wei Wuxian enough credit for the various ways in which he saved Lan Wangji

[allthatmay]

So, today my husband said, "Some people think Shanks is a radial leftist, but I think he's the most centrist character in the show. Dragon fills the role of the radial leftist/anarchist that people often attribute to Shanks."

And, huh, yeah. People do often talk about Shanks like he's an anarchist, but he's really not. I've always said that Shanks is a mediator, keeping a tentative peace between the pirate tribes and the government until the time comes wherein the One Piece can be claimed and the mysterious consequences can happen, but that means he is effectively playing the part of a centrist—straddling the fence, as it were. The key difference, I think, is that Shanks knows for certain that change is coming in the form of a rubber deity, and he is trying to guide it into place. All his work is done behind the scenes with very little violence if he can help it.

Now, it's easy to assume that Shanks' plans involve the complete dissolution of the government as it presently stands; that he is simply using his power & influence to mitigate harm for the many until the "real fight" can begin (and, with him having recently decided to chase the One Piece, now it has), but that might not be the case (and, even if it is the case, a lot of centrists use "mitigating harm for the many" as a reason not to take action against some truly heinous acts). The reality may be that Shanks doesn't see the need for the total collapse of the government, or perhaps he knows something about it that we don't (i.e. because he might be of Celestial Dragon blood). I don't really believe this is the case because, as far as I'm aware, Shanks hasn't ever shown any real support for the World Gov but he has shown, time and time again, that he believes in dreams, in people's personal willpower, and in the ability of anyone to become strong and change the future. But the truth is that we can't know his intentions for certain without Oda giving us more information, so my husband's assertion that Shanks is a centrist makes some sense.

In particular, Luffy is what makes this theory interesting: slap him in between Dragon and Shanks, and there's a very real dichotomy between the two "fathers" in his life. See, Luffy idolises Shanks and thinks of him similarly to a father, but he might realise as time goes on that he can't be like Shanks; he might realise that Shanks' ideals will only carry him so far. After all, what good is it to be a pacifistic when your enemy is a powerful government that is comfortable with mass murder?

(My rebuttal is that Luffy is the only one who can be like Shanks. He is effectively Shanks' dream: Shanks wants to be strong enough to do all the work himself, to suffer all the pain himself, and while he is one of the strongest men in the world, he simply can't do that; what he can do is only achievable through the support he has at his side. Meanwhile, Luffy has close support in his crew, and he has the Gum-Gum Fruit! He can literally become a godlike figure and shape the world around him! He can do everything that Shanks wants and needs and, as sure as I am that Shanks wishes he could have done it himself—I'm thinking back to his days with Roger here—he knows that it was never meant to be him.)

This is where Dragon comes in. Dragon, in direct contrast to Shanks, uses violence as a tool whenever he can. He's all about the greater good, for lack of a better term. His thinking is along the lines of, "People are suffering now and we can help, and we have no qualms in forcibly dismantling a government that uses slavery, genocide, and imprisonment to control its populace. We don't wait for the right time to act, we simply act." Do I think Shanks would approve of Dragon's goals? Yes. Do I think he would approve of Dragon's means in achieving those goals? No, but mostly because Shanks is very self-sacrificial and tries to take whatever suffering is necessary for change onto himself, relying only on his small, personal crew, whereas Dragon is happy to let other people martyr themselves for the rebel cause. He lets a small, amnesiac child join them, for crying out loud—something Shanks would never do, not even if the child proved very capable.

If anything is to come from this difference of ideals, I think it's that Luffy will learn from both of them and find his own way to the One Piece and into the world waiting beyond. Why? Well, because Luffy is all about freedom, and no one on the side of Dragon or Shanks is truly free. As for the world itself, it's hard to predict what will happen after Luffy's done with it because it's pretty dependent on Oda's philosophy. For instance, Oda seems to approve of monarchies, which is not something I would personally imagine remaining in a world without a governing body—but, hey, what do I know?

Of course, we all know that the true centrist in the show is undeniably Garp. He will let real, undeniable harm befall those he cares about in order to maintain the status quo, or to stop the government from toppling because [gasp] that would be the worst thing ever! He's a man who believes the government is essential and joins up in order to change it from the inside, only to fall short of his own expectations because he won't stand up when it matters most. Not even for the sake of his beloved grandson.

[cthulhuschild]

ZoSan Week: 40 years old

When you are in desperate need of more 40 y/o ZoSan and you realise you have the power of art.

[canisalbus]

To me, Machete kind of has the energy of a secondary villain/coldhearted side character in someone else's story that a lot of fans latch onto, moreso than the protagonist. Question is, would he be the villain in anyone's story?

Why, thank you! I'm actually glad to hear he gives off that vibe. I don't think he set out to become a villain but a lot of people certainly view him as one.

[artuurle]

I think I might have missed a post or something so sorry if like a billion people asked this before but what happened to Thespius? Did he just up and leave or did the grief eat him up?

I tag all of my posts on LaL au under the tag (#ggg Love and loss au), so if you worry you may have missed something you can always check with that tag on my blog! Though in this case you haven't missed anything! I purposefully kept it vague On exactly what happened with Thespius since in the Au nobody really knows what happened to him. The gods stopped seeing him right after Cliff's death because he shut himself inside his own realm and refused anyone entry; and Cliff never went to investigate where Thespius went when he disappeared because he assumed he upset the god. Only a week after Cliff last saw him is when Huzzle is finally able to enter Thespius's realm to investigate, finding the revived human.

Though I'll let you in on a secret. He never left.

Grief and guilt didn't just eat him up. It swallowed him whole.

[hualianisms]

feng xin gets seen as someone who's subservient and a blind rule-follower but he didn't really quite come off that way to me in the novel. if he were a total rule-follower he wouldn't cuss with such vulgar words all the time in heaven - but he clearly doesn't care about social etiquette in heaven or elsewhere. he talked back to xie lian on multiple occasions. when xie lian threatened to break up their friendship in book 2, feng xin's response was to laugh and insinuate that xie lian wouldn't survive a day without feng xin. clearly talking back to xie lian. he even punched xie lian in the face in book 4. he disagreed with xie lian's actions in book 4 when xie lian began to do things like nearly kill an innocent mortal just for insulting xie lian, bc this goes against feng xin's own moral compass.

i personally don't see him as a subservient rule-follower but as someone who deeply respects xie lian for xie lian's principles and moral compass (which feng xin agrees with bc they align with feng xin's already-present strong principles of his own). it's not blind following but deep respect out of having shared principles.

[nicorobinphd]

stg, being an enjoyer of jane twdg is like being forced into an expert-level course on the way misogyny manifests in video game spaces.

god forbid a woman be complex or difficult or provably mischaracterized (see tags) at the end of her arc to service the culmination of a man’s storyline.

[halfbaked00q]

we need to put James Bond more in the path of queer elders.

Like yes he may be a baby queer finally cracking open the rigid hard shell of his adult life persona to explore Other Modes of Being at 40-some odd years. But also that doesn't stop him from being one of the old guard, he still has a wealth of life experiences, and if anything.... I do think he probably either understands on an intuitive level or would quickly pick up/quickly click with the concepts of gender being Performative. So like that wouldn't be a barrier of entry, and just like. I think he would relate to queer elders better from a like comparable life stages standpoint.

but yeah basically lol, I just think it would be very instructive for him and also, like, that he'd find a lot of camaraderie with elder butches especially lmao. And especially again elder butch activists!! like, in some ways, both him & them have lived through a lifetime of wars that are not wars. And they both had to fight tooth and nail to get here today, but by god are they still alive and screaming in defiance in the face of those that would see them dead.

I think there's a lot he could relate to with them, but also, a lot he could learn from & about with them. Like, queer joy just Hits Different when you see it in queer elders.

[akkivee]

THE ENERGY AND CHAOS IN KUUKOUS MOVEMENT

THE CALMNESS AND MEASURE IN GHOST KUUKOUS MOVEMENT