#pain of absence

[godsanddemonskingdom]

Pain of absence 

Father, is this farewell

I cannot let it be

You are leaving us

For this kingdom’s end

Do you feel the pain

This is what I am feeling

A pain of your absence

When you are gone

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Dungeon Meshi crew 'leap' into action!

[pentacass]

[keferon]

Except Snowbots right. Snowbots won’t be Keferoned.

Right.

Snow bots is completely safe I promise👍

[anneapocalypse]

One thing that really gets me about Urianger comforting Minfilia in Amh Araeng is that when she says Thancred hates her, Urianger never actually says, no, he doesn't. He says instead, none of this is your fault, and the original Minfilia wouldn't hold anything against you, and in typical Urianger form he says some things about fate and faith, and his words are kind and beautiful--but he also completely sidesteps the question of how Thancred feels about her.

And I think this moment is very reflective of Urianger's relationship to Thancred and child!Minfilia as a whole. It reflects what we see when we first see all of them together in Il Mheg.

Urianger knows that the way Thancred behaves toward the girl is hurting her. He's spent enough time around the two of them to see that plainly. Theoretically, he could say something to Thancred about it; they're obviously close friends, and if Thancred was going to value anyone's opinion, it would be his. But he doesn't say anything, because he still feels guilty and responsible for all of it: about their Minfilia going to the First and what happened to her there, and thus for what both Thancred and child!Minfilia are going through now. Even though Thancred has never outright blamed him for it (however he may feel privately, which I think is hard to say), it seems like Urianger still feels like he has no right to say anything.

So he tries to compensate instead. He's kind to Minfilia, connects with her in his own way and gives her books, and by the time we see them together he's obviously become something of a familial figure to her. I would say that he and Thancred aren't so much raising her together as they're doing it... around one another. Thancred is gruff and cold and holds Minfilia at arm's length emotionally so that his protectiveness comes off harshly even when it's well-meant, and Urianger dotes on her and tries to make up for it all while avoiding the actual problem.

So that conversation in Amh Araeng is both touching and maddening to me, and it really drives home what's maddening about it when, upon overhearing it, the Warrior of Light turns to Thancred to ask him if he has anything to say to Minfilia--who has just said, out loud, that she thinks Thancred wishes she was dead--and Thancred just says, "Not today."

And so they both go on avoiding the actual problem, for just a little longer.

[rings-of-power-realm]

Goodnight my beautiful boy Theo 💙 You were so affectionate and so strong. I'm gonna miss you so much. I hope Sam is waiting for you and you're free now. You're only sleeping.

Him and Sam in the second pic 💙

[thirdeyeblue]

“Nine would have treated Martha better than Ten did”

I need to talk about this argument that never seems to stop circulating.

Note: Not a venomous/anti post. There’s more than enough of that across fandom spaces as is, and this is supposed to be a place for ✨sweet, blissful escapism✨

When making this argument, people seem to envision a scenario in which Nine never met Rose.

While I can appreciate a good hypothetical, recognizing Rose's significance to the Doctor (Nine and Ten) is essential to understanding why things with Martha played out the way they did in the first place.

In the third series, the Doctor is grieving. This grief is deliberately threaded into nearly every script, whether spoken aloud or not (and these are just a few examples):

He's burning in Rose’s wake the entire time Martha travels with him, which is why it’s so frequently called upon: It’s 100% deliberate in framing his grief. He grieved as Nine too, of course— having been fresh on the heels of the Time War — but then he met Rose, which changed everything.

Back then, he was still a rude, traumatized pain in the ass, but we watch Rose soften more of those jagged edges with every episode as they grow closer; as he lets his guard down and forms a deep connection with her.

He falls in love (against his better judgment) and it's game over.

And yes: provided S1E1 had been titled 'Martha', one can realistically assume things might have unfolded similarly to how they did with Rose. However, it wouldn’t have been that way just because the Doctor was Nine and “Nine was different” — it would be because he wasn’t already in love with someone else. The same can't be said for the start of S3.

Think of it like this: if Rose AND Martha had been in that cellar — if Nine had taken both of them along with him in S1 — we’d eventually be looking at the most melodramatic love triangle ever, what with him living in close quarters with two brilliant, gorgeous, compassionate young women... But Doctor Who is plenty “soap opera” as is with just one woman in the TARDIS.

(I certainly wouldn’t object to reading that fic, though)

Now, regarding the unrequited elephant in the room…

His inability to be romantic with Martha isn’t because he thinks her lesser, nor is it for lack of compatibility. It isn't because Rose is any better than her. It certainly isn’t just because he’s Ten.

It’s really only for one reason, which can't be denied — and now I’m a broken record:

He is still in love with Rose.

(cut from a tenrosedaily gif)

Nine is Ten, and Ten is only such a mess in S3 because he’s just lost the love of his life. Martha merely got caught in the crosshairs of a volatile Time Lord in mourning, and yes — it sucks. Absolutely.

But it also feels dismissive to chalk Ten and Martha’s relationship up to little more than some sort of mindless dance of pining, jealousy, and toxicity.

Ten trusted Martha with his life over and over again — and hers, with him. He constantly praised her brilliance, happily carting her around time and space with no intention of letting her go. In the BBC’s extended universe of novels/comics/cartoons/etc, there’s so much depth to their relationship: love and trust and trauma and sacrifice. They had their own special bond as mates, their own complexities — so it’s a bummer that it's forever overshadowed by the other things.

I’m not denying that there was a lot of stuff that sucked/was for sure toxic about Ten's S3 behavior, but so many of the things I've seen him catching flak for can be directly attributed to being A Clueless Fucking Alien Idiot (not a trait that’s unique to Ten) — as well as his flat-out obliviousness to Martha’s feelings.

So yes, I agree: if Rose never existed, he would have treated Martha differently as Nine. He also would have treated her differently as Ten. Certainly.

But Rose did exist, and when discussing canon, it matters.

“He tells me that he absolutely, 100% loves Rose... He tells me how my daughter; my wonderful, beautiful, clever little girl saved him from himself before… And he says that’s all because of me! I made her into the Rose Tyler that saved him.”

-Jackie Tyler, Flight Into Hull!

Martha got the short end of the stick in S3. She came round at the wrong place and time, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. It doesn't mean the Doctor didn’t adore her. It certainly doesn't mean the time they spent together was wasted or worthless. They were brilliant!

Sure, he could be a twat, but let it be known that he was a twat with Rose as well, both as Nine and Ten. I’m sure Tentoo can be plenty infuriating, too. So while I'll defend Ten (and Tentoo) into the ground forever and ever and ever, I'll concede that he's fucked up.

The Doctor is a certified Pain In The Ass. It’s one of the things I love so much about this character — dynamics.

But never forget that Martha was goddamn tough as nails and overcame every bit of it. She moved on with her life, and the Doctor moved on with his. One can only pray that, when they inevitably drag her back onto the show (which feels inevitable if I'm honest), we see at once that she's been living her best life for all these years.

[pain-is-too-tired]

Michael was the first Head Cousonlor in the Titan War forced to rise to his position during or after battle.

He was suddenly in charge of the second largest cabin at camp. He had likely had to prep Lee for the funeral pyre, maybe even all the others that died then as well. At least likely had to cover them in a temporary burial shroud.

Its no wonder he's bumping heads so hard with Clarisse, it's just hardly been a year since Lee's death and she has the audacity to throw a fit over a chariot that his cabin had put the work to take. Yes both cabin fought in that skirmish but the Apollo cabin still were the ones that had taken the chariot themselves.

He's not really throwing a fit same way she is. He's really just setting his foot down(even if he's doing so harshly).

He doesn't even give much of a fuss when he does give her what she wants and she still refused to fight. He probably just called her some harsh choice of names then didn't dwell too hard on it any more. He doesn't even seem angry during Williamsburg. He has more of a "What can you do" attitude about it.

Michael understood more than almost anyone how serious the war was. He wasn't willing to be walked over but he wasn't willing to put his pride over lives either.

Michael was likely head medic even when Lee was alive(hc that at some point Lee gave him the position since he'd been more skilled in healing abilities then Lee)

He saw so many deaths of campers he knew. He was close to. He saw the disaster the war brought from the beginning.

His and Clarisse view of war vastly different for this reason. He saw how bloody and terrible war could be, Clarisse only saw glory. It shaped both their choices in TLO.

[karliahs]

man I just need Dad Trauma Trio hakuri chihiro iori so much

[mxtxfanatic]

The way people view Bing-mei as a villain for having an appropriate (and I’d argue it’s actually pretty damn tame) reaction to being an abuse victim needs to be studied as a critique of how society very easily turns against victims who do not appropriately perform victimhood. In the story, the cultivation world outside of Cang Qiong Mountain are in the dark about how Luo Binghe was treated pre-Abyss, but we the audience know! We know he was abused horrifically for his first 14 years of life, 4 of those years under his shizun. Three years of kindness before being kicked into hell is not going to erase the scars left by that abuse. And just because we the audience also know that Shen Yuan’s Shen Qingqiu was not responsible for those first 4 years of Luo Binghe’s life as a disciple, that does not mean that he is let off the hook for them as the person assuming Shen Qingqiu’s identity, let alone the fact that he is the one who still forces Luo Binghe into the abyss, not Shen Jiu.

Meanwhile, Shen Qingqiu, himself, knows that he wronged Luo Binghe and spends the rest of the novel attempting to make up for it. After all, the abyss, itself, and that final act of betrayal are a point of trauma on their own level above those previous years of mistreatment combined. Shen Qingqiu never absolves himself of his actions the way fandom does for him, but the fact that he feared Luo Binghe’s retribution is somehow enough to flip who the victim is and who the abuser is in too many people’s minds. Even Bing-ge and Shen Jiu get this treatment: people act like because Bing-ge allowed his resentment to consume him in his thirst for vengeance that this not only absolves Shen Jiu of the grotesque abuse he subjected a 10-year-old to for 7 years in an attempt to kill him but that it also makes Shen Jiu the “ultimate victim” of the relationship rather than the reaper of the seeds of abuse he sowed. Cause as we all know, vengeance makes a villain, but somehow baseless abuse does not (🙄).

People take fear (or claims of it) as the sign of “true victimhood” while anger is assigned as an “abuser emotion,” especially in cases of abuse where the abuser is well-liked, and I see this sort of idea in the stated reasoning behind 95% of the Luo Binghe hate.

[ponyboyssophie]

Sure yeah whatever put this book underneath the painting of the Duchess reaching up out of the darkness into the light. Like I care

[lavellun]

my little bianca, thank you so much for these 15 (almost 16!) years of companionship, for growing old(er) with me and for all the unconditional love. i hope you and dad are reunited again (him sitting in an old garden chair and you next to him waiting for all the belly rubs!) and that you got to see your momma, too. i hope you're all in a beautiful garden filled with greenery and flowers. when it's time, we'll see each other again (iris will be there too!) and we'll run endlessly together. i love you always. 🐶💕

[hajihiko]

Got any personal thoughts on izuru

TIL that there’s a surprising amount of people that like thirst over for him haha /lh

Izuru is what crazy hard depression feels like. Unhygienic, ratty, nasty, lame to talk to, not cool. Izuru is the defense mechanism of shutting out all emotion, so technically aro/ace (not saying aroaces are devoid of emotion AT ALL that's straight not true but izuru would just not give a ahit about romance or sex at all it is literally nothing to them)

[foursaints]

you seem like you would have fascinating opinions about les miserables /pos

this ask came with eerily perfect timing... ive been considering a brick reread (monumental decision. its been years) and i feel the demons creeping back. as a teen i was a huge jehan/montparnasse shipper and i didnt really leave my rarepair corner. BUT currently the guy im truly obsessed with is javert and it's getting so bad.

i think generally im interested in texts whose plots are inextricable from an extremely didactic & strict morality system. i like getting watsonian about it and configuring the characters as doomed... obviously lesmis (masterpiece) is much better & more nuanced than hp (garbage text) but i think that's what makes me insane about both

[iamstandingwater]

'Yet Edmund was beloved' absolutely kills me every time because all of it, all his manipulation, the deceit and the hate that tore people's lives apart and ultimately ruined him too is what happens when the desire to be loved becomes desperate and hungry. Edmund is a creature of jealousy, bitterness and a profound loneliness that has hollowed him out and left a great space inside of him, starving and empty. Here, knowing that he is dying, he wants to believe more than anything that he can be whole, that despite everything, he was or could have been loved.

[georgebbwbush]

unlocking new emotions at the tender age of (ALMOST 30)