#reconstructrants

[reconstructwriter]

The Untamed vs Game of Thrones/ASoIaF

Finished watching The Untamed and have to rant about it, especially to anyone tired of GRRM taking forever to finish the Winds of Winter or burned out after season eight. The Untamed /Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation has all joys of GoM/ASOIAF (fight scenes, back-stabbing, political drama, an overwhelming evil that threatens the world, medievalism inspired by history, fantasy, character deconstructions, incest, zombies, tragedy …okay it doesn’t have dragons per se but it does have a dragon turtle) It also straight up does everything better. Everything:

The Opening: Much like Indiana Jones movies are praised for having more action in the first five minutes than most action movies have in two hours, this opens up right in the middle of the most climatic, action-packed and heart-breaking scene of the whole show. Then the show jumps back and forth, leading up to the inevitable and then shows where you go from there. So, we start out with an inevitable horror – this person WILL die, that person WILL betray, etc. that not only can’t be prevented but that everyone is inevitably spiraling towards. At the same time, it opens in the middle so we’ve got the tension of ‘what will come in the aftermath of this’. Best of both.

Villains: We’ve got both the intrinsically evil and otherworldly threat and the very human people who have chosen evil. But unlike ASOIAF, there’s an interplay between the two in The Untamed. The Others are fundamentally outsiders with Caster alone assisting them by making sacrifices. Meanwhile in The Untamed, said intrinsic and otherworldly evil is very much intertwined with BOTH the villains AND the heroes. It’s power most covet and brings out their worst traits, it is a force our protagonist must struggle with both inwardly and outwardly.

Also the villains and heroes are very much distorted reflections of each other in a way that's very intriguing – especially Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang who are very similar in personality. Had things been different they could have BEEN each other in a way Jon Snow and Ramsey Snow really couldn’t. There’s also a depth to both. You can see why Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang walked the paths they did even if Xue Yang turned out so fucked up. While I can see why Jon Snow made his choices…we aren’t shown why Ramsey Snow became the way he was. He’s the cliché ‘well he was just born nasty’ that can be boring in a villain – especially one contrasted with the protagonist.

Characterization: Everyone! Xichen WISHES he had his head chopped off like Ned Stark. Wei Wuxian shows even rapidly moving waters can run deep (and hey if you wanna see someone get literally, repeatedly damned for doing the right thing…). Madame Yu is like Catalyn Stark if the latter was badass and went out like a boss (and also despite everything gave half a damn about Jon Snow). Jiang Cheng is a contradictory fit whose relationship with Wei Wuxian makes Jon Snow and Robb Stark’s relationship bland as store-bought white bread. I see your Robb Stark and Theon Greyjoy and raise you Xichen and Meng Yao. In general MXTX’s characters are deeper, richer, more real and satisfying than GRRM’s.

Fantasy: This is a Xanxia fantasy so there’s a lot more overt magic – not just magical creatures but most of the protagonists and antagonists have magic. And magic swords! Personalized magic swords almost like a blend of Valyrian Steel and lightsabers except these swords allow the wielder to fly so as much as I love my glowy swoosh swords these ones might win out on cool points.

Historical: … from what I've been told Xanxia fantasies are typically set in the real world so The Untamed is set in our China – just our China if cultivation were a real way to obtain magic and immortality. So, there’s A LOT of references to real historical medieval stuff here. And a lot of medieval horror. You got your punishments, including some augmented by magic. You've got torture, entire sects being wiped out and the horror of bride ghosts.

Backstabbery: Thinking back on it Game of Thrones/ASOIAF, for all that it’s a sack of backstabbing weasels, doesn’t have a lot of really wrenching betrayal. The closest is probably Theon going back to daddy instead of staying with his Robb, but even then that's a valid allegiance for him. Littlefinger has no reason beyond money to support Ned, we get little hints of familial betrayal (Ramsey murdering his brother) but nothing like The Untamed which has some horrible betrayals. I mean people who have been best friends/sworn blood oaths/etc. backstabbing. If MXTX wrote GoT Robert Baratheon would’ve been the one cutting Ned’s head off (which, honestly that’d have been more interesting).

It's a crying shame Game of Thrones/ASOIAF is more popular and it really shouldn’t be. Best of all The Untamed its free (on Viki) 😊

[reconstructwriter]

Exactly! Anakin made evil, shitty choices but they were his CHOICES and made with eyes wide open. He has examples of both good and evil. He was raised by Shmi but in a culture that saw nothing wrong with slavery. He was then taught by the Jedi and (secretly) by the Sith. In a sense Anakin has two mentors: Obi Wan and Palpatine.

His tragedy is he ultimately succumbs to his fear - of losing those he cares about. So he chooses to genocide an entire tribe instead of sneaking out with his mother's body the way he came in. He chooses to behead the literally unarmed Dooku instead of arresting him and maybe finding out who his Master is. He chooses last second to attack Mace instead of Palpatine and then to swear himself to the Sith over the Jedi, to become the fascist enslaver. A terrible choice that almost immediately bites him in the ass when he murders Padme himself: in trying to avoid his visions he has ensured they came to pass.

But those are all still his choices. The Prequels takes pains to show that yes Anakin is making these decisions himself. He's not being mind-controlled or forced. To deny him these terrible choices and responsibility making them is to deny and take away some of his agency as a person. Which feels really gross to do to a former slave and especially Mr. I'm a Person and my name is Anakin!

I've seen this trope in both fanfics and especially Disney movies where the author/producer takes an established villain and retcons them into a less evil person and/or white-washes their but at the price of their agency. Oh the villain was mind-controlled all along. Or actually they were raped/victimized by heroes/protagonists and thus have understandable grievances. Its usually a trope associated with female villains which makes the exchange of agency for morality even creepier given morality was often used as the excuse to deny women agency (i.e. politics is too immoral for you, stay out. Sex is too immoral until you're married, etc.)

But imao trading Anakin's agency to make him more moral is equally creepy.

*hits hornets' nest*

Anakin Skywalker was not a victim of the Jedi Order, they wound up being his victims on a massively catastrophic scale.

*hits hornets' nest harder*

The Jedi were not the architects or the arbiters of their own "downfall", they were the victims of a decades - centuries, even millenia - plan to put them between a rock and a hard place whereby their actions to try and mitigate damage were painted with a biased brush such that when they were victims of a genocide, the galaxy as almost a whole (and large swathes of the fandom) cheered and/or said they had it coming.

*whacks hornets' nest with all I've got*

The fact that we see Anakin crying when he goes to kill younglings does not change the fact that, you know, he consciously makes the decision to murder younglings!

[krytus]

anyways. like [checks notes] three years ago, apparently, i reconstructed the red sentient symbols from scratch because i have nothing better to do but i realized i never uploaded them on their own...i need someone to appreciate the effort i put in

[drbenlee]

Cosmetic Surgery vs Plastic Surgery

There are many options to change or enhance your looks. From simple treatments to achieve whiter teeth up to the extent of reconstructrive treatments via cosmetic or plastic surgery. The latter is ever increasing in popularity these days but majority don’t understand the difference between plastic and cosmetic surgery. There is much in store about these closely related procedures. Here is all you need to know about cosmetic surgery vs plastic surgery!

Cosmetic surgery is a field of medicine that focuses on enhancing patients appearance through medical and surgical techniques. The procedures can be conducted successfully in all areas of the neck, body, and head. Due to the fact that cosmetic surgery is elective, the treated area will function properly however it will lack the aesthetic appeal.

On the other hand, plastic surgery is a field of medicine that specializes in the reconstruction of the body and facial defects as a result of burns, birth disorders, disease, and trauma. Therefore, plastic surgery is all about correcting any dysfunctional areas of the patient’s body. It is commonly referred to as a reconstructive treatment.

Even the education protocol differ for cosmetic surgery vs plastic surgery specialists. This is mainly because the outcomes of the procedure are a bit different.

Cosmetic surgeons have a background that entails a fellowship program, post-residency in cosmetic surgery, and a medical school–, usually recognized by a certification board. However, there are no residency programs particularly focused on cosmetic surgery.

Therefore, a majority of cosmetic surgery courses are done through workshop, lectures, and seminars mostly conducted by cosmetic surgery fellowship programs. After acquiring sufficient knowledge and skills about the discipline, physicians are then certified by Athe American Board of Cosmetic Surgery (ABCS).

In plastic surgery, a path similar to the one was taken by cosmetic surgeons is followed. But, after completion of the program in the plastic surgery, the surgeons are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. From which they can opt to add cosmetic surgery classes or not–, it is not compulsory

In case the plastic surgeon decides to gain knowledge and skills in cosmetic surgery through either workshop, fellowship training programs, lectures, and seminars, he is then certified by the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery.

In both plastic and cosmetic surgery, board certification is vital in determining the qualifications of the surgeon. However, each field of surgery has its own requirements and measures used in certifying a student to be a surgeon. It is therefore vital for the public to understand the differences between the two specialists for an informed decision

from Dr Ben Lee http://drbenlee.com/cosmetic-surgery-vs-plastic-surgery/ via IFTTT

[paladinsaredumb]

I would also like to point out that at that point in NtN, CamPal absolutely thought that Gideon was a meat puppet controlled by Ianthe. As far as I can tell from the book, they're pretty low on the BoE ladder as Troia cell so whatever info BoE may have as to what's happening in the Empire isn't going to them beyond what We Suffer sees fit to give them, so it stands to reason that they had no idea that John had brought Gideon back as Kiriona.

Hell, I don't think We Suffer knew about that to this extent either, since they all believe she's a minion and not a fully, if imperfectly reconstructred, resurrected Gideon (and we really should address the fact that John chose to do it this way. As Pyrrha says, he can do much better than what we got).

If uou go back to ch. 25, they don't start treating Kiriona as a person until they actually believe that she's ressurected, and that comes after confirmation that its her. There's also the fact that they're under massive stress trying to get the Sixth House's Oversight Body out and make their own way to the Ninth so everybody can be forgiven for being less touchy feely than the Tridentarii twins after being separated for more than five minutes, I think.

I actually was sooo surprised by Palamedes missing Harrow!! Sometimes it feels like Muir retconned the fact that it’s GIDEON who made friends, because she is almost never missed and in Nona it’s obvious that they were waiting for Harrow to wake up.

Like Kiriona makes Sex Pal joke and the characters don’t act relieved or sad, and overall act like they don’t care for her even when it’s so evident that Gideon cares and is happy to see Palamedes in Nona, but Pal misses Harrows frown? For real? What’s up with that?

It feels very like “she is not a necromancer so Pal doesn’t care as much and Cam is not really in the place to care about anyone because of the horrors”, but that’s not who Palamedes is. Can definitely liked Gideon a lot. I feel like Muir herself sort of maybe actually contributes to that thing that “Harrow is overrated” anon is talking about.

Harrow is great, don’t get me wrong and I loved how Muir wrote her mental illness, but also Harrow never faces consequences of her being a major bitch if you know what I mean. Harrow acts horrible to most people that she meets, excluding like John who is literally a God. And yet she is treated like the most precious beloved by the other characters. Which is fine but also maybe a lot? Like she is also gods favorite??? And the Earth thinks that she’s special? What else? Should The Universe appear and kiss Harrows ass also?

It’s just not that balanced, I think. Like some of these people were supposed to show preference to Gideon over Harrow on the account of the fact that it was actually Gideon who made friends with them while Harrow was burning herself out and being horrible to everyone.

(ok this is in reference to this other anon from 2 days ago before I was consumed by sanremo blogging)

LOVE ME A JUICY CONTROVERSIAL TAKE. Ok, so.

Ooooh, the "I miss Harrow terribly" line! I thought it felt very #meta. You're right that Palamedes was Gideon's friend before he was Harrow, and they really barely interacted, but in HtN he was absolutely overjoyed to see her. He spent months trapped in the River bubble and she was the one who gave him the opportunity to communicate with Camilla and return to the world. I think that retroactively made him fonder of Harrow than he might have been otherwise. Also, I think that taking care of Harrow's body for six months and seeing Nona behave so differently and carefree played a part, too. Like, I don't think that line was completely random, but I think it was there also to be a wink to the readers.

Team Pal not missing Gideon! You're RIGHT on this one. I think Kiriona's appearance really threw them off; Camilla had just fought a duel nearly to the death to get a chance to steal Gideon's body and then! surprise! Gideon's body is walking and talking and calling herself a Prince of the First House, and she's enormously bitter and nowhere as easygoing as they remembered. I think their reaction is understandable; they'd built up Gideon as this friendly, selfless paragon of virtue in their minds, and she wakes up as they're about to draw blood from her dead body and acts thoroughly pissed off. tbh, that's the same reaction many readers had to Gideon's reappearance in NtN, so I get it! It makes sense! It does make me want to hug her though.

On Harrow not facing consequences: I think she does, though? Like, she is miserable for her entire life. She hates herself, she blames herself for her parents’ deaths, she has actively been sucidal. She does make Gideon’s life hell, but frankly even with all of her issues and absolutely abusive upbringing, I think Gideon was less fundamentally unhappy than Harrow was. Yeah, she doesn’t face “narrative” consquences, but I think the fact that she lobotomises herself to preserve Gideon’s soul shows that she knows she owes Gideon a lot.

Also! I’m very curious how Harrow being Alecto’s favourite is going to turn out in AtN. Because John was also Alecto’s favourite, and her love ultimately corrupted him. I’m not sure if being loved by a wrathful deity is necessarily a good thing. And John IMO was genuinely very fond of Harrow, but a lot of that was because she offered him the unconditional admiration and worship that he craves (and didn’t stop him from manipulating her though arguably that’s how John shows affection) (Also. I have a theory that John wouldn’t have liked no-lobotomy Harrow nearly as much).

Not to throw gasoline on the debate fire, but actually some of what you said re: the narrrative idealising Harrow is how I felt about many of the characters in Nona! Cam+Pal and to a lesser extent Pyrrha, who were framed through a very loving POV and were shown to be well-intentioned and loving and as Good as TLT characters get, which is why I’m dearly hoping for that pedestral to shatter in AtN :3

Anyway. IDK if I have a point to this except I really appreciated this ask and it made me Think! thank you :D