Something I like about Leo is that he’s honestly really chill? It’s easy to remember the moments where he’s being obnoxious or excitable but I feel like most of the time he’s incredibly “go with the flow” and has an overall affable demeanor.
i think another reason why i REALLY love the eah shannon hale books (aside from how generally amazing they are) is how shannon hale expands more on the royal and rebel problem.
like in the show, we don't really explore the sides of the royals and rebels beyond the usual stance of whether they go against following their stories and support raven, or whether they want to follow their stories and condemn raven for not signing and starting the entire rebel movement.
but in the books i love how shannon hale expands upon the sheer amount of utter classism present in the eah world, and especially present in this school; perfectly encapsulating how those in power are very, very concerned about keeping this brand of classism ongoing, about keeping that divide between the 'Royals' and the 'Commoners' apparent.
just the little details of the royals and the commoners having different seats in the auditorium, with the royals having comfortable padded seats as opposed to the commoners having more uncomfortable and hard chairs, how they both have different common rooms; just the little details in general which highlight how the entire concept of destinies and signing the book and legacies is a system that is established in order to keep this classism going.
the legacy system honestly just breeds more of this classism; it tells the royals they are above the commoners and it tells them about how they deserve the happy endings and the prince charmings and the glittering gold palaces, and it tells the commoners of their place beneath the royals and firmly shows them the differences between themselves and the royals and how the commoners should be happy and complacent with the endings that they get.
overall, it tells both of these groups to simply accept what is being presented to them; presents the narrative that change is unfamiliar and dangerous and bad, and as such, they should never question their system and should instead just be happy with what they get, because, surely, this system is fair, so it just ends up being what they deserve.
hell, even the fact that before raven basically formed the royal/rebel movement, people were simply separated on the basis of being royals and commoners; it could literally not be made more obvious.
anyways, i just love the way shannon hale's books expand on this and i love how you can very clearly see the ignorance present in the eah world and how everyone's worldview is turned on its head because of raven and her actions 10/10.
sportbible Carlos and Charles gave us the full low-down in our 'Sainz or Leclerc' Q&A ahead of the #SilverstoneGP
Who would make a better stand-up comedian?
Carlos: If we were together we'd do a good job... Together or nothing. We come as a package.
Charles: This is very cute, yes.
some viktors in czech and polish folk costume and a less specific miscellany from the past few months :-) i have to draw very very small with this pen which feels appropriate for him
[id: two pages of digital drawings done with a fine pixel brush. the first image is a series of coloured drawings of viktor standing in a variety of costumes. common articles across the outfits are puffy white shirts, colourful breeches, embroidered waistcoats, and decorative flowers. in each drawing viktor is smiling and leaning on his cane. the second image is a selection of drawings of viktor standing and sitting in various poses, looking generally cheerful. in one he is sitting next to barbie, who is smiling at him. the text beside it reads ‘Barbie (they are friends)’. end id.]
The thing about Otohan is that she had an awesome mechanical build and she served a narrative purpose in that the party lived in fear of her for nearly 60 episodes but she truly did die as she lived, with a personality replaced by frogs and murderous intent. And the thing is I suspect there's plenty of interesting stuff about there. I've been there as a DM, having built a super cool NPC with worldbuiding ties that the party simply did not give a shit about, and I think that's the same situation here.
Legend of the Peaks isn't particularly meaningful since only two party members have any recollection of the Apex War and neither show the slightest interest in the politics thereof and they haven't really been relevant to the story. We don't know why she worshiped the Raven Queen once nor what happened to make her stop while still using that symbol...and it hasn't really been relevant to the story. We don't know if the backpack came from her or was from Ludinus...but it's not really relevant to the story other than tracing the potions of possibility back through Treshi and Jiana. We don't know what specifically drove her towards the Vanguard other than lacking answers as a Ruidusborn - which may have simply been enough - but again. Not relevant. We have Liliana to represent the perspective of a Ruidusborn who went through the Omen Archive study and whose motivations warped and twisted from a place of genuine worry and fear, and we have Ludinus to represent the centuries-long architect of this entire plan (plus he can't stop monologuing about his motivations, and that is a compliment). That's plenty.
And so Otohan consistently fails the Sexy Lamp With A Gun Attached Test, and it doesn't really matter, and I'm sure there was a backstory there but there's quite literally been no reason to care about it at any point, and I think most people do not. Her entire purpose within the narrative was that of a sentient evil Jersey Barrier that ultimately had to be blown up. I'm infinitely more interested in the loot drop that resulted from her death (and obviously the emotional ramifications of FCG's sacrifice) than any of her repetitive zealot bullshit.
the most batshit insane traumatizing thing happened at work today & I won't know if people are dead bc of my inability to talk a man down from a mass murder until the news reports start coming out lollll
edit: it's all good there was nothing about a shootout on the news 🙏
every time someone calls moirallegience just an alien qpr i wilt a lil like YEAH thats more or less the CLOSEST human thing but its also Literally Not That. like a qpr is fundanmentally not romantic and thats not even going into moirails whole Actual Purpose of calming ppl down. its just. aughhhhh pisses me off i see the confusion but, as aformentioned, aughhhhh
OH MY GOD THIS HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME TOO.... but i don't want to get petty at the people in my notes always saying "moirails are QPRs!" because in some ways that is the closest human thing so it's hard to be mad...
i think there's definitely some overlap in some ways. but NOT because moirallegiance and qprs are the same at all really, but INSTEAD because both relationships have unconventional boundaries defined by the people within them.
you know... like every relationship.
like the only reason the two have overlap is because they are both partnerships that emotionally care for each other but can choose to not bang (which is true for any romance anyway, even if it's considered abnormal). they're both just romances* that are unconventional to human norms, which makes people view them as the same thing when they're not.
i think the REAL issue here is that humans insist on using human words to understand things that are just, fundamentally, alien. can't we just appreciate alien romance for being... alien romance?
no, it's not platonic, it's romantic. it's just romantic in a way you aren't quite wired to understand, is all.
*in generalization, most QPRs are not romantic, because they are made up of aroaces who are life partners in a non-romantic way. however i want to disagree with you that none of them are romantic, because that is up to the partners in question.
My favorite reading of Leo’s “indubitably” tell is that it’s not actually a tell, and Leo just plays it up as one so he doesn’t get called out when he really wants to hide something.
Especially since throughout the series we see him lie and trick multiple times without saying the word once.
I like to think that one time when they were kids Leo happened to learn the word “indubitably” and because he tends to repeat new words he learns, he ended up using it at the same time as he was caught lying. He uses the word again later in another lie, and that’s where the association comes from.
OR- counter argument: “indubitably” is one of his tells, but only for unimportant things, especially when said to family. Long plays, particularly ones with villains, are in a different category in his head.
This is CQL only as I haven’t read the novel or watched the donghua. I REPEAT: THIS IS CQL ONLY.
Hi! So it’s been established here that lwj did A LOT of significant things that the story chose not to show.
Written in that post is: Lan Wangji saved A-Yuan and Wen Qing and that’s why he was late at the Battle in Nevernight.
There are a few more things that I want to say:
Lan Wangji spoke up for the Wens. He openly expressed that the Wens should not be executed.
For those who are saying that Lan Wangji is just as useless as anyone who did nothing for the Wens, then stop. Because HE DID something. You could argue that he didn’t do enough. But what else do you want him to do? Battle the Jins himself and lose his life? Point is, if you check the deleted scenes, Lan Wangji, in fact, DID battle the Jins (even the Lans!!!) in order to save Wen Qing’s life. He’s so much better than those who literally did nothing and let the Jins do as they please.
This was already stated in the linked post above but I’m still gonna put it here: Lan Wangji saved A-Yuan BEFORE Wei Wuxian died. Not after.
When he saw A-Yuan, he didn’t have the arm injury he got from the Battle in Nevernight. When he was defending the Burial Mounds, you can see the blood on his right arm, which indicates the presence of the injury he got from the Battle in Nevernight. So this means that he saved A-Yuan before he got his arm injury— before the war— before Wei Wuxian died. So for those who’s saying that Lan Wangji only redeemed himself after Wei Wuxian’s resurrection, you’re wrong. He has always been on Wei Wuxian’s side since day one.
I’ve seen people say that Lan Wangji probably didn’t have any contribution during A-Yuan’s growth since he was recovering. Wow, idk where they got that from. They must know better than A-Yuan then?
A-Yuan openly expressed that he adores Lan Wangji. When he and Wen Ning reunited, he kept talking about Lan Wangji. A-Yuan himself said that Lan Wangji is his father/brother figure, which means that HE IS a big part of A-Yuan growing up. Look, just because the director didn’t show it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Who says that a man can’t show love and affection to a child just because he’s injured?
Lan Wangji leaving Wei Wuxian at the end wasn’t uncharacteristic. He doesn’t deserve the hate he gets because of that.
Y’all hated Lan Wangji for leaving Wei Wuxian in the end. It’s probably censorship, I agree. But for me, it wasn’t uncharacteristic. I wish you all to stop being WangXian-centered for a while and think of what just happened. Lan Xichen is currently experiencing a very devastating heartbreak. I think the reason why Lan Wangji couldn’t leave with Wei Wuxian was because he wanted to take care of his brother. Y’all hated MDZS Lan Wangji for leaving Lan Xichen just like that when he’s experiencing what Lan Wangji experienced 13/16 years ago but now that CQL Lan Wangji prioritized Lan Xichen, y’all still hated him? Whatever Lan Wangji does, he always gets hated, doesn’t he?
Lan Wangji is very dedicated to Wei Wuxian but let’s not forget that he still has a life outside Wei Wuxian. The reason why he was able to let Wei Wuxian go on his own was because Wei Wuxian’s life wasn’t in immediate danger anymore. He wasn’t a target anymore since the entire world probably heard of the news already that Wei Wuxian was actually innocent. Lan Wangji had to take care of his brother. He had to take up the role of being the sect leader. And he became the Chief Cultivator, which majority of you think is uncharacteristic. I don’t really have a say about him being the Chief Cultivator but please stop limiting Lan Wangji to what you’ve seen him capable of doing. He is surely capable of growth.