#skill fucking issue

[effei-s]

so.... watch me, huh?

it's amazing (no) that it's been ten years and mafi still doesn't know how to make warner look good outside of BUT DID YOU KNOW ADAM SUCKS?????????? ADAM BAAAAAAAD! WARNER COOL!!! AND IF YOU DIDN'T HEAR ME THE FIRST HUNDRED TIMES WHILE JULIETTE COMPARED THEM, AND THEN KENJI COMPARED THEM, I'LL REPEAT IT A HUNDRED TIMES MORE WITH JAMES COMPARING THEM! SO! ADAM SUCKS! WARNER COOL!

GETTTTTT IT???????????? DO YOU GET IT?????????????

DO YOU??????????

i'm sorry warner is supposed to be mafi's best character, nevermind that that's THIRTY YEARS OLD MAN, and she still can't fucking let him stand on his own. someone always has to be on the side with a bright neon sign WARNER IS COOL! ISN'T HE THE BEST????? CLAP MOTHERFUCKERS! (and remember adam sucks!).

and... shit that pissed me off so bad i nearly threw my laptop against the wall:

oh, oh, i'm so fucking sorry james that adam wasn't a rich nepo baby of a fascist dictator who gave him the high-paying job and cool wardrobe and personal headquarters with hot water, so he would have the time to spend with you instead of dropping out of school and looking for any job he could so he could give you food and shelter.

the fucking AUDACITY to compare them. the NERVE. you fucking ungrateful asshole.

@cyanidesouffle is kind and cool. she won't call james an asshole. but i will. because that's exactly what he is.

@queenclacker i'm literally fucking speechless. i knew the book will suck ass, i wasn't even planning to read it. what i didn't expect is that i will hate james more than ella and aaron combined (!!!!), and one fucking chapter would be what did it. insane.

[mari-lair]

Isaaaaaa

[stealingyourbones]

DPxDC the Olympics AU.

Jazz is competing for sharpshooting

Dick is competing for team gymnastics

Y’all can work it out from there :)

[kfrances]

drew all of them yippee

[creampuffqueen]

all of you people who think avatar yangchen is unattractive simply because of her shaved hairline are weak and will not survive the winter

[qiu-yan]

MDZS and asshole victims: thoughts on the second siege of the burial mounds scene

this post is not about morality judgments. this post is about reader sympathies only.

one rather clever rhetorical trick MDZS employs is putting all the more background "surviving victims of wei wuxian's actions" into one big angry mob at the second siege of the burial mounds, instead of letting them crop up anywhere else in the story. it's easy for a first-time reader to write off the guy who lost a leg at nightless city, or the guy whose parents died at nightless city, because both of those guys are being dicks. they're part of an angry mob baying for wei wuxian's blood--unfairly baying for wei wuxian's blood, because this time he didn't even do the thing they're saying he did. by putting these two victims into a mob of not just fellow victims but also unaffected individuals (ie. sect leader yao, who just showed up for kicks), the story can effectively equate these victims' grievances (ie. "you killed my parents") with unreasonable mob rule--even if these two things might not actually be equivalent.

the effect of this rhetorical trick, then, is that the reader can at once perceive the themes about mob mentality MXTX wishes to convey, and also effectively write off the victims' complaints. "yes, i did that to you, but i literally died already, what more do you want me to do? shall i walk on my knees repenting?" becomes easier for the reader to accept. and more importantly--wei wuxian's likability as a moral and just protagonist is not impacted.

ngl tho. it would be a bit more difficult for the reader to write off these victims' complaints if, instead of meeting said victims in an angry mob, the reader instead met these victims almost anywhere else. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you killed my parents" at the second siege of the burial mounds, we instead met him getting smashed at the local bar and crying about how his parents are dead. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you chopped off my leg" as a member of an angry mob, we instead met him begging for alms on the side of the road because his disability rendered him unable to work in a wuxia-esque setting. or imagine--if either of these background characters, overcome with survivor's guilt and trauma from nightless city, hung himself in his bedroom, and the next day his body was discovered by his 15-year-old daughter.

all of these scenarios are entirely plausible. you could easily include any of them into the story without changing the main plot at all. but suddenly shit just got a lot more depressing.

however, no such scene would ever be included in MDZS. the reason is that, as a work of fiction, MDZS's single most ardent goal is for us the readers to conclude not just that "we like wei wuxian as a character," but also that "wei wuxian is ultimately a morally righteous person." when the narrative focus shifts onto the people who were actually helped by wei wuxian's actions (mianmian and her family, lan sizhui, the few months of dignity the wen remnants were afforded) this becomes much easier for us to conclude; wei wuxian does indeed look like a hero. but the more narrative focus is given to the negative impacts of wei wuxian's actions--the more the "victims of wei wuxian" (whether actual victims or not) are given a face, instead of abstracted away by broad summaries--the more the reader might side-eye wei wuxian instead. every new victim given a name, given narrative attention that isn't just focused on making them look like an asshole, arouses the reader's sympathies in the opposite direction--and thus increases the risk that the reader might ultimately disagree with the novel's conclusion of "wei wuxian is a righteous person."

tbh, this does not seem like a risk MXTX particularly wants to take. instead, she's mastered the art of writing Asshole Victims.

which is an entirely valid writing decision, because imo basically every work of genre fiction out there does this to some extent.

[d1sapp01ntm3nt]

his ass is gonna die 😂😂😂😂😂👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[yudol-skorbi]

wow look at this i found my first ever dragon age fanart! at least i cant find anything older

it was 2016 and loOK HOW THE TABLES HAVE TURNED

hilarious

[croissantdemonium]

I got a new computer after 2 years of being used to stuff either not loading or loading without texture, doodle to celebrate

[rystiel]

would things have been different if stan told ford? will things be different since mabel told dipper?

[smeraldo-heart]

Cal and Trilla are such an underrated comedic duo and it’s a damn shame we didn’t get to see them work together

Like hello?? Trilla asking Cal about the holocron, hearing him just ignite his lightsaber in response and giving the most deadpan, sarcastic “outstanding.” Not a day goes by when I don’t think about this. Fucking. Hilarious.

They would be such an immensely funny sarky duo of Star Wars just had the balls to give them to us.

We were ROBBED I tell you. Robbed of the most sarcastic, scathing comedic duo of the century. The sassy padawan siblings we deserved but never got.

The similarities in driving too?? 💀

IMMENSELY funny.

The annoyed big sister vibes and annoying little brother vibes I get from them are so good godammit. I deserved nightmare siblings Cal and Trilla.

[isdisorigionalenoughforyou]

yknow sometimes i think about how mr seawatt gaming parkourcivilization only got to where he was by leveraging his knowledge of obscure rules and mechanics and keeping all his cards close to his heart. how he clearly only got to where he originally was in the 1st movie by making himself useful with amethyst blocks and brewing stand jumps. and how it all crumbled because evbo 360-ed all over his carefully laid plans but really, his undoing was his own hubris.

and he's shit at parkour

[oneshotgremlin]

Still tryna figure out this guy’s shapes and expressions

Also:

Friday time

[sforzesco]

OCTAVIA AND KLEOPATRA

listen it's like. cleopatra had gifts put aside for octavia. and livia, but that's not as interesting to me. there's an implication, and outline, of some kind of relationship, and that not all hope was lost there. yet.

Octavia Minor and the Transition from Republic to Empire, Katrina Moore

however. octavia is made of the same cloth as her brother. octavian said roman dominance: be consumed or get buried, and octavia took that directive in her hands and open mouth kissed it with tongue. mark antony never stood a chance, but this isn't about him. he was already buried, kleopatra stayed a moment longer, and octavia outlived them both. it's checkmate or nothing, baby!

[blackbackedjackal]

One of the best and worst representations of Black people in modern anime. Both of these were released in the same year (2019).

[3liza]

really not liking this trend im seeing of ignorance and lack of effort being attributed to a natural consequence of "autism". sorry you cant understand simple storytelling my dude but media illiteracy is not actually a symptom of autism, maybe you're just a little dim???