#so i might turn off reblogs actually

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

Auti’s Highly Personal and Very Anglophone Guide to the Best Danmei They Have Read (+ One That They Haven’t But Is Too Popular Not to Mention) With An Eye to Newcomers to the Genre

All the best danmei i’ve read, and some i don’t personally like but is very popular, rated for: Length, Plot Convolutions, Sicko Appeal, Melodrama, and Availability. (sicko appeal is a tongue in cheek reference to kinkiness/elements often enjoyed kinkily). I’ve put an asterisk by the beginning of ones i think are good for beginners. Recommended to google the terms wuxia and xianxia, and to think/learn a bit about cultural christianity and its assumptions.

MXTX (Mo Xiang Tong Xiu)

*– Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS) THE most known danmei to English speakers! Class, revenge, reputation, resurrection, necromancy, what it actually means and costs to live by the principles everyone is espousing. Carefree, oblivious rule-breaker x burdened, all-too-aware rule-follower. I wouldn’t say it’s far and away better than all other danmei, but if one has to be the most popular, it's a good candidate. Also has newbie support from bilingual meta on tumblr; a good first choice for that reason (eg tumblr user hunxi-guilai. Does not want to be taken as an authority; use their meta as a starting point not an end point). (xianxia-like)

Length: Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Moderate

Sicko Appeal: Low (you would think; fandom is pretty toxic about it anyway)

Melodrama: Moderate

Availability: Easy to pay for a copy; check your library

The drama is very good on its own merits, but I think best watched with some understanding of what they were not allowed to show. It’s easy to fill in the blanks on the queer narrative; less so the censored necromancy. 

*–Scumbag Villain’s Self Saving System (SVSSS) Isekai for writers who hate isekai; protagonist/reader, teacher/student, demon lord/sickly dude: all the same pairing. Here to complicate your power dynamic assumptions. Above all, a book for writers. Its uniqueness might give you skewed expectations for other danmei if you read it first, but it’s accessible. (xianxia-like; even lighter on worldbuilding than most).

Length: Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Low

Sicko Appeal: Moderate

Melodrama: Low-to-Moderate, depending on how the humor strikes you

Availability: Easy to pay for a copy; check your library

*–Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF) The slow motion train wreck of privileged idealism meeting real world cruelty. Guy crushed by life determined to want nothing x Guy angry at life determined to give him everything. Written after censorship was tightened on the publishing site; no actual explicit content (many euphemisms, many kisses). Still very worthwhile. (xianxia-like; with gods and ghosts as more prominent characters than usual)

Length: Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Moderate

Sicko Appeal: Low

Melodrama: Moderate (on average)

Availability: Easy to pay for a copy; check your library

Priest (pls note I don’t personally enjoy Priest novels very much, if my descriptions seem unenthusiastic. But the consensus is that these are very good books, and I can tell they’re made well. Idk if it’s something I’m missing or what). Priest has written several more novels I’m not familiar with, also, including Faraway Wanderers, the novel the drama “Word of Honor” is based on.

*–Guardian Contender for most-widely-beloved danmei by English speakers! Reincarnation, sunshine bi/ stoic gay, secrets for their own good, slow burn, monster of the week. Modern setting (partially). Haven’t finished, can’t truly rate. However, as far as I can tell:

Length: Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Moderate

Sicko Appeal: Low

Melodrama: Moderate

Availability: Easy to pay for a copy; check your library

Has a drama that is also well-beloved (and censored in the usual way).

–Stars of Chaos (SPL) Historical steampunk-like; teacher/student-ish (both more and less so than SVSSS; more of a traditional wuxia teacher/student relationship (so, more distant), but messy about it). Few if any actually-supernatural elements. 

Length: Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Low

Sicko Appeal: Low

Melodrama: Low-to-Moderate

Availability: easy to pay for a copy (will be fully published in English by Feb 2025)

-Lord Seventh Honestly this one eviscerated me so thoroughly I can barely tell you what it’s about. Protagonist is reincarnated for a seventh time, with another chance to make things right. Lots of politics. Heartbreaking. Idk man. Technically a prequel to Faraway Wanderers, reads like a standalone. (historical, no supernatural elements)

Length: idk

Plot Convolutions: Low

Sicko Appeal: idk man i’m too sad to be a sicko about this

Melodrama: does this count as melodrama??

Availability: can be read for free online; not sure if it’s been bought for official English publication.

Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat (Meatbun) 

*–The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/Erha) My personal all-time favorite danmei. Bloodthirsty tyrant who gets a chance to live his life over x extremely repressed teacher who couldn’t stop him in their first life. The life-destroying power of poverty; the wonders of good dick. The most mouthwatering descriptions of food you’ve ever read in your life; smut that will make you cry. The meaning of kindness; the horrors of mob mentality. 2ha has it all. Strong argument for writing whatever the hell you want. Noncon figures prominently. (xianxia-like)

Length: Long

Plot Convolutions: High

Sicko Appeal: High

Melodrama: High

Availability: easy to pay for a copy (will be fully published in English by July 8, 2025)

*–Remnants of Filth (Yuwu) Same amount of angst as 2ha in a smaller package. Traitor former general with reduced mental capacity x betrayed former fellow-soldier / ex-lover who must take care of him until his state execution. Side characters are even more painful. (historical-like with xianxia elements)

Length: Short-to-Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Moderate

Sicko Appeal: Moderate

Melodrama: High

Availability: easy to pay for a copy (will be fully published in English May 2025)

–Case File Compendium (CFC/BAB) Also very good, although she lost me in the last chapter with a character choice I couldn’t get over. Psychiatrist x former patient with a supernatural disease. Not student/teacher, but giving student/teacher. Noncon figures prominently. (modern setting)

Length: Moderate-to-Long

Plot Convolutions: Moderate

Sicko Appeal: High

Melodrama: High

Availability: easy to pay for a copy (fully published in English June 2025)

Other Authors:

Mu Su Li: Copper Coins: Disabled dragon on a quest for healing and revenge x withdrawn monk roped into helping him. Lyrical; most effective sense of place of all the danmei I’ve read. (wuxia-like vibes; possibly more xianxia-like, technically).

Length: Short

Plot Convolutions: Low

Sicko Appeal: Low

Melodrama: Low

Availability: still free to read online; will be taken down for official publishing at some point.

Feng Yu Nie: Mistakenly Saving the Villain: isekai’d terminally-ill medical student from modern era x deeply traumatized and malicious former cultivator. Extensive discussion of past sexual abuse. Seemingly wandering narrative, very psychological in focus. Even if you’re deep in and think you know where this is going, it still has surprises for you. (not actually very isekai; xianxia-like)

Length: Long

Plot Convolutions: Moderate

Sicko Appeal: Moderate

Melodrama: Moderate

Availability: Still free to read online; some people have an annoying time. You have to go through a discord to get access. Wasn’t onerous for me. Will be taken down for official publishing at some point.

Meng Xi Shi: Thousand Autumns (Qian Qiu): another one I personally did not enjoy, although I read most of it and can tell it’s well done. Spiritual good guy x famous and powerful bad guy who’s allergic to respecting boundaries. (I didn’t like how their dynamic seemed static). Very evocative, interesting world. (wuxia-like).

Length: Moderate

Plot Convolutions: Low

Sicko Appeal: generally low, but high for the relationship dynamic

Melodrama: ?? I’m the wrong person to ask

Availability: Easy to pay for a copy; check your library

Cang Wu Bin Bai: Golden Stage: the guy who broke your heart got his just comeuppance; now the emperor has ordered you to marry him??? Creeps up on you; you think everything’s chill and then you’re crying over a goose. Check and mate. (historical; no supernatural elements). 

Length: honestly I don’t remember. Probably moderate

Plot Convolutions: Low

Sicko Appeal: Low

Melodrama: Low, but higher than you’d think

Availability: still free to read online; will be taken down for official publishing at some point.

There are more widely-beloved titles I haven’t yet read, such as The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, by Xue Shan Fei Hu. I mention this also to warn you not to take novels with such titles lightly. They are meant to get you to relax your guard (or at least have had that effect on me).

[phioneplatinum]

silly tempo doodles [ft. one funky churro fumo] mostly because i felt like it

also hopefully if nothing comes up today, i can start the silly vrchat session tonight! [around 7-8pm est, i'll make a post when im about to hop on or when i am on :D] if not i can move it to next week if people need more time to prepare because i do know it was a bit out of nowhere but if everyone's ready, i can do it tonight! :D [do note i do use an oculus quest so i might not see pc avatars or worlds!! if anyone has an avatar they wanna port to quest, i can gladly provide a tutorial that helped me with getting the tempo avatar quest compatible!]

here's a list of the games i planned out! this is due to change, and i'm willing to take suggestions for new games too! [so long as they're quest and pc compatible! and, well, for people of all ages too of course]

[13eyond13]

.

[dragonsarecats]

are they wearing each other's clothes? is it an elaborate roleswap au where shun gets to lie in the grass and relax for once while alice obliterates vexos ass? does shun look weirdly good in lavender?? the answer will surprise you! (yes)

[neurodecadence]

If i swing a sword and I watch it go through a rat, and then the game says "no u missed tho" while the rat bites me to death, that's not skill issue, that's bad game design.

[growling]

Not even at the Top Three reasons I've mainly left the wc fandom and instead just do my own thing on my own tag, but incredibly frustrating nonetheless. How wc tumblr just treats people making their own fix-it aus for fun.

I don't know how it is for other fandoms, but the amount of people making their own rewrites of the wc series is.... massive. Basically every single guy in here if free to have a go at it if they want, and nobody cares, it's basically everybody here that makes up their own version of canon because the actual books are widely agreed upon to, well... *gestures at the misogyny, ableism, racism ex. the tribe, casual fatphobia, iffy at best portrayal of abuse, terrible and lazy writing in general* kinda suck.

it is kinda considered Normal in here, since it's so common, and as result, people just got... Really entitled? dare i say downright unhinged about other people's silly AUs?

One aspect that I feel is the most prevalent in this, that literally nobody talks about because of course, is the absolute condemn of anything realistic or "uncool". I remember there was that one post floating around a few months (years?) back, that basically said "[quoting. im lazy] I think the main problem with warriors rewrites is they get so bogged down in ‘trying to make sense’ or ‘make them act like actual cats’ is they forget to make things COOL AS SHIT. Like yes your bloodclan has 200 pages of foreshadowing but is it still COOL AS SHIT? (...) If your warrior cats rewrite wouldn’t result in 200 scourge animations of him being cool as shit if it was the canon material you have failed." and just for clarification I do not have anything against the person that posted it, I do not think they were being intentionally rude in any way. But. Both before it there was a problem, and after it got passed around enough I think people got the Wrong Idea. Or maybe the Right One idk man, and just found a way to describe how they felt about some of the rewrite projects going on.

The fandom is largely ranging from dismissing to outright hostile towards people making aus/rewrites/other fics where the Clans are more realistic or have more rigid naming rules, for example, ones where the cats act more like cats, many events don't really get to happen or are changed due to just not working in a more realistic universe, traditional and similiar naming systems, accurate genetics, so on so on. And I do admit there was once a problem where those people who prefer more realistic styles, especially the traditional namers, were pushing it onto others and acting really mean towards people just looking to have fun and not really pay attention to any naming rules; however, it was a long time ago, and has mostly died down. Nowadays, all the trad namers I know of are actually pretty chill, and there's very few of them. (Like, we are dying over there lmao the numbers are going down every year)

However, the fandom just, really has not moved on from those times (and I'm asking, was that really that prevalent back then? or are these people just exaggerating as always?) and continues to be just.... really bitter of tradnamers. Constantly convinced that they are "ruining their fun" just by having their own spaces somewhere. One blog of the more traditional kind that I followed got sent an ask somewhere along the lines of "oh yeah sure your fanfic is 'realistic', but would it have people make sick amvs about it in the 2010s???" and I just. Knew where they got the idea. Not even exclusive to just in traditional system, but people tend to get very weird towards people that choose to change up parts of cats' names they don't like or find unsuited for their au? for example, changing Longtail's name to Lizardtail because it's odd for a queen to just name their son longkit, or Runningwind to something different all together because they find the prefix "Running-" really silly to name a baby or because the suffix "-wind" is already the name of another Clan in canon, or changing the names of some other cats just because they don't suit them or the circumstances behind them are iffy to them. (I personally find it pretty fun, and has renamed a considerable deal of cats in my own: ex. Jayfeather -> Jaywing, Longtail -> Lizardtail, Loudbelly -> Minkbelly, Clawface -> Clawedface, Hollyleaf -> Hollythorn)

Apparently, it's "boring", or ruining other people's fun somehow despite them not needing to read them? Lyrical namers (opposite of traditional, if anybody needs an explanation: tradnaming assigns hard defined rules to the names that clan cats can have, while lyrnaming does not have any rules and is about just naming them whatever you like if you think it is cool or sounds pretty) act like they're constantly being persecuted en masse by the Mean Traditionalists that brutally force them to conform, while.... the lyrnamers are actually the overall majority, while tradnamers are now pretty uncommon and usually literally just mind their own business. It's "let people have fun" but only for the things that you personally find fun, don't even dare to like to have rules or any of these things, it's not like any people in particular actually find creating their own suffix meaning systems personally fun or anything, they just want to name the cats ugly/boring shit because they're killjoys. Yeagh

Same with people changing cats' designs to be more realistic simply because they prefer it that way, who then get vagueposted about and called "uncreative". A very small percent of artists actually know real life cat genetics, and none of them, at this current time (people were very different say, like, 10+ years ago in the fandom. things tend to change) i have ever heard of apparently forcing anybody upon these things.

Not every silly warrior cats au of some random 16 year old with like 12 followers needs to be Cool to your near impossible standards. "Let people have fun" means also letting people have fun that you personally don't understand or don't find fun personally. I get so anxious whenever I force myself to word anything and then end up forgetting half of it in the middle of it so if I didn't include something or if a sentence looks weird then that may be why. But basically, what I'm saying is: can't we just hold paws and sing masterpiece theatre iii by marianas trench for fucks sakeee can we calm the fuck down

[pikagatogirltits]

I keep on trying to make this post and keep on erasing it but I think I need to take a break from Tumblr.

[pointedearsandpronouns]

wip of one of my bg3 tavs, this is asphodel ^_^

[non-un-topo]

Welp I hope my professor enjoys my hot cheeto take for this project. I’m just making some notes before I get writing.

[kindnessoverperfection]

Some recent wins:

-Sang loudly and off-key with my partner. We were both laughing to tears. I was sober.

-Found myself actually thinking about musical theatre today. For myself, for my own interest in it. I wasn't chasing it for a narc high, nor avoiding it due to a crash. It's been a long time since I've thought about my interests for my own sake.

-Invited my friends to hang out

[oh-katsuki]

one of my old posts abt “part 2″ comments is making the rounds again but i’ve kinda changed my stance on it (ie; i don’t care as long as ur polite and treat me like a human) and now i just see it in my notifs all day and am sighing heavily at it. 

[shithowdy]

this is your periodic reminder that for all the artifacts and errors and "tells" one could possibly list, the only reliable way to actually determine if an image is ai generated is to investigate the source. it is becoming increasingly common for "fake classical paintings" to circulate around curative aesthetic blogs, and everyone should be using this as an opportunity to not only exercise their investigative skills but also appreciate art more in general. you're all checking out the artists you reblog, right? 🫣

so what are some signs to look for? let's use this very good example.

what a lovely late-impressionist piece blended with evocative leyendecker-esque themes! why haven't you ever heard of this artist before? surely tumblr would be all over an artist like this. who is justin brown?

your two options from here are to do a search for the name, or a reverse image search. i prefer reverse image searching, particularly when it comes to a common name like "justin brown". so what does that net?

Immediately, without looking at any text, something is wrong: it barely exists. an actual historical piece would turn up numerous results from websites individually discussing the piece, but no such discussions are taking place. Looking at the text, though, does show the source-- and at least in this case, the creator was honest about their medium.

But let's also look at the "exact matches", in case a source doesn't make itself apparent in the initial sidebar results like this.

This section will often tell you post dates of images, and here it can be seen that the very first iteration of the image was posted 15 days ago. It did not exist online prior to that.

Seeing how long an unsourced image has been floating around is a skill applicable to more than just generative images! See a cool image of an artifact or other intriguing item with a vivid caption? Reverse search it! If all the results are paired with that caption and only go back a few months, you might just have viral facebook spam.

Sometimes generative creators are dishonest about their medium and do not tag it like in the example, so that's when establishing "jpeg provenance" becomes important. While it can be a little trickier to determine if someone is using generative images and not admitting to it if they aren't trying to pass it off as a classic, something to consider is the age of their account and the frequency with which they post. Here are some account red flags:

-Did they only start posting art after 2022, or if they did before, did their style/skill level WILDLY change? Not gradual improvement-- I'm talking amateur graphite portraits straight into complex digital renders. Everyone starts somewhere, newness is not a red flag alone; it's newness combined with existing in a vacuum away from any community.

-Do they post fully-finished paintings several times a week? -Do many of these paintings seem iterative of a similar theme or subject matter ("three well-dressed young men face each other under shade and dappled sunlight")?

-Does their style change in inconsistent ways? An artist that can swap between painting like Drew Struzan and Hokusai should be pretty well known, right? Why is no one hyping this guy?!

-Do they have social media besides the source instagram? If so, what are they posting about? Are there any WIPs? Doodles? Interactions with other artists? Gallery dates? 3am self-doubt posts? Or is it all self-promo? Crypto? Seemingly nothing art-related at all for someone pushing out 3 weekly paintings?

Basically, if it's important to you to omit this stuff when you curate, please don't just smash reblog if the source doesn't seem to be the OP themselves. Seeking out sources was important even before this became an issue, now it is more than ever.

peace n love

[amplexadversary]

Those old negative-pressure ventilators (like the famous/infamous Iron Lung) are pretty fascinating in a number of ways.

We favor positive pressure, pumping air into the lungs, via intubation in extreme cases, but that approach has a lot of drawbacks. The emergence of covid increased demand, especially for the kind of extended use that can lead to lung damage. I wonder how fast we could have moved out new negative pressure ventilators (wikipedia page linked to one kind) if we had better public health funding (both in general and not having been fucking gutted right before we ended up needing it.)

The negative pressure machines make it harder to examine a patient, but the relative expense (including training of medical personnel), non-invasive method (and lack of associated side effects, discomfort, and distress), and general quality of life seem like they would have been good to have earlier on (hell, modern technology arguably removes some of the restriction problems that older models had; theoretically you could wire a keyboard or a video game controller in there that could be used to operate a computer, tv, e-reader, and whatnot, which would probably improve prognoses from just the psychological condition of being not in pain and not bored.)

Not a lot of old ventilators like that are still in functional condition, and people who genuinely have needed them indefinitely eventually started having trouble sourcing parts to keep the things working. They do restrict movement but as an alternative to intubation in cases extreme enough to need it, they still seem by far the more comfortable option. Since positive pressure ventilators are so resource-intensive and invasive, I wonder if keeping both kinds around and transferring people to a newer model of negative pressure chamber if extended use is needed would be the ideal protocol. Covid is still a problem even though we're largely ignoring it, we could probably still use a respectable reserve of negative pressure chambers for all their benefits.

[peggycatrerr]

today on the train home the guy next to me was on his phone and at one point i saw him go on tumblr and he just had like. a normie dash. like it was all photography. of nature and architecture. he was using tumblr the way a heterosexual landscaper for rich people might use instagram. i actually had to watch his screen for a few seconds to be sure it really was tumblr because i was so taken aback by the content he was viewing. this is why algorithmless websites are so beautiful btw because i genuinely didn't know that this side of tumblr even existed. he didn't even so much as scroll past any text posts.

EDIT: look i'm not going to turn off reblogs but i cannot stress enough that THIS WASN'T A HIPSTER BLOG DASH IT WASN'T AN AESTHETIC BLOG DASH IT WAS THE MOST WILDLY GENERIC COLLECTION OF IMAGES YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING OR BEING A QUIRKY FANDOM TUMBLRINA WHEN I SAY "NORMIE" I GENUINELY MEAN "SO NORMAL THAT IT CIRCLES AROUND TO WEIRD". CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME? HELLO?

[whiteoutzz]

https://www.tumblr.com/wings-of-fire-confessions/762155694190395392/is-it-just-me-or-is-the-way-wof-presents

Hi! Is it ok if you state your thoughts and/or feelings about this confession please?

Uhhh i thought about how i respond for this ask and while i ultimately decide alright. I am going to do that. Its not going to be long but in short:

Obviously i disagree... Honestly i wasnt even provided with examples even within the wof confessions ask itself to why it is not so bad about disability. Im sorry to the anon but even within your ask you show that it is actually not good about it.

But wings of fire is not unique in that. I dont think Tui was malicious, but that does not mean that her writing is immune from criticism.

Weather its being careless with her writing or using tropes and not researching the disability she is writing about. Even with alot of the good disabled characters, not only are they discarded but their disability is. It could be written better?

I think its bad, and just because its not the worst it not makes it immune to criticism. I start listing all of the weird writing choices in my head and i only find more and more bad, so its not just something that happens once or twice and its a problem.

Uhh im not sure how to finish this one. Im tired. Its late. My brain feels melted to im sorry if some of it is not very clear. I wanted to make a longer response but at the end eh. Im curious why are you asking me specifically about how i feel about it, but maybe its because i talked about some of that? Um. I know, or atleast hope you dont have any malicious intent with this ask but it feels bit weird to me, you know?

So yeah.

[cuteasamuntin]

Hm, I vote “Paying your writers, actors, and crew a fair wage for their labor!”

Oh weird, that’s not an option.

What about the less prominent but still-respected themes of “Transparency in aggregate streaming data and collection methodology” or “No draconian definitions for an account ‘household’ based on location/IP.”

Dang, looks like those are out too. Okay, lemme re-read the question.

Yeah, I’m gonna have to go with “Not focusing on the least important part of an ethnoreligion’s cultural coming-of-age ritual in marketing tactics.”

Cast your vote in the rest of the polls here.

You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah premieres Friday on Netflix.