#the FUCK madam.

[darlingdummydolly]

serialxsuccubus asked: “Nice tail. Do people ever randomly grab it?”

"Only A'starry!"

"Oh wait! There was that one time, I thought it would be a good idea to sneak into that, umn.. what was it called again.. House of Hoes? The devil guy! Yeah, he made this deal thingy with my friend so I thought, I'll surprise 'em and whilst everyone else was sleepin, I'd go and steal the paper back! But, uh.."

At this point, she rubs her behind with a bit of a grimace.

"Devils are way harder to sneak up on anybody else! That must be why they got ears like a bat!"

[mwagneto]

aint no WAYYY THEY JUST TRIED TO SAY THAT. not even "the doctor's" but doctor who's in general 💀💀 so now that they have a disney contract every single gay thing (which they've had for fucking decades) is gonna be a huge big huge first gay thing ever!!1!1!1!! event??? like yeah there's a very specific significance to it i get it but what the fuck do you mean😭 jamie pull up the files

[not-another-robin]

I think Alfred should have a cat friend

[mxtxfanatic]

While flipping through mdzs to verify some stray thoughts of mine, I happened to fall into a translation discrepancy that I feel really, really emphasizes how important it is to have a proper grasp on the language you are translating before translating for a public audience.

Now before we get too deep into this, I want to reiterate that I am someone who does not understand Mandarin in any form but has been reading translations (both by humans and machines) for a few years now. However, because I have been reading translations that tend to follow the Mandarin more closely in grammar and because I haven't shied away from reading machine-made or bad human translations, I have noticed some places where mistranslations from Mandarin to English are common: pronouns, verb-subject matching, negatives, prepositions, and conjunctions. For this post, we will be focusing on the latter two.

In the lead-up to the Wen invasion of Lotus Pier, we are given a scene where Madam Yu whips Wei Wuxian, and in this scene, we are given a glimpse as to Madam Yu's average punishments towards the young ward.

While Madam Yu always pelted him with hostile words, she’d never really hit him hard before—two or three lashes at most, or being made to kneel or confined indoors, and it never took Jiang Fengmian long to release him from that.

—Vol. 3, Chapt. 12: Sandu: The Three Poisons, 7seas

In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded. He’d also be let out by Jiang FengMian soon later.

—Chapt. 57: Poisons, exr

Reading these back-to-back, it should be very clear that though the same section is being translated from the same exact source, these translations do not say the same thing. The official stresses that Madam Yu had never hit Wei Wuxian "that hard" before, as well as saying that his punishments were a few lashes OR being made to kneel OR being confined, three separate punishments never taken together according to this diction. The exr translation, however, states that Madam Yu had "never truly been cruel to him" (emphasis mine) and that him being whipped was in addition to being confined. The emphasis on the strength of her lashings is absent, but an emphasis on the intent behind her actions—that she never meant to be honestly cruel to her ward—is established in its stead. (While this section as translated by exr does not mention kneeling, later scenes reflecting on Wei Wuxian's childhood in Lotus Pier do.)

Both of these translations... are wrong.

If we give exr the benefit of the doubt by virtue of being the original completed English translation of mdzs, then the official 7seas release should automatically raise red flags for the ways it seems to directly contradict the narrative that has existed for a few years before the novel was licensed. It doesn't help that the official has been riddled with many mistranslations and omissions from the very first volume, lowering any credibility it would otherwise have to stand on. But if we were to examine the rest of the exr translation, then the emphasis on Madam Yu's intent also rings false given the fact that we are told over and over again in this same translation that 1) Madam Yu is, in fact, unnecessarily, illogically, and erratically mean-spirited and cruel, and 2) Wei Wuxian knows this even at this time in his life (shoutout to the Lotus Pod Seeds extra) and understands her actions as targeted cruelty. What does the actual text say, then?

Although Madam Yu always spoke ill of him before, her hand had never been this viciously cruel. At most, she whipped him two or three times and ordered him to kneel down and be confined to his room, and he would be released by Jiang Fengmian sometime later.

—@jiangwanyinscatmom (emphasis mine)

Madam Yu has never been "as cruel" as in that moment when whipping Wei Wuxian, because normally she only whips him 2-3 times. She would whip him a few times and send him to the ancestral hall to kneel and be in confinement, which matches up to the memories that Wei Wuxian reflects on in other parts of the novel. This translation gets rid of the character inconsistencies that the other two translations create. So how did we get here? Remember how I pointed out those common Mandarin-to-English translation mistakes? Well, both the exr and 7seas translations fall into the trap of confusing conjunctions and prepositions. That's how we get a list of punishments rather than an order of events for a singular punishment type. That's how we get "not truly cruel" instead of "not as cruel." That's how we get these sections contradicting what we know about Madam Yu's personality and behavior from the rest of the novel through those two translations. Unfortunately, both translation teams just happened to flub in the same area in slightly different ways, and while I'm willing to give a multi-lingual grade-school student translating in their spare time the benefit of the doubt, a paid translator with a translation team hired by a professional publishing house should have better quality control than a spare-time hobbyist.

Also, just in case anyone wants more proof on what mxtx meant for us to take away about Madam Yu's treatment of Wei Wuxian from this scene, it was also apparently so important to mxtx for readers to know that Madam Yu was truly cruel to Wei Wuxian during his childhood that the act of her routinely whipping him whenever he was in her presence was something that was added into the revised mdzs. It was not in the original unedited version of the novel.

In the past, although Lady Yu always insulted or patronized him, she never laid a hand on him. At worst, she’d make him kneel for prolonged periods of time, but he’d always get bailed out by Jiang FengMian after a while.

—Chapt. 57. Act 12: Sandu/Three Poisons, Part 2, qinghe-nie

[worstwolverinesbf]

when people call timehunter’s kiss the first gay relationship in doctor who

[blondeaxolotl]

FINALLY DROPPING THIS!! Not really a new AU since I've done doodles before but this time I'm actually putting effort in it

Anyways! This is my Wonderland AU! It's both based off Alice in Wonderland AND Alice: Madness Returns! (Mostly AMR)

Ran-Mao and Elizabeth are the two main protagonists, Ran-Mao being based on AMR!Alice and Lizzie being based on your OG!Alice! (Or like Disney Alice). The gist of this au is basically seeing the difference between the two Alices (Ran-Mao and Lizzie) Wonderlands, everyone has their own ver of Wonderland but the difference is shown the most between these two. This mostly takes point in Ran-Mao's view, meaning we'll be seeing her world the most! Reason for that is because the story has it that Elizabeth (Along with her Wonderlands Cheshire Cat) ends up accidentally falling into Ran-Mao's Wonderland, and therefore has to find out a way out of it and make it back to her own world (Spoiler she ends up getting distracted and instead follows Ran-Mao around because she thinks she's cool).

OKAY ONTO THE DRAWING, the characters shown on here are the ones that appear first in the real world, each of them having a connection to Ran-Mao in some way. Ran-Mao's connections:

Angelina Dalles - She and Ran-Mao have a mother and daughter type of relationship almost, Ann visits her as much as she can at the orphanage since she's not allowed to take Ran-Mao in yet to live with her instead. Ran-Mao also views Angelina as the only family she has left and finds comfort in her the most, she appreciates it when Ann reads to her

Aleister Chamber (Yes, I had to draw him, no I'm not happy about it) - Ran-Mao's psychiatrist and the owner of the orphanage in which she currently stays in, she finds his sessions meaningless but he refuses to let Angelina take her in until he believes she's finally "sane" enough to be let go (which is never)

Gary Scholes - Ran-Mao's family lawyer, was a close friend to Ran-Mao's parents but has truly only shown interest in her inheritance rather than actually helping her

Ms. Abbie - The one who got her a place to stay in at Aleister's orphanage, she's a strange old lady with an obsession with pigeons but at least she means well..?

Ran-Mao and Lizzie don't interact much in the real world, only time they see eachother is when Lizzie accidentally runs into her, apologised and then started to talk to her (or at least attempted to) before she got dragged away by Edward (who apologised on Lizzie's behalf for bothering her, again she just thought she was cool!!!!)

Anyways this is only the start of the au! More will be coming.. hehehehe

also bonus doodle because I almost forgot to do one

[itscherryterry-again]

if your toxic yuri isnt toxicyuri-ing to your tastes, store bought works just fine

[lgbtlunaverse]

I don't consider this scenario canon, in fact it explicitly ISN'T, but... a Meng Yao who is actually a year OLDER than Zixuan but realises after being thrown down the stairs that being a threat to his half-brother's inheritance would not only dash all his chances of acceptance but probably get him killed if the wrong people in lanling found out. So he uses his baby face to pretend he's 2 years younger than he actually is, a year younger than Zixuan instead of older. (Jin Guangshan genuinely forgot when he slept with Meng Shi so he buys the lie)

I mean just... secret true heir of lanling Meng Yao and no one except he knows it. What a concept.

[sea-buns]

He says he's unemployed now but I think this was his true calling all along

[fishareglorious]

I wonder what exact chain of events happened to make Z have this mug. Did she buy it herself? Did she design it? Make it? Was it a gift from. Consantine? Also how and why does she keep bringing it around to places (see: first img is in a car in green lake campsite) is it her arcane skill😭

[soledadcatalina]

[id: a digital drawing of lucretia from the adventure zone in a black/dark blue/yellow/white colour palette. she is wearing a blue rope that is embellished with the triangular bureau symbol. she stands with a knowing smile, holding her white bulwark staff, set against a black background with a golden halo.]

decided to go for another colour palette free choice with lucretia

[nikholascrow]

i like to imagine that Sirius offers to let Remus hold his hand if it hurts in the hospital wing while Pomfrey heals him and Remus who has an incredibly high pain tolerance from all his bones breaking themselves every full moon is totally fine but milking it so hard just to hold Sirius’ hand and Pomfrey is so very aware of Remus’ massive crush on Sirius that she doesn’t kick him out as much as James and Peter

[its-your-mind]

JUST FOR THE RECORD.

the way Madam E talks is in fact Incredibly Extra (alex said somewhere that yeah duh that was the point) but also.

as a person who sits in a pretty diverse classroom of 12-14 year olds all day.

some of the Kids These Days do in fact talk like that. All the time. To everyone. No matter what. Front-facing camera not required.

The other day one of the individual-units-of-chaos-for-whom-I-am-responsible-for-8-hours-each-weekday asked if I had done anything fun over the weekend and I said "oh I just went for a short hike in the national park" and he straight up did this:

like. LIKE. madam E's tone. her inflection. her little trill on the end of words... some of the slang was a tad dated (though that does sort of make sense, if Madam E is ~5-10 years older than my gremlins-disguised-as-preteens) but I literally got whiplash every three minutes because all I could visualize for Madam E was a rotating cast of the like. Seven of my kiddos who talk EXACTLY like that.

which I WILL SAY. did make the horror hit home Just A Bit More Than Usual.

[spookyhotmess]

I loved Madame Web I don't care what bullshit reviews say plus it's been my experience most movies I do like the critics tend to be off the mark. I don't judge my interest to see a movie on reviews

[redbuddi]

I dunno if I ever want a lab partner. If media has taught me anything it's that working with someone in a lab will be rife with unavoidable sexual tension, and that's not what I'd call a productive environment

[jennyandvastraflint]

My brain: Jenny/Vastra Phantom of the Opera AU when!!!

Me:....

Me: 💵 *slides money to @rosenkranz-does-things*

AND NOW... THE RESULT:

I love this so, so much, Roz. I don't even know where to start!!! Vastra's mask is just TOP NOTCH. Her half-transparent cloak with them stars!!!! Jenny in the corset 👀 Their intertwined hands! Jenny's beautiful necklace! I love how Vastra is closing her eyes and just leaning in, full od desire and love, and Jenny still has her eyes open. The light on Jenny's hair!?? THE SCAR ON VASTRA'S CHEST!?? Gosh I love everything about this so much. Chewing glass over this, byeeee