#this is very off brand for me

[toughtink]

achievement unlocked: sweated so much sports bra looks cel-shaded!

[vomittedsoap]

Book Fitzjames

[bluenightfm]

sqh raising luo binghe bc the wash lady never happened bc the timeline's altered and subsequently mbj finds out or qinghua tells him (pre-established moshang) and qinghua is hmmn . freaking the fuck out bc wdym his stallion protag is a colicky newborn baby that won't go to bed unless he's rocked, swaddled, and cuddled by sqh (mobei-jun's heart shattered when baby binghe cried when sqh handed him off for a second before putting him to bed, he's still nursing his bruised ego) . this is his beloved if bloodthirsty son who is 75% cheek and 25% baby fat, it is a miracle he ever goes to his jobs when his son is so cute and tiny and why did he not write cameras into PIDW !!! no amount of portraiture would capture his sweet boy looking up at him all cute and tiny and never to be captured on camera. moshang being dads co-parenting binghe and everyone being confused bc everyone thought mobei-jun would finally marry and make qinghua consort shang but to each their own . co-parenting and then oh my god they're not even together yet are they? posing for family portraits together with romantic tension thick enough to start choking everyone out of the room. qinghua and mobei-jun looking next to dead bc binghe has never slept thru the night and sqh feels like he hasn't had a good night's rest since he transmigrated into PIDW . also maybe make it omegaverse

@coastinglove

[mochii-derogatory]

ive been watching the dog motif show... why is no one talking about this guy. isaac lahey come home from france,,,, sweet boy,,,, we miss you,,,

[claitea]

i've had these scenarios written down since volo's debut in pokemon masters and i just really wanted to scribble them down and finally release them

[linipikk]

I want to say one thing about the setup for Jinx leaving.

The Silco in her mind told her to walk away to be free and she immediately thought about dying. That was the plan.

But THEN-- then Ekko stops her from blowing herself up. The thing is how. Because talking Jinx out of that mindset would require a whole team. And it does.

We can infer he told her that there is another version of her, of course. Powder and Jinx are the same, and as Powder told him "you want me to change" Jinx would think the same! except Jinx believes there is no "good version" of her

But as we know, it is not about one version being superior to the other or how Jinx and Powder being different. But it's about how Ekko has everything to recontextualize something that our Jinx knows deep down.

Because that is the same conversation she had with Silco in the cell, but this time not from a hallucination but from someone who is treating her as a real friend, part of the support system Jinx lacks, but she clings on so desperately.

So I'll go back to Powder for a sec

This is not the first time Vander and Powder have this conversation about her potential, about her leaving

And Vander did say something about it to Ekko. He knows her daughter

As well as Silco's words of wisdom.

Here he might be talking directly about Vander but, we know that it is also about oneself, after all that's what Jinx is all about. She is The Jinx because she destroys everything right? she is her walking reminder of all her failures.

And that's the Ekko's secret knowledge that saves Jinx. We don't need a recap of that episode, we just watched it. and Ekko is there to reach for Jinx, finding her, rewinding the explosion as many times as he has to. He tries very hard for her.

Jinx, as much as she claims to destroy everything, she creates, the one thing she knows how to do, and that's where she is more herself. She builds things and she might find someone worth trying for, not her ghosts or her guilt, but just herself.

Now, here they are: you've seen them, you love them, our acclaimed shimmer ray from the explosion and the ship sailing away.

Jinx leaving is about her following her dads advice and believing in Ekko's words. And I bet she does.

I just.... find it so charming that the glimpse of hope Ekko gives her is not just from himself but also about the fathers she lost so many times.

and to tie up the box, we have the final lyrics of Wasteland (that the series leaves out for ambiguity imo)

bonus monkeys, i bet it is the second Jinx kind of knew that Ekko was talking about her when he said "someone very special"

"someone worth building it for"

[scliffe]

I know most of us (including me) laughed (quite a lot) on this scene because; Earl Ciel “Sebastian-Kill-Them-All” Phantomhive of all people, is saying something like this about killing people? It sounds so fake and ridiculous right? Hypocritical, even. But I also think it’s rather empathetic of Ciel to say this in front of the Weston boys because he understands that these boys did not murder out of evil intent; it was a crime of passion, not premeditated. I’m sure that in Ciel’s eyes, these upperclassmen of his are still much more innocent than he is—and so when he speaks to them, he is speaking to “normal people”, not serial murderers. But while Ciel does not see the prefects as evil people, he doesn’t infantilize them either. He does not empathize with them trying to justify their actions; because things like school values or reputation is not a worthy cause for these boys to kill someone over. At the same time Ciel may not personally care about the lives of Derrick Arden and the others, but he does not think students should turn into murderers over such menial issues.

In comparison, when he speaks to Joker in BOC, he was unfiltered and candid—he’s speaking of something he personally believes; that deep cynicism and distrust in humanity. Unlike the Weston students, Joker’s actions were premeditated; he planned to kidnap children—knowing they would be abused and turned into some sick plaything before brutally murdered—and methodically eliminated witnesses to avoid getting caught. Joker knew exactly what he was doing when he organized these crimes to sacrifice others for his family’s lives. And yet the way Ciel spoke, he wasn’t passing judgement on Joker at all; he acutely understood the despair of facing injustice with no one lending a helping hand; the desperate wish to protect one’s family and loved ones above what’s considered to be morally correct by society; he knows better than anyone else how hell is paved with good intentions. This too, was incredibly empathetic in a strange way that only Ciel could be. Although Joker lamented their fate as abandoned orphans living in an apathetic society, Ciel does not pity them and thus did not simply reduce them to gullible victims of their circumstances. He did not justify Joker’s actions, and he did not justify his own actions in killing Joker and the circus crew either—he was incredibly self aware and fair; equally as ruthless to other people as with himself. He understood that everyone acted in their own interests. By removing complicated principles of morality out of the equation, he is able to see things clearly and act decisively without ridiculous notions of human morality. After all, what use does he have for it when his soul is already damned anyway?

Ciel keeps away from people and refrains from making personal attachments; and yet he is still very empathetic to each of them without even meaning to. In the flashbacks, he was also depicted to be a sensitive and kindhearted child. Despite everything he has gone through, he still retains a bit of that gentleness and sincerity from his childhood; which I think comes with being naturally emotionally intelligent—he has an unusually acute insight on people which certainly helps his business acumen, and ironically also helps him know how to lie and act in front of other people. While Sebastian is a “master of understanding human desires”, Ciel understands the complexity and most basic nature of humanity better than anyone else; which forms both his cynicism and his own brand of empathy.

[jonasiegenthaler]

tbl@njd | 11.01.25

[stil-lindigo]

the candle.

a comic about rediscovering passion and recovering from burnout.

creative notes:

[babygirltangerine]

i love how similar the fall guy and bullet train are because david leitch i'm perceiving you so hard. i'm seeing how you shape your ideal version of masculinity and present the emotional action hero as sexy and capable and not at all undermined by his depth of feeling but made stronger for it. it's beautiful and subversive and quite frankly it's gay as hell. genuinely i find it extremely interesting how he handles this balance so gracefully in a way that makes colt and ladybug funny, real, and desirable to both the men and the women in the audience

[rosalie-starfall]

Mrs. Claus

Miranda Richardson - Fred Claus

Bonnie Hunt - Red one

Elizabeth Mitchell - The Santa Clauses

Goldie Hawn - The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two

[questionabletrash]

I never draw Dabi, but he’s also the only character I like my design for??? I think he’s pretty

[rubber-glovs]

I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually neurotypical or neurodivergent

[smartzelda]

Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one

I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)

And here's why.

I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.

In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses

When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.

Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.

For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.

Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy

You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters

And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.

Here's another example.

Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin

Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).

Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.

Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.

Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?

This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[wolves-in-the-world]

if anyone needs a little softness post-werefic please know that:

1) wolfeliot starts out kind of prickly and dignified around the team. spending any time with them in wolf form just hanging out pretending to nap is a vulnerability and a mark of progress; accepting physical affection or accessories takes longer.

the first time, parker doesn't exactly ask. she plonks herself down beside him, doggie bandana in hand, and sophie's going "parker I don't think- that might not be-" and eliot's grumbling a little growl under his breath but, ultimately, not doing a single thing to stop her.

he looks very handsome.

2) so werequinn is incredibly tempting for so many reasons right? it feels wrong to me personally to give just one of them this to deal with, animal hangouts would be peak cuteness, @darkfinch has very much sold me on the benefits and contributed at least half of the details-

and there are, in fact, backstory possibilities that make up for the fact that this is meant to be a Rare Curse and Difficult To Handle.

but for cuteness' sake let me just say that werequinn is a very dumb big cat who he insists on treating as a seperate creature with his own shit going on. he enjoys long walks on the beach long nighttime adventures with his best buddy, biting people as a sign of affection, biting people as a sign of malice, and making a nuisance of himself when eliot's cooking.

and he answers only to Mr Paws.

[sailforvalinor]

Kingdom Hearts + Text Posts