#through others viewpoints

[jokerjwoo]

What the fuck you can just make me feel bad for Beatrice like this

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

ORV is about enduring the horrors in real time.

(for @everyonesfavoritebastard)

[caffinateddragon-blog]

my dream orv anime is the fourth wall being the narrator. we don't get to peek inside kim dokja's head or look into his thoughts it's just the fourth wall

[jjoelswatch]

Having thoughts on The Acolyte.

I've seen a lot of commentary about how the show doesn't feel like Star Wars because it's not a hopeful show. Hope is central to Star Wars, and I think this commentary is fair at a surface level, especially given the other Star Wars stories already told, but (for me, at least) the show still feels like Star Wars and here's why.

It is a show that focuses on misguided viewpoints. The politicians have a misguided view of the Jedi. The Force cult have opposing views of the Jedi. The Sith of course have a skewed view of the Jedi. We are shown several flawed Jedi making questionable, misguided choices. I had no expectations going into this series that it was ever going to paint the Jedi in a kind light-- because it's a Sith story.

The hope that's featured in the show is a personal sort, not a broad, overarching hope for mankind and the future. It's about small, personal hopes for something better or, more often, something that the characters feel they deserve. It's mostly rooted in ridding oneself of what's holding them back and embracing personal freedom. That's great on the surface! But if you look closely, it fits right into the Sith code.

Mae is driven by a sense of (from her point of view) justice to avenge the death of her mother and her people. Osha hasn't come to terms with her anger and grief and her belief that Mae's actions fully resulted in the loss of her mother and people and had buried those emotions rather than facing them as the Jedi would teach her. Osha's journey is one of apparent truth and clarity. There is truth in the reality that Sol was wrong in his actions (misguided and well-intentioned as he was). It isn't necessarily wrong that Osha is angry at the lies she was told. Instead of burying or facing her negative emotions, she embraces them under the guise of facing the truth of them. There's a running theme of "truth in freedom, freedom in truth" to what's being offered to the dark side characters in the show.

Osha and The Stranger clasp hands over her dead Jedi Master's bled lightsaber and stare out into the sunset while Vernestra covers up recent events to the Chancellor and meets with Yoda in private. It's framed as freeing and hopeful for our Sith-aligned characters because it is-- for them. For the Jedi, it is damning. These are two statements that can coexist. And yet, through Osha's agreement with The Stranger and Mae's memory erasure, we are presented a crumb of hope for Mae's future with Vernestra.

This is very much a Sith story, not a Jedi story, and I think once that's taken into consideration the apparent lack of hope in the story makes perfect sense. It's a different kind of hope, underlined by a grim reality that it is a false hope, the promises of the dark side. It isn't a story the Jedi would tell you~

[weepingfireflies]

Listen, I know I'm the weird one for thinking about it in such a methodical way, but I think that if you're going to criticize someone, you should at least be aware of why, specifically, you're doing it. Are you trying to help that person see something in another light? Are you trying to inform others about a prevalent issue or mindset? Are you really upset with them, or is there a larger issue at play? How will criticizing this person change them, others, and/or yourself?

Like, I understand that's a kind of a robotic way of thinking, but taking a moment to think before I interact with anyone, especially strangers, has saved my bacon more than once. And, like, if you're just doing it to be mean, why are you even doing it? You obviously can, but why not use that time being happy

[thehollowwriter]

I could write a goddamn essay about how the "Nazis are inhuman pure evil monsters" logic has actually helped Nazis but unfortunately saying "Hey Nazis ARE people, choosing a group that you don't like and deeming them subhuman and okay to treat as such is not only nazi logic but also makes it easier for Nazism to rise" will probably just have people claim I myself am a Nazi because there are way to many idiots who think that dehumanization is ok when they do it to those who "deserve it"

[benreygenders]

blessed by a curse

[yellowocaballero]

Han Sooyoung was the best character in Ways of Survival.

Totally OP powers, funniest quips, Yoo Joonghyuk’s best friend: maybe she was a badly written teenage SI/OC Mary Sue, but who cares? Kim Dokja had loved her the most for ten years. Too bad she wouldn’t stop dying.

Han Sooyoung was Kim Dokja’s best friend. And this was all going to be worth it.

After freaking forever (got distracted.) I am finally posting this damn fic. I have complex feelings about this one, but I think some time and distance will help with that. It is why I have been reblogging so many posts about being doomed by the narrative.

The story is a hanyookim agenda promoting rights for SI/OC Mary Sues and campaigning for awareness of the dork teenagers drawing awful fanart on the back of their math homework and uploading it to DeviantArt. This one is also uhhh my special brand of crangst.

[somer-writes]

What's your favorite trope? Like ever. If every story you read/wrote for the rest of your life had to contain this one trope, what would it be?

oh man oh man oh man

i almost said enemies to lovers but really, it has to be crisis of faith

nothing tickles me more than a character having their entire reasoning for doing anything or moral compass laid at their feet. maybe their deity doesnt exist, maybe it does. maybe there is no reason for mercy and cruelty, maybe those things are entirely out of their control. and what becomes the point of anything if they start to believe that their life was never theirs to command??

i love this trope bc it breaks down what makes someone them. like at the end of the line, on deaths doorstep, if they leave anything behind what would it be?

it gives characters a new motivation. sometimes it makes them better, sometimes it makes them worse. i love when no matter good or evil it causes some kind of ascension in them.

even more when it effects a greater world! dead gods are still gods. why are they still being worshipped if theyre gone? why not worship them if theyre alive? how does an atheist align their viewpoint with a world that hinges on deities like a lot of fantasy worlds or how does a theist grapple with this being all there is?

sweet sweet angst in a good old fashioned existential crisis but so much oomph in a character finding out theres no point and making their own instead or perhaps a character choosing their own path to a predetermined destination

[fallloverfic]

I am legitimately confused by repeated comments that ORV's opening is slow or boring or uninteresting, especially people who say you need to read [insert some very large number of pages/chapters] to get to the "good" parts. I've seen this on multiple socials at this point and I originally wrote this post months ago, but recent potential news has brought back people saying this again, particularly in recommending it to other people/trying to get other people into it.

I would personally argue that ORV has a good opening. A very good opening. And the early part of it is very good, too.

ORV opens with a literal train of angst, attempted friendship, workplace harassment (Sangah getting harassed by her boss), some neat Korean folklore (dokkaebis hello), graphic violence (remember when Bihyeong just kills the president on TV?), a group of people in a subway attempting to beat an old woman to death, Dokja winning a pissing contest with a teenage edgelord, a bunch of people getting murdered, bonding in times in despair over a really unique form of problem solving, a man breaking open subway doors with his bare arms, young love, and magic, fleeing onto a bridge that gets exploded to bits by an evil gremlin, a horde of zombies appearing, the protagonist getting new magic powers, and then his getting held by the neck over said broken bridge in a complex back and forth with the "true" story protagonist before getting dropped into the mouth of a giant sea monster.

It covers topics like the limits of human compassion in times of strife, the complicated presence of the military (Dokja hated his time being drafted v Hyeonseong's military leadership doesn't save anyone), international relations (Sangah is learning Spanish), trope subversion (I mean it is and isn't the entire book and Dokja's character, but he's constantly trying to be 5-10 steps ahead of what's going on, including literally fleeing Junghyeok until Junghyeok grabs him by the collar), workplace harassment, bullying, and it's all taking place during multiple apocalypse scenarios.

This is the like first 11 chapters of the book. And it never stops. There are "slower" moments, moments where characters take a breather (like it takes a while for Dokja to negotiate his contract with Bihyeong, which is slow if you ignore the fact Dokja is arguing with an interdimensional being/alien for the limits of his own life and autonomy in the most dangerous streaming event imaginable, knowing he may still die if he gambles wrong on his personal wikipedia brain), but it's still frequently confrontational, whether that confrontation is about what characters mean to each other, what lives are at stake, finding your purpose in life, adaptability to complex circumstances, overcoming trauma and self-doubt...

And it's more intense in a way in the manhwa adaptation because you can clearly see most of it visualized (e.g., how visually wrecked the characters get, how young the kids are, how terrifying the monsters are, how scary the odds are, and how dangerous Dokja's gambles can really get with a fickle streaming audience), and Sleepy-C's art is gorgeous.

I just have to wonder (though this is more of a rhetorical question), what on earth do people consider fast? Because I am quite honestly terrified of what the answer is.

Like I get that ORV is long. It can be hard to recommend very long books to folks (and as the manhwa keeps going, long comics). To each their own, everyone is different, what appeals to me won't appeal to others. But there's a difference between "it's hard to recommend a very long work to someone" and "it's hard to recommend something that's long and takes a while to get into", and maybe folks are just writing the former a bit weirdly. I completely understand having trouble recommending long series to people. Also ORV has a very complex plot and I don't blame folks having trouble recommending that. I'm writing fic for later parts of orv and other manhwa and I dread explaining all the context for all that to someone who hasn't read them.

That being said, ORV has a very good introduction. Both chapter 1 of the novel and episode 1 of the manhwa are very good. They're not perfect, I can't say I was hooked from the immediate moment I started reading the page, but both of them have good introductions and it doesn't stop, and there's stuff to love in just about every chapter/episode, and I was definitely hooked enough by the time I finished to keep going to chapter/episode 2. Chapter 1 of the novel has great angst and character building, and it's funny and sweet and tragic. When I first read Dokja trying, earnestly, to recommend TWSA and getting harassed about it and worrying it will hurt this art and artist he cares about, but not being able to do much else to give thanks for this experience because of his circumstances, I cried. The first page/episode of the manhwa has them delicious boys love vibes and gorgeous art (and cute baby Dokja, I die for him), and the promise of a fascinating story ahead, and then the following page/episode has more gorgeous art and angst and great characters (combining them cause the first page feels sort of more like a teaser than a first page, though Episode 0 ends with a spread of Kimcom that makes me tear up). We'll unfortunately never know if I'd have loved ORV as much if I'd read the novel first, but I like to think I would cause ORV's opening is just that good.

I just truly, truly do not understand the sentiment that idk the opening and the first [insert large number of pages/chapters] aren't good or interesting or engaging enough. Maybe I'm out of touch. To each their own on what appeals, maybe I'm built different (doubt it though) but it just feels kind of dismissive of ORV's opening, in both the novel and the manhwa, which are both really good. Will it win over everyone? No. It's fine if you weren't grabbed by the opening or the first [insert however many pages/chapters/arcs]. It's fine if you took a while, even a long while to get into it, or never really did, and maybe don't like the manhwa, which is a great gateway into the story, or don't like the novel for whatever reason and prefer the manhwa. And at the end of the day it's just random opinions online, we all have different ones. Make the posts that appeal to you on your blog, complain on your socmed, whatever. But the opening is good, it keeps you very engaged with a lot of difficult scenarios, the characters are great and fun and funny, in those parts especially, and idk why I'm supposed to pretend that's not the case.

Anyway I don't like writing complaint posts. The opening and general start are excellent and Imma go back and cry over Dokja again ty singNsong for my tears.

[andiv3r]

19hey. T

20ll. A

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6hy. W

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7an't. C

2ove. L

3s. I

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18ventually. E

11 ...

13s. I

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4nsufferable. I

14ired. T

5 ...

[everyones-least-favorite-bard]

elegy.

there are no goodbyes left for us between today and tomorrow. there are no goodbyes in the margins of your ideas and mine, nothing to offer each other beyond a brief moment of eye contact, a brief press of hands on frosted pane of glass.

you are far away. cold like glass. i am searching for the line between us, the boundary you drew in brief moments, strung together by empty goodbyes. you draw the line on and beyond and i follow. erasing your marks with mine.

an ouroboros; i chase yours and you mine and neither of us crack the glass. i am holding a flickering screen, watching beyond empty words for a glimpse between the lie of hope and the truth of goodbye. nothing to show for my efforts past brief

moments of clarity, fleeting, brief moments in which your eyes meet mine, in which there is more to us than goodbye, more than bloodied promises and glass shards—bloodied promises wrought between cracked lips, whispered into nothing, beyond

recognition. you see, you see you are beyond my understanding, you are the brief pause before sunset, the space between memory and desire. i wish you were mine, i wish you were something i could hold, glass figure, glass melting slowly—evading goodbyes.

but you are cold. forever waving goodbye, forever standing just aside, just beyond my understanding. i do not know more than glass, more than my reflection imposing on a brief flash of your face. no more yours than mine. no line drawn connecting or between the pane of glass. i want to understand: between your lies in brief seconds about goodbyes and tomorrows, are mine. no bigger truth beyond.

[uncanny-tranny]

Hi, I have a question I hope it's okay to ask here. I'm a ciswoman dating a transgender man. I know that there are a few things that he finds still difficult about being trans (but I don't know everything yet as we've only been dating for a few months). Lately I've noticed him saying some things that make me wonder whether maybe he wants some confirmation that I really see him as a man. Of course I want to do this for him, but I'm not entirely sure how. Do you have any tips?

I think so much of it boils down to being compassionate and direct. There's so much pressure on people in relationships to just "know" through divine interpretation of how to best love their partner, and there is almost no thought given about the idea of offering love being a continuous conversation.

I'm not sure what will "work" best for your partner to show that you see him and not a warped perception, so I really think asking questions about where he is at might be more beneficial, since you'll be hearing direct feedback. I know it can be hard to navigate through something you're unfamiliar with right now, so that makes it even more important that you navigate through it with the person in question.

Trans manhood looks different for... literally all of us, which is why I don't have a direct answer for how you can help your partner feel loved and seen as a man. Since it looks different for each of us, the things that affirm us and help us will all look different, as well as the things that make us feel less understood and hurt.

[sabraeal]

NaNoCryMo Day 24

Excerpt:

A frigid wind cut through the tent, rushing through the open flap. Caiyur pulled the fur of his collar up to ward off this witch’s kiss, but it was too little, too late. The slim fingers of her breath slipped under his coat, caressing down the length of his spine. Teeth clamped, he turned, voice so waspish it could sting. “Do you mean to let the whole of winter—?”

The words withered on his lips.

“Maksim Makarovitch speaks true,” the beast said, its great, furred shoulders working beneath its pelt. “And you will most likely die, as you believe advice to be a challenge rather than wisdom.”

“Ah, oblakchik.” Maksim sighed, heaving himself onto the poor excuse the tent possessed for chairs. “It is too early to be taking out our knives.”

Eyes were not visible beneath the thick mad of black fur and white snow, but Caiyur knew they were upon, him, sharp and searching. At least, until the beast turned away. “I do not know what you mean,” it said carefully, as it always did. It had to, to speak around those fangs. “I only speak the truth.”

Maksim leaned a cheek against his fingers, mouth cants with amusement. “Have you considered, that the truth is not always as you see it?”

“The truth cannot be anything by what it is.” Even under all that fur and leather, the beast moved toward the brazier with predatory purpose, sleek and sinuous as a panther with all the menace of a wolf. “But it is only the be expected that a boyar might find argument, even in that.”

[lemonduckisnowawake]

Me, today: I will not get angry about people slandering Jesus. I will not lose my temper seeing yet another post throwing His character in the garbage as some politically woke or politically conservative people pleaser. I will not stab my hand with a fork when I see people poking fun at his friendships as homoerotic - *sees a post like that and slowly steps out of the internet*

No seriously. I am shaking the screen and BEGGING people to remember that even though Western Christian traditionalism has deep, *deep* wrongs, There Are Literal People Dying And Being Tortured Because Of Their Faith In Christ In The Modern World. And the way I see people making light of faith and outright mocking it or "dumbing it down" to appeal to their own moral worldview is sometimes kind of painful

[pretty-emo-dad]

If I ever come across as a Nancy anti I promise I’m not, she’s one of my favorite of the older teens and I love her, but when I’m talking about characters like Mike and Jonathan, some of their main conflicts are the result of her stubbornness/inability to recognize when she’s wrong