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cavegirlpoems · 2 months ago

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So the is d&d queer argument is going around again, same as it ever was. And for whatever reason, talking about it with a friend reminded me of a conversation I had on the subject ages ago. During that they claimed Changling the Dreaming was queer friendly, I disagreed; I countered that if CtD was queer friendly, than any hidden world / conspiracy game would be, that Vampire the Masquerade would be. The argument never reached a satisfying conclusion, at the time neither of us were working off anything but vibes.

Now, I know you've argued that they are, and significantly so when compared to other rpgs of the era. Would you mind expanding on your arguments? What is it about VtM or about WoD products more broadly that makes them queer friendly?

OK SO lets define terms:

"Queerness" is ways of approaching sexuality, gender, family and romance that are excluded from hegemonic social norms.

a "Queer Text" is a text that deals with queerness in some way, either through direct depiction or through intentional allegory. In the case of games, a queer game is one where the intended activities of gameplay supported by the game's design deal with queerness.

So far so good?

So, easy first example. Original D&D. OD&D is a game about exploring a dangerous location to extract treasure from it. It cares deeply about resource depletion, logistics, and threats to the characters lives, which is why these things are given detailed mechanics. It does not give a shit about characters' love lives or genders; these things get basically no attention in the mechanics or expected experience of play. OD&D is clearly not a queer game.

Another easy example. Monsterhearts. Monsterhearts is a game about messy supernatural teen dramas. It has mechanics for flirting and sex (which ignore the hegemonic expectation to be limited to the opposite sex), and that reflect how your character is percieved by their peers. It is, very directly, dealing with queerness in its themes.

So. the old WoD games.

Both changeling and vampire have some loose mechanical support for dealing with romance, and both changeling and vampire present societies our characters belong to that have some degree of hegemonic expectations for these things. There is, further, certainly an easy read to see both as reflecting some aspects of queer experiences allegorically.

I'll begin with vampire. Now, it must be said that vampire fundamentally deals with weaponised sexuality. Sexuality is used to seduce as a form of power, or expressed when one feeds. That said, it's a sexy game that cares a lot about the unequal power dynamics in these exchanges, and how a given character can gain power through sexuality in one situation and then fall victim to the same dynamics in another.

Is this necessarily a queer thing? No, you could use this set-up to explore heterosexuality's imbalances. However, the game clearly intends you to apply this lens to queer relationships too. Many of the interestingly toxic relationships presented in the game's setting turn out to be gay, including some key figures. The triad of Antonius, Michael and the Dracon comes to mind, as does the relationship between Troile and Moloch.

Now, this queerness isn't central to vampire the way it is in, say, monsterhearts. Vampire is mostly a game concerned with political power structures, exploitation, and personal authenticity. Sexuality (and with it queer sexuality) is one of many lenses that the game applies to this set up. Social class, culture and particularly age stratification are also lenses that Vampire uses to explore its central theme of exploitation.

But. The queer themes in vampire are there, and hard to convincingly excise from the experience of play. Trying to play 'vampire the masquerade but everybody's straight' requires you to push against the game text a little.

Moving on, let's look at changeling. Now, changeling puts a bit more focus on romance than vampire does, with a society that's deeply concerned with courtly romance, and where different approaches to that courtly romance are a key social divide. This is a space where its easy to be queer, and again some of the examples the text offers are obviously so, but that romance is - to my mind - less thematically central than sexuality-as-power is to vampire.

However, changeling might be less of a gay allegory than vampire, but it's also a very obvious and on-the-nose trans allegory.

The central tennet of changeling is that for every changeling character they have a true inner nature (their fey soul) that isn't reflected in their outward appearance. Having to suppress or deny this nature is presented as a directly harmful experience, a fundamental death-of-the-self that comes from conforming to societal expectations. The solution to this problem, then, is to find others like oneself who you can truly be yourself around, and building comminity with them where you support one another and foster one another's self-actualisation.

This isn't subtext, this is dommetext. Changeling the Dreaming is a game about dysphoria and found community.

The trans reading of changeling is extremely obvious and on-the-nose. This isn't the only theme explored by changeling; it is also deeply concerned with growing old, and with class divides. But it's front and center to the game; its other themes arise as explorations of its central theme, which is dysphoria and community.

(For the record, I think that the queer elements of other WoD games are much less prominent. In Werewolf, Mage and Wraith, these things are much more subtextual than they are in vampire and changeling. But I'm not a huge fan of werewolf and mage to begin with, and wraith's cosmic horror is good enough to hook me in anyway).

So yes. I think its fair to call both vampire and changeling queer games. Their queerness is generally explored more thoroughly through allegory over direct depiction, but both do include - and expect you to include - directly queer characters as well.

Now, they aren't the most queer games. Vampire in particular is more concerned with class and power than with queerness, and they both have pretty broad thematic bases they cover. It's very possible to play a changeling game that downplays the dysphoria and focusses instead on growing old and infirm. And in the modern day, there are other games that are more overt and focussed with their queer themes.

But. The queerness is there in both games, and when they first came out, its inclusion was legitimately groundbreaking.

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williceunleashed · 4 months ago

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what would an hypothetical child of ghetsis and melony look like

Behold !!! The hypothetical unholy offspring of Ghetsis and Melony !!!

If Ghetsis and Mel ever had a child, that would 100% be an accident. None of them wants that. When the doctor says "Seems like a pregnancy, congratulations !" The both of them are crying in horror.

-> Nach would have had to be conceived after Mel's recovery from Kyurem's attack

-> Of course after suffering for 9 months Melony is going to get attached to that baby. He isn't going to endure 9 months of pain just to neglect the kid afterwards, that wouldn't be productive

-> Ghetsis is still very much broken from the ending of BW2 and struggles a lot to care for himself, let alone a kid. Because of his serious mental health issues, he is a very mellowed out, passive version of his usual self. He doesn't burst out in anger anymore and just sulks around, sits by the window or sleeps. He doesn't speak much to anyone outside of Mel. He still has a very acid tongue though. Having no goals, and nothing to do of his days, he ends up caring for the kid out of both boredom and obligation. He isn't really gentle nor sweet, he is still extremely closed off emotionally, but he gets the job done.

-> Ghetsis "cares" for Nach mainly because Nach bears his genetics. He considers Nach to be an extension of himself, and therefore he does care if Nach ends up being hurt. Also Ghetsis suspects that Mel will kill him if he hurts Nach

-> Because Ghetsis has no objectives anymore, making his life essentially meaningless, he is told to get a new, reachable goal in order to get some sense back in his life. And so his main objective becomes to care for Nach. He is very awkward and clumsy when it comes to bonding emotionally. He usually just listens to Nach. He tries to bond by hugging him and gifting him things relating to his interests.

-> Melony loves Nach. He calls him "the Eldritch Horror" as a cute nickname. Melony is the main caretaker for Nach, to no one's surprise

-> The Triad likes Nach ! They care for him a lot and enjoy playing with him. They have a very sibling-like relationship with him.

-> Nach himself is... Suprisingly nice ? He has a big ego, can be very entitled and is very prideful (Ghetsis' curse), but is otherwise pretty caring and well-meaning. No one really knows how he ended up being overall good with such terrible people as his parents.

-> Nach has a good relationship with Mel. Mel would be overall very affectionate to his kid, to the point where he might actually spoil him too much.

-> Nach likes Ghetsis. He finds him comforting to be around, as Ghetsis doesn't speak much, but does show affection by hugging him or holding him.

-> I think Nach would call Ghetsis "father" and Melony "dad"

-> Despite his own childhood, I think N would be happy both for Ghetsis and Nach. He sees his father improving, and Nach being somewhat loved. N loves too much to be seething over not being as lucky as Nach.

-> I don't think Anthea and Concordia where as close to Ghetsis as N was, but they do wonder why Nach as the right to have careless and innocent childhood when they couldn't.

-> If N and Ghetsis are indeed distant cousins (which they are in my personal works!), I think it would be funny af if Nach inherited the original Unovan King's ability to understand pokémons. Like it just missed Ghetsis. Sorry old man

#pokemon oc #ask #rockbottomshipping #oc x canon #next gen oc #rockbottomshipping kid???#i am SO tempted to make nach canon in the story.#n feeling jealous but still happy that this kid is being cared for and loved.#ghetsis actually being a somewhat okay father. ghetsis improving. ghetsis being destroyed to be rebuilt into a slightly better person.#ghetsis realizing how monstruous he was to n and his sisters but being too prideful to say sorry. the guilt.#nach always living in the shadow of his older brother.#please send asks about this.#let me talk about a better ghetsis.#ITS EATING AT MY BRAIN

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deerdoeb · 23 days ago

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BRO DID NOT SEE HIM BEFORE!!/silly(HES FROM A NEW PRODUCTION!! FIRST SHOW DIDNT EVEN START YET!!)

Hes gonna save zolar rapping

The sabm costume looks more like a tsia one

Space Age Rapper Man... He looks so cool, I kinda feel like I have seen him before. But I don't have a folder for him so maybe it was another one 😦

#production is triad pride acting company!!!

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qilingxiong · 8 months ago

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九龍城寨之圍城 | Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

I've rewatched this movie more than once, since seeing it in theatres back in August, and each time was just as good as the first if not better. Given that, I now have many thoughts so I'm subjecting y'all to listening to why you should watch it:

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (九龍城寨之圍城 or gau2 lung4 sing4 zaai6 zi1 wai4 sing4) is a martial arts action/crime film directed by Soi Cheang. It is an adaptation of the manhua City of Darkness by Andy Seto, and its source novel of the same name by Yuyi. The film's cast has established Hong Kong names folded in with newer-generation actors, starring Raymond Lam, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, German Cheung, and Tony Wu (Aaron Kwok gets a cameo role, too).

At a broad glance, the movie follows several major triads in 1980s Hong Kong and their power struggle to control the Kowloon Walled City (a densely populated urban enclave, which for decades evaded direct governance by either the British colonial or Chinese powers in the area). We're introduced to the KWC and the triads' major players through the eyes of Chan Lok-Kwan (Raymond Lam), a man fleeing Vietnam and attempting to make a life for himself in HK. He winds up seeking refuge in the KWC, and comes to call both the city and the people he meets in it a home worth defending.

The narrative itself is not the most complex, but if you enjoy '80s Hong Kong films in these genres, it's solid fare and a harkening back to that decade. All the major themes like brotherhood (and brotherhood vs blood), vengeance, and struggle with conflicting loyalties are there, alongside an internal search for identity and belonging within Hong Kong. But the highlight in it is that the plot connects feast after feast of utterly stunning fight choreography, made all the more impressive by the fact that, according to Louis Koo, quite a few major cast members had never filmed this kind of action before. All their training was done just for TotW, and oh, does it pay off. I can't make good gifs, so you'll have to watch and see for yourself. It's not action for action's sake, either; listening to the head stunt choreographer discuss how different characters' fighting styles were crafted shows off how fight scenes aren't breaks in the story, they tell the story, and deepen our understanding of the characters.

The setting of the Kowloon Walled City truly makes the action in TotW stand out. It's a unique space to stage all these major fights, as the KWC's buildings at the time were packed together close enough to resemble a singular block from the outside. Once inside, it's a stacked, dark maze of uneven paths, stairs, and rickety roofs, with electrical and television cabling snaking over/around/through everything. Fight scenes in these streets feel thrillingly claustrophobic, with lots of acrobatics and near-dodges as characters navigate these tight alleys of the KWC. Each impact as a character goes flying into a wall, or is launched down a flight of stairs or onto a roof, is wonderfully visceral to watch.

All credit and hopefully awards are due to the production and set design teams for their work, in crafting this environment for the story and its fights. The visual/spatial representation of the KWC is the film's other glorious highlight, alongside the choreography. Whole streets of the KWC were recreated for this, filled with every mundane, period-accurate detail from the lives of ordinary people who would have lived there. It's impossible to catch all the intricacies put into making the KWC come to life again onscreen, just from watching the film. Shots like the credits sequence offer close-ups of harder-to-see details, and videos like a tour of the KWC set by Terrance Lau, acting as his character Shin, show off things from the drinks in the fridge at the corner store to the scribbled writing on the walls by the public taps. This film was designed with a drive to faithfully represent what the Kowloon Walled City had been like, how it looked when it was lived in, and they achieved it to an incredible degree.

That dedication extends to more than just the sets, though. The emotional core of TotW revolves around the KWC's inhabitants, and how they were the ones who made the city what it was, a home for about 35,000 people at a time. The film doesn't treat the KWC as just an eye-catching location to stage some fights; its characters might be fictional and overloaded with jianghu powers, but it goes out of its way to show how ordinary people might have lived, worked, and socialized within the historic city. It shows off why, despite its (not unwarranted) dark reputation, so many chose to live in a place that was once the densest urban center on the planet.

And this brings us to the acting, because the cast all do a very good job bringing their characters to life as the heart of the KWC. Louis Koo is fucking fantastic and arguably the scene stealer of the film as Cyclone, the triad leader in current charge of the KWC. He's grumpy, magnetic, and dangerous when he must be, but he also cares so very, very deeply about the inhabitants within his jurisdiction. Terrance Lau's Shin acts as his charismatic and capable right hand man, as well as protégé to Cyclone, befriending Chan Lok-Kwan and helping him become accustomed to life in the KWC. These two, along with the snarky Twelfth Master (Tony Wu) and the masked + imposing AV (German Cheung) become a quartet with great chemistry and friendship, the next generation to watch over and protect the Kowloon Walled City. Outside the KWC cast, antagonist figures like Sammo Hung, Philip Ng, and Richie Jen's characters are intimidating and compelling as threats to the city, and the lives people have etched out within its walls.

All of these things put together, and Twilight of the Warriors is a deeply fun, enjoyable, and rewatchable film (so good, in fact, that Hong Kong has submitted it as its nomination for the 2025 Oscars). The movie doesn't lose its emotional throughline in the promise of an action-packed ride it fully delivers on, and it uses its narrative, setting, and choreography to pay tribute to an earlier era of Hong Kong, as well as highlight + humanize a piece of the region's history that might not be quite as well known to some.

(The Kowloon Walled City was demolished and its inhabitants relocated in 1993. The area where it once stood is now a park, with some historic buildings preserved. If you're curious about people in the KWC before demolition, City Of Darkness: Life In Kowloon Walled City (1993) by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot is a collection of photographs and first-hand recountings from residents, recording their lives and stories. I'm in the midst of reading it right now.)

If anything I've said has piqued your interest whatsoever, I say to give Twilight of the Warriors a try, if you have a free two hours to spare. Something in it will be worth it for you. And if I've failed to convince you with any of this, or you need one more push, here's the trailer for the film:

youtube

And if I did manage to actually get anyone to seek out this movie, please tell me! I'd love to know your thoughts.

#hi i am NOT NORMAL about this movie come listen to me ramble about it!#twilight of the warriors: walled in #九龍城寨之圍城 #ashton originals #ashton's recs

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siolixz · 7 months ago

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~Veils Of Crimson~

Chapter 5: part 1

Pairings: oz cobb x reader (Carmine Falcone's daughter)

Oz got what he wanted. As he always does. Reader slowly begins peeling back the veil around her- the truth will come to light soon.

I decided to split this chapter in 2 parts because in part 2 there is a scene in which something not that nice happens and that's all I'm gonna say.

I took my inspo from Driving Miss Falcone by (https://www.tumblr.com/genevievedarcygranger here on tumblr), check out the story if you can.

Enjoy, give feeback if u want ily xoxo.

Warnings: mature language, Oz is a manipulative bastard, smexy stuff happening at the end.

Apparently Sofia and Oz have got themselves a partnership. One based on mutual suspicion and distrust, you thought. When you guys left that night, you were in the backseat, Sofia and Oz in the front-with Oz driving. “Just like old times” she said, like old times my ass- you guys didn’t talk to each other at all during the drive, except Oz glancing at you in the back every so often-everything was quiet.

You finally saw what your brother and sister were up to, it was…different, to say the least.

If they wanted to get their product on the market and somehow overthrow the Falcone operation, they needed manpower and connections, lots and lots of connections.

Sofia was really going forward with this mad plan. She knew virtually nothing about how this world works and yet she found herself a kingpin. Great.

Talking to the second in command of the triads wasn't easy but Oz’s smooth talking pulled them through- as he told you.

You talked to Sofia as well, that night, she stopped the car outside and you had the chance to talk to your sister, that didn’t go as smoothly:

“I heard you two are gonna sell ‘Bliss’ tomorrow- at Oz’s club. I wanna be there too, ya know? Not be put on the side lines like today at the meeting.”

“That can’t happen.” Sofia lit herself up a cigarette while she had that poker face she always carried since coming back from Arkham- her words were cold.

“Why is that?” you asked

She took a deep breath and continued “I thought about it and I think the best course of action is if you stay put- at Oz’s place if you like, until we come back. We don’t know how Zao will react.”

There was a prolonged silence as you tried to process what she just told you. The street light that was illuminating your sister's face only further accentuated the harshness in her eyes.

“Stay put- like a dog, ok, got it.” you looked around, looking for anyone who might've been walking by and hearing.

“That is not what I wanted to say, If it makes you feel better- Viti told me to leave as well.”

“Ok so why don’t you?” you shot back- angry at her orders.

Sofia took a step closer, the scent of smoke and expensive perfume infiltrated your nostrils while she looked at you like you just cussed her out “Are you fucking kidding me? Not you too” She probably felt betrayed- but in that moment you couldn’t bring yourself to care.

“Sofia, this shit you got in your head, about taking over- this ain’t our game to play. We don’t even know the rules.” Your voice almost broke in desperation. Desperation that your sister might still listen to reason- might still turn back from this crazy plan that might get her killed. How could she know anything about being a kingpin?

“No. This is my birthright and I am taking it, this shit you’re talking about- all those snakes back at home, they said the same as you-” The memory of the people you knew very well from back home ignited her need for revenge even more you were well aware of that.

“This path you’re going down on, it’s dark and littered with blood and death, after escaping from that hellhole, I thought you had enough.”Your voice broke at the last word.

That place already took so much from her, why is she so stubborn?

For a moment, something flickered in her eyes—a shadow of doubt, perhaps—but it was gone as quickly as it came.

Her jaw clenched, and she shook her head. “No, it seems I haven’t.” The finality of her words made your heart clench. You knew the pain inside of her was way greater than any need for power, you knew it ate her alive every day.

“Alright-”

Sofia took another drag of her cigarette “Seems like you already got yourself nice and comfy next to another murderer and schemer,”she said, her voice sharp and cutting, each word a deliberate slice.

A smirk played at the corner of her lips, taunting. "Or perhaps 'under him' would be more accurate."

Your jaw clenched, a hot flash of anger surging up your neck. You balled your fists by your sides, nails digging into your palms. “Oh, shut up, Sofia!” The words came out more forcefully than you intended, vibrating with the pent-up frustration that had been simmering inside, both of you bound by the unspoken truth of who you were and what you had become.

You took a shaky breath, feeling your chest tighten as the rush of emotions threatened to spill over. “You’ve been cold and distant ever since I saw you again,” you said, your voice wavering between anger and hurt. “What did you want me to do?” Your eyes searched hers, hoping to find some flicker of the sister you once knew.

“I lost my dad and my brother in the span of one week,” you continued, your throat constricting. The memory sent a sharp ache through your chest, but you pressed on, keeping your chin up despite the burning behind your eyes. “And it seems like my sister has forgotten my entire existence.”

You swallowed hard, shifting your weight as the vulnerability made you feel exposed. “I am—we are—women in this world,” you said, the words quivering with the raw truth of it. “All we have been taught is that we need to be protected and that we need to be subservient.” Your gaze hardened, eyes narrowing slightly as you looked at her. “I am sorry I can’t change the game. I would love to, but I can’t—and neither can you.”

She looked at the ground before lifting her head and responding, her eyes didn’t look remorseful. “I know and that is ok… I’ll make new rules.”

“Yeah, good fucking luck with that.” you turned and left after that comment.

Whatever the fuck was she thinking? Let’s change 100 years of tradition and indoctrination because I am back from a mental asylum and need to be respected as the head of the Falcone mob.

Back at his place, after the meal- you and Oz retreated to the bedroom. He was sitting on the couch, whiskey in hand, eyes narrowing as you spoke, letting you say your piece.

“Say something” you commanded of him, Oswald barely kept his mouth shut and now he was as quiet as a mouse

“Listen, sweetheart, there’s a lot of things I can say but one is pretty darn clear” he sipped the last bit of whiskey he had left.

“your sister…she ain’t right in the head no more. I know this might seem hard to understand, but I saw it with my own eyes I mean, she shot two people point blank and ever since coming home-” you couldn’t believe what he was telling you “ she ain’t the woman you used to know.” he said softly- like that time in the restaurant when he told you about Alberto.

You looked down at your feet “I guess” He came next to you on the bed “Look at me” he said- your eyes stayed on the ground

“Look at me. Don’t go crying now.” you lifted your head from the floor and looked into his brown eyes

“Your sister is ambitious, yes, but without me doll, she ain’t got much going for her- I mean yeah she’s the daughter of Carmine and ambitious as hell since coming back but that’s about it.”

“She also has the drug-”

“-Yes yes and that, but that’s about it. We need a bigger fish to pull these ones out of the water. Viti is gonna help us with that.” He looked at you with a small smile and a twinkle in his eyes- like before he said a joke.

“Viti doesn’t even like you guys-” you were confused, your mind racing as you watched Oz rise from the couch and walk toward one of the lockers on the wall, you couldn’t help but wonder what kind of secrets he kept hidden.

What else could he be hiding?

He opened a dossier and sat back down beside you, flipping through it like he had all the time in the world. When you saw the photos—Viti with Luca’s wife—you couldn’t hold back a surprised laugh.

Now that you didn’t expect.

Oz leaned back, smirking, his eyes cold as he glanced at you. “See, they all got secrets.”

You turned to face him, feeling that familiar knot in your stomach, but you still had to ask. “Yeah- what’s yours?”

Oz’s gaze locked on you, and for a split second, you saw something flicker—was it a warning? Maybe a little too sharp, a little too calculating.

He smiled slowly, a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I ain’t got none.”

The club mission was a failure, clearly.

The wreckage of the car outside was enough proof of that. As Oz slammed the door open with a force that made the hinges groan, you could feel the tension in the air—the kind that felt like the world itself was about to come undone.

“Where the hell are you!?” he bellowed, his voice sharp, panic mixing with anger. When he saw you, his face twisted into something hard, something you hadn’t seen before. Without another word, he grabbed you by the arm, yanking you toward him.

“Did you talk to your sister?”

“N-no, why?”

His words came in a rush: “Sofia—she made a deal with the Maronis. As soon as the deal was done, they tried fuckin’ kill me.”

You froze, the weight of his words crashing over you like a tidal wave.

How could she?

The question burned through your mind, but before you could respond, Oz was already on you again.

“Give me your phone. Now.”

He was forceful, more so than ever before. His hand darted into your pocket before you could even think, his fingers wrapping around your phone. There was no hesitation. No gentleness. He ripped it out and, before you could react, crushed it beneath the cold barrel of his gun, the sound of the phone shattering filling the room.

“What the hell are you doing?” The words left your mouth before you could even stop them, the confusion and disbelief clear in your voice.

Oz didn’t flinch, his eyes cold as ice. “We can't stay here. Come on, we have to go.”

When Oz came back home and told you the news, you knew who did it.

Sofia.

How could she?

Gone was the sister you once knew and loved and she was replaced with a psychopath who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals, a monster.

The police came and questioned you- they asked you where you were and you told them you wanted nothing to do with your sister, for you- she died 10 years ago.

Things changed so much over the course of a few weeks- Oz had his own operation after stealing it from the Maronis, you thought he had what he wanted now, but no.

Sofia and Sal were after him and he was a man emboldened by the flame of ambition and power.

His behavior changed, he started acting differently towards you- sure, he was still the same passionate man you knew but he was different- whenever he would visit you he would look at you differently, a certain gleam in his eyes. Like a guy that just won the lottery.

You felt numb, your whole life has been destroyed and he was the last thing you had- maybe you should’ve been more careful.

Victor visited you often “to check up on you”- you would often talk to the young man about different subjects, about family and how things can change. You found a friend in Vic soon enough and you knew he felt the same towards you.

When you guys would eat dinner together- after a hard day at work for both of them you would smile at each when you placed their food on the plates.

You would joke with BOTH of them at the table- you would share stories; you would also say ‘thank you’ and ‘please’ to BOTH of them. So why on earth did Oz send glares Vic’s way whenever you would look at him? Like he wanted to yell.

Whenever you would talk to Victor, he would always interrupt you two- with something HE had to say.

Oz acted like a spoiled brat- wanting all of your attention.

You mostly ignored his ugly looks and snarky remarks towards the young man; he must’ve had a hard day at work.

Sometimes after dinner- he would send Victor away and as he came back to the room you shared he would turn you around on the bed and fuck you until you were sore. Your sweet Oz was gone those nights- replaced with a brute of a man. His grip so hard on you it would leave bruises.

This ‘relationship’ you two had- it turned more into an ownership of you and he relished in that fact. He would whisper to you at night how you two couldn't leave each other- Sofia would kill you both.

He was all you had left.

You would lie awake, longing for your old home, where butlers moved gracefully through the halls and your siblings waited to hear your stories- where you’ve been; what you bought lately and all the gossip you would share with them over dinner.

You cried at night more than once, quietly, longing for the laughter and innocence you had left behind.

There had always been hints, moments when you glimpsed the truth: Oz was always two steps ahead.

His charm was his greatest weapon, wielded with precision until he claimed everything he desired.

Now, as he kissed your forehead, a triumphant smile playing on his lips, he said, “I did it. I showed them all.” His voice brimmed with pride. “I’m the king now.”

His power outstripped even that of your father’ and his influence spread across the underworld of Gotham City like dark tendrils- nothing moved without him knowing or having a say in it, he ruled with an iron fist all the unseen acts that plagued this city.

He was richer than your father ever was; he rebuilt Crown Point- he made the people believe that someone was looking out for them and he reveled in his victories.

When he would turn to you and ask, “Are you proud of me?” you would nod, a hesitant ‘yes’ slipping from your lips—whether out of fear, habit, or the last remnants of genuine admiration, you couldn’t say.

When he told you that you would become “Mrs. Cobb,” dread took root in your chest. The proposal wasn’t accompanied by the rush of joy you once dreamed about.

Instead, it was a heavy proclamation, laced with inevitability.

Oz’s love, though real, was cold and calculating, much like your father’s had been and his passion, though fierce, masked an unnatural need to control.

The friendly man who once drove you around and helped you with the smallest of tasks had faded, replaced by a king in his castle, imperious and unyielding, his word was law in this tower he built for you.

“It’s all for you-all of it.” he would say

He presented the ring—a dazzling 9.7-carat oval diamond that seemed to mock your lack of freedom. He had you right where he wanted. The dutiful wife, the future mother of his children—a living doll.

You played your part, mostly.

The penthouse’s grandeur became a gilded cage, its wealth unable to fill the void left by days spent alone.

The designer clothes and generous allowances he handed you no longer brought excitement, just a hollow echo of the life you once knew.

You didn’t know what you felt for him anymore, was it love? You knew him very well and you cared for his well being, he was your husband after all.

But this love you carried for him, it twisted and turned when you would ask yourself “was this necessary?” you would’ve loved him even as a driver and as a club owner. You never asked him to do all this for you.

The penthouse you lived in was a masterpiece of modern opulence mixed with the old grandeur of the Falcone villa.

High ceilings stretched above great windows that overlooked Gotham’s skyline, capturing the sprawling city in all its moody grandeur. Sunlight poured through the windows during the golden hours, casting long, warm shadows across the polished marble floors. Despite the luxury, an eerie silence lingered, interrupted only by the soft ticking of an antique clock and the quiet whispers of the house staff—a stark contrast to the bustle that once filled your childhood home.

Everything spoke of power: the leather-bound books you never touched, the marbled flooring and opulent pieces of furniture; the grand piano that hadn’t played a note since it was installed, and the chandelier that sparkled overhead like a captive constellation.

One late afternoon, as the sun dipped and painted the city in hues of gold and amber, you sat in the living room scrolling through your phone, disconnected from everything around you. The soft sound of footsteps pulled you from your trance. A maid stood beside you, her hands clasped, eyes wide with nervousness.

“Ma’am, a letter arrived for you.”

“Who is it from?” your eyes didn’t leave the phone you had in your hand.

“A woman- her name is Selina Kyle.” the maid answered

As you opened the black envelope and read the context of the letter your jaw dropped. This woman- she was your half sister, she wanted to know you- to meet you. She said she was scared to write this letter in case you didn’t want anything to do with her, but she had to get in contact with you; she had a plan to get-

“Good evening, sir.” you heard the maid that gave you the envelope greet the master of the house.

Shit.

His footsteps echoed on the marble floor, each one a drumbeat against your chest.

He knew every corner, every inch of this house, and you dreaded that he might have seen you hide something.

“There she is,” he exclaimed, “how are you doll?” he came over and kissed you. After the quick peck he went over to the bar he had near one of the windows to pour himself some whiskey.

“I’m good, you?” you tried your best to not look suspicious- he was too perceptive, always watching and always knowing.

“Good, good- I met up with a bunch of congressmen tonight- bunch of ass kissers.” he chuckled in his glass and poured you some wine as well.

“Oh- I don’t want anything to drink Oz.”

“Why? Something the matter- " he raised an eyebrow at you as he turned around" -don’t tell me you’re gonna make me the happiest man alive tonight.” he proudly announced

“No- I'm just… very tired, ya know? I was going to head to bed.” you stepped away from the couch and went towards the older man “Maybe you can join me.”

Distract him.

He smiled at you “Can never say no to you, can I?” He asked “I have to give some phone calls and I’ll join you.”

You smiled at turned around to leave.

“Why don’t you put on one of the dresses I got you. Show them to me- just like old times.”

Oz loved reminiscing, he loved telling you stories of the things you used to do back then- how you acted. You were kinda spoiled but oh well. You were now too.

He would encourage you to buy whatever you wanted, whatever you needed and desired– it was yours. He was happy to see you spoiled and enjoying the sort of things this life- your life together brought you.

Sometimes after he would come home you would play dress up for him and show him all the things you got yourself as he sipped some cognac on the couch and compliment you, saying how most of the things you got for yourself reminded him of when you were younger– still the same tastes.

Oswald waited patiently until all that was left would’ve been the lingerie section- that was his favorite, after all the anticipation he was more than ready to pull you on the couch on top of him or under him. Completely not caring if one of your maids or butlers would walk past or hear.

You promised him you will and got your phone and the book from the table; climbing the steps until you got upstairs in the master bedroom you two shared.

A big and gorgeous room filled with the opulence Oswald was so keen on sharing to the world. You shoved the letter in your purse and went into the closet to change.

After dressing up, you laid on the bed and at one point you must’ve fallen asleep because the feeling of having your dress pulled up with the familiar weight of your husband's body next to you as he was grabbing your ass woke you up.

“Are you tired sweetheart?” he whispered in your ear as his hands went to your pussy, softly rubbing circles on top of your panties.

You nodded, knowing it won’t make a difference for him. He pulled your leg over his body as he laid next to you.

You turned the upper part of your body to kiss him, he grabbed your breast as well “You look beautiful baby.” He whispered next to your ear.

You loved this man and you hated what he had to do to get here- you loved his ambition and calculating nature; you hated that he placed your sister in a mental asylum and that he got rid of everything that reminded you of any sort of normality- he wanted you all to himself.

What did he do to Victor? Where was he? He was your friend.

As he grabbed your lips between his you tried to forget. You had a lead now- something you could be doing, you had to read the letter once again but you were sure now that maybe this woman could help you two.

You had to see your sister.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's note: I already wrote part 2- I just need to edit it and add some things. The story will end here with them 2. I hope that I could showcase Oz's nature well enough.

I don't want to say a lot about the next part but it will be- something, to say the least. I wanted to really tune it up but I think AO3 might be a better place for that lol still have one story left to write with Oz, about him and his daughters, I can't wait to show you guys.

Also, If you have any sort of ideas or something about one-shots, pls tell me- give me some inspo. Thank you for reading :))))))))))))

#oz cobb #the penguin #the penguin tv #oz cobb x reader #oswald cobb x reader #the penguin hbo #oswald cobblepot #the penguin x reader #oz cobblepot #colin farrell penguin #penguin tv show

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easternmind · 2 years ago

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The weird and wonderful history of Kowloon as a digital interactive space - Part I

The Kowloon Walled City was one of the most emblematic locations in Hong Kong due to its irregular, fast-paced and largely ungoverned growth within a minute parcel of land. During the occupation of Hong Kong Island by the British in the mid 18th century, the Qing authorities surrounded the area with walls, turning it into a strategic position from where to closely inspect the foreign nation's covert activities. Almost a century later, during World War II, the area was seized by the Japanese, who tore down the walls and repurposed the stone for the construction of a nearby airport.

After the war, China would eventually regain possession of the city, though the disinterest of local authorities in addressing its increasing social disturbances placed it in a downward path to a state of utter degradation. By the 1970s, Kowloon had become the epicentre of Hong Kong's criminal underworld, dominated by a handful of its most vicious Triads.

Towards the last years of its existence, the ancient settlement was as a precarious heap of concrete, sheltering nearly half a million people within less than seven acres of land. Cultural and political changes in China made it increasingly difficult for this urban anomaly to remain unaddressed. In the late 1980s, an action plan was put together aiming to relocate its inhabitants and reconvert the real estate into an inner-city park. Stories about residents refusing to leave their unsafe and unsanitary homes were featured prominently in newspapers, baffling readers all over the world. Once the single most densely populated area in the world, this enclave was an architectural aberration whose disconcerting aesthetic influenced numerous works of art in different fields of creation; including a small yet consequential number of video games that briefly reference or prominently feature this abominably transfixing space.

九龍島 (Kyu-Ryu-Tou) - Starcraft - 1986

The year is 2025. An arms dealer escalates the tensions between East and West by developing a genetic weapon in a secret base at Kowloon Island. The United Nations react by sending in their best man, Jamie Starr. Unrelated to the Walled City itself, the first game to be located in the Kowloon peninsula - and indeed include the name as a part of its title - is this obscure turn-based RPG, Kyu-Ryu-Tou for the NEC PC88 and FM-77 machines. The game is a sequel to Shangai, released the year before, featuring the same protagonist. Starcraft would also go on to produce a third instalment in 1987 named TO.KY.O. Clearly there wasn't much regard here from the developers part for geographic accuracy, as Kowloon is depicted here as being an island. While Hong Kong's southern territory is composed of an actual island, all the different areas named Kowloon are located in the mainland.

Riot City - Westone - 1991

One of the most shameless specimens among a relatively long list of Final Fight clones, Riot City contains subtle references to Kowloon, though never referring to it by name. Curiously enough, the PCE port, renamed Crest of Wolves, refers to Kowloon directly in one of the cutscenes. Two narcotics detectives are assigned with the mission of dismantling a cartel running a crime-ridden located in fictional Riot Island. This recurring yet geographically nonsensical notion of Kowloon as an island comes up here, yet again. The final moment of the introduction sequence for this minor Sega arcade success shows both protagonists approaching a tight cluster of buildings whose source inspiration is quite unmistakable. Because Westone maintained ownership of most of this production's intellectual property, a later port to the PC Engine entitled Riot Zone was made possible with the help of Hudson soft. Kowloon's Gate - Zeque - 1997

Reviving the Walled City through the lens of cybermystic surrealism, Kowloon's Gate is a dense, daunting adventure masterfully capturing the slum's dark and narrow recesses. This 1997 Japanese Playstation exclusive spans across four discs of unparalleled full motion 3D CGI spectacle, alternating with real-time 3D dungeons brimming with outlandish characters and concepts deeply inspired by Chinese history, geography and cultural traditions.

Ironically, Zeque managed to embed the theme of Feng-Shui, the ancient geomantic art seeking harmony between the individual and their surrounding space, into a story set in the world's most historically untidy district.

SaGa Frontier - Square - 1997

SaGa Frontier takes place in a solar system named The Regions, composed of multiple inhabited worlds for the player to explore, each with its different degree of civilizational development and culture. One of these planets goes by the suggestive name Kūron. Its pervasive neon light signs, food stalls, makeshift cabins and rooftop scaffolding instantly evoke the memory of China’s so-called city of darkness.

Shadow Hearts - Sacnoth - 2001

Shortly after the release of Koudelka, Sacnoth's initiated the development of Shadow Hearts, the first episode from a cult RPG trilogy exclusively designed for the Playstation 2. In good Japanese fashion, the game proposes an anachronistic yet visually suggestive depiction of Kowloon, portraying its architectural style and degree of decay as it existed in the late twentieth century, despite the fact that the game's events take place during the nineteen twenties.

Just as noteworthy is the almost complete absence of any inhabitants, which inadvertently make this portrayal of the quarter eerily reminiscent of the state in which it was found circa 1993 or 1994, as local authorities brought the long, arduous eviction project to a close.

Shenmue II - SEGA AM2 - 2001

Shenmue II exhibits the most complete and period-accurate video game representation of Kowloon to date. While more recent games featuring this area may represent a number of its aspects with the aid of improved visual fidelity, none features it with such depth as this masterpiece of masterpieces. More than mere background decoration, Kowloon exists in the Shenmue series as a crucial, climacteric element of its modern epic narrative.

It is a well known fact that Yu Suzuki and his team conducted extensive research of the region so as to achieve a result that impresses even to this day. It must be noted, however, that they have similarly taken a fair share of creative liberty when converting the area to best align with the themes they wished to explore. Further reading is required for a more complete context in this regard, namely how this area ties with an early Dreamcast tech demo design which fans lovingly named Tower of Babel. Ostensively, technical limitations did curtail the degree of precision in which the surrounding area could be replicated. The aerial view from the cutscene in which Ryo Hazuki arrives on location places Kowloon at an imaginary degree of elevation over surrounding vegetation. In the year of 1987, during which the game is set, the actual enclave stood perfectly levelled with a myriad of other modern buildings, undoubtedly more than could be reproduced under the circumstances. These trifling considerations aside, Shenmue II entirely succeeds in capturing the vibrant life and mesmerizing beauty of the destitute and decayed urban agglomeration, in a way that it was deemed entirely impossible at the time of its release.

For reasons entirely related to per post content limitations imposed by Tumblr, this article will be continued in PART II.

#china #hong kong #kowloon #kowloon walled city #videogames #Kyu-Ryu-Tou #riot city #saga frontier #kowloon's gate #shenmue ii

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whencyclopedia · 8 months ago

Photo

Xois

Xois (as the Greeks called it) was a vast ancient city located on a marshy island in the center of the Nile Delta of Egypt, modern-day Sakha. It was founded c. 3414-3100 BCE and was continuously inhabited until the rise of Christianity c. 390 CE. By the time of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (2498-2345 BCE), Xois was already regarded as an ancient city. It served as the capital of Egypt during the reign of the Hyksos in Egypt and was the site of the pivotal battle between Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE) and the Sea Peoples with their Libyan allies in 1178 BCE.

Religious Center

It was a center of worship of the god Amon-Ra and was well known for the production of fine wine and luxury items. Known as Khasut or Khaset to the Egyptians, the island city is sometimes identified with No-Amon (traditionally a name ascribed to Thebes) mentioned in the biblical Book of Nahum where the Prophet Nahum warns the city of Nineveh of her pride and her coming destruction: “Art thou better than populous No, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea" (Nahum 3:8). That a famous city such as Nineveh should be compared to Xois testifies to the importance of the Egyptian city and the fame she enjoyed but, it should be noted, the Nahum passage has also been interpreted as referring to Thebes.

Amon was a god closely associated with Thebes who rose in prominence when the Theban prince Mentuhotep II (2061-2010 BCE) defeated his rivals and established Thebes as the capital of Egypt. Amon had existed previously, however, and Xois was one of the sites sacred to his worship. In the Delta region of Xois Amon was a fertility god and Ptah the creator god but this situation would change with the rise of Thebes as capital when Amon came to be seen as the supreme creator and giver of life, represented by the sun. Amon's wife, Mut, was the sun's rays and their son, Khons, the god of healing. Although these three deities are known as the Theban Triad, directly associated with Thebes, their veneration was spread through trade from Upper Egyptian cities like Thebes to those of Lower Egypt such as Xois.

#History #1178BCE #Amon #Christian #WHE #[#]

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welcometothejianghu · 11 months ago

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Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 沙海/Tomb of the Sea/Sand Sea.

Sand Sea is the 2018 installment of the DMBJ/Lost Tomb franchise, which tells the story of the search for an ancient desert city, a fight against a secretive assassin family, the raiding of more than a couple tombs, and a whole bunch of other action-packed bullshit.

Have you ever watched an anime adaptation that outran the as-yet-incomplete manga it was adapting, necessitating it throw together a largely befuddling ending based on the available clues? That's Sand Sea. At time of production, only ~75% of the Sand Sea novel had been written. As I am making this post, that's still all of the Sand Sea novel that has been written. I finished watching the show and had a lot of questions about its loose ends. I read the book. It didn't help.

So, I'm not going to try and summarize the story, much less try to sell you on the show on the strength of the plot. What I am going to try and do is convince you it's a good time anyway.

As I mentioned earlier, it's part of a larger franchise, but you shouldn't let that stop you from diving in here. Most of the DMBJ shows and books are narrated by Wu Xie, the series' special little birthday boy. Sand Sea takes a different tack -- your main POV characters are completely new to the world of the tombs, meaning that the show explains things to you while it's explaining things to them. Wu Xie's still a major character, but you're seeing him through the eyes of a befuddled teenager who wasn't even supposed to be here today.

I'm going to give you five reasons to watch this series, and all five of them are relationships. I'm pitching it to you this way because, as was the case in my rec for Reunion (one of the other tomb-raiding dramas), I'm assuming you have zero familiarity with DMBJ, which means that any appeals to the larger franchise or its twists and turns will have no impact. Instead, I am here to sell this to you on the strength of character interactions. If you're interested in what the characters are doing, the plot will come.

1. Dudes Rock

The aforementioned teenager narrator is Li Cu, a too-cool-for-school underachiever who lives with his abusive father and has no direction in life. He comes with his two best (and only) friends: earnest pushover Su Wan and neighborhood bully Yang Hao.

They're a trio of problem children who cannot succeed by the metrics of society at large: Li Cu and Yang Hao are both from family circumstances that have hampered their ability to perform academically, while Su Wan, bless his heart, is just not that bright. They do, however, all do well when put in situations that play to their strengths and given appropriate mentorship. (Alas that all of their mentors are terrible people; see point 4.)

They're set up as an intentional next-generation parallel to the Iron Triangle, which is the term DMBJ uses for Wu Xie and his two closest people. Normally, the Iron Triangle would be the core of a DMBJ story -- but since that threesome is broken by Circumstances at the moment, these boys become the substitute triad whose friendship is one of the main bonds holding the narrative together.

They have such teenage boy dynamics, it's great. They're stupid about girls and alcohol and money and homework and all the other things teen boys are stupid about, while also being stupid enough to get themselves entangled in shadowy international conspiracies. Huge parts of the plot are fueled entirely by their dumbass decisions. But they also barely have any competent adult supervision in their lives, so you know, when you're seventeen and basically feral, renting a warehouse so you can beat a bunch of frozen snakes to death actually sounds like a good solution to the problem at the time.

It's not all comedy, though. Li Cu and Yang Hao in particular are deeply traumatized young men even before the story starts, and events of the series make it worse. They're definitely the "feelings are for girls!" type of young men, and they need Su Wan there as their eternally bippy buffer. When he's not, they can get mean.

What's also charming about this trio is that they're all pretty darn straight. In a franchise chock full of (unintentional?) homoeroticism, these three manage to keep their platonic dude dynamics pretty platonic. I mean, I myself come at most things with slash-colored glasses on, and even I'm of the opinon that they're befuddled heterosexuals struggling with how the entire tomb-raiding industry's gay. And even if you assume everyone in this entire show is straight, these boys are still going to get a bunch of real-time lessons in how to love other people, whether they like it or not!

So if you like a Teen Boy Squad of goobers who don't want to admit they're close or have emotions or anything like that, right up until they're all each other have, this may be just the thing for you.

2. The Only Good Het in the Tombs

DMBJ is not known for its high-quality heterosexual romance, to put it mildly. Most of the time, it makes the smart decision to not even try. When it does, you mostly wish it hadn't.

Therefore, you cannot imagine how shocked I was to find myself falling head-over-heels for the incredibly weird canonical love story between horny hot mess Dr. Liang Wan and emotionally constipated 80-year-old virgin and arsonist Zhang Rishan.

Their relationship goes a little something like this: He needs something from her, so he contrives a plan to ask her out. She declares him her boyfriend. He continues the relationship in order to continue getting things from her. She thinks he's hot, so she's fine with that. He warns her that continuing their relationship will involve messing with some very bad members of the Tomb-Raiding Industrial Complex. She's like, again, you're incredibly hot, so that's not a problem. He makes her memorize maps and sends her to a desert. She dresses up like him and pepper-sprays him. And somewhere in the midst of all that, he falls for her and she gets sick of his shit, and they wind up for-real dating as equals.

Part of what's so delightful about their relationship is how awful they are to one another. It'd be bad if that awfulness were one-sided, but man, they each give as good as they get. He's heartless and exploitative, and she's neurotic and insecure. She makes constant demands of him that he's almost too confused by to refuse, and he keeps putting her in situations no sane person should want to be part of. He comes from a cutthroat world of complete bastards, while she wears her heart on her sleeve whether she wants to or not. They're extremely good for one another, because he trusts her competencies and is going to make her demonstrate every one of them, while one of her chief skills is calling him on his bullshit.

It is at this point I need to sing the praises of Liang Wan, hottest of the hot messes. She's one of the principal POV characters for the novel, where she's just as boy-crazy (though for a different boy, because Zhang Rishan's not in this book) and just as far in over her head. The adaptation has absolutely done her character justice. What makes Liang Wan so charming to me is how much she absolutely refuses to let herself be stopped by being completely out of her depth. She doesn't know what the hell is going on most of the time, but fuck it, she's rolling with it. She's just also going to be applying moisturizer and anti-aging serum the entire time, because you know what, sometimes when your whole world is falling apart around you, the one thing you can count on is your skincare routine.

Zhang Rishan is surrounded by people so cool, butter doesn't melt in their mouths. He can be balls-out naked in front of them without batting an eyelash. It is her thirsty disaster charms alone that have set fire to his frozen heart. I love them to bits.

3. Enemies to ... ???

This is Sand Sea's Wu Xie. You're not going to like him at first, because he spends the first several episodes tormenting a teen who only mildly seems to deserve it. What you find out as the show goes on is that Wu Xie is having a bad time -- more than that, he's having a straight-up bad decade. He has taken a lot of psychic damage and decided to cope with it by being absolutely insane. He's a bitch with no sense of self-preservation living in constant gremlin mode. He is no longer under the active supervision of his husbands, and he's going to make that everyone else's problem.

The show chooses to start out by inflicting Wu Xie on a bunch of strangers through an arc that's bizarre, lengthy, and mostly completely unrelated to the larger plot. It does introduce a few elements that will matter, though, and one of them is Su Nan.

When Su Nan appeared as the badass head of a mercenary outfit, I was braced for one (or both) of two things to happen. Thing one, I figured she'd die or otherwise leave the narrative after the first arc, which made me not want to get attached to her, if she wasn't going to stick around. Thing two, I was all but certain the show was going to try and make her Wu Xie's love interest, which made me make such a face, because [see last point].

Neither happens. Su Nan is still around in the final episode, and what she becomes to Wu Xie is much, much more interesting.

They're not friends. They're never friends. They can't be friends, because they absolutely can't trust one another. Except sometimes they have to trust one another, and in return they have to allow themselves to be trustworthy.

In the last relevant chapter or so of the novel, Wu Xie gets his throat cut and shoved off a cliff ... and because the novel isn't finished, we have no idea why that happened or who did it. The drama decides that when he goes over that cliff this time, throat unslit, Su Nan needs to go with him. This means they spend much of the later part of the series depending on one another for survival, getting real vulnerable, sharing trauma, and occasionally fucking one another over anyway, because they are both bad and untrustworthy people.

And they're ... kinda into one another? But because it's not textual, it winds up being great. If the show had tried to write their romance, I would have hated it. Instead, it chooses to leave things fraught and unspecified, with the two of them obviously having a lot of feelings but not even knowing themselves what all those feelings are, much less how to react appropriately to them. That is delicious. Pour that right into my mouth.

I also choose to interpret Su Nan as being transfemme (complimentary), if only because that's the most charitable explanation for her dedication to keeping her tits out and her lipstick game sharp even in wilderness conditions.

4. This Man Should Not Be Trusted With Children

As I mentioned before, all members of the Teen Boy Squad wind up paired with adult men who act as their mentors. Li Cu and Wu Xie are the main duo, since they're the main character of this show and the main character of the entire franchise, respectively. Yang Hao winds up in an even more abusive dynamic with a bitch of a man who takes advantage of Yang Hao's capacity for rage. But precious baby Su Wan is lucky enough to be adopted by, well...

If you read my rec for Reunion, you will recognize him as the guy I called "this giant fucking loser" with all the affection in the world. Hei Xiazi is both the worst and the best, which makes him the perfect man to take care of the tender soul that is Su Wan.

Su Wan's a poor little rich boy who is happy to be bullied by his friends, because it means he has friends! He's a dipshit because he's sheltered by his family wealth, and he's also a dipshit because he'd be a dipshit no matter how much money he had. He needs someone to kick his ass in a way that builds him back up again and helps him make the transition from doormat to functional adult.

The circumstances that bring these two together are so batshit, they're not worth recounting here. Suffice it to say that as one adventure arc ends, Hei Xiazi is tasked with taking Su Wan home. Su Wan expresses interest in whatever Hei Xiazi's whole deal is, and Hei Xiazi responds by offering (in a roundabout way) lessons in what exactly his whole deal is.

Hei Xiazi is a terrible teacher, but he's a perfect teacher for Su Wan, who is the kind of boy who would go find the nearest dictionary if you told him the word "gullible" wasn't there. They're preciously weird at one another. The work so well together because Su Wan believes the best of everything, which leads him to see right past the parts of Hei Xiazi that other people (correctly) find inscrutable and offputting. With Hei Xiazi's questionable guidance, Su Wan finds for the first time in his naive, privileged life a goal for himself that is both achievable and worth the effort.

Later books give evidence that all three of the boys eventually go to work for Hei Xiazi, which I think is great, especially since he is somehow the least toxic and terrible of all the mentor characters. ...Man, though, that bar is low. It's a miracle anyone in DMBJ survives into adulthood.

It's also cute to think about how the boys are no doubt context-appropriately homophobic, because it's so easy to picture their respective reactions to finding out that their strong, terrible male role models are queer. Cue Li Ci and Yang Hao's respective no-homo freakouts, while Su Wan just has a million slightly offensive but ultimately well-meaning questions about how bisexuality works.

And I'm just going to say, if you watched the Untamed and loved Xue Yang? You owe it to yourself to see that actor suddenly become the sweetest little butterscotch muffin ever. ...Yes, if you didn't recognize him earlier, that's Wang Haoxuan, and he turns in an incredible comic performance here. Su Wan is consistently one of the funniest characters onscreen. The bit with the saxaphone kills me dead.

Anyway, unlike the first three relationships I've talked about here, this is one you have to wait a good long while for. Su Wan shows up in the first episode, Hei Xiazi appears about a dozen or so episodes later, but it takes their storylines much longer to cross. It's worth the wait, though, knowing that eventually you'll get to see these two weirdos bounce merrily off one another.

5. Everybody Loves Pangzi

This is the Iron Triangle I mentioned earlier. Obviously there's Wu Xie in the middle. The perfect boy in the hoodie is Xiao Ge, who is at the time of this series slightly stuck in what's basically a giant time-lock safe, so you're only ever going to see him in flashbacks. (Xiao Ge is trapped, so you can't have Xiao Ge.) And then, over there on the left is the man whose nickname translates to "fatty," Wang Pangzi.

Hold on to your butts, because I am now going to wax poetic about how much I love this fictional man.

Pangzi is the best. The best. He's funny. He's kind. He's got terrible taste in men and only slightly less terrible taste in women. He's a gentleman. He's the party shock absorber. He's prone to making things explode. He's impeccably dressed. He's charmingly superstitious. He's not subtle. He's got an excitable little stammer and an atrocious Beijing accent. He's a flexible fat man. He's the most fuckable person onscreen no matter who's onscreen with him.

He's also usually the DMBJ everyman character, except Sand Sea has a ton of everyman characters for a change, so he winds up filling the role of a badass insider instead. His job is basically to hold down the fort while Xiao Ge's indisposed and Wu Xie's off being insane. In the absence of both his beloveds, Pangzi's going to do what needs to be done, and he's going to be incredibly hot while he's doing it.

Usually, DMBJ shows serve up a huge amount of Pangzi and Wu Xie interaction. Sand Sea only puts them in the same room near the very end -- but they're collaborating throughout. In fact, the only way the whole story works is if they're basically so much in each other's back pockets that they can function as a single unit even across great distances. The record will show that I read them as husbands -- but more importantly, they're good friends who understand and trust one another completely. As much as it pains me that they're apart for basically the entire thing, they're never really apart, you know?

However, because Wu Xie is physically elsewhere for so much of the show, Sand Sea provides a unique chance to see Pangzi interacting on his own with other characters. Wu Xie is the special little boy who always takes up all the oxygen in the room -- and of course Pangzi doesn't begrudge him this, because Pangzi loves him. Without Wu Xie around, though, we get to watch all the other relationships Pangzi has cultivated over the years.

One of the best is with Xie Yuchen, a.k.a. Xiao Hua. In other series, we see the two interact, but only in the context of having Wu Xie around. Sand Sea presents us with a little window into what is clearly a longstanding friendship. From the tiny bit we get of their interactions, it's obvious they hang out on a pretty regular basis. They're chilling and having spa dates while their husbands are out there getting sandy and fighting snakes, proving that these two urbanites are absolutely the brains of their respective marriages.

...Hold up a second,

I hear you say,

IS this show actually gay? Because you keep using words like "husbands" and talking like it's intentionally, onscreen, boys-kissing-boys gay.

On the one hand, no.

On the other hand: Is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid gay? Textually, taking it at face value, and especially considering the context in which it was made, no, it is absolutely not gay, nor was it meant to be gay. But when you step back and realize everything it's doing, you kind of can't avoid the really romantic implications. Maybe Butch and Sundance never smooch, maybe they don't even want to, but they're each other's other halves. We would instantly recognize what they are if one of them were a lady. In a narrative setting where gayness is unthinkable, nothing they can do can be gay, which loops around to making everything kinda gay, and ... look, I'm just saying, if Pangzi were a woman, we'd know immediately what she is to Wu Xie (and holy fuck she would be so hot). If Xiao Hua were as female as the opera characters he plays, we'd have no questions about her relationship to Hei Xiazi. Keep everything beat for beat, line for line the same, and there'd be no missing it.

This is something you get a lot with stories about men written by men, this unintentional homoeroticism from male authors who don't realize their misogyny has actually poisoned them against heterosexuality. Remember what I said earlier about DMBJ's regrettable het? So much of it stems from the assumption that getting a girl and a boy together will inevitably to romantic feelings from at least one of them, so there's no reason to bother spending time giving either of the participants any actual reasons to like one another. (Sand Sea does this too! Just with a character I haven't mentioned here, because I'm trying to talk about the good dynamics.) This kind of thinking treats women not as people, but as as basically interchangeable desirable objects. But men are people, which means the male characters' feelings are worth discussing in the narrative! So what you get is these well-developed, intimate relationships between men described in loving detail, sat right next to perfunctory heterosexual couplings -- and we're supposed to believe that one is romantic and one is not based solely on the genders of the participants? Yeah, no, I call bullshit.

And -- if you'll permit me to loop back to the boys for a minute -- we now have a model for how a straight Iron Triangle would behave, and it is not the way the actual Iron Triangle members are about one another. Those teens love one another in a way that is fierce and strong and not what Wu Xie, Pangzi, and Xiao Ge have going. Maybe it could become that, but it's not now. It's not better or worse now for being what it is, but it is different, and it makes by contrast some things very clear (and very queer).

So that is why I feel justified in referring to them as husbands and will continue to do so despite the lack of explicit textual support.

Anyway, back to Pangzi!

Where were we? Right, Xiuxiu!

Pangzi's always at his best when he gets to be a knight for someone he cares about. This time around, that's Huo Xiuxiu, who who only shows up after you've met several of her matriarchal family's other members, all of whom would be at home in a Tank Full Of Dangerous Ladies. Xiuxiu is not a fighter like they are, but she does have an object that means everyone's out to get her, and as such she relies on her Pangzi to keep her safe while she's trying to survive the fucked-up games her family is playing.

And Pangzi clearly loves it. He absolutely thrives on being the big brother/bruiser figure for her. He loves how cool it makes him look to her. He doesn't have Wu Xie around to be a tank for, so he's going to tank for her. In fact, he's even going to bring in reinforcements to help him do it. (What's the deal with the cute Tibetan boy? Look, shh, just appreciate that you've got a cute Tibetan boy.)

Then there's his dealings with the rest of the Tomb-Raiding Industrial Complex, who are a bunch of shady dudes with impressive family pedigrees and expensive suits, all of whom are trying to play twelve-dimensional chess with one another. There's going to be lots of names dropped, of families and of individuals, and the show is going to act like you're supposed to be impressed. And if you're familiar with DMBJ canon, yeah, you could be impressed! Or you could be like Pangzhi, who rolls up in his amazing Holstein shirt, not giving a single fuck what any of these rich bastards think about him.

This is actually some character development for Pangzi, who has in the past been cowed (pun unintended) by the wealthy, mostly due to his own financial situation. That stage of his life is over now. Honey badger has ceased to care. The cool, pretty people are going to try and give him shit, and he is impervious to it. You better believe the Iron Triangle trashed this fancy restaurant the last time they were in here, and if you give Pangzi half the chance, he'll fucking do it again.

No wonder Zhang Rishan likes him. A pair of little firestarters.

Don't let me oversell you on how much Pangzi is in Sand Sea, because he's not. There's maybe a dozen of the 52 episodes that have any Pangzi content, and he's only in small parts of those episodes. Pangzi is a rare and precious event, like an eclipse. Cherish the Pangzi moments and all the wonderful interactions contained within.

caveat: You call that an ending?

Buddy, if you'd seen how most other DMBJ series end, you wouldn't be asking me that. But because I'm assuming you haven't: Yes, I call that an ending, because it actually attempts to do a winddown and conclusion, instead of just wandering off on a cliffhanger. The ending isn't wholly satisfying, but it is an ending. There is a narrative, and that narrative concludes. Does the conclusion make sense and tie up all the loose ends? Absolutely not! But it does follow basic story structure and resolve the action semi-competently.

As I said about the sweet disaster that is Psych Hunter (which was also directed by the guy who did Sand Sea!), I think knowing in advance that an ending sucks makes the ending suck less. It removes the disappointment factor and lets you enjoy what is there, instead of making you grumpy about what isn't. No, you're never going to understand a lot of things. That means whatever you want to be true can be true. The book is unfinished. The series is nonsense. Canon has no hold on you. You are free.

As compensation, here's a picture of Xiao Ge without his shirt on.

Are you feeling like it's Tomb Time?

There are a couple places you can get this one! Try Viki, WeTV, this YouTube playlist (which is missing the first episode for some reason), or this YouTube playlist (which has the whole thing). Note that subtitles vary in quality from place to place. The YouTube versions also have the bizarre, amazing in-character commercials, and it's up to you if that's a plus or a minus for your viewing experience.

I love this bonkers show. It is balls-to-the-wall weird, to a point that will make you question the translation. I got to the part where Zhang Rishan explains that ancient people worshipped fish with snakes in their eyebrows, caught the fish, took out the snakes, and implanted the snakes in their own human eyebrows -- and I thought, surely that's not what he's actually saying. Nope! The subtitles are accurate. It's the show that's off its rocker.

Anyway, once you've watched Sand Sea, scroll down to the bottom of my rec post for Reunion and find out how you can get even deeper into said tombs! Trust me, there's a lot down here.

As those other posts would indicate, this would not be my first choice for how to get into DMBJ. It is, however, how a fair number of people have gotten into DMBJ, so what the hell do I know! Or maybe this post has convinced you that Sand Sea is worth watching, but you'd rather build up to it than go into it raw. That works too! Whenever you get to it, it'll be here: under a bunch of sand, tattooed and inexplicable, and extremely gay whether it knows it or not.

Go to the desert, they said. Find Gutongjing, they said. Solve the mystery, they said. Fuck it, we nap.

#sand sea #sha hai #tomb of the sea #沙海 #dmbj #rec post #i made this

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