#under the skin meta

[lunarriviera]

yet another shen yi meta [uts2 spoilers]

hi hey hello everyone i continue to be tormented with obsessive thinkings about s2 Shen Yi so i must holler about them/him some more, feel free to stop reading if you have not watched through approximately episode 11 which is where i still am. it's taking me longer to watch because i keep pausing to rewind/screenshot and/or weep in anguish about Him and What He Is Going Through. and how NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION. or insufficient attention. cf. Ryan Gosling in the Papyrus sketch screaming WELL IT WASN'T!! ENOUGH!!

[more. much more. behind the cut]

let's start here, with shen yi's artwork. in this scene he competed with AI to paint a chosen image and, surprising exactly no one, he won, partly because he's brilliant but tbh mostly because AI art is garbage and always adds dolphins, rainbows, and hands with six fingers.

but here's the thing: is no one going to question this? does anyone think to themselves "ah yes, shen yi is absolutely the BEST person in the world to make a painting in 30 minutes that depicts, quote, a lonely man on a beach." so here is this miserably hunched, despairing figure, surrounded by murky howling early-picasso blue, LOOKING IN FACT QUITE A LOT LIKE SHEN YI HIMSELF—even dressed like him (in the snowy white and dainty pastels he seems to favor this season)—and not a single person thinks: huh, wonder if this guy's okay?

in fact s2 seems to be repeated evidence of the fact that shen yi is Very Much Not Okay, and yet no one is really paying attention. he supports everyone else emotionally and they all seem to assume he either a) has no emotional blowback to deal with, or b) can deal with it himself unaided somehow. (through painting, maybe? but have you seen what he's painting lately? e.g. monstrous abusive parent figures, in some kind of breathless fugue state during which he can psychically hear lines from someone else's traumatic childhood?) he goes to li han's house to help her, which is so like him, and he says:

oh! you might think. well, maybe he will self-disclose a little? tell li han about some of his own personal difficulties that he's had to overcome, just to bond with her, get her to open up? HAHAHA ARE YOU NEW HERE, of course he doesn't, he just listens to her while she sobs out her tragic backstory, gives her a tissue, relates her struggles to a vaguely terrifying metaphor of his own device about a sealed room filling up ineluctably with floodwater, then smiles and takes her out for pizza. (totally unrelated but wow the product placement is heavy-handed this season. xiaomi! pizza hut!)

since we're talking about the li han case, consider this moment, too, when he interprets someone's house-person-tree drawing. does no one ever think, "for someone who talks constantly about love and connection, how interesting that shen yi has no family, refuses to date in very pointed and deliberate way, and lives alone with a cat."

shen yi knows all about love! never shuts up about love! constantly dispensing bromides about what real love should be like! and wakes every day ALONE from horrific guilty nightmares ft. creepy small girl in blood-red dress, pls will no one help this man pls he's drowning.

couple more bits and then i swear to god i'll shut up i'm starting to feel really stupid. but first consider this little story, in three parts:

"an image of despair" um okay well…technically it's just a dead body, albeit after a fairly grisly stabbing, but sure go off i guess

2. du cheng: wow even for you that was unusually poetic and weird

3. also du cheng: back to investigating the murder i guess [wanders away]

this kind of thing happens again. and again. either no one notices assorted horrified/devastated expressions on shen yi's face (in the way of classic extradiegetic reaction shots, where the camera sees them—we see them—but none of the characters onscreen do) or, when du cheng does notice, he's immediately distracted by his actual job, and/or the fact that he doesn't really know how to help his partner, because lbr he has all the emotional intelligence of a pony.

one more mini-story in three parts, and then i really will put a sock in it:

shen yi: why, what did i do. why are you looking at me like that

2. du cheng: bc you just lied your whole entire face off with alarming unsettling proficiency, since when are you that good at being dishonest

3. shen yi: hehe

in an earlier episode we also saw shen yi shouting at a suspect in the interrogation room, so convincingly that afterwards du cheng admits, you scared me. lol! says shen yi in carefree manner, i learned that from you! haha! agrees everyone, and they go about their business.

but ghastly things keep happening to and near him. at least once per episode, shen yi makes a face like this, because people are jumping off cliffs in front of him or abruptly smashing things with hammers or just lashing out with all kinds of antisocial behaviors in his vicinity:

to be fair, he has other expressions. for instance he also repeatedly employs his patented creepy ruthless smile, of the "i am going to fuck you up" variety, an expression reserved especially for criminals:

as well, i'm also leaving out all the ridiculously adorable/domestic scenes with him and du cheng, in which they share candy, roast each other about assorted nonsense, briefly co-parent a child, and, you know. are just generally disgustingly married. but that's a different meta.

also, admittedly du cheng does SAY things. he says, "are you still having trouble sleeping," he says "do i not care about you?" and "don't push yourself so hard" and "if you run into troubles, don't try to take them on alone." (i am sparing you all these screenshots since this is a meta about shen yi but trust me i have carefully accumulated every single shred of evidence in which du cheng is protective.) but, as frequently as du cheng expresses concern, he also just keeps clapping shen yi on the shoulder in a brotastic way and then strolling out. which i fear is just not going to be adequate. ("i don’t think this is literally papyrus. maybe that was the starting point but they clearly modified it?" "well whatever they did, IT WASN'T!! ENOUGH!!")

i leave you with two final images of shen yi, seen here continuing to be very much Not Okay, and to quote the bernie meme, i am ONCE AGAIN ASKING YOU, drama, is anyone going to care enough about this man to stop him going over the edge of the cliff with Evil Art Critic Eugenicist Moriarty Weasel Man? because he will, he will do it. because he's lonely and he's misunderstood and he's—

[cane comes out and drags me offstage]

[lauralot89]

One Perfect Moment

(There's not full out vomit in this clip, but the character does gag and spit out food)

In Under the Skin (2014), an alien disguised as a beautiful woman lures men to her home, where they are then trapped and processed as meat for her planet's consumption.

By this point in the film, the alien has decided she doesn't want to participate in this any longer and has run away. Her first act of defiance, of trying to become human, is to eat cake.

It's interesting that it was a genuine connection with a human that convinced the alien to go rogue, but her first human act is so solitary. Maybe it's because she fears being discovered if she interacts with others, or maybe it's because she feels guilt for the men she killed. Or it could simply be that cake is easy. It's food. She understands food, that's why she's here.

Except she doesn't. The alien cannot eat. Whether it's a physiological impossibility or a taste/texture issue or some combination thereof, she can't do it. What should be a triumphant act of defiance, the first step in her journey towards human connection, ends with her gagging as others stare but keep their distance

I love the subtle ways that this outcome is foreshadowed: the extended shot of her hand trembling as she inches the fork toward her mouth, the way her jaw is shaking when she's trying not to gag.

And, as discussed in my last perfect moment, I love that the scene perfectly lays out what's to come. The alien wants to be human. She wants to experience human things. But when she tries, they are painful and impossible. When her later actions put her in direct contact with humans, this becomes even more pronounced.

[Cake is better than sex, but she can't have either one]

It's such a human desire and it's met with such futility. If you had told me before I watched this that someone could give me all these feelings about ScarJo failing to eat cake--well, I'd believe you because that sounds like me, but I wouldn't have thought this was how it would be done

It's a gorgeous tragic movie and it's a gorgeous tragic scene

perfect moment, no notes

[akanemnon]

Wow, not even 5 seconds in and they're already starting a fight.

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[gamorahww]

𝐅𝐈𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 ━ 𝑑𝑎𝑦 2. 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔

Today I'm holding space for the idea that in the context of the movie, dancing is a coping mechanism for Fiyero. While caring is a cure and a solution and an answer. I mean it is nothing new, but it needs to be said.

There will be a separate post on Dancing Through Life later today, but for now, we're starting from later. At history class, Fiyero voluntarily steps up to help the lion cub, and they make it all the way to the forest. Shortly after they are safe, and start talking, Elphaba says, "I know my life would be much easier if I didn't care, but—" and Fiyero cuts her off at exactly this point in her sentence. And I think that moment is crucial. Up until now, he’s never interrupted her before—but now he does and not because he’s frustrated with how much she talks, but because of what she’s saying. He doesn’t want to hear her talk about caring. That’s a pain point for him.

Because he knows it’s easier not to care. That’s the story he tells himself.

The lyrics in Dancing Through Life go: "Why think too hard when it's so soothing?" Soothing what? You don’t need to soothe something that doesn’t hurt. Soothing is only necessary when there’s an ache. To me this means he has cared before, and he has been hurt by caring before, and now he's coping with that by dancing through life. He is soothing his pain from secretly caring just too much, by dancing. Not because he doesn't care anymore about anything, but because he can't stop doing it, so he has to keep dancing. Dancing is loud, and visible. If he dances, people don't ask questions about his personality about what he thinks or how he feels. Maybe they haven't been doing it anyway, so he distracts them by doing his little dance, and as soon as they get too close, he pushes them away. But what he believes to be true for now is that caring = painful and dancing = a way to cope with that pain

But Elphaba just saw him care—deeply. She knows he’s capable of it. And she knows how unbearably sad it must be to choose to pretend otherwise. At the same time, she also understands how painful caring can be, she just highlighted is. In that moment, they find common ground.

But Fiyero’s façade—his carefree persona—is what he assumes people value in him most. So the second he realizes Elphaba doesn’t see him that way, he panics. He thinks that if she can see through him, it means she doesn’t want him there. No one has ever appreciated him for anything beyond the image he projects. So if that mask is gone… what’s left? Why would she still want him around, if he's not fun and happy and carefree? So he starts to leave.

And then she proves him wrong.

Not only does she say "she does (want his help)," but she physically holds onto him, keeping him there. The shock on his face (second gif from the bottom) says everything—he never expected someone to want him without the act. And later, when she touches his face so gently, you can see him struggling to process it. This is the most vulnerable he’s ever been, and it terrifies him. Not only that, but Elphaba sees a scar on his face, and sees that he has been hurt, without him noticing it. She reaches out and touches him gently, not really wanting anything, and he just can't bear it.

Her caring for him is not painful, it's soothing.

His Freudian slip a few beats later—"I better get to safety."—isn’t just about physical danger. This doesn’t feel safe. Being seen, being wanted for real, is the opposite of what he’s used to. Caring and being cared for are equally scary, but only the latter seems like a completely new experience for him. However, after feeling it, he finds something so real that he just yearns for it from now on. Yearns to be seen and touched and to be needed for something he did instinctively, without a thought, something he did because it felt right.

That’s why the later scene with Glinda is so important. When she holds his hand, the shot mirrors the moment with Elphaba—but with one key difference. Glinda is pulling him away, back into the world of pretense. But he can’t go back, not after this, and you can see him looking back at where he came from, back to the forest, back to Elphaba, back to being seen. For once, caring was not painful, and someone cared for him as well.

[sable-pigeon]

Tingsheng, Mei Changsu, and Xiao Jingyan in the early episodes of Nirvana in Fire

Looking at how early episodes of the show use Tingsheng as a way of bringing Mei Changsu and Jingyan closer together (with an end note about how, having fulfilled that purpose, he remains a connection that they both draw upon to communicate with each other).

Tingsheng is there from the very beginning of Mei Changsu and Jingyan's (re)acquaintance, starting from when Jingyan first notices Mei Changsu; Mei Changsu is talking to Tingsheng (and starting to realize who Tingsheng might be), and this leads into their first conversation:

The subject of this conversation is primarily Tingsheng and, most importantly, what Mei Changsu is offering: to teach Tingsheng, and also to get him out of his present situation, and, to his credit, Jingyan is listening (so much so that he will echo the same sentiment back to Mei Changsu in episode 33):

Checking in on Tingsheng is also what brings Jingyan, who by now has asked around about this mysterious individual, to Jingsu's next meeting, where Mei Changsu is very direct about why he's here, and reflects back what Jingyan has heard about him by recasting the previous scene as something solely towards that purpose:

When Jingyan next speaks privately with Mei Changsu, it's in the aftermath of Nihuang's matter in Episode 5, and a displeased Jingyan lays down an ultimatum about his limits, but is still willing to listen to what Mei Changsu has to say, and what Mei Changsu has to say explicitly links Tingsheng with asking Jingyan to trust him:

Jingyan is shocked to learn Mei Changsu knows Tingsheng's true identity, but he also has to acknowledge what Mei Changsu's silence means. In addition, Jingyan's frustration with having to keep that secret, alongside his recognition of the necessity of doing so provides another opportunity for Jingyan to hear what Mei Changsu is telling him:

The conversation ends with Jingyan continuing to process and getting up rather abruptly after Mei Changsu's salute, but even though he doesn't turn around, he does stop on his way out; he needs to thank Mei Changsu for saving Tingsheng, and we get the reaction shot from Mei Changsu to close the scene:

The next time Jingyan and Mei Changsu are onscreen together, in Episode 9 when Mei Changsu visits Jingyan at the manor he remembers so well, the atmosphere is markedly different from the last time we saw them, and Tingsheng, a settled Tingsheng who Mei Changsu did succeed in getting out, is there:

As in their first meeting, Mei Changsu helps Tingsheng up while Jingyan looks on, but the positions have changed: Mei Changsu has done what he promised and succeeded in bringing Tingsheng out and to Jingyan's side. Tingsheng's bow too, is different, he is no longer cowering, but saluting:

The warmth of the sequence is supported by the accompanying music, and Jingyan's acquiescence to Tingsheng keeping 'Feiliu's' present flows directly into his introduction of Mei Changsu to his subordinates, where, in far cry from their previous scenes, he specifically names Mei Changsu as his friend.

From the initial meeting through this gift sequence (which leads into their first truly collaborative scene), Tingsheng features in each of Mei Changsu and Jingyan's early interactions, and their discussion of him functions as a way for Mei Changsu to show his intentions and for Jingyan to believe in them.

Finally, even when Tingsheng is no longer central to their interactions, as he is in these early episodes, he remains a way for Jingsu to communicate sincerity to one other, whether by Jingyan reaffirming his trust in Mei Changsu after the infamous occurrences of Episode 33, or by Mei Changsu acknowledging his connections in the aftermath of the reveal.

[anyrei-snarks]

A Study in Subtext

Just my funny take on the last scene of Season 2, episode 21 of UTS.

Finally Fang Kai Yi and Du Cheng meet. I was waiting for the moment and I was not disappointed.

My shippy subtext meta with pictures under the spoiler tag! I wanted to make gifs but the program I used was crap and the quality was horrible so I had to use pictures. (sowy)

Shen Yi was super quick to tell Du Cheng that he would join him to visit the company.

And his secret boyfriend was of course happy, only having eyes for Shen Yi (who can blame him?)

Well, Du Cheng can, cuz he immediately is like WHUT? WHO IS THAT GUY?

When Shen Yi admits that he knows Fang, Du Cheng immediately gives him a critical once-over, checking out the competition.

Fang is wearing his civil non psycho face but Du Cheng is still reluctant to shake his hand cuz reasons... He is still like "Who the fuck are you and why do you know my boyfriend.

Shen Yi is probably comparing their height cuz at this point I think it's clear that he likes them tall.

Fang tries his best to show Du Cheng how much he knows Shen Yi and how much he is only interested in him. (Because he knows)

I'm including this cuz when Shen Yi says "desire" he looks at Du Cheng. (And I'm a clown)

And then the camera has this framed when Shen Yi talks about the strong conflict. Well yeah, there will be a strong conflict with those two, I'm sure of that. XD

In this scene Fang is shifting on his leg and tries to appear taller than Du Cheng to look more dominant. (I wish the gifs would have worked out T_T)

Du Cheng is unimpressed.

So Fang proceeds to blatantly flirt with Shen Yi in front of Du Cheng.

Giving him soft longing looks and complimenting him.

He hits a nerve there cuz Du Cheng gets angry now and raises his voice.

Shen Yi is uncomfortable, and it looks like he is fighting two emotions, the wish to calm Du Cheng down but he is also a little miffed cuz he wants them to get along. I think at this point Fang already has his fangs (haha, sorry guys, ignore me) deep in Shen Yi's psyche. Shen Yi sees Fang as someone who understands him on a level no one else can.

When Fang starts to tell Du Cheng how much being a police officer is killing Shen Yi's talent and creativity you can see how Shen Yi looks down. It's not the first time Shen Yi is confronted with that from other people but usually he brushes it off cuz he knows who he is and what he wants to do. He knows his work is important. But this reaction is new. He looks upset and uncomfortable and I think it's because this is coming from Fang. In Shen Yi's perception Fang is someone who sees him, his intellect, his uniqueness. Fang is a genius himself and they bonded over having a special view of the world.

And I laughed so hard when Du Cheng just casually ignored everything Fang had said and just tells him "thank you for cooperating with us" which was basically "I don't care for your input other than stuff that was case related and fuck off"

[quadrantadvisor]

Always wondered what the fandom consensus about this is (or if there is one). Also, why do you think grimwalkers and/or Hunter don't have magic? Is it a natural part of being a grimwalker, is it because their ortet was human, or did Belos do it on purpose?

[moongothic]

I need to make a confession

I genuinely do not understand Buggy simps

Like I thought y'all were joking with the whole rooting for Buggy-thing but. No. People are actually seriously rooting for him. And I just don't get it.

Like. I can't tell if I'm missing something or if people are somehow completely misinterpreting his actual character. Like clearly it's meant to be one or the other and I can't tell which and I feel like I'm losing my mind because of it

'Cause the thing is that. Like. Until now, Buggy has been a pure gag character. He's no different from characters like Ceasar Clown and Spandam in that sense, he's just nowhere near as vile a human being as those other gag characters so he's marginally more lovable in what a pathetic fuck he is. But in the end, Buggy's just been there to be a punching bag (quite literally), because it's funny as hell to watch him eat shit And the reason it's funny IS because Buggy is a piece of shit. Again, not nearly as bad as Spamdam and co, but he's still a lying, cowardly, spineless douchebag who uses others for his own benefit and is willing to ditch anyone to save his own skin. Like Buggy was going to ditch his entire crew and flee by himself when the Shichibukai System was taken down and the Marines came for his head. He was going to leave his crew to die by themselves, without participating in the fight at all. Buggy was the one telling them to do the hard lifting while he'd escape, while the crew had no idea their beloved Chairman was going to abandon them. Literally the only reason Buggy failed to do that was because he was too slow and Crocodile got there before he managed to skedaddle.

He is essentially Usopp if Usopp wasn't willing to get beaten to death to protect his friends and their honor. Even fucking Luffy thinks Buggy is a pathetic idiot, and Luffy is the biggest indicator in the whole series on how to tell whether or not the readers should like a character or not. Not to mention, all the in-universe Buggy simps have been portrayed as (precious) idiots who can't see through Buggy's bullshit. Like every step of the story Oda has been trying to tell us that Buggy is an absolute loser.

So when people are like "Mihawk and Crocodile are going to see Buggy's ambition and become full Buggy supporters themselves!" I just

Are we reading the same comic???? HELLO????

Like I'll give you this, it would be objectively the funniest fucking outcome imaginable, which would be on-brand for Buggy and his trend of falling upwards.

But between Mihawk respecting people who are willing to abandon their honor to protect someone dear to them, and Crocodile's deep trust issues (possibly rooted in being betrayed in the past), I can not fucking fathom the two ever genuinely siding with Buggy the "I will leave you to die by yourself to save myself" Clown. Not when the two (and most other characters, including fucking Galdino and Daz) have been able to judge Buggy's character accurately (like how Crocodile was like "I thought you'd have ran away by now" when he arrived at Emptee Bluffs, and Buggy was like "yeah no shit")

Not unless Buggy grows enough of a spine that he'd be willing to sacrifice himself for someone (or at least get hurt on someone else's behalf to protect them), more specifically Mihawk and Crocodile. And let's be real, right now, Buggy probably wants nothing more than to run away from the two before they do actually kill him.

I just

Buggy simps. I do not understand you. I don't understand how you've reached your reading of the character.

[lunarriviera]

[overthinking about blorbo follows] [quasi-spoiler for uts s2 e3] look okay so here's the thing. shen yi is an insanely gifted classically trained painter who now lbr spends most of his working life sketching holdup mugshots off of grainy cctv footage, an occupation that at this point for him has to be boringly straightforward. maybe once in a while there's a cool serial murderer and he gets to come up with a way to reconstruct an entire person's body from one molar, or invent some new shrimp colors or something. then he goes home and paints his fucking heart out all night and for what, who is seeing it? who is seeing him? (and don't say du cheng bc i love him but we all know he probably wears black because he's red-green color blind.) so here he is, showing his canvases in a little group exhibition and trolling quietly amongst the clueless spectators, and no one even knows who he is because he's not showing up at the gallery opening in a suit du qing poured him into, clutching a glass of room-temperature champagne. instead here's someone standing the correct distance away from the canvas and you can practically hear shen yi's invisible antennae go sproing. idek who this charismatic pointy-faced guy is yet, maybe he's under the skin's answer to sheev palpatine but the point is, no one who can see what shen yi is doing talks to him about his work. so when weasel man says "he's a genius" and shen yi gives that tiny smile that's so frail it's almost invisible— he gave that smile one time before in s1, remember? when du cheng says "it could be that shen yi is wrong—but that's impossible, so we're crossing that one out." it's a beautiful little character note from tan jianci bc very likely shen yi isn't even aware he's doing it. maybe he's even telling himself "oh please how dare this guy, who does he think he is, clement greenberg"—shen yi who literally set fire to his ambition in the service of honing a moral compass so ruthless and unbending you could set greenwich mean time by it. but somewhere down in there, always—inside any person who chooses a life devoted to making things—is the desire for those made things to be seen.

who was the last person who said "he's a genius" not about his police work but about his painting? the last person who looked carefully at all of his values, hues, lines, shapes, gestural movements, mark-making, brushstrokes, depth of field, play of light, and really saw what he was doing, enough to be critical of it? when you're a working artist and someone sees you well enough to critique you intelligently? the pleasure is breathtaking, frankly on a spectrum with the erotic. (you could also argue he's smiling ruefully at the declaration that the painter's having become a cop is what ruined his work; when shen yi possibly thinks: you know nothing, it opened up everything for me. but i'm not so sure about that. because did it? has it? do we know that?) tl;dr weasel man is holding out an opened box of fresh turkish delight and it remains to be seen whether shen yi is going to faceplant into it. but i for one could not blame him. it is exhausting to have an enormous part of your psyche be all but completely invisible for years on end.

[artbyblastweave]

Drop your Lois Lane hot takes

(also if you're not a Superman fan, what would you recommend starting off with?)

So MAWS Lois Lane very pointedly has some significant character flaws, generally justified by her backstory and often the opposite side of the conventional "positive" Lois Qualities that she exhibits. Trust issues stemming from her canon-typical dysfunction with her father, upstream of her whole truth-to-power thing. Self-esteem issues and a sense of inadequacy, upstream of her tenacity and singleminded pursuit of her goals. Downstream from her self-esteem issues you've got a sensitivity to perceived betrayal or the idea that people are only pretending to value her. Self-assurance and confidence... that manifests as bouts of myopic thinking or lack of consideration for others. There's a level on which I like this more than S:TAS- she was fun in that, but the purpose there wasn't to give her any kind of arc. She's much more dynamic in this, she has a palpable crisis, and it all combines into a perfect cocktail demonstrating why she reacts so very, very badly to being out of the loop on Superman. In her position it's not insane to assume that Clark expressed interest in her just to jerk her around and sabotage her investigation more thoroughly. But in practice... I (and those watching with me, who joined me in screaming at the TV a bunch during the last couple episodes) felt that the narrative was both-sidesing the dynamic a bit uncomfortably, because Clark has very good reason to not trust Lois specifically with sensitive information. Their first interaction involved her manipulating him for the sake of advancing her career. She's been screaming from the rooftops that she dislikes Superman, wants to expose Superman's secrets, and he was on the verge of coming clean with her before that came up. She functionally threatens to kill herself to force him to out himself, right after he got back from the government (and very likely her father specifically!) trying to assassinate him. Very little of this was coherently voiced when they're having it out, and as a result it felt like the narrative was much more sympathetic to Lois's stance than Clarks, treating his concealing the information as the root of the problem here. And when Jimmy brings up that he's known for years but understood that it was probably a deeply personal situation that Clark would bring up when he was comfortable- that's not a catalyst for introspection about whether Lois is entitled to the information, it isn't used as the point to push the idea that both parties have valid motivations here. It's mostly just the catalyst for another gag where now Jimmy is upset that Clark told Lois first (without. You know. the context.) I walked away thinking that Clark doesn't have a disproportionate amount to apologize for in this situation. Not nothing, but not the brunt. The reconciliation arc really breezed past the fact that she threw herself off a building to force the issue. Any relationship where throwing yourself off a building is a tool in the toolbox seems like it might be on shaky ground, communicatively!

The thing is, well, honestly there's a few things. I'm willing to accept off the bat that I might be lily-orcharding a perfectly unobjectionable creative decision to some extent, because by default I'm really biased in favor of anyone trying to keep deeply compromising information about their identities away from their loved ones for fear of their negative reaction, and that's coloring the intensity of my negative response. Another thing is that I think the show is kind of a victim of the megashort season runs of contemporary cartoons- I mean we'll be lucky if we get 30 episodes of this show total, every arc is gonna be at least somewhat pinched when you get 10 episodes and change per season. And a third, final thing is that the season isn't over yet, and they've left themselves with a great springboard from which to address my misgivings.

Clark leans into the idea that he's the one at fault, begs forgiveness, and so on, but that's actually in character for this version; given that one of his biggest drives is to be accepted, it makes sense that he'd do whatever he thought he had to get things smoothed out as quickly as possible, even if there's still a lot going unaddressed below the surface. And Episode 7 (6?) is basically entirely about how Lois's character flaws, scaled up and appended to power, can turn out really really bad. Kryptonite is introduced in this continuity by a bunch of alternate-universe Lois Lanes who try to kill Superman without giving him the benefit of the doubt- all while never expressly communicating to anyone that the root of their concern is how badly things went with their own Supermen. Lois meets an army of herself and immediately, correctly assumes that they aren't on the up-and-up, that they're holding something back. And the episode ends with her in possession of both a Superman-killing tool and information engineered to set off her well-established paranoid tendencies about Clark.

So if the show is being smart- and there's a very good chance that it is- the next leg is going to be about how for a superhero, just being open about your secret identity to your loved ones isn't necessarily going to be enough to defuse the underlying tensions and failures to communicate; the fact that they really speed-ran the reconciliation is going to turn out to be deliberate, a bandaid fix on the deeper problem, and a much worse reckoning is in the pipes once it becomes obvious that Task Force X is headed by her estranged father. (Which seems like the twist they're going for with that- they've never said the general's name out loud, so I think they're going for a fakeout where we all assume it's Wade Eiling but it turns out to actually be Sam Lane.) However. I've definitely watched a bunch of shows where I kept going "If the show is smart," "If the show is smart," and then the show wasn't smart, and it just turned out that the writers themselves hadn't chewed on the implications of what they were depicting as much as I had. I've got high hopes, though.

(tagging @st-just, @best-wizard, and @howlingguardian, who all also asked for the elaboration.)

[lingeringscars]

i don't think shauna ever forgives misty for calling her and telling her about travis the way that she did

[malewifealucard]

Reflecting on her role in the story during the infancy of Loustat having me spiraling into a full meta. Does anyone else think it’s Something to be analyzed that Lily vaguely physically resembles and narratively parallels Claudia? I guess it could be considered foreshadowing, in that Claudia essentially steps into the role Lily had after Lily gets chomped by Lestat off screen.

Lily existing to be the sexual prize object Loustat fought over in their first conversation, serving to establish Loustat’s initiation of desire for each other and facilitate their first consummation, and becoming an ultimately expendable accessory to their relationship. A Black woman that Louis seeks comfort in, sex worker he would go to see just to talk. I mean, you had him barging into the snazzy brothel absolutely desperate to see her when he was emotionally fucked up by Lestat, only to be informed that she died, pathetically. Certainly Lily had never been on Louis’s mind and the object of his concern when he didn’t need something from her, as that’s not how the transaction works.

Then, Claudia wholly and truly being created to serve as a bandaid for Louis’s sorrow, a comfort thing to help him manage his anguish about how many of his own people got hurt because of his lone act of racial vengeance. Balanced perhaps by Louis’s act of compassion to save Claudia’s life by begging Lestat to turn her, but also a desperate act of altruism to counteract the psychic weight of the harm Louis has caused. I feel like people forget the reason that Claudia was even trapped in that burning building came back to Louis crashing out thanks to the racism he endured breaking him.

And you go on to have Claudia to be the ornamental third to Loustat; ultimately getting extinguished because she tried to free herself from their toxic circus. Lily may have been able to enjoy herself and get her share out of being a pawn in Loustat’s blossoming game, but like Claudia she did not get to consent in being booted from this reality as Loustat’s collateral. Claudia later getting SAed, and in season 2 again being objectified in the infantilization of her by the Theatre des Vampires harem; having to debase herself in a way, just like how the prostitutes to an extent have to to humor their clients’ whims.

Something something Lily and Claudia were both doomed from the start and that their stories depict how BW get used and abused by BM trying to nurse their own egos and have their pain muddled.

Louis might have been a ~Good Pimp who wanted the best for his girls, but he was still a pimp. For all we know in the present day he could be a hotep. I digress. Claudia and Lily were both victims of Loustat’s batshit bullshit.

the worst thing lestat did was kill this queen all she did was be an ally and fujo out

[lunarriviera]

under the skin meta: The Monologue™ (part 1)

[spoilers for s2 in general and ep 20 in specific—which, trust me, you really don't want to watch out of order. it's worth waiting for this one.]

if you’ve seen The Monologue, you understand. this is why tan jianci fans are somewhere on a spectrum from chronically bitter to unendingly distraught about never not yet getting to see him play gu yun in sha po lang/winner is king. if uts were a north american prestige drama, tjc would have just handily won an emmy. as it is he’ll probably just be in a bunch of romcoms and do more goofy stuff on hi6, and that’s fine too. i guess we’ll always have “wet the bed.”

where was i oh right The Monologue. this will be long but it’s possibly the most glorious moment in this entire drama so here we go.

to build up to it, tho, we need backstory: namely, season two's gradual unraveling of shen yi. we know he can’t sleep well and has ghastly nightmares about a little girl he didn’t save, mostly because he didn’t consciously know she was in any danger. in her red dress, like the little girl in schindler’s list, she stands out, tragic amidst the desaturation, and shen yi makes a variety of horrified faces about having failed her. (horrified faces seem to be his main ones this season, which is partly what makes The Monologue so exciting.)

anyway shen yi has already been pretty thoroughly harrowed by this particular case as it is, having been the one to figure out (of course) the serial murderer’s ritualistic pattern and motive. shen yi turns his most Horrified Face to du cheng to warn him that the next victim's in danger, and they have this exchange, which will be important later.

(what du cheng says is 别担心, which also gets translated as "rest assured"—like, don't let your heart be uneasy. i got this.)

so du cheng takes off to save the victim, and shen yi goes back to his office to do…actually, what does he think he’s going to do? some paperwork, a little light filing, maybe sharpen some pencils? instead he predictably goes into a glass-shattering fugue state, and imagines the little girl. this begins the monologue scene, even though it all takes place in shen yi’s head. pls indulge me by watching it again, bc i assume you’ve already seen it anyway, and my god it’s such a gorgeous piece of face journey that ALSO sets up what’s to follow.

in some ways this compressed little piece is even better than what comes after. the way he FLIES to her and FALLS to his knees, just rushes up to her stammering and devastated and PROMISING he'll save her this time. honestly it destroyed me, i watched it like 5 times in a row before i could even move on. the unheld-back generosity of this brief performance, the way he’s completely focused on her and then just FALLS APART, it snapped my heart like a carrot stick.

me, a fangirl: SHEN YI SHEN YI NO BB NO PLS SOMEONE HELP HIM me, film nerd: huh fascinating never seen an actor's lips shake before

so now he understands what he needs to do. what he MUST do. having had this revelation, shen yi shows up at the killer’s door, creepy-smiling at him and barging inside. and then he delivers The Monologue, ten solid nearly-uncut minutes of sheer batshit insanity.

shen yi rants. he raves. he paces and pivots and gestures, he thinks aloud, he surmises and expostulates and revises and reverses and exclaims and delivers each conclusion with rabid glee. he scowls and shouts and is sinister and grins and is just one thousand fucking percent unhinged.

we have never, ever seen shen yi like this before, and thank god, because he would scare people on the regular, and he’s scary enough as it is. why do you think he wears all those baggy pastels and smiles so sweetly. why do you think he tries to pass as an unassuming twink, it’s because if people knew what was really going on inside his head half the time, they’d be screaming crying passing out. (tho the beauty of shen yi is: he also really is just an unassuming twink.)

anyway there i was, like a bonehead, stupidly trying to screenrecord this scene before i realized it would be like fifty gig of fire emoji, and then my hands fell limply at my sides, bc it dawned on me what was actually happening. sort of like that moment in “free churro” when you realize bojack horseman really is going to keep giving this heartbreaking eulogy for the length of the entire episode.

because The Monologue is virtuoso. it's tour de force. this is the kind of thing they play at the oscars during your "in memoriam" clip reel. this is what undergrads copy for their audition pieces. this is some heath ledger shit. it's jack nicholson in the shining, al pacino in scarface. this is about one inch away from brando.

as a result of all this, shen yi has the serial killer (whose name is ge yutian by the way) eating out of his goddamn hand within like half a minute, absolutely spellbound—which is the entire point. if shen yi doesn’t convince him, all of this glorious sorcery is for nothing.

(the guy who plays ge yutian is good too, a perfect scene partner for this. he picks up every cue and lets tjc have all the room he needs.)

just a few more notes on the performance, both tjc's and shen yi's:

1. where it really goes off the rails is when shen yi shrieks, DAMN POLICE! and ge yutian JUMPS in alarm. this not only made me laugh (him being so bonkers that he actually frightens a serial murderer!) but is also the moment when The Monologue stops being "aw haha such a fun thing for an actor to get to do" and “…jesus christ what the fuck am i watching." look how i couldn't even get a non-potato screencap. it's from this point on that shen yi is possessed.

2. because he has to show that he identifies with ge yutian, that the killer can and should trust him because they think alike. but that’s just the old “FBI profiler eventually becomes his prey” cliché, so there’s more to it. he also has to convince ge yutian that his ideas, shen yi's, are ge yutian's ideas, from the inside out—and therefore he's the right candidate for the sheng role. and finally, that it's precisely his ability to act, to be a strong performer, that makes him the right choice. that it’s shen yi who’s most suitable, thanks to his convincing mimesis of ge yutian’s highly suspect “thought process."

3. to really pull this off, even as shen yi builds him up (cf. ge yutian clapping enthusiastically, enthralled by this flattering vision), he also has to tear him down. so he plays two roles at once: ge yutian and an unknown theatre critic—who’s also shen yi, because he’s still the righteous officer of the People’s Police, here to inform ge yutian that his vision is sick and twisted, and not anything his gentle-hearted lover would have wanted, not her way of being in the world.

4. finally i would argue that shen yi's admittedly shaky s2 state here suddenly seems a lot more bolted-on. a few viewers have worriedly described The Monologue almost as some kind of psychotic break but honestly i read it as so very controlled and so very deliberate. while he’s desperate (must save victim this time. must not fuck it up again.) he’s not deranged. he absolutely knows what he’s doing.

i'm sorry to say part 2 will follow. but to conclude for now:

• actors are witches. • 16:9 can no longer contain tjc’s talent this man needs 1.85:1 • you hardly ever get to see someone just NAIL IT TO THE WALL like this, what a time to be alive • (and these were long takes too. there wasn't that much editing. that was all him. and you can see three uncut minutes of it here) • pls watch under the skin for some unexpectedly fine acting as well as ofc crime drama, ensemble comedy, weird art historical facts, and captain du cheng (jin shijia), who alternates between being a giant goofball and an aloof occasionally scary badass. also they’re in love.

[chenfordswopez]

#TUMBLR AND LADIES: WE ARE HERE TO TALK ABOUT DELENA#AND HOW WR IGNORES AUTHORIAL INTENT AND MAKES HER OWN JOY#because god damn i sort of love this scene?#because damon has never made elena happy; elena has never been free with damon#damon takes her by the neck and chokes her and she tries to push him away#except sometimes she pulls him in because his hand on her neck is the only thing that makes sense to her at a given moment#and when she pushes into him the grip on her neck hurts less#and she gets to grab his neck too#damon is a sickness for elena; he devoures her whole; he is the one thing elena knows she should not want#but she doesn't know how to stop; she's not even always sure if she wants to#but this is what damon sees in the romance he has constructed: he is the danger and passion in elena's life#he's the one who sees the monster in her and loves her for it and if elena would just give into it everything would be great#but that is damon's story; not elena's#elena is actively remaking herself into the person damon wants her to be#because she is sired to him#because when she fought it she was miserable#and because when she gave in and grabbed him and had him for the first time since jenna died elena was happy#uncomplicatedly happy#and she doesn't want to give that up - who can blame her?#but the truth is elena's happiness is fake; and elena gilbert who has control would not be making these choices#not because kissing or sleeping with damon is wrong - but because things around elena that aren't damon are fading#elena can barely remember loving stefan; her worries about jeremy fade away; she wants bonnie and caroline to forgive damon#this is not who elena would choose to be if she was in control of her own life; elena would not define herself by damon's terms#but she's doing that now and it's fucked up and horrifying#if only caroline and stefan were in character in reaction to it

@ywhiterain i always love your tags

[omgfangirlland]

I'm going to need all of you to hear me out on what I'm about to spew, but I have yandere!batfam brain rot, and I just came across Yan!girldad!nolan grayson.

HEAR ME OUT!

Putting a page break here cuz idk how long this will be-

So- the usual neglected batsis that as a youngster craved the attention of her fam, but after being brushed away, after being ignored, after being straight up forgotten about, says fuck it, y'all aren't worth my love, I'll use the Wayne money to do as I please.

So she does. She uses the monthly allowance that is on auto pay straight to her card to do arts, to paint her heart away, to draw and play video games, to fund and pay off anything from homeless shelters to medical bills, trying to make a dent into the Wayne fortune both in selfish and non-selfish ways. She's basically a petty tween.

But then she wakes up with powers. She thinks she's a meta- batman doesn't like metas, that's what she thinks, she doesn't know Bruce doesn't want metas in Gotham due to Gotham being ground zero for meta trafficking. Boom, panic.

I think she has powers like flying, super strength, and like immediate healing if not "iron skin" like Superman. So she wakes because she hits the ceiling due to flying while asleep. She panics, falls, maybe breaks something, nobody comes to check on her-

Now, she always has toyed with the idea of leaving, but this? THIS? Breaking point, she packs necessities and the Wayne card and says bye-bye Gotham, good morning... Chicago? NYC? Idk, whichever place Omni man lives in ig.

The batfam, of course, doesn't notice. In this universe, I think even Alfred won't have been paying that much attention to batsis, man's too busy. So what if one day he does his rounds, cleaning, opens a door he hasn't been in a while.

The room is dusty. Dusty beyond hell, and one singular photo of batsis at like a kindergarten graduation makes him drop everything, including his heart. Old man goes feral, absolutely crazy, because where the fuck is this kid, this little baby, that he went and picked up because Bruce couldn't be bothered.

The batfam goes crazy too. In the mean time-

Batsis is, surprisingly, living her best life. Initially, she planned on getting an under the table job- clean a bar, babysit, be the errand girl of some shady drag dealer, etc. But Nolan sees her while she tries to get her powers under control, shakily flying, accidentally blowing to pieces a tree as she leans against it.

Omni-man as he lurks in the shadows: Debbie would love a daughter. I would love a daughter.

Batsis would call it kidnapping, Nolan calls it adopting without extra steps. Debbie takes one look at this shaken kid and immediately goes mama mode while reprimanding Nolan about taking a kid off the streets and not warning her so she could prepare better.

Mark? It takes about 2 hours before he realizes that they can be training buddies and that they have similar taste in some things. That's his baby sister. No arguments, just baby sis. Batsis? Much like a hungry, cold cat, she accepts her fate. It does feel nice to finally have some attention on her.

So she trains with Nolan and Mark, gets great, becomes a reluctant superhero, deliberately ignores Nolan's rants about her becoming such a great warrior, his little girl on the way of becoming the greatest conquror. Gothamite batsis just shrugs it off as just a Thursday.

Back with the batfam, pure chaos. Everyone is in shambles. How could they forget about a whole kid? Their siblings, Bruce's youngest daughter. Guilt is slowly turning into madness, and madness is slowly turning into a need to prove they can be better, that they weren't deliberately overlooking an innocent child because of personal pettiness, they were just distracted but now they'll right their wrongs.

Bonus p1:

Superman finally meeting batsis: What do you mean you're Bruce's kid? 😃 What do you mean you're a meta and instead of coming to uncle Clark you go and get adopted by murderous Omni-man? 🙂 What do you mean you kinda approve of him killing his enemies? 🫠

Batsis just wants Joker to die.

Bonus pt2:

Dick: What do you mean she's calling that other Grayson boy big brother? 😀

Damien: What do you mean I have another sibling? What do you mean she's calling that purple alien bastard her little brother?! I blame you, father.

Bonus pt3:

John Constantine: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GAVE ONE OF BATMAN'S KIDS IMMORTALITY AND MAGICAL POWERS?

The deity/entity batsis has been depicting in her paintings for years: *shrugs* I was bored, my little priestess was sad, she's not anymore 🤷

That's the plot twist, batsis is actually magical, but her powers work the way they do because that's the only way she knows how to fight with them. Magic isn't on her thought as a possibility, even if she was into the occult.

Cue John drinking for 3 days straight before having the courage(or will) to go to the Bat.

[dclovesdanny]

Battle medic Danny in Crime Alley

Red Hood heard about him from the street kids first. They talked about a guy with dark hair and green eyes treating a kid’s broken wrist flawlessly, before using bandages on any other injuries, no matter if they came from the battle or not. He asked for permission to touch them, and talked a younger kid through how to remove shrapnel from a cut on their skin. When the battle was done and the kids were okay, he simply vanished.

He heard it from the working girls next. They told him how he had picked one of them up after their leg had gotten caught under some concrete. The guy had carried her to a nearby alley that was safe and apologized for picking her up without permission before treating her broken ankle. He hadn’t asked for anything in return, and after he confirmed she was OK he was gone.

Some of his men started having similar stories. They all talked about a guy with a black hair and bright green eyes helping them, talking through their injuries with them and getting permission to treat them. How this guy would vanish, but sometimes he would return with another goon who is unconscious, all of his injuries already treated. The Medic, as they began to call him, never stayed for very long. He also didn’t seem to care which side you fought on, just if you were hurt.

They were pretty sure that the guy was a Meta. While he would bandage any normal injuries and use normal ways to help with things like sprained wrists or broken ankle, sometimes when he arrived with people who are unconscious, he arrived with those who they all thought were dead. Frank had gotten a bullet through his stomach and trapped under rubble, but Medic brought him back to them with only a bandage tied around his abdomen.

Later, Frank would tell them how his eyes didn’t hurt anymore and his arthritis seems to heal overnight

The kid never saved any of the heroes before. It was clear he was only working in Crime Alley, and if he had helped a rogue in Crime Alley, it was without anyone noticing.

Maybe that was why Jason was so surprised when he met Lazer green eyes as he was dying for the second time. Maybe that was why he was so bewildered when he woke up in one of his warehouse warehouses to his men talking about how the boss almost got killed and Medic saved him.

Maybe that’s why it took him a few days to notice that the pit rage was gone.