#wanted a parallel to the other one

[inafieldofstarflowers]

jeremy-neil mutual dislike (or at least mistrust) makes even MORE sense after tgr because they are both liars. neil josten was a carefully constructed persona who slowly became real; jeremy knox was a real boy who crafted himself into a persona. neil has spent his life running and clings to the first home he finds; jeremy has spent his life trapped and is not allowed to stay in the place that feels like home to him. neil has always been ready to run; jeremy has always stayed. neil’s smiles come out sharp and dangerous, they are always honest and rarely purposeful, but when they are he knows the effect they have on people; jeremy’s smiles are often calculated, they are a bit too big to be believably sincere if you know him, and they are bright and shining and so tired. neil knew there was a price on his head if he resisted and refused to give in, jeremy is self-destructive because there is a weight on his shoulders. i think they recognize pieces of themselves in each other and immediately feel unable to trust that (especially when it comes to something they care about as much as jean’s healing).

[egophiliac]

Do you have any final theories/desires for Book 7 Part 12?

(slamming fists on table) I DEMAND MORE CHE'NYA

[saelterlude]

it's been asked!! prepare to read my ramble!! :D

so here's a collage of the 5 redraws. from the left, the first one is an iconic official art, second and last one bcs i wanted to show the trio having fun. idk why i added the fourth one but you dont know how much i giggled redrawing that lu guang thirst trap. then i zoomed out and realized it should be sad thats why i added that s2 frame of cxs.

the other 5 photos arent redraws

starting from the top we got cxs with a city backdrop. cxs, lg, and ql during graduation. and just a landscape of the studio. then behind the moisturizer ad we got cxs taking a pic of lg on the sofa, his left hand is on top making a frame though since its small it might be hard to see.

then we got the last photo clutched in lu guang's hand.

just a random photo of a basketball, absolutely nothing special, definitely not a reminder of a special day :) nothing to see here :)

angsty shiguang for all

if asked, i will gladly talk abt the smol photos.

ref and line art under the cut.

love me my dead photographers and their endlessly chasing boyfriends

[mellxncollie]

AND HE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT MONTY BY THEN?

[casualavocados]

Learn from who? Learn from you?

Chen Bowen as CHEN YI & Chiang Tien as AI DI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[shadystranger]

they literally scream in your face ruby is mimicking dean to get to sam then at the end they reveal she was manipulating and gaslighting him. what does that reveal about dean? go figure

[stealingyourbones]

Everyday I exist and every day I get more and more exhausted seeing the “lol Batman looks at Danny and goes “who’s gonna adopt this kid” He’s so adoptable!” posts.

[rowrowronnie]

needed to get doodle this out of my system

[warpedpuppeteer]

It's interesting how Buck's love interests are all written in a way that ends because of the reason they meet/happen in the first place and then of course, we have Eddie.

Abby, who changes Buck's view of a healthy relationship but then turns around and ghosts him, making him wait for months on end and letting him realize she's not coming back on his own.

Ali, who meets Buck during a dangerous situation in his line of work and then leaves him for how dangerous his work is.

Taylor, who lashes out at Buck for using her as a fake date and saying she thought she could trust Buck to be a friend who then ends up using him for her career and chose to put his friends in danger.

Natalia, who's there to help him embrace and deal with his temporary death but it leads to their break up because of the constant talk surrounding death when Buck's not comfortable with it.

We can't confirm for Tommy till it ends but it's important to note how he offers to get Buck into his interests like flying and muay thai yet doesn't show effort with Buck's interests like dressing up according to the bachelor party theme despite Buck being stressed about it. And we also have the fact that the entire reason they got together was due to Buck's jealousy for Eddie which he then claims to be was for Tommy. Makes me think they are either going to end because of differing interests OR because of the jealousy issue popping up again.

Funnily enough, every scene above has an Eddie parallel:

Eddie co-parents with Buck and not only does this not stop after a dangerous event but Eddie also has Buck down as a legal guardian (healthy relationship - Abby).

Eddie is in the same dangerous line of work and they have each other's backs. This happens right off the bat too.(dangerous job - Ali).

The Lawsuit era and The Dispatch era - both where they "betray" each other but manage to work through it (betrayal/lie - Taylor).

Eddie doesn't pressure Buck to talk about his temporary death until Buck's ready and is more focused about him living than in his death (death doula - Natalia).

Eddie who has different interests than Buck (poker, basketball and UFC/MMA) but also manages to show interest and actively takes part in whatever Buck comes up with; he suggests their outfit for the themed party AND ends up staying there for Buck even when others leave (different hobbies & showing interest/taking part - Tommy).

Absolutely fascinating when you start noticing that Buck's relationships keep failing for one reason or another and then we have him and Eddie who face the same sort of situations but they still come out of it stronger together.

It's clear that there's a reason Buck is able to overcome anything when it comes to Eddie (that conversation with Maddie about being there for each other even at their worst 👀) and we've already established that everything Eddie looks for in a partner is already something he has found in Buck. So really, all that's left is for them to realize that hey, the one I'm looking for is right in front of me! 🤷🏽

And yes, it's been said to death (hah) but you don't find it son you make it. And Buck and Eddie have already made it.

[corsairspade]

you are a god's best friend. the world is young still, and you are yet younger. he rides with you and hunts with you, and teaches you how to speak to birds and beasts. you are a god's student. you ride in his train and care for a hound that he gifted to you. gods have taught others before. gods have been kindly to others before. your god is your best friend. he gifts you something of his self, a hound of his own hunt.

you are your father's son. your grandfather is dead. no one has ever called you wise, and you are, above all else, your father's son. he swears a terrible oath. you swear a terrible oath. you don't know if you really mean it, but your mother named you well- you are hasty to rise, hasty to run into things. the hunt teaches you patience but you cannot outrun yourself. you are your father's son.

you are a god's best friend and you have sworn a terrible oath, but it is an oath that you hope that your friend can understand. to hunt the murderer of your grandfather, is something that the god of the hunt can understand.

you are your father's son. the blood of elves on your hands does not feel different than the blood of a deer, except in the tight feeling of your throat. except in the thunderous beating of your heart. you tell your brother, who is trying not to throw up, that you need to think of them like deer. he looks at you like he's never seen you before. you are forever doomed.

you are a god's best friend. he does not say goodbye, but your dog comes with you. surely you can fix this, then, surely you are still a god's friend.

you are your father's son. he dies. he dies but before he does, he tells you to burn the boats. you do. you are your father's son. your father dies and, he tells you to swear that oath once more. it is a terrible oath. you have sworn it once. you swore to your best friend once. surely it will not tip the scales to swear once more, if in your mind, you dedicate this hunt to him.

you were a god's best friend, and it is not enough. you are your father's son, and you speak your father's oath. it proceeds to eat you alive.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Re: more eat the rich

It comes down, I think, to a particular moral framework that TA seems to ascribe to. JK Rowling is another good example. There's a name for it.. it might be Calvinist?

Basically: The problem isn't having rich people, it's having the *wrong* rich people. You're not a part of an exploitative system that concentrates wealth, you're a *bad rich person*.

The same lens is used for everything else. Nothing is actually systemic. The *system* can't be questioned, only individual actors within the system can be called out as bad at fulfilling their role.

If you use this lens to examine other points in ML that seem weird, I think you'll find they suddenly seem more coherent.

Now- this approach is patently wrong on it's face, but that never stopped people from believing in anything, ever.

(Post that spawned this ask)

The word you're looking for is probably "neoliberalism" and I've noticed it, too! I haven't mentioned it because JK Rowling and her works have become such an upsetting topic for many fans and former fans, but Miraculous absolutely matches Harry Potter's concerning messaging about people being the issue, not the system. The system is inherently good and should not be questioned. I hated that as a kid because I was an avid reader and this wasn't how this kind of story was supposed to go! Why wasn't anything being fixed? Why weren't the inequalities being address? Why weren't the slaves being set free? What is this mess? Don't show me a broken system if you're not going to fix it!!!

If anyone is curious about this world view, I'll give you a video essay on the topic of why Harry Potter is just like that. It's about JK Rowling's political views and how it's reflected in her books which does indeed match Miraculous with things like systems being inherently good and people falling into the categories of "good" and "bad" based on their world view or "team alignment" instead of their actions. The last one really shows up in Miraculous as you can see with the redemption nonsense. Nathalie is inherently good so we welcome her to the good side with no effort required. Chloe is inherently bad so redemption is impossible. Marinette is inherently good so her being mean to Kagami is no big deal. Chloe is inherently bad so her being mean to Marinette in similar ways is horrifically wrong. Really depressing way to view the world.

There are other similarities, too. I'm going to have the video start at the part where it really dives into the neoliberalism stuff, but I encourage you to rewind to the start and watch the hour before that part as it's still relevant to this discussion. Pretend it's about Miraculous and you'll be shocked how many matches there are! It's honestly kind of fun. Like there's a section that talks about time travel and how it was solved by just removing time travel from the universe in an incredibly forced manner and a section that talks about the house elves thing that you could easily port over when talking about the Kwamis. I think about the Kwamis' being slaves a lot. It's a lot more subtle than HP, but it's still there with things like Su-Han talking about how it's bad that Plagg is out of the box since he's supposed to be locked away forever apparently. A line that's played like a joke not an indication that a freedom movement is needed. Nooroo is the only Kwami whose enslavement is a problem because he has a bad master. The other kwamis being slaves is fine for some reason...

[thesweetnessofspring]

There's a quality of goodness that's hard to overlook, but still...and then I think of it, what Peeta can do so much better than the rest of us. He can use words. He obliterated the rest of the field at both interviews. And maybe it's because of that underlying goodness that he can move a crowd--no, a country--to his side with the turn of a simple sentence.

I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.

HungerTown 10/?

[epicfirestormer]

Will never get over how Starscream and Skyfire's relationship is always doomed. There's never an iteration of them where they both stay on the same side at the end. They always end up being against each other, tearing each other apart (whether intentionally or not). They always end up losing each other, be it by a snowstorm, by the war, or by death itself. They never receive a happy ending together, one if not both of them is doomed to suffer.

Skyfire is doomed to be an Autobot, by forces out of his control. Starscream is doomed to be an Decepticon, by his own self destructive tendencies. They are both doomed, because of who they are. They always try to save the other, in their own way. But it never works. They are doomed to fail, whether they stay together or not.

[casualavocados]

#Chen Yi versus Ai Di's neck (AI DI version)

Chen Bowen as CHEN YI & Chiang Tien as AI DI KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023)

[raayllum]

Humanity can only be seen clearly through the lens of history.

3x07 / 3x03 / Dreamer's Nightmare / 4x08 / 7x03 / 5x04 / 6x01 / 7x07

[thatswife]

Driver's Remorse // Part I

(original poem)