echoing-msbristi

[echoing-msbristi]

The biggest disservice they did to Milo was have him be unable to pronounce Kida’s full name. You’re telling me a linguist who was able to speak Atlantis’s language well enough to understand and be understood by piecing it together from text, never having heard it spoken, and he’d fumble her name after she just said it once??? Not even ask her to repeat before asking for something else??? Nahhhh

[echoing-msbristi]

“Sex work is work is like any other job” actually no being raped constantly and strangled, used as sexual play thing for men, risking aids/stds from johns you call customers, beat by men for the men’s pleasure, sexually trafficked, objectified sexually etc is not apart of a fast food worker, soldier, gardener, farmer, chef, lawyer, construction worker, plumber, engineer etc job description. Sex work is not work and consent cannot be bought or sold.

[echoing-msbristi]

Hii guysss...

So like my life is really busy rn, and that's why like a very sane person I decided to not do any of the work I actually need to do and instead made a map of the entire Aryavarta during Mahabharat era

I colour coded it hehehehehehe

Kaisa hai chat

I'm prolly gonna hang it somewhere in my room lol

I'm bored y'all can tag people if you wanna

[echoing-msbristi]

Genuine pet peeve: Bollywood portraying bengali characters and not casting bengali actors

[echoing-msbristi]

Congratulations!! 🎉🎉

anyway shout out to @ishaaron-ishaaron-me for yelling at me for being on this site during AP season and reminding me to study. I got all 5s and am an AP Scholar!!! (and shout out to all my other studyblr mutuals as well. you all are lovely)

[echoing-msbristi]

Best date ever..

@zeherili-ankhein @andthemoonsingswisely @tum-naam-sochlo-merese-ni-hora @jeahreading

And everyone else!!

Pinterest is setting you up on a blind date! Search the following and post the results: Fictional Character, Location, Gift, Outfit, Dessert, and Love Quote.

Tadashi 😭💔

@ozwriterchick @thezombieprostitute @enchantedbarnes @snowkestrel @jvanilly @k-marzolf @masked-lost-girl @abschaffer2 @imagine-a-fictional-boyfriend @crazyunsexycool

And anyone else who wants to play. 🥰

[echoing-msbristi]

Something that always bugs me is that the way fanfic authors have it, there's absolutely nothing between 'beloved son treated and raised precisely the same as the two blood siblings in the blood based ruling lineage' and 'despised and excluded indentured servant psychologically manipulated into having no self worth cut off from any emotional support'. This is, historically, a very, VERY recent binary, as the fostering system outgrows things like orphanages and the idea of the nuclear family is cemented.

There is a whole range of different statuses that exist between those two extremes just in Western society, and more than that outside of what I already know. Wardship, for example. Fostering without adoption. Room and board apprenticeship.

Wwx is older than jc. Him being adopted and legitimised, despite not being jiang, would cause a succession crisis. By rights, as the eldest male (and prodigious and well liked besides) he would be first to inherit in some people's eyes. Being adopted formally in this way would cause those rumours of bastardry madame yu was always banging on about (though I'm never convinced those rumours were as prevalent as she believed). Jfm would lose reputation and status, yzy would take a tremendous hit to her reputation, jc's place as heir would suddenly be cast into uncertainty, coming under intense scrutiny as people suddenly feel as though they had a choice in who to support, and wwx would be forced into a role and potential future he has absolutely no desire for. And by putting him in a position where he could become head of jiang, there's the risk that he might assassinate jc to become the undisputed heir, something impossible if he isn't brought into the family officially. Would wwx ever dream of doing so? No! Not even slightly! But it is a valid fear of the time and culture, jgy just proves that worst case scenario.

Instead of being the child prodigy coming out of nowhere, the son of respected rogue cultivators so generously taken in the jiang and well trained, suddenly he'd be 'proof' of infidelity, both families involved would become scandals, even post-humeously. As jgy and mxy prove, being a bastard is a lower social status than the right hand man of the sect heir, head disciple of a major sect. Now wrapped in gossip and scandal, they would no longer be called the prides of yunmeng.

And then of course that kind of divisive succession would backfire horrendously when lotus pier is burned and jc tries to rebuild the clan while wwx goes demonic cultivator! It would be DISASTROUS for the jiang, jc having lost a lot of his legitimacy and political support, wwx's now filthy reputation being tied even tighter to the clan, reflecting on them so much more. Worst case gossip would be that the jiang as a whole are turning to demonic cultivation. People who wanted wwx for heir would be in a very dangerous position! People who disliked jc as heir would make it even harder for him! Not that the jiangs would/could have predicted the war and the burning of the sect but fr it would have made an already nigh impossible situation even harder and more volatile.

And it's not like wwx is treated purely like a servant! He isn't going round fetching tea and carrying jcs sword and keeping one step behind. He eats every meal with them, he gets pocket money from them, he is openly and pretty universally considered siblings with the other two, and nobody except yzy acts like it's weird, or he's acting above his station for it (though people like the wens and jin aren't above trying to use that 'son of a servant' thing when they're targeting him to get their own way).

Yes, yzy is deeply insecure and blames him, yes during their goodbyes jc gets hugs and wwx gets orders. They're far from perfect. That's the most affection jc ever got from either of them. Jyl got nothing, she wasn't there. Which is pretty representative of her treatment from her parents, ngl. But wwx had support from jc, had sorta paternal support and a safe authority figure in jfm, had maternal support and care from jyl (though she shouldn't have had to, but that's a different conversation). There are actual family servants (yzy's twins) who grew up with her and were trained for it and they act very differently to wwx. For all yzy throws her weight around and jfm is a bit of a doormat, wwx grew up well cared for and well loved.

The fact that the family as a whole was pretty messed up and his part in it made it worse? That's on the family members themselves. His never arriving would not have fixed that family. For wwx, genuinely, there really wasn't anywhere else he could really go once he was orphaned. If he hadn't died on the streets perhaps he could have made it as a civilian working for someone else, dabbling in cultivation because we know him.

The wen and jin would have eaten him alive. The lans? Don't make me laugh. I love a good 'wwx gets betrothed to lwj as teens and he moves to gusu and Fixes Everything' as much as the next person but let's not kid ourselves, canon wwx would have ended up whipped to death or expelled with the way he is. As a visiting disciple he got so many punishments and kicked out not even halfway through the year! Him living there with lwj as adults is due to him 'redeeming' himself through mystery solving and lwj being fully, openly ready to ditch the sect for him. Even then they're constantly on the road night hunting and lwj being the lightning rod of all of wwx's trouble making tendencies (and being 100% down to breaking the rules with him without enacting punishment). They might accept him now but it would not have happened without lwj doing it first (and the juniors all loving him lol).

The nie? Maybe, but that would have left NHS in pretty much the exact same position as jc: inferior second fiddle, unskilled, constantly compared to him. Wwx would be in the exact same position of being pressured to tone himself down and keep his dangerous ideas to himself, and NHS would have double the fear of inevitably losing both his brothers. And of course, the nie aren't exactly as patient and laid back as the jiang sect as a whole, with their hyper aggressive murder resentment swords. The first sign of wwx acting 'outside' of the clans best interests and getting risky and he's going straight down those stairs the same way as jgy.

Tldr: there's more options to raise a kid than full adoption or abused servitude, even today, and though officially adopting wwx would have made everything SO much worse, his other options would not have survived him. He deserved better with the jiangs but frankly so did the blood kids (and the mother and the father). All three were emotionally neglected and adoption would not have fixed that.

This is why I believe that if wwx had been even a day younger than jc everyone would have been so much happier.

[echoing-msbristi]

One of the key things about Wei Wuxian's dynamic with Madam Yu is that even after everything he deeply deeply respects her. And in fandom I very often see people change that into something a lot more negative because they think his feelings need to be "corrected" into something more "appropiate" for the woman who abused him

And I do get it. It can be deeply cathartic to finally let yourself think badly of your abuser, especially if you were made to feel like you owed them something. So of course people are going to explore such a thing in fanfiction. But I do think that you lose something very interesting if you decide that he didn't care about her.

Wangxian's first two marriage bows are in front of her spirit tablet and Wei Wuxian openly says she should consider one of them the bow to the father and mother, essentially claiming her and Jiang Fengmian both as his family. He's so shocked and offended by the idea of attacking Jiang Cheng in front of them that it pushed him over the edge of exhaustion and he fainted.

Mind you all of this is after the scene with the tree where he let Lan Wangji catch him, a moment meant to symbolize Wei Wuxian accepting himself as worthy of protection and help. Even after that realization, he still respects her. And Lan Wangji sits with him. Lan Wangji, who certainly has no qualms about hating people who've mistreated Wei Wuxian, nonetheless lights incense and bows to her and Jiang Fengmian's tablets with him, because if nothing else he accepts the respect Wei Wuxian has for her.

Look, all I'm saying is that of the two people who heard Yu Ziyuan's last request before her death only one of them listened to her and it wasn't Jiang cheng!

[echoing-msbristi]

I think the whole fandom way overlooks the whole Mianmian thing. Like, I get it, the Xuanwu cave was the first almost-confession scene, Wangxian fought together and treated each others' injuries and feverishly cuddled. I understand the distraction.

But only Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan stood up for Mianmian. Even before Su She threw her to the Wen, the other disciples she looked to for help actively stood back and would have just. Let her be strung up as bait.

Yes, these were frightened teenagers who knew they were at a disadvantage. They were also trained warriors who had, supposedly, been preparing for similarly dangerous scenarios for years. And out of that entire gathering of people, literally only three were willing to protect her. Only three were willing to fight.

That's indicative of a much deeper problem.

Obviously post-timeskip the Junior Quartet, in a similar situation, would stand up for an innocent. But would their peers? The Lan are oh-so-very-righteous, and we talk about Su She like he was an outlier, but there were other Lan in that cave. There were other Lan who stood aside and did nothing.

Wei Wuxian loved his Jiang sect-siblings, he trained and taught most of them, but they did not protect Mianmian. The Nie, for all the noise they make about honor, did not protect Mianmian. The Jin are the only sect who kind of have an excuse, on account of they don't claim to be good people, but it was the Jin heir who immediately stood up to help.

Nobody else even tried.

... Lan Xichen was at the raid on the Burial Mounds. Nie Mingjue was at the raid on the Burial Mounds. They saw the reality of the Wen they had come to kill, and they killed them anyway.

Their disciples -- kids they had helped train and teach and guide -- were in a cave with an innocent girl, who was just as afraid and unarmed and helpless as they were. That girl was going to be murdered, her body desecrated, used as bait to lure out a monster -- and they all stood back, and did nothing.

Nobody else even tried.

[echoing-msbristi]

Do you ever think about how fucked up it would be if your brother died and came back but now he has someone else's face and all the stupid scars from climbing trees and stuff are gone and he used to be just taller than you but now he's like two inches shorter than you and he still talks the same way but in someone else's voice

[echoing-msbristi]

Sometimes I state a fact and my friends treat it as an opinion

"Enzymes are biological catalysts" "in my opinion-" FUCK YOU MEAN?!?! ENZYMES AREN'T DEBATABLE YOU WASTE OF A DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

[echoing-msbristi]

Me and Scrooge when we see Goldie:

[echoing-msbristi]

Still thinking about what is actually the most devastating part about the lines “you loved gold more than you loved me.” “And that’s why you loved me.”

Its the fact Goldie never actually agrees with him. She doesn’t say that she didn’t love him as much as she loved gold. Instead, she simply states that is this belief of his is what kept him running back for more. This competition is what held his interest all these years which she truly believes. Goldie O’Gilt spent over 100 years believing the man she loved only kept her around bec she was a challenge bec she was exciting. But she loved him so she pushed down the hurt and played into it. She’s naturally troublesome and selfish and uncooperative sure but she played it up. Because in her mind that is what Scrooge wanted.

And to a degree it was. But not wholly. He loved her. The real her. The one he had to push past the challenge and cryptic exterior and he did so bec yes it was fun and yes he loves a challenge and yes she kept him on his toes like no other could. But mostly bec that interior the Goldie he only ever got to see late at night when it was just the two of them when they’d sit beside the fire and she’d let him tuck her into his side with no pretence. When she’d tell him her hopes and dreams and fears. That is the woman he fell in love with.

AGGGGGHHHHHHHH

They’re so freaking stupid

[echoing-msbristi]

Really caught up lately on how Songxiao are a parallel to Wei Wuxian & Jiang Cheng

Both are known as a set, at least for a period of time: The Bright Moon and Gentle Breeze, the Distant Snow and Cold Frost. The Twin Prides of Yunmeng (the extent to which they act as a set is another story).

Both Songxiao and Yunmeng Bros have one member who is more embedded in the cultivation world / clan system and one who has fewer ties to the clan system + some relation to Baoshan Sanren (i.e. allowing them to more easily escape the constraints of the cultivation world--though not always the consequences).

Song Lan is from Baixue Temple, while Xiao Xingchen is from Baoshan Sanren’s mountain. SL still has people he cares about at Baixue Temple (and because SL still has ties to them, their safety is put at risk from XY, as it turns out), but Xiao Xingchen does not have ties to anyone but SL. Although both are rogue cultivators, XXC fully originates from outside the clan system and struggles to accept how it functions.

Jiang Cheng is heir to the Jiang Clan. He was never escaping that responsibility. WWX is the son of one of BSSR's disciples and was taken in as a Jiang disciple. His birth status already has him sitting farther removed from the clan system than JC--he isn't bound to the Jiang Clan the way that JC is, and JC will be the first to tell you that WWX sure does act like it.

And then there's the parallel between the golden core transfer and XXC giving his eyes to SL (this is the part that really drives me insane)

Both JC and SL lose an essential part of themselves because of their counterparts. JC gets his golden core melted because he saved WWX. SL is blinded because XY wanted revenge on XXC.

The golden core transfer and the Songxiao eye transfer (lol?) are both mediated by BSSR, either physically or metaphorically (since in JC's case he only thinks BSSR is the one healing him). And both relationships undergo immense damage following the transfer of golden core / eyes.

After the Baixue Temple massacre, SL searches the jianghu for XXC for what we know to be at least a few years. After WWX's death, JC hunted for him down for 13-16 years depending on which canon you prefer. SL and JC refuse to believe that their counterpart is gone forever--SL's goal following the Yi City arc is to heal XXC's fractured spirit, and JC seemed to always believe that WWX was either still somewhere out there or was bound to come back.

In general, this is one aspect of MXTX's work where I really feel like her genius shines through--her ability to craft parallels between characters that make me want to eat rocks

[echoing-msbristi]

happy birthday, @eohachu!

[echoing-msbristi]

jokes to make after failure that aren’t self-deprecating:

I’m the best to ever do it

Nobody saw that (best if said loudly)

No one’s ever done it like me

I could be President/they should make me President

Behold, a mere fraction of my power!

The public wants to be me soooooo bad

I’m an expert in (thing you just failed at)

How could this have happened to god’s favorite princess?

Nothing ibuprofen and a glass of water cant fix

I’m being sabotaged

[echoing-msbristi]

Fanon likes to portray Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji as being jealous of each other because they fear wei wuxian will choose one of them over the other. Which is ignoring the fact that at least in novel canon Jiang Cheng did not even fucking know wangxian ever got along let alone that lwj was in love with wwx until at the very end of the story (in cql canon he does go through a wangxian phase early on and gets very confused by their "breakup" during wwx's sunshot era) and that Lan Wangji is mostly filled with loathing towards both himself and Jiang Cheng for 'abandoning' Wei Wuxian and not being able to save him.

It also ignores the much bigger point that both Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng are actually jealous of Wen Ning. And why wouldn't they be? That is who Wei Wuxian chose in his first life. He left the Jiang, told Lan Wangji to fuck off no he is not coming to gusu with you, and spent his days with his little-brother-shaped corpse bestie on his mountain in yiling. And then when he came back he immediately called him up the second he could string together more than two notes on a flute. Wen Ning is the real competition. (And he's winning)