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birds of a feather

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it has been like two mins since nico's casting was announced and ppl are already digging up his personal stuff to fuel their solangelo shipping fantasies. this is a CHILD. can the pjo fandom ever be normal about literal kids?? what the fuck is this, truly.

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what strikes me about the summer hikaru died (besides the layered metaphors for queerness and grief) is that the horror of the show doesn’t end at the literal monsters and spirits lurking in the mountain—the horror is everywhere and all the more potent when the situation is something mundane. the scene in the grocery store with the lady is one of the most unsettling bits so far, and this is a show where a character’s arm goes through his dead best friend’s body now possessed by a monster trying to be human and where a woman dies by choking on her own hand... like, the bar is high and yet, one gossiping lady brings a sense of unease and sheer discomfort for yoshiki that rivals his worst nightmares. the horror of being intruded upon, being talked about, being known by everyone in your small town—it can feel so much worse than other, more in-your-face problems. for a teen boy grappling with intense grief, longing, regrets, internalised homophobia (or atleast, repression of his sexuality), the idea of being perceived and judged is shown as a downright overstimulating experience. and i think, that says alot.

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ooooh this is fun!!! but ten is too small a number, i have a ridiculous amount of favourites, especially if you include anime but let me give it a shot (this will probably all be recent favourites + couple of evergreen favourites).

okay, i volunteer these ten to be plagued by the torturous indecision of selecting their top ten favourite tv shows:

@optimisticmiraclefest @origami-penguin @lavender-phoenix-flames @stgroversfire @age85 @yllzboohcultivationworld @rkivees @thischickiswack @mxtxfanatic @factsilike

TV Show Game

Rules: Without naming them, post a gif from ten of your favorite television shows, then tag 10 people to do the same.

Was tagged by @naamah-beherit! Thank you very much (I immediately forgot all my favorite shows as soon as I saw the subject of course)

(also rip to all the people who have gifs play automatically on their phones) (I counted anime & cartoons as tv shows)

Tagging: @stupefox, @welgansheer, @admirableadmiranda, @chai-chahiye-yr, @preludianstaves, @origami-penguin, @randomness-is-my-order, @purpleinfluenced, @dephoraowo, @chronic-dreamer and everyone else who wants to give it a shot (pls gimme recs, I am SO very curious about everyone's faves)

Also obviously, absolutely no pressure to do it if you're not interested <3

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The difference between me being a Jiang Chen fan and not a Jiang Cheng stan is that I accept the reality of what he is, a loser clown incel homophobe man that is self pitying but hates pity from others but feels entitled to that pity anyway. While Jiang Cheng stans want a fat assed meimei sad hole that's slobbered over while flashing a whip and infantilized by yaoi men.

Now which one is really more offensive?

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“everyone in mdzs is morally grey” is not the amazingly nuanced take some people think it is. infact, it’s the opposite. assigning one single kind of morality to the entire cast of characters (who are richly diverse in personality, background, personal principles and their actions) IS the simplified, flattened version of perspective that they are trying to fight. pivoting so hard against the grain, you end up with an even worse understanding of canon. the characters in mdzs belong to a whole spectrum of morality and that is the point. if everyone was morally grey, the books wouldn’t make half the impact that they did, especially when it came to social commentary.

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lmao jc stans are hilarious, ask for opinions and then hide the replies 💀

Maybe don't fucking make a public poll, act like an uppity know it all and block people for pointing out you are calling actual story points fanon and calling people "haters" and hiding replies while keeping the abuse apology and classist rhetoric replies showing 🙂

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Honestly, this poll could be a “Pick out the fanon from the list of canon” and it’d be a more fitting title than the original 😭😭

Please let's be normal about this we're just having a little fun and I'm not bashing your hc

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idk why alot of people underestimate the maturity and composure of wei wuxian’s character but to reduce his personality to his mo xuanyu lunatic persona is a total disservice to his character. i get that the first impression we have of him is a pretty memorable one and his behaviour IS volatile and quirky (completely on purpose) for the better part of the volume one but what baffles me is that we are clearly shown how his outward behaviour is in stark contrast to his internal monologue. his thoughts offset his actions and root them solidly in stone-cold logic.

from my perspective at least, wei wuxian’s reaction to discovering that he’s reincarnated is hilariously understated—it’s a grumbly “meh” and straight to business right after. he coolly assesses his surroundings, the marks on his arm and ways to get rid of them. THAT is wei wuxian’s true personality—the ability to obfuscate his intelligence and insight by acting unpredictably.

also people forget that time did not pass by normally for wei wuxian in those thirteen years that he was dead. after reincarnation, he was mentally still the age he died at—ik there is some debate here but none that has convinced me otherwise—only, he was rid of all the cumulative intense mental pressure and immediate guilt that he was harbouring in the past. the wei wuxian that is the mentor for the juniors, the voice of reason and the pool of trivia and knowledge that guides them calmly through the chaos is not a wisened and more experienced wei wuxian than how he was when he died. thirteen years for him passed in a limbo. as such, the maturity we clearly see from him after the timeskip is actually what he carried in the original timeline! his demeanour is just more... chill, because he is not fighting for his life and defending a group of innocent wens with every fibre of his being against the entire of horde of cultivators waiting for one misstep on his part to pounce and wipe him out.

the difference between past wei wuxian and future wei wuxian isn’t time-gained maturity but the loss of devastatingly heavy responsibilities and continuous emotional turmoil. their mindsets, moral code, logical reasoning are still largely the same.

yes, there are differences between the two versions of wei wuxian but i think they come majorly from how the stakes have changed for him. when wei wuxian is able to slow down and is allowed to have a support system, he can solve things without risking his emotions getting the better of him (which he is actually quite good at regulating) and is also able to look back and reflect on his past mistakes with an objective lens. that is why, when wei wuxian does muse about his “younger” self, it is not so much about him outgrowing his youth through passed time but through sheer richness of lived experience. his childhood had already forced him to mature before his time and it continued till the end of his first life—where the kind of stance he took ensured that he would have to keep up emotionally, physically and mentally with not just his peers but with the elders of the cultivation world.

that’s why, after reincarnation, we never feel like wei wuxian has to play catch up with his older peers—he had already attained the emotional maturity for it in his first life and if anyone was playing catch up, it was his peers.

knowing this, it does irk me when these aspects of him are buried under a portrayal of unrestrained chaos, constant gremlin-like energy, inconsideration and incompetence—wei wuxian is the antithesis of these values. he is joyous, playful, extroverted, sometimes loudmouthed but also deeply thoughtful, adaptive, resourceful, caring, kind and mature.

this brings me to my first point—

this aspect of wei wuxian is shown to us in the first few pages of mdzs: he doesn’t act like a lunatic because he’s an agent of indiscriminate chaos but because his logic dictates so, because he must play the part of mo xuanyu and exact revenge on his behalf. his actions always have a reason behind them—they are very rarely impulsive. it’s just more and more, i see people fall for the act and disregard wei wuxian’s layered (and frankly, far more interesting) personality in favour of replacing it with a surface-level veneer that outright betrays his original characterisation.

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one thing i really adore about wei wuxian’s relationship with the juniors is how earned it feels—because the respect they cultivate for him over the books is not borne just out of their acquaintance with him as a complete stranger but it also begins with a slight disrespect and disregard for him (speaking mainly of jin ling and jingyi here) because the person they later come to rely on and hold a high opinion of is not solely a result of wei wuxian’s general personality but also a result that happens despite their preconceived opinions of mo xuanyu who had a very big splotch of ill-repute. but what’s even more endearing about their bond and their respect for wei wuxian is that it sustains the revelation of mo xuanyu really being wei wuxian who made mo xuanyu’s ill-repute dwarf beside the slander harboured at large against his ownself. it’s the fact that wei wuxian’s approach towards them was so on-the-mark, that the trust he’d built with them was so solid that it sustained the rocking of its foundation and i think this speaks to both his and the juniors’ ability to see truth in people and build relationships that don’t shatter at the first sight of trouble.

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the thing about weak hero class 1/2 is that it is ultimately the consequence of adults failing every single one of these kids at every single turn that basically makes this story possible. beomseok’s abusive adoptive dad, sieun’s differently negligent parents, the teachers at both the schools, yeongbin’s enabling parents, baku’s trash father, the lackadaisical policemen, the ceo, the teacher who didn’t bother investigating the truth behind things—all these different adults failing in various ways and making the system practically unlivable for the kids. none of them cared enough to put a stop to the mindless violence taking root all around them, some even actively aiding its progress with glee. they allowed such an environment to harbour where bullying was an expected reaction to weakness or timidness, where the hierarchy was ordered based on one’s ability to inflict violence. the grownups screwed up first, enabling the students to screw up later.

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what gets me about baku is that he was THE strongest person in eunjang high and one of the strongest characters overall and yet he was so utterly defenceless against the vitriol of his father and the fractured relationship they shared and how it was sieun who was able to stand up to his trash dad and give him a piece of his mind and hearing this—this is what finally broke baku. we truly get to see how young he is when breaks down, when he realises his friends refused to give up on him, that sieun, this new, odd friend of his dared to go against the one person that had the ability to make him feel small.

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can’t stop thinking about how sieun starts the season with this monologue: “what i have to do... i have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff. i mean if they’re running and don’t look where they’re going, i have to come out from somewhere and catch them” and it beautifully summarises what sieun ends up doing during the entire season. we get an impression at the start that sieun’s wading through the living world in a numb stupor but the moment the cracks show up, the moment someone is about to go over the line, sieun steps up and stops the violence before it can cross the point of no return. last season, we saw sieun exact his revenge but this season, sieun is avoidant of conflict and deadset on forgiving people if it can prevent further escalation (note that this isn’t even a new trait, sieun forgives beomseok, yeongbin and yeongi when they initially wrong him in season one).

he doesn’t actively fight hyoman because his objective was not to defeat the guy but to stop him from irreversibly damaging juntae. he advises baku about the unbreakable cycle of violence and how they HAD to end it. he refuses to back out of their search for baku because come hell or highwater, he wasn’t going to let a friend of his fall off that cliff edge and we know baku was hovering a little too close for comfort after joining the union. it was sieun who approached and mended things with hyoman and seongje despite both of them having wronged him and his friends because again, sieun isn’t trying to seek revenge at all. not even in their fight with baekjin. his goal was sketched out to us, plain and clear: sieun is trying to catch all these students wrapped up in the casual and cruel violence of the union and give them as safe a landing as possible.

(even the purposeful shot of sieun stopping gotak and walking into the final fight himself shows this; gotak’s knees would probably not have survived the intense fight).

i think what’s really important about sieun’s arc this season is that it is not just his guilt over suho that haunts him but he also blames himself for beomseok going over the cliff edge and him not being able to help him. he forgives himself twice this season. first is obvious: juntae’s words rid him of his guilt over suho and it’s the decisive moment that we know he will now not consider himself at fault for suho being comatose. the second instance of sieun forgiving himself, imo, is during his imaginary talk with beomseok while he himself in a coma. the boxing ring earlier held memories of both suho and beomseok and now only beomseok remains there, holding him down. but now, sieun is finally able to unburden himself of beomseok’s presence and his guilt over him. i think it’s very telling that his dream version of beomseok asks him whether his new friends are more important to sieun than him because that is exactly what beomseok himself would have dwelled over, given his insecurities. it just reiterates how well sieun understood beomseok but at the end of day, sieun realises that he needs to reconcile his past with his present and overcome the guilt so he can act on the philosophies he wants to follow. sieun forgives himself once more and accepts that beomseok is now out of his life and he has other friends he needs to worry about, friends he holds dear.

sieun’s been through this once. he knows what the consequences of repetitive grudges and violence are. the “happy” ending we got for season two wasn’t a fluke but a culmination of every small and big effort sieun took to safeguard this very ending. he really did catch so many from falling off the cliff.

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ngl, sieun being hit by truck-kun somehow ended up being the best course of unfortunate events for his mental and physical well-being. because when his accident happens, what are the circumstances he is faced with? either go run and save gotak and juntae (he doesn’t expect baku to get there in time) or abandon them so he can reach the hospital because something is going wrong with suho. any choice he makes would leave him with guilt for the other party and if anything went wrong, it would weigh him down even more. just the choice alone would fuck with his mind and i was kinda scared of how he would deal with that decision but luckily, he never got to grapple with this crossroad because he got hit by a truck instead. it's like a twisted form of narrative grace forcing sieun into letting his mind and body finally, finally rest. the choice was made for him and sieun was spared choosing one friend over another. once he was out of his coma, an instant switch had been turned and we could see so much more life in his eyes. months of insomnia and his psyche haunting him but finally, he woke up—not just from a deep, recovering sleep but from the haze of the past holding onto him. it was beautiful and relieving and i never thought i’d say this about my favourite character being ploughed by a vehicle but here we are.

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i’m like five minutes into weak hero class 2 and already heartbroken over the reputation sieun is saddled with—yeon sieun who’s so sweet and caring and loving under his numbness to the world, who brought his friend the soup he craved, who took a beating so suho’s birthday wouldn’t be ruined, who forgave beomseok even when he didn’t deserve it, who never wanted to be involved in fights or bother anyone, who went the extra mile to try and bust the frauds who were exploiting children and teens through their gambling game, who was undeniably warm and giving once you broke past his perfunctory shell. this yeon sieun is now considered a murderer at large. fuck. nothing like this series to get my crying my eyeballs out.

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since weak hero class 2 is gonna come out very soon (finally!), i had to do some navel gazing with regards to season one and even after multiple watches of the show, i’ll always find the relationship between beomseok and sieun the most tragic fucking bond ever because amidst the massive fallout and very much foreground animosity that rose between beomseok and suho, sieun was the figure providing the most grace to beomseok, till the very end. sieun was the one who was sensitive and empathetic towards beomseok when his bullies targetted him again, when beomseok was undergoing a change of character, when beomseok revealed his home situation. as much as i love suho, the show made it a point to show his callousness towards beomseok’s bullying situation—in part because suho has never been at the bottom of the barrel due his strength and general personality; he does not understand because he has never been the weakest in the chain, but sieun knows, he understands. he’s aware of how bullies work, how they target any perceived weakness, how sometimes the one being bullied can’t do anything short of sacrificing their entire dignity and value system to make it stop (which isn’t always a guarantee anyway). how the one being bullied did not do anything “wrong” to provoke a reaction from the bullies, aside from existing.

the tragedy of season one is just how avoidable the final conflict was, if beomseok just tried to accept the concerned voice that was trying to help him, if he allowed himself to accept sieun’s care to soothe his insecurities over suho. it’s not that suho didn’t reach out—it’s that beomseok and suho were not speaking the same language. what beomseok did is inexcusable and i hope we never see him again and he gains no forgiveness or redemption but it fucking sucks that beomseok blamed suho for not understanding him but then ignored the one who was going the extra mile to meet him halfway, to offer help and empathy. till the last moment, sieun couldn’t bring himself to be violent towards beomseok (which was honestly the biggest metaphorical slap in the face the guy could receive) because how could he ever outdo and avenge the kind of rotten, sickening violence beomseok chose to employ towards his own friend? (and also because hitting him then would mean scores were being settled but what suho suffered through was in suspension and it did not deserve to have a definite resolution and also, beomseok’s too used to being hit for any mistakes/faults/flaws of his, when it is both deserved and underserved and sieun was, once again, being graceful in a painfully ironic manner by leaving beomseok unscathed but with a lesson that should rightfully scar his soul. he held back).

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I've seen a lot of people say that if wwx was a girl jfm would've made her jc's betrothed, however I've always thought that he wouldn't do that because of wwx's social status, that said I'm curious as to what your thoughts on that are, because as I've said, your perspective regarding the book is always amazing!!

hi again!!!

honestly, any scenario in which wei wuxian and jiang cheng are hypothetically paired together is instant nightmare fuel. 😭

but considering your question: no, i don’t think jfm would plan this betrothal because how the hell would he convince madame yu? wei wuxian being a girl won’t change the “rumors” about her being jfm’s illegitimate child with cangse sanren and neither will it change wei wuxian’s capability with cultivating and her embodying the jiang spirit. instead of just being compared with jiang cheng, imo she’d also be pit against jiang yanli. the latter might be less intense, perhaps, but might be another cause for bitterness within madame yu.

thing is, in canon, there is no betrothal planned for jiang cheng, only yanli. maybe if lotus pier massacre hadn’t occured, jfm and madame yu would arrange jc’s marriage as well but it would be with a lady of some high status, so i do agree that wei wuxian’s social status would definitely be a major reason for this betrothal not happening.

i flat-out refuse to consider this situation somehow involving a besotted jiang cheng who would covet wei wuxian and thereby, somehow ask for a betrothal to be set up (genderbent!wwx would still choose lan wangji, obv).

wei wuxian had enough challenges to face in canon—but being a woman would just make it so much worse. i’m not even sure what her main purpose as a disciple in the jiang sect would be—as in jfm wanted wwx to be jiang cheng’s lifetime companion and subordinate but would a female wei wuxian be levied with the same expectation. would her marriage be planned within the clan so she would have to stay and help jiang cheng anyway? would being outclassed by a “girl” hurt jc’s ego even harder, alienating wwx from the clan faster and deterring even the thought of planning their betrothal for jfm? i mean, jfm had the good sense to understand that yanli and zixuan’s marriage wouldn’t have worked, at that point in time, so it stands to reason that he would notice this within jc and wwx as well. whether wei wuxian’s choice would matter in the equation is another question.

okay, enough rambling, my final answer is nope, jfm won’t plan this betrothal because 1) wei wuxian is the daughter of a servant like you said 2) madame yu’s existence. i do have more tangential thoughts—like the possibility of female wei wuxian being used for sect alliances after she’s gained a rep in the cultivation world or her being trained under madame yu to be her personal servant, only madame yu treats her personal servants kinda well so maybe not—but i’m gonna end it here because scatterbrained-ness is kicking in. fun question again, though, thanks!!