#and always will be ✨😌

[jkvjimin]

JUNGKOOK + daisies 🌼 for @cordiallyfuturedwight 🤍

+bonus (after a 9 hours and 45 minutes flight):

[vanityangel]

History never repeats itself, but it often rhymes.

[rayroseu]

source

idk if this means something and if its intentional, but Vil overblot's markings has a similar format with Overblot Malleus, they droop on the center and has a net pattern covering their forehead, (Riddle has a similar design as these as well but his markings passes down his left eye rather than forehead), also interesting that both Vil and Malleus' overblot marks has an extreme reference to the motifs of their Disney Villain counterpart (Most of the these overblot marks are just "aesthetically designed" like with Overblot Azul and Leona unless im missing some interpretation here lol)

Obviously, Vil's markings depicts the poisoned apple, while Malleus', if I overthink about it really hard, looks like Dragon Maleficent's face being split apart in flames (if you join together the center part of his overblot flame, it kinda looks like dragon!Maleficents head silouhette) bad edit lol

Its also interesting that those vertical diamonds in the center kinda looks like they're a sword/dagger stabbing through the apple/the dragon's head.

But my favourite part is Vil's markings... the design motif there are akin to Meleanor's laces to her clothes 😭✨

This design with the curved dark lines and hollow vertical strokes inside it, is on Riddle's as well (like on the borders of his overblot heart marking), but this is a special mention bcs Meleanor and overblot!Vil is awfully similar already based on design 😭✨

additionally, "that diamond on the center" thing kind of looks like an imitation to Meleanor's crown

But now, this is making me wonder... Was Meleanor's design created with overblot motifs in mind???😭💔 I remember being surprised she overblotted when that update came out, most of the assumptions about Malleus' mother's death pre-Book 7 is that she was mostly outpowered by the enemy, but rarely does it include that she overblotted too bcs pre book 7, they always emphasized that Draconia's are too powerful and based on Malleus' scenes before book 7 extremely in control of that power that they can just wield it nonchalantly (so it didnt gave off the vibe that they would overblot bcs that means they can be reckless with it (but nowadays i think this makes sense lol))

So with that said, does this mean that even from the start, like with her design, she was always meant to overblot, just like how most of the dorm leaders are the overbloters of each book?? 😭

edit.

random realization too lol but Vil and Malleus' share the same design on their skirt and their legs and maybe arms (but I feel like that design applies to all overblotters), They literally parallel with each other too 😭✨ Queens sharing fashion tips lolol

[skywalkr-nberrie]

There’s a lot to be said about Anakin’s “rizz” and I mean, sure, he may not have come off as smooth to us (not me personally, because I’m viewing the story within the narrative that’s presented.) but in universe, his poetic styled dialogues, his passion, sincerity, and honesty are all apart of what makes him charming, topped with the fact that he’s this cool and smooth Jedi that keeps a firm grip on his exterior and most definitely doesn’t lack confidence in his talent. It’s all meant to be taken as him being the “alluring ladies man” variant to the people in universe and to those watching from outside it are expected to at least understand that if not agree with it. The execution may not have been good enough for some people (again not me personally.) but it is what it is at the end of the day.

[satellite-starss]

LITERALLY the character ever

[amberrskiies]

New nightmares are out and all I have to say is-

Damn 👀

[seaofthesoul]

🪷 The Lotus Flower in Mysterious Lotus Casebook 🪷

i. Growing Deep Roots

As noted by difeisheng, Li Xiangyi is an image more than he is a person. He’s the “symbol” and “beating heart” of the Sigu sect; “he embodies everything [the sect] stands for” and “has become one with every person he represents” in his role as a leader. As such, one might say he doesn’t exist as an individual who’s allowed the luxury of flawed, fluid humanity. Rather, he’s fixed into an object: a shield protecting those under his care, a mirror reflecting those he’s taken upon himself to be the champion for.  

While a heavy burden to carry, this identity as image is also shown to be brittle, hollow, like a hazy mirage which is more dazzling appearance than substance. Even Fang Duobing introduces Li Xiangyi to Li Lianhua by showing him a painting of his shifu — ink on a page, a person turned into a hero to be worshipped and idolated. 

Li Lianhua, over the ten years that pass after the Great Battle of the East Sea, works to plant and cultivate a new identity in the same way one might grow flowers. Li Lianhua forms deep roots and grows out of the mythical hero’s shell he’d been carrying as Li Xiangyi, thus developing an identity which is solid and grounding in contrast — an identity which involves “walk[ing] within a crowd instead of [soaring] above it.”

This shift from image to person is itself rooted in the lotus mantra (written by Buddhist Layman Pang during the Tang Dynasty) which Li Xiangyi first encounters after monk Wu Liao rescues him:

一念心清净 莲花处处开

The heart attains peace with a single thought; Lotus flowers bloom all around.

Although the exact timeline is left to interpretation, it’s implied that the lotus mantra operates as a catalyst of change for Li Xiangyi and that he changes his name to Li Lianhua after reading it. Now what is it about it that speaks to Li Xiangyi so deeply in that moment? As noted in 《 人間福報 》, the lotus mantra teaches us that a pure heart will result in an open and enlightened mind. One subtle, profound thought rife with compassion is enough for a person to glimpse Buddha in a flower, a leaf, a grain of sand or a speck of dust. In short, “if you can find peace within yourself, then you will find peace everywhere.” Perhaps Li Xiangyi, at his lowest point, finds solace in the prospect of stripping his life down to its very core and searching for purity, wisdom and peace within his troubled heart.    

By renaming himself 莲花/liánhuā lotus flower, Li Lianhua takes his destiny into his own hands; he empowers himself into reshaping his identity and laying down the foundations for the person he wants to become. Similarly to The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity which tells us that “names are the shortest spells in the world,” Li Lianhua’s new name functions as a spell which speaks a new him into existence. It’s a deliberate choice, a conscious attempt at breaking free from the suffocating shell Li Xiangyi was trapped in and become a person of his own choosing. 

The act of (re)naming notably also extends to Li Lianhua’s abode which he dubs 莲花楼 “Lotus Tower.” In addition to this significant choice of name, it’s interesting to note that Li Lianhua starts growing vegetables inside Lotus Tower when he’s left with nothing after his demise at the East Sea and is facing starvation. As such, his home is quite literally a site not only of self-sustenance and survival, but also of growth — a growth which requires hard work, patience and faith and nearly brings Li Lianhua to tears when his hopes are finally rewarded and the seeds he planted begin sprouting. The act of physically planting vegetables and learning to cook those vegetables speaks of a refreshing and grounding simplicity — of something disarmingly vulnerable and human after playing the role of a god-like figure. Li Lianhua has sweat on his brow and hope in his heart; he plants seeds, watches them grow and keeps himself alive by his own hands.

It seems it’s not only Li Lianhus’a home, but also his very person, which steadily grow into a lotus flower. Li Lianhua wears a variety of hairpins directly linked to the lotus, and the colour coding of his garments moves from the red he used to wear as Li Xiangyi to a lighter palette filled with greens and blues — colours which are more obviously linked to nature.

ii. Life Borrowed and Given Away

The lotus, both traditionally and within the drama itself, is closely connected to the theme of rebirth. On a literal level, the exotic lotus flowers of Cai Lian Manor grow directly from the corpses of the victims drowned in the pond, thus embodying life born from death. thawrecka writes in their story that Li Lianhua is “nothing but a lotus nurtured by a walking corpse, a body that doesn’t realise it should already be dead.” On a figurative level, the lotus grows in muddy water but blooms unsullied every morning, thus symbolising rising from a dark place and growing into something beautiful and colourful despite all the odds. The different stages of the lotus’ blooming can be taken to represent the beginning, middle and end of a spiritual path in Buddhism — a parallel to the theme of 趟/tāng taking a journey which underscores the drama in various ways.

Li Lianhua’s journey, more specifically, is that of a lotus being reborn. The soundtrack piece 《 一壶莲花醉 》 “A Pot of Lotus Wine” emphasises this connection in the following lines:

问一句莲花的悲喜 断一柄弃剑入青泥

I ask about the joys and sorrows of the lotus; A broken, abandoned sword is thrown into the mud.

Not only does Li Lianhua keep stressing at different points of the drama that Li Xiangyi is dead and all that is left behind is Li Lianhua; he even breaks his own sword Shaoshi at the end of the story, thereby physically reenacting a process of destruction—death—and rebirth. As Li Lianhua writes in his farewell letter: 

剑断人亡

My sword is broken, and I will be gone.

The significance of Li Lianhua’s action is further intensified here by the fact that the sword in the song is said to be thrown into 泥/ní mud, the site from which a lotus flower grows.

Considering that Shaoshi operates as a device embodying Li Lianhua’s character development throughout the drama, the fact that Li Lianhua decides to break it in the last episode should be taken as a key moment in which he chooses how his own narrative is going to end. Li Lianhua decides to kill for good the glorious image of Li Xiangyi which has become sullied with pain and regret in his heart, so that a simple, fragile peace can begin growing in its place like a lotus flower amidst the mud.

However, the tragedy of Li Lianhua’s narrative is that the rebirth he works to achieve for all these years is not his own to enjoy and never was intended to be. After the Great Battle of the East Sea, as Li Lianhua is reborn from Li Xiangyi and starts planting seeds all around him, he has already accepted that he’s nothing but a ghost, “wandering in the jianghu to close his loose ends and finally [...] vanish without a trace, not even a body left behind.” As mx-myth remarks, even the shift in his garment colours to an overwhelming amount of white as the story progresses makes it clear that he’s resigned to go and has “already started dressing for his own funeral.” 

The lotus flower symbolism permeating the narrative accentuates this bone-deep, unshakable resignation. While imprisoned by Jiao Liqiao, Li Lianhua is full of an aching, bittersweet fatalism when he recites a section of Guan Hanqing’s《 窦娥冤 》“The Injustice to Dou E”:

花有重开日 人无再少年 不须长富贵 安乐是神仙

Flowers will blossom again, But a man can never be young again. Seek not eternal wealth; You only need to be content.

Independently from the original meaning of the lines written by Guan Hanqing, the words seem to take on a sad, wistful quality when spoken with a bitter smile by Li Lianhua. In this scene, while the speaker reflects that rebirth occurs outside of themselves in flowers, they acknowledge that their own reality is one inevitably bound to end in old age and decay. Instead of looking forward to a bright future, the speaker doesn’t express any dreams nor ambitions and is only grateful that they’re alive this minute, this second, without any future prospects awaiting them. Perhaps a similar sentiment is reflected in the following lines from 《 一壶莲花醉 》 “A Pot of Lotus Wine”:

了了心事只 不负众生 而已

After settling my worries,  I just want to live up to all sentient beings.

Li Lianhua’s connection to the lotus flower, in fact, was always meant to be one of non-attachment. While Buddhism believes desire to be the root of all suffering, the lotus symbolises non-attachment due to being “rooted in mud (attachment and desire)” while “its flowers blossom on long stalks unsullied by the mud below.” This explains in part why the lotus is considered pure and noble. For Li Lianhua, this non-attachment takes on sorrowful connotations: it means that he stubbornly refuses to reap the seeds he sows and focuses his purest heart and will into ensuring those around him get to reap them instead. Non-attachment means allowing himself enough (a roof over his head, food on his plate) to survive, but rarely letting himself indulge in the precious luxuries of reciprocated love and care — of carefree joy and thirst for adventure.  

The ten years he lives after his first death at the East Sea are, for him, only borrowed time he didn’t deserve — borrowed time not dedicated to himself, but rather dedicated to others.

In many ways, Li Lianhua’s path effectively goes full-circle by the end of the narrative. When he and Di Feisheng reminisce about the moon they remember from ten years ago, they conclude that today’s moon isn’t any brighter than the one alive in their memory: rather, it remains constant, unchanged, as though the past ten years never existed as anything other than a short pause in the story, a coma, long enough for wrongs to be righted but not for an already-dead person’s fate to be changed.

It’s interesting and particularly significant that the Styx flower (忘川花, from 忘川 “River of Forgetting” in the original Mandarin) is said throughout the drama to be the only thing capable of saving Li Lianhua’s life. In traditional Chinese culture, the Styx or River of Forgetting is part of the process of reincarnation; only by crossing it (and forgetting everything they’ve ever experienced and everyone they’ve ever loved) can a person finally reincarnate. For Li Lianhua, salvation through rebirth comes at a high cost — a price he’s evidently been ready to pay since the beginning, even if it means turning him into a ghost who must vanish from the story in order for those around him to grow and thrive further.

When Li Lianhua breaks his own sword to allow for rebirth, it’s not himself he’s saving. His sole purpose throughout his journey as Li Lianhua is to use whatever meagre strength he has left, whatever passion and drive are still alive in him, to save the world in any small ways that he can. He becomes a doctor who heals people; he looks for answers and solves mysteries to atone for the sins he thinks he has committed and rectify the mistakes he thinks he has made, so that those he has hurt can finally find peace and comfort.

The most powerful legacy Li Lianhua intends to leave behind by the end of the story has nothing to do with himself and everything to do with the people around him who he never truly admits he loves — the messy, imperfect world that’s caused him so much pain but that he nevertheless insists on saving with everything he has. 

Most strikingly, Li Lianhua chooses—whether consciously or not—to leave the life and future he’s renounced for himself to his companions Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng. The only traces he purposefully leaves behind live in them: in the Yangzhouman coursing through Fang Duobing’s body; the home, dog and recipe book he passes onto him; the worthy opponent he leaves for Di Feisheng to fight in his stead after he’s gone… 

Fang Duobing, by the end of the story, has grown into more than a disciple and a friend to Li Xiangyi/Li Lianhua: he himself has become the lotus flower bringing renewed life after Li Lianhua has left the narrative, thereby taking Li Lianhua’s legacy into a hopeful, vibrant future. As mx-myth mentions in their colour analysis, Fang Duobing notably wears bright pastel tones including a large amount of green/blue — a colour coding which emphasises Fang Duobing’s connection to spring and, by extension, new life and beginnings. “Life will always go on if there’s spring”; and so Fang Duobing’s youth, vitality and optimism can grow in the empty space left behind by Li Lianhua after he fades into the autumn of his life.

While Li Lianhua’s predominantly light colour palette might appear to align him with other characters in the drama who have left the past behind and are looking towards the future, Li Lianhua made peace long ago with the knowledge that he’s destined not to belong in that future. Just as the Lotus Sutra teaches us that “the inner determination of an individual has great transformative power” and “gives ultimate expression to the infinite potential and dignity inherent in each human life,” Li Lianhua focuses all his transformative efforts on creating a future which, despite having no place for him, will be fertile ground for the entire martial arts world to grow deep, healthy roots. In Li Lianhua’s own words:

幼芽生枝 新木长成 武林也一样 这未来如何 谁又能说得��楚呢

The young sprouts and the new trees grow. The martial arts world is the same. What does the future hold? Who can say clearly?

Should we say, then, that Li Lianhua’s story is one of sacrifice, self-renunciation and resignation — of drifting inevitably towards death as a flower carried by a stream? As he disappears on a boat and is asked where he’s going, Li Lianhua gives a response which echoes his first death at the East Sea in a way that feels entirely deliberate:

小舟从此逝， 江海寄余生

From now on I would vanish with my little boat; For the rest of my life on the sea I would float. 

How are we to understand a person being reborn simply so they can pass on that new life to others, and being convinced that their only true value lies in their death?

Perhaps, in spite of it all, we can find some small comfort in the knowledge that, no matter how sorrowful Li Lianhua’s fate, it’s at least one that he chooses — one that he has full control over, even poisoned and robbed of his life force as he is. As the lyrics of 《 一壶莲花醉 》 “A Pot of Lotus Wine” underline, “it’s just a matter of picking an ending that you like.” Perhaps that’s all that truly matters. 

wuxia-vanlifer makes an excellent point when asking: “What would be more tragic? That he never believed he was loved? Or that he did, but vanished anyway?” While I don’t have an answer to offer, there’s one thing I can say. Li Xiangyi, Li Lianhua — they live and die by love. They can’t conceive of themselves as anything other than a sacrificial tool because, for all that they pretend to be aloof and untethered, they actually love others—and the world—in a bone-deep, profound way they’ve never loved themselves. That love is not only the true driving force behind Li Lianhua’s character and the fate he chooses: it’s the beating heart of the entire drama.

“In this life, I have loved and I have been loved. That is enough.”

Shoutout to the following authors and bloggers whose brilliant words and ideas inspire me, as well as this gorgeous video 💖

ao3: @extraordinarilyextreme @thawrecka

tumblr: @difeisheng @extraordinarilyextreme @mx-myth @wuxia-vanlifer @xinyuehui

[savingsallow]

'This is the closest I've been to home in years...'

— Val (sometime during fifth year)

[unicornpopcorn14]

omg so like, Dazai and the shipping container incident with him getting shipped overseas got me thinking... (I am super late to reading it 😭)

Chuuya, unaware of what happened in the moment because he had been sent overseas himself for an international mission, and he had to go out and scout a foreign shipyard for illegal weapon shipments.

AT THE SAME TIME, he conveniently receives a message forward by Mori to be on the lookout for one of their own agents because a Port Mafia member had been taken hostage around the location Chuuya was in.

Chuuya's ??? because why hadn't he been notified that someone was also either on the same mission as him or had managed to be such a bumbling fool that they got caught by foreign enemies. ANYWAY, he keeps an eye out for anything suspicious while still working on his own mission when he sees a particular area of the shipyard had been surrounded by armed foreign criminals, so he's ready to go bust some ass when they all swing the shipping container doors open and barge in to see Dazai there.

Chuuya just facepalms himself in disbelief because he can't believe Dazai followed him all the way to another country (even though it was totally coincidental) but also, he's not even surprised that Dazai managed to get himself caught by the enemy. Again.

They kick some enemy ass and Dazai gets shipped back home on the next plane back to Yokohama, and Chuuya overhears Dazai complaining to Mori on the phone: "What about my home?!"

Omggg you read my silly shipping container fic hehe *hidesss* /silly

Thank you so much for this omg <333 I genuinely cackled. There really is no end with the shipping container shenanigans huh jknfjew

Lmao Mori telling him to be on the lookout for an agent without specifying that it's DAZAI so Chuuya can take this seriously pffff

I can imagine Chuuya's shocked then angry as heck face when he spots Dazai like,,, he'd probably do a double take at first being like "is that really who I think it is?" and it quickly turns to "Fuck it is who I think it is..."

Dazai would be adamant that that was part of his plan (when it really wasn't) and complain that Chuuya's ruined it and it is somehow Chuuya's fault that he has no home now fjsbfkjebaf

Which will earn him a (justified) kick to the head 😭😭

[duusheen]

I just saw the interrogation post. You are such an amazing story teller! Your recent posts make me feel like I'm watching the climax of a tv show arc! (a really good tv show)

AHHHH THANK YOU!!! 😭😭💕 you just made my day 🥺

[magistralucis]

@absolut--kurant!

[majoryeager104]

I don’t know if I’m too late for these but 34 for the voice asks??

[lukaherehelp]

Remember when I called MaxNat and NetJames the Whoresmen of the Apocathirst and told them to leave TutorYim alone?

Glad to be proven wrong and that Domundi has as a motto "there's some whores in this house". Is a requirement in the contract, I just know it.

[kiwiplaetzchen]

[nobodybetterlookatme]

ARE YOU AND COWORKER DATING?! 👀 👀

Ahdkakskal perchance yes

[darabeatha]

I want to reblog an intimacy meme too but then I think; can I truly write paragraphs of yearning and desire today-