#as explained by me (and sources)

[codacheetah]

Tell me your opinions on the stuff. Any stuff.

Grins. Smiles, even

I'm using you as an excuse to infodump my theory about the Island because I've had no in to do that, and my theory is pure opinion. Anyways:

THE ISLAND IS STUCK IN THE FUCKING FUTURE

(SCARE CHORD)

Hi so you might ask me. What the fuck do you mean by that. Well. Let's start with what we know about the Island, the King, and Wish Craft. (long ass post under cut. sorry)

The Island was redacted from the perception of outside world, via Wish Craft.

Wish Craft has the power to enable Time Craft. We see this primarily through Siffrin's timeloops, but also through the King's powers.

One of the King's powers is to show the saviors a "vision of the future."

...And this same attack is deflected back at the King by Mirabelle in ACT 5, in which the King is able to see the Island before being frozen in time.

...So. The King's "vision of the future." We're never told explicitly what this vision is. All we know is that it's apparently powerful enough to wipe the party in one hit, hearing it from a distance hurts your head, and that whatever Siffrin (and Loop) saw, they don't seem to actually be able to describe it. Even the King himself doesn't know what his vision entails.

We don't know whether the party all sees the same thing when struck by the vision, and Adrienne's answer to the question about it in the Reddit AMA is. vague? It's not a "no," and the specific wording makes me think the answer might be yes. But that's me reading into it.

Now. What do we know about the Island's redaction? The Island was affected by the wish recently, as in "like a decade ago" recently. We know that nobody in Vaugarde or the rest of the world is capable of thinking about the Island, anything closely tied to the Island's culture, or people on the Island for very long. When they do recall these things, they slip right out of reach. Particularly, the consequence for trying to think about the Island (or, more specifically, break the wish that forces the Island out of perception) is significant pain, localized in the head.

And that said pain is enough to become lethal, if pressed hard enough.

From here forward I'm running with the assumption that the King's "vision of the future" is not personalized to any individual, and is unchanging throughout the course of the whole story. Now. Remember the end of ACT 5, where the King gets hit with the deflected "vision of the future", and instead of dying, he recalls the Island and gets frozen in time? Very odd, yeah? Why wouldn't the King just die like everyone else does? He even does take 9999 damage when trying to say its name, like Siffrin does, and like the party does when they're hit by the attack.

Well. We know that he has a "true wish" that the ability to freeze Vaugarde in time grants. I don't think it's at all a stretch to guess that the King's "true wish" is to be able to remember the Island. My personal guess is that the King (and Siffrin) brought this "true wish" into effect via the "SAY ITS NAME" sequence- he even tries three times, a significant number in wishing.

The King (and Siffrin's) wish breaks, because it can't be fulfilled in this moment without breaking the wish to prevent the Island from being thought about. However. Consider the conditions at the end of ACT 5- the King sees the vision of the future reflected back to him, and what he sees is the Island. He remembers the Island, fulfilling his own wish, and is frozen in time. I consider this a compromise between his wish and the one binding the Island- the King gets to remember the Island, but nobody alive is able to think about it, because he's frozen in time; it's like the Universe is correcting itself (I WILL GET BACK TO THIS). The wish of all of Vaugarde to defeat the King is fulfilled, since he is no longer a threat, and Siffrin's wish wraps itself up soon after.

MY POINT BEING. The King's attack is a vision of the future. This "future" is of the Island, in some uncorrupted state. The saviors see it when he attacks them, and he sees it when it is deflected back to him.

The logical next question is "okay, so the Island exists in the future, but how do you know time shenanigans are even related to the Island?"

Recall a very odd series of interactions throughout the game, in which you try to interact with a piece of equipment that you already own.

The game rewinds slightly, before the item disappears, as the Universe corrects itself.

This is awfully similar to two particular events: looping back without seeing the death screen, and talking to the Daydreaming One about her sister. The latter is more interesting to me for the purposes of this theory.

In both instances, something is misaligned within the Universe (an item existing in two places, someone remembering something they're not supposed to) and it is corrected through some sort of rewind. Also compare the dialogue above to when you try to give Mirabelle the Stylish Bow when you already own it.

The world glitches, but Siffrin defuses the situation before the Universe has to intervene. Omitted from the screenshot is the fact that Mirabelle's portraits switch to happy from "catastrophically anxious" with no transition after Siffrin shows her where the bow is. Important to note is that when Mirabelle tries to recall receiving the bow, her head hurts, much like how trying to break the Island wish causes a headache.

The Universe leads you away from perception, and you can only follow.

My theory that I keep circling around is that through Wish Craft, the Island has been displaced temporally. The denizens of the Island, as well as the Island itself, still exist, but they are in the future. The Island is still loaded into the world, like how equipment is before you try to interact with it, and the Island cannot leave this quantum state, because it never actually went anywhere. The magnitude of the redaction event is so severe with the Island, because it is so much larger as an entity than a sword or a bow. There are of course things I don't really have pieced together, like why somebody would wish the Island into the future, how far into the future it is, or why equipment behaves this way. But it's the only Island theory I've seen that I have some level of confidence in, so I might as well lay out my cards for it.

[greenteabelle]

idk how to explain this but there's so much potential in bob being a 阴湿男

like this is a man who's literally consumed by an emptiness in his mind because he doesn't see any possibility of life getting better. to the point where he signs up for a medical study that screams "SHADY SHIT" from a thousand kilometres away, maybe just the tiniest bit hopeful, but mostly accepting that he would die then and there. because he couldn't find any reason to save himself.

then yelena comes along.

when they first met, bob was an amnesiac who had no experience in fighting and no powers (at the time), yet yelena took one look at him and said, "yeah, we're going to figure out a way to escape. together."

when he first confesses about his pain, yelena listens and understands. she even shows him why she does, albeit completely unintentional on her part. she's someone who feels the exact same emptiness, the exact same void, yet she's still dragging him around corners and bullets, determined to stay alive. together.

when he meets her as sentry, egotistic, arrogant, and actually quite okay with beating them up, yelena pulls her punches at every turn. she tries to stop the others from fighting, from hurting him. somehow, he feels himself hesitate with her.

lastly, the void. yelena belova literally pulls him away from being consumed by his darkness. SHE LITERALLY IS THE LIGHT TO HIS DARKNESS.

so you're telling me that everyone's somehow thinking that bob is the golden retriever to yelena's black cat???

in my eyes, bob would kill someone without a single blink if it meant that yelena would be by his side. sure, he would hesitate if it came to the rest of the thunderbolts* like that's my found family right there! but if it came to them versus yelena, yeah he would think for a moment then annihilate them with a snap.

in my eyes, bob would stay up at night, completely disregarding his need to sleep in favour of watching the way yelena breathes when she's asleep, the way she shifts under the covers, the way she unconsciously holds his hand because it's warm. he would memorise everything about her, even the number of eyelashes she has.

in my eyes, bob would shut down completely when she's not around, because he knows that she could leave if she wanted to. she could do better, find someone stronger, more stable, more normal (at least that's what the void whispers when the night is quiet) and he can't stand it. and the thing is, even if, or maybe when, yelena eventually leaves, he can't blame her.

he'll just make sure to be right behind her.

[ilikedetectives]

Neve's signature teal color in Vietnamese (Thanh) is the adjective for many words that imo is very Neve.

Thanh bạch: literal translation is teal and white (Neve's color palette), means 'pure'

Thanh long - teal/green dragon *looking at the shadow dragons*. In fengshui terms, it is a protector.

Thanh tra: investigate/inspect

Thanh minh: clarify/make sense of unknown/mystery (ex: clearing someone's name for being accused of a crime they didn't commit)

Thanh liêm: fair and incorruptible

Thanh tâm: pure mind/conscience. A loving heart.

Thanh danh: good reputation

Thanh lịch: elegant

Thanh tao: gracious

Thanh cao: literally means 'noble'. I know Neve isn't an Altus mage but I feel like this can be referred to how Neve carries herself in a sense that she won't let anyone step over her. Also, the cunty way she walks lol

Thanh toán: literally means 'clearing the math', underground mob boss slang term for "taking care of matters". Works great for the Threads Boss route. Casual meaning is just paying the bill (Northern Vietnamese, Southern Vietnamese use tính tiền 'calculate the money')

Thanh trừ: cleanse/eliminate (the Venatori). Along this line can also be thanh lọc (purify).

After a list of words you can kinda guess what thanh means— pure. In terms of colors, the word by itself can mean blue or green (can be used interchangeably).

[lookitseddie]

transmasc david shaw. talk about it

[phantombegruvia]

Falling

[What I think happened between The Final Baker Of Baker Street and The Mystery Of The Midnight Circus]

[contains brief descriptions of violence and minor character death]

"We thank him for the bread we eat, and the friends we keep. Amen-mentary, my dear Watson."

The words echoed in Watson's mind. They hadn't stopped repeating really, not since the funeral. Sherlock's funeral, to be exact.

Sherlock was dead.

But that was impossible, Sherlock was there! He was right next to Watson, slouched over the Bible, reciting its words. He was there, but then he was gone again.

Sure, it would've taken a miracle to survive being crushed thousands of kilograms of dough (Watson would know, he was a doctor after all), but Sherlock was a miracle worker. He had once fallen hundreds of feet, and lived.

Now Watson sits on the floor of his country home, a small cottage just on the edge of Oxford, surrounded by past journal entries (both his own and Sherlock's) to see if he could piece together a clue on where Sherlock had disappeared to.

"John?" Mary sighed from behind him, "what are you doing?"

Watson turned around, his wife cradled their six-month old daughter in her arms. Rosie lay asleep on her mother's chest and Watson could barely hear the sounds of her quite snores.

"Finding Sherlock," was the simple answer that Watson gave, before turning back to face the papers sprawled all over the floor.

Mary's eyes bored into the back of his skull. "John," she sounded too tired, "he's gone."

"No," Watson shook his head with a little to much vigour, he made himself dizzy, "no, no. He was there. He was! I heard him.. I saw him! He was there, Mary, I swear."

"Every night, for the last six months, you've been like this, chasing a ghost," she gently placed Rosie onto the armchair, "I'm tired of it." She knelt down in front of Watson.

"He's alive, Mary, I know he is."

"You're not well."

Watson was taken aback by that small comment, "I'm the most fine I've been in a while, Mary."

Mary's face portrayed no emotion (maybe it showed a tidbit of resentment, but Watson would rather look over that), "I've had to look after Rosie by myself."

"That's not true."

"How am I going to tell her, when she's old enough, that her own father chose a dead man over her?"

"He's not dead."

"He is. He's gone, John. And if you can't see that, well, I guess you will lose us too." She stood up, and immediately turned her back on him.

"I'm sorry?"

Mary picked up Rosie again, "I'm taking a carriage back to London first thing tomorrow. Me and Rosie will be staying with a friend of mine."

Watson stood up with speed, and the dizziness returned, "you made your insane choice, John. Now it's my time to make mine."

She retreated to the master bedroom, locking the door behind her.

Watson stared at the door for a little while longer, a small twinge of guilt nagging at his heart. He reached his arm out, about to knock on the door and ask his wife to reconsider-

"Amen-mentary, my dear Watson."

His arm fell, he had much bigger priorities to worry about.

Mary and Rosie were just a small price to pay to get Sherlock back. A giggle slipped out of his lips.

-

Two months later, Watson found himself back in the streets of London. Somebody had told him they knew of Sherlock's whereabouts, but they wanted something for the knowledge; the keys to the cottage. So, reasonably, Watson gave up his home. It was a trick, of course, what else would it have been?

He was also released of his job at the hospital. And Watson had no idea as to why exactly. He overheard his supervisor say something about "illness" and "insanity", but he figured it must've been about a patient.

So now, he was finding shelter wherever he could. He found a hotel, just a few roads from Baker Street. The staff didn't have to know of his presence, did they?

He whistled as he walked down the stone road of Baker Street, his hands in his pockets. He had come down this way everyday for the past month, stopping in front of the now very vandalised 10 Baker Street.

It was a sore sight for Watson, but he knew that once he found Sherlock, they would be able to fix it together.

He was brought out of his fantasy when he heard the smash of glass. A group of four dirtied boys stepped out of one of Sherlock's windows, the one they had just broke, and began to hurry down a nearby alley.

Watson didn't give himself time to think, before he chased after them. They hadn't noticed him, until he grabbed the one closest to him by the arm, and pulling him backwards. The other three still hadn't noticed, and they continued running down the alley.

"What are you-"

The criminal didn't get chance to finish his sentence before Watson punched him with enough force to knock him to the ground. Watson didn't hesitate to straddle the hoodlum.

Watson punched him.

And punched him.

And punched him.

And punched him.

And again. And again. And again-

Watson realised he wasn't breathing anymore.

Watson stood up from the bloodied body.

(The kid barely looked over eighteen, he was so young. So, so young. And Watson stopped him from growing up. He broke the Hippocratic Oath. He was a monster. Monster. Monster.)

The recognisable tune of Entry Of The Gladiators began to play down Baker Street.

Watson figured that a circus was in town. He thought he might go, he is rather fond of clowns.

-

Watson did his daily walk down Baker Street, humming to the tune of one of those fun circus-esque songs.

He stopped at his usual place - just across the road from Sherlock's place. He imagined Sherlock and him playing chess by one of the windows, they wouldn't be boarded up so the whole world could see them. Sherlock would always call checkmate first, of course, it was his thing.

He registered a presence next to him, but he didn't let it drag him out of his fantasy.

However Watson's company's voice did force him back to reality, with rather a lot of force. "Ah, hello there, could you help me?"

Watson turned and there he was. He looked slightly older, more frail. He was confused, too, which was never a good look for Sherlock Holmes. Watson's mouth fell agape.

"Sherlock?" Watson breathed out, the other man barely acknowledged it.

"I feel as though I should be here, it feels right. And so does speaking to you, for some strange reason," Sherlock shook his head, "you see, I've got a small problem, I don't remember much as to who I am."

Watson's heart sank a little.

"I think it may be from an accident I was in quite a while ago, not that I can recall much of it. I was hoping you could help me? You feel.. familiar to me."

"Of course I can," Watson plastered a smile onto his face, one that bordered between joyous (Sherlock was alive!) and between despair (Sherlock doesn't even know who Sherlock is), "I'm John Watson. Your name is Sherlock Holmes, you are the best detective London has ever seen..."

Yes, Sherlock Holmes was a real life miracle worker. But for every good thing, there must also be a bad thing - there always needs to be balance.

You can't create miracles without consequences.

But maybe Watson could be the consequence to Sherlock's miracles.

[arom-antix]

Hey, just wanted to reach out to say that I found you pointing out and calling this person was really great and you shouldn't have apologized. It was incredibly true what you said, and to be honest it seems out of touch with the reality of a great deal of the japanese fandom, the nuances and their culture. Also, it was as you pointed out, extreme and may I say rude. I want to mention too that the way it was written, as if entitled of the knowledge and the 'explanation' made it all worse in context of the 'fucked up'. The original poster always gets away by using the 'well-written academic'' statement of their 'metas' as an excuse to do or say and make everyone else agree and if not, uses victim narrative and discourses exactly selecting wording for people to agree on it or feel bad.

I don't know if they tagging you in the way they did made you reblog and apologizing/backing up, but no one thought bad about you pointing it out. On the contrary, a lot of people had been bullied and discriminated by this person when they called them out/disagreed going onto lenghts of sending their friends to harass people, and the other persons can't even defend themselves because they are effectively blocked. To quite a few people in the fandom has been done, even accusing them as 'acephobes' (when they're not) or even Nazis by spreading lies. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think you were right to call them out publicly.

Thank you very much for this ask. To be completely honest I agree with everything you said here and don't actually feel bad about pointing anything out. I mainly apologised because I didn't want any potentially poor phrasing from my side to cause unnecessary hostility and because I myself have gripes with this person's behaviour but didn't want to cause a scene.

My honest opinion is that they have a serious issue with taking accountability for their own mistakes and highly overestimate their own intellect. If you're reading this, @thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai, sorry if I seem harsh, but it's true. I saw your post lamenting how you're the only academic meta writer / fan in the fandom and I didn't interact then because I honestly do not care enough to start that drama but with the information Blonndiec has just given me, I think it's necessary that someone calls you out.

You're not an academic. You're not beyond the mental capabilities of other fans. You're actually incredibly childish in your metas and analyses and I am not kidding when I say that I was halfheartedly writing essays more academic than every analysis I've seen from you when I was barely a teenager. I don't know how old you are and I frankly don't care. You're not as clever as you think you are.

Also, don't think I didn't notice that you didn't reblog my correction (link here to my correction and here to their "response" for those who didn't see that exchange) of your post so that you could control what your followers saw of the exchange. You're the opposite of an academic. You control information to tailor the narrative, you don't cite your sources properly if at all, you don't format your posts in anything close to how an academic analysis would be, you make unbased claims, you reference posts and canon material without in any way indicating where that information is from, you reference your own (equally unacademic) metas and your conclusions from them without indicating what post it's from or that it's your own theory this new one is based on and instead present it as a common fact, and I could go on and on and on. Your posts are also riddled with logical fallacies and you talk in absolutes and opinions when there's no canon basis to claim such things. I'm sorry, but that's not academic in the slightest.

To be clear, you don't have to be an academic to post on the Internet. You don't have to be anything at all. You could up front be a genuine idiot with no remorse and that's fine. But when you claim to be an academic and also put down the rest of the fandom for not being on your level, you have to be able to back that up. It'd still make you sound like a prick but at least your arrogance would have a basis. It currently does not.

I haven't personally seen the discussions that Blonndiec is referencing and I'm not going to claim anything definitive (because that would be unacademic of me, take notes) but if what they're saying is true and did happen as described, which I have empirical, if anecdotal, evidence to believe could very well be (a friend of mine has personally been blocked by you after they criticised you without actually mentioning your name which I of course can't prove is the reason for the block but the timing is awfully convenient), you should know that you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's context missing, feel free to enlighten me and call out any incorrect accusations. You have every right to defend yourself. However, I encourage you to cite your sources since you're such an academic. If you don't, then it's just your word against Blonndiec and anyone else who might comment's word and that doesn't prove anything. Don't misunderstand, acephobia and nazi rhetoric should absolutely be called out but only if it's actually happening. False accusations can ruin lives. I hope you know that.

I'm not a fan of calling people out publicly and, again, thank you for this ask, Blonndiec. But considering many of the issues I've personally seen and those I've been informed of by second hand sources were posted publically, I don't really feel bad about calling this out. I could do a full breakdown of just the insulting "academic" comments alone and how there's no academia to be found in said academic metas and, Samurai, if you give me reason to, I will show exactly what I mean point by point (and academically just to give you an example of even low level academia).

If you respond to this, do it in a reblog. That's what a real academic would do. If I'm wrong and you can prove it, you'd have no reason to not show my post in your rebuttal. If I'm right, you'd have every reason to be upfront about your mistakes and how you intend to rectify them. There's nothing wrong with being wrong but there's a lot wrong with refusing to admit to it in a way that lets others peer review you (academic thing, look it up) and come to their own conclusions about the situation. That's what you did when you just @'ed me instead of reblogging my response. A true academic wouldn't hide a peer review. You'd know that if you were one.

I swing in many academic spaces and yet that doesn't make me any kind of expert and I don't claim to be one because I'm not. But since you want to be one so badly, reblog this with a response and show us all how smart you are. I'm dying to know what your academic take on this is.

[notebookpapers]

Jayce and Viktor are gayer than CaitVi, I fear. And this is coming from a lesbian

[egopoiesis-art]

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

I’ve never felt quite as vindicated as I do whenever you tear a strip of off fanon Gojo. It’s so bizarre to watch an already tragic character be purposefully misconstrued because he’s not tragic in the way they’d like him to be.

LITERALLLYYYYYYYY thank you anon …… i’m very happy that we’re in this together. it’s insufferable!!!!!! frankly!!!!!!!!!!!!! gojo is already plenty tragic without them forcing feelings onto him that he simply doesn’t carry -_- ……. and then they use that misconception as a leeway into criticizing other characters, calling them ooc, and acting like gojo’s ending was just so terribly sad for him when it very much wasn’t in his own eyes. the kids are okay, their society is improving slowly but surely and the burden is no longer falling on the youth — he gets to be with his best friend again, the one he’s longed for. not only that, but he was recognized as a human being and dismantled of his title as the strongest by sukuna before he passed on. and yuji, in some sense of the word, taught sukuna about love in his place. (he surpassed him, some might say <3 ……… which is what he wished for more than Anything.)

gojo is a very tragic character but his tragedy mainly lies in the fact that he accepts the conditions of his own life and deals with it all quietly, without complaint. from his isolation, to his sleep schedule, to his body being violated. he makes the best of it. he rolls with the punches. it’s sad because he doesn’t find it sad. it’s tragic because he wouldn’t call his life a tragedy, he’d go ”well, i managed to make megumi laugh at the end there, so isn’t it fine?” and smile.

[im-not-a-l0ser]

Ruth, trying to explain A/B/O: So, omegas are the ones who are bred. Do you know what bred is?

Pete: I don't know what it means to be bread.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Couldn't the fact X is so powerful be - at least partially - because he doesn't have any hero name (as for now at least). If everyone knows him as X, and everyone believes and trusts in the idea that is Hero X; then his trust value could come from that lack of name? Previous Xs had other hero name like Smile or E-Soul. But if X never gave himself a name OR was never given a name by his believers, then whoever believes in X(again, as a concept, not as who is currently Hero X) or the very idea of hero existence period gives him power. I wonder if that can't be a way he found to cheat the system or sth akin to that...

His powers would be lying in the very fact everyone believes anyone can become a hero. He's a nobody - technically speaking. no name, actual commoner life, ...

Alternatively, he started it all by calling himself X from the start and so anyone believing in any of the current X (until and also including himself) also believed in him whether they knew it or not? more skeptical about that idea ngl

[blanketforcas]

Would you call yourself a proshipper then? Are you fine with people shipping incest, pedophilia, abuse etc? because what proshipping really stands for is having zero restrictions as to what is allowed in shipping, even harmful and taboo things, and if you aren’t fine with all that, or “pro” that, I’d be seriously cautious using that term. Because that’s what proshipping actually is, not what “antis” have made it out to be.

yes anon i don't believe thought crimes are real.

and you know what makes life so easy for us folks who are easily squicked out by "problematic" content? the fact that you can simply not go looking for it and block the tags you need to block!

there have always been people who enjoy things in fiction (fiction!) that they would never even consider in real life. that is and has never been a problem. the actual harmful thing is when people advocate for censorship cause censorship only leads to people finding loopholes. and you know what will suck for you and me, anon, when it comes to that? those tags we blocked won't work anymore.

i'd encourage you to research the dangers of censorship, cause that is what you're promoting. you think you're being helpful but what you're actually doing by posing the question "what content is so harmful we should ban it and shame everyone who engages in it?" is giving a gun to the oppressor who will eventually think that you're too problematic too.

[hualianisms]

Not father & son, not master & disciple, but a secret third thing

First of all, let me preface this by being clear that everyone is free to headcanon anything they want and like/dislike anything they like/dislike! That being said, sometimes I see international fans interpret FDB as LLH's son, or their dynamic as parent-child or otherwise familial, and as a native chinese speaker, I just wanted to share some reasons why I personally did not interpret them as familial.

Granted, at the start of the show, FDB is kept in the dark and also not up to LLH's level of skill in solving cases. However, FDB quickly catches up in crime-solving skills, intellect and maturity by the 2nd half of the show, after a well-written growth arc. I think the beauty of the characters and relationships in this show is that they grow & evolve, and are meant to do so. The dynamic that LLH & FDB had in episode 1 is quite different from their dynamic at the end of the show. By the later episodes, they are 2 adults who are very much equals.

Why I don't read them as father & son:

LLH & FDB act and speak in a manner that is far too informal & familiar with one another, which would be extremely inappropriate for any kind of parent & child, even a surrogate one. Several times, FDB calls LLH by just his first name "Lianhua", and sometimes even calls him "Damn Lianhua" when he is angry/upset at LLH. This would be extremely rude for a disciple to call a master, or a son to call a father. No son talks to his father the way FDB talks to LLH, and no disciple talks to their master like that. Unless the son/disciple hates the father/master, and is outright rejecting his father/master altogether. As we see in the show, not only does FDB not hate LLH at all, he instead cares deeply for LLH and would do anything to save him. Why, then would someone scold/curse someone they care about? Does the trope of the upset spouse/partner sound familiar?

For comparison, see FDB's interactions with He Xiaohui, who he is close to - he is informal & affectionate with her, but never calls her anything other than "娘 niang" ("mother"). I can't emphasize enough how taboo it is in Chinese culture to ever call your parent or parental figure by their name under any circumstance.

2. In ep 31, FDB himself explicitly rejects the idea of LLH as his shifu and himself as LLH's disciple, responding that he is too old to be LLH's disciple and it was merely a joke. He clearly sees LLH as an equal, and rejects the notion of their relationship being anything other than that of 2 adult equals. LLH also tells his shiniang that FDB is not his disciple, and a few episodes ago LLH told FDB that he has never understimated FDB.

Coding/hints as something other than platonic:

Zhiji/zhijiao - FDB calls LLH his 知交 zhijiao in ep 19, and 知己 zhiji in ep 34. "In this life, I, Fang Duobing, recognize you as my only zhiji." is practically a love declaration. And this bond is reciprocated by LLH, bc in a deleted line in ep 19, translated by forayuarchive on twitter, LLH is the one who first calls FDB his zhijiao.

To clarify, Zhiji is not specifically a romantic term, but it's what was used in both The Untamed and Word of Honor - both dramas based on danmei novels with canon gay main pairings - to bypass censorship, to code the bond between the main duo as deeper than your typical platonic male friendship. (See this post for a detailed explanation of the significance/history behind the term zhiji, and see this twitter thread for an explanation of the meaning of zhijiao in MLC - especially how zhijiao is specifically mutual, reciprocated).

2. Married bickering - forayuarchive on twitter has discussed in these twitter threads how the tone of many of LLH & FDB's interactions (especially FDB) is similar to how married couples or romantic partners speak to one another bc of the level of familiarity, tone and language. For my fav example, see this note (translation by forayuarchive) that FDB left LLH in ep 35, which reads pretty much like a note that a spouse/partner might write when leaving their shared house in a hurry.

3. "Xiaobao" - Personally as a native Chinese speaker, LLH calling FDB "xiaobao" in front of everyone is a level of intimacy that genuinely would make me feel embarrassed to hear as a third party. 小宝 xiao bao (literal meaning = "little treasure") is usually something you call actual babies/children AND is FDB's family nickname for him, so if you're calling a grown man that in front of everyone including his colleagues, family and even strangers, then one might assume he is likely either your biological family or your romantic partner. (For comparison, just imagine calling your s/o their parent's special childhood nickname for them at work.)

4. Deleted lines where FDB calls LLH "xiaohua'er". 小花儿 Xiaohua'er ("little flower") is very intimate and feels like something someone might call a lover. Or, at least, definitely not a platonic shifu, even less so a parental figure. (For meta on the names that LLH & FDB use for one another, see forayuarchive's twitter thread.)

5. More deleted scenes (translated by forayuarchive on twitter), perhaps cut due to censorship, which make apparent LLH's high regard and deep care for FDB. For e.g., a line of internal monologue by LLH in ep 40, translated here by forhenjun, shows that LLH thinks of FDB as the only person in his two lifetimes who has always treated him as a human being rather than putting him on an unfair pedestal.

6. Official MLC accounts act like as if they ship them.

As murderedbyhomework mentioned, there is a song in the official soundtrack of MLC called "Fanghua's Day-to-Day Life" (yes, the exact same words as their ship name). Sounds like a couple's daily domestic life, doesn't it?

The official iQiYi Romance youtube channel lists clips of LLH & FDB under the romance category.

The official MLC douyin account posts MVs with emotional captions (e.g. this one translated here by forayuarchive) that emphasize how much both LLH and FDB mean to one another. Another official MLC douyin calls LLH & FDB the person each other trusts the most.

The MLC clips posted by the official Guangdong TV weibo account also has captions such as these (translated by rice_jpg) that straight up describe FDB's feelings towards LLH as "when you like someone" (very similar CN phrasing as the phrasing used to describe romantic crushes).

7. They are subtly paralleled with a canon straight romantic couple (see fanqxiaobao's twitter thread on the parallels btwn LXY/QWM scenes and certain LLH/FDB scenes). MLC also made a distinct change from the novel by not having FDB get married to Princess Zhaoling, even though the drama could have easily given FDB a romance with her.

8. If you're familiar with chinese romantic tropes or the danmei genre, LLH & FDB fit many common romantic tropes e.g. sharing a drink on the rooftop under the moonlight, forgotten first meeting in childhood (and then meeting again properly as adults), power couple fighting side by side (they even held hands!), nianxia, protective younger ml, sickly older mc - just to name a few. Danmei even has many stories of shizun/shifu & disciple pairings who fall in love as adult equals.

There's honestly lots more but these are just some off the top of my head. Again everyone is free to interpret anything! This is just me explaining why as a native chinese speaker I personally did not read their dynamic as that of a father and son.

[wereh0gz]

Ok so there's something that's been bugging me for a while and. I need answers

So the fandom wiki page for Sonic the Werehog (the first one that usually appears in search results right now) says that Sonic's transformation into the Werehog is caused by Sonic absorbing negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds

Their source for this is the game manual for the Xbox 360 version of the game, which say almost the same thing

However.

The game itself has. No indication of this being the case. Like AT ALL. If anything it HEAVILY implies Dark Gaia Energy is the real cause

The opening cutscene doesn't show any negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds being absorbed by Sonic (at least, that's not what it looks like to me). It actually looks like the energy being DRAINED from both Sonic and the Emeralds, being syphoned into the canon and then shot out at the planet

Not only that, but the transformation begins only AFTER the world is shattered and Dark Gaia is released, and Sonic's movement even mirrors DG's in this scene. And that's only the small details, ignoring the obvious things like Sonic only transforming at night when DG becomes active and its energy begins affecting people, and the transformations only stopping because DG took back that energy

If negative Chaos Energy WAS the real cause, then why would DG take back energy that doesn't belong to it? Why would it be the thing that makes it whole (or "Perfect") again? Why would Sonic's transformations after the first cutscene have the same purple smoke seen in the DG minions and in people who've been possesed by them? Why haven't we seen this transformation again after Dark Gaia was sealed if it wasn't tied to it?

It just doesn't make sense to me

I haven't looked into other versions of the manual or different translations or anything so I don't even know if this is in all of them, or if it's a mistranslation or something. If it is, it wouldn't be the first time there was an error with a Sonic game manual (the famous "Eggman is a feminist" thing from the Heroes manual was a mistranslation I believe. There were other errors but I can't remember them rn)

So yeah now I'm just confused. Is it Chaos Energy? Dark Gaia Energy?? Some secret third thing???

[ofbardsandmen]

every once in a while i end up on that goddamned kof headquarters rooftop searching in vain for a certain box hidden in the brick wall that i know is no longer there even if that's where it should be

[charleemoon]

i will always always always say that be more chill is a very mediocre musical and horrible adaptation that completely misses every lesson and narrative choice in the original book and waters down any one it doesn't and the lyrics are really awkward and its flawed in pretty much every major avenue. that being said i think i deeply miss jeremy heere and michael mell... i miss being into bmc when i was because i think theyre always going to be comfort characters to me