#righteous fall

[redlenai]

Petition to claim "Righteous Faller" as the term to refer to any fan of the Righteous Man x Fallen Angel trope

[bittersweet-jack-of-no-trades]

So we agree that Stan just wanted to invent things like his brother, right? That he felt the urge to build and create just as much? That his creativity was simply never allowed to be embraced until it become profitable? That he channeled his passion through the 'justifiable' path of scamming/getting money?

And we agree that despite Stan hiding and concealing it, his passion and creativity and inventiveness touched every soul that walked through the Mystery Shack?

[scurvyboy]

grunkle fidds au on the dome again

[stump-not-found]

starting the journey of learning how to draw the henchmaniacs

[arciam]

"There is always a choice."

"Choose me."

[vosling]

I like your blood on my teeth just a little too much

[ryrowentz]

I feel like this is very niche but Pete and Mikey New Mexico sunset era kinda give off Kelvin and Keefe vibes

[khattikeri]

drives me nuts when people treat jin guangyao or wei wuxian like they're socialist revolutionaries like no! they're not!! in fact their respective roles in society and complacency regarding its hierarchies is why ANY of the story even happens to begin with!!!

jin guangyao doesn't hold bitterness just because he was born lower class. he is bitter because others deride him and his prostitute mother in spite of both their intelligence, skills, and efforts to climb the ladder.

why do you think we were shown scenes of other prostitutes in the brothel deriding meng shi for being literate, for "trying" so hard? why do you think we were shown scenes of anxin taunting meng yao and throwing shit at him because he was trying to learn cultivation at his mother's behest?

why do you think jin guangyao arranged for the arson of that brothel, burned to the ground with everyone except sisi inside? that's not the behavior of someone who believes in true equality and the inherent worth of sex workers as human beings!

that's the behavior of someone who thinks he's better than them. the behavior of a man who already came up on top through political games and war crimes, backstabbing and spying for the sake of the "greater good".

i won't rehash his argument to nie mingjue that he didn't have a choice-- he had some choice, but no matter what he does his class will come up and people will always assume the worst and try to hurt him for it, which forces his hand to do whatever will protect him best (hence 'no choice').

jin guangyao did everything he could to secure his own safety and a place among those already higher up. and by that point, he'd won it.

the fact that the temple rebuilt on the brothel site is to guanyin, the goddess of mercy, is even more ironic! the fact that jin guangyao has the goddess's statue carved to look like his own mother is proof that he viewed both her and himself as higher than them. more worthy than them.

of course he cared about the general welfare of others (read: the watchtowers). but consider also that there is no watchtower near yi city, which ended up being one of xue yang's playgrounds. jin guangyao can and will turn a blind eye to certain sufferings if it is convenient to him.

sure, jin guangyao made undeniable contributions to cultivation society and accessibility, but he is not at any point trying to topple existing class structures. his adherence to them is in fact integral to his own downfall in the end.

it brings with it the inevitability of society conveniently ignoring his triumphs and genuine moments of humanity to deride him once more as an evil, disgusting son of a whore once his crimes come to light.

now for wei wuxian. he's the righteous protagonist of the story and he doesn't give a fuck what society thinks, yes, but he wasn't out there trying to cause an uprising so that all the poor servant classes and lower could become cultivators. he wasn't trying to redistribute wealth or insinuate that those who are lower deserve to be viewed as equal to the gentry.

the most critical and non-explicitly stated fact of mo dao zu shi is that wei wuxian has always been resigned to his position in the social hierarchy.

his unreliable narration, especially regarding his own past and thoughts, is so damn important. he doesn't EVER tell the reader directly that people treated him any which way at their leisure because of his parents' differing social classes.

no. instead we are shown how much prestige he is afforded as cangse-sanren's son-- reputation as a talented and charming young cultivator, made head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang-- and how little respect he is given in the same breath, as the son of servant wei changze.

the way he is treated by others is as fickle as the wind. if he obeys and does as told, there is no reward. of course he did that, that was the expectation to start with! if he does anything even slightly inconvenient, there is a punishment. of course he has no manners, what else would you expect from an ungrateful son of a servant?

wei wuxian's righteousness is not a matter of adhering to principles he was explicitly taught, the way nie mingjue values honor or the way jiang cheng always tries to prove himself. wei wuxian does the right thing regardless of what the consequences are to him because his good deeds are always downplayed and his bad deeds are always singled out, no matter who or how many people were doing it with him.

he has faced this double standard since childhood. there are points in the novel where it's clear that this sticks out to wei wuxian, but does he ever fight back against that view of himself? does he EVER, at any point in the story, explain his actions and choices to jianghu society and try to debate or appeal to their sense of reason?

no. because he knows, at his very core, that any explicit deviation from their interests whatsoever will be punished.

slaughtering thousands of people is fine when they want him to do it, and when the alternative is unjust torture, re-education camps, and encroachment upon other sects' lands.

slaughtering thousands of people who are trying to paint him as evil for not going along with their genocidal plans, however, is punished.

wei wuxian knows his acceptance among the higher classes is superficial and unsteady. from the age of 10, when jiang fengmian took him in, he knew subconsciously that he could be kicked out at any time.

he knows that cultivation society doesn't care about war crimes and concentration camps and mistreatment of the remaining wen survivors of the sunshot campaign. but the right thing to do now that they aren't at wartime is to help them, plus they'd punish him either way for it, so he will.

in this regard wei wuxian is more self-aware of his position than jin guangyao. he does care about common people and he does try his best to help them as an individual. even if that ends up with him disabled, arrested, targeted in sieges, or dead.

but is he revolutionary? in the full equality, fight the establishment, rewrite laws, change social structures and people's perceptions of class sense?

no. no. he isn't.

now my knowledge of chinese society and history is fairly limited to my hindu diaspora upbringing and our shared cultural similarities ... but speaking to what i absolutely know us true, adherence to one's social class is expected.

this is rigid. efforts and merits might bring you some level of mobility, but in the end, the circumstances of your birth will always be scrutinized first, and your behavior compared to the stereotypes of where and how you originate.

mdzs is not about revolution, and none of its characters are able to truly change its society. there is no grand "maybe cutsleeves aren't inherently bad" or "i'm sorry for persecuting you and believing hearsay, you were truly a good person all along!" at the finale.

people ignore history and repeat it again with the next batch of ugly gossip and rumors.

wei wuxian, lan wangji, and luo qingyang find peace only by distancing themselves from cultivation society and its opinions.

jin guangyao and wei wuxian both cannot ever escape from others' perception of their origins and actions. regardless of their personal beliefs, they are not revolutionaries.

[justasmolweebean]

Gave her her wee Azata wings .... hope you liek

[redlenai]

Fallen Angel

Heaven, please sing for me a song of life Heaven, save me in my dreams tonight Someday these wings will perish in your sight Night and day, I call for you

Alt version under the cut | Fallen Angel ft. Aimee ❥ Cafecito support ❥ VGen comm

[elavoria]

WIP Wednesday

Not tagged but I have something to share! I’ll tag @nostalgic-breton-girl, @sheirukitriesfandom, @dirty-bosmer, and @theoneandonlysemla.

A little snippet from the future Wrath of the Righteous campaign, in which Amaryllia learns she’s psychic via a crystal that only glows when exposed to psychic auras:

“It’s so beautiful,” Amaryllia said, watching the light shift and scintillate as Petra rotated the pointed crystal between her fingers. Although the crystal itself was perfectly clear, it radiated soft, prismatic light that reminded her of sunlight through stained glass. “And you want me to hold it?” “Yes,” Petra said, holding it out flat on her palm for her to take. “I want to see how it reacts to you.” Amaryllia’s brows furrowed slightly in confusion, but when no explanation was forthcoming, she took the crystal and held it before her. “Is something supposed to happen?” she asked, carefully rotating the crystal to better observe the interplay of colors. “Wait, where are you going?” “I thought so,” Petra said once she was several feet away. “You’re psychically sensitive.” “I’m what?” Amaryllia asked blankly.

[wiirocku]

Proverbs 11:28 (NASB1995) - He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.

[jwillbiteyourfingersoff]

Actually fucking sobbing after thinking about Lenore's storyline and death. She trusted Rodrick, she fucking trusted him right up until the very end. She trusted him and she was willing to forgive everything she knew, she sat with him after absolutely everything was ripped from her. Her family, her home, her own goddamn innocence, all ripped from her so violently and so suddenly and she still had hope. She still looked up to him and had empathy for him right up until the very end and if nothing else thats what made her the best of them.

[tcfactory]

Anyway, if you want proof that my brain is probably halfway cooked right now, I decided that the big story climax of my low-stakes College/Humanformers AU is going to be this:

Sentinel corners Dee and Orion on a rooftop and threatens them at gunpoint to stop them from continuously butting into his business already (he doesn't plan on actually shooting anybody. The worst thing he does in this AU is really just embezzlement and being kind of a bully). Dee tackles Sentinel and tries to wrestle the gun away, which causes it to go off and hit Orion in the shoulder, who, more from surprise than anything, falls off the roof. (He's fine. He's an expert at falling off high places and he's a prime, superhuman durability and luck just comes with the territory. He gets a few bruises he can just walk off and his arm is in a sling for a few days while the bullet wound heals).

This makes Dee panic and, not thinking clearly, his knee-jerk reaction is to throw Sentinel off the roof too, who is neither as durable nor as lucky as Orion, so he ends up in the hospital with a broken spine and a bruised ego. (Airachnid will laugh herself to tears over this when she hears about it, as it is her right as his best friend, then bring him a box of treats and a bunch of ebooks to make his hospital stay bearable.)

Since everyone present is some level of techno-organic, leaning heavily towards the 'techno', this is more of a painful and embarrassing injury than anything truly dangerous. It does keep him in place long enough that Dee can yell at him about keeping the whole "being blackmailed by a Quintesson" thing a secret, because they could have fixed that like week one if he bothered to trust people.

[feral-ass-raccoon]

if i had a nickel for every hispanic, amber-eyed black-haired character in a red hoodie that sprouted whole ass wings during a Really Bad Time i would have two nickels

[angee1011]

Please don’t lose hope. I know things are very bad and will probably get worse. But do not lose hope.

We will preserve.

We will survive.

And I know, surviving is not living. But it’s enough to get through.

I know so many of you are tired of fighting. But we have to keep fighting.

And the truth of it is, the Democratic Party is done. It has to be replaced. The Progressive party ideology is stronger. And I swear to God, come hell or high water, we are going to change this country. We will do it because there is no other option.

Stay strong and please, please, please… do not lost hope.