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Watching Heaven Official's Blessing with my Mom - season 2

For the record, she's 70, I'm 40. I introduced her to the Donghua because I knew she'd love it.

"I think your husband* has a few screws loose." (About Shi Qingxuan trying to turn Xie Lian into a woman.)

"Be nicer to him. I'd drop you at once." (About the Earth Master being rescued, then carried.)

"Are you sure this is your husband?" I confirmed this. "Oh honey, I think your husband is gay." (Same as above, pretty much only a blink later.)

She had an eye-rolling contest with Mu Qing when he and Feng Xin fought while Xie Lian was under arrest. She would have won.

"Oh, but he's whipped." (About Hua Cheng helping to free the prisoners in Qi Rong's lair. She believes he might not have bothered. I'm a bit on the fence about this, knowing how he made Eming - and more to the point, how he did not. But I can hardly tell her that.)

There was no verbal response to Qi Rong aside from an exhausted "Pitiful." She observed him with the same expression she might use on a particularly slow dog.

"Now there's a guy you know never got laid." (She said this when Shi Qingxuan threw her breasts at Feng Xin. I was howling with laughter, she thinks it was in agreement, but it was obviously a bit more hysteria-tinged.) She also noted my husband is a brat. I can't argue with that.

She asked me if Xie Lian killed that guy at the end. I told her if she wants to know that she'll either have to be VERY patient until season 3 comes - or be moderately patient and read the books where that answer doesn't come at once, either.

*I told her that on the fuck - marry - kill list Shi Qingxuan is number two. I told her that fuck is Pei Ming because that man has experience. The way Xuan Ji clings to him, he must have some skill, too. Kill is Shi Wudu, but I did not say that to her, just that it's a character she hasn't met. She knows I dislike the Water Master, but she doesn't know how much. I didn't give that answer lightly, in my defence. There are very few characters I resent enough in TGCF, if any, but I had to name someone.)

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That ... hurts.

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I'm sure someone has already said this, but I have resisted posting this for THREE DAYS and now I have to.

I can't get over how fitting the name Ship-Sinking Black Water is.

Because that fellow sank his own ship so, so hard.

I don't even blame him, mind you. I actually like him, even though he's an acquired taste for me. I just want to scream at him and maybe whack him on the head until he uses it.

But other than that I'm totally sane about these people.

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ok now I need to subscribe to you on Ao3, who are you?

Haha, same as here pretty much: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pre_Reform_Voice

Thanks a lot!

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If anyone ever wonders why I left the Abramamitic religions behind me in favour of some weird form agnostic omnism with strong pagan leanings, read the answers to that one. So much earnestness for what can't be proven, so much fervour for old story books. Oh boy. With someone who hasn't done this entire Catholic thing any more for almost two decades, this is bizarre.

I mean. I did consider myself Catholic, I even considered joining a convent, but it NEVER occurred to me to call pagans satanic or any such things. This is the kind of attitude that turned me off the whole thing. (Apart from the bits that say 'I am the only god' and 'I am jealous of all the other gods that TOOOOTALLY don't exist' thing that makes ZERO sense and is toxic af. I don't want anything to do with jealous people, human or otherwise, they can stay the hell away from me. I ain't doing this.)

That the person in question is not even Christian doesn't matter. All three are the same thing to me. Same sky daddy, same arbitrary rules that made some sense back in the day and none now, same fervour in the followers that gobble up what they're fed by the higher-ups in their particular brand of the 'I love you but if you step a toe out of line I'll destroy you even beyond death' cult. They were when I liked them and they are when I'm glad to be out.

Boy. I really don't like them any more it seems.

Edit: I mean, it's poetic, in a way. I used to wear a gold chain with a small cross, Star of David, and crescent to signify that they have the same value and worth, and then I started, little by little, to resent all three. That process took many years. And then, one day, my chain broke. I was really sad and decided to have it fixed. I noticed in time and didn't lose any of the pendants. I never had it fixed. I know now I never will. The broken chain is a symbol in itself. I am lost to them and they are to me.

really recommend getting a partner with a different religion than you and very little knowledge of your religion because the opportunities for explaining things to each other are just exquisite

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Watching Heaven Official's Blessing with my Mom

The highlights so far after season 1:

'Why is he scared when someone mentions butterflies?' (I ... honestly can't answer that. Yeah, their wings can cut stuff - or people - but still, it seems so excessive.)

'Idiot woman, have some self respect.' (About Xuan Ji. Not how I would have put it, but I share the sentiment.)

'I want a little ribbon like that.' (About Ruoye, obviously. I tried to explain to her that she might reconsider eventually. She has since produced a white silk band from God-knows-where in her house and keeps fondling when we watch.) 'Aw, come on, how bad can it be?' (Worse. I offered to lend her the books after season 2.)

'I like that snake. I want one.' (She's a biologist.) 'Okay, maybe not that many.' (The scene where they pour down into the sinners' pit.)

'Are we going to see those two women again? They seem fun.' (Wind Master and Earth Master in Banyue arc. I told her yes. I managed not to look like I want to cry.)

'Isn't it a little early to be giving him a ring? Waiiiiit. ARE THOSE HIS ASHES?' (We had a death in the family recently and burning your ashes into a diamond was a VERY present topic of conversation over the past couple of weeks, but I feel so stupid now because I only got that one when HC says if the place where they're kept is destroyed he doesn't care anyway.)

Edit: I'm forty, she's seventy. I swear she knows more anime than me and this is the kind of story she totally digs.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Tho’ Much Is Taken, Much Abides

New beginnings need new rules.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - That Untravell’d World

A mental exercise to purge concern.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - The Thunder and the Sunshine

How to cross a burnt bridge.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - There Gloom the Dark, Broad Seas

When yelling on the scaffold, choose your words with extra care.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Seek a Newer World

You well would you hide if you didn't expect to be sought?

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - A Bringer of New Things

People from your past don't always stay there.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Always Roaming with a Hungry Heart

The most bitter tears are those that none can see.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Made Weak by Time and Fate

Some things cannot be forgiven.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - The Long Day Wanes

Some nights are very long, and not for good reasons.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - Subdue Them to the Useful and the Good

Finding a traitor for beginners.

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Dye Their Flowers With My Blood - From That Eternal Silence

Trust is not a prerequisite for an alliance.