#But I'm fully rambling

[vi-138]

[queerofthedagger]

One thing that's just been keeping me up for a week straight is that, while we tend to associate Elrond as the one incredibly skilled in healing - rightfully so - there is also that "little" titbit of how "the hands of a King [of Gondor] are the hands of a healer," which, infamously, is the line of Elrond's brother.

Which leaves just enough room to speculate that they may have both had a talent in healing, and in turn begs the question of just which part of their ancestry they got it from.

And the options there are all wild in their own right - on the one hand, there is Elwing's side which would make some sense due to Lúthien/Melian, but then in at least one version of the tale at the end of the Fall of Gondolin, it's said that Elwing and her people believed that the 'power of healing in their camp' came from the Silmaril if I remember correctly. Which implies that it's not a skill their line has been known to have an extraordinary talent in.

The alternative option is, of course, Eärendil. Now that means it comes either from Tuor, or it means Idril, which means through Turgon/the House of Fingolfin. And if I think about that too much I might just go insane because oh man the implications.

But also all the ancestral musings aside, just the idea that the line of Gondor's Kings is carrying forth Elros' own talent in healing as this permanent relic, reminder, and tangible leftover for Elrond, of something they shared and learned together? just. man

[quadrantadvisor]

Alright new Jason Todd headcanons in a dpxdc setting:

Danny is a "liminal" ghost, rather than a "half" ghost. He's alive and dead at the same time. (He's like Jesus Christ (in the church denomination I grew up in), fully ghost and fully human.) Danny, in human form, can go through a ghost shield, because he IS a living human.

Jason, however, is a reanimated corpse. He isn't a ghost, wouldn't have a ghost core, etc, he has a normal human system that runs ON ectoplasm. Jason CANNOT go through a ghost shield, because he is always an ectoplasmic entity. Danny can go through the Fenton Ghost Catcher and be split into a ghost and a human; if Jason went through the ghost catcher, he would straight up die.

(For my purposes I'm gonna say that Jason became an ectoplasmic entity upon his resurrection, but wasn't very stable. Dunking in the Lazarus pit stabilized his system but also poisoned his ectoplasm.)

I do think that Jason could learn certain ghost abilities if he learned to harness his ectoplasm, especially if they detoxed him off the Lazarus waters. He's probably already enhancing his stealth and strength in ways he hasn't really noticed. I think he's held back by the amount of physical matter he's lugging around, so maybe he couldn't fly, but I'm imagining temporary invisibility, or intagibility of like, a limb at a time. Maybe he can't walk through walls, but in a fight he can dodge by instinctively making the targeted part of his body intangible.

[bungobble-my-balls]

You know what actually I get EXACTLY why Dazai got so obsessed with Chuuya like that's 100% realistic.

Like when I was a little kid I was having my own existentialism period and I found everything boring and worthless, than I got into Adventure time and suddenly I had ONE thing I liked. Except because it was only one thing I got ABSOLUTELY obsessed with it. Like I would only talk about Adventure time, I would constantly draw Adventure and watch Adventure time and look up stuff online about Adventure time. I would lay awake at night imaging myself in the Adventure time world and I would feel actual genuine pain whenever I thought about the fact that I could never go to the Adventure time world. It got to a point where my siblings would give me an episode and season number at random, and I could tell them what episode that was and what it was about.

Like Dazai was also a depressed kid who suddenly found ONE thing he liked and that happened to be Chuuya, so of course he got absolutely obsessed with Chuuya and started thinking about him every night and would not shut up to people about Chuuya.

And it's been 12 years since I got into Adventure time and although my obsession mellowed out I still love it and think about it a lot but that's just normal for me now.

And that's also what happened with Dazai, cause even after 7 years he still thinks about Chuuya every day but its just background noise to him now because of how used to it he is.

I don't even kin Dazai or relate to him in general but in this one aspect we are the exact same.

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

I can't believe only now am i just realizing that biased flashbacks vs real unbiased flashbacks in monkie kid are animated differently

Any biased flashback is all told with still frames, stylized art, or only the main people in the memory moving while everyone else is still in the background

Think Shadowplay, think Azure Lions narration using the scrolls, think LBD's forced flashes of the future and past to Monkey King and Macaque, think DBK's story of the Samadhi fire.

All of those are either stylized, still frames, frozen figures, or sometimes all three.

Whereas the unbiased, real flashbacks are fully animated in the usual style. The opening of New Adventures (s4 ep2,) the beginning of The Samadhi Fire episode in season 3... they're animated like usual episodes. Everyone is always moving, things are always happening, expressions are changing, all that kinda stuff.

I KNOW THIS IS OBVIOUS I DIDN'T MAKE THE CONNECTION UNTIL NOW JUST LET ME HAVE THIS

[andillwriteyouatragedy]

gotta create the art you want to make. don't make what you think someone else wants. don't make what you think has mass appeal. don't make what you think will sell. don't make anything less than what you want to make. make EXACTLY what you want to make. make it from your soul. please don't stifle yourself! it's YOUR art! only YOU are possible of making it with YOUR ideas and YOUR visions and YOUR skills!! make YOUR authentic art!! we want to know what YOU specifically will make!! YOU!!!!!!

[makiswirl]

can i just say. and this is probably a niche hill to die on. that i am so gobsmacked every time someone vaguely hints at the idea that jotaro doesn't care meaningfully for the other crusaders, usually particularly kakyoin and joseph, when those two actually tend to be the ones he reacts to being hurt the hardest

like he cares for his loved ones!!!! that literally plays into his character motives in every single part he shows up in!!! stop lying to me!!!!!!!

[lucy-ghoul]

can't believe a show based on a videogame (usually games adaptations are notoriously bad, which isn't the case here tho) gave me the beauty and the beast/twisted mirrors/enemies to traveling companions/ruthless antihero+optmistic but still badass heroine who takes none of his shit/age gap but make it sexy dynamic of my dreams. as much as i love maximus and i think he deserves the best writing ever because 1. he's a clever deconstruction of the aspiring Knight bro who's actually a bit of a loser and, as much as lucy, sees the world in black&white at first and then doesn't get what he thought he wanted but what he needs (or at least i hope he'll eventually get it), and 2. he's a cutie and i want an epic love story for him too, it's very funny how they tried to give us a puppy kind of romance and the tumblr girlies still fixated on the "toxic ~she bites his finger off and he cuts hers off and sews it on his hand in what we'll pretend it's a symbolic marriage rings exchange or whatever~ asshole who used to be a nice guy/good girl™ with a lot of spunk and hidden anger but unshakeable morals" kind of relationship.

[aingeal98]

If there were two things about Cass I could make everyone who only reads fanon know off the top of my head is that one she barely ever uses sign language outside of the cartoon yj universe and there's no indication that she's proficient beyond a few words because her disability does not actually work in a way where sign language would automatically be easier for her. Aphasia is not the same as no vocal chords and not all speech related disabilities are the same. Also fighting to talk after being deprived of it as a child is kind of important for Cass as a character. She yells STOP at her dad in her debut issue. It's a thing.

And secondly the way fanon perceives her as being Bruce's favourite and the actual canon basis for this argument are completely opposite of each other. She's not Bruce's favourite because she's the quietest and most well behaved she's Bruce's favourite because she's most likely to fling herself into an active volcano to save the life of a mass murderer. And also because she's hyper-competent at fighting and vigilante work at the expense of nearly all other skills, which lets her bypass the "Grrr kids are in danger!" part of his brain. (Initially this got mixed up with the part of his brain panicking about her being a murderer but even after he moves past this she still doesn't have him lecture her quite as much over personal danger as he does the others.) This means when she pulls a sacrifice play he doesn't get mad at her like he would the boys, because it doesn't trigger his Jason Trauma quite as hard. Cass's favoritism comes in the form of not getting fired or benched after being an inch away from dying because unlike all the other kids Bruce is just like "Don't worry Cassie is too skilled to go out this way, she can handle it :D" while Babs is there begging him to stop enabling her for once. Bruce sees this girl lying unconscious and concussed after running head first into bullets to stop two assassins from killing each other and is like "That's my pride and joy right there!" because they are both delightfully unstable. It's the mutual projection and guilt of it all.

[beautifulhigh]

Welcome to the next edition of Jen's meta ramblings

I have watched the movie at least once a day since it came out and I kid you not, I see something new every time. The fact that this is Matthew López's first directoral debut is just... I'm in awe. And you can tell how much he loves the story because of the way things like this are set up and played out

In the novel, Henry and Alex are skinny dipping in the lake at night, and so I absolutely got the change in both time of day and also attire. But let's talk about that little island shall we?

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea

Every single one of us is not meant to be alone, without connection and without a link to someone else. We are parts of a whole and if we lose that... well. It's not good.

Henry is on that island, our prince who belongs to Britain and Henry Fox who thinks he has to belong to himself. The prince is forced into status and circumstance, of appearances and mindless ribbon cuttings. When he does something that means something - like the trip to the cancer ward - then he doesn't do it with cameras. I'd argue he's not the prince there, he's Henry Fox. The man who lost his father to cancer.

But this is not that meta.

Henry has shut himself off, shut himself away. He doesn't date the people he's interested in, he doesn't live his truth (and for very good and valid reasons). He has decided that while Prince Henry belongs to Britain, Henry Fox is an island.

And look who is swimming up to that island. Look who is coming out to Henry, having realised the night before that oh yeah, I do feel forever about him and so Alex swims out to that island.

And the first thing he does? He makes Henry laugh. He is silly and fun and the complete antithesis of the composed and collected Prince of Wales. And then he joins Henry, on his island.

This gorgeous overhead shot shows us that Alex is putting himself on Henry's right (protocol or his good side?) but he's also in the centre of the island. He's not on the edge of it. In the metaphor of Henry Fox's island, Alex is putting himself at the heart of it all. RIght before he lays out his heart to Henry.

The shot that broke our hearts too, along with Henry's. Because we can see the shore in the background now. We're reminded that islands are not - they cannot be fully independent. People cannot be islands and even though Alex is literally and metaphorically planting himself at Henry's side, Henry knows that this island he's formed for himself in his heart and his sense of self cannot stand if Alex is there. If Alex is with him then he is no longer an island. Henry Fox will not belong to himself and the sense of protection and self-preservation we see coming out in the Storming of Kensington is under threat.

So he bails.

The island is submerged, like the mythical Atlantis, because how do you render land useless? Drown it. How do you deal with water? Drain it away. He abandons his island and flees back to the only other space he has left - Kensington Palace - in an attempt to regroup. He drains his life of Alex and what he brings. He has to return to being the Prince of Wales because Henry Fox got too close. Because Henry Fox realised he was being loved by a man who would literally swim out to where he is.

Moment of appreciation for the shot. Matthew, you have a fucking talent and I cannot wait to see what else you do. Because our #imtaller boy looks so small here. So lost. When else have we seen someone look so small and lost?

Oh. Yeah.

When he's curling in on himself in an almost last-ditch attempt to protect himself and his boundaries from what is coming. You can see that he's no longer dry, that Alex's "shower time" has changed him. Alex brought laughter and love and water onto his island and Henry has just realised what this means. This isn't a visitor's visa. This is immigration.

Which is what makes THIS so much more. Back to our boy, drenched from the storm, plaintively asking Henry to talk to him.

Because yes, the Storming of Kensington happens during an actual storm, but by now you know I overead into everything... so once again we have Alex "swimming" out to Henry. He's dived right in and gone are the jokes, gone is the humour. He is here and he is asking to be let in and daring Henry to send him away.

This is Alex, serious and in love and following Henry to whatever landmass he is setting foot on. Henry is trying to be an island and Alex is out here going, "I'll just build another boat you fucker". A true 'ship if you will. He swam out to an island on a lake, he flew to a tiny island across an ocean. He is standing at Henry's borders and he isn't launching an offensive. He's just saying that if Henry wants to be cut off from everything then he needs to do the cutting himself.

Prince Henry felt like he belonged to Britain, Henry Fox felt like he had to belong to himself, and Alex turned up and went "nope. Mine now". (Insert additional historical quip about the English being colonised for once.) But there is still some truth in that: the Prince is part of England, and we should all belong to ourselves even in relationships. Henry just learns that the different parts of him can co-exist. Bit like how water and land can co-exist without one destroying the other.

Henry is Alex's North Star but he's also his solid ground. Insert quip about Alex colonising Henry and claiming him for his own, planting of flag, your innuendo of choice goes here. Pyramus wished there wasn't a wall - Alex straight up scaled Henry's.

There's a divergence between Prince Henry and Henry Fox, but at the heart of them both there's Henry. And this is the man that Alex sees, this is the man that Alex loves. Alex swims out to the island for Henry Fox, Alex pushes through the rain for Prince Henry. Alex holds steady in the storm of talking with King James/Queen Mary and the public.

And it started with Alex literally making his way out to Henry on an island: be that England for the Royal Wedding, a pontoon island on a lake, or knocking down Henry's walls.

To this moment. Which is very hard to grab a screenshot of, but Alex asks Henry to "take a walk" with him. This time it's Henry going to/with Alex. The fact that he's there is one thing (and a rant rather than a meta) but at this point they have each other. They belong to each other. Where one of them goes, the other one follows. Independent, together, co-existing.

Anyway. I'm sure there will be more bullshit ramblings and metas at some point. Follow me if you want more of that (but be warned: blank and empty blogs are blocked on sight) because we are not islands in this metaphorical storm of life. Let us swim out to one another, dry off with one another, and live a life with broken down borders and walls.

ETA: I now have another name to add to the thanks. Stephen Goldblatt, from the bottom of my soul, thank you

[slightlytoastedbagel]

An Shiraishi who is so convinced she will be left behind (again) and that she'll never be like Nagi. But then Kohane (and Toya and Luka which I also have things to say about but in this context we're focusing on Kohane) calls her "my Sun".

Which um. Y'know.

[catnippackets]

one of my many beige flags is that I am completely normal with seeing anybody's personal headcanon of any character unless it's a character that I relate to so heavily to the point that I sometimes see screencaps of them and think "that's me", in which case I can only feel good about headcanons that also relate to me. you can make the most detailed essay length post about how he has a specific mental disorder and use tons of evidence from the show and make total sense but I'll still look at it and be like "but *I* do not have that mental disorder therefore he doesn't either". I won't like...COMPLETELY ignore any fan content like it but the entire time I'll be shifting uncomfortably in my seat like hm. this is not correct

[heymrspatel]

can we talk about this real quick? like can we talk about how ian's just lying there looking at his husband in their new space? were they chatting? quiet pillow talk? were they just being quiet and ian was taking it upon himself to fondly observe him? thank you for your time.

ray. you come into my house with this? fully knowing? the effect? it's going? to HAAAVE?! i see how it is...

i think it's a mix of all. i think they're absolutely floating in the afterglow. just taking their time coming down. caressing. quietly talking. taking their time with what they want to say. conversations about anything and nothing. "do you want pancakes tomorrow?" and "we have an easy work day planned" and "i loved how you touched me tonight" and "kiss me" slow, soft. little smooches. little giggles. long stares. easy smiles. heavy sighs. a 'baby' here. a 'big guy' there. i love you, i love you, i love you.

but, i know ian also took his time looking. just going over all those features he already has memorized. mickey's straight nose, his long eyelashes, his eyebrows currently at rest, his freckles. so many! lighter than ian's, but there all the same. his shiny black hair, his ears, his neck - faintly marked - beautiful, collarbone, shoulders, chest, belly, down down down... ian's hands slowly touching everything he's looking at. with his fingers tips, feather soft. mickey all floaty and glowy and warm, accepting it all.

so, yea. i think everything, softly and slowly.

[scarapanna]

[WIP] Starting out an army of paper puppets y'all/silly

Been really quiet this last month, figured I should deliver

My totally normal and not hyperfixating self decided to do something different for my next animatic [It technically counts as a PMV but the rough draft is an animatic lmao]. I've never been this meticulous with making doodles so it's gonna be a looong ride/silly

Genuinely don't know where to put them all once I'm done but it's gonna be a fun thing to have around.

At least 20 pure vanillas are gonna be snuch in my house all curled up in a pile of assets and backgrounds, speaking of...those are made traditionally too!! Here are the ones I've finished

These are made with watercolours and colored pencils, only seven of these are gonna be made in this way for my sake. The rest are all digital (since they're just not as detailed)

[robby-bobby-tommy]

Honestly, I can't stress enough how important the theme of family is in mdzs. IMO it is the main theme of the book. Of course romance and devotion is important, but there's something so special about the way families are portrayed in mdzs and how important they are. (I watched donghua and read some of manhua btw)

Let's start with sibling relationships:

The whole plot started because of love for a brother and rage for how unjust his death was. The whole Cloud Recesses arc is an amazing set up for Wangxian etc, but it also shows the complicated yet sweet relationship between WWX and JC. How they both care so much about each other, how they tease each other. IMO JC did see WWX as a brother and loved him as such. Every time he scolds Wei Ying, it's always about Wei Ying's safety. Usually it's not "How dare you use demonic cultivation, you're gonna get our clan in danger", it's " If you keep it up, I won't be able to protect you". Even during the Wen invasion, the they're still together, they sacrifice themselves to save another. And don't get me started about Jiang Yanli, she loves her brothers very much. Despite Madam Yu creating a competition between the boys or Jiang Fengmian's lack of action and even enablement of WWX' dangerous and irresponsible behavior, they still love each other. I can ramble about yunmeng trio so much, but in short despite everything they went through, they cared for each other deeply. After Jiang Yanli's death everything changes, because imo the boys fully internalized Madam Yu's last words. WWX bring pain and destruction to Yunmeng. I think I need to stop, or we'll be here all day.

Or, another example: Nie bros. Nie Mingjue had to basically raise A-sang. They do deeply care about each other, and despite everything they'll be here for each other. Yet the desire to protect NHS from sad reality of golden core and qi deviation, their relationship soured a little. But it's obvious even for an outsider like WWX, that NMJ loves his brother. He pressures NHS, because he feels that he's starting to lose it. He wants to prepare his little bro to be a decent leader and to live without him. And NHS literally makes it his life mission to avenge his Dage even if it means having a blood on his hands.

Lan brothers show a good brother relationship. Lan Xichen supports LWJ in everything he does. Even his love for WWX. He gets protective, when he thinks WWX is laughing at LWJ's feelings. Lan Zhan is deeply saddened when his brother is missing and helps him discover the truth about his best friend's death. They're almost perfect siblings. (Plus they're super funny when drunk).

MXTX deserves an award for writing so many different sibling dynamics. And that's not all, she also portrays this different parental relationship so interesting.

Like, the nephews you didn't want, but care so much about, that you don't want them to suffer like their father did (Lan Qiren and this family drama); the kid of your husband's unrequited love, whom he seemingly loves more than your own children (Yunmeng Jiang happy house), JGS and the myriad of the kids he has ect. I love this variety so much.

I just love so much how MDZS has so much themes. Every time I think about MDZS, I find more and more interesting points and moments that change my perception of the characters. Every character is so humain and has their own motivation, that I can't truly hate some of them (apart from Wen Chao, his mistress and JGS, they suck).

TLDR: MXTX is a queen of writing complex human characters.

[quatregats]

Also this is the pinnacle of comedy. To me