#High Definition Society

[whetstonefires]

A fantastic thing about Wangxian is that they both have vast, bulletproof, towering edifices of self-esteem.

They know they're hot shit, they know almost nobody can compare; nothing changes their minds about this at any point. Even at their lowest they think highly of themselves; they're confident in their capabilities and judgments, and that they can outperform their peers.

They're arrogant, and they can back that shit up, and they have backed it up so often they're unshakeable on the subject of their own excellence.

This enormity of self-esteem is not at all incompatible with compromised self-worth, especially on Wei Wuxian's part, because the titanic self-destructive hubris that combination instills is the engine that drives his epic tragic backstory. But that's different! Thinking you're expendable and thinking you're inferior are separate judgements, that can certainly influence but don't force one another.

And one of the reasons this is cool is how the story holds them up against characters that are mostly pretty confident if not necessarily secure about their own value, but have very fragile self-esteem.

In varying ways, this is more or less what's up with Su She, Jiang Cheng, and Wen Chao.

Xue Yang also, but he's so weird about it it feels wrong to group him with those three.

Jin Guangyao is hard to place on this scale, because he shares wangxian's overweening sense of being better and more capable than other people as a rule, but he's not quite secure about it, and he shares Xue Yang and Su She's insane levels of conviction that he deserves to get what he feels is his due, at any cost to anybody.

But he definitely has a more complex relationship to that belief than either of them; su she's just like 'it's not fair!!!!!!!!!' about literally anything that doesn't go his way and xue yang is like 'obviously my finger is worth more than hundreds of lives because. it was mine.'

[catdoingblep]

Jesper: *talking shit about the merchers’ high society of Ketterdam and their questionable fashion choices in a random social event*

Wylan: Jesper, we are here not for gossiping *sipping wine* Did you see Boreg? The suit he is wearing is a crime worse than any crime Kaz has ever commited. The worst suit I've seen in my life so far, and I am living in the very same house with that purple monster you’ve bought last summer

Jesper: Yes, I know, right! Boreg is hilarious. How a person with money can even... Wait, what did you say about my purple suit?! You said you like it!

Wylan: Actually, I said that I’d like to take that suit off you... like in not seeing it on you anymore

Jesper with the most overdramatic facial expression: Wylan, I am deeply offended!

Jesper in two seconds: But you know who wears even worse outfit than Boreg? Just have a look at Schenck's wife!

[gurorori]

if you say shit like 'autism is not a disability' i hope you actually have really bad things happen to you and you are banned from the autism community for the foreseeable future. get another fun weird club if you so badly need one

so profoundly tired of people trying to make autism into this whimsical quirkiness when it's for most people a serious and debilitating life altering disorder

[zatna]

my zatanna is transfem btw

[tumbylyr]

Why does mcd have divine gods where we know almost nothing about

[saint-starflicker]

About Jason McConnell being a bad boyfriend and a bad person, that probably is something that people will still be saying...even though we're all so much more progressive and enlightened than audiences 20 years ago... right?

Right, fandom? Right?

[ screenshot of excerpt from this interview

JENNA LEIGH GREEN: The focal point of Bare is the relationship between Peter and Jason, but a lot of the fans have taken a very personal stance to the characters. On the message boards, I read things like, “I don’t understand Ivy; she’s just there to break the two boys up!” Some of the fans who’ve come to the show numerous times have never spoken to me. Not a word!

JOHN HILL: On the other hand, there are people who see Ivy as the focal character and think that Jason is the villain.

MICHAEL ARDEN: I think the writers have done a wonderful job in making sure that all of the characters have good intentions. That’s why it’s easy to identify with them. Even the priest is doing what he believes to be best. It’s hard to cast blame on any of these people. ]

I didn't understand Jason as a character (and that showed up when I was inspired to try to write fanfiction after watching the show, but then when I got to trying to write Jason part of my brain went "nope" because I didn't know what to do with him, I don't understand what goes on in there) but I definitely understood why he's like that for the story, because sometimes characters are vehicles to get a story told. Obviously: when the community around young queer people is accepting and emotionally supportive, then they're less likely to be miserable and so less likely to suicide. When the community isn't accepting and emotionally supportive, lacks proper guidance and is homophobic instead, then that can lead to a tragedy. If the take-away message after the show instead is, yeah we should have more homophobic religions and schools, so that then it weeds out the jerkfaces like Jason Jerkface McConnell...then I think we have a problem, and it's not the story that the show was telling. Sure people can project their unresolved personal issues with their ex or the patriarchy or whatever onto him, but if we drop the anchor there at hating on him, or blaming the creators for not writing somebody more sympathetic to our standards before framing his death as some tragedy (as though it can't work as a tragedy unless he's beyond Simon Spier or Charlie Spring levels of saintly)...I think that's missing out on a meaningful part of the story.

I keep saying that each person should have their feelings about a thing and a space to voice it, especially when it's about interpretations of a fiction, because it's (usually) more interesting why a person has the interpretation that they do, instead of prejudging their character based on their interpretation...but also some interpretations are flat-out wrong and I'm actually not interested in why when it's this egregiously wrong that Jason McConnell is nothing more than a jerkface whose face is a jerk.

I didn't "get" Jason as a character at first, but when I tried to understand then it turned out everything he did made sense for the way he was in the situation that he was in. People can do that with fictional characters too sometimes. We can try.

[platypusisnotonfire]

Floki from Vikings is 1000% autistic look at mr special-interest-in-boatbuilding go.

[shadowglens]

tossing up the idea of making olympia's father an elven/eladrin aasimar just to heighten her god-touched heritage

[dragonsareawesome123]

Polite Society is SO GOOD! Nida Manzoor truly never misses!

[butchboromir]

i think listening to so many love songs is turning my brain to mush

[artificial-condition]

Suchhhhhhh a good day

•lovely sunny weather but not too hot

•didn’t have work and don’t have work tomorrow

•took a shower in the morning and had my hair braided right after while still wet

•got bakery goods mmm

•made toffee and chopped some up which was really satisfying

•wore two different comfy cute outfits that I really enjoy and feel myself in

•blasted ridiculous songs on the way back from the bakery and looked ridiculous in a lovely way

•crocheted blanket I’m working on

•DIDNT GET A HEADACHE DIDNT GET A GLINT OF HEADACHE NOT EVEN AN INKLING OF PREHEADACHE

As far as getting things accomplished I didn’t do hardly anything but in the business of enjoying life I excelled today!

[veilchenjaeger]

The YouTube comments on Couple of Mirrors are complaining about the lack of Yiwei screentime, and... yeah, I see where that's coming from! But the pacing of this show is also fucking incredible and I wouldn't change a thing about it if I could. Holy fucking shit. The pacing.

[cruelsister-moved2]

my ranking so far btw am i controversial

[kamaradka]

hilarious that this is my bar for feeling okay now

[faytelumos]

#10 for this ask game bc I'm curious

Which of your OCs would be most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse? Which would die immediately?

Oh man! :0

This one is a bit tricky, because half of the cast is trained in survivalism, but that's not the only thing that determines your success in a zombie scenario.

Hmm… I would say that Narak would definitely survive, and if he's alive and kicking, he's protecting Ohrik with his life. That being said, Ohrik is at very high risk of dying from being Too Cocky and taking too big of a risk on something. An accident leading to an injury or pissing off exactly the wrong person come to mind.

Shryth is someone who could die in the initial shift to survival society, but if she survived it, she would probably make it really far.

Athetæm would 100% survive as long as he has the chance to talk. His Charisma modifier is ridiculous.

Lutem would actually probably die early on or in the mid-range of the timeline. She's huge and a trained boxer, but she has a big heart and would struggle to commit true and mortal violence, even in self-defence. Actually — she'd be the one who her death makes it very clear to everyone else in the cast that Shit Is Real and This Is Not a Game. She would probably be the first person in the group who gets bitten and turned, and it would be extremely terrifying because, again, she is huge.

This one gets dark, but Syfreth would die in a political power struggle. The enemy would kidnap him to try and use him for his insight/abilities, and his home faction would break in to recover him. The enemy leader has their back against a wall, and their hand around Syfreth's neck. There's no way for the main characters to get to him in time. After a tense standoff, the enemy decides that he's too dangerous to lose, and they pull out a knife and kill him in front of everybody.

Ræs could go a couple ways. Either he's out in the fight and he gets killed or bitten, or he stays at the base and helps grow food. Probably the latter, I think.

Hhamath, my sweet boy, I love him, 9/10 odds that he dies when Lutem turns. He doesn't believe that she's trying to kill him, he stays too close for too long, and she gets her teeth into him or just bats him full-force with her claw. It's tragic, and it makes a bad day so much worse.