#Sorrowful Thoughts

[sorrowschengmei]

okay SO i'm reading a guide on how to deal with rescue cats and...... is this a guide on how to deal with Xue Yang????

[thehopefulquotes]

Don’t ever put your happiness in someone else’s hands. They’ll drop it. They’ll drop it everytime.

One For Sorrow, C.Barzak

[hollytree33]

JUDGEMENT

Finally, her fourth and final card for Trespasser!!

1. The Hanged Man

2. The Chariot

3. The High Priestess

[justaz]

a spell is cast on camelot that thins the veil enough for ghosts to appear. the catch? the ghosts that appear are spirits of people that were killed by the person they’re haunting. the knights have a good amount of bandits/raiders/whatever that they took down in battle, maybe a few shady knights have genuinely innocent people that they murdered and got away with. the executioner’s killings are transferred to the king since he was simply acting out the king’s commands. arthur has quite a few. uther has hundreds of sorcerers in various states of gore and horror. those who were hanged have perpetually bent necks, those who were beheaded have either no head or just a head floating a bit above their body, and those who were burnt are more charred remains (the most grisly of them all). merlin has more than anyone expected (which was zero) and all of them keep calling out for arthur/uther’s death and camelot’s downfall while also turning to merlin and calling him a traitor.

[moonsnqil]

Kevin watching Jean ask Jeremy if he's okay, watching Jean offer to hold Laila's bag so she can fix her shoe, watching Jean hand Cat a granola bar before a game because she looked a little unsteady. He's not jealous, he had his time by Jean's side. Maybe it's grief. Grief for something that was never so innocent, never so untouched by cruel hands, something that could've been better if they were anyone else. Grief for something that's long passed and can never be fixed to be made better than before. He had his time at the receiving end of Jean's concerned glances. Maybe he's just a little sad that when he's at an away game, he no longer buys post cards for a friend. Maybe he just misses this person who used to always be by his side but they both knows it's better this way. Jean is happy, it's not with Kevin, and that's okay.

[jacenotjason]

oh my god

[thoughtkick]

Don’t ever put your happiness in someone else’s hands. They’ll drop it. They’ll drop it everytime.

One For Sorrow, C.Barzak

[perfectfeelings]

Don’t ever put your happiness in someone else’s hands. They’ll drop it. They’ll drop it everytime.

One For Sorrow, C.Barzak

[qoppybirdie]

Koshka!

[glitterghost]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like there is a particular kind of sadness (or loneliness, if you will) that ace/aro folk feel.

[banishedchildofeve]

♡.‧₊˚ Bible verses to remind you of your worth :

౨ৎ Psalm 139:13-14 : “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; yours works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

౨ৎ Hebrews 13:6 : “So we say with confidence, ‘the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’”

౨ৎ Jeremiah 29:11 : “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’”

౨ৎ Proverbs 31:25 : “She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.”

౨ৎ 1 Timothy 4:12 : “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

౨ৎ Deuteronomy 31:8 : “the Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.”

౨ৎ Jeremiah 17:7 : “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.”

౨ৎ Philippians 4:13 : “I can do all through him who gives me strength.”

౨ৎ Philippians 4:6-7 : “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.”

₊⋆·˚ ⁀➴ ༉‧₊˚. ₊ ⊹ 𖥔 ݁ ˖ ✧˚ .

[sorrowschengmei]

why almost every villain in MDZS breaks their expected gender role somehow

btw please notice when i say 'masculine' i'm not saying 'manly in a contemporary western POV' i'm basically saying 'appropriate behaviour for a cisgender male of his social position' so yes expect a lot of class struggle as newsflash, identity based  oppression ALWAYS walks hand in hand with social class [there's a reason upper class americans always seem more comfortable to display gender nonconforming behaviour than working class ppl of the global south]

first i'd like to use a character as pretty much an example of  almost 100% gender conforming behaviour in that show: Wangji.

yes he's gay, but that really doesn't seem to be an issue in this setting. why? bc he dresses plainly, doesn't display excessive emotion, shows devotion to his family, respects customs, doesn't mingle outside his  social class... i mean, we all watched that show, he DOES slip sometimes, but not enough to create a reputation of rule breaker or something. even in his most rebellious moments, he's still inside everything one might expect of a cisgender man of his social class.

so who fails to meet the standard? characters that are heavily punished for doing so. that become bitter and resentful, and display their suffering acting in vengeful, cruel, calculating ways. that look at the society that ruined them, and say 'i'll ruin this bitch'.

and yes, this list includes Wei Ying. so say hello to the mean girls of MDZS!

starting by the most obvious example: Mo Xuanyu, gay, gender nonconforming to shocking levels and mentally ill. taken into the Jin sect, goes there and hits on his half brother. absolutely iconic. 

no really this character spits and pisses on the face of society, and its one of the saddest examples of this list as he not only doesn't do much damage as the others, he's also driven to suicide. i won't list all the ways he's GNC bc honestly there aren't too many ways he WAS in gender conformity lol

another character that resorts to ways that could be called antagonistic and also struggles with gentlemanly behaviour is Nie Huaisang.

he's devoted to the arts, what is NOT unmasculine per se, but the fact he can't succeed at swordsmanship, won't display a traditional assertive and unattached attitude when in a leadership position and has an overall sensitive and gentle demeanor mark him as a deviant from his assigned gender role, what is harshly punished by the masculine-and-manly-in-a-contemporary-western-POV Nie Mingjue. as he cannot win in direct confrontation, he appeals to indirect ways and social manipulation [completely ungentlemanly behaviour] much like the next in the list: Meng Yao.

this one is sorta tricky to fit in this list bc he DOES display gender conforming behaviour but as we can see, its either something fucking wicked like impregnating his own sister or pretty much a role he's playing. Yao is PAINFULLY aware of how society works. he can see clearly all the roles and picks those that will favour him. does it mean he's comfortable with them?

no lol to become the perfect married, with an heir, of high status, filial etc male model he does unspeakable things. i absolutely love this character and i'm yes, based af towards him bc his tragedy is BEING TOO GOOD AT FITTING GENDER ROLES. accepting anything to dodge the social outcast status that was imprinted on him since he was born. a whoreson is not a man, he's something less than a man, he's a Mo Xuanyu, he's a Xue Yang. he has no family to honour, no place in the social pyramid, no means of starting his own family.

he's unmasculine by definition. and much like Huaisang, Yao was graced with a soft and gentle presence, more appropriate for a Mianmian than a sect leader. talking of Xue Yang.... 

yes, he's pretty much 'manly' in a western contemporary POV. he kills ppl and displays antisocial behaviour, what is pretty much tied to our current view on manhood [see the soldier and the CEO as peak examples of the ''alpha male'']

 but whose family is he going to honor? what kind of emotional restraint is laughing during a massacre? which customs are being respected when a working class-born man kills an entire highborn clan for something that according to the custom he should just accept as his fate and move on?

add to that the fact he's very much satisfied with assuming a housewife role and hits on upper class men obscenely in any opportunity he has, and you have a walking menace to the entire concept of masculinity of this setting. *throws kiss* for Xue Yang, ancient Chinese working class queer icon.

then we have Su Minshan, who BETRAYED HIS CLAN out of devotion for a WHORESON, and has a lifelong grudge with who? yes, THE masculine role model, Lan Wangji, who honestly couldn't care less, he's just trying to live his already hard enough life in peace.  Su Minshan offends almost everything that means being a man in his setting. plus he's cunning-not a good look.

and finally we have the Yiling Laozu, that one that broke all the taboos, offended all the customs, rejected swordsmanship and embraced music, all while being romantically involved with a Lan of Gusu when he's merely a Jiang associate. and the most iconic part?

MXTX made him the fucking protagonist. yes. the dude who went there and dishonored everything that means being a man in his setting, she doesn't want us to think he's lowly, dirty, unworthy of empathy--there are enough characters doing this already. she wants us to join this gender nonconforming gay man as he lifts all the veils of society, wrecking mayhem in their little extremely rigid feudal system, intriguing the a-Yaos, a-Yangs, Minshans, Huaisangs and Xuanyus with his ways so similar but so different from theirs. it's like the author is saying:

'we know you are hurting. we know society fucked you up. but please, dont become bitter. you still can create a beautiful life for you. you don't need to be stuck in a coffin, left to rot, suicided or tossed aside. you CAN write your WangXian song and cultivate until immortality'

and honestly i dont think i've ever seen any work so obscenely thought-provoking regarding gender roles, social roles and trauma as MDZS....

[itwasntaphase]

Me when I realize I'll never get to be a sexy vampire that makes people question their sexuality and moral compass at the same time.

[archaicden]

oh, heart of mine,

[allonsy-gabriel]

the fact that thorn describes the stoats as "becoming more human" and that part of being human is doing anything for the people you love and that the goal of being a human is to "carry on loving." i am fine about the stoat show. i am normal about the stoats.

[thegreatimpersonator]

your personal relationships will never be as complicated and messed up as my parasocial bond with taylor swift