#TAGGING IN CASE YOURE INTERESTED

[casualavocados]

*holding out my hand* will you join me in my half-emo-2000s playlist for the most feral and angsty gay gangsters ever, ai di and chen yi?

notes and links to translations for a couple songs beneath the cut:

there's some overlap in songs on purpose but i still tried to put the playlist in chronological order. it basically splits the story into thirds: before ep9, ep9 through prison, & post-prison, and switches pov between ai di and chen yi fairly often.

Anime Intro — Neon Lights are very much starter vibes for both characters: for growing up together, for fighting together in the gang.

Nobody But Me; translation —idk i just wanted to add this bc it feels like something ai di would listen to, and the lyrics are fun if you apply them to both the ai di/chen yi dynamic and the boss/chen yi/yiyun meng dynamic

1st third: Neon Lights — Death of Me: ai di dealing with his feelings while chen yi's attentions are elsewhere; with a sprinkle of chen yi confusion in Lose Control >:3

2nd third: Death of Me — Love Addiction: ep9 through ai di's time in prison. some ep12 sprinkled in there due to the prison flashback. <3 chen yi pov really picks up in the songs here

Stardust; single line translation: 我们不散不见 -> "we'll never leave"

Love Addiction; translation —LINE BY LINE CHEN YI

Final third: Elastic Heart — Die For You: ai di's return from prison and chen yi pursuing him.

ファタール (Fatal); translation —LINE BY LINE AI DI

Die For You to the end of the playlist encompasses chen yi's ep12 confession followed by their deserved bliss together 💖

Wherever you are; translation

ok if you listened and enjoyed i would love to know cuz i put a lot of thought into this!!! i wanted it to fit them both musically and lyrically and i fiddled with it for a really long time before i was satisfied. EDIT: when i originally posted this, the playlist had 20 songs. i've changed the description a lot to fit what it is today. more songs may or may not be added in the future 💖

[harbingersecho]

heartbreak

[luna-loveboop]

Ooook I think this needs to be done

My bet is 16 wins the poll (<Not indicative of my vote)

I wanted to include 11 for both extreme sides of possibility, I ran out of options and I've seen a lot of people suggest he's in the twenties and didn't want to exclude those. If you vote eleven/twelve, or twenty three plus, feel free to specify which in replies or tags or whatever.

Looking in the notes of my posts, I didn't realise everyone in this fandom liked math so much. But a very mention of the number 4, and everyone likes square numbers and math puns. Go figure.

Edit/update section: Hmm I meant to add this

Jojo's words thus far on Four's age- 'not too far off in age' from Twilight (Four's theoretical words?), and grouped in teens with Wind. A bit confusing, there.

Anyways have fun! Maybe the whole fandom can be the apollos dodgeball meme if we get it right :)

Legend

masterpollst⛓️

[phantastragoria]

Midas enjoying his Burd lunch out in nature 🌸 (the Death Star is about to blow up the island and ruin his peaceful moment 🥀)

[bayetea]

there are many things about hazel's povs that have an intensely de-racialized vibe to them (read: divorced from the black girl experience) but I think any black person will tell you that the most obvious sign is the complete lack of attention paid to her hair

like firstly:

she's from the 1930s her hair was definitely getting permed and straightened (it was not acceptable to just wear your natural hair out back then. optics + cultural assimilation/you'll be hard pressed to find photos of black american girls with unstraightened hair in that time period unless they're from like..... harlem)

I do believe that marie was straightening it for her For A Time but then she became more neglectful and stopped so hazel had to do it herself. I'm almost positive that hazel wouldn't have even been permitted to set foot in her school building without straightening it because that's just how much of an expectation it was

ok she comes back from the dead. what's she doing to her hair now bc it's not just gonna be cutesy effortless curls falling over her shoulder no matter what the length is

how does she feel about living in a time period where natural black hair is more accepted (read: more, absolutely not fully)

there are no black people around her At All. in fact she's around a lot of white people on the argo (+nico) so that would probably be giving her some intense feelings of double consciousness (look this term up if you don't know what it means) and that would inform how she feels about her hair

theoretically she ought to be wearing her hair in braids for simplicity's sake but I think it's more likely that she would cling to what she knows (perming/straightening) because it's not easy for a 14 year old girl (PSA hazel is 14.5 in hoo not 13 btw 👍) to go from assimilating to deeply-ingrained white hair beauty standards to just proudly wearing a distinctly black hairstyle all by herself

mind you black women and girls can do whatever they want with their hair and straightening/perming it does not always/have to come from a place of self-hatred or whatever but in this particular case back then straightening one's hair was political And a survival tactic. it was as normal as brushing your teeth. it was enforced through dominant cultural messagings about the Absolute Necessity of conforming to white conventions of beauty. if you don't understand then think of it similarly to how you'd think of 1930s women needing to be perpetually dolled up and modestly dressed in order to be considered "good women" and anyways I'm just saying that this would be a lot to unpack for a 14 year old girl so hazel's probably just continuing to do this impractical thing (straightening her hair all the time) like 60% out of habit and 20% out of shame and 20% she doesn't know what else to do

something something about a missed potential character arc regarding all of this and in general there's so little mind paid to race in hazel's povs which is just ridiculous to me because a black girl from the jim crow era should have at least a few feelings about where she fits into modern society even if that society is camp jupiter. rick demonstrates his capacity to talk about how his characters feel about their race most notably in the kane chronicles so I don't think was too much to ask for. see this quote from an early son of neptune chapter:

^ like....... hazel's feelings of out-of-place-ness are There in the text and important to take note of when understanding her character (note that she's been there for like a year already and she still feels like she doesn't belong) but the emphasis is always put on her Being from a different time or Being undead and is never put on her out-of-place-ness regarding her race as a black girl from segregation times who is literally so out-of-place in this weird post-racial camp jupiter society. it feels like such an obvious thing to consider so its glaring absence really bugs me when I reread her povs and it bugs me when her hair is never talked about by extension because It Matters

you might be thinking "well she had a lot going on and she's not a superficial person maybe she just didn't care what was going on with her hair" and my response is simply that Black girls don't get to "not care" about their hair it is not the same thing as a white person going to school with bedhead it's not the same thing At All (if you aren't black then chances are you've never actually seen what untouched black hair looks like in the morning), especially when it's been beaten into your head for your entire life that your hair is ugly and you have to "do something to it" for it to be acceptable (and again...... she's from the 1930s so that feeling is magnified like 50x over). remember that perpetually dolled up modest 1930s woman I mentioned previously. picture her time traveling to camp jupiter of all places in 2010 and struggling to drop all of her makeup/hairstyling routines and internalized misogyny and conceptualizations of what women are "supposed" to be. this is the kind of fascinating character exploration that we really missed out on with hazel (and tbh regardless of her race she was never believably written as someone from the 1930s. I don't think rick even really tried to be honest)

you might also be wondering "how was rick supposed to know/attempt to portray any of that" and then my second answer is that If you're going to write a character who is not the same race as you then you should do some research and we have the internet now so research has never been easier 👍 this would be especially important to do if that person is a poc from the jim crow era I think! (he could have at least googled black hair 1930s)

anyways what I choose to believe (this is pure fanfiction) is that during hazel's first year at camp jupiter (remember that she was there for about a year before son started) nico would have helped her figure something out after observing her distress over her hair c: like they both secretly watched youtube videos on black hairstyles circa 2010 and then they got attacked by monsters for using a laptop (neither of them know how to use a laptop but he's trying his best for her) but then after killing them he helped her do her hair as something she likes that is easy to maintain <3 (I could also see reyna doing this because she surely knows a thing or two from her spa days)

[voidcanarys]

It annoys me when people have blanket expectations about all bllk ships. As if they’re not uniquely different and separate narratives. You can’t place the same expectations on bachisagi and reonagi for example cause they are different ships with different characters. They may have similarities, but isagi & bachira and reo & nagi don’t have the same priorities, beliefs, personalities etc.

I often find people don’t understand that bachisagi’s number one priority will always be soccer, even over each other. They will never settle or slow down until they are fulfilled with soccer. Choosing love/each other over soccer is not only a betrayal to their own selves (and their characters) but they’re kinda betraying each other. I’m not saying they can’t have soccer and love but if push comes to shove, soccer will always win and that’s what drew them to each other. The fact they’re soccer freaks is such a big part of their relationship and expecting either of them to tone that down for the other would probably hurt more than defeat.

Let’s say in the future they have to face off and the result of losing is not being able to play in the world cup. They wouldn’t hold it against each other nor do I think it would ruin their relationship. But going easy on the other? Or purposely losing? Now that would hurt. You could argue that other characters giving up soccer could be a positive but for isagi and bachira, the idea of prioritising each other over soccer cannot be construed in any positive way.

[fauville]

do you guys have colours you associate very strongly with your ocs

[flaphack]

dgmw i like the close family arc in s2 but like. i feel like it would’ve been so compelling for it to be less abt how glenn was an absent father and more abt nicky feeling like a child of divorce between glenn and jodie (both of his parental figures constantly fighting each other and villainizing the other). i just find it hard to believe glenn would miss his grandson’s birth in any way. especially with having recently interacted with his own father and remembering how bill made him feel

[transingthoseformers]

Personally I like the idea that TF1 tarn is LITERALLY wearing megatronus's face. like he went back to that cave where the dead primes are just sitting around and went 'y'know. man's not using this anyway' and just slices the face off megatonus and wears it like a mask.

then when he gets back megatron's inner fanboy awakens and he's like 'wow tarn, your megatronus mask is so realistic that's amazing where'd you get it???' and tarn goes 'haha i know isn't it so cool?' and doesn't answer the question

(i sent you a meme about this and then i remembered you had no context for why it would be funny so. here you go)

Oh that'd be fucked up in an interesting way

I personally like the idea of tfone Tarn being a rebuild / "failed" clone of Megatronus, because warborn Tarn angst but also a reference to Cyberverse Tarn and the Perfect Decepticons, but!!! This is fascinating. There's implications here.

Does this mean tfone Tarn here is *fucking massive*?? Bigger than end of movie Megatron?

Turning your idol's dead idol's face into a mask you'll hinge your entire persona off of will surely has some interesting symbolism behind it

[tharatorns]

Neo Trai as BOSTON and Mond Tanutchai as BOEING ONLY FRIENDS (2023) | EP. 12

— requested by @odd-one-advocate ♡

[zolo-san]

To any Zosan/Sanzo artists, writers, creators, or anyone with prompt ideas and/or headcanons:

We're currently holding a collab event over in the tumblr Zosan community! If you're interested in contributing, please come join!!

Here's the post with all the details 😊

[casualavocados]

so i've been going down several translation holes while giffing kiseki... finding different sources which have their own translations, etc. then trying to choose the words that fit the meaning of the scene im giffing best.

i just wanna talk about two lines in particular that have made me tilt my head and wonder about nuances, so here we go:

the first line/translation i want to mention is from ep9, and is to do with the meaning and intention of the characters/story. it's when chen yi is confronting ai di after he gets out of prison about the time ai di slept with him four years before. i found three different versions of what ai di cuts him off with:

these all contain insanely different meanings in english. i was losing my mind trying to figure out the subtleties of what ai di was saying here, so i reached out to a very helpful speaker of the language who has made kiseki translation posts before, @nikkotinamide , and they said this about it:

and i just got so excited about that...the nuance! the specifics! referring to it as "settling accounts" is likely where the first translation about "the past" comes from, but the other two are closer to the true meaning. however, if you simply went with the revenge line you would miss the complexities that are being suggested in ai di's character.

thinking of that night as a debt he owes to chen yi and has to pay back... as something to be settled - something he isn't even really asking about but more expects chen yi to follow through on... it makes this line so much more poignant to me because it describes his guilt and heartbreak about what happened between them - about what ai di chose to do - in a much more specific and cutting way. ai di expects anger, rejection, and retaliation from chen yi, and tries goading him into reacting in those ways bc he believes he has done something unforgivable (and also that chen yi doesn't (and will never) love him), so he would rather chen yi push him away than risk being that close again.

(un?)luckily for him chen yi is absolutely smitten with him and doesn't let him get away with it. ♥️

the second translation i want to focus on is in ep12 & has more to do with words that don't translate exactly into english, but i went on a similar bender trying to decipher it:

specifically the translation of the last two characters: "堂口 (táng kǒu)" - the word translated here as "office".

bc outside of youtube i found those characters also translated as "headquarters," "gang," and "hall", which are all, again, wildly different from each other. so my best guess was that it was actually a very specific word that highly depended on the context it was being used in, and that context was being translated generally so that non-speakers in the audience would understand. but i wanted to know what that specific word and context was!

so i reached out to a bestie who did some more digging and she found this:

which IMMEDIATELY made me batshit insane because of course that's what it means; of course it's that specific!!

"office" is too professional for where chen yi lives - it's a car garage; it's their front as an auto shop. but it's also not yiyun's "headquarters" because that's the building with the spa where chen dongyang and his husband operate out of: the true central point of the gang. but because of this other line in episode 3, we know chen yi (and ai di too through association; they're a pair, do not buy separately, etc.) leads a specific division of yiyun gang:

so when chen yi asks ai di in ep12 if he's going to the bar or to "堂口" he's asking if he's coming home to the auto shop: their specific division of the gang, (which we knew all along was what he was talking about in the first place).

(...and this is just me continuing with the meta side of it, not the translations, but i also think this connects to what xiao jie and ai di were both talking about when they brought up chen yi's succession as the leader of yiyun:

because chen yi is currently just a leader of one branch of the gang, and young (25 at the point where cdy retires), so to me it makes sense that older, senior members of the gang - possibly even leaders of other divisions - would want that spot. but chen yi is practically cdy's son so get wrecked guys the gang passes to him. 🥰

and that's also why cdy is urging ai di to just come back and be a member again. bc he raised both chen yi and ai di (they are a pair, do not buy seperately) and because chen yi is gonna need ai di to watch his back as he takes over full responsibility. ...im mad we didn't get to see more inter-gang dynamics. that could have been so COOL let me IN.)

anyway those are the two translation bits that have left the biggest impression on me while i've watched and giffed kiseki so far. i just think language is so fucking neat.

[teamhawkeye]

“These characters are so sibling-coded”, “They act like brother and sister, it’s so obvious” “Uh, clearly that’s their father figure”, “They’re so father-daughter, you guys-“

you can just say you don’t ship them, You Can Just Say You Don’t Ship Them, You Can Just Say You Don’t Ship Them-

[marietheran]

The huge flaw in professor Brandt's outlook on the situation is that ultimately 'humanity' has no value separate from the actual human beings that comprise it. You cannot prioritise the survival of the species understood as potential beings who may or may not be conceived at some later date over the well-being of those who already exist.

I'm sorry — I like you, professor Brandt — but ultimately your worldview has distressing similarities to doctor Weston's.

[swiiivet-screamathon]

The ocean splashes in accordance to the great speeds that Smilk is flying trying to catch up to the airship.

A soul piercing stare at the destination before him, with such a focused expression you'd be forgiven to imagine that he had nothing but a singular thought in his head.

Exerting as much magical power as possible he dashes around the propellers and reaches the back of the ship, planting himself firmly on the captain's balcony.

After having made it his attention finally wanes and the glare instead shifts to the landmass they had just been on. The propellers spun slowly enough to block the view occasionally but that didn't stop the glare, not even the chattering that had soon begun above him took his gaze for even a moment. Simply watching everything that he had just lost and abandoned, sailing away from everything.

The few minutes that passed could've been mistaken for hours or even days, and each silent breath he took lasted years. Surely closing his eyes for just a fraction would take even longer, to doubt that notion was foolish.

Eventually though, the conversation above them seemed to near its conclusion, in which he finally managed to break free from his thoughts for just a moment.

With a wave of his wand he-- he...

He...

Nothing happened.

Nothing at all.

It passes across his eyeline with a glow of its orb, and that is all it does.

He takes his deep breath as quietly as he can manage; the ships engines might cause enough noise to let him relax, but best to risk as little as possible on this horrid ship.

He waves his wand again, seemingly with different intention this time, and this new intention did indeed cause something to happen, the summoning of a small paper puppet appears before him, wafting violently in the wind. He quickly disperses it as the fluttering was, as paper normally does in high winds, flapped loudly. Though fortunately it seemed to bring no unwanted attention.

He stares back up to the stern, the hands of that traitor dangling off the edge.

That........ Traitor...

He takes another breath and diverts his gaze, there's no winning with dangerous impulsivity-- any more impulsivity.

With a good look around what's available to him there wasn't much to work with, but there was one option that wouldn't risk being spotted, though it's far from something he'd define as 'ideal' by any means. A seemingly decorative set of railing that went around the hull.

With an annoyed grimace he does his best stretch in the scenario given to him, and then with a moment of concentrated anticipation, flies up and immediately grabs onto the rail, immediately regretting his action but persevering anyways, clawing onto the fixture to the best of his ability. The power of flight does help, but with the ship flying as fast as it is the arms of a poet is not one you want to rely on in this kind of exercise.

But he continues anyways, utilizing his flight to assist as much as possible when looping around from the back to the side of the ship.

With spite, anger and determination the journey from the back all the way to the front is an arduous and terrible one, but that's what he gets for believing that gnat.

But eventually, as gruelling and tiring as it was, as much as his arms sting from the exertion, as much as holding even his wand became an impossible task, he made it. Fortunately for him at the front there was a spot he could recoup at, simply let the wind blow him back into the hull with no risk of falling off. watching the sun set ahead of them.

He massages his sore arms as well as he can whilst relaxing every other muscle in his body. He might be on a timer but there's no land ahead yet, he's got the opportunity to take as long as he needs until the next step of his plan.

The sky was still bright, the light blue transitioning gently into the yellow sun that shone wonderfully in the sky...

He grimaces once more and rolls his sleeves back down, getting ready to enact what he came up here for. With the mimicking of clearing his chest he then belts out a perfect recreation of a whales call, heard loud and clear across the generally quiet ocean. Immediately the pitter patter of the cookies above to check on the noise erupts: 1... 2... 4-- where he then swiftly summons a massive paper puppet, a dark blue whale, and lets it float across the water below. With the plan executed he quickly but carefully returns to the side of the ship he came from, lets the wind drag him backwards and then uses the last of his energy to fly back to the balcony.

Not a lot of time to spare-- The balcony door is of course unlocked, so that's no hurdle. He of course couldn't stay outside as he'd be spotted by any random passenger when they reached their destination, but without any ability to get smaller being inside isn't much better. As he entered he immediately got a glance through the window on the entrance's door, seeing everyone at the head looking at his creation.

After darting out of view of those filth he instinctively raises his wand once more, but realizes quickly the his thought process was flawed, and with a twitch of one eye he scans the options available to him inside.

The most ideal place to be would be a spot where he doesn't risk being spotted by anyone who's either on or off the ship and has a decent enough exit strategy that he can take advantage of quickly once the ship does dock. There are two small windows he should be able to fit himself through once the time comes, though figuring out which direction the ship will dock in is going to be a risky one. All that leaves is somehow ensuring that either no cookies enter into the room or that he disguises himself as to not be spotted... He prefers the former, a little more.

He grabs whatever looks the most like a sturdy thin object and discretely hides himself under the window, sliding it into the handle, hopefully keeping it locked enough for his needs.

After all that, it's now just a waiting game.

[electroniccollectiondonut]

I have not been in this fandom long enough to reasonably judge others' takes however. "EPIC fans are so silly to characterize odysseus as feeling guilty for his actions don't you know he's a war criminal" is definitely a wild one. like first of all to each their own so settle down and let people enjoy things ok. and secondly making choices with a bad outcome, even knowingly and deliberately, does not exclude the possibility of feeling bad about it later. in fact it makes for a much more in depth character because then you get to explore what he does or doesn't feel guilt over, and why, and if that guilt ever edges into regret or not.