#and i dont know how to move forward

[california-babylon]

I am drunk and I want to have a lotr marathon with a women who cares about me

[jhinstrumental]

[ladykyriaa]

I think one thing I'm gonna say to the people who are, in a way conflicted and/or waiting to watch the series is that you're honestly gonna have to be okay with grey areas. That's literally it.

KnH isn't going to explicitly show nor tell you how good/bad things are. it's an incredibly realistic story set in ancient China tackling its many issues; starting from societal problems, political, norms, gender roles, and so on. What might be problematic now isn't necessarily something the characters are going to think about more than twice.

I think a slightly controversial example would have to be abt the pedo emperor. YES, an incredibly horrible person and deserves to die in the most painful way possible. But KnH also tackled the issue that he had been human, all too pathetic and pitiful to rightfully rule the empire-never had the spine to talk to proper women thus resulting in him only talking and being attracted to (gag) little girls. You're not gonna see the characters talk ill of him more than necessary, they know its fucked up and frankly weird, but there's nothing to be done but to live with the consequences of his actions.

(Why I set this as a grey example is because I've seen people expecting the pedo to be this horrid-abusive person-and he is of course- but they certainly weren't expecting him to be depicted so pitifully and hurt, like he himself was a literal child still in need of protecting.)

don't also expect the characters to do one good thing after another just because you expect them to. Under different situations, different feelings, different place, their choices vary from one another depending on what's necessary. Don't even expect their relationship to be one linear from start to finish, thinking you can guess which way its gonna go.

in fact this is what maomao says when Jinshi questions her explicitly about their relationship

and i just think this genuinely applies to the series as a whole. Natsu Hyuuga isn't going to outrightly spell it out for y'all what Maomao nor Jinshi feels for each other, what the empress dowager feels for the pedo, what Ah-duo feels for the emperor and vice versa. She expects people to understand and come to their own conclusion.

She pieces together puzzles and expects you to fit them together, if you somehow got a different result from the way she intended then, well, that's on you I guess.

don't expect a "yes" or "no" answer to whatever questions you're about to ask. There's always gonna be a "but" and "however" to it, I think. At least from my experience of reading the novel and questioning the choices they've made.

People in this fandom throw away the word SA so easily, TOO easily I'd say. from here on out you're gonna read a lot more "problematic" things that other characters have done that they think are more or less for the good-whether that be their own good or other characters' sake.

The anime honestly does paint the series in a lighthearted way, and compared to other series it's certainly not as "dark". However I do think the strength of this series lay in its realistic choices and stories, how the characters feel so utterly human, not just driven by plot.

[wackywatchdotcom]

something i genuinely adore about tadc is how painfully flawed everyone in the circus is. and not in a small way

everyone does SOMETHING that negatively impacts the others. but it makes the fact that you are supposed to sympathize with and really connect with them all the more potent. because its easy to want to put a bunch of characters in a bad situation together and to just have them all be nice to each other and everyone and never make mistakes because theres no reason to hurt each other, and most of them dont TRY to, but the way they cope is so, so realistic for each of their personalities, and it doesnt always mesh with the others, and sometimes it exceeds self destructive and Just Hurts Others, Too

they still generally care about each other and the mistakes they make and the ways they end up hurting each other dont lose their weight but like. it doesnt take away from their humanity and the fact that they are all trying so hard to manage in an awful situation

and the characters seem to have sooome sort of understanding of this too. not fully, because the characters dont tend to be 100% communicative, but when they hurt each other, it often makes EVERYONE uncomfortable. because these are the only people they have. these are their friends. and theyre all coping. but it doesnt change how much it affects them (best illustrated by ragathas lines at the start of ep 2 or gangles 'i love her, but after a while it gets kinda hard to tell how genuine shes actually being'). its not all like this, theres a good amnt of variety, but characters knowing this but not really knowing what to do about it is very painful in an effective way

(i think a subtle example of this is how zooble handles gangles situation in ep 4- they were so genuinely trying to help her because they care. but could tell as the day went on that oh, this is not working at all and its making things worse, and they leave gangle alone- something that very genuinely couldve been the moment she abstracted, because of the mask zooble gave her- and we dont get to have a super blatant explanation of zoobles thoughts on it, but they reach a fairly healthy conclusion about it that helps both of them, and i like that a lot, because on paper zooble could be placed at fault but the narrative doesnt dwell on it excessively, because thats not the point. i dont know if that tangent makes sense but i think about it sometimes. i think zooble wasnt 'to blame' but it was still a mistake, which is a hard balance to strike, and having them help at the end feels extremely effective at rounding it off!!!)

but like. in general its complicated balancing making characters in a bad situation act flawed because it can run the risk of seeming like the story is scolding them or blaming them for the situation theyre in, or like youre expected to not sympathize with them despite it (though the inverse also has complications- if characters in a bad situation never mess up, it feels unrealistic and hard to relate to, and can imply that their innocence is why whats happening to them is bad at all), but the show handles it so well

even the characters who are genuinely trying all try in different ways- some of them have similar outlooks or attitudes towards these thing but theres vital differences for ALL of them- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. in fact some of the more painful mistakes characters have made in the show have come from them so genuinely trying (like the thing i mentioned w zooble, or basically Everything Ragatha Does, or pomnis first attempt at helping gangle, etc), which hits harder than if every mistake characters made had wholly selfish and cruel goals.

i mean, there is a selfishness to many of the characters' actions but imo not in a way thats not warranted. because all of them are in a horrible setting. its uncomfortable to watch characters be selfish. but it is a natural instinct to survive. its not the foundation of most of their actions, but when it is, its uncomfortable but hard to completely disparage them for in a way that makes you feel kinda conflicted

and like. it hurts to be doing your best and for that to make things worse, but its what happens often in the show. because no one in a bad situation is gonna handle it well. by the very nature of trying to survive something is gonna give, but it makes the themes of the show so much more powerful. that making sure the people around you dont feel unloved, cherishing them and finding meaning with others is no less important just because everyone is fucking up. it complicates things, for sure, but it doesnt make those characters exempt fromt this. theres a reason pomni tells gummigoo that she doesnt want "anyone" to feel like theyre nothing, and that kinger doesnt add ANY quallifiers to making sure people feel wanted and loved (not that i think either of them were thinking SUPER super hard, but it conveys smth from the perspective of the narrative

it gets complicated when you add in jax for sure, since i think on the surface he IS the exception to this concept- none of the characters like him, including pomni or kinger. but i think this is something thats gonna be examined further down the line, bc hes the main complicating factor in this reading of the show, but i feel like thats on purpose. hes universally disliked (and so is caine, in a different way) and his actions arent mistakes. they are him coping. the show has made it clear that he can be a complex person AND also a piece of shit. his actions dont detract from the fact that hes a person and the show reminds us of this. so it makes things so messy, but im genuinely super excited to see how the show examines that. where his character goes is, imo, going to be a massive piece of how this show fleshes out this concept

[mossterunderthebed]

[swagstar]

dispencer talk

[anadorablekiwi]

@silvercaptain24 @onceuponaladye

Does this look good? (With the assumption of the stickers actually being stickered on there lol)

[cursedhaglette]

What is morinnes opinion about solas breeding kink?

Is she ever going to tie him down so he stopps running from her? Make him beg on his knees?

(Please tell me these are all going to happen in your post requited fic) 💚

asejkdhfkjsdhfkjh i love that you wasted no time on this

okay so as for the breeding kink, i mean sis is gonna have no problem with that - she's sick in the head for the egg. but for more details than that you're gonna have to wait for the one shot >:)

as for locking him down, i mean we're going to the eternal fuck prison! fade "jail"! solavellan heaven! and she's pretty fluent in the fade at this point, so it's not gonna be so easy for bozo to disappear once they're in there 💚

[aries-of-spades]

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i'm scared

[tiniest-hands-in-all-the-land]

Figured I'd give that art-through-the-last-decade thing on twitter a try, even if it gives me a laugh and a tear :0

Here's the template!!

[qomrades]

ive been sent multiple messages from the various accounts campaigning for this family. im going through the messages to check for their vetting, but i came across one in my inbox from them campaigning for "govpn". does anyone know what this means?

[zimneognie]

sometimes i really do wonder how i got myself & my life to this point of this horrible stagnancy and it makes me feel so guilty and disappointed in myself because most of my life i had no issues with it and now i feel so completely lost and stuck and all around uncertain abt my wants and dreams and im super self conscious bc of my many many failures.. still it kind of always comes right back down to my inability to connect with people and resulting in my morbid loneliness idk i feel like time froze for me 3 years ago and everyone around keeps moving and progressing but im still stuck in the same hole i hate ittttt

[collgeruledzebra]

been a while since ive had a spell of anxiety bad enough i genuinely can't tell how much im overreacting

[mishy-mashy]

Julius is just a Hard Knock Life orphan on a path called Julius's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

[porcubus]

really really do not like the subset of fans who view anything negative happening to gemma as a win for their ship war

[francesderwent]

there’s this weird throughline in season one with Mrs. Wheeler telling her kids that they can talk to her. Mike nods and then turns right around and continues lying to her face, because El has convinced him that involving adults would endanger them. he doesn’t say anything because he’s protecting his mom, keeping her in her oblivious suburban bubble. Nancy says “no one is listening to me,” and when her mom insists “I am,” Nancy shoots back, genuinely wounded, “no, you’re not.” because Mrs. Wheeler is convinced she already knows what the answer is, that the biggest issue at hand is Nancy sleeping with Steve. she’s not wrong—the horror of losing Barb is tied up with Nancy’s loss of innocence, her choosing to step into a dangerous world that Barb wasn’t ready for and didn’t want and that Nancy wasn’t as ready for as she thought—but Nancy isn’t in a place to hear her mom’s answers, no matter how much wisdom is in them. the Wheeler kids have to go through their coming of age apart from their mother, no matter how hard she tries to be there. Joyce, on the other hand, is able to effectively tell Jonathan that he’s not all alone in the world, is able to be a part of his journey. and it seems like she can do this because she isn’t able to offer any wisdom herself. she’s a better mother because she’s a mess, because that opens her up to different answers and stranger things. and on the one hand I think it’s true that you have to be able to have real compassion for someone in order to help them through dark and confusing times, you can’t just preach from a place of safe certainty. but on the other hand I don’t think having no answers at all to offer your children will help them. you have to find a way to really listen and offer the answers in a way that meets them where they’re at.