#api talks

[apenapaperandadoofus]

Sigh sometimes the MQ and FX hate, while yeah I’m not gonna tell you how to feel about a certain character is just so…biased?

Like listen. The whole gist of MXTX characters is that they are ALL flawed and do things realistic humans would do. It just pisses me off that the characters do things that make sense with their flaws and struggles but people always justify XLs pain and mistakes while absolutely hating on the rest.

And also: it’s been stated that FX looked for XL. Like literally in the first book of the novel I believe. And MQ OBVIOUSLY THINKS XL IS MAD AT HIM AND HATES HIM WHY WOULD HE GO LOOK FOR HIM WHEN HE THINKS THAT?!

Yes Mu Qing left XL when he was struggling, yes it was shitty but also: his literal MOTHER was sick, HE also lost his country, Xianle wasn’t traumatic only for XL (obviously he went through lots of shit different from MQ and FX) but he ALSO lost his home, he watched his people die, he was bullied relentlessly and literally BELIEVED XL and FX didn’t like him but he still STUCK with them even after he was yelled at by the entire world he wasn’t enough.

MNQ as much as I find him hilarious, clearly takes every moment he can to dismiss MQ and make him feel bad about himself ever since he was 15. 15. Do you know what hearing that type of shit every day of your life can make you think? He has self esteem issues while being prideful bc he’s a human being and all humans contradict themselves people!!! He left to help his mother, and with the 33 gods scene OMG YEAH obviously it was bad but once again let’s take a look at what happened alright?

ALSO ALSO I’d like to add he probably thought FX and XL wouldn’t struggle that much, bc FX and XL have been pretty successful their whole life, he probably thought they didn’t need him to survive bc he’s been told they’ve always been leagues above him.

Anyway:

1. MQ sees the officials fighting XL.

2. MQ, gets asked to fight XL while XL asks him to side with him. He has struggled his whole life to be recognized, he does and becomes a lower court official, and now he’s caught between a rock and a hard place. (Is that the saying? English isn’t my first language oop)

He wants to help XL he so obviously does, but once again- he has been like a dehydrated person his entire life and now he gets a chance to have water- only for him to be given the choice to give it up for his friend. Was it selfish? Yes. But did it make sense? Obviously. AGAIN he’s been STRUGGLING his whole life- and like XL said at one point, why isn’t he allowed to think for himself just once? Plus even after having the offers of being a lower court official he waits and helps XL and his family for a long time until he leaves.

3. When XL says MQ is his friend (which btw- MQ had no idea about bc again, he has the entire world tell him since he was a TEEN that he has no right to be XLs friend and that he isn’t, and being a TEENAGER WHO HAS BEEN BULLIED BY HIS PEERS AND TEACHER (who btw isn’t supposed to talk shit about their students bc teachers are there to teach and be patient and such) HE BELIEVES IT BC ALSO AS MUCH AS I LOVE XL LETS BE REAL HE HASN’T DONE A LOT TO HELP HIM HAS HE????

(Tumblr deleted this part I hate everything why)

It said, yes while XL defended him that one time with MNQ when he was blamed about the whole entrance to the festival thing and later on with the bullies WHICH BTW has clearly been happening for a real long time) MQ has been reprimanded by the state preceptor since he was 15. FIFTEEN PEOPLE. Do you know what hearing that his hard work will never be enough compared to others, yo be bullied endlessly like that will do to a person?

He’s been struggling his whole life to be recognized for his work- he’s like a starving man finally being able to have some food- why wouldn’t he want to keep it that way? After he’s worked SO hard for SO long why wouldn’t he try and keep his head above water after drowning all his life?

Like LOOK what this kid goes through

Also before you comment on the “he himself wasn’t very likeable” have you ever heard of self defense mechanisms? MQ has shown to be quiet and rule abiding whenever people of higher class (which btw is practically everyone) have interacted with him, however when people have bullied him (which btw he has also shown to take quietly???) he has only sometimes defended himself. He’s always on guard- and he reacts when he thinks someone is blaming him or using his status to be prejudiced towards him. Of course he’d grow up thinking everything was a little jab- that everyone was against him, because growing up thats what he saw.

He is immediately defensive bc it’s what he had to learn to do to survive.

And MQ follows the rules because he has been taught to survive from a young age.

And even after he ascends MNQ is SO shitty to him, only showing us a bit of what MQ had to go through EVERY DAY as a TEEN. XL never took his guoshi and was like “hey man can you please not bully this guy so much? Please don’t be so prejudiced towards him.”

He doesn’t. And again, thats bc XLs flaw at that time is he doesn’t know what others struggle with since he’s been successful and pampered his whole life, obviously he wouldn’t think about that at the time which is a flaw- just like MQ has flaws as well and acts accordingly.

AND AND it also says he’s been struggling in heaven as well.

And look at that. Much more difficult. Much more? That implies he had been having it hard enough before. Guys he was STRUGGLING OF COURSE HED TRY AND SAVE HIMSELF OH MY GOD

Anyway- he takes a step forward and clearly looks torn. We don’t know what he was going to do- but if he truly hated XL he could’ve easily beat him up. It’s until an asshole literally brings up, once again, something MQ has been bullied, self conscious about since he was a kid that MQ becomes mad- and it triggers him to side with the officials- but also give XL a small mercy. Was it wrong? Yes. Did he do it with malice? No.

MQ thought he was doing the right thing. MQ has always done what’s best for him to survive bc he was raised in a family where not only where they poor, but his father was a criminal. Obviously he had to learn young to think about himself. Obviously he was selfish at that point because he finally was able to show his worth.

ALSO HIS MOTHER PROBABLY DIED IN THE TIME-SKIP HE WAS PROBABLY GRIEVING TOO OH MY GOD

AND ALSO PEER PRESSURE? THAT WAS CLEARLY PEER PRESSURE AND MQ CAVED UNDER IT BC HES HAS ISSUES OH MY GOD.

Sorry anyway let’s keep going.

Afterwards yes. He lets XL get pushed, he sees him run away. But again, this is what MQ thought was helping. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was helping in his own way.

Can we also add, maybe he didn’t want to fight XL? Maybe he didn’t want it to keep escalating bc if it did it would mean beating XL up?

Even after the others goad him, MQ never touches XL. He could’ve hit him, he could’ve beaten him up and unloaded years of prejudice from everyone (including XL accidentally being classist- he doesn’t do it on purpose of course but there have been moments when XL accidentally just never lets poor MQ ignore the divide between them)

(Let’s add crossing the line is such a good song for the two of them omg)

And while selfish he chose himself- he has been choosing XL all his life, hasn’t he? Hes stood by him- why isn’t he allowed think of himself once? Why can’t he want to be successful, to be happy for once to have himself be acknowledged?

Am I saying what he did was good? No. But it makes sense for him and I’m not going to demonize a person who has clearly been struggling with self worth issues, being bullied and told all his hard work meant nothing who chooses to think of himself for once.

And then even after that happens MQ CHASES AFTER HIM. Yes he doesn’t help him, but chasing after him? The officials probably saw that and given the assholes they were probably shit talked him about that later.

MQ didn’t have to go after him but he did. He did.

Late? Yes. But he still did it.

And even so he later also admits he did it so he could help them out- SO BEING AN OFFICIAL ALSO WASN’T A SELFISH ACT- he wanted to use it to help his friends as well

PLUS ITS EVEN SAID BY HIM HE ALSO DID IT TO HELP XL AND FX 😭

Anyway he helps XL up and then apologizes. MQ apologizes.

People say him justifying his actions by comparing it to XLs robbery is not the same and doesn’t compare but uh-

XL robbed someone because yes, he didn’t have a choice, and he didn’t do it because he liked it. It went against his beliefs and morals bc he had to survive.

MQ didn’t help XL bc he was also struggling in heaven with the officials, and he clearly wants to help XL and doesn’t like it, but does something that goes against his beliefs and morals because he had to survive.

And afterwards- he goes and does something that heavenly officials can’t do. He gives them gifts. Which FX states that is dangerous and they can’t do.

MQ does risk himself for XL- yes it’s late. But he risks his skin for XL. He clearly didn’t think things would be so bad for them- he clearly thought they’d be better off because again ITS WHAT HES BEEN TOLD HIS ENTIRE LIFE.

And then again- he apologizes.

He has had time to think- has had time to meditate away from everyone else. He has realized he was wrong. He realized he fucked up and goes to make up for it.

He made a mistake. He had no reason to do that, to give them food and then offer to give them medicine- but he still did.

And I am so sorry, but it seems hypocritical of everyone else to justify XLs actions because of his struggles, pain and grief- when while yeah, MQ didn’t go though the same he still suffered, he still went through his struggles and pain.

I love XL but how come HE can act according to his feelings and pain and afterwards be forgiven but MQ can’t?

XL made mistakes because the world drove him to it- because of what he went through and suffered.

MQ also made mistakes because the world drove him to it and he had suffered too.

Again, they’re not in the same scale- but the justification of the actions is the same.

They were both driven to something and the actions they took were based on what happened to them. Then they realize their mistake and make up for it.

Phew anyway sorry for the rant it’s just. It hurts me to see characters not being treated the same- to be hated because of their flaws when the MCs get to have everything justified and ignored.

MXTX again, shows characters can make mistakes and have flaws. Hua Cheng is forgiven for his. Xie Lian is forgiven for his.

Why can’t Mu Qing’s be as well? He certainly made up for it by almost dying and having a cursed shackle didn’t he?

He’s been thinking his whole life XL didn’t like him. He fully believes it. And he does actions that are selfish- yes but he didn’t do with the intention of hurting XL on purpose.

And then when he thinks XL is being kidnapped and stalked (which lets be clear he wasn’t but for MQ and FXs POV it is lmao) by someone who has also KILLED OFFICIALS, plus is known to be manipulative and kind of crazy, get close to XL he does his best to help him??!

Like we do think it’s wrong because we have the context of everything XL and HC went through together- but MQ and FX dont.

Guys, if your friend was hanging out with a criminal who has killed your co workers, appears as if they’ve been stalking them and then have a whole place set on idolizing them (which yes I know the cave of 10k gods is a religious practice and I have defended HC from people who say it’s creepy, I’m just giving the POV from MQ bc why would a ghost king worship a god? In universe it would be confusing and for them be creepy) wouldn’t you be worried too? Hello!!! From their POV this is a horror movie 😭😭😭

Anyway I’ll cut this rant here. I’ve been wanting to do a whole thing analyzing both MQ and FX and this doesn’t even come close to everything I want to say but I’ve tapped to much.

It’s fine to not like them. However don’t shit on other people and demonize them completely without understanding their story and why they were written that way.

If y’all wanna talk about this more my asks are open 😌💕

[apenapaperandadoofus]

Hi! So first of all, I don’t mean to fight or say any of this in any disrespectful way, I just like discussing books and such but this is not meant to be a fight.

1. The stalking: while I understand why some people might perceive it that way Hua Cheng was NOT stalking Xie Lian. This is a common misconception. He was LOOKING for him but thorough-out the entire 800 years Hua Cheng had NO idea where Xie Lian was. How can you stalk someone without knowing where they are? He was looking for his god to protect him now that he had the power to, unlike in the past.

2. Hua Cheng never keeps Xie Lian from his friends. He never says “hey leave those guys, don’t hang out with them.” Is he mean and fiesta towards them? Yes. But keep in mind the reasons why

Mu Qing: left Xie Lian during the second flashback, and then didn’t defend him during the land argument. Hua Cheng was 15 at most at that time and watched as his God was betrayed (we know MQ had his reasons but for XL POV he was getting betrayed) PLUS being practically bullied by the other officials and HC couldn’t defend him. You know who could? MQ but he didn’t. If your partner was hurt by their friend wouldn’t you be a bit cold towards them? Also add the fact MQ kicked out HC out of the army solely because of jealousy.

Feng Xin: from HCs POV FX left XL during a terrible moment for him, yes XL asked him to but HC didn’t KNOW and it looks like after XL “fell from grace” his friends betrayed him. Also when he was a kid FX treated baby HC super shitty, no wonder he fell in love with XL since he was the only decent human being to treat him well.

Banyue and PX although I can’t speak much bc I read the books a while ago, I don’t recall HC ever being purposely antagonistic towards them. When XL goes to talk to Banyue and comfort them, HC doesn’t stop him, in fact he encourages him and the words he said. After all, it was those words that saved HIM. PX also did a lot of bad things, and Hua Cheng hates corrupt Gods. Of course he isn’t going to like him but he doesn’t stop XL from hanging out with any of them. If he didn’t want them there he would’ve made them leave from Mt. Tonglu.

While he teases and tries to irritate FX and MQ and YES he did try and separate them in Mt. Tonglu, it was bc they were arguing about MQs thing with the holy land. Bringing back those memories wouldn’t have made him feel empathy for them exactly. Besides he wasn’t even going to kill them, he was trying to get XL out of the cage as fast as possible to not see the statues (more on that later).

Shi Qingxuan and Black Water

The only reason HC was trying to get XL to not hang out with SQX was because he didn’t want him to get involved in BW revenge. He warned him bc him and HX have been working on this revenge for about two centuries, they made a deal long before XL even knew SQX.

And why didn’t he let XL help SQX at the end?

Literally just ghost politics. Remember, HX is a calamity, just like HC. They say in the books that if two calamities came face to face no one knows what would happen but it wouldn’t be pretty. Of course HC isn’t going to go back on his deal with HX who is his informant and spy on the heavens because of XL, as much as he loves him. Plus he didn’t want XL to be in danger as well. Whether XL had been or not SQX’s friend, his fate in black water arc would have been the same pretty much. PLUS HC gave XL SO many hints before hand (like actual hints to get him to realize Ming Yi was HX and HELPED him figured it out even though he had already made a deal with HX to not get involved in the revenge or stop it. HC helped before they were friends bc that was the deal the two made as ghost kings: HC gave HX the money and means to get to heaven to get his revenge, HX gave HC information on the heavens bc HC doesn’t trust them and rightly so)

Also not to spoil much, but you’ll see later on that HC never separates SQX from XL. In fact there’s multiple chapters showing the contrary.

HC first of wall, was never asked by XL to look for SQX and find him and if he was he would have (although given he couldn’t find XL for 800 years im not confident on his finding skills lmao), and second of all, HX made sure he couldn’t be found. HX is also powerful, so easily he couldve stopped HC from looking.

Plus in the future if you see them interact and he’s literally super chill about it and in fact, we could argue is the person he treats the nicest apart from Xie Lian. (He’s shown to be nice to Guzi, Banyue, SQX, Yin Yu, we could even argue HX)

Hua Cheng never separates XL from his friends, he never kills them (which he could) or tells them to stay away. Apart from the cave of 10k statues where he was literally having a panic attack inside bc XL would realize that HE was his beloved, plus MQ and FX treating him like dirt (even since he was a child, FX treated HC like dirty trash they found on the street) and even in the extras, you will see they eventually have a good relationship, and to quote HC:

Even if HC doesn’t like his friends which again, we can see change in the extras, he lets Xie Lian make his own decisions and he follows him. The ONLY time he opposed him was during BW arc and we already explained why as a ghost king he couldn’t.

Final thing: about the cave of 10k gods.

I totally understand why it would seem creepy at first glance without thinking about the place and the characters (but psychotic??? How?)

However if we break things down and see the reasons you’ll see Hua Cheng never did it with a dirty intention (even the murals are explained bc it’s land of the tender, and it’s part of HCs moments with XL, it wasn’t like a random sex statue, it was part of the theme of being his memories and moments with his beloved, which the land of the tender was part of).

First hundreds and thousands of statues of one deity or person are completely normal in other religions and even for emperors. You can probably find tons of examples on google (here and here) . So there’s an explanation that this is a religious practice HC was taking part of.

In Mt. Tonglu we can deduce HC was going through it, he was NOT having fun and it was a hard process for a whole decade. Remember HC was bullied practically to the point of wanting to die, and the only reason he was there and got saved from death twice was bc of XL. Of course hea going to think of him during this moment since it’s his comfort and reason to be there. And once again, he was doing a common religious practice for his God. The beauty of it too, is that along with it being religious it’s also shaped into love, which is for HC two separate matters, since he both sees XL as his god and as his beloved, but that’s why he always leaves a flower on XLs shrine, why he made the statues (which btw are depicting every moment he had with XL). Bc it was part of the religion. It wasn’t a creepy, oh let me make the person I’m obsessed with over and over (bc we can see HC is not obsessed. Head over heels in love? Yes. But obsessed? No. Look at Luo Binghe from SVSS if you want that, and compare the two. You’ll see the difference right away). HC has things outside of XL, he has his city, his gambling, he paints and sculpts bc he likes it, not bc XL is forcing him to.

Here’s also a post explaining more in depth as well why it isn’t creepy.

While it’s understandable why some people would see it like MQ or FX, see it from HCs perspective. He has never, and will never try to make decisions for Xie Lian or make him do something he doesn’t want. He respects him as a person and lets him have his own autonomy- we can see it so much throughout the books. (Super small spoilers for the extra) If he wanted to he could’ve separated SQX and XL, not only in the past but later in the future when they find him. XL literally mentions he goes visit him daily! HC contacts MQ and FX when something is wrong with XL he literally contacts them straight away, and THEY contact HIM (which means they have an ARRAY) if there’s anything wrong. He COULD have separated them, he could have killed them, but he doesn’t because even if he doesn’t like them which is understandable, he knows XL likes and cares about them so he won’t separate them.

Sorry for the long rant lol. Anyway, while I do see why some people see it that way, I feel a deeper need of understanding of all of the characters situation plus the era. Now if you wanted to talk about toxic and even compare, like I said before, look at Luo Binghe from SVSS. As much as I love SVSS he IS toxic, he actively tries to separate his love from his friend MULTIPLE times and does more things that are kind of questionable.

Anyway long story short, HC does care a LOT about XL but it is not toxic or obsessive. In fact he does it in the healthy way. He is a rational human being that knows his partner is his own person, he lets XL make choices, even the wrong ones (black water plus calamity era!) and he keeps the people that hurt him away, unless XL cares about them (like MQ and FX). For example. Look at Qi Rong. Xie Li doesnt really care about his cousin or like him, and HC has ANGER towards Qi Rong when he disrespects XL (and it is only until then he hears him up, might I add) but when XL shows he doesn’t want to kill him (bc of the body he’s possessing) and keeps him in his shrine, HC doesn’t kill Qi Rong. He pisses him off, sure, but when XL and him are away for some time he even sends people to take care of them AND the shrine. If he wanted to keep and aisle XL from everyone he could have sent them away.

Phew thank you for coming to my ted talk. Also this wasn’t done in a mean way or anything I just like character analysis lol. Sorry if English was crap, not my first language and yeah.

Also if you wanna read more about HCs different love this is such a good analysis.

This might be controversial but…like the vindication I've felt when Mu Qing and Feng Xin spelled it out for Xie Lian that Hua Cheng is creepy as hell in book 6? I was thinking the same since the start and I felt like I was the only one. Unreliable narrator and toxic shipping are fun but genuinely everyone seems to think that HuaLian is like a "goalsss" kind of relationship in the fandom, super cute and romantic but uh? If it wasn't the main ship, everyone would likely hate Hua Cheng for being a creep, let's be real. I felt like I was living in a bizarro world until those two finally spoke about it. Not that I had any doubt he would not turn creepy. I have believed since the start that Hua Cheng picked the colour red so he could use all his red flags as clothes lol He was always so... icky.

[assiraphales]

the anime casually dropping that luffy can talk to dragons

[spuirrelwiththeletterp]

I haven't been crying

no I haven't

no I'm not still crying shut up I'm just shedding excess body water through my eyes

[captorcorp]

every day i get inspiration for things beyond my skill level/free time/motivation...

[cementcornfield]

the way i know it's taking everything in him not to say some ridiculous comment to the press rn 😭

[beebfreeb]

what is bone grinder evil machine

They're the only band to rival Penis 3... and it sounds like SHITTTT!!!!

[apenapaperandadoofus]

Ohhh interesting- while I understand how someone might view the book like that as a person who’s favorite book id like to at least give my opinion about it

Thing is the romance from the book and movie are extremely different- and one is far more subtle than the other. So trying to get the same feel is almost impossible since the Ghibli is done in a more fairy tale sort of way (trust me I felt the same way when I watched the movie lol I was like: where’s my small actions of romance! Where are the characters flaws? Why is Sophie kissing the bird man when she should be throwing weed killer at him!

First things first- while I whole heartedly respect your opinion one thing rubbed me a bit off (respectfully ajdhdhd I don’t want to seem like I’m fighting lmao) also just in case- I am part of the LGBTQ community and have a close group of friends that are part of it as well (gays attract gays amirite lmao) so just in case I’m not a straight lady just saying stuff ajdhdbdb

While yes, Howl has the usual stereotypes of a queer man, I think saying that he’s gay just because he’s flamboyant af or likes doing his hair or likes fashion is kind of…very stereotypical? Just because a man does that doesn’t mean he’s queer- while we don’t know if he may be bi/pan it’s clear he has an attraction for women- and kind of assuming his sexuality because of personality seems a bit off? Like imo you never know until the person tells you or you ask. (And yes I do know there’s people that do conform to the stereotypes and that’s fine as well- however people should not be labeled based on it. The idea that gay men are all flamboyant, sassy and such is just really cliche atp)

We’ve been fighting for soooo long to break off stereotypes especially with what’s ‘feminine’ and what’s ‘masculine’ when like…there’s no difference? A man wearing make up doesn’t make him less ‘masculine’ etc etc you get the gist anyway I’m not getting into allll that but what I mean is we cannot say Howl is queer just because he does everything he does ajdbdbdb

I found it interesting that the book had Howl do that as a character when the book was written in the 80s. Like- for a man to be wearing makeup, being flamboyant, liking clothes etc etc was seen reaaaally bad in those times iirc. Like I obviously wasn’t born at that time, but I’ve got close familiars who had to hide that they were gay until like- the 90s/2000s because it was still seen weird at the time.

I like that like the whole book, DWJ makes it so you don’t judge people by their cover- so you don’t assume based on what everyone else says. That’s literally the message of the book. You don’t need to conform to societies expectations.

Now as for the other part- I kind of agree and disagree. When I finished reading HMC for the first time I was happy that Howl and Sophie ended together but was a bit like- wait a second what.

Then I read the book again and that’s when it became my favorite of all time.

The thing about DWJ is that you cannot read her books once. (I mean you can- but you will 100% enjoy it more if you read them various times). The beauty of Sophie’s and Howls romance, in my opinion, is how subtle and natural it is.

Sophie says countless of times that she feels charmed by Howls smile- from my memory she mentions it twice tho it could be more times. She gets angry when he mentions Miss Angorian! She tries to cut his suit so he doesn’t get hurt going to Mrs. Pentstentemmon (jfc I can NEVER write the name maam why) she literally goes to save miss Angorian just for Howl to be happy and she literally has an angry attack when she realizes she likes him (one of my favorite scenes haha!)

And Howl oh lord. He begins calling her nicknames. He takes her to Mrs. Pentsenaghhhhh so she can 1. Kind of give her blessing :000 and 2. See if she can take the curse of.

He also takes care of the scarecrow for her, begins flirting with Lettie only to get more info about Sophie (which once again hilarious Lettie was literally doing the same thing) he asked her what shop she wanted, what she wanted to sell- got her a big garden when she asked. He arranged for her family to visit her, went off to rescue her, got her her childhood home as well!

Anyway sorry for the long ramble (like I said- I love discussing and dissecting things like this and this is by no way me going “NO YOURE WRONG LISTEN TO THIS” since you were being respectful about it ahsbd just wanna make it clear I’m not attacking-)

In conclusion- I’m the case of the heteronormative plot maybe Howl shouldn’t be stereotyped because of how he acts in the book- at the end of the day personality does not define our sexual preference- and if you wanted to read a more queer romance with fantasy implemented im sure there’s a ton out there! It’s just hmc is not one of those :(

And the second I 100% get how you felt about the romance- I changed my opinion by rereading and noticing the little details and hints sprinkled throughout which is why this became my favorite book- but if the reader wanted a more passionate and heated romance it’s not the best book to read since it’s meant to be more subtle and natural.

Anyway I literally went off on a tangent do forgive me (and if my English wasn’t the best it ain’t my first language lol) that’s just my opinion in general about everything :D

(this is a ramble and isn't complimentary, so if you're in this tag purely for positive stuff, please swerve around this post; you have been warned, so pls don't add negativity to this post either, thanks)

Just finished hmc (book) and i have so many conflicting thoughts about it. Like it was obviously very well written in terms of the worldbuilding and the characters and the plot but then with the romance it felt,,, so odd to me.

Maybe it's the fact that it's decades old, but it has that feeling of vagueness that classics and stuff often do, where I don't feel at all invested because it all feels surface level. Like Sophie and Howl clearly have a connection, but I felt like it was never explored in a way that tugged at my heart strings, it was more like they had the grounds for friendship and then bippity boppity they held hands and were getting married.

Which gets me to another thing- this felt very much like someone had taken a very interesting queer character and put them in a very heteronormative romance plot??? Like howl has such major queer vibes, but then he interacts with sophie and vice versa like they're the protags of every heteronormative straight romance book (if there weren't even making out to keep your attention on SOMETHING), and it just feels like they were done dirty even tho they are as the author intended them to be and saw them as.

Idk just... They're such interesting characters and I would have loved to see their love story if it weren't trapped in a heteronormative cage.

The rest of the story is just so incredibly fun and engaging that whenever this stuff popped up and they were forced to play into these roles it felt jarring and left me at the end wondering if I'd just ruined the experience I knew from the ghibli movie and wasted hours just to end up feeling neutral about the story.

[kaiserouo]

You can't give me a shell and expect me not to try this

https://terminal.ishtar-collective.net/

(Disclaimer: do not ever do that to any real machine if you do that you're the one to blame)

[apenapaperandadoofus]

Ok QUICK if you were to be in a ballroom with one of them who would you choose

[riot-control-camp]

OKAY NOT DONE TALKING ABOUT THE LITTLE GARDEN ARC

ESPECIALLY THE NARRATIVE PARALLELS BETWEEN ZORO AND SANJI AND DORRY AND BROGGY??? THE FACT THAT THOSE PARALLELS PARTICULARLY IMPLY THAT THEY HAVE A SPECIAL BOND THAT WILL LAST LITERALLY FOREVER???

THE VISUAL WHERE THE AUDIENCE REALIZES THAT THE MOUNTAIN RANGES WERE SKULLS?? PAIRED WITH THEM LYING IN THE SAME POSITION AS ZORO AND SANJI'S TWO DINOSAURS LEFT BEHIND ON THE BEACH?

average tumblr user notices single instance of symbolism, more at 11.

but usopp getting more moments of bravery!!! WE STAN HIS ARC!!!!! I LOVE HIM!!!

zoro getting to laugh and tease people this arc was beautiful, i love that stupid cunty bitch

sanji getting his part of the arc done through cunty trespassing, lying through his teeth, and beating up animals? FANTASTIC THANK YOU FOR MY LIFE (specifically thank you for that twisting move he did with his heels around the vultures head. how does it feel to live MY. D R E A M)

LUFFY WAS SO SHAPED. I WOULD KILL FOR HIM. HE'S SO FERAL.

and calling it now, nami is absolutely going to get malaria girl is the QUEEN of "it's nothing [2 episodes later it is in fact a resonant Something with excruciating plot relevance and emotional stakes attached to it"

almost simped for crocodile but miss all sunday was Right There MA'AM. MA'AM. RESPECTFULLY AND ASEXUALLY, TILL THE BED FUCKING BREAKS--

also he has a giant gold pet which i don't fuck with. also his rings remind me of redd white from ace attorney who is Unfuckable as he is a murderer of a mentor figure (other forms of murder have not detered me from simping in the past. in fact it is typically a point in a character's favor)

also oh my god tumblr makes so much more sense now that i am attempting to use it while high, my fluency rate and understanding of how every person on this platform is distressingly and hilariously comfortable assuming their experience is universal

okay but the still of the giant's weapon shards thrown over their head in victory? makes me insane, will never be over it cannot fucking handle it will be crying forever and ever

[thefaultinoursprinkles]

not to sound like a redditor again but holy fuck it’s actually so annoying to be smarter than most people and it creates actual problems in my life. I have to be so careful about anything I say because even if it’s correct, people my level and above me will feel like I am making them look bad or challenging their authority so every fucking thing I say has to be this careful construction of explaining the same thing over and over again until I can finally lead them to the right answer so they don’t feel like I’m smarter than them.

[holliwoobz]

hi!! i go by hollie online :D i’m mixed (viet/black) &i love politics, soccer, history, podcasts, superheroes, comics, coding n a bunch more

fandoms include: spn, house md, the locked tomb, marvel/dc, dan and phil, bbc sherlock, hasanabi and fear&, usa/lfc/cltfc + some fav players

→ currently thinking about: SCHOOL IM OFFLINE RN !

i’m your standard fandom frog who creates (hopefully) cool shit:

#hollie arts is my art tag

#hollie writes is my writing tag

#hollie thinks is for miscellaneous rambling

#hollie asks is for answering asks

#hollie talks footie / #sock are my soccer textposts & general soccer tag

great, just & unliving is my submission to the 2023 interactive fiction vampjamp

i’m always down to make friends/mutuals! pls pls come chat in my asks or dms ^w^

itch.io

ao3

footietwt

[aretarers]

after a long day of bashing my head against the dropbox api trying to finish up integrating it into our webapp, youtube knows just what i want to relax with before i sleep

[deacf-coffee-is-a-sin]

After spending the past 2 DAYS trying to download revanced reddit I finally have it. god bless the github user for uploading their finished apk files and linking them in a comment to a 9mo old post😭😭

[risingsunresistance]

i havent rlly kept up with techno's dad but i saw his ign and just had to check

someone gave him youtube rank fkjhsdgk