#endgame feels so good

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

2x18 | 4x13

[narliee]

I'll say it first no matter what the cost Here I am, full heart, full stop I love you.

[jancysmixtape]

I don’t understand how anyone can say Wednesday didn’t like Tyler. She chose to go to the dance with him, she INITIATED their first kiss and SMILED at him. Then even after finding out he was the Hyde, she still said he was her type. It’s canon that she liked him. 😭

[agent-troi]

the first line of mulder's opening monologue in colony is actually so important:

"i have lived with a fragile faith built on the ether of vague memories from an experience that I can neither prove nor explain."

this is IT guys!! this is the crux of the whole show, of the whole dynamic between mulder and scully.

mulder wants to believe, but it doesn't come naturally or easily to him, the foundation being so fragile, as he puts it. his seeming naivete, his eagerness to believe just about anything, all of it stems from a deep insecurity that actually none of it is real, that all of his efforts and sacrifices have been in service to the illusion that one day he will see his sister again.

it's the opposite for scully. she is a believer, naturally, but she's afraid to face the inherent loss of control in believing in things beyond science, beyond reason. the possibility of these things being real frightens her as much as the possibility of them not being real frightens mulder.

the only way either of them can find the strength to overcome their respective fears is through each other. only when mulder's belief falters can scully find the strength to give in to hers, and only when scully fails to doubt can mulder afford to scrutinize the world through the lens of skepticism. they balance each other, make each other whole.

at the end of endgame, mulder tells scully he's found "something i thought i'd lost. faith to keep looking." that's exactly what they give each other!! faith and hope and companionship and love in a world that continually threatens to deprive them of those things❤️

[softerhaze]

"side quests" in act 3 be like....what if u were faced with the most complex moral dilemma ever.....for the 3rd time today

[what-is-it-to-be-pk-esque]

Ok I know I'm heavily biased here but like I kinda love that Astarion's romance is one of the few in this type of video game where you basically end up canonically unmarried and childfree in his "good" ending? Just travelling the world??

Like it's honestly the millennial dream lmfaoo cannot believe i chose what would undoubtedly be my favorite option, first try

[leavesdriftinginthewind]

“Primal attraction”

[babaroqa]

marian feeling backed into a corner trying to pass of tears of desperation as tears of joy literally men should be forbidden from proposing

[plantaagomaajor]

Only Friends hierarchy of needs

(and then they need to end up together in the most mutually unhinged and codependent relationship possible a la HIStory 1: Obsessed)

[wallywise]

Y’all.. i know it’s not his birthday yet but i wanted to draw him toooo :((

My pookie <3 i need to draw him with his new haircut too- but- i will miss long haired Mike 😔

Enjoy some doodle and a sketch of one of the prettiest boy ever <333

[crownedwille]

I've come to the conclusion that loving young royals doesn't mean I can't be critical about it, maybe especially bc I love the show so much I have such strong feelings about it, good and bad and I can love parts of canon and agree with it and appreciate it but I don't have to love it all. I have accepted that it's okay if I don't accept the ending and I don't have to force myself to support it. It's okay to not agree with all of canon and it's okay to not side with all of the creators' intentions/views. Loving a show doesn't mean you have to take everything the writers say on face value and that's the only version that is allowed to exist. Canon isn't everything and fandom is about curating your own experience that makes you happy and not miserable. You don't have to dismiss canon in every aspect and ignore it entirely, that's certainly not what I want but there is a fine line between being canon respectful, allowing some parts to exist and sometimes, yes, you just have to say "fuck canon" and move on for your own sanity and wellbeing

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[class1akids]

"I appreciate the realism in the Todoroki family storyline"

says the dude after defending with frothing mouth the lack of realism in Bakugou's storyline. Because it's shonen.

I have news for you, my dude. Nobody appreciates realism for their own favourite character. We all want the feel-good fairy tale and not some RL misery. And I am not saying that I don't want feel-good for Bakugou. I'm saying that I want feel-good for Shouto too.

But apparently that's somehow an outrageous want.

I have never defended or was happy over Bakugou's "death" - even knowing it was fake, it was a bad story-beat. And it's frankly awful how little empathy there is in the Bakugou corner of the fandom for how Shouto fans feel.

It's a terrible conflict of interest for me, because as a TDBK shipper, I love both characters and I follow a lot of Bakugou-centric accounts. But I had to block a lot of people, because I don't want to see people who diss Shouto on my dash / timeline.

[your-very-rude-neighborhood-ace]

remember in the doctor strange end credits when they established baron mordo as an upcoming villain and then they forgot about it in favor of having wanda destroying the multiverse?? yeah

[touchmycoat]

Shitty comic transmigration, fake white lotus!SJ AU

There were servants, and silk, and sunlight.

"Good morning, Young Master Shen. Did you have a good rest?"

And there was this comic.

"...Mmh, yes. Thank you."

The comic told a tale of romance and triumph over lofty class disparity and illustrated, at one point, the bedroom of the main antagonist--the treasured son of a merchant so wealthy that his political clout sometimes outweighed that of the nation's Emperor's. That bedroom was the quintessential embodiment of that power, sculpted out of pale birch, marble, and imported ivory. It was dustless and glowed with the gentle warmth that only the magnificently wealthy could afford.

"Where would Young Master like to take breakfast today?"

Shen Yuan's attention lingered on the intricately pale room surrounding him, gaze filled not with covetousness but with mild exasperation.

"Right here is fine. Ming Fan?"

"Yes, Young Master?"

He managed to turn the twitch of his lips into a smile when the servant answered to the name. Alright. Alright.

"Wasn't there a super expensive tea gifted to us recently? I'll have that please."

He could deal with this.

//

Shen Yuan's general opinion on the comic was that it was a damn shame how it played out. He'd been ready to look past the uninspired and vague setting and all the tropey character executions because of one thing--that truly brilliant kernel of an idea at the very heart of the story.

What if the white lotus main character was acting all along?

What if, in the classic tale of the saintly poor underdog defeating evil aristocratic entitlement to secure his place on a royal throne, the underdog was every bit as manipulative and nasty as his antagonists?

Enter Shen Jiu, street rat and dreamer of grandeur far beyond his station. Enslaved at a young age, Xiao Jiu was one day suffering yet another very public and humiliating dressing down when Young Master Shen happened to be dining in town. Irked by the noise, Young Master Shen had in turn publicly humiliated Qiu Jianluo, Xiao Jiu's master, which Qiu Jianluo could do nothing but take given the difference in their stations. Of course, later that day, Qiu Jianluo took all his fury out on Xiao Jiu, a session of brutal torture that ultimately became the last straw. Xiao Jiu killed Qiu Jianluo, burned down the Qiu estate, and escaped to the Capital. He found grunt work for room and board at one of the Shen Empire's pig farms and for legal ease, took on the Shen surname.

Then he began scheming. His target was Young Master Shen, who by all accounts was careless with his privilege at best, destructive at worst. Shen Jiu may carry scars from Qiu Jianluo's whips, but he attributed them to Young Master Shen. How was it that some people could be born into nothing but wealth, comfort, and luxury, while others had to suffer the burden of their existence? Why did Young Master Shen get the banquet halls, the expensive robes, the handsome Crown Prince fiance while Shen Jiu got beaten, used, and thrown away?

Shen Jiu decided with the taking of his surname that he would usurp all that Young Master Shen had for himself. Why not? Had Young Master Shen done anything to deserve his privilege? Would anything Shen Jiu do make him undeserving of that same privilege, more undeserving than Young Master Shen?

That was the bit of the story that got Shen Yuan hooked.

The rest of the comic, unfortunately, was seemingly dedicated to undermining all the murky ethics and tangled potentiality of that single bit. After the reveal of Shen Jiu's true nature (in chapter three--that should've been Shen Yuan's first clue that the pacing was going to fail him), the narrative quickly devolved into recycled harem dynamics and tired romance tropes. Poor Shen Jiu was given nothing but a few ominous panels of him smirking past a veil of tears, and Young Master Shen was nothing more than an automaton set to rinse and repeat Humiliation Plot A, B, or C, and get humiliated in turn by a member of Shen Jiu's sparkly boy-harem following a timely rescue of Shen Jiu from that plot.

To say that Shen Yuan had been disappointed would be an understatement.

But that didn't mean Shen Yuan wanted to be transported into this story and take the place of Young Master Shen, way past the point in the story where he'd invoked Shen Jiu's ceaseless retribution. He had actually always rooted for Shen Jiu; as a fuerdai himself, Shen Yuan had been morbidly invested in Shen Jiu's plot to yank this Young Master Shen from his high horse and drag his body three times around the city walls to boot. It was far from sainthood but would it have been wrong? Shen Yuan wanted to know.

...He wanted to know a little less, now that it was his metaphorical corpse on the line. Or perhaps real corpse--there had been a line implying Young Master Shen's suicide at the end of the comic. Forgive Shen Yuan if he wasn't so keen on fulfilling the role of Shen Jiu's punching bag.

So what was he to do? Assuming the worst, Shen Jiu had the protagonist halo and Shen Yuan couldn't just be rid of him. Hug his thighs? No no, from what Shen Yuan knew of Shen Jiu's backstory, their dark protagonist was a hundred percent the type to take every advantage he could from Shen Yuan's capitulation. What Shen Jiu wanted wasn't just the riches, after all, but Young Master Shen's psychological destruction. The moment Shen Yuan started begging for mercy, Shen Jiu wouldn't let him stop.

That left only one option: play Shen Jiu's game all while not worsening Shen Jiu's resentment toward him until he could convince Shen Jiu that destroying Young Master Shen wasn't what he truly wanted. That had to be it, right? Yeah yeah, he may have to take some pain to absolve Shen Jiu's old and frankly warranted grudge (stupid cocky Young Master Shen--couldn't he have just bought and freed Xiao Jiu and called it a day?!), but surely at the end of it all, Shen Jiu's character arc was about building his own life back up from ashes and finding true emotional fulfillment? And romantic love? He had all those pretty-boys dancing around for his attention after all.

All Shen Yuan had to do was ensure Shen Jiu proceeded down that narrative path, and maybe squirrel away a rainy day fund he could take on the run, just in case his father's trade empire truly had to collapse. Shen Yuan hardly needed ivory and marble. A nice little house with all the necessities for life would do.

His mind made up, Shen Yuan stood with a self-affirming nod. Ming Fan immediately clapped his hands.

"Bring them in!"

Servants swarmed with five sets of luxurious designer robes, dripping in rich colors with jewelry in jade and precious metals to match. Shen Yuan blinked, and blinked some more.

Ming Fan, reading his hesitation as dissatisfaction, quickly explained, "that damn sewing house wasn't able to finish the vermillion one in time tonight, but they assure it will be ready in time for the imperial banquet. Would Young Master like me to go 'persuade' them to work faster? That vermillion truly was amazing on Young Master--"

"No, Ming Fan, these will be fine," Shen Yuan absently interrupted. He'd zoned out for the majority of Ming Fan's explanation as to what these outfits were even for, but Shen Yuan had enough context clues to guess he was prepping for a banquet. Hang on, a vermillion designer gown unfinished for some reason? Oh, this must be the banquet where--

Shen Yuan considered the options before him with a little more intent. He thought about color theory. And symbolism.

"The white one with the pale green," he decided. The servants holding the pieces he did not choose quickly filed out, leaving only the garment that Ming Fan was now lifting.

"Excellent choice, Young Master," Ming Fan gushed, smoothing a hand over the fabric and bringing jade piece after jade piece up against it. There was a jade-handle paper fan among the accessories and Shen Yuan picked it up, intrigued. "Young Master will look like a veritable--"

"White lotus?"

Ming Fan nodded enthusiastically, and Shen Yuan hid a chuckle behind the fan. Well. His end goal was Shen Jiu's absolution and happiness, but it didn't mean he couldn't have some fun with irony on the way there.

[sapphire-weapon]

was in the middle of putting on makeup and getting ready for work when i started thinking about how ashley probably went through a legitimate mourning period after leon cut her out of his life, cycling through the different stages of grief over and over and sometimes out of order

because, while he might still be alive, he’s basically dead as far as she’s concerned. he’s gone, and she can’t see him or talk to him and has no access to any information about his life. if she calls him, his phone just rings as though no one owns it anymore.

and how it’s probably real grief in every sense of the word due to the fact that it never truly goes away. it fades over time, and some days she doesn’t even think of him at all -- and when she does think of him, it’s as a distant memory like “oh, that happened.” but then every once in a while, she sees something, or hears something, or the wind blows just the right way, and she feels his absence hit her all over again. she just gets this feeling that this -- what she’s doing, where she is -- is wrong. this isn’t how her life is supposed to be, and there’s something missing.

and by the likely time of RE9, she’ll be 40, and will probably have never been married or really had any sort of successful relationship at all -- not just because anyone she meets isn’t him, but because no one she meets lives up to the unreachable standards that he set. no one else has ever made her feel as safe as he did. no one else has the perfect balance of kindness and strength and patience and confidence and tenderness and courage that he had. tough guys are always too aggressive and insecure, and sweet guys lack the hard edge. and even guys who do break through into having some kind of relationship with her eventually leave anyway, because none of them understand why she sometimes screams another man’s name in her sleep, because the only answer she ever gives to the question “who’s leon?” is “oh he worked for my dad when he was in office. he helped me out that one year that i got really, really sick and needed surgery.” because boy is that an obvious lie, but they can’t tell why and she won’t explain.

and all she wants to know is why. why he disappeared on her, what she did wrong. why did things turn out the way they did when it didn’t need to be like this -- what is he keeping from her, what doesn’t she know?

and the saddest part is that what she doesn’t know is that he’s really, truly 100% convinced that staying away from her is him doing right by her. that he’s doing her a favor by not being a part of her life. he assumes that she’s likely thriving due to his absence -- or, at least, is much better off now than she would have been if he’d stuck around.

and if he’d just answer her fucking calls or give in to his urge to call her himself, he’d know that that was bullshit and that she needs a support system just as badly as he does and doesn’t understand why they didn’t build one for each other after all they went through together -- because literally no one else could ever possibly understand what happened but them.

he doesn’t realize that just because she’s stronger than him doesn’t mean that she’s not invincible or doesn’t still need support. and his opinion of himself is too low to even consider the notion that he could be that for her. so they just live separate lives, cut off from one another, with both of them missing what was lost at the time of their split.