#fuck soup in general frankly

[iwontusethis255]

the fact the only good soup (tomato) is the only one that doesnt help you when your sick is truly the devils greatest trick

[ranboo5]

Anyway [stretches] under a cut because it got Long as usual; tl;dr at the bottom

The thing abt c!Ranboo is his motivation and his actions don’t always align and that is bc of the eternal nature of c!Ranboo as living in a society and Balancing Priorities. He is always self-compromising in its relationships w/ others; more often than not when it agrees to do smth with someone it is doing it not bc it believes in the cause but because it has priorities it needs to mitigate. (Ranboo has not believed in any of the causes put forth by Someone Else in their life the closest they get is the Syndicate and even there it’s only reassured to bc it is reassured it can share opinions)

This starts off wayyyy early with it agreeing to help grief despite not really having a personal reason to do it, and with it collaborating w/ New L’Manberg even through things like the Butcher Army. It consistently does not want to be seen as In Opposition. It works with Tmmy and Techno in large part bc it doesn’t want to come off as opposed 2 them, and bc it has personal investment (+guilt) in Tmmy. Ranboo will literally act like this

- as self preservation - out of a desire to help+spare the feelings of ppl it doesn’t trust to negotiate with - especially later, so it can try to mitigate the parties it’s collaborating w/ -- if he’s involved in the effort, he has more traction 2 attempt to mitigate anything terrible it might do (even when most of the time he doesn’t manage to do this)

This is part of why he initially joined th Syndicate and this is why he worked with Wilbur over th course of the burger arc. Some combination of this is also why he works w/ Dream, smth that is frequently overlooked in Ranboo Analysis; Ranboo volitionally[1] collaborates w/ Dream despite, obviously, having a lot of Active Dislike for Dream and what he is doing, out of a combination of a) he would not want 2 frame himself as Opposed To Dream in any interaction w/ Dream, b) he is generally sympathetic and pitying, c) ideological agreement w/ some aspects of Dream’s goals, and d) desire to mitigate/stay close to Dream. Ranboo keeps his friends close and enemies closer 2 some degree

His relationship w/ Tbbo is not an exception to this it is part of the pattern. It’s just one that has much more present, personal, and consistent stakes. Ranboo complies w/ Tbbo the same way he complies w/ the Syndicate when he’s worried they’re threatening, the same way he complies w/ NLM, the same way he complies w/ Wilbur in the burger arc, th same way he complies with Tmmy early on, the same way he complies w/ Dream offscreen. This is a Known Tactic Ranboo pursues; their project is ultimately of survival and compassion and survival and compassion are both things they have to sacrifice to keep

Tbbo is a unique priority to Ranboo almost in the same way all of the aforementioned r slightly different, unique priorities; in Tubbo’s case, Ranboo is extremely invested in keeping Tbbo safe from others and from Tbbo’s own self with a particular fervor for a very long time. I’m not rehashing the entire beeduo meta here but Ranboo does have particular interest and a particular prioritization for Tbbo for a long ass time; arguably post-NLM and thru burger arc, Tbbo is its first priority bc Ranboo loves him and has convinced itself it’s the only one who can fix him and has also mostly-correctly observed that no one has really been looking out for him. Tubbo is an urgent target in Ranboo’s projects of compassion and of survival both

When those stakes r released, tho, in the burger van conversation (the “you weren’t happy before?”) Ranboo no longer has Tbbo at the same priority level irt the project of survival especially, and, despite how guilty and upset it makes them, prioritizes their 5D chess game with Wilbur instead (ironically sacrificing a solid chunk of its project of survival). Its motives @ the end of Ho16 r commonly cited as being abt Tbbo but that’s not entirely what he says and if it was Ranboo HAS the kind of analytical presence of mind to know that it Killing Himself doesn’t help Tbbo as much as it deals with Wilbur

Ho16 is abt Ranboo winning aforesaid 5D chess game; Tbbo is only part of the stakes 4 that and Mitigating Tbbo is no longer Ranboo’s top priority w/ that. Ranboo’s final monologue is more than anything reminiscent of his earlier arguments about sides and collateral. It’s part of the larger project of compassion, and it’s about the distorted version thereof tht comes with Ranboo getting stuck in its head and its machinations, too; like Tbbo is important to Ranboo and the carelessness abt Tbbo is something unacceptable but to claim Ranboo’s motivations revolve around Tubbo specifically is reductive of his other relationships and actual larger ideological motivations 

I have a problem w/ framings of this as positive/romantic devotion that amkes Ranboo better or as devotion at all bc repeatedly it is shown it makes him Worse, and is in fact the opposite of devotion it's disingenuous by nature. Ranboo is lying. This is so essential to all of this when Ranboo acts like he is in step with you specifically he is lying you are never guaranteed to be the priority. This is him at his worst, th project of compassion at its most compromised, and it’s a state that they explicitly don’t like. Ranboo does not like compromising itself and when they do that they Get Hurt (NLM and outpost arc having the most confabulation we’ve seen in Ranboo in general, Ranboo hating himself for this, Ranboo complying w/ shit like the experiments, Ranboo in all these environments where he is playing this being Constantly Markedly Afraid)

Even throughout the time period where Tbbo is technically priority #1 Tbbo is still . Priority Number One as opposed to like a genuine devotion. Tbbo having a handle on Ranboo in this way is not devotion it is fear and it is again not a mechanism tht Ranboo Only engages for Tbbo it’s just a mechanism, that again IS BAD FOR RANBOO BOTH IRT MENTAL HEALTH AND MORALITY, that has thru circumstance become one tht Tbbo is best at unintentionally activating. Ranboo Does This When You Are His Project. And When He Had A New Project Aside From His Husband That’s What He Did To Him

TL;DR

Ranboo does comply with Tubbo in various activities tht he doesn’t believe in but this isn’t ? Unique to Tbbo this is just Ranboo’s general socialmeta+ what allows it to move in the world the way it does

Ranboo cares about Tubbo deeply and this is relevant to his motivations but that’s only one part of his larger motivations

It’s also honestly not great to frame this complianceas romantic or good bc it’s actively smth that Makes Them Worse in multiple senses

It takes out a ton of Ranboo’s decision making and the negative effects thereof

Anyway stream

[1] No, one dumb as fuck line from Dream Of All People in that lame ass excuse for a finale does not negate All The Things In CRanboo’s Story including working w Dream being part of this consistent pattern, Ranboo’s story being abt agency responsibility and decision in such a way tht it is completely undercut by mind ctrl plots, Ranboo’s ideological agreement w Dream on some matters, the alliumduo parallels, and everything we do know abt the enderwalk as a concept and Ranboo how he acts in and out of it

[ruben-the-cowboy]

I love when quote generator is accurate here’s a few that I got:

Sean: Welcome to my very first vlog, in which I try different hair products!

Sean: *sprays hairspray in his mouth*

Sean: Well, right off the bat I can tell you this one is not very good.

—————

Dutch: If there are no questions, we'll move on to the next chapter.

Arthur: I have a question.

Dutch: Certainly, Arthur. What is it?

Arthur: What's the point of human existence?

Dutch: I meant any questions about the subject at hand.

Arthur : Oh.

Arthur: Frankly, l'd like to have the issue resolved before I expend any more energy on this

—————-

Dutch, to Hosea: Well, one of us has to be wrong and it's not going to be me.

—————-

Dutch: If you really want to get back at a man, scare him with a pregnancy test. I've got a whole box of old positives at my house.

Micah: You're an American treasure.

—————-

Arthur: I'm going to get myself some soup.

Hosea : Be careful not to burn yourself, it's hot.

Arthur: Pfft, I won't burn myself.

*30 seconds later*

Arthur, entering the room: I burned myself

—————-

Pearson: Tommorrow's garbage day.

Sadie: I can't believe they made a whole day dedicated to you.

—————-

Arthur: Oh, they left the bowl out?

Arthur: It says, "Take two pieces of candy."

John: Nobody around though...

*John grabs the entire bowl and runs off with it*

Arthur : NO -

—————-

Dutch : Are pigeons drones?

Hosea: What? No, I'm trying to sleep.

Dutch: Think about it. How come you've never seen a baby pigeon? And why do you never actually see a pigeon nest? Because they're DRONES!

Hosea: *Crying* Please let me sleep...

————-

Charles : Are you ready to commit?

Arthur: Like, a crime or a relationship?

————-

Dutch: I think I just figured something out. I got to go.

Hosea: Aren't you forgetting something?

Dutch : Uuh...*hesitantly kisses Hosea's forehead before running out.*

Hosea: No, pay your bill! Damn, who raised you??

————-

Arthur : I'm trash.

Charles : As someone who's environmentally conscious, it's my duty to pick you up. Does 7:00 work for you?

Arthur :

Arthur : You smooth motherfucker. And yes, it does.

————-

Javier walking into the kitchen and seeing all their limes peeled: John, I love you but, what the h-e-double FUCK.

John, sipping coffee happily: I love you too

————-

*Sadie comes home absolutely drunk, undresses, and stands in Abigail's bedroom.*

Abigail: Babe, are you.. coming to bed?

Sadie: No thank you, I'm sure you're lovely but I have a girlfriend.

Sadie: *Lies on the ground and falls asleep*

Abigail: ….

————-

John : This date is boring!

Javier: This isn't a date. I said I was going to the store.

John: Then why did you invite me?

Javier: I didnt, I specifically said "don't come with me," then you said, "fuck you Javier I'll do whatever I want!”

————-

Sadie : Talk dirty to me, baby~

Abigail: The dishes.

Sadie : Wh-

Abigail: They've been there for 4 days and it's your turn to wash them. You still haven't cleaned them and I have asked you to do it several times.

————-

Thank you.

[magicalrocketships]

1200 words of de-aged Max, you say? From a larger Max/Daniel story I'm absolutely not writing, you say?

Sure, here you go:

Max at seven years old is red cheeked and mutinous, sitting in the corner of Charles' driver's room with his arms folded and his grown up race suit falling off him. He won't talk to Charles and he won't talk to Christian and he doesn't want any chocolate or anything to drink or anything to colour with. He doesn't want to watch anything on any of their phones and he doesn't want to swap his grown up clothes for anything of Charles'. He doesn't seem to want anything.

There is a hushed, desperate conversation happening around the doorway, as everyone tries to run through all their contacts and find anyone with a private plane or a helicopter anywhere close to Monaco who can get Daniel here sooner rather than later. Daniel is on the other end of the phone telling someone whose job it normally is to provide hospitality to extremely rich businessmen that they need to find a tin of tomato soup and some bread and butter if they want Max to eat anything at all, and to put the soup in a cup because baby Max doesn't approve of spoons.

It's a good thing that Max— under normal circumstances —is a two time World Champion, because this version of Max refuses his specially bought tomato soup and his specially cut up sourdough bread and butter, and stares at the wall with sniffly red eyes and a frown.

Eventually some favours are reeled in and Christian promises a selection of paddock passes and photo opportunities, and Daniel is on someone's helicopter and he's on his way, which is good, because Max has graduated from mutinous silence to shivering because he's still in his champagne soaked race suit and won't take it off. Someone remembers seeing a blanket on one of the merchandise stands and that's how Max reluctantly agrees to accept a green Fernando Alonso blanket, curling up on Charles' sofa looking for all intents and purposes like a very sad, green orphan.

Christian pinches his nose and can't help but hope this doesn't go like the last time Max turned up aged seven instead of twenty-something, which is to say: it fucked up their driver and constructor points for the entire year and lasted weeks. Going small is relatively normal, all things considered. It usually lasts a couple of days, it's generally suggested that keeping to normal routines is the best way to age up the quickest, and most people cycle their way through the process by a mixture of sleeping and leaping between ages with alacrity. Max, however, had woken up aged seven, turned up on Daniel's doorstep, and then promptly stayed seven for just short of three months. It is relatively rare for it to stretch over such a period without becoming permanent, and it's also relatively rare for it to happen more than once.

Max, in general, is apparently relatively rare across the board, and if he was this difficult for the whole three months Daniel looked after him, Christian probably needs to pay Daniel more. Charles looks exhausted, but at least he's sitting on the chair by the sofa with his phone propped up on the table, and Max occasionally shoots glances in its general direction, which may or may not mean that Charles' choice of Disney's Cars was a good one.

But then, finally, finally, Christian gets a message to say that Daniel's made it through paddock security, and that's got to mean that they can hand this whole sorry situation over to him and get the hell out of Ferrari's team rooms. He's overheard at least one person saying this whole thing was staged for espionage, and quite frankly, if Christian was to pick any team to steal from, it wouldn't be fucking Ferrari. Max can be difficult and quiet with Daniel, and—

Daniel pushes the door open and Max sees him, and his face transforms. He throws himself in Daniel's general direction, tripping over his too-long race suit and stumbling into Daniel's arms with a squeal. Daniel is equally enthusiastic, scooping Max up and into his arms and kissing his cheeks and his forehead and his nose so that Max is giggling and burying his face into Daniel's neck.

Christian is fairly sure he hears Max badly whisper I wished for you, Danny into Daniel's ear, but refuses to think too much about it, particularly as Daniel is too busy telling Max how much he's missed him.

"Why are you dressed like you want to be a giant when you’re only a little bee?" Daniel's asking Max, as Max squirms in his arms to get comfortable. It can't be that nice to be dressed in a champagne-damp and grown up-Max sweaty race suit, but there was no getting it off him.

Then Christian has to listen to a very little Max explaining that no, Daniel, he is not a giant and he is not a bee, and Daniel is listening very carefully and nodding in all the right places, and disappearing into Charles' bathroom with a squirmy Max and the backpack he'd brought from Monaco.

Charles and Christian are left looking at each other with matching incredulous expressions. The expressions do not change when Daniel and Max emerge from the bathroom ten minutes later with a freshly scrubbed Max with damp hair and a little hoodie with Pikachu on and matching Pikachu sweatpants and socks. He is holding Daniel's hand and clutching a very well thumbed book about flags and his Fernando blanket. He refuses to let go of Daniel's hand or sit anywhere that isn't plastered to Daniel's side, but he does concede to eat some bread and butter and drink his cup of tomato soup this time around. Daniel wipes soup off his chin afterwards, because Max is too busy telling Christian a list of facts from his flag book to notice that he missed his mouth.

Christian feels a little bit like he might be going mad, which seems to be how Charles is feeling too, given his expression.

"I knew Max when he was little," Charles says to Daniel, in an undertone. Christian lets Max show him first the Australian flag page ("This flag is Daniel's,") and the Italian flag page ("This flag is Daniel's as well,"), "and he wasn't like this at all."

Daniel is looking at Max like he's the most important thing on the planet. Christian can't help but wonder if he's remembered that other people can see him looking like that.

"Well," Daniel says, letting Max press himself into Daniel's side. "Maybe this is just what he's like when he's happy."

"Who is happy, Daniel?" Max asks, looking up at Daniel.

"You are," Daniel says, and Max beams at him, complete with little red cheeks. "Do you want to go home?"

"Yes, please," Max says, and Christian thinks: this better not fuck up the points again.

Max is clearly tired out and doesn't want to walk, so Daniel ends up carrying him out, Christian walking behind.

"Can we get my cats?" Max whispers loudly.

"In the morning, baby," Daniel says, kissing Max's hair. "We'll bring them home in the morning."

Christian watches Max settle himself in Daniel's arms, flag book in hand.

There goes the fucking championship, Christian thinks, and lets out a breath.

&&&

thank you to lena @stolemyhheart for making sure it read okay, and to em @powerful-owl for spending multiple hours talking about this verse with me, worth it.

Edit: now there is more of this verse here.

[lakesbian]

stirring aisha around in my brain soup pot. there's like zero textual anything for this because wildbow isn't even capable of not objectifying her himself but btwn triggering from fear of rape + various unspecified abusive stepdads + the inherent trauma of being societally sexualized and fetishized as a black girl who, like, Exists and also god forbid enjoys wearing shorts sometimes plus the whole neglect and the thing where the one family member she's really close to only knows how to protect her by controlling her and the sense of being an unwanted nuisance to society in general because of the disability. she is really sooo about wanting to be accurately perceived and wanted but being terrified of being seen wrong & consumed. aisha laborn my girl. anyway i don't have a point to this i just wish wildbow connected the dots and wrote her good. i also wish his dumb ass didn't not only pull the narrative equivalent of the black man dying first (black boy's arc kersploding and shitting itself first) but then have his own damn sister not give a single shit abt him. but i digress it feels tangentially related to her problems disorders that after her loved ones die, w/ the exception of her own brother whom she does not care about because wildbow is insane and needs to be strung up and pelted with tomatoes, she insists on making sure that they're Perceived And Treated Right. alec's first memorial very pointedly capturing the essence of him, particularly the tragedy of his life that everyone else missed, placed where people can't Not look at it, alec's second memorial being faithfully rendered dolls (my doll imagery boy ♥) she insists on people taking care of, her being very vehement about people not disrespecting or misunderstanding taylor's memory, etc. would love to come up with what she does for brian in secret good worm where wildbow doesn't shit the bed everywhere but i haven't thought of anything yet unfortunately. well. i am leaning towards the previously stated memorial leather jacket & hairstyle + her just like. perpetually loudly insisting that he was The Specialest Best Big Brother Ever if anyone ever speaks critically about him. not because he wasn't flawed but as sort of a "fuck you you WILL appreciate how hard he tried only I get to be mean to brian." i digress it's very Augh Ough how she insists on making sure that what's happened to her, the misperception & obscurity she's afraid of, never happens to her loved ones. quite frankly one of the characters of all time ever. aisha laborn rectangular prism. this originally started as a post about why redditors are wrong about shipping aisha and alec but then i started thinking other things so now it is not about that.

[princess-of-the-corner]

One thing I see brought up which is weird to tackle is Chloe's racism rooted largely in the Kung Food episode which is... Well frankly a racist episode in general. The reason this feels like a weird fit for Chloe's character though.

(In the sense of it being a conscious, primary motivator for bad behavior as opposed to just something picked up on by virtue of social osmosis she doesn't even realize & that most/all the white students do)

Is the fact it basically only exists for that episode. We've seen Chloe cheat, steal or sabotage others, or just generally be rude and abrasive in multiple episodes. There might be distinctions in motive or exact method but they are fairly consistent overall.

But then Kung Food is just out there with some very overtly shitty behavior and then it jsut... Never comes up again.

Like, if this was stuff she said or did all the time, if this tied into her obsession with Marinette, then it would have to have come up before now either by Marinette herself or just cos Chloe said something terrible.

Its why I'm fairly comfortable ignoring that character trait while I wouldn't roll with "Chloe would never classist, or snobby or elitists" cos she definitely has been those things consistently enough.

Its a bit like the train episode.

One can work it so that Chloe is kind of having a breakdown thanks to her mothers presence, abuse and also having been murdered by her the day before and then chastised for helping free her.

All that could be collectively used to justify such an extreme shift in scale of behavior.

But that doesn't really apply in Kung Food, its just introduced and then seemingly forgotten.

See the thing about Kung Food is that the lines everyone points to for racism are

1.) her getting the hell out of dodge after the sabotage by giving a 'whoops don't speak Japanese!' line and running off. Which yeah that one was a bit off I'm not gonna pretend it isn't. But it was also her getting the hell out of dodge as said before.

2.) the sushi line. Which, if you pay attention to the whole line, she is complaining about how 'soup isn't a main dish, why can't he make sushi /like everyone else/.' This line implies not racism, but that other people in the competition are making sushi. It's /Adrien/ that turns it into a race thing.

That said.

Even if we do take it as some intentional acts of racism and not just either mixing up words or genuine 'she's 13 and isn't familiar with the differences' or even taking from Season 4-5 where she's too stupid to pronounce multi-syllable words how would she be smart enough to know the difference:

Chloé's crime of mixing Chinese and Japanese is completely fucking neutralized by /the show itself mixing Chinese and Japanese when it comes to the Akuma/. Yes they say it was based more on Sun Wukong who Goku is also based on but he's got the orange outfit and spiky yellow hair and the target audience is likely more familiar with Goku than Sun Wukong. Not to mention giving him weapons that include SUSHI and the fucking Buster Sword, both more Japanese influence!

And yeah it's. It's a one-off. Her antagonism of her classmates isn't racially motivated as she'll bully all of them and she never makes any racist comments otherwise. It's just. Two lines in an episode that says 'don't do this' while demonstrating it as a good thing.

[koroart]

Hi! If you want to talk more about your Lambert lives AU but need a new post for it and stuff, I'd love to hear about it more! You mentioned in your last ask about it that you didn't want the post to get too long, so if you still want to talk about it, maybe it will help to have a new ask/post to write on? No worries if you're not interested (I know you could always just open up a text post and write about it whenever lol), but if you'd be up for feeding us with a part two I'd love to hear more about it!

Hello! <3

dbouwebdoew I wouldn't even know where to begin!!

I just have a lot and tbh it's still not quite concrete but I think I mentioned before that it mostly follows the Hopes timeline because it's a little more easier to navigate than the 3Houses one. ( cuz if he lived in the 3Houses routes, it would kinda skew the narrative by a lot , at least, in comparison to Hopes and frankly it's a big headache ) because at least in Hopes , it can turn into a sort of??? Golden route?? Since they all have a common enemy in Those Who Slither in the Dark and all -- and you get the whole picture.

I've talked about it more in depth with friends over the span of months and it's hard to really remember what i had and not to mention i had the tendency to mix them together. So everything is like a weird kinda soup.

All i DO know is that Lambert survives the war ( which war? who fucking knows at this point ) and steps down as king ( cuz at this point his reign would have lasted at LEAST 30+ years but he doesn't step down right away, since they got all this mess to clean and all ) and passes his title to Dimitri ( as do many of the older generations and yadda yadda ) and spends the rest of his days as a sort of ambassador for the Faerghus, which in turn allows him to travel the world ( since Dimitri can't go everywhere all at once ) and just enjoy his life ~

[without-it]

ok i lied i love to update u guys. heres updates and general tips and goals for the next fast ❤️

said id wait till thursday but at my core im a little silly guy who loves to lie and tell untruths!! so heres the fasting tea abt wrapping up that last 90 hour fast and starting this one

first off, the refeeding and weight gain update from the two days of eating "normally" : weight update this morning, from my last weigh in on monday, i gained about 1/3 of a pound (i lost just over 10 pounds so really good return) so really happy with that honestly. refeeding is such a huge and often overlooked aspect to fasting, and if its handled wrong it can often negate all ur hard work.

when i refeed i focus on PLAIN low calorie foods. if you end a fast with curry to be perfectly honest ur gonna shit urself to death and have a fucking miserable time lmao. my go to is a PLAIN UNSEASONED steamed veggie dish (usually steamed broc and corn, broc bc low calorie and corn bc i am a corn GIRLIE), and often with miso soup to go with it. unseasoned foods help with the upset tummy after ending a fast, and get ur body used to actually processing glucose again. and miso soup is just a nice low calorie simple food to add some fun into that meal. pls dear god do not eat sweet foods / high salt / high seasoned in general / or heavy meat or sauced dishes as a fast breaking meal. if youve fasted for more than a 4 days im not joking you can literally end up dying from that so just be responsible shawtie damn. (look up refeeding syndrome im not a doctor so im not gonna give u the lowdown)

things to focus on during the fast to help prevent rapid weight gain: drink ur god damn liquids. i dont care if ur getting water in thru diet soda or tea or fizzy water or even coffee. that is water, that is a pro and do not listen to ppl who say that water "doesnt count". when you restrict liquids during a fast you will obvi lose more weight in the short term, but during refeeding if u start drinking normally again (as i really hope u are lmao) you will gain this water weight rapidly. u turned ur body into a desert for a few days, and best believe the second u have more liquid ur body is gonna hang on to that for dear life. its better for u and less stressful in the long run to just keep up ur liquid intake during fasts trust me.

and then this is my go to routine for every fast:

every day i take these suppliments: high strength collagen, iron, zinc, a womens multivit, and the unsung hero of fasting? FIBER TABLETS. bro i can fast for over a week and still not be constipated bc im on my SIGMA FIBER GRINDSET

and then my daily intake: at least a liter of water every day with the "Endura brand low carb sugar free electrolyte drink" (in lemon lime flavor) (i put 2 scoops aka 2 serves per liter of water) the taste is super mid but honestly drinking that every day on my last fast made things such a breeze. literally like no headaches, no cramps, minimal dizziness, and my sleep was mostly uneffected.

then i also have either a can or two of coke zero. yes i know it has 1.1 calories and diet coke would be technically more appropriate for a fast, but i hate diet coke and u will not catch my ass drinking it

and then a cup or two of green tea with a 0 calorie sweetener. no recommendations on the sugar bc honestly i swap between brands depending on whats avail at my grocery store that week lmao.

all this liquid and high variety keeps me kinda full, and provides fun taste enrichment so i dont literally go monkey insane drinking plain water for a week. cool if u can do that but ur literally a psycho and not to be trusted frankly

so current goal is at least lunch time saturday. i have plans to do lunch w my friend but honestly if im not rly hungry then and i wanna keep the fast going im just gonna cancel that lunch or even push it to dinner to just get a few more hours in!

as usual, expect weight updates every morning. the starting situation is: 87kg exactly ( 191.8 pounds) , 20% of my weight loss goal achieved. see yall tmro for the update!

[lord-squiggletits]

Do you like continuity cross MegOP? Like TFA Optimus x TFP Megatron and the sorts? (That's the most popular pair, it seems. Unlikely but I can see their point)

Not at all unless it's for a joke pairing, like IDW OP/IDW2 Megatron for both being jocks that like jumping off things or something.

I'm someone who very much feels that characters are a product of the world/story they're written within, so blending continuities or just ripping a character and putting them in another continuity makes it feel very disjointed imo.

Plus, one of my biggest MegOP pet peeves is the fact that the AO3 tag is proliferated with fics that are basically IDW Megatron/G1 or TFP or some vague continuity soup Optimus, because I hate IDW Optimus erasure.

Tangential hot take below the cut about a particular crossover MegOP pet peeve of mine, IDW Optimus, and the MOP fandom's treatment of him in general. If you don't like bitching, this is your disclaimer to not read.

Also. I really really hate how people will erase IDW Optimus and ship IDW Megatron with literally any other Optimus besides him, because for me it's incredibly boring and cowardly lmao.

Like, people can handle the fact that Megatron is a bad person (I mean honestly some people write him as if he has no flaws and doesn't need to apologize for anything, so maybe they can't handle Megatron being a bad person considering they refuse to acknowledge that he is/was idk) but they can't handle the idea of Optimus being morally gray? Megatron is allowed to be a complex pacifist-turned revolutionary-turned warlord-turned regretful Autobot, but Optimus has to be frozen in some G1/TFP mishmash where he's just an innocent librarian/dockworker whose main personality trait is being a nice dad completely erased of anything that makes him "problematic"?

You can't even argue "oh IDW OP sucks because he's a cop and cops are bad in real life" because 1. the story agrees with that and Optimus constantly faces the consequences of his pre-war alignment 2. people have no problem with the fact that Megatron was an imperialist technoist, and imperialism and racism are both bad in real life. And 3. if people had an issue with him being a cop, they could just write IDW OP's personality but give him a different job, except no one writes IDW OP's personality at all. For some reason people will excuse all of IDW Megatron's shitty behavior/beliefs away (or just pretend they're not canon) but viciously attack IDW Optimus's personality and the occupation he only had for like a fifth of his total life? It's really disappointing to see such favoritism and bad takes from MEGOP SHIPPERS who are the people you would expect to like BOTH Megatron and Optimus, but this fandom has an overwhelming amount of Megatron favoritism where people write him as having all the initiative and Optimus is just some oaf that doesn't understand why the war happened.

If people want an Optimus who's conscious of his role in perpetuating social inequality and contributing to the civil war, while still having relatable depression and having some moments of humor, IDW Optimus is literally right freaking here waiting for people to read his huge and interesting story.

Plus, half the people who bitch about IDW OP and say they hate him either haven't read the comics or completely misread/misrepresent what IDW OP actually does in the comics. If you want IDW OP to be "called out" or criticized then he gets called out and criticized all the fucking time. People just want OP to be a happy dad or a sadboi or an uwu twink and refuse to accept that since IDW is a darker story, Optimus needs to be dark and problematic along with it or else he doesn't fit within the context of his story.

This fandom's tendency to whitewash IDW Megatron while villainizing IDW Optimus is one of its most annoying qualities, and frankly I find it boring and childish lmao. Accept the fact that IDW Optimus is written like an actual person with flaws that can become ugly when he's put under the immense pressure of everything he's dealing with. Real people don't go through all the trauma and guilt IDW OP went through and remain perfect saints who are always nice and never snap out of anger/frustration. IDW Optimus is too interesting and cool for the people who just want unproblematic happy dad Optimus lmao.

And MegOP shippers shitting on IDW OP for things he didn't do or things that were understandable in context, while acting like Megatron did no wrong and should have everyone else apologize to him, is literally the reason why I don't read any MOP fics outside of my circle of friends/mutuals any more. It's just not worth reading fanfic when my favorite character is constantly erased and excluded from having stories written about him.

[empty-pizza]

thoughts on harrow the ninth chapter twenty-five

this chapter was fucking fantastic

better than any other chapter, here i really connected with harrow's mental state, the sheer amount of pressure she's under. God is in many ways a parental figure for her; Harrow is the child, knowing she cannot confess, yet wishing that he already knew, that it could be simplified by his perception. the realization that he doesn't see everything he thinks is incredible.

i love harrow making soup. i love how harrow is stretched as thin as graphene by her lack of sleep i love how augustine says "Eating a new cook's food after ten thousand years is frankly exciting. Let me give you a list of my favourite meals so that you can get them interestingly wrong." as one of the things i find so interesting about immortal characters is how they seek out experiences moreso than good experiences.

wait i just fucking realized

harrow's plan to kill nortus

is that

is that

IS THAT A FUCKING UMINEKO REFERENCE

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

SHE DID THE SMALL BOMBS IN THE FOOD EXPLODING OUT OF THE STOMACH

SURE IT'S THE NECROMANCER VERSION USING MARROW FROM HER OWN BONE TO MAKE A FUCKING CONSTRUCT BUT IT'S THE SAME GENERAL CONCEPT AND THIS IS FUCKING KILLING ME

I MIGHT AS WELL STOP READING THE BOOK HERE AS IT'S PEAKED

i'm dead now. ryukishi07 and tamsyn muir killed me, together. by feeding me food with small bombs in it.

Anyway.

I love how Harrow was actually be able to surprise God, to surprise everybody. I love how Harrow just opens up and asks why the fuck Nortus is allowed to do this shit but she isn't. That she's so much more broken now than he's realized, and when he realizes she hasn't slept, he realizes this is fucked up. I love how Mercy keeps thinking Harrow is lower and lower ages, and how God is saying they've been underestimating Harrow.

And I don't know what to think of Nortus's salute. That's a sign of respect. But his issue wasn't a lack of respect for her, but viewing her as a threat to big g. But it can also be a sign of allyship. So I dunno.

[joyfullyacat]

butler cafe au

yeah i've been kinda sitting on this for a hot minute, namely bc i wanted to draw for it first and have it all in one cool collective post but!! regardless i might as well get some of it down while i wait for rust cleaners to take place-

essentially instead of investing in ✨pizza and children and the 80s✨

its "well what if we make the bEST FUCKING CATERING EXPERIENCE FOR THE ELITE" or something along those lines, maybe its part of a grand hotel scheme and its a restaurant apart of it but regardless

its incredibly self indulgent and very much a call out for how much i was into ouran high school host club back then and frankly still fucking am and no i will not take any commentary at this time-

where rich people get to spend too much time being doted on and such

it's bright, gaudy, flashy, it wreaks of wealth and the robots are top of the line?! consider it a status symbol to even be seen in a PHOTO with them.

idk quite what the era would reflect, im thinking regency or generally victorian- posh and finger sandwiches with tea yknow

moon, sun, and eclipse are the stars of the show, them being a "triplets" waiter act that can handle the largest of parties and brattiest of guests has given the trio a rep to handle just about anything thrown at them

roxy works the bar and yes sometimes the tail gets in the way its not her fault they made it fluffier than a raccoon's winter girth but at least drinks on top of the counter are okay!!

chica is #1 hostess even though she seems a bit like a mess more than someone you'd actually put in charge of organization and stuff but thats alright-

monty makes for a rlly funny chef but you bet your sweet suspiciously gator-skin pants that yes he is the best chef and there will be NO critiques at this hour. growls are standard, hissing is a paid event (all food has the slightest bit of spice and he will not be removing it any time soon, he likes to see those napkins at work wiping away sweat-)

freddy my heaven and angel above - he's probably another waiter?? he may be used exclusively for birthday parties though so he tends to just float around and be the /face/ of the cafe yknow?

vanessa and peepaw are ofc around as caretaker to the legendary owner himself

and of COURSE when ur dealing the high and mighty elite, money flows and people talk which means im sure that its TOTALLY COINCIDENCE that some of the most affluential individuals in political races or some such just,,suddenly take a swim in their soup! totally yep mhm

they /definitely/ just developed some on-the-spot condition or heart attack it doesnt matter their age- (maybe, could also do some other plot all together but its fine, need something for a suspicious history hehehoho)

but where does y/n fit in all this???

...i haven't really ironed that out admittedly but thats sorta the amalgam i have in mind currently!!

[rmhashauthor]

hello hello! how is your latest writing WIP coming along? Are there any particular scenes you're really looking forward to writing? Any characters you've fallen in love with more than you anticipated? (this is a friendly excuse to talk about your story and characters!)

Oh boy... You've opened the floodgates, my friend.

The Dragon Prince's Consort is going well, I'm several chapters ahead of the posting schedule but I am having to acknowledge the fact that I've been on a little bit of a dry spell because of starting a new job. It's one of those that needs a lot of brainpower in the beginning because I'm still training, and I'm the kind of person who stresses out if things aren't just *PERFECT* so the period between "I'm new so no one expects me to know anything yet" and "I've been here long enough to know what I'm doing" is my least-favorite part of starting a new job. Some days I come home with half a brain cell and just enough energy left to eat a handful of shredded cheese and go to sleep. Damn you, capitalism! Let me write!!

But enough of that.

At the moment TDPC is hovering just under 160 reads on Wattpad, which is fine because a lot of people who follow me wait until I'm done writing to binge. STARFISH was like that, once I let everyone know it was DONE done I started getting weekend warriors who would mainline the whole thing in a couple of days and flood my inbox with screaming emojis. Someone is doing that right now and it's always a delight.

Anyway, TDPC is all plotted out and has been for a while now, so the task is to finish writing the damn thing. And like most ADHD people I already have another story lined up that I'm working on an outline for and may or may not have started drafting the first chapter 😉 I like to take little breaks from one story and work on something else to keep things fresh and interesting, otherwise it's like eating pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner - pizza is great, I love pizza, but by Day 2 I'll gnaw off my own legs for a salad or some soup.

This new one I'm excited about because I've never written a true Villain before. Well, he's not really a villain, per se, more like a "fuck you, fuck your rules, I do what I want" type of guy. I figured if I've written two stories with cinnamon-roll male leads it's time for someone who's more a walking middle finger to society and laws in general. While he's not a mass-murderer or anything, this guy definitely has blood on his hands and isn't the easiest to live with, as the heroine will find out once she's conscious again. I figure most people love a Bad Boy who is a Good Man, so I'm going to see what I can do with that.

Now for his foil, boy is SHE a mess. Look, someone is going to take one look at this sorry thing and yell BOO MARY SUE but frankly I don't care. There's a point to making her such a sad sack and it won't become clear until her bastardization arc kicks in. Plus, I figure if she has a history of making terrible decisions when it comes to men then having her do a little more of the same is in-character for her. Except maybe this time it's different because she's trying NOT to be such a good girl, maybe this time she won't be so naive and her newfound cynicism might prove useful.

The whole story has a Heavy Metal (of which I am a MASSIVE fan) vibe to it, it's a lot grittier than my last two and that's on purpose. I've been listening to a lot of psychedelic doom metal (more than usual) to get my head in the right space for it, which has been interesting. It's not going to be a pretty story, full of flowers and sparkles and happy, because at this point in the universe in my head all the shiny has worn off the concept of First Contact and now we have to deal with the realities of life in space among half a dozen other species, all with their own goals, fears and issues. I've decided to leave my comfort zone of writing cute stories about sweet people and instead do something that I think a lot of people are going to see as dark and even problematic - some themes are not going to be easy to digest, even for someone like me who's lived a relatively easy life, but I hope that I can do some justice to it by 1, talking about it and thus making it less taboo, and 2, doing what I usually do which is make the plot as important as the sexy bits.

However, I do have some hard rules I DON'T break while writing, and there are a few things I will NOT use as plot devices or tropes - I don't write about SA, I won't write an abusive relationship, and I don't do age gaps where one person is underage. I may go right up to the line and stare at it, but not only am I not comfortable writing those I don't want to drive readers off. I'm grey about "trigger warnings" in that I think people should be prepared to run into things that may upset them in fiction, film and art because that's the whole point, but I also believe in self-censorship and letting people decide for themselves to put down something I or another creator has made. It's only fair to give readers an out when things get too hairy, I've put down a LOT of books because the author decided that dubcon was okay when it wasn't, or because their male MC was just an insufferable ass with Alpha Male syndrome (yuck). Hell, I've lost interest in entire SERIES because I've seen tropes get subverted and then the author goes back on the old trope, completely derailing and destroying what could have been a WONDERFUL twist because they didn't commit to getting weird with it. Like my late father always said, "If you're gonna be a bear, be a Grizzly." At the very least, be a Grizzly in a funny hat.

Scenes I'm really looking forward to include Captain PTSD's "aren't you tired of being good?" speech, Miss Sad Sack discovering his "Daddy Mode" and being UNCOMFORTABLY turned on by it, a recurring bit where she has to sit in his lap for business reasons and it is excruciatingly embarrassing how much she comes to like it, an incident where wounds are literally licked in super-inappropriate places, a plethora of R-rated one-liners, and a frankly STUPID amount of sexual tension between two idiots who know EXACTLY what needs to happen, but pride, stubbornness and personal convictions keep it from happening (just... SO MUCH TENSION). A lot of really bad decisions will be made and people are gonna get hurt, but I'm hoping by the end what looks like the beginning of a Very Bad Situation will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to both of them. I'm also looking forward to playing with more Daddy-dom scenarios that AREN'T borderline abusive, the concept of "you cannot legislate morality", a new alien species with some WEIRD behavioral quirks, and ☆*KNOTTING*☆ Yaaaay!

If you're gonna be a bear, be a Space-Grizzly with a wizard hat and a tricycle made of napalm and glitter.

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (99): Mon 20th Jun 2022

I know I've been saying it for years but I'm going to start making a proper effort to get into shape. I've constantly made excuses for stuffing my fat face and putting off exercises over the years but now I have none. Granted I did have a genuine excuse for the last few months because I was comfort eating because of the shitty call centre job but now I have an awesome job so I should be able to take my healthy eating and exercise seriously. My ideal weight has always been 12 stone and at the moment I'm a frankly embarrassing 14.4 stone. I don't think I've ever been this heavy but I've been looking at pictures of myself from 10 years ago and I can't imagine how I was ever that trim because I've always been a greedy fucker, stuffing my face throughout the day and even snacking until just before bed time so Christ knows how I managed to avoid getting this fat until now. My goal is to try and get down to 12 stone before I go to the Edinburgh Fringe festival which gives me just over a month to drop 2 stone which sounds nearly impossible but in 2014 I lost a stone in 18 days just through diet and without any exercise so if I combine the same commitment to diet and also start exercising then I should shift a lot of extra weight. My plan is from Monday to Saturday to only have either breakfast biscuits or cereal in the morning then have a cup of soup during each lunch break at work and on Sunday's I'll allow myself a proper meal to reward myself for all the fasting I've done. I know that to lose weight you have to drink a shitload of water but if I do this at work that means I'll have to constantly go for piss breaks (unless they allow me to have a bucket at my station which I'm guessing they won't but they do have a suggestion board up in the lobby so maybe I'll suggest "Piss Buckets" as a way to increase productivity) so I'll have a cup of tea during breaks and as soon as I get home I'll start constantly drinking water for the rest of the day. I'll also alternate different types of exercise every day, one night I'll go for a run the next night I'll do weight training, another I'll do stomach crunches etc. Constantly being on my feet and moving around all day at work should burn a few calories anyway and I'm hopefully going to be starting surfing lessons soon which should contribute to some calorie burning.

Checked out last night's Slammiversary pay per view celebrating 20 years of Impact Wrestling. Impact has made some horrible decisions over the years mainly rehiring Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan who fucked up the original vision for the company but you can't help admire the company's tenacity and ability to somehow stay alive despite the people in charge seemingly having self destructive tendencies over the years. Plus in recent years thanks to Scott D'Amore and Don Callis Impact has come to resemble what it once was yet again and their product is now one of the best in all of wrestling. Slammiversay was awesome, the company brought back several original match types, many former roster members and the entire night in general felt like a great birthday celebration. The Ultimate X match was really good and I'm glad Mike Bailey is the new champion. The one thing that really pissed me off about Dixie Carter bringing back Vince Russo as I knew that the X Division would take a back seat to endless promos and gimmick matches and whenever we would get an X division match it would likey be two minutes long and end in a DQ. Lately however the X division has returned to being more of a focal point of the company like it was in the glory days of Impact. The Monster's Ball between Moose and Sami Callihan was really bloody and violent as you would expect and I liked that they brought back the stipulation that the competitors are locked in a room 24 hours before the show and deprived of food, water, and light (the light and water part wouldn't bother me so much but 24 hours without food? I don't know if could go 24 minutes without food. I'd probably tap out the second the bell rang and crawl to the nearest pizza shop). I really enjoyed the 10 man tag which pitted the Impact Originals against Honor No More. Seeing the return of the Motor City Machine Guns, Frankie Kazarian and Nick Aldis to the company to do battle one last time was really cool. However the reveal of the mystery partner being Davey Richards really took the wind out of everyone’s collective sails. The idea that he's an Impact "original" is ridiculous as he made his name in ROH years before arriving in Impact. The main event between Josh Alexander and Eric Young was really good too. Alexander is awesome, kind of like a modern day Kurt Angle and I hope Impact continue to push him well. I can remember watching the show where Eric Young made his TNA debut back in 2003 so seeing him here in the main event 19 years later feels so surreal. Finally the cameos from past TNA stars wishing TNA a happy anniversary were awesome too. Sting, Kurt Angle and most notably AJ Styles, the man many would still consider to be Mr. TNA and the wrestler still most commonly associated with the company, all gave messages of thanks and support to the company. Back when I first got into wrestling it was unheard of that a wrestler from one company could ever make an appearance on another show but now we're at the stage where a WWE contracted wrestler (AJ) and an AEW contracted wrestler (Sting) both were allowed to appear on an Impact Wrestling show. My how times have changed. What a great show. Happy Anniversary Impact Wrestling!

[imaginarycircus]

I was making chicken soup and dumplings earlier because it’s cold and it’s going to snow and sleet and then be really really stupid cold. And I was chopping onions and listening to NPR because I am a middle aged lady with a useless master’s degree and it’s required. But I was absent mindedly humming something too and spontaneously stopped to wave my chef’s knife around and belt out, “I want to be an anarchist/ I get pissed/ destroy.” And then I started crying because I was laughing and because of the onions. My inner angry teen-aged self lives on I guess.

[ophelialoveshandsomemen]

Home.

 Day 7 of the December Writing Challenge. Catching a cold ( Tissues, savoury soup and cuddles.)

General rating.

Llewyn Davis x fem!wife!reader.

Warnings. I don’t wanna give too much away, but there’s a baby and it’s a sick fic, expect mucus. Don’t like, don’t read. also soft!Llewyn! and one f-bomb.

 A.N. I will get this challenge done if it kills me!

 Llewyn and you had been married exactly one year and your son was almost a month old when you experienced your first family cold in the beginning of December. It started with Llewyn sneezing a little one evening, prompting you to nearly drown him in bone broth and vit. C. He got better for two days, but then both of your boys got horribly sick. Your son's nose is leaking like a faucet and he's sweating like a cage fighter. Llewyn's caught it in his lungs so he's mainly coughing and sneezing, not terribly so, but it's enough that he can't sing, or hum. Which is frankly driving him a little nuts. Llewyn hadn't realized just how empty his life is without singing and music until now.

  You've gotten it both best and worst of all three of you. No nasty leaking mucus or lung-wrecking coughs. What you are is achy in every nook and cranny of your body and tired on a mythological level. Not even the 10 hour long labour when you delivered your little munchkin had wiped you out like this. You are currently holed up in your bed in mid-afternoon on a Saturday, with your baby all comfy and tonic-ed and fed and asleep in your arms, thankfully on clean sheets. You'd had a tiny bout of energy after bathing this morning and Llewyn helped you change the sick-laden cotton sheets for your nicer dark green linen ones.

  And, Llewyn, your dear angel of a husband, is reheating your mother's soup, a favourite of yours, that she brought over earlier today for all of you.

  After getting his coughing and sneezing under control three times, Llewyn carefully enters your bedroom carrying two perfectly warmed ceramic bowls full of the wonderful steaming soup. He sets them on the nightstand and delicately helps you extract your son from your arms, laying him down gently on the faded floral comforter and then he helps you sit up, leaning against a small hill of pillows. He kisses your forehead, his soft, springy beard brushing your temple. Then he hands you your soup in the blue and black swirled bowl before he sits down on the end of the double bed to eat his share out of a garishly ugly yellow bowl your sister had given you as a joke years ago.

  You sip your soup slowly, savouring the heat and healing taste. You glimpse at Llewyn and you can't help but laugh as you find him doubled over his bowl, trying to inhale as much steam as humanly possible.

"Oh Llewyn!" you weakly giggle, " needing a little help breathing, love?"

  Llewyn doesn't grace you with any answer beyond a curt nod of his head, curls limply swaying with the movement.

  You just smile sweetly at your breathless husband and slowly reach behind you to snatch the tiny jar of rosemary and camphor infused oil you store in your built-in headboard cupboard for this very occasion and set it between the two of you on the granny square wool blanket covering your comforter. Careful not to spill your soup you lean forward just enough to thread your fingers through his steam soaked curls, causing a gravelly muffled pleasure induced moan to slip from his throat.

" Once you're finished eating, honey, I'll rub this on your chest and under your nose, it should help. 'Kay?"

Llewyn looks at you like you hung the moon.

" Oh, fuck yes!"

*****************************

 You and Llewyn lay in bed with your son loudly snoring between you. An old record of Dick Robertson singing Home( When shadows fall) is playing lazily on Llewyn's gramophone in the living room next door. Your knees are hooked over Llewyn's thighs, bodies contorting into comfortable positions, you lying on your back between the wall and your munchkin, Llewyn on his right side facing the both of you, legs pulled up into a feotal curl beneath you, arm stretched protectively over the baby with his hand curled around your rib cage. Your hair is spread out behind you like limp noodles and your muscles ache and your son's neck is sweating on your arm where you are cradling him and Llewyn, despite the butteload of respiratory oil you've smothered him in, is still wheezing just barely enough to hear. All of you are kinda gross and tired. But, even with all that, you wouldn't trade this, cuddling with your wonderful, musical angel of a husband and your tiny , adorable offspring, for the world.

 tagging the sweet @ayrusss​ .

[heavymetalchemist]

I think it’s easy to forget that Wei Wuxian is strongly villain-coded. We see the story from his perspective, we know his reasons and justifications, if you’re watching CQL and paying attention you can figure out the core transfer before the reveal. We know that Wen Qing and Wen Ning are good guys. We know that the Burial Mounds gang is a bunch of tired uncle/aunts trying to grow some stupid radishes, a four year old, and the Disaster Bi Gang (none of whom have swords, even!) We know that Wei Wuxian has his heart in the right place, that he feels an incredibly strong debt to the Wen Siblings and by extension their remaining family, that he has no golden core and has no choice but to forsake the sword and cultivate the demonic path, that he defects from the Jiang sect in a fake fight with his brother so that the Jiang sect won’t suffer the consequences of his actions, even though they have Secret Soup later.

But if you’re not us, the audience? If you’re, for example, Sect Leader Yao?

Hey did you all hear about how Wei Wuxian got kicked out of the Cloud Recesses for violently lashing out at the Jin sect heir?

Hey did you all see how he doesn’t carry his sword any more and claims it’s because he’s so badass that he doesn’t need it? And he has that Stygian tiger seal, so maybe it’s not bullshit? Can you even fight against that with a sword?

What kind of power does this guy even have? He’s a teenager! He drinks all the time and he’s moody and surly and holy shit did you hear what he did at that Wen outpost? He tortured all of them to death! Ugly stuff, man. Gruesome way to go. Maybe even worse than what Wen Ruohan did, at least a hot poker doesn’t make you claw your own eyes out.

Oh shit, he just stormed into this banquet and just SAID “if I want to kill someone who can stop me” and he still has that tiger seal I think we should be worried???

He just busted a bunch of Wen cultivators out of prison! And then he ran off to the Burial Mounds??? And his sect leader didn’t even know anything about it? Is he going rogue? Is he starting an uprising? This demonic cultivation stuff really seems to be corrupting him!

Oh man he got kicked out of the Jiang sect? You mean even the man he grew up with, who he was raised with practically as a brother, can’t control him any more? Did you hear about his fierce corpse? They call him the Ghost General! He’s unstoppable! What are we going to do if he comes for us?

He could be building a whole army in there, Sect Leader Jin said so! Who knows what kind of sick, twisted stuff he’s getting up to! Don’t forget all that horrible shit in the Sunshot Campaign, remember when he was raising the Wens’ own dead to turn against them? He could do that to us! He’s working with the Wens now, even! He’s gone totally crazy!

We can’t let some outlaw have all this power. It’s putting the safety of all of us at risk. What if it’s just another Wen Ruohan waiting to happen? (especially applicable if you’re thinking he’s using Yin iron as in CQL!) If we let him consolidate his power too much, then he’ll be unstoppable!

HOLY SHIT he murdered the Jin sect heir and his cousin with his fierce corpse! That’s the man his former shijie married! The one he punched in the Cloud Recesses, remember when the Lans kicked him out because he was so unruly and disrespectful? Yeah! It was probably revenge! Have we done anything to him? Oh gods what if we’re next???

A major point of MDZS/CQL is how important reputation is, and how that affects everything. Wei Wuxian’s reputation is straight-up villainous. We, the audience, know that he’s trying his best, that he’s a traumatized teenager with a shitload of emotional baggage trying to do the right thing and repay a colossal debt, that he’s made choices that he now has to try and live with, etc. But to the rest of the world this guy has fucking lost it, he’s gone off the deep end and he has an incredibly powerful weapon and a mode of cultivation that seems to corrupt you and turn you into a monster, and frankly, they’re not wrong! It does affect his temperament and he does end up killing a lot of people and he is out of control!

MDZS/CQL is interesting precisely because we’re getting an entire Villain Apology Story. A long time ago I read a post by someone on here saying they find Jiang Cheng challenging to write about because he’s the protagonist of a different story, and he really is. He’s the guy whose former shixiong turns into a villain in pursuit of power, the Obi-Wan to WWX’s Anakin, the one who sees how incredible power corrupts and is obligated to fight against it. Having to fight against a former ally who was seduced by “the dark side” (in this case, demonic cultivation) is a story that gets told over and over, but always condemning the one who went to the dark side. He’s the blackened protagonist, the aren’t you tired of being nice, don’t you want to go ape shit power fantasy, where we as the audience can justify his actions because we know he did it to save his brother, his sister, the Wen remnants he owes a debt to. He isolates himself from the people who love him to protect them, he refuses Lan Wangji’s help because he’s convinced he just wants to lock him up and stop him from using demonic cultivation because he’s a righteous upstanding Lan (totally unaware of LWJ’s intense crush, obviously). He jokes about it but he knows he’s being painted as the villain, and he’s in denial about how much that will affect him, because after all… he’s the Yiling Laozu, and he knows his power. But so does everyone else, and they’re rightfully terrified!

And yet? When he comes back, LWJ still wants him, still cares for him, will move heaven and earth to protect him. JC cares about him so much he’s having a Constant Crisis about it. And WWX has not forgotten his shijie or shidi, immediately cares about Jin Ling, and still is the man who really just wanted to be free and grow some goddamn radishes. He accepts that he paid for what he’s done with his death, and just wants to start over.

It just drives me nuts when people pretend like WWX was an angel who did nothing wrong because the whole POINT is that he was a villain-coded gay (well, bi) and the man you had to really watch out for was the polite, thoughtful, soft-spoken one that worked his way up from a tragic backstory. It’s a whole subversion and it’s awesome!