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smittenroses · 1 year

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— Solace in you

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Fandom — Identity V Pairing — Aeroplanist | Charles Holt/Anne Lester | Toy Merchant Summary — Charles isn't good at talking with others, but he's good at building forts. Content Warnings — lots of fluff, hint of comfort/comfort Word Count — 1,242 Author's note — Thank you Holt Superfans for letting me brain-dump ideas <3 Toy Aeroplane shippers rise up (ao3 link soon)

The shadows were long in the Friday evening, making everything seem more elongated than it actually was, Charles’s footsteps seeming even louder without the presence of the usual bicker and chatterings of fellow survivors that resided in the walls of this forever changing paradox. He had long since forgone the effort of attempting to count the days that passed since he found himself stuck beyond the large wooden doors that seemed to loom in their forever sense of gloom.

The blankets that he cradled in his arms, bright as the sun, cut through that gloom as he settled on his mission. Yellows and soft pinks and blues all the same, pillows rested on top of blankets as he made his way through the halls. After a while of being in the manor, you learned how to get around; don’t let the constantly twisting and turning halls overwhelm you and they’ll let you get to where you wished to go.

A left, another left, passing the Forward’s room, and then the Perfumer’s, he could hear their noises on the other side of their doors; evening is when most survivors went to their quarters to freshen up or take refuge after a long day, but yet as the plain door of the Toy Merchant came into view, he couldn’t help but feel at home. Charles had never expected to find a person that he could understand in what could be deemed hell, but the golden blonde hair of the woman and her soft blue eyes had drawn him in, captured them in her own. Soft, caring, the woman rarely spoke up for herself, but yet so much brewed behind those blue eyes that he had grown to adore, shuffling the blankets in his grip as he rapped his knuckles upon the door, the sound of something being made muffled through its wood.

“Miss Lester?” Charles called, hearing the sound of tools still as he called her name, “May I come in?”

He had learned first and foremost about the woman is that she always locked her door when she was busy thinking, noting how the keyhole on the side he stood was side ways; the locks may as well been for show given how many of the residents knew how to pick a lock, but yet it made Anne safe to do so anyway. He could see the way the knob had worn away from use, the woman inside most likely not being its first resident inside.

“Give me a second, Mr Holt.” Her voice was muffled through the door, the sound of metal clinging and clanging echoing through the hall as the Toy Merchant was most likely packing away her materials. With soft footsteps and the click of the lock, Charles watched as the door swung open to reveal the woman he wished to see most in the world. Her eyes were long with lack of sleep, her eyes duller than usual, her hair wasn’t braided and yet she shined brighter than the sun with the soft smile she gave. “Yes?”

“You… looked down today.” Charles muttered as he bounced the blankets in his arms, “It may be intrusive but…” could I come in rested heavily on his tongue, his throat constricting slightly as he came to those words. It wasn’t weird to be standing outside of a woman’s room, holding blankets and pillows and secretly a little teddy bear amongst the linen, right? It sure felt like it, feeling the way his ears warmed with the thought, his mouth and nose disappearing slightly into the linen, staring at her through his mop of curly hair.

He had rehearsed this a hundred times, why was his tongue tied in knots now? Why did his heart flutter and why was his chest feeling so tight? Maybe he was having a heart attack, he swore by it, but even if he were to drop dead right here he knew that he would only awaken back in his bed again, his body almost brand new. His mouth opened and closed again, the stubble of his chin scratching against the fabric, though as he saw the corners of her mouth twitch upwards once again, he knew that he didn’t need to have any words.

“Of course you can come in, Mr Holt.” She said, stepping aside. It was then when her body wasn’t hidden behind the pile of fabric that he noticed that she wore and simple dress today, the fabric plain against her usual wear, her feet bare. He tried not to think much of it, passing into her room without much else to say, though as he looked for chairs to use he let the linen sit on her messy bed.

Reds and blues and yellows decorated her room, as marvellous as she was in her daily, though as he got to work using the two chairs that seemed to be normal in every room, he watched as Anne’s head tilted, watching him work. “It may seem silly,” he begun, tying one corner of a blanket to the bed knob at the end of her bed, the other side thrown over the back of a chair, “but when I was little, my… my mother would make us blanket forts when we were upset.” Even when he came from no money and a never full belly, his mother shone bright in his memories with the way she would use whatever they had to try and distract them from the coal towers and smog of their home.

His fingers itched at the memory, his brow creased as he focused, but yet he knew that he wouldn’t make something as close to what his mother would make at home. It would be close enough, however, the blankets finding their root in their spots, the pillows finding themselves underneath the hold. Their conversations were brief and short before he finally stood back, admiring his handy work. The roof was dipped a bit, the fort not that big, yet Anne’s eyes only showed something more golden than the sun as she stepped closer to the pile of blankets and pillows.

Had… she not seen a pillow fort before?

“This is for me?” Oh, oh, he really hadn’t expected her tears to rim themselves with tears, or her bottom lip to quiver, but her was ready for her arms to wrap around his middle, squeezing him with her might. “Thank you… Thank you so much, Charles.” Her voice as soft as a mouse, her blonde hair a frazzle, he didn’t know where to put his hands for a moment before he settled one on her hip, the other in her hair as he tamed the fly aways. His hand so easily cupped her head, his thumb tucking hair behind her ear, and he swore she could feel his heartbeat drumming away at her ear.

To have her so close, to feel her pulse against his own, he couldn’t help but gulp, his throat all the much drier with words caught within.

“I… should take my leave.” It was scandalous to be in a woman’s room, but yet she didn’t let him go, instead holding him all the much tighter. She rooted him to the spot, his breath hitching in his throat, but as those blue eyes stared up at him, he knew he couldn’t go.

“Stay with me a little longer?”

“I’ll stay with you as long as you wish, Anne.”

#identity v #idv #idv aeroplanist #idv toy merchant #idv charles holt #charles holt #aeroplanist | charles holt #idv anne lester #toy merchant | anne lester #canon x canon #toy aeroplane

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brasideios · 1 year

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The Portmanteau Theory

Whenever I see someone getting angry and upset about someone else’s interpretation of a piece of media, I wish that I could pass this idea on to them to think about:

Any piece of media, in English studies terms, is a text. A painting is a text. An advertisement is a text. A novel is a text. A fanfic is a text. A video game is a text. Anything that carries messages, stories, meanings is a text.

There was a theorist, Mikhael Bahktin (a personal fave of mine) who developed the idea of the portmanteau as a way of conceptualising how a creator and viewer approach a text.

Basically, people think of a text like a portmanteau (suitcase/trunk).

They think that a creator of a text has a series of messages or meanings that they can put into a text which the viewer of that text can then take out of the portmanteau complete.

In this view, a text would be something fixed; it can reach the viewer complete with its messages unadulterated - and this would mean that there’s a correct meaning that is easily taken from that text and it is always the same, and exactly what the author intended.

However, Bahktin (if I remember correctly) emphasised that this view of texts is false, because a text in reality isn’t a portmanteau.

An author doesn’t control the meanings they may insert into their text - one of the instances in which the phrase, the author is dead (another theorist said this - Deridas, I think?) is actually true.

A creator has ideas of their own about what they want to say, but they can’t foresee how the viewer of the text is going to understand what they see.

The most obvious example I can think of is romance writers who inadvertently write abusive relationships as romantic, or with glaring misogyny throughout. (I have been watching a long list of reviews of Colleen Hoover’s books - and good gods).

Consequently - without a portmanteau in which to convey fixed meanings, a text is always and forever open to interpretation, and there is no correct interpretation of that text, only multiple interpretations. As many interpretations as there are readers.

To get upset because your interpretation of any given text isn’t agreed with by everyone who engages with it means that you’re viewing that text as a portmanteau - but it isn’t.

That’s just not how texts work.

That’s the beauty of texts - and it seems to me, the source of a lot of fandom angst.

#I suppose I’m talking to myself here #but what’s new #literary theory #mikhael bahktin #the portmanteau theory #behold the field in which I cultivate my vibes #Tis academic #fandom #fandom drama

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wrenwrights · 1 year

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My Konig Headcanons (Konig's Past)

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who read and enjoyed Afterlife. That was my first work on Ao3, and I really appreciate all of the Kudos and Comments. I checked my Ao3 and nearly jumped out of my computer chair, I was proud and excited that people liked my little one-shot. Again, thank you guys so much!

Since I started working on my little project, I've had to develop Konig's character since the fandom has given so little information on him. But, dear reader, that's honestly never stopped me before. So here is the headcanons/backstory I've got for Konig so far. It goes from childhood up to the point of meeting the main character. Now! Onto the headcanons! I'd like to mention first that these headcanons are specifically for the fic that I'm working on, and many are in no way to cannon to the actual lore of Call of Duty.

***

Konig's life before the military was a normal, caring one; his mother and father loved each other dearly. His sister (Sophia) was Konig's protector, walking him to and from school. His father was his idol, taking him hiking or wood working every Sunday. His mother was Konig's greatest love; she made Konig feel better when his classmates teased him.

And oh, how the other children teased him. At six, Konig was already about as tall as his eleven-year-old sister and weighed almost twice as much. He was just a big, sweet goofball of a child who knew why other kids laughed at him but didn't really understand why. His father used to frown at the sight of Konig's tears, patting his shoulder and saying, "Everything will be okay, buddy." Konig didn't have a lot of friends; actually, Sophia was his only friend, so his father's little pet name for him was like a soothing bandage over his lonely heart.

Then, Konig's father left when he was ten. No notice, no call, no apology; he just didn't come home from work one day. It tore the only life Konig had ever known out from under his feet. His sister shut down, distancing herself from Konig. His mother cried all the time. Konig couldn't believe that his father was just... gone. Not dead, gone. It was a fact he couldn't accept, and he'd ask his mother over and over if his father had called or was even home.

His father never came back, and Konig had to learn that tears solved nothing in life.

The military was where Konig really felt he flourished. He joined at 17, not really knowing what else to do with his life. He found some kind of peace and simplicity even during drills and operations, and he was good at it. Good at carrying out his orders, a good fighter, a good soldier. The military did something to him; it taught him how to deal with his anxiety, how to build up walls to keep everything inside, hidden almost.

He quickly went from a quiet soldier to a cocky and, dare say, arrogant man quickly rising in his ranks. His new mask certainly helped, not only with his own confidence but with his intimidating presence.

He'd tried hard to become a recon sniper, knowing that his sharp eyes and intellect were perfect for the position, but Konig's superiors looked at his size and saw another use for him. They used him as an insertion specialist, essentially a human battering ram that could slam his way through doors and tear through the battlefield. Often, Konig's handiness skills were used in human trafficking situations, breaking prisoners from their cells. It wasn't a job Konig detested, but with every mission, something weighed heavy on him. In many cases, the people he freed were scared of him, refusing to go anywhere near the giant man who had just ripped a door off of its hinges. Not that Konig blamed them. He had done things on the battlefield, seen things, had made decisions that had been detrimental to his team.

At some point, Konig joined KorTac, as a contractor. Taking missions for the highest bidder and leading his team (occasionally Konig took missions from Task Force 141 when they paid high enough). This is where Konig can say he met his first friend, Kim "Horangi" Hong-Jin. They were an unstoppable team. Konig became known for his ability in warfare strategy and his skills on the battlefield. The other operators respected Konig for his skills, his rank.

And this is where Konig meets the main character. I want Konig's romantic headcanons to be a different post, so for now, I'll leave it as is. Thank you, dear reader, for enjoying my Konig headcannons! I'm still working on my little project; every day, I get a little more done with it, and I'm so excited for it to finally be finished I'm shaking.

Until Next Time,

Wren.

#headcanon #creative writing #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #konig call of duty #konig mw2 #konig cod #call of duty #reblog #writeblr #wrenwrights

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butchgrayson · 4 months

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3, 4, 12 and 24 for dick grayson our beloved

dick grayson our beloved <3 i am about to be so fucking annoying about him

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Joke-ish answer everything from TT nightwing (and rebirth nightwing in general). I just ignore its existence tbh.

Real answer I had a lot of difficulty answering bc i loveeeeee dick's flaws i love it when he's a cunt i love it when he self isolates i love it when he is a hypocrite the tension between his bad traits and his love for people/his friends, his dedication to heroism his intellect all of it is what made me fall in love with his character <3 BUT THEN. i remembered cop dick grayson. who i have almost completely wiped from my mind bc i hate it so so so so bad. it just doens't make sense with him as a person, like whyyyyyy would he ever go and join a police force more corrupt than gothams?????? its so anathema to who he his/his character history that my blood boils whenever i reread nw96 or see that era mentioned in fandom spaces LMAO whatever. im not even mad. in my own personal dc universe that lives in my brain and the personal wiki i have on my laptop the bludhaven cop era was an extended undercover/infiltration strategy. dick's true career calling should be being a bartender/doing seasonal work <3

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

ACE ATTORNEY !! i have an extended dc ace attorney au that i will post about someday but even outside of that it would be soooo fun to see him as either a protag (esp given that the defence attorneys in aa have to do all of their own detective work) OR as a supporting character. i think he would fit right in with the main cast of the series too, especially trucy (fellow circus kids !!!) and apollo <3

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Another one i had a difficult time w just because how can i pick there r so many. BUT i saw a post earlier that reminded me that i am a dick grayson occasional smoker truther. i understand why most people would NOT agree w this but its a little self-indulgent i fully admit. on the one hand like yes he is a high level athlete/why would he do anything that he knows have bad health impacts but i can say as a former (semi) high level athlete i think that is the demographic i have known that has the highest proportion of smokers LMAO i think he picks it up in the ntt era originally as a social smoking thing whenever the titans would party or whatever (another self indulgence is i think he picks up the habit from donna) and it eventually turns into a very rare (as in, goes through a 1.5 packs a year) stress management technique when shit with bruce/the family/the titans/a case gets bad. he's filled with a lot of guilt over it but this does not stop him.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

See there are so few characters with the specific brand of neuroses/issues that dick has that i was stumped on BUT while it is very much not a one-to-one i draw soooooo many parallels between him and declan lynch from the raven cycle series. ESP DURING THE ERA WHERE BRUCE IS "DEAD". pov you are the eldest child of an emotionally unavailable man who has involved you with his underworld/vigilante dealings since you were far too young to be doing so and so you take up the burden of it and incorporate it so deeply into your sense of self that you don't know how to be a real person anymore. and when your father dies it is your job to look after your family and protect them even when theyre estranged from you and you are the inheritor of something that you must keep going even if it kills you to do so <3 i think this parallel also works especially well with declan&ronan compared to dick&jason (<- am drafting a post in my mind about this whole topic as i type all this btw)

tysm for sending this in it was v v fun to answer !!!

character ask game

#dick grayson #ask game #💌

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mrultra100 · 10 months

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Let’s finish this!

Here we are folks. The last Prehistoric Planet episode as of May 2023. The current end of the line for the time being, and an episode not like any before. I mean, given how there were quite a few episode ideas to use from Planet Earth, an episode on Plains would’ve made more sense. I’m not against the idea of a PHP episode based around an entire continent, but North America being here… feels odd. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good time to behold, but it’s got so many fans scratching their heads. While I stand on the whole opinion that something like “Plains” would've fit better, it sort of makes sense. Given that most of the biomes used in Planet Earth and its sequel have been used for the previous 9 episodes, there aren’t that many compatible habitats left for PHP to use. Mountains and jungles aren;t really good places for preserving fossils like the other habitats, not alot is known about caves from the end of the Cretaceous, and it should be obvious that cities aren’t an opinion here. So it makes sense that the series is starting to go with other themes for its episodes at this point.

With all of that said, the question remains? What did I think about this last episode? Does it do a good job to close out the season? Stick around and find out, as we cap off the second tour of Maastrichtian Earth with NORTH AMERICA.

Think of the seagulls that normally pester you for fries… and then scale them up to the size of a giraffe. That’s basically what this poor guy has to go through.

The opening scene starts with a herd of Alamosaurus, which were not only the largest animals on the entire continent, but also the only species of titanosaurs there as well. As the herd plods down the beach, the focus is on a 70-year old male, straggling behind a bit. As the others carry on, the old male slowly lays down on the beach, with his rather long life coming to a peaceful end…

…As you can tell, what happened next, along with the resulting reaction from the fandom was anything but peaceful. The next day, the dead Alamosaurus attracts predators from all walks from life. From a trio of troodontids struggling to pierce through the sauropod’s thick skin, to a T. Rex who spooks the former off and easily gorges into the free meal, right to a pair of Quetzalcoatlus, who then harass and force the poor T. Rex into leaving, after pecking and honking at the guy. Alot of people got a bit uppity about this scene, as they felt that something like this wouldn’t be natural. However, looking at the mannerisms of both parties helps get a better understanding of what happens here. The first Quetzalcoaltus was hesitant on grabbing a bite from the caress while the T. Rex was present. It’s only with the second Quetz that things start to shift in their favor. Using their lighter frames, the two azhdarchids go on the offense, mobbing and harassing the T. Rex, while pecking and honking right on the theropod. That’s something that I frankly love about the PHP Quetz; Alongside their accurate mannerisms and appearance, the species gets a deep, booming HONK. Think of this entire kerfuffle like someone getting harassed by seagulls for some fries… with the main difference being that these gulls are the size of giraffes, and can easily swallow you whole if they fancy you as a snack

Calamari, only with the shell

Diving back into the sea for our second segment, the focus is centered on the first-ever appearance of Globidens in media. Unlike the other mosasaurs in this series, Globidens, with its name literally meaning “Globe teeth”, had rounder and blunter teeth, which was a very good tool in hunting hard-shelled prey, including the other animal of the scene; Sphenodiscus. They were a species of ammonites that were very common during this time. I even have an entire fossil of one of these creatures!

Got this lil’ beauty from a fossil shop almost five years ago

As for while the Sphenodiscus are getting themselves in the hungry eyes of the Globidens? Well, while you have eggs to place in the shallows, you gotta get in the way of predators to lay down the groundwork for the next generation. An interesting note to bring up is how the Globidens doesn’t initially eat each Sphenodiscus he catches after biting through their shells, causing them to sink to the seafloor. The goal here is to have himself a good amount of easy food to snack on in peace, even with how they only represent a tiny amount of the entire school. It helps to show how mosasaurs can be pretty clever animals, similar to how modern-day monitor lizards are very intelligent for reptiles.

Seriously, how did they not add in the fact that birds ARE dinosaurs in a scene with a non-avian dinosaur AND birds?

Going back on dry land, the episode then cuts to a large lake, cut off from nearby rivers. Due to this isolation, along with the water getting toxic due to dissolving minerals, living here can be a bit risky, unless you’re either a brine fly, or a “Styginetta”, which was an informed relative of ducks. The other major animals of the segment are a family of Pectinidon. On the hunt for some food, the chicks playfully run around for flies, with some running face-first into a whole bunch of them in a very similar manner to the Cryptile from The Future is Wild. Their father, however, has a much meatier prize in mind. The male then runs after the flock of “Styginetta” catching one of the birds in mid-air. The scene itself was good in its own right, but the only issue that I have is how it doesn’t bring up how birds are dinosaurs. Maybe they’re saving it for a later episode? I dunno.

Mess with the bull, and you get the horns

We then cut to a large forest, where groups of Triceratops gather for their mating rituals. The rules here are simple; If you’ve got very large horns, the chances of getting laid are easier. And one of the males involved got’s some pretty impressive horns, a bit longer than most of the others. However, there are two issues that he has to face.

The females notice that the horns lack any wear or tear, which means that male lack any experience.

There’s literally an older male here who has horns EVEN BIGGER THAN THAT.

As many folks have pointed out ever since the trailer for Season 2 came out, the older male and his horns are based on Yoshi’s Trike, which is a specimen of Triceratops with horn cores that are nearly 4 feet long, which makes them the longest horns out of any Triceratops fossils found. And going back to the “horn core” thing, many scientists now speculate that, just like many animals alive today, dinosaurs must’ve had sheets of keratin covering over things like horns and claws. And if we’re going with that idea, it’s safe to assume that the horns of Yoshi’s Trike, as impressive as they are now, must’ve been even bigger when the animal itself was alive. And this goes for the older male, as his massive horns are a good way to see how he’s more of an experienced fighter than his younger rival, even having part of his frill gone by what I assume to be a T. Rex attack.

As you can probably imagine by this point, the first male loses, having a piece of one of his own horns be snapped off by the fight. However, this is a blessing in disguise, as the newly-gained battle scar means he’ll have a better chance of getting a mate next time.

A loving mother, and her family of walking fluffballs

The last segment of not just the whole episode, but the season in general, starts with the northern wilderness. For a female Nanuqsaurus, it’s not the cold that’s the hardest part, but it’s the lack of good hiding places to spring an ambush on a flock of unsuspecting Ornithomimus that makes things a kick to the face. While this isn’t like plenty of other hunting scenes in this show, it works as a reminder that most hunts throughout the history of life fail more often. If you were a 23-feet long predator with jaws powerful enough to crunch through bone, a good hiding spot is gonna be needed to catch some dinner. Our female, having to try again after her first attempt fails, uses some rocky outcrops to catch the Ornithomimus by surprise, eventually singling a lone member of the flock. One slip of ice later, and it’s all over for the ostrich mimic.

While a meal like this is a godsend for the Nanuqsaurus, she’s also got a bunch of adorable chicks to feed. While this was a bit of a weird way to end the season, it was still a good scene.

youtube

When you have a shield for a face, getting attention is gonna be alot easier than you’d think

And we’re at the last Uncovered segment of the reviews. Obviously, I don’t have alot to say about this one, but it’s nice that the Uncovered segments were added in at the end of each episode this time. I’m not sure if I’ve said this previously, but adding in behind-the-scenes segments at the end is common for the BBC’s Natural History Unit when it comes to their shows, it works here.

And with that… we’re done! We’re finally finished with Prehistoric Planet season 2! While it took me months to get to each episode, I had alot of fun with these reviews. As weird as the idea of this show getting a season 2 just a year after the first may seem weird, but you gotta remember; This entire project started back in 2019, and even before that, it’s been stated that the idea of the series itself came up more than a decade ago. While it could hypothetically take a few months into the new year to see if we’ll ever get Season 3, but if that happens, that whole “Maasrichtian trilogy” idea that I’ve been spouting off may actually come to pass! Only time will tell.

And as always, thanks to everyone who’s liked and read these silly ramblings of mine. Things like my other projects, life stuff getting in the way, and other such things have gotten in the way, but after more than 5 months, I’m happy to say that this safari tour is over. As for what I have planned next? I’m hoping to get a few more art pieces done before the year ends, and I have a few ideas for more articles in the same time frame. Obviously, my ideas for what PHP season 3 could be like are still in the works, as I’m hoping to have it released before the end of this month (As of me writing this). I also got some other ideas for consideration, like what I wanna see in my own dream idea for a Pokemon game, some more possible ideas for my Johnny Test reboot idea, and maybe even a sort of mini-retrospective on the much-mangled Walking with Dinosaurs movie from 2013, just in time for its 10th anniversary this December!

…Yeah, that film came out 10 years ago… God, I feel old.

ANYHOO! Thanks for reading, stay tuned for what I’ve got planned next, and keep on celebrating the legacy of our Prehistoric Planet

(Also, Happy Thanksgiving! Just don't let a T. Rex catch you when you're cooking that turkey, lest you end up as the turkey dinner)

#ultra ramblings #prehistoric planet #ultra's php2 reviews #Youtube

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not-kaiva · 1 year

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its fun how all four umbilicus in bloodborne can, with some thinking, fit within the four horsemen of the apocalypse. the area or person you pick up the umbilicus is your hunter witnessing a major flaw of humanity. given the themes of this game. a sin, or something, caused by this ongoing misery throughout the land. if you will.

mergo - war - not his wet nurse, but the very concept of mergo himself - he's a everything that's comes along as the aftermath of war. he's the impact. he's the aftershock, if you will. - "The thought of that stuffed rabbit lying in that crater, rain and weather matting its fur, unloved, forgotten, totally alone, lost forever, it fills me with a profound hopelessness…." - amnesia the bunker but consider this emotion evoked by the empty stroller in the middle of a desolate nightmare, and knowing that mergo is dead - he's a child victim of war and also the formless representation of every victim. you hear his cries and see his mother mourn all because of this senseless violence, the neverending war between the schools and all the civilians and innocents and especially the children caught in it. he's heard all over the game, all in places where the scars of war are so evident.

the workshop/the doll's physical form - famine - the doll here represents gherman's hunger for maria ("curious mania") and how the doll would never fill that desire - he wanted maria like an otaku wants a waifu statue. it's like....content is over, let's make our own content! and distorting the truth in a way that's unrealistic. he wanted to possess maria, to have her likenesses. - the doll was never animated by the moon presence to be maria 2.0, because gherman doesn't actually want maria. he wants the coffee shop au fanfic of maria. he wanted a subservient maria to give him ownership over her in a way that he never got from a teacher-student relationship. but the moon presence making the doll (hunter's dream) based off of what she understood gherman's wish was makes sense. she took his desire to have maria take care of and dote on him, but had to change maria in a way that strips off that spice and attitude to make the doting possible. and he didn't want that. he has to live forever facing a facsimile of what he wanted. - it's like fandom people going "i wish this character would do xyz, treat me like this way, do this to me" and understanding the real character would never ever do xyz. but when someone made a fanfic of sweet highschool sweetheart au of that character, you realize all of a sudden it's ooc. it's not the character you fell in love with. - for that matter the whole hunter's dream is this. gherman wants his workshop to be The place that all future hunters come and learn from. he was the first hunter, training hunters, and now you have all these other shops. the church workshop. byrgenworth has a hunter's workshop technically. in this competition gherman wants to be The Hunter again. The Mentor. and the moon presence gave him the dream where he can teach every hunter forever. :) isn't that great? - but it's just like the doll, he's trapped in the dream. when you show up he doesn't even give a fuck about teaching you. just go kill some beasts, it's what hunters do. whatever. he has to live forever with a constant stream of new students, but none of them will replace the One student he wants. - it's the classic interpretation of the horseman of famine. you eat and eat and eat and you're still skin and bones. no amount of food will make you satisfied, and no amount of wish-granting will truly give gherman what he desires. he will only ever get exactly what he wished for.

arianna - death - no matter what you do, she will die - she's pretty hard to keep alive if you don't have prior knowledge. send her to the wrong safe haven, accept her blood too many times, don't send her anywhere, invite the wrong people back to the chapel... - and even if you do keep her alive, just by killing the infant Great One in the final stage will kill her. sure, you "get something out of it" but that's not the point. she's innocent, totally uninvolved in all this chaos. she's done nothing wrong (as far as the morals of blood vs eyes go) and yet she dies in the end. death is inevitable and the hunter is its witness.

fake iosefka - pestilence - she's taken over the clinic, a place of healing, and instead is spreading the beast plague - she's also an example of the sort of sickness and rot invading the schools, since iirc her umbilicus is stolen from the school of insight? - in addition to the moral rot of stealing just for her own personal gain she also very much experiments on those you send to the clinic. which is definitely a rotted thing to do. i know she's not the actual iosefka, and as such fake iosefka is not beholden to healer's oaths. the fact remains that she knocked out the real doctor in order to pretend to treat people and take advantage of their fear and vulnerability to experiment. to deliberately change them and spread the plague. - she's a leech in a doctor's coat. she's everything about horrible people during a pandemic and the panic within. she's what can happen when someone embraces a plague and tries to use it to advance her own status. she's the flaws of humanity you see when pestilence rides into town.

#bloodborne #bloodborne meta #i have a lot more to say than this i just wanted to record these theses before i forgot #the point about gherman wanting to teach again is arguable #but also the fact that every new student is Not Maria is still salient

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astarionspocketpussy · 6 months

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Been chewing on some ideas today and I have Thoughts(tm) to share.

[Now with a readmore because I hadn't noticed how long this was. Oops!]

There's a lot of discussion around the different endings for main characters, especially in specific areas of the fandom, and especially pertaining to what counts as a 'good' ending for a character. And that argument gets especially heated when it pertains to Gale and Astarion's endings because the camps there are super divided. Note, I'm talking about Tumblr (and to a lesser extent, Tiktok) because that's where I engage with the fandom. I do not know the horrors of Twitter, nor do I want to.

But something came up about this while I was obsessively scrolling through @/karz_2's page on Tiktok. (You should check out her stuff she's really funny.) She had a video talking about the endings and she specifically pointed out how Astarion and Gale's endings get that, like, debate about whether it's a good ending, but Shadowheart and Lae'zel's comparable endings (Dark Justiciar Shads route and Vlaakith's chosen route) generally get acknowledged as being clearly bad. Karz makes a point that all these routes parallel each other by being closely aligned with what these characters wanted at the start of the game (with Shads and Lae'zel's endings being more stated in the text and Gale and Astarion's requiring a little more thought in that regard, but not by too much).

And I was thinking about it after, and I think the main difference in the ways the fandom talks about these endings is that in Shadowheart and Lae'zel's endings, there is a more clear presence of their respective abusers and a more clear connection to the shitty circumstances they were in before the game. Shadowheart remains under Shar's control and authority, the same with Lae'zel and Vlaakith. Even if they're given ostensibly more power, its more visible to the player that they are being manipulated still. The effects of the cycle of abuse are there, but because the abusers are still present, players are more readily able to point out that those endings are fucked up.

With Astarion and Gale, however, their endings place them in a different situation. For one thing, in both endings they appear to have risen above the control of their past abusers. Cazador is very much dead, and as a god, Gale is no longer directly under the control of Mystra. This is already placing them in a position where the player is primed to be happy for them-- they're no longer trapped in the shitty circumstances they were in the start of the game, and the abuser can no longer hurt them. Not only that, but the increase in power gives both characters a sense of control, a sense that they can protect themselves now. For many players, that alone makes it a good ending because they perceive the characters as having escaped their abuse.

The thing is, neither of them really have escaped the cycle yet.

Gale's ending places him in a position of authority and power, yes. But it is also an expression of a self-fulfilling prophecy that his abuse taught him to accept: the idea that he would never be good enough as he is. By claiming godhood, Gale has just trapped himself in that same cycle. He's the God of Ambition, but that ambition is in part fueled by the abuse he suffered. He will always try to aim higher and higher because he was made to feel insignificant before. Removing himself from his humanity does not address the underlying problem, it only serves to allow him to ignore what happened to him, and puts him in a position where he'll never truly be able to heal. Becoming a God changes people in this universe in ways they can never truly come back from. Mystra is the way she is because she is a Goddess- every person who becomes Mystra corrupts in some way, because Gods fundamentally cannot understand human beings. In fulfilling his wishes when he first started out, his desire his own worth, Gale loses himself, and that is a tragedy that only further prolongs the cycle of abuse he is trapped in.

And Astarion, by ascending, gains power, which he believes will finally be enough for him to be safe. But by taking Cazador's place, he only restarts the cycle of abuse. His abuser is dead, but he has assumed his place. Becoming a vampire ascendant necessitates the loss of one's soul and one's humanity. The text in the game itself shows how he begins to devalue the people around him, and the changes to his personality after he ascends are exacttly the same as Cazador- he's manipulative, selfish, and cares only for his own desires. By ascending he does not escape the cycle of abuse, he simply becomes the abuser, and he no longer has a chance to properly heal, nor atone for the genuinely bad things he has done. This ending robs Astarion of a chance to live as an equal among people around him.

Like with Lae'zel and Shadowheart, the power they gain is superficially good, but it only serves to bury the core of the issue and does nothing to help them heal from the abuse they received. But I think it's because their endings are a step removed from the people who began the cycle we see play out in the game that influences how the fandom perceives these endings as opposed to their counterparts. But all this is just my own interpretation of the game.

I think Wyll provides a really interesting foil to this conversation with his endings and how they explore the cycle of abuse, but he deserves his own post because I have a lot more opinions on his endings and how Larian handled him in general. So for now, just take this.

And just as an quick thought to finish this off: You, personally, are allowed to enjoy whatever endings you want, whether they're in game or stuff you make up yourself. These are fictional pixels on the screen and there is nothing wrong with enjoying 'bad' endings. I am not making a statement about your personal morality or intelligence.

Now that I've said that, I really hope no one starts beefing on this post because my notifications cannot handle that. (I would like to hear your thoughts, though!)

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 meta #trauma is a complicated beast #abuse #tw abuse

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ferociouslycreativemystery · 11 months

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Dead dove, do not eat: Detailed show negativity below cut, keep scrolling to keep up the good vibes 😇

This is only halfway coherent since I don't have the energy to edit it thoroughly, but thought it worth sharing anyway. Lots of unfinished thoughts, but I hope I still manage to get something of my feelings across. Here goes:

The pirate show really isn't working for me. In season one it was mainly the editing that bothered me, that it wasn't quite tight enough to set a good pace for the humour, but the story and characters were intriguing enough to keep me engaged. It was immensely thrilling to see the love story develop the way it did, especially as it coincided with some of my own queer identity conundrums. It genuinely helped untangle and rewire something crucial in me, and I'll always be grateful to it for that.

But I've only barely managed to make it through the first two episodes of this new season, and to be completely honest I was bored and fretting all the way through. I agree with those I watched it with that it felt somehow darker compared to the first season. Which, fair enough given the direction of the story, but the translation fumbled what appeal the first season still held for me.

The thing about this show is that it's always felt like it's aiming to appeal to certain very fandom-specific sensibilities, particularly the sensibilities that I never really got the hang of. It feels like it was entirely built around the phenomenon of fannon. The thing about fannon is it is highly normative (if not typically heteronormative, then built around certain understandings of life, queerness and ethics, many of which I don't appreciate being made 'defaults'). Fannon mostly isn't as cohesive as your typical canon story either. It consists of lots of disparate elements, a smörgåsbord of generic and normative tropes for you to pick and choose what you personally like the best while being free to discard the others mostly without consequence, allowing you to assemble your own creation from your chosen legos. The allow for some creativity, but only within the frame of how those pieces are predisposed to fit; a curated playpen.

But I like digging deep, not casting my net wide.

What I like about having a particular canon is that it doesn't just have those generically cross-compatible fannon pieces, it carefully crafts its own ones and assembles them in very particular ways. You can strum one thread and find it resonating somewhere else completely unexpectedly. It's exciting to explore how everything is connected in this one-of-a-kind web of meaning, and with each discovery come to love and appreciate its intricacies even more. There are a million paths to walk if you keep adjusting your aim.

Having that solid framework allows for a specific and unique perspective on humanity, emotion, and the world, which takes me out of myself to see familiar things in a different light. Seeing the world through different eyes also generates sympathy, which heightens my emotional engagement. That is what I find so fascinating and rewarding about this particular way of fandom.

In relation to this, I almost always need ships to be explicit to the point of 'the creators definitely made intentional romantic insinuations in this relationship' to see the appeal of it. It needs to tie into the story as it is being told. My romantic imagination beyond that point is basically non-existent. I'm not good at picking up scraps and filling in the gaps; I'm an explorer, not a conductor.

With the pirates, I see the ideas it puts on the table, the pieces to play with, and could see how they might eventually be made appealing to me, but then it just leaves them there and expects me to do most of the actual development. It feels stale and lifeless, with little room for exploration without first constructing the thing to explore, which defeats the whole purpose.

A lot of the language used also reminds me too much of online discourse for me to disappear into it; it drips with the anxious phrasing habits of someone aware and overthinking all the ways this statement will be taken out of context and how its original meaning must be understood or at least not taken as something Bad when that will happen. This is another aspect where the show feels like it was made to be consumed online, being torn apart into pieces which must each individually contain all their context. There is rampant lamp-shading and making subtext full text, leaving nothing to the shadows. It becomes almost like an academic presentation of a story, which demands that you as the viewer can already bring your own pre-prepared web of understanding and interest, that is ready for the pieces to fit into. But if every part of the story is resolved in itself, then what's even the point of telling the rest of the story then?

In fandom, the pervasive focus on shipping or creation of fannon and headcanons never intrigued me as much as the dissection and exploration of actual canon. "Fuck canon" is a valid take (we're here to play!) but it is entirely antithetical to my personal enjoyment.

It tastes like all the sugar without the bitter almond to balance it out.

I'm not saying this is an illegitimate or bad way to tell a story, because I don't believe that such a thing exists. This show definitely has its place in the landscape of TV; there is very clearly an audience for it, and I'm glad that they're getting what they want from it. I'm not part of that audience though.

#maddie debrief

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welcometoteyvat · 10 months

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rant ahead lmao

i believe your gripes are completely valid because i have the same gripes. it feels like their storytelling (for the entire game) is all over the place. the high cloud quintet is literally something i’ve never chanced upon in the game. i only know it via fandom. this is similar to how that pyro butterfly lady is the crimson witch. only those who dig deep enough into the game will find out about it, and just like genshin, such “information” spreads quickly in the community.

HOWEVER, what genshin does better than star rail is that its main story DOES NOT rely on these snippets to tell its story. do i need to know she was the crimson witch when what happened to her happened? no. not at all. she was there for X purpose in the main storyline and therefore she did what she had to do and left. her being crimson witch was to add depth to her character which the main story had no space to do so.

stair rail, on the other hand, EXPECTS you to find out all these little tidbits, which to me is too time consuming and annoying. why split the story into its separate segments if i need to know them in order to understand the main story?? that’s just poor storytelling imho.

i think you’ll like this video. i agree with it. i get that the funeral for fox character was supposed to be emotional, but this video is right that we know NOTHING about this character. from my own personal experience, the funeral was so boring and honestly irritating because i. don’t. care. in fact, i didn’t even know she was with us throughout the quest so when she had her background voicelines i was always so confused????

i feel the hype around the characters is because the designs of each character have given people a desire to seek more about said characters, and there is abundance information. but this shouldn’t be something to expect of the players.

give me a reason to care that’s not just aesthetics, please.

video will be sent in next ask.

video: https://youtu.be/vaPL0UZK_HQ?si=puvssJPBLc2H57vk

ok thank you for validating me LMAO i was constantly wondering "where is the ancient dead people lore" (hcq) during the entire quest chain, which unfortunately contained very little of what fandom promised me (character depth). apparently i've not be reading enough books and pamphlets you can collect since the lore is concentrated there and in limited character's character stories

tbh I think the reveal that La Signora was the Crimson Witch was also really bad lol, for the same reason that the video argues DH IL's transformation is unimpactful. like "omg wow alternate identity revealed!" but it doesn't really have any impact on the conflict of the story we're currently looking at. they could've just switched it, or not even given her a transformation, instead just showing an extended duel with us and making it visible that she was tired and out of power before she dies, and I don't really know if anything would've changed. same with dan heng IL, I'd probably get more out of it if I read the hcq book from that one opera performer, but ehh there wasn't enough visibly shown leadup, like you said.

I guess the difference between genshin world lore (things in artifacts, weapons, books, world quests etc) and star rail lore is that genshin's is either about the past or future, but not necessarily about the present characters? thinking about the pale flame lore, which gave everyone the fatui crumbs before scara and la signora's stories were introducted in the main storyline, the enkanomiya quests about the vishaps and ancient history of teyvat, and the narzissenkreuz quests that also connect to that + khaenriah + a host of other world lore things. I guess it's nice that reading through all the materials isn't "mandatory" because it's either about the ancient past, dead npcs (so many of the artifact sets) or foreshadowing for important elements in the future that will still get introduced in the main story. I will be biased and agree w you, star rail's lore crumbs are rather :\ storytelling. like I would be fine if the hidden nuggets of lore were about >npcs >lore that happened but is not directly relevant to a character's main arc >foreshadowing for future events/story. but instead it's more like mandatory background reading that is crucial to understand a character's stories, instead of enriching your knowledge of them? anyways yeah

now abt tingyun. I agree that the funeral was really ???????????? i agree w you and the video lol. playing it, I was mostly in disbelief that we're assuming tingyun is legitimately dead even though she's still playable (no dead playables in genshin moment). I also think the thing with the 3 npcs we had to talk to was bullshit because. like the video said, we could've spent time with tingyun (maybe visiting the npcs we collected things from) BEFORE she died and maybe it would have given us more emotional impact. the way they retroactively show how kind and generous she was really put me off, we could've seen this all in person instead of hearing it from other people...... bruh also the way everyone got together in that cutscene when i dont think any of them were really shown to have a deep connection w her is so ..... >_> the emotional impact did not hit whatsoever

but I'm gonna level with you I think they made her role as our guide pretty clear and the implication that she was traveling with us was also pretty clear. no shade though

about the rest of the video: oh he put things into words that I could not articulate JSDKLFJDSKL. not really any thoughts but i agree that a lot of the characters (qingque, xueyi especially) could have just been cut T_T i like both of their designs and personalities based on other material in game but their main quest participation was Not It rip. also agree about the characters being vehicles for exposition and not having their personalities shine through. I'd argue maybe you can tell somewhat of what they're like (jing yuan, fu xuan, yanqing to some extent) but man there's just too much lore explaining for them to really show what they do on a normal schedule it's so .......... also because fanart and fanfic makes them seem so fun im standing here looking at the main plot like >_> <_< what was that. i'm sure it gets better inside their own companion quests, which I haven't done, but that shouldn't be the only place the character gets to really shine lmao

I agree that their design makes people more willing to invest but god I'm so sorry hsr designs really aren't my thing, the color palettes are just incredibly bad JDKSFLJDSKLGHKDJ the only thing holding up the story are the plot and personalities of chars and neither of those were delivered ...

#i think i also engage with hsr differently than genshin bc i made a promise to myself not to spend time on it thus I Dont Have Time to Read #this is also compounded by the fact that i think i have at least 15 character story quests sitting there unfinished like i genuinely can't #dig into the lore even if i wanted to. too much other shit to be doing after not playing for 6 months #well anyways i think this got away from the main point but in general thank you for the discussion :3 #hsr #asks #anon ask #ramblings!#i legit forgot that xue.yi existed in the main story until the video like IT WAS ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY WE COULDVE JUST KEPT GOING #the event has done so much better about properly introducing her. still idk how much i understand her but at least shes actually relevant #also i wrote the first part before actually actually playing the whole quest so i didn't get to the epilogue (?) scene with luo.cha in the #prison again. and so since he's sus I don't know how much foreshadowing of that we were supposed to get????????? again i feel like i wasn't #paying attention or am stupid or the game is so bad at directing audience attention to things that will become important

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fannish-karmiya · 3 years

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Is Wei Wuxian's Cultivation Actually Harmful to Him?

Throughout Wei Wuxian’s first life, he frequently argues with Lan Wangji over his cultivation. Lan Wangji believes that his cultivation will harm him and eventually destroy him, while Wei Wuxian insists that he has everything under control. Many readers take Lan Wangji’s warnings at face value, leading to the common fandom perception that demonic cultivation (more accurately, the ghost path) is inherently harmful to Wei Wuxian and that he should indeed give it up.

But does the text actually back that up, when we examine Wei Wuxian’s use of his cultivation? While Wei Wuxian does experience a few losses of control, I would argue that they are far more due to circumstances than anything else, and not a sign that the cultivating with resentful energy is inherently harmful to a cultivator’s body or that loss of control is an inevitable conclusion.

Preconceptions

Lan Wangji is the character who most often tries to tell Wei Wuxian that his cultivation is harmful. Immediately when Wei Wuxian returns from the Burial Mounds and meets Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji again while torturing Wen Chao, Lan Wangji expresses concern:

One against two, Lan WangJi still refused to back off. He gazed at Wei WuXian, “Wei Ying, for cultivating an evil path you would eventually have to pay. Throughout time, there has not been a single exception.”

Wei WuXian, “I can pay.”

Seeing how unconcerned he seemed to be, Lan WangJi lowered his voice, “The path would not only damage your body, but your heart as well.”

(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)

Now, Wei Wuxian’s path (guidao, the ghost path) is brand new. He invented it, being the first person to ever successfully cultivate using yuanqi, or the resentful energy of dead humans. So why does Lan Wangji speak so assuredly of the harm it can cause?

The term ‘cultivating an evil path’ is telling. Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is a new path, but there are other dark paths of cultivation which exist. The Nie sect’s sabres are an example; they absorb the killing intent and evil energy of the yao and guai they kill, and over time their sabres become more and more powerful but also lead the wielder closer and closer to an inevitable qi deviation.

Of course, Lan Wangji is not aware of the Nie sect’s technique, which is a strictly kept secret, at this point. Nie Mingjue only seems to have told Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao because they were his sworn brothers. But there are surely other paths like this which are publicly known.

We know about other dark rituals which are not part of Wei Wuxian’s ghost path, after all, and ‘backlash’ is a frequent risk, either due to making the user vulnerable or failing to fulfil the contract one agreed to.

The body sacrificing ritual which Mo Xuanyu uses, for example, will cause backlash if you fail to keep up your end of the deal.

It was an ancient, forbidden technique. Compared to an array, it resembled a curse more. The caster of the array injures themselves by creating incisions on their body, and draws the array and writes the incantations using their own blood, finishing by sitting in the center of the array. They can then summon an extremely villainous ghoul and ask for it to complete their wish. The price to pay was to offer their body to the evil spirit, with their own soul returning back to Earth.

This was the forbidden technique opposite to stealing another’s body—offering one’s body.

[...]

The difficult part was that, as soon as the evil spirit has taken over the body of the caster, the contract is sealed by default. The evil spirit must grant their wish, or else the curse will cause a backlash. The spirit in possession of the body will be completely annihilated, never to be born again!

(Chapter 2, Exiled Rebels translation)

Interestingly, the harm here is to the ‘evil spirit’ if they fail to keep up their end of the contract. Well, also the caster who gives up his or her life in exchange. At any rate, this sort of thing seems to be a frequent risk of dark cultivation techniques. The paperman technique is also quite risky:

The good thing was that Wei WuXian had once learnt a certain technique of the dark arts—the paper metamorphosis.

Although it was indeed useful, it had a number of restrictions as well. Not only was the time strictly limited, the paperman must also return as it were, after it had been released. There mustn’t even be a single scratch on it. If, on its way, it was torn apart or broken in any way, the soul would receive the same degree of harm—from a year of unconsciousness to a whole lifetime of lunacy. Thus, one must be extremely careful.

(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)

This seems to be a frequent concern with any dark technique, which probably is what led Lan Wangji to believe that Wei Wuxian’s new path would be similarly dangerous. It’s also very worth noting that he grew up in Gusu Lan, which is known for being even more judgmental towards dark cultivation than other sects.

He immediately seemed to realize, “Oh. I forgot. Your uncle Lan QiRen hates crooked people like me. You’re his proudest disciple, so of course you’re the same as him, haha. I refuse.”

Jiang Cheng stared at Lan WangJi, cautious, “Second Young Master Lan, all of us understand the Lan Sect’s ways.

[...]

Wei WuXian had been angered as well, “Lan WangJi! Do you really have to make this difficult at such a point in time? You want me to go to the Cloud Recesses for the GusuLan Sect’s confinement punishment? Who do you think you are, what do you think the GusuLan Sect is?! You really think that I won’t resist?!”

(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)

While many people speak negatively of Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, Lan Qiren is particularly virulent when Wei Wuxian first proposes the theory as a teen:

Everyone in the room was stunned. Lan QiRen sprang to his feet, “The essence of exorcising demons and annihilating ghosts is to liberate! You do not study the methods of liberation, and even think about increasing their energy of resentment! You reverse the natural order, and ignore ethics and morality!”

[...]

Another book came flying from Lan QiRen. He spoke harshly, “Then, let me ask you again! How do you make sure that the resentful energy only listens to you and does not harm others?”

Wei WuXian ducked while speaking, “I haven’t thought of it yet!”

Lan QiRen raged, “If you thought of it, the cultivation world would not allow your existence! Get out!”

(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)

Due to their father’s seclusion and their mother’s imprisonment, Lan Wangji and his brother were raised by Lan Qiren. With his uncle having such a black and white view of such matters, it’s understandable that Lan Wangji would absorb that and struggle to reconcile the Wei Wuxian he knows and loves with the man who is cultivating an ‘evil’ path.

With his own sect and family so negatively inclined towards Wei Wuxian’s cultivation, I think Lan Wangji was primed to see every behaviour of Wei Wuxian’s through this lens. Similarly, the audience hears the younger Lan Wangji repeat these warnings so many times that I think many readers wind up believing him, too.

Confirmation Bias

However, I think much of this is actually a case of confirmation bias. Lan Wangji is predisposed to see Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as harmful, and is actively looking for signs that it is; he winds up correlating all sorts of things to Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as a result.

He does so when he visits Wei Wuxian in Yunmeng:

Lan WangJi, “Last time, during the hunt on Phoenix Mountain, have you noticed certain signs?”

Wei WuXian, “What signs?”

Lan WangJi, “The loss of control.”

Wei WuXian, “You mean me almost getting into a fight with Jin ZiXuan? I think you got something wrong. I want to fight with Jin ZiXuan whenever I see him.”

(Chapter 71, Exiled Rebels translation)

Which is true! Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan just do not get on at all. And if we go back to Phoenix Mountain, it’s clear that this was a perfectly ordinary fight:

However, Jiang YanLi didn’t turn around. Jin ZiXuan was even more enraged. He caught up to her in just three strides and was about to grab her hand when a shadow suddenly flashed before his eyes. Before he could see who it was, he received a blow on his chest. Jin ZiXuan swung his sword across and backed away.

When he finally could see, he raged, “Wei WuXian, why is it you again?!”

Wei WuXian blocked Jiang YanLi behind him, raging as well, “I haven’t fucking said it yet—why is it you again?!”

Jin ZiXuan, “Attacking because of nothing have you gone mad?!”

Wei WuXian struck with his palm, “That’s exactly what I’m doing! What do you mean because of nothing? What are you doing trying to grab my shijie just because of how ashamed you are?!”

Jin ZiXuan dodged to the side and returned to him a sword attack, “If I don’t grab her should I let her walk randomly around the mountain alone?!”

(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jin Zixuan is described as being ‘enraged’ and tries to grab Jiang Yanli. He’s clearly being very hotheaded here himself. What brother wouldn’t be enraged after this, especially given Jin Zixuan’s pattern of speaking of Jiang Yanli derisively?

Earlier, Lan Wangji had forcibly kissed Wei Wuxian while he was blindfolded, and yet he didn’t display any loss of control or temper problems then.

(I also think this ties into how people tend to judge Wei Wuxian more harshly due to his lower social class; he’s often no more brash and arrogant than his peers, but because he’s the son of a servant only he is judged for it. Look at Jin Zixuan pulling his sword on a man who no longer carries a sword! He isn’t criticised for that. But I digress.)

Lan Wangji also believes that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is doing him spiritual harm, using evidence such as Wei Wuxian’s unwillingness to carry his sword or receive spiritual energy to help him heal:

Suddenly, he felt an itch at his throat. Blood began to rise up his chest. Trying to restrain it, Wei WuXian coughed a couple of times. Seeing that Lan WangJi was going to grab his hand again, Wei WuXian dodged, “What are you doing?”

Lan WangJi, “Your injuries.”

Wei WuXian, “No need. Why use spiritual energy for such a small wound? It’ll get better after some sitting around.”

Lan WangJi didn’t waste any words with him, grabbing for his hand again. At this point, two people came from outside of the cave. Wen Qing’s voice sounded, “Get better after some sitting around? Did you think I’m dead?”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

He observes this back when he visited the Burial Mounds in the day, and many years later tells Wen Ning that this was the conclusion he drew:

Wen Ning turned around. He couldn’t help but ask, “Young Master Lan, you don’t seem too surprised about this. Did you… Did you know about this as well?”

“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”

But to think this was the truth.

(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)

Working with incomplete information (since he doesn’t know that Wei Wuxian has no golden core, he instead assumes that he is being harmed spiritually by his cultivation) and a pre-existing bias against demonic cultivation, Lan Wangji viewed Wei Wuxian as someone who was bound to lose control at some point, and everything became evidence to prove what he already believed.

Loss of Control

However, I think it’s arguable that the instances where Wei Wuxian loses control are not an inevitability of his cultivation path. Instead, they occur in extremely dangerous combat situations where Wei Wuxian has no allies and is being besieged by hundreds or thousands of enemies.

I want to go over three instances where things go sideways for Wei Wuxian with his cultivation in his first life: Wen Ning’s awakening, the ambush at Qiongqi Path, and the battle at Nightless City.

Now, I wouldn’t even describe Wen Ning’s revival as a loss of control. Wei Wuxian had spent months trying to revive Wen Ning, and in the end he wound up waking up while Wei Wuxian was down in Yiling, not at the Burial Mounds to keep the situation under control. It’s like an unwatched pot boiling over.

Wei WuXian, “Didn’t I say not to touch the talismans on him?!”

Wen Qing didn’t even have the spare seconds to be surprised that Lan WangJi was here. She answered, “Nobody touched them! Not a single person went into the Cave! He tore them off on his own when he suddenly went on a rampage. Not only the ones on himself, he destroyed the restriction seals at the blood pool and the Cave as well! All of the fierce corpses in the blood pool got out. Wei WuXian, go save Granny and the others. They won’t be able to hold up much longer!!!”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

Honestly, it’s hard to know based on this what caused Wen Ning to wake up or to return to consciousness. My suspicion is that Wei Wuxian’s efforts had worked, and he woke up with a lot of excess resentful energy he needed to work off; hence going to beat up all the other fierce corpses in the Blood Pool.

After this, Wei Wuxian takes measures to ensure that Wen Ning doesn’t lose consciousness again. For the next year until the ambush at Qiongqi Path, there are absolutely no incidents, and Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian go on night hunts together frequently.

Things only go wrong during the ambush.

Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “You’re seeking your own death!”

As he finished, Wen Ning raised his hand and tore off the red string that hung a talisman at his neck.

After the string snapped, his body wavered, and the muscles on his face began to twist. Marks that resembled black cracks crawled up his neck to his cheeks. He suddenly lifted his head, letting out a long, inhuman roar!

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

So Wen Ning wears a talisman which presumably suppresses his resentful energy, and which he must remove in order to fight at full strength. After Jin Zixuan shows up and completely fails to de-escalate the situation at all, Wen Ning kills him:

Wei WuXian was suppressing a blazing flame of hatred. His voice was cold, “Jin ZiXuan, move away right now. I won’t touch you, but you’re not going to provoke me either.”

Seeing that he still refused to yield, Jin ZiXuan suddenly lunged forward, as if trying to hold him down, “Why can’t you just back off for once?! A-Li is still…”

Just as he reached toward Wei WuXian, he heard a strange, heavy noise.

The noise was almost a bit too near. Jin ZiXuan paused in surprise. He looked down and finally saw the hand that pierced his chest.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s pretty clear that Wen Ning saw Jin Zixuan lunging towards Wei Wuxian and interpreted him as a threat. As objective observers, we can see that this is actually quite understandable, if tragic, and realistically could have happened similarly in a mundane setting with no magic. But Wei Wuxian of course would start to feel doubt when something so terrible happens:

He was clearly controlling Wen Ning properly.

Even though he activated Wen Ning’s rampage mode, he should still be able to control him.

He’d clearly always been able to control him perfectly.

He didn’t want to kill Jin ZiXuan at all.

He never had the intention to kill Jin ZiXuan at all! It was just that moment. He didn’t know why, but all of a sudden he wasn’t able to control it… He had suddenly lost control!

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian had always been able to control Wen Ning perfectly before. Honestly, it’s not a surprise that his control was looser in a situation like this; he’s in the midst of an ambush where 300 people are trying to kill him! Realistically, Jin Zixuan bears some responsibility in his own death, too. When you’re trying to negotiate a ceasefire, you don’t fail to give the target of the attack any assurance of his safety and then lunge for him threateningly! Of course Wen Ning saw him as a threat and acted to defend Wei Wuxian.

Later, Wei Wuxian observes that during his ‘rampage’ state, Wen Ning draws his guidance from Wei Wuxian’s impressions of people:

Listening to him stutter as he apologized over and over again, all of a sudden, Wei WuXian felt extremely ridiculous.

It wasn’t Wen Ning’s fault at all.

It was his own fault.

When on a rampage, Wen Ning was nothing more than a weapon. The person who created the weapon was him. The things it listens to were his orders as well.

At that time, with all the tension and the killing intent on top of how Wei WuXian had never hesitated to show enmity toward Jin ZiXuan in front of Wen Ning, when he was unconscious, Wen Ning recognized Jin ZiXuan as an ‘enemy’ when he attacked, carrying out the order of ‘exterminate’ without a second thought.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I actually think that if Wen Ning had killed, say, Jin Zixun, Wei Wuxian would simply have seen it as a case of self-defence and accepted it as that. It’s the fact that Jin Zixuan is the husband of his foster sister (and the one person there he didn’t actually want dead) which turns this into such a tragedy.

The intensely stressful situation in the aftermath of Jin Zixuan’s death is the only time we ever see Wei Wuxian express doubt in his own abilities or regret choosing the ghost path:

With the child’s cries coming to his ears from afar and the scared siblings who were at a complete loss as to what to do in his eyes, Wei WuXian felt his heart sink lower into darkness. He asked himself, Just why have I been locking myself up on Burial Mound all these years? Why do I have to go through all this? Why did I choose to walk this path in the beginning? Why did I make myself like this? What do others see me as? Just what have I gained? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad?!

If only he didn’t choose this path in the beginning.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I think that during this period, Wei Wuxian was under an immense amount of stress. He was the sole protector of 50 people who the world wanted dead, and he had to be strong and confident for them at all times. Only during his initial panic after Jin Zixuan’s death does that confident front break down and show us just how much the stress must have been wearing on him:

As he thought and thought about it, Wei WuXian suddenly broke into tears.

His voice was submerged in a deep helplessness, “… Can someone tell me… what I’m supposed to do now?”

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I honestly think that if Wei Wuxian had had someone to lean on and share responsibility with during this time, it would have helped him so much.

In the past, there were only others who asked him what to do. Now, though, he was the one asking others what he should do, and nobody was able to give him an answer.

[...]

Wei WuXian raged, “You can shut the fuck up! It’s already pandemonium the way things are right now! You two can stop adding more trouble onto my platter. Give yourselves in my ass. Did I tell you to do this? Take it out!”

(Chapter 77, Exiled Rebels translation)

Later on, at Nightless City, Wei Wuxian’s loss of control is directly tied by the narrator to his worsening mental state:

The more Wei WuXian panicked, the less control he had. The corpse ignored his command and instead lifted the sword in its hand, slashing it down at Jiang YanLi!

Wei WuXian had lost it, dashing as he shouted, “Stop it, stop it, right now, stop it!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

He manages to calm himself down and get back under control:

Jiang YanLi sighed, “A-Xian, you… you should stop first. Don’t, don’t…”

Wei WuXian hurried, “Yes, I’ll stop.”

He took up Chenqing, placed it by his lips, and began to play. He only managed to steady his mind with great effort. This time, the corpses finally stopped ignoring his commands. One after another, strange gurgles echoed in their throats as if they were complaining. Slowly, they bent down.

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

Only when Jiang Yanli is killed by a cultivator aiming for Wei Wuxian does he decide, in his grief and rage, to put the Yinhufu together again:

Yet, no matter the criticism, the blame, Wei WuXian could no longer hear any of them. As if governed by another soul, he reached out and took two objects from within his sleeves. Before everyone’s eyes, he put them together. One half on top and the other below, the two objects snapped into one, letting out a resonating clang.

Wei WuXian placed it on his palm and raised it high into the air.

It was the Stygian Tiger Seal!

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

We know that after the Bloodbath of Nightless City, as this battle comes to be known, Lan Wangji takes Wei Wuxian back to Yiling. However, Wei Wuxian is in a very poor mental state (most likely due to stress, exhaustion, and trauma), and only regains awareness a few days later at the Burial Mounds.

This is when he decides that the Yinhufu is a weapon which he should never have created, and determines to destroy it.

After using it for the second time, he finally decided to destroy one half of the seal. Before he could completely destroy the other half, the siege at Luanzang Hill happened, and it had since then been beyond his capabilities.

(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)

So Wei Wuxian was actually able to successfully destroy one half of the seal, and start work on the second, in the three months between Nightless City and the First Siege.

Toward his own creation, Wei WuXian was confident to say that even if the sect that got hold of it, made a temple for it, and offered it incense every single day, the remaining half of the Tiger Seal was just a piece of scrap iron. However, Lan WangJi told him something shocking—it appeared that Xue Yang could rebuild the other half of the seal!

Although Xue Yang was young, he was also quite clever, a bizarre eccentric. The LanlingJin Sect discovered that he could use the remaining half of the seal to roughly piece together the other half. Even though the recreated version wasn’t as powerful and couldn’t be used for as long, it could already result in terrible catastrophes.

(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)

I gather that the first half, he completely neutralised. The second half had not been fully drained of power when the First Siege happened. We never see the First Siege, but I think we can hazard a guess that once the Wens were massacred, Wei Wuxian knew that it was all over, and decided to destroy the second half of the Yinhufu so that no one there could get their hands on it. It is likely the backlash from improperly destroying/neutralising the Yinhufu which led to his corpses turning on him and ripping him apart.

Wei Wuxian does confirm that some sort of backlash killed him:

Wen Ning whispered, “Sect Leader Jiang, Jiang Cheng, brought a siege upon the Burial Mounds. And he killed you.”

Wei WuXian, “I’ll have to clarify this one. He didn’t kill me. I died from a backfire.”

(Chapter 43, Exiled Rebels translation)

“That’s merely hearsay. Although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei WuXian the final blow. Because he cultivates the Demon Path, Wei WuXian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.”

“Hahahaha… That’s karma! The ghost soldiers that he created are like unleashed dogs, biting everyone that they come across. It serves him right to be chewed to death!”

(Chapter 1, Exiled Rebels translation)

While the vast majority of information in the prologue is revealed later to be lies, Wei Wuxian does confirm this. Strictly, the ‘ghost soldiers’ were probably his fierce corpses. ‘Ghost’ or ‘Gui’ is used in Modao Zushi’s magic system as a catch-all phrase for dead humans, whether they’re actual ghosts (incorporeal spirits) or reanimated corpses. We know that Wei Wuxian was using huge numbers of fierce corpses to act as guards at the entrance to the Burial Mounds and protect the Wens, after all.

Wei Wuxian’s Second Life

So the risk of backlash is confirmed as a threat when using guidao and other dark cultivation techniques. However, it seems that they either have a clear contract which has to be fulfilled (like in the body sacrifice ritual), or a clearly defined risk which can be mitigated or prevented entirely through careful use.

It’s notable that Wei Wuxian is in control of his cultivation far more often than not, and in his second life we see absolutely no losses of control from him. This is probably down to a few things, one of them being greater experience. He also is no longer working alone; Lan Wangji is nearly always at his side or very nearby, which removes the intense stress of trying to fight against the entire world alone.

Honestly, I can’t even pull up any instances of Wei Wuxian struggling to control his cultivation in his second life or being even mildly harmed by it; there are absolutely none. We only ever see him dealing with mundane exhaustion, stress, and physical injuries.

He recovers very quickly from performing Empathy with Nie Mingjue:

Hearing this, Wei WuXian instantly pulled himself out!

He was still the thin paperman, stuck to the helmet that sealed Nie MingJue’s head. He had tugged loose the knot that tied the iron shells over Nie MingJue’s eyes, revealing a bloodshot eye, opened wide with anger.

[...]

There wasn’t much time left. He must return to his corporal body immediately!

Paperman WuXian flapped his sleeves, flying out as though he were a butterfly.

[...]

A while later, once his soul had returned successfully, Wei WuXian immediately took a deep breath. He raised his head, opened his eyes, and suddenly stood up. Yet, having not expected his body to still be disoriented, he felt dizzy and leaned forward. Seeing this, Lan WangJi caught him in his arms. Wei WuXian lifted his head once more, and the top of his head collided with Lan WangJi’s chin. With a thud, both of them grunted in pain. Wei WuXian rubbed his head with one hand and felt Lan WangJi’s chin with the other, “Ugh! I’m sorry. Lan Zhan, you alright?”

His chin having been stroked a couple of times, Lan WangJi lightly took Wei WuXian’s hand away before shaking his head. Wei WuXian tugged him, “Let’s go!”

(Chapter 50, Exiled Rebels translation)

After this, he is stabbed by Jin Ling and winds up spending four days unconscious in Cloud Recesses. I’ve seen it suggested that his short bout of hallucinating after he wakes up is due to harm from his cultivation, but I firmly disagree. He’d been unconscious for four days after being stabbed!

He immediately let go, almost wanting to roll away. His movement was so large that it hurt the wound at his stomach. He exclaimed an ‘ah’ as he scrunched his brows, finally remembering that he was still injured. Amid the stars before his eyes, Jing Ling, Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi, Jiang FengMian, Madam Yu… Many faces spun around in a large circle.

[...]

Only having ensured that his injuries were indeed fine did Lan WangJi finally let him go, “Four days.”

Jin Ling’s sword stabbed right through. The wound hadn’t been shallow at all. How it healed within four days without even leaving a scar behind meant that high level medicine of the GusuLan Sect had to have been necessary. Wei WuXian thanked him, mocking himself along the way, “I’ve reincarnated but somehow I’ve become even weaker. I couldn’t keep going after just a single stab.”

(Chapter 63, Exiled Rebels translation)

After being a bit muddled upon first waking up, he’s fine. He was also dreaming about his past while unconscious, which is why he’s described as seeing all these faces ‘amid the stars before his eyes’. The flashbacks in Refinement and Poisons-Evil are both framed as Wei Wuxian sleeping and dreaming about the past, and he’s thinking about them as a result; he’s not portrayed as actually hallucinating and thinking they’re really there.

Wei Wuxian is very drained by the events of the Second Siege and faints twice afterwards. However, it’s worth noting that during the Second Siege, he didn’t really use resentful energy (he couldn’t, as all the corpses there were under the control of the Yinhufu); he used talismans, which only require a small amount of spiritual energy.

Wei Wuxian even specifically states that Mo Xuanyu’s body is very weak, refusing to use Suibian before the Second Siege:

He wore it by his waist and didn’t seem like he was going to use it. Seeing how Lan WangJi looked at him, he fiddled with his hair and explained, “I haven’t used a sword in so many years. I’m not used to it.” As he spoke, he sighed again, “Alright. The real reason is that my current body is low in spiritual energy. Even if there’s a high level sword, it won’t be able to make the best use of it. And so, it’ll be up to HanGuang-Jun to protect the delicate man that I am.”

(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian collapses due to exhaustion on the boat ride to Lotus Pier:

OuYang ZiZhen, “HanGuang-Jun, why did Senior Wei collapse?”

Lan WangJi, “Fatigue.”

Lan JingYi was amazed, “I thought that Senior Wei would never get tired!”

(Chapter 84, Exiled Rebels translation)

He collapses again during the fight at the Jiang ancestral hall:

Lan WangJi, “Wei Ying?!” His low voice rang within Wei WuXian’s ears, echoing endlessly.

Wei WuXian was starting doubt if something happened to his ears, “What’s wrong?”

He felt something streak down his face, but reached up only to retrieve a handful of scarlet. Accompanied by throbs of dizziness, blood continued to drip down his nose and his mouth, onto the ground.

[...]

Having come to the conclusion that Wei WuXian was only in a temporary state of unconsciousness due to extreme fatigue and anger, Lan WangJi finally tore his gaze away.

(Chapter 88, Exiled Rebels translation)

When he wakes up in Chapter 90, he feels unwell but recovers fairly quickly:

For a long while, he couldn’t figure out what was happening. Only when he saw the splatters of blood on Lan WangJi’s left sleeve, like a string of plum blossoms resting on snow, did he finally recall what happened before he passed out from anger. His expression twisted at once as he suddenly sat upright. Lan WangJi went to help him, but the ringing in Wei WuXian’s ears hadn’t stopped yet.

[...]

Lan WangJi knew that he wasn’t feeling well. Silent, he didn’t ask anything. He lay one hand on his back, sending him a warm thread of spiritual energy.

[...]

Looking around, Wei WuXian suddenly exclaimed, “I’m hungry.”

Lan WangJi looked up. Of course, Wei WuXian wasn’t hungry at all. He had just eaten three pies at the vendor in front of Lotus Pier’s gates. Lan WangJi only ate one, however, and it was the only thing he’d eaten in the past two days. The matter was on Wei WuXian’s mind.

(Chapter 90, Exiled Rebels translation)

The narrative again directly links it to exhaustion, not to anything more ominous than that:

In the fight at Burial Mound, Wei WuXian exerted too much energy and stamina. Both his mind and his body were strained for too long. A few hours earlier, Jiang Cheng angered him so much that he almost bled from his qiqiao.

He only recovered after a long time of rest. Although he didn’t feel too bad right now, if there was something he missed and he pushed himself all the way to Lanling, it was hard to tell whether or not an accident would happen at a critical moment. On top of that, he wasn’t the only one straining his mind and body in the past few days. Lan WangJi didn’t rest for a second either.

(Chapter 91, Exiled Rebels translation)

As said, there simply isn’t any proof, based on Wei Wuxian’s second life, that his cultivation is doing him harm, nor does he ever lose control of it.

This definitely indicates to me that Wei Wuxian’s losses of control in his first life were related to the circumstances and not an inevitable risk of his cultivation path.

In Conclusion

I actually suspect that Lan Wangji himself came to the same conclusion; he only ever gently warns Wei Wuxian to be careful when using dark techniques during his second life:

Lan WangJi let the paperman wriggle on his ribbon for some time. Just as he reached out to take it down, the paperman slid its way down as fast as it could. No matter intentionally or not, it bumped its head once against his lips.

Lan WangJi’s movements paused for a moment. Using two of his fingers, he finally caught it, “Do not fool around.”

Softly, the paperman rolled its body over his slender finger.

Lan WangJi, “You must be careful.”

The paperman nodded and flapped its wings. Clinging flat onto the ground, it climbed through the door slit and snuck out of the guest room.

(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)

He still does have some level of distaste for Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, I would argue, due to the way he instantly latches onto the idea that Wei Wuxian would never have turned to the ghost path if not for his lost golden core:

“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”

But to think this was the truth.

Wen Ning, “If not because of this…”

If not because there really wasn’t a second path to walk on.

(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)

But the discussion of Wei Wuxian’s feelings on his cultivation is one for another day.

At any rate, I doubt that Lan Wangji is only holding back his feelings on the ghost path due to wanting to avoid any more fights with Wei Wuxian. After all, he spent 13 years mourning him. If he still believed that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation was going to eventually kill him, I doubt he would accept it so much more readily now.

I think the lesson he learnt, after looking back and thinking on the past a great deal, was indeed that Wei Wuxian would not have suffered such losses of control if he had had anyone to rely on in his past life. So now Lan Wangji always stands by his side and ensures that he will never reach such a state of desperation again.

#meta #mdzs #mdzs meta #demonic cultivation #fandom essay

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marunalu · 2 years

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Fandom really wants Izuku to kill Tomura or go crazy for hurting Bakugou, I hope that doesn't happen because I don't want Midoriya's development to be thrown away just for it, more considering that even after the war he decided to try to save Tomura, even before knowing if Bakugou was alive or not and later even save Chisaki despite what he did to Eri, this would only set the character back in a realm that shouldn't go back.

Dont worry that will not happen! Bkdk stans love to scream how izuku always turns into a berserker if bakugou is in danger, but everyone who is able to read properly and doesnt wear shipping goggles, knows that izuku rages for everyone who is in danger.

He got VERY angry when ojiro was called an "ape" by shinso.

He broke his WHOLE body in the entrace exam to save ochako, a girl he just met.

He broke his fingers and damaged his arms for shoto in the sport festival.

He rushed to help aizawa when he was punched into a meatball by a nomou.

He was ready to fight stain, one of the most dangerous massmurderes of japan, to protect iida.

He got into rage mode and broke his arms multible times to protect kota from muscular. He was ready to DIE for him! Same happened in his fight against chisaki to save eri. If not for eris quirk, izuku would be DEAD! He literally killed himself over and over again in this fight, with eri rewinding him back! If that is not raging then WHAT is it?!

In the war arc, izuku already lost it when he saw aizawa and gran torino almost brutally killed in front of his eyes! Even BEFORE bakugou pushed him out of the way, izuku was already giving HELL to shigaraki!!! Turned him into a human jojo! Bakugou was only the straw that broke the camels back! Izuku would have completly lost it in this moment no matter WHO it would have been! It could have been iida, shoto, ochako, all might, his mother, ANY other of his friends, he would have reacted the SAME WAY! His sanity was already at its limit, after he saw two of his mentors, he dearly loves almost die! It just happened to be bakugou and not one of the others, because hori needed bakugou to do something meaningful for once in this arc! Pushing izuku out of the way, was the ONLY important thing he did in that arc, otherwise he was COMPLETLY useless and again that role could have been given to anyone else! The outcome would have been exactly the same!

He also jumped into shotos "fight" against dabi in the war arc, trying to protect him from dabis attacks! Was also standing up for endeavor to give him his fighting spirit back.

Then in the vestige world, he saw how shigarakis eyes asked for help. The moment he was able to move again, he RUSHED to shigarakis side to help him. "Your eyes looked like as if you were asking for help!"

He promised chisaki, a man he HATES that he will bring him to his "father", if he will learn to feel remorse for what he did to eri.

Izuku helps and saves EVERYONE! He is ready to save and help MASSMURDERERS! He swore to himself that he will save shigaraki from afo and he knows that currently shigaraki is under afos control! He woudnt be mad with shigaraki, but afo! And he will try to find a way to save him, not kill him! He already SWORE to himself he will try everything he can!

Yoichi explained it best: "this boy rages for the sake of others!" NOT FOR BAKUGOU! FOR OTHERS! Personally, I believe yoichi more, then a bunch of shippers, because unlike them, he actually understands izukus character, because he is literally a part of his soul!

Bakugou is not special regarding that, its just that he and izuku have a long history that connects them. Bkdk shippers (to be fair shippers in generel), love to make everything that happens about their ship. They dont read the manga for the story, but their ship! They wear shipping goggles that makes them unable to grasp the story and the characters properly! I know what Im talking about, because to my shame many years ago I was like that too! Everything is about the ship! Nothing else matters! If the ship doesnt sail, the whole story is automatic terrible and was a huge waste of time! (OF COURSE IT WAS A WASTE OF TIME, IF YOU ONLY DID READ IT FOR A SHIP THAT DIDNT HAPPEN!) They still believe mha is a gay romance manga and when you try to tell them its not, they call you homophobic!

But to get back to the original point: again dont worry. Izuku will not go berserk because of bakugous injury and try to kill shigaraki! The narrative made pretty clear that izuku is aware that shigaraki is under afos control and he doesnt blaime him for the things afo is making him do! He wants to save him! Bakugou being injured, because he acted like a brainless idiot wont change that! Actually I think its possible that he and izuku will have a fight regarding shigarakis fate! Bakugou gives a shit about saving villains, they are his enemies and he doesnt understand that they are humans who were badly treated by the society he worships! Bakugou doesnt know that izuku wants to save shigaraki and this could end in a big argument and bk vs dk 3 with izuku winning this time!

I also dont think izuku will be the one who saves bakugous ass in the next chapters. We still dont know who or what the dots are, izuku saw flying towards him. Could be nomous or other minions of afo. Bakugous ass will be saved by the big 3! Its their moment to shine!

#bnha #chapter 359 #chapter spoiler #anti bakudeku #anti bkdk #bakugou critical #if you are a bkdk or bakugou stan and cant handle my opinion #I kindly ask you to fuck off and to grow up 😊#learn to accept other peoples opinion about bakugou #he is not fucking real and will not thank you speaking up for him

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thedreadvampy · 2 years

Text

see this is going to be another unkind Fandom Hate post but like

godddddd can't the Fandom Internet. en masse. just idk chill out and have a laugh?

like I don't like when the Big Fandoms are comedies bc the Fandom Hivemind often feels like it only has one mode of dealing with things and it's treating them like Extremely Important High Literature And High Romance

and it shakes down to feeling like there's only one genre of media in the world. like the fandom for a little kid's cartoon has the same vibes and takes itself as seriously as the fandom for a silly wee comedy which takes itself as seriously as the fandom for a slasher film which takes itself as seriously as the fandom for idk the Green Knight or some other artistic statement piece.

and this is a double edged sword bc media that is trying to Say Something and be a serious exploration of ideas and themes gets treated as just a collection of characters and beats to smash together

and media that was never designed to bear the weight of Serious Po-Faced Conversation bc by its nature it's glib or relatively simplistic or shocking or silly gets treated like a deeply important philosophical statement and people get really angry that it doesn't go as deep into ideas (or romance) as a prestige drama.

and that's not to say there's no characters or story to get hype about in thoughtful philosophical pieces, or that there's no philosophy or themes or meaning to "low art" genres worth taking about. most popular comedies and kids shows are very clearly trying to convey some quite complex ideas.

nor is this about a specific fandom or specific discourse. in isolation most of these conversations are good and fine. like most things, it's a pattern problem.

but like. the monogenre approach to fandom is exhausting tedious and uninspiring. and it also puts so much pressure on creators to be all things to all people. like how much harassment have Rebecca Sugar or ND Stevenson got largely for making kids' shows that aren't also simultaneously covering every base of an adult understanding of issues? how many writers of popular horror have got attacked for writing Bad Things Happening? how little room are popular comedy writers given to make throwaway jokes without stopping the story dead to cover their bases? and of course how many people who Literally Aren't Writing Romance have their work received as an underwhelming romance?

idk it's just wearing. I wouldn't have any interest in the fandom version of OFMD or of TMA - I like the shows but fandom very evidently isn't built for comedy or horror. at best it's built for handling YA adventure novels and tentpole blockbusters but honestly it doesn't really do any favours for anything more complicated than Harry Potter and Marvel there either.

you need different frameworks to enjoy different media, because different media is trying to do different things. It's a colossal disservice to treat them all as interchangeable building blocks and also we can't all want the same very specific genre of art. nowt wrong with that genre of art but again we're different people who are looking for different things.

anyway I think that's why fandom leaves me so cold. among a few other things but mostly that. it boils everything down to the same genre and it's not a genre that offers me what I'm looking for.

#obviously Riverdale fandom is an exception #but that'sbc I've literally never interacted witha part of Riverdale fandom #that frontlines shipping or meta over just pointing at the show and hooting and hollering #(also like Riverdale is in the same space as Marvel films or Harry Potter it was built with fandom in mind)#(that's part of what makes it so funny)#red said

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fermented-writers-block · 3 years

Text

PART 1 of 6 of the Owl Deity Hooty Theory

[NEXT PART]

[OWL DEITY HOOTY THEORY MASTERPOST] (in development)

(TLDR at bottom of post)

Over several long months of research and analysis since March of 2020, I have been following an utterly fascinating thread of potential misdirection and subtle details throughout The Owl House, and today, I would like to start weaving together of what I believe could become one of the biggest and most cleverly disguised twists in the entire show.

To begin, let’s take a look at the B plot of Understanding Willow:

On first glance, it’s an ultimately inconsequential sidestory with the sole purpose of justifying an excuse to keep Luz and Amity in Willow’s mind, as well as providing some well-needed room to breathe and release tension after the veryemotionally charged confrontation with Inner Willow. After half an episode of Eda and King outdoing the other in ridiculous ways to win Gus’ vote and Gus running off in frustration at the end of the episode from Hooty’s inane rambling, it’s easy to laugh off Gus’ pick and assume that nothing/of value was said when he closed the door for the interview.

However, if one pays close attention to that very scene, Hooty actually canstill be heard (if faintly) underneath Eda and King’s grumbling, interestingly talking about how “It all started with a hunt. Blood red skies. That’s right, I was created-.”

Now, while it may seem silly to focus on dialogue from Hooty of all characters, this A) tells us that there was an event in the past involving blood red skies and a hunt of some kind, B) that Hooty had been created close to said event, and C) implies that what he knows but can’t tell as a story worth a damn is EXTREMELY important to be included and be hidden in such a manner.

For comparison, the only other instance of dialogue being tucked away in the background in the entire show is in Wing It Like Witches:

During the lecture at the beginning of the episode, the history teacher openswith lore on Belos appointing a head witch to each coven over 50 years ago, immediately cluing in the audience to try and decipher the rest of the lecture as it moves to the background. Adding to this is how the musical sting when Luz shows off her movie obscures what he says even further, making it even more of a intriguing puzzle that the creators clearly intended for viewers to pick up on and attempt to solve.

In contrast, the hidden dialogue of Hooty’s interview is much shorter and not as hard to decipher as the teacher’s history lesson, but at the same time, there are few to no indicators whatsoever in that scene to clue in the audience to even check for something like that. It comes at the end of an episode where most viewers would have been paradoxically tired out and driven abuzz by the revelations of Amity and Willow’s relationship, doesn’t attempt to draw much attention to itself, and frames itself as a comedic subversion of audience expectations with neither the “greatest witch who ever lived” or the self-proclaimed king of demons being picked by Gus.

Instead, he picks someone that the show portrays constantly as an oblivious and gullible idiot after being described as a “state of the art defense system” at the very beginning of the series. Someone who, despite it being played for laughs, is scarily capable of casually subduing Lilith offscreen one episode and then beating her and an entire squad of Emperor’s Coven members without even the slightest change in personality or temperament.

Someone who, due to being the Owl House itself, could be considered the titular character of the entire show, yet is taken for granted by those who inhabit him and barely gets any respect from even the cutely patronized King - including when Hooty could be interpreted as having potentially been full on DEAD for a time given the use of extremely cartoony X eyes and a lack of vital signs in The Intruder.

And someone who Eda at best tolerates and at worst abandons in personal interactions and only occasionally acknowledges him when he’s actually doing his job. Yet at the same time is so implicitly trusted beyondprotecting her home to the point where - when up against the closest person Eda has to an equal outside of likely Belos - the only actually recognizable spells Eda used in combat were 1) stereotypical energy blasts, 2) a single shield spell in Covention, and 3) a noticeably large reliance on imitations of Hooty above any other spells she could have decided to use instead.

In short, the show repeatedly tells us he is just an idiotic gag character through and through, but at the same time demonstrates he has immense power through both onscreen and offscreen demonstrations, implicitly tells us his importance ahead of time through Eda’s imitations in actually serious situations, and treats his interview and origin story as - if not even more- important to keep secret than a long lore dump about how Belos’ reign works.

After all, there being only two instances of hidden background dialogue in the entire season is already intriguing on its own, but for one to get plenty of clues to draw in people’s attention and for the other to be treated as just another gag about a “mere comic relief character” - aka a good way to draw away attention and lower one’s guard - heavily suggests a far deeper significance buried under layers of misdirection, comedy, and conditioned audience expectations.

I mean, when Eda bragged about being “a bad girl living in a secret fortress,” Hooty followed with a remark about how “I’m the secret.” While that line may sound like Hooty simply being confused as part of a one-off on the surface, it’s an odd dialogue choice for the writers to pick when you think about all the other reminders of his nature as the house itself throughout the season. With the precedent these moments set, it would have been much more appropriate for him to latch onto the “fortress” side of “secret fortress” AND it would have been just as equally funny of a joke about his awareness skills, but instead, Hooty broke away from the established trend to say something that would make people suspicious were it to come from anyone else.

In a way, this reminds me much of the many subtle bits of foreshadowing strewn across the show, like Luz unknowingly describing Amity in Witches Before Wizards and Eda burning a hole through Luz’s coven type quiz that coincidentally selected the same track she had taken at Hexside as “a punky potionist.” At the time of airing, these initially seemed like one-off jokes, but eventually came back in full force several episodes later with Amity’s hidden sensitive feelings and love for the Azura books becoming clear in Lost in Language, and the reveal of Eda’s school track in Something Ventured, Someone Framed with her school misdemeanor pictures.

That said, compared to these individual bits of minor foreshadowing, the jokes about Hooty in Understanding Willow appear to simply be the most obvious pieces in a giant puzzle, implicitly and outright telling attentive viewers that there’s a major mystery to be uncovered here.

In fact, I feel bold enough to say that we could be looking at a twist on a similar scale to that of the Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz and Stanford Pines twists in Steven Universe and Gravity Falls respectively, what with this particular puzzle piece coming from how Gus wanted to make THE greatest interview of all time, and how he was looking for someone who was “interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy:”

Note the emphasis on the ‘and’ here, as Gus had made a big deal that “people aren’t meantto be all those things” at the beginning of the episode, so as a result, stripping away all the comedic framing of his subplot leaves the intriguing implication that whoever - and, perhaps, what- Hooty is, they really are the most interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy person out of everyone.

I could go further and talk about why I suspect the mystery surrounding King’s origins, whether true or not, is partially meant to misdirect us from paying attention to Hooty, or how the TOH crew’s could be disguising legitimate clues to his nature among made up and highly meme-able joke answers in order to proliferate said concepts throughout the fandom - thus letting us do all the dirty work of getting ourselves used to the ideas and used to dismissing them at the same time - but to bring things to a close for now, I’d like to leave you all with a question that I’ll start answering next time:

What does it mean when both the most powerful and notorious witch on the Boiling Isles and the possible actual king of demons/the Titan itself/something don’t match up to a house? And what do you think it is that makes him so special to warrant such misdirection?

TLDR: Between Eda’s golem spells, the show stressing his nature as the titular house, his implicit strength, and the odd dialogue and structure of Understanding Willow‘s subplot in relation to him, I believe I have good reason to suspect the show has been giving us many hints towards Hooty being much, much more important than it would like us to currently believe or even joke about. Particularly, through clever uses of comedy to establish and enforce a strong audience bias against looking closely at him or unironically taking him seriously, and to potentially plant the seeds for something I will start exploring in Part 2.

#the owl house #the owl house theory #owl house theory #the owl house speculation #toh theory #the owl house hooty #toh speculation #owl deity hooty theory #long post

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