#instead of smth that people fundamentally Are

[apothecarywormcrud]

celtic grey sea salt :)

celtic grey sea salt - what's an unpopular headcanon you have about your f/o?

he is GAY he is TRANS he is AUTISTIC and he is ASEXUAL

[cairoswrld]

hi, i want to stop the cycle and manifest my desired face

but i feel so ugly, i always compare myself to others. i have no idea how can i be fulfilled while feeling like this :(

i want to stop being disgusted when i look to mirror

can you help me? <3

hi anon <3

fundamentally

the whole thing of feeling ugly either came from "oh society says this is pretty and i don’t have that so i’m not pretty" or "someone said smth about me the other day and now i haven’t stopped thinking about it and oh my word now i’m insecure and feel bad about myself" - what’s cool about that is you’ll realise that the thought of feeling ugly didn’t start with you. it started with something you saw or heard that planted the whole idea that you’re ugly.

you’re not ugly. idc if you disagree bc i’m not trying to convince you that you aren’t ugly. i’m telling you that aren’t. our society is just so weird and stupid that you’ll think you are. you’re not ugly. you’re just conditioned into thinking you are.

comparison

in terms of comparison, it’s time for you to get off social media 🤷‍♀️, get off tiktok, get off whatever you’re looking at to compare yourself to. - if not get off, make a new account that has nothing to do with other people. don’t look at a mirrors either, well for now, don’t.

while you do that, you’re going to focus on your self concept. there’s a lot of self concept content out there. if you want me to explain self concept and provide a more detailed description and guide to it, i can do that but little things that helped me insanely:

subliminals in relation to self concept and physical appearance.

rampages on youtube

appreciate the tiniest things about yourself, so e.g when i made someone laugh, i’d tell myself in my head "aw cairo you’re so funny"

forcing yourself to write a list of things you genuinely love about yourself and read it every so often.

anyways, let’s manifest now.

okay so we want our desired face neh?

1.) decide. - write it out - features you want, a general idea, get a few pictures of the features you want if need be (the only time you’re allowed to look at other people so don’t go around comparing ahem) 🤨, whatever it is. choose what that desired face looks like.

2.) assume. - okay yay now you have your desired face. remember that 1. your imagination is the true reality, the face you see/dream of/think abt that you want, is the true reality. and then 2. assumptions don’t require proof, you don’t have to sit there and point at a mirror and be like "oh no i don’t have my desired face" nah uh. the moment you decide "okay this is my face now" that’s it. there’s no need for looking for proof out in the 3D.

after this, you’ll probably sit there and think ok what now? bc i’ve decided, im assuming but i don’t feel different, nothings changed, etc etc etc. and that’s why persistence is the key 🤭 manifestation is instant, i won’t even explain how bc you’ll understand it as you apply, trust me. but because of your past experiences, thoughts, assumptions, you have resistance and persistence is the key to getting what you want in this case.

3.) persist. - the law of assumption is a very much "believe it BEFORE i see it." persisting is when you remind yourself that "i have my desired face." persisting is knowing that you have your desired face DESPITE whatever the 3D is showing you.

when you truly persist, you’ll detach from the 3D, the way you physically look won’t bother you, you’ll feel good about your appearance, you’ll notice the changes, you’ll know that you have your desired face and it will reflect in the 3D.

so anon, what i want you to do is just persist and specifically work on your self concept. because not only do you have whatever you desire, you deserve it. and i want you to KNOW that you have that, and believe that you do and feel good dammit 😭

okay but then how do i persist despite circumstance and feeling icky and sad ?

change your focus on your desired face instead of the 3D. - whenever you’re not busy living life, and you’re sat there thinking about how ugly you feel. - look at the pictures you’ve decided reflect your desired face, look at the script you wrote or just think of it and say to yourself: "ykw i don’t need proof, because it’s law that the 4D is real and the 3D will reflect that, so if i’ve decided that this is how i look in the 4D, it has to reflect"

i want you listening to nighttime subliminals but also subliminals while you’re studying, eating, cooking whatever it is. subliminals speak more to your subconscious mind. you’ll notice as you listen that you’ll have less negative thoughts towards your assumptions.

challenge negative thoughts. - whenever you think negative things about your appearance, challenge them. - tell yourself that those thoughts don’t even come from you. tell yourself that you have your desired appearance in the 4D so it’s guaranteed to manifest. tell yourself anything that negates negative thoughts. - read this too!!

iwl i’m a little brain dead today, i don’t feel like i explained the persistence part right - so if you need other resources, definitely look for that there’s so much content on the law of assumption.

but also a major thing: it’s okay if you don’t fully believe it on day one, because of the resistance you’ve built up against your appearance. so don’t beat yourself up over anything and don’t pressure yourself about it either. you are guaranteed your manifestations. just be consistent, as you apply the law, you’ll notice the changes in yourself, it will get easier and easier to be faithful in manifestation and also detaching from the 3D. the way you feel about yourself will change. just focus on applying anon.

final take: just remember that your imagination is above everything. and prioritise persisting in the new beliefs. remind yourself that the 3D is 1. not permanent and 2. a reflect of what you believe and persist in. READ PHYSICAL CHANGE SUCCESS STORIES TOO OMG i almost forget to say that but yes read those success stories. and then most importantly, take care of yourself anon. - try not to look at people to compare yourself to, do things that make you feel good about yourself, listen to those subliminals,

yeah idk if i explained this as good as i wanted too - i swear just apply and be consistent, things will change, your manifestations are 100% guaranteed. you got this anon, i can’t wait until you realise how beautiful you already are AND manifest your desires at the same time, i’m so excited for you!!!! 🤭

all the best 🌟

[blackstarchanx3new]

Four Swords Returns Pages 451-455

The only thing that goes through my head when Dark asks "Would you like too?!"

is the fucking Lazy town meme:

"Have you ever heard the sound of a rubber ball breaking a window?" "Nuh-uh..." "WOULD YOU LIKE TOO!?"

I imagine dude's delivery would be about as manic.

Really long rant about Green and Dark's dynamic under the cut since I had a lot to say XD

Smth I just find very fun is showing off how everyone deals with Dark differently and what actually WORKS. Since so far we've mostly seen failure on actually communicating with this guy in a meaningful or productive way.

Shadow and Vaati escalated with Dark while Green's response is to deescalate and show compassion. Which is smth he chooses to do rather than it feeling obligated...which is a huge difference from Shadow already. More on that later.

Because the difference between Green and Vaati/Shadow is Green is approaching Dark not as this unstoppable entity or spooky mindless curse or purely as some evil guy hurting his team, but as a person.

An unhinged crazy manic but a person. And PEOPLE can be reasoned with...At least in theory.

The second he realized Dark wasn't what he expected (An immature, excitable person who's obviously lonely and apologizes weirdly enough vs what he thought was going to be an entity more similar to Shadow's scheming and cruelty) he shifted gears to work with this situation.

Vaati gave up on properly communicating with Dark and Shadow tries to exert too much control over the situation and gives into the smaller traps like caring what Dark calls him due to Dark's misunderstanding. "Don't call me Dad" "Don't call me Gannon" Shadow fundamentally gets distracted from the main things on the table instead trying to control Dark to his idea of what being a good guy is. And cause Dark knows a lot of it is selfish in nature he ain't up for it. (He isn't willing to apologize to Vio because he's not sorry and the lie isn't worth making himself look good to Vio or Shadow in Dark Link's idea of morality)

When Dark says concerning shit and shows his excitement in very unnerving ways, Green's response is to ask him to calm down and gently push him off him rather than being more physically violent (Even if I think everyone would understand if he DID do that considering Dark's behavior hah.) and feeding back into the loop by panicking and responding negatively verbally.

Like in a twisted way Dark and Green are working on the same wavelength. So this works into why Dark clearly has respect for Green where for Vaati and Shadow he doesn't.

Green: Is consistent. And Dark Link likes consistency.

Like Green isn't being fake around Dark at the moment. He's not being nice purely for self preservation or PURELY because he thinks it'll solve the problem. Green's motives are lining up with his actions. The dude's just nice. He doesn't want to hurt Dark Link knowing he's a person. And if you remember Shadow's motives being selfish or him lying about them is smth that deeply pissed Dark off.

I don't really have a proper conclusion to these thoughts but I'm excited to get deeper into Dark's relationship with the four Links and Link himself down the line.

It's very fun to think about.

[lakesbian]

i think cherie has a weird psychological fixation on alec. btw. for reasons such as

cheries Deal is about being powerful and scary and manipulative so she can be the one who hurts others instead of the one who gets hurt due to shes fundamentally alienated from connection w/ herself and others and has no other way to cope with existing without feeling like dirt

also her powers are abt being stuck in this miserable cramped home w a bunch of other miserable violent people and having to learn how to emotionally read everyone so she can cater to the abuser to keep herself safe + understand how to manipulate the other victims (to make life easier for herself, to hurt them to satiate her abuser & feel like she's regained some control, etc)

alec was one of the siblings slightly closer 2 her in age + one of the siblings she tormented, someone she knew exceedingly well as a result of her power. theres a connection there. its a bad connection but theres a connection. forced him to do horrible shit alongside heartbreaker + WoG implies she contributed 2 the sexual abuse by fostering the hypersexual behavior. basically i bet she thinks she has him read for filth

he was a sad little sopping wet crybaby 4 most of the time she knew him absolutely the type that would make younger cherie be like "tch...hes not cut out for anything." and tell him to stop being a whiny baby (<- she thinks this counts as helpful life advice). i think she would tell him this even if he wasn't actually crying. like he would go ":(" in his head and she would be like Stop being a whiny baby. just unprompted. also on the one occasion she tried to cheer him up she did so by letting him watch liveleak videos of people exploding on her phone.

anyway my point is. sad sopping wet crybaby jean-paul grows up, toughens up, runs away successfully (first heartbroken to do so), and THEN becomes a threat of stabilizing his own power 2 the point where he could eventually become more successful/well-known than her while the cult back home is slowly dwindling in power. what if the sopping wet crybaby younger sibling you tortured as a coping mechanism was at risk of getting cooler than you would that be fucked up or what.

furthermore i think cherie is like. conscious about the fact that she sucks and the heartbroken home sucks and thinks she's being Honest about it + brave in the face of the inherent misery that the world wreaks upon her for sucking. and she also thinks that alec is, like, not just lying and obscuring the fact that he sucks from the undersiders, but successfully being treated like he Doesn't suck as a result. which pisses her off and is, aside from thinking it's funny when he's miserable, why she tries to ~reveal the truth~ about him 2 the undersiders over the phone. this is funny because alec also thinks he's being honest about the fact that he sucks and in fact considers it one of his strong points.

but anyway yeah i think shes fixated with being able to like. drag him back down to what she perceives as their shared level + reestablish control over him bc him being free and successful while genuinely improving himself as a person puts fundamental cracks in her worldview.

all of which is to say in the beautiful hypothetical world where she gets drudged up from the ocean and riley and amy awkwardly put her back together she finds out alec died doing smth good 4 aisha and she doesn't fucking like it. because he's beyond her reach in two ways forever now. first of all he's dead. second of all he died doing something uncomplicatedly caring and self-sacrificing for a friend which means the undersiders permanently remember him as a fucked up kid they knew back when they were all fucked up kids who ultimately Tried and went out being the best person he could be. which means she can't drag him back down to her level and reassert her worldview by making him miserable Or by changing ppls opinions of him. even insinuates that what She thought about him might have been wrong. and aisha laborn, the person he died for, who is now taking care of all of the heartbroken, who still remembers alec deeply fondly, is naturally where her Weird Psychological Fixation transfers next. also worth noting that THE FUCKING WORLD ENDED while she was down there and the s9 is Over so cherie is just. utterly irrelevant everybody forgor about her. she doesn't even get to feed off ppls hatred, no "negative attention is still attention" for her, she just gets drudged up and is expected 2 move on with her life. which is to say she immediately clings onto the one remnant of the world she knew, the one place where she can still claw for relevancy w/ ppl who would know her, and starts emailing aisha "can't make a banaisha split without a cherie on top" 200 times in a single evening. and aisha doesnt care at all cherie is going fucking nuts over this whole thing and aisha is just over there mentally writing this weeks grocery list in her head

[broodwolf221]

very stressed again so I'm just gonna talk about solas bc he's my comfort blorbo atm

one quick clarification: I tend to use elven to describe modern elves and elvhen to describe ancient elves. it's just smth I started doing a while back and now it's habit.

I've already talked abt his personality/behavior and my theories on his distant past. so now I wanna talk about his actions.

joined the inquisition

even with lowest approval won't leave the inquisition

kept the inquisitor alive

helped seal the rifts/breach

painted the inquisitor's actions

helped kill corypheus

"killed" mythal

exposed the qunari plot

spoke to the inquisitor at the end of trespasser

now to dig into these.

joined the inquisition

this one is pretty wild. according to his conversation in trespasser, he woke a year before the conclave. one year. afaik it's unclear when he drew the veil vs. when he slept, but what is clear is that he woke up and had only a year to begin acclimating to a wildly different world, one he held significant guilt over causing to form. in this short time, he manages to acclimate enough to gain agents and find out about corypheus, someone he feels he can use. and solas wouldn't mourn corypheus' death, nor would the world, so it must have seemed such a perfect solution

then it obviously goes all to shit. and solas is too weak to take charge of the situation and remedy it on his own - besides which, his anchor is now attached to someone else. so what does he do? well aware that this world hates and fears both "apostates" (that must have been a strange revelation for him, considering how elvhen culture lauded mages) and elves, he nonetheless turns himself in and surrenders his staff

he decides to help. and no, it's not selfless - he needs the anchor. but there's so much more to it than that. he wants to help ease the harm he's inadvertently caused, the damage corypheus wrought. he's not trying to "save" the world, exactly, but he is trying to give it peace while he works to restore the world to what he feels (maybe rightly!) it should be. it's selfish. it's selfless. it's kind. it's deceitful. essentially: like him, it is nuanced.

but still, pretty wild that an elvhen apostate joins the human chantry's arm (and eventual army) of change

won't leave the inquisition

the reasoning here is fairly self-evident. he needs the anchor, and he wants to help. the inquisition is his sole means to achieve both goals. but it's still worth noting that even if he absolutely hates the inquisitor, he'll stay on as a core part of the inquisition right up to the bitter end.

and it's interesting bc he doesn't actually have to. he could have made sure the inquisitor wouldn't die and taught them how to seal rifts, then left. or he could have left after the breach was sealed. the inquisitor - and by extension, the anchor - would NOT be hard for him to find, because everyone and their dog knows where the inquisitor is at all times. also, at this point I'm not sure if he knows he'll need the anchor.

further, he could "leave" but continue to spy, including through the fade. but instead he stays right there. he leads the inquisition to skyhold. he involves himself at a fundamental level. it's interesting. he didn't have to.

does he get dragged in despite himself? does he grow attached to the rest of the inquisition, or its goals, even as he tries to hang onto the comforting lie that these people are so much less-then the people he knew? does he feel obligated to help right the harm he caused, their drawn out suffering harder to bear than their sudden cessation?

kept the inquisitor alive

I have to assume there's a reason for this, a reason he couldn't just take the anchor from them while they slept. likely it was because he was still too weak to remove it, although that seems a little strange - what was he planning to do once corypheus died opening his orb? but given the potential nature of the inquisitor, including many non-mage options and including dwarven options who are cut off from the fade itself, it stands to reason that getting the anchor placed by touching the opened orb may be much easier than removing the anchor, even prior to it being used.

perhaps he could have removed it, but was worried the inquisition would kill him. early on, how was he to know that cassandra's bark was so often worse than her bite? and it's entirely possible that she might have killed him if the inquisitor had died under his watch, particularly if the anchor was "mysteriously" removed at the same time.

I also imagine that he genuinely didn't know if the anchor would function if he just... cut their arm off and ran with it. but at the same time, I assume he was constantly monitored so that probably wasn't much of an option

helped seal the rifts/breach

couple of core reasons for this, I think: first, he genuinely wants to help. the people of thedas are terrified and at risk; so too are the spirits from the fade who are being drawn into the waking world against their will, which may well be a stronger impetus for him to work on sealing them. second, I have a theory that he won't be able to, or fears he won't be able to, tear down the veil in one with all these rifts.

rifts are tears in the boundary, right? so if he tried to pull the veil down around them, what's to stop the veil from catching against the rifts and keeping these boundaries in existence? like... trying to remove a sticker when parts have been nailed in. not only will the parts under the nail remain, but whole strips might be left behind. what would that create?

and the thing is, everything he's attempting and considering is so highly theoretical. maybe it wouldn't work like that at all. maybe it'd be fine. maybe it'd be worse. he doesn't know! but it feels safe to assume that, given his character, he'd want to proceed in the safest way possible with the best likelihood of a good outcome. he's methodical that way.

painted the inquisitor's actions

this one gets me just like it gets everyone. there's so much to it... he's using an ancient elvhen technique to memorialize the decisions of today's holy order and its leader. he's creating frescoes which are meant to last, and he doesn't know if they will. he's creating meaning in the moment, for the inquisition itself, and possibly for the future, even a future where everyone he knows is gone, killed through his actions.

it's a way to honor them. it's a headstone. it's a history. it's a gift. it's art. it's effort he doesn't need to expend. it's the closest he can come to an apology.

helped kill corypheus

of course, he's always wanted corypheus to die, so in that sense this really isn't that surprising. and in game corypheus can sometimes feel ridiculously easy to kill. but the fact is, corypheus is perceived as one of if not the single greatest threat they have to face.

and solas helps face him.

what if he died? what if he was killed? it's wild that someone who's so determined to change the world constantly puts himself at such risk, but it's part of both his nature and the means of meeting his goals. it's necessary. but is it necessary for him to face corypheus?

the time has come, the inquisitor and inquisition are prepared.

why doesn't he leave? come back after the battle and reclaim his orb? yes, the inquisitor broke it, but I don't think solas even recognizes that as a possibility. to him, the orb would have been there. and, bonus, maybe the inquisition is so damaged in the battle that they'll struggle to pursue him. if he has the orb, or thinks he would have it, he wouldn't necessarily need to protect the inquisitor any longer, because why have the anchor when he has the orb? unless of course its power was transferred to the anchor, which is a distinct possibility, but in that case... why mourn the orb so?

I think that he at least believed the orb could create another anchor. so losing it meant he needed to possess the anchor currently in existence. but again: he went into this battle thinking orb and anchor alike would exist at the end. why risk it? why not just dart in and recover what he needs?

he cares about them. even if he hates the inquisitor, he cares about the people of this world. he won't turn his back on the inquisition in their hour of need, even if he risks death

"killed" mythal

I've given this so much thought. I understand why he did it, to a point, but at the same time... it's always put me at a loss. he sealed the evanuris away because they killed mythal. he killed her to take her power, presumably a necessity after the loss of his orb in order to reclaim the anchor. and I do agree that she may very well still be alive, either entirely or in a way. I'm not sure if he's aware of that, though.

but it's all very complicated. he knows he should be the one punished - these are his sins he's trying to right, for the people (elvhen? spirits? everyone? including but probably not primarily dwarves? I've seen so many takes on this and it's always fascinating)

so. he takes something of mythal, very possibly believing he's killing her, and possibly actually killing her, in order to restore the world to what it used to be. he doesn't want to do this. it's utterly tragic and horrifying at once when you see it the first time (and, well, every time after if you're me). it's painful. but he does it.

he's willing to shoulder so much pain. loneliness, too, because mythal is presumably the only one left from his time. he destroys his sole connection to his past in order to right his mistakes. putting aside the issue of whether he's right or not, that is a monumental burden to bear.

he endures. he always endures. how horrible to always endure.

exposed the qunari plot

because I've discussed this previously I won't dig too deep into it, but the fact is 1) he didn't have to do this, 2) doing this actively makes it easier for the inquisition to pursue him, 3) doing this might actually make it easier in a way for the qunari to focus on strengthening the veil, and 4) apparently, he did it. not an agent. he dragged the qunari into the winter palace.

why? why risk himself like that? to get a glance at those he left behind? did he rush through the motions and disappear, or did he linger? did he look at them and consider what more he would have to endure?

spoke to the inquisitor at the end of trespasser

he needed the anchor, yes. but did he need to answer the inquisitor's questions, soothe their inevitable curiosity? absolutely not. he could have kept lying. it would have been smarter to keep lying. why, why tell them who he is, why let the entire inquisition know?

he already gave them a clear path to chasing him down and possibly stopping him. now he's telling them his basic plan? sure, he spares the details, but what does that really preserve?

and the thing is, even if he absolutely hates the inquisitor, he still tells them the basics. the way he does it is... genuinely so funny and it cheers me up inordinately he is so sassy about it but that's not important. what is important is that he even tells someone he loathes who and what he is and what his basic plan is.

why not just leave? "the anchor is killing you and it's mine, i'll take it back. goodbye." why not just that?

it's hard for me to believe it's anything other than: he wants to be stopped. a part of him wants so, so badly to be stopped. the same part that wanted to tell a romanced inquisitor the truth in the crestwood scene. the same part that keeps giving all these hints and answering questions sincerely even when it makes people wonder about him. the same part that only lies by ommission.

the part that is lonely and wanting and cares.

not only is he fundamentally a kind, caring man who wants to minimize the harm he does, not only does he value and want to reward curiosity, but he wants to be stopped. and the inquisitor/inquisition is about the only force in the world that can stop him, directly or indirectly.

they know him. he knows them. and while it's implied that the inquisition/inquisitor can't stop him directly because of this familiarity, they are the ones who find new forces to array against him. if he'd just lied and left, that wouldn't be a possibility.

he made himself an enemy. he could've had a clear playing field and all the tools he needed: instead, a force at his back.

[sokkastyles]

Hey!, I love your atla meta and zutara posts.

I was scrolling through Instagram and saw this. So if u don't mind, what do you think about this?

After a break from the atla fandom bcz the discourse lowkey left me exhausted and traumatized. This was'nt pleasant.

Maybe it's bcz this feels like someone read a zutara post and is trying to paint smth similar to it with maiko , but for some reason, this makes me feel kinda sick.

Thoughts?

I think I've responded to this sentiment before because there's a lot to unpack with the idea that Mai "loved Zuko unconditionally," because first of all, she didn't. Their relationship only began because Azula decided it would be more beneficial to bring Zuko back as an ally than as an enemy. If things had gone as expected, Zuko would have been brought back to the fire nation as a prisoner, and he would have been spending the trip home in a cell like Iroh instead of smooching Mai. We have no idea whether Mai might have been distressed by this possibility and the hand she would have played in it, and the show gets her off the hook from having to have feelings about it because things just happen to work out so that she doesn't have to and she gets a boyfriend instead of the knowledge that she helped destroy the life of the boy she had a crush on when they were kids. I actually asked myself once whether she would have cared, and even attempted to write a fic where I started out thinking that Mai would actually try to break Zuko out of prison, but that's not what ended up happening as I channeled Mai's character. Here's the fic by the way.

My point is that their relationship is conditional. It's conditional on Zuko choosing to side with the fire nation. That's why he has to break up with her when he realizes that's not what he wants anymore, and when he tries to explain that to her, she refuses to understand it. And then when she decides to get back together with him, it's conditional, too. She literally tells him never to break up with her again. That's not something you say to a person you love unconditionally, because unconditional love means allowing someone to make their own choices, even if it means letting them go. I'm not even sure you can claim Mai loved Zuko before his banishment, either, since all we see is her blushing once when they were kids. The most you can say is she had a kiddie crush.

I've also seen people say that she loves him unconditionally because she's willing to get back together with him despite not agreeing with his morals, and as I've already said, that isn't true, because she threatens him with ultimatums, and she makes Zuko promise something he can't keep. They broke up because of their differing morals, and since that doesn't change, Zuko is likely to do the same thing again, just like he did at the Boiling Rock when Mai thought he would just back down if she yelled and threw things enough.

But also, the idea that unconditional love in this particular instance is a good thing is something I have to question in the first place. Unconditional love is a lofty phrase, but there are absolutely things that SHOULD be conditional in relationships, and having the same morals and ideals is one of those things. Especially since Zuko is the Fire Lord and his beliefs about politics and ethics will affect the future of his country. This isn't just a difference of opinion, it's something that makes them fundamentally incompatible and it's never resolved. And using it to claim that Mai "loves him unconditionally" because she's willing to stay with him even though they have fundamentally different ideals rubs me the wrong way.

Which leads me back to why I think people make these arguments in the first place, and I agree that it's nauseating. Because often when people say this, they're making some kind of implication that Zuko was so horrible to her and he should be grateful to her that she's willing to stick with him. And not only is that a shitty thing to do to someone in a relationship, but it is not unconditional love. It's gaslighting. It's especially creepy because Zuko has already had enough of that shit in his life. He deserves to be with someone who loves him for who he is, not despite who he is, and that kind of love is not real love to begin with. People are like "oh, but she saved him!" Yeah, she was the reason he was in danger in the first place, though. "Oh, but she put up with his anger and jealousy!" He was angry and jealous because she wouldn't listen when he tried to tell her that he was hurting. "But she isn't his therapist!" Literally shut up. I've said it before and I will say it again, I don't think I've ever seen a fictional relationship be accidentally written like an abusive relationship the way this one is, and it's even worse given that Zuko already has a history of abuse.

And yeah, I agree I think people try to make this argument to counteract Zutara, because Zutara is so much about change. Zuko had to change to have a friendship with Katara, so to counteract people try to make Mai a more appealing partner because she "accepted" him even when he was a mess. But the thing is, as I outlined above, not only is this not true, because Mai isn't particularly accepting. But the other thing is that changing, becoming a better person for someone else, is a good thing. Not being fixed by a relationship, but being willing to become better for the person you love. Katara may not have loved Zuko when he was a villain, but she believed he could change, and that actually is unconditional love, the right kind of unconditional love, the kind of unconditional love that makes people better and doesn't come with obligations. Mai loving Zuko when he's a confused mess isn't all that impressive since his abusive father and sister also "loved" him when he was enough of a mess to be kept under their thumb. This is abuser logic. And it's even more transparent because the second Zuko stands up for himself and takes steps to become a better, happier version of himself, Mai can't stand it and refuses to listen to his reasons, and then continues to act like he'll just shut up and put up if she tells him to.

This sounds harsh but a lot of it isn't directed at Mai necessarily, who is a fictional character who suffers from being underwritten and used by writers with an agenda. But the people who make these arguments that don't seem to realize how much they reek of abuse apologism, about a character whose narrative is so much about overcoming abuse? They can absolutely shut up.

Zuko doesn't owe Mai - or anyone - anything no matter how much she loved him or for how long.

I'd also question whether she made him "happier than we've ever seen him." Half those screenshots don't even show Zuko happy. Another one is when Zuko is commiserating with Mai over "hating the world." The last one is when Zuko is surprised that Mai doesn't hate him. So much for unconditional love.

[3point14a]

OK SO SOME PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN OUR PUPPET AND ILL TRY TO EXPLAIN MYSELF OVER HERE because 1) I dont think it's a good explanation really :,3 (still working on it) and 2) since we are still working on it (magic system killing us) I don't think i should put it on my art blog or whatever given it may change ToT not how they (the twins) are per se but the explanation of why the hell they r even like that

so yeah! a lot of text under the cut! i don't guarantee any of it makes sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so first of all: Choco you were so right about most of those guesses you did holy shit.

It's both. Pup is trans and identical to Mai and they r both afab, demi-boy he/they, Mai is demigirl she/they, silly as hell. And for the horrible part?? Uh buckle in because this is a lot of us just trying to make ourselves understandable at all

Ok so. Ok so. What the hell are shadows. 

Fhs (Mainly Zero) tells us that shadows are a manifestation of people's negative emotions, the worst sides of them. We really really don't like this, shadows being "things a person is suppressing" 1) because we just don't really like it as a trope?? Like, the demons will get you in the normal people way, you will explode in the normal people way, we don't need magic to make you explain what's wrong with you it will show eventually. (we also think  it takes away some responsibility to the characters, if they act out, bc of their shadow instead of that just being a human quality.) 

And 2)  because Fred being grouped in there just feels bad, we know he's the "exception" and that's why he's special but we don't like it irregardless, it takes away from his personhood to be in that shadow category if theyre going to overall be categorized as smth that “is” someone else's, and therefore we just have to come up with a new magic system!!! easy peasy right?!?!?! (no)

In canon, we really just do not know what's up with mai and pup (puppet) (pup is shorter and they match with 3 letters lmao). Like, Pup just gets into the shadow world??? for no reason??? And they don't even look like a shadow at all? Why is bro still the same, what were they doing there, how did he get there? are they a shadow or not or a secret third thing?? what is going on, someone help. We also thought it'd be fun to make them opposites to fred and freddy. So if those guys are 2 people in 1 body, then Mai and pup are 1 person in 2 bodies (not really) ((kinda?))

Like,,,,what in the world is up with jitter doll?? if you read the lyrics none of it really? makes any sense? it has a bunch of machine imagery and language that doesn't really serve any purpose? Lyrics go on and on about the singer (pup) being sort of a machine, cables and malfunctions and unable to love, and he's also weirdly chill about it ??? Like hes over there saying "I feel like I'm going to blow up and they'll get rid of my body. They'll kill my foul heart" and smiling??? Like incredibly chill about it?? So we smashed our heads trying to give the twins something cool and also make ANY HEADS OR TAILS out of jitter doll.

So.  Machine stuff. Shadows. Something something. Here's what we have right now and what will maybe probably change: Shadows are sort of souls leftovers.

Souls (for now) Have limits? They hold feelings and thoughts and stuff, but when something is too much to handle or when you forget something inconsequential or when you cry or laugh or yell and get rid of excess emotion, that doesn't just disappear. It kinda groups together and becomes a weird invisible thing laying motionless in a corner.

"How do you end up with a shadow?" You are,,,, fundamentally empty. The shadows just by innersia look for some sort of host or vessel or whatever. If your soul has enough space (you don't really feel much or do much or whatever, fundamentally empty) Then they get in there, which doesn't really happen often?? Because most people aren't just empty lmao, sorry Freddy.

Once there the body does some fuckery unconsciously and realizes there are 2 people in here and separates both souls and whatever, like i said, work in progress magic systems are hard and they are killing us. But yeah it doesn't happen often,,, but there is another way shadows start existing,,,,,,,,,,,, and it's by the love put into a craft.

So when you do art, you put "your soul into it" right? Well, when you put passion into a project and pour your everything into it, and when that thing is still somewhat broken, they can take over it! So let's say, haunted painting? Yeah that's a shadow, that painting was made with love and care and yet it remained unfinished because the painter died. But here is where our entire thing will get weirder to explain: Video Games.

Passion project video games, and that good old trope of "The game becomes self aware" but forrealsies. Sometimes you take your silly game with you and it gets possesed?? It's somewhat normal in their society by now. Not fully normal? Like, they still get treated weirdly because "why is that video game character alive" or questioning if they are even alive, dehumanizing stuff and somewhat feared! The inherent human terror of "the creation betraying it's creator" and the "machine uprising" that already gets said in our world, is a lot worse when the machine ACTUALLY becomes sentient. But it tends to follow a certain pattern.

For no rhyme or reason, SOME copies of some games have characters gain conscience, the government in fear of the aforementioned "machine uprising" makes them a body that's as human as possible to keep them from lashing out (whatever that means), they pass off as humans. There are 2 exceptions to this, Pup (the one you care about) and Red (oc)((who invited her))

This isn’t about Red so I’ll refrain from explaining them beyond “didn’t take over a character but over a bunch of glitches”. Pup Didn't take over a game at all! 

Mai and pup are based on the puppet from fnaf right? There's another puppet in fnaf called "security puppet" which we were like "haha their mom" and it snowballed. To have that puppet that was in charge of looking after children, associating the fnaf puppets with tears (tear marks), and the immediate neuron activation of the hit song "its been too long" I was like "she's super protective of her child" and the reason for that protectiveness was insanely warranted.

To put simply, marinette (mai's legal name) ((the og child)) was just sick. Always, forever, just incredibly sick and frail and it hurts to look at because damn that little girl should be jumping on trees and not just in pain at the hospital. Her mom cried over her a lot. All that was on that girl's soul was mostly pain, sorrow, sadness, all of that stuff.

One day! her body had enough!!! and wanted to literally die! It didn't! however, to save "her" her soul sort of split into two and got rid of what was always overflowing (negativity), the puppet has this entire thing of “giving gifts and giving life”, a second chance to live and a gift to be able to not be sick anymore. And so, parts of shadows and parts of her actual soul mixed and mixed and left her just fundamentally wrong. And the phone that she had to call her mom in case of emergencies (or if she felt bad at all) was pretty bare bones and somewhat broken (old), and it only really served as a way to call, it had no games or apps or anything except for some photos of Marinette. Jumpscare, the photo is now alive. 

Anyways Pup gets a body, and first of all that just creeps the hell out of their mom, obviously. New thing just starts existing and looks identical to your child, talks like her but without any real emotion behind it? Her husband left her over keeping Pup because they never really agreed to have TWO children and it was enough with ONE thing that just went in and out of the hospital and burnt money. And yet her child was healthy again after it, and they looked identical, and it’s hard to hold a grudge against someone who has the face of the person you love the most, and it’s also hard to look them in the eyes.

Pup's mom loves him, for sure, she was definitely relieved when he came out as trans and was way more visibly unlike Mai. She couldn't just leave a child that looked just like hers to fend for their luck in another place. It's complicated, with good reason, that woman is stronger than I could ever be.

Pup and Mai both ended up messed up, because that was never meant to happen and because souls and shadows aren’t meant to mix and they lost stuff on the way of splitting (sort of spilled out?) So they both lack a lot of stuff, and also are insanely dependent on each other to function (one in the same).

Mai is overbearing, just by nature, she can’t feel sadness and she can’t feel most of anything that isn’t happiness, she’s impulsive and easily distracted, she can’t read people feeling bad and she can’t give any other insight than “just get over with it and focus on the good ^^” (inspired by her advice in al reves) because she can’t really do anything aside from that. Every bad thing they have felt either registers as somewhat inconsequential or doesn’t really feel like actual sadness, it’s just an excess of energy that makes them angsty and hyper and stuff. Mai also cannot taste stuff, and also does not feel temperature at all, pup does that for her. Both of them are unable to really feel fear, awesome for them (it’s not).

Pup is sort of nothing, they are not empty but sort of insanely muffled, he feels strongly for nothing and doesn’t have any passions or any desires or any anything, he also cannot feel pain, Mai feels it for him. Calling back to Jitter doll, his chill nature to absolutely deranged stuff and the machine language and fred “having something he could never have” is explained that way. He doesn’t fear stuff, he isn’t angry at stuff, he cannot love people, or not in the way that most or any people describe love at all. He doesn’t understand feelings and he doesn’t understand people and he doesn’t understand himself. And he searches for some sort of answer to what they hell they are. Because both of them are aware they were the same person, both of them are aware that they aren’t anymore, and both of them are aware they don’t really function how people should. 

You might have seen that we draw them with eyepatches (or have started to do that) ((new lore called for new designs lmao)), and that is the greatest indicator of them being connected in a weird way. Marinette had a birthmark on her eye, Mai (as the original body) has it on her covered eye and Pup has it mirrored because haha the photo was mirrored. The eye with the birthmark is actually the eye of the other twin, and when they don’t have it covered they just share thoughts, which obviously gives them both a massive headache, which is why they cover it. "wasn't pup unable to feel pain?" fun fact! headaches are not really actual pain (for the most part), they are pressure and tenderness in the scalp and stuff like that! So they are not free from headaches lmao

Pup wants to feel fulfilled, like an actual whole person, and he has no clue how to achieve that in the slightest. But because they perceive what happened to them as supernatural (how else do you describe that) they both went into ghosts and stuff like that. 

They both walk around and try and find ghosts and ask them stuff, they ask people stuff about local legends and local hauntings to try and get some lead on what they are and how (or even if) they can fix themselves. Pup reads a lot more than Mai and is a bit more obsessive with understanding what is up with them. Because while Mai is also messed up, she at least is still regarded as the child they both were, their mom looks at her in the eyes. Hence my little drawing of him with a bunch of books and torn apart pages. In the stories they’ve seen ghost take over lives (took over marinette’s face), they are uncaring (like pup), and a daughter WAS lost, neither of them are Marinette anymore. 

Pup, by feeling all muddled and devoid of most feelings at all, is still attached to the idea that they could become one again, while Mai, who is unable to be anything but positive, is certain they are different people now and forever. Pup is also attached to not seeing himself as alive (?), as a program (what ppl like him r called) and being technically artificial he thinks of himself as a robot, as something lacking that human spark, hence the entire robot thing in jitter doll, they use that as a way to sort of cope with how wrong they are because otherwise it really just sets in that they are simply unfixable. A robot or a ghost or an android or some spirit, whatever you want, except an actual alive person. 

Also calling back to them both just sort of appearing in Fred and Freddy’s mind in the show and all the weird meddling they do with them both. Like how pup is implied to remember meeting fred in the shadow realm thing cause he says “haha this feels familiar” when freddy asks for their name, or like mai saying “it's easier to notice someone's absence when they are always beside you ^^” and stuff like that. They have some dream insanity at camp.

Camp to us us is the end of the world and an insanely important event, due to close proximity all the people related to shadows sort of start sharing dreams, which is nice for no one, and which definitely sparks those two to be insanely invasive in hopes of discovering something new in their mad chase for any answer at all, Rip Freddy and Fred I’m sorry they are like that (inspired by them being voted as enemies in the series, at least according to the subtitles, i think she says friendemies but that also works irregardless) 

They are just not really good friends to most people, and even worse to Fred and Freddy. They sort of see Fred like a thing, like something they can get answers out of and something they can learn from, they dehumanize him a tad and it’s not done with actual bad intention, they aren’t trying to be bad people or anything, but then again they are just fundamentally wrong, and the absolute worst at feelings. Pup in general already dehumanizes himself so what’s the damage of doing it to someone else?? 

They also make Freddy feel unwanted, they treat him as a gateway to see Fred, and that messes with Freddy because everyone always asks for Fred, like, people like Fred more than him, and he’s just the means to get that. 

HGHGHGHGHG ANyways if anyone got here thank you so much, sorry this is so long and if it answers nothing, like we said, magic system is killing us. However I love them both too much to not draw them even without a set magic system so i couldnt hold back from drawing them </3

Last thing: Did you guys know mai and pup's songs respectively start at the same time in their episodes???????? That's so creepy why would they do that??? t2e7 6:56, then t2e8 6:56. What.

But yeah to anyone or everyone who was curious thank you so so so so much for showing interest :D And I'm very sorry if our answer is not that sufficient lmao, <3 <3 <3

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

coming back from twt and realising two of my fandoms are in the exact same fucking discourse ("how dare you think this canon sapphic character who never identifies with a specific sexuality in the canonical work is anything but a lesbian") is almost funny. almost.

but no fr it bothers me as a lesbian how people... hc'ing characters as bi/pan/any other flavor of queer is seen as "taking smth away from lesbians" like no actually! that's not how this works!! people who find community over a character being read as bi aren't taking anything away from lesbians!! like its getting to the point where it feels like people are treating bisexuality as somehow like. a lesser identity than lesbianism. like its a "worse"/"impure" sapphic identity (which. wtf. ffs liking men isn't a matter of any moral standing whatsoever.) it feels like a symptom of the reboxing of the queer community, where instead of being boxed into cishet norms, people are instead expected to fit perfectly into a new set of "better" queer boxes which is what gives us the idea that lesbian experiences are fundamentally and irrevocably separate from all other sapphic experiences and etc. ("only people in the Lesbian Box can experience feeling of rejecting feelings for women because society expects them to experience feelings for men and people in the Bi Box and Pan Box can never experience this ever because they are already attracted to men.") just. idk this is frustrating to see happen in multiple queer fandoms at the same time. my apologies for showing up in your inbox just to rant. please enjoy this lil emoji that i thought was cute as compensation: 🐝

Yeah, it’s the same discourse coz it’s the same people, someone was sending me tweets in my dms earlier.

I think I’ll just start plain deleting the asks, I got a stupid hate one too, we’ve reached critical mass.

[dapper-nahrwhale]

ive been thinking abt It and dndads (and stranger things kinda) for hours now its like. the monster has always been here and has shaped your life in ways you cant even perceive and you want to outgrow it but you cant and you never will. and the monster is a living breathing creature but it's also your parents and grandparents and it's also You and youre just continuing to act it out. nick leaves taylor like glenn (kind of) left him like bill left him and so on. eddie and bev marry people just like their parents. lark and sparrow literally have the doodler in their bloodstreams. augh

LITERALLY. it refuses to leave my head. The paralleling in these stories ahhg! Dndads and it (two of my favorite things in the world) hit the same thing!

Gawd just. Everything about these makes me go insane. The way the cycle repeats. You cant stop the monster that ruined your childhood from ruining your adulthood too. You are that monster. You cant move on past what happened when you were a kid. You the exact same kid you were when it happened except you're nothing like that kid at all. You can never change from the shit you went through and you'll never be that kid again. You became your parents without even realizing it.

Its about the generational trauma!

Also. Grant parallels Darryl by talking about things too much instead of too little. When he said the "we'll talk about it later" in the recent ep I lost it. The fact that they were all so irreversibly changed by that happened to them as kids that they cant change back to who they once were. He is not the boy you knew. I'm never over how they dealt with the consequences of episode 1 by grant becoming a fundamentally different and unrecognizable person to avoid that curse thing. Like that fucked up his whole shit forever man.

Lark and Sparrow are SO like henry whether they realize it or not. The Lark and bill denbrough parallels <3. They both feel insurmountable crushing guilt over something they think was entirely their fault. They were just kids. They make amends for this in the worst way possible. By trying (and failing) to kill the creature they're guilty for (insert obligatory fma03 ed and sloth reference). They let their guilt consume them. If they cant kill the horror they made whays the point of them living though it

I'm not assigning rigid roles to each character, just noticing the parallels. But I'd say the potential for sparrow and stan to be similar is so interesting. They both try as hard as they can to lead a normal regular life in spite of everything that's happened and yet they fail on that.

I realized immediately ep 1 that nick was like glenn and bill and ect ect with the not being there. But not by choice! But the cycle continues none the less! (I dont know if we'll be able to find nick and have him be reunited with the others in s2 or not. I think they all need to be there and alive to defeat the doodler, to end the eldritch horror that took their world. But if hes not there how do they kill it?)

The concept of nick needing an inhaler but never using it because he doesnt want to be lame in front of his dad vs eddie not needing one but continuing to use it because his mom says he needs it! (Smth smth the unconscious and conscious power their parents have on them smth smth)

Terry holding everyone together like mike is so chefs kiss yes! Terry and (maybe) ben being the most well adjusted of the groups. And well adjusted is very loosely said here because are any of them really? Terry being the researcher and the one to find the spells and the one to try so hard to save everyone he can (like mike).

Instead of just them forgetting the events like in it, they remember it all but the rest of the world forgot. How fucking lonley that must be either way.

Off topic but. One thing about it I adore is the 90s tv miniseries, where out takes place in the 60s in flashbacks and 80s/90s in present time and then in the new movies it take splace in the 80s and the present is the present! The exact 27 year gap between them is insane when you see the production for it had been in production hell since the 2000s!

I'm going to be thinking about these stories for the rest of my life I think...

Feeling the shrimp emotions about this rn.

[jbt7493]

its honestly insane how effective knives are at killing people. like im watching this video on 'putting people in a room with a person who has a marker representing a knife and making them fight' and they're just losing repeatedly. and these people are fucking good mixed martial artists

and like - yknow the thing where like in... i forget which format it is, it's from a sport form of one of the chinese martial arts. i forget what like type of karate or if it's like one of the wushu ones or smth.

but the points system isn't calibrated well and the judges just go on touch instead of on significant hit, so they can basically just start making their hand act like a reciprocating saw on the other guy. and those aren't real hits.

but with a knife those are real hits. like a sharp knife each of those low-force close-range stabs do real damage every time. when these guys are getting stabbed like 50 times in 20 seconds in the "shank tank", the difference is not that only some of the 50 stabs are real stabs. the difference is that they would be out faster. like every single one of those light stabs can do damage

obviously they would actually need to be thrusting further in to do more damage because when the marker touches the easily-marked shirt, it just needs to touch it with the tip. whereas with the knife you need to actually insert it like an inch into the person. so i guess yeah actually a lot of those 50 stabs are not real stabs. but the sewing-machine motion would still fundamentally work if they made it slightly deeper.

so yeah i guess i immediately second guessed my own point but still. like, it's insane how effective a knife is at just. Killing somebody with a dozen stab wounds. god damn.

[danothan]

im hoping i didnt misread your tone reading the tags and you do want to hear violyn shippers out but if u were /gen the reason that they appeal to me so much is the fact they are very different in every single way down to how they were raised but at the same time they are very similar with their motivations and goals in life they both want to help people and do good and while they certainly have quite a few hurdles to jump over they work together well and clearly trust each other very much despite their contrasts and differences and how they do have to jump a few hurdles to have a strong bond and might not click instantly but that doesn't mean the potential isn't there. also yeah youre right im a basic bitch and like tropes when ur a lesbian you gotta settle sometimes when it comes to rep. anyway hope u enjoyed the rant because it was a struggle to not make this longer

yes i was being genuine! i like getting other ppl’s perspectives, esp if it’s on smth i don’t understand. warning tho, i get pretty negative and definitely wordy underneath the cut

i think “potential” is the keyword here. i get the whole oil vs water metaphor in concept, but the execution leaves more to be desired. like you said, they’re fundamentally opposed in their upbringings and values. i mean after all, the first scene in arcane is the destruction caused by enforcers, ending on a shot of young vi glaring at them as she’s being carried away from her dead parents. that’s the kind of thing that sets the tone for the rest of the show, so it makes me wonder why we never feel the weight of that trauma after act 1. you’d think being wrongfully imprisoned for 6-7 years would make vi’s resentment grow even MORE, but i feel like she’s just toned down from her younger self if anything. before, she’d have a shouting match with vander over his betrayal of making deals with enforcers. couple episodes later, she’s teaming up with an enforcer herself? what changed?

i feel like they don’t have many shared goals either, esp not anything to bond over. so far all they really have in common is that they want to find jinx (for very different reasons) and they want to stop silco, which isn’t very romantic common ground lol. i’m not even sure i’d agree that they have the same motivation to help people bc vi is completely out of touch with the current political state of zaun and pretty much only has tunnel vision for finding her sister. and while caitlyn definitely wants to help people, she isn’t willing to listen to vi or ekko’s criticisms bc she gets too defensive over the idea that she might be part of a corrupt system. they’re barely ever on the same page

you say they clearly trust each other despite their differences, but i don’t think they should given this history. OR, if they did, it should be like my bookclub partner said and have vi fall headfirst into the relationship. and if this were to be the case, it would have to lean into vi’s emotional immaturity + lack of experience and give caitlyn growth + more awareness of their situation. but neither of these options happen, so caitvi toes the line without being able to commit to either side. it makes their relationship feel inconsistent and trivial to me

my bookclub partner and my sibling also brought up separate but enlightening points on the portrayal of their dynamic. f0r mentioned how they would be generic and frustrating to watch if the main conflict of their relationship was internalized homophobia, so it was a good writing choice to not include homophobia/sexism as a part of their society, and i agree with this. it’s an overdone trope used in place of actual substance, fantasy bigotry being a 1-to-1 with the real world just feels lazy. then my sibling noted that even though they technically don’t use this particular trope, their dynamic still carries the same story beats. their struggles and resistance towards each other feels subjective instead of being based on core themes of the story, like it’s a personal issue or a difference in personality and not the fact that they represent opposing sides of a class war?? this is why i don’t get what the big deal is over their break up. it felt like forced tension bc i wasn’t all that convinced they were in love after a few days, not to mention the breakup didn’t even last, so narratively i don’t see the point of having them separate if they were immediately going to get back together

again, if you’re going to use the oil vs water metaphor, lean into their differences. it shouldn’t be brought up when drama calls for it (“what, you don’t have parents?”), it should be the foundation of all of their interactions. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, jayvik represent the oil vs water metaphor better with the way external forces play into the difference in their values and create a divide between them despite their history and compatibility. hell, i feel more of that zaunite vs piltovan conflict between cait and jinx bc at least jinx’s trauma is written into their interactions

it almost feels like they’re having fun on their secret mission until vi remembers she’s supposed to hate cait. it’s the whole forbidden lovers trope that doesn’t actually feel forbidden bc there are no consequences for them being together. everything is just inferred because, well, they’re supposed to be opposites! so of course they’re on-and-off! but drawing conclusions from character fun facts is not the same as seeing those elements being purposefully utilized. this is what i mean when i say shippers have to rely on speculation. ultimately, caitvi is an underdeveloped on-and-off relationship that doesn’t commit to being either enemies OR lovers. it just feels like a messy high school love story in the middle of more interesting politics, found/unfound family, xenophobia/classism, magic, drugs, and terrorism

it’s a shame you say you have to settle, especially in a show like arcane where they don’t pull their punches for heavy and nuanced subjects. i feel like they set the bar too high to settle for a basic shipping trope. the other relationships in this show are intrinsic to and enhanced by the plot, and vice versa: you know they love each other but external forces play into their personal values and dynamics. caitvi deserves the same complexity and chemistry given to these other relationships

and for the record, i like both characters individually. i can see myself enjoying their relationship as it gets more developed. i think they have a lot of good moments in the show. but as of right now, based on canon only, caitvi is the weakest part of arcane’s writing

[transmasc-wizard]

Hey tell me about your favorite symbols and motifs and themes and mirrors and foils and parallels (and so on and so forth)

Is that.

hi ok im answering this finally

i know im a basic bitch. i know. but to get this out of the way: the hero's journey story structure drives me up a wall in the best way, specifically because you end where you started. its a circle. but even though the PLACE is the same, YOU are not the same, YOU are fundamentally changed, YOU fell to the abyss and were reborn and are thus not the same as the person who started, and i just. like it

when it comes to themes. fate. stories about fate are my favourite thing ever but only if theyre done right. attempting to gain agency and escape something that you literally cannot escape......... sdkjfhksffskdhfksgkj. and if they DO escape?? if they do?? they DO fundamentally break the narrative thats been bestowed upon them...... i die. i perish. i pass away. i like it. <-that in particular can be changing their own fate in a story abt fate, but also i like characters just. crushing what the narrative was supposed to be. on a related note, mulan not being a musical for the last half of the story is the best thing disney's ever done

also! to go back to characters specifically changing their own fate!! dont get me wrong, them being unable to stop fate is 10/10 too. my only issue is if they like fate and go along with fate. the chosen one gets chosen and is fine with it/happy abt it and wins and lives happily ever after.... NO!!! i want them to struggle!! i want the characters and fate to be in a (perhaps neverending) barfight!!! i dont care who wins i just want the conflict that creates

also to actually talk about specific pieces of fiction. the good place is a masterpiece and i will yell it from the rooftops forever. the comedy is fine ig but the actual underlying story makes me feel so many things. the theme of everyone having the capacity to become better is so needed i think. it is. and the idea that the system is SET UP to make it hard for people to be good is true!! its fucking true!!

also i feel like Eleanor and Chidi are foils. on some level. because yeah Chidi taught Eleanor to care more about her moral decisions, but Eleanor actually taught Chidi to be less caring about his moral decisions, too. at least, how i see it. she doesnt make him immoral by any means, but i think that just by being around Eleanor all the time, Chidi starts to learn how to actually deal with the fact that Sometimes, he will make choices that hurt people, but that's a fact of life and he can't judge himself on that alone. and. well . i like it!! i like it very much !!!

also smth i found interesting was how in Little Thieves by Margaret Owen, Vanja's (the main character) greed is directly symbolized by the jewels growing from her body. like, it's not even subtle; it's part of her curse. the thing is, i actually think it would have been executed better if Vanja didn't know that. if she had to make the (pretty obvious) connection herself & bend symbolism to work for her, lower the amount of gems killing her by lowering her own greed instead of just being handed that information, it'd have worked better.

also ARCANE i am so unwell about arcane. it is a story of a bunch of people who, i think, literally all just want to do something good but dont know how to execute it. Powder wanted to do something good in ep 3, but in the process she [redacted spoiler lol]. Jayce wants to do something good with hextech, but he's taking dangerous risks and he may hurt people or even start a war. Vi and Caitlyn both want the undercity to be better, but they don't know how to fix it and though I haven't watched episode 9 yet, I can feel a big fuckup coming. Even Mel!!! She's manipulative yeah and pretty morally grey but she wants what's best for Piltover. And Silco. EVEN SILCO. He wants the undercity to thrive. Don't get me wrong, he's a piece of shit, but i think somewhere. deep down. he wants things to be better, too

also i dont know where it is but there's a post talking about how Jinx is fire and Silco is water but their colour symbolism is opposite to that and i love that take so much. Jinx is blues and Silco is reds, but Jinx was born from fire and Silco was born from water and Jinx is a hair-trigger explosion, dangerous but powerful, while Silco is more like the ocean--often calm, but capable of killing and more than willing to do so.

that was. so long. so i will end that. i like Things in Media

[monsterkissed]

anyway reading my brains book more and as a prsn diagnosed as Resistant to treatment a lot it is. almost annoying to have things spelled out like: if a prsn is doing smth bad for brain, and they keep doing it, even tho it’s clearly making them bad in the brain, maybe there’s like, a reason? that’s personally resonant to them on some level? and dismissing that out of hand won’t help?

like for e.g. i get stressed about writing things, and i would talk ab this with psychs and therapists and get told variants on:

well it’s supposed to be a fun hobby so if it’s not fun don’t do it!

what’s the point if it’s not fun? it’s not doing anything for you

the stress is your brain’s way of saying you should go outside instead

all the anxieties about writing are silly anyway, who cares if it’s “good” or if people “like it” a healthy prsn wouldn’t worry about that

why not stop writing for a month and see how you feel?

a more active hobby would make you feel much better btw have you ever jogged?

mnundfulness

and it literally never worked or did anything and always left me feeling still bad and faulty but also with the lingering sense of real defensiveness? and anyway i was reading this book and it’s all “hey maybe ppl don’t want to change things ab themselves bc those things represent things they like about themselves or value in their life, not bc they love being miserable for no reason except to annoy their therapists”

and it’s really annoying bc. yeah that’s exactly it isn’t it? i really care about my writing and all the work and skill i put into and it’s important to me on a very fundamental level and no amount of telling me i shouldn’t care about it or that i am caring about it wrong will ever, ever work. there is no version of me as i am, no matter how healthy, that just does not care whether i write and does not care if i write well, because writing matters to me and i like that about me. i do not want to be a person with no anxiety about that. it would be throwing away one of the things i love about who i am. things you love are worth worrying about? i want to take the anxiety i have, that is there to serve a purpose, and dial it back to a point where it can do its job without overshooting and paralysing me. not discard it utterly or demean it and the parts of me it’s there to serve. and that is both more realistic a goal and one that honours a thing about me that gives me joy and purpose.

and idk since reading that and working from that principle i am both feeling better about it generally and also, shockingly, worrying about it less.

[minafeu]

I reposted a proshipper, my bad y'all. Anyways-

Albert Wesker, Alex Wesker, Alexia Ashford and Alfred Ashford are traumatized individuals.

Does that excuse their actions? Hell no. Does it give us reason to feel bad for them since they deserved to be nurtured and not by eugenists assholes? Absolutely. I feel bad for them since no one(not even evil geniuses) deserves to be traumatized and neglected. I've delt with a lot in my time on this earth and if there's one thing I know, it's that neglect fundamentally changes you. Shit hurts.

I do believe that if the Weskers went through some form of therapy and reformation they'd be decent members of society. Hell they could even find love, not that they need romantic love. I truly believe if someone showed them kindness and used a soft voice they'd break, even just a little. Then again I am one for reformed villains and treating people with kindness instead of being a horrible person to others. The golden rule of "treat others the way you want to be treated" and such y'know.

I don't know about the Ashford but they deserve some happiness. What ever I come up with that suits it best in my mind will be fine to me. I'm open to what others think they would go on to do if they got reformed though, sounds like a cool essay idea or smth.

But yeah, that's my 2 cents. I mean I could make an essay about this but I won't waste your time(unless someone wants me too, my asks are open for a reason)

[mortarsynth]

the worst part of having a job btw wasnt any of whe work besides going in the freezer. it was people finding out that instead of laughing i just honk and wheeze half the time bc theres smth fundamentally wrong w me

[cornflowercanine]

i love saying dum8 shit a8t romance i love implying u have to h8 someone to d8 them or ppl only d8 cause its funny or whatever it makes me cackle oh so 8igly i thrive off my own stupidity