#pushing and pulling

[bastardcherub]

fuck. wanna be put in my place so bad it’s not even funny

[swan2swan]

Whoever conceived and animated this moment, I hope they're doing well and thriving. This is S-rank romance stuff here.

[fishcop]

If I had a nickel for every time Scott sacrificed himself for pearl… that would be three, actually!

[auckie]

https://x.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1765391777580912958?s=20

PLEASE GD IF YOU LOVE AND WANT TRAINS

[khruschevshoe]

There is a conversation to be had about the fact that Taylor Swift's album is being played in its entirety across all of iHeartRadio's 868 stations, pushing out the opportunities other artists might have had to get radioplay. That's the literal definition of a monopoly. No wonder she'll hit the top of the radio play charts with this maneuver, because at least 65 minutes (if not the back side of the album, which would take it to nearly twice that length) across EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT STATIONS will be dedicated to her, artificially boosting her radio play and decreasing everyone else's. In this essay I will—

[hinamie]

i fear i can never date a man bc none of them will ever be makoto tachibana

[redeemed-wren]

Thinking about. Stanley Pines. Once summer, not long after Weirdmaggedon. Sitting in his seat, staring at the tv but realising slowly he's not really watching TV, he's listening.

Listening to Soos, taking a tour group around the Shack, his voice confident and happy, eagerly telling tourists all kinds of tall tales. Soos, with his young son strapped to his chest, held close and dear to his heart, always knowing he is loved and wanted by his father.

Listening to Wendy and Melody, laughter turning to deeper conversations in the gift shop as Wendy pours out her latest dating drama and Melody listens sympathetically--not quite a mother, but an older sister figure is all Wendy wants at the moment.

Listening to a distant boom coming from the basement, a cause for some concern that fades quickly as three peals of laughter follow soon after. One deep and familiar, as comforting and close as the sound of a ship's motor and the open sea. One young and high, cracking with adolescent awkwardness. One loud and cackling, a hint of madness never quite leaving it but more settled than it used to be. And Stan figures it's probably time to send someone down to drag Ford, Dipper and McGucket upstairs before they forget what light is and get too nerdy.

Besides it's nearly dinner time, and he's listening to Mabel's steady, unrelenting chatter in the kitchen, punctuated by a few grunts of acknowledgment from Abuelita as they prepare a meal.

And Stan feels a strange, unusual sensation wash over him, something he hasn't felt for over half a lifetime, by a boat on a beach. A sensation of contentment, of security, of peace. And he realises that if he stood up and walked into any one of the rooms in the Shack he would be greeted with smiles and faces lighting up to see him and cheerful cries of his name.

And he looks down at the darned pig sleeping beside his chair and things, with oddly misty eyes, that he spent thirty years trying to find his brother again. And he succeeded--but somehow, he got more than that. He had formed around him, without even realising it, a family.

[flowersdiceandlove]

I am 100% completely convinced that on Mount Yujun when Hua Cheng burst into thousands of butterflies that he did not mean to do that. That man was freaking out so bad at finally finding Xie Lian again and holding his hand and helping him and Xie Lian being right there that when he finally saw just the slightest glimpse of Xie Lian’s face and the thought of Xie Lian seeing him that his nerves took over and he burst into thousands of butterflies. All throughout the walk, Hua Cheng was trying his damnedest to keep it the fuck together (literally) but he just couldn’t anymore. You cannot convince me otherwise. He held Xie Lian’s hand all through the walk, but then he shakes Xie Lian’s hand off the next time they meet? Yeah, he’s scared he’s gonna explode into butterflies again and that would Not Be Cool and Ruin His Image he’s curating for Xie Lian as this cool reliable guy he can come to for help and depend on.

[tk-duveraun]

Imagine Shen Yuan's original world, everything is normal except people can just shape shift into 1 animal form. And pidw doesn't have that.

(Airplane was constantly made to stay in animal form by his parents so they didn't have to deal with him)

So SY as SQQ is DESPERATE to have cat time. I've the ooc lock is gone, all bets are off He finds himself climbing trees and furniture. If he walks into a Sunbeam he'll just stop mid sentence and stand there baking until something snaps him out of it

And he is always desperately searching for some plot device that will let him be a cat again. Unfortunately, since airplane hated being an animal so much, there are only 2 in the whole world bc he was paid a LOT of money for that specific kink and hated it the whole time.

The other peak lords really think SQQ has lost it and that this is either grief bc of without a cure or a direct side effect of it.

LBH loves Catzun and completely and shamelessly indulges SQQ when he flips over to cat brain. (He hides bird feeders near the bamboo house, he grows small patches of cat nip and mixes it into sqq 's regular incense)

SQH witnesses SQQ notice a bird and all but kkkkkkkk at it and goes "wtf" and they have their transmigrator reveal early.

LBH is jealous both because SQH speaks the same dialect as Shizun, but is also nonplussed by cat mode, which seems to deter even the likes of LQG.

Clearly he has to find some means to let Shizun be a cat in order to win his heart.

[flwrkid14]

Tim Drake: Temporary Asset

Tim is just waiting for the call.

It hasn’t come yet, but it will.

Because his mission is done.

Jason is back. Bruce is no longer self-destructing in his grief. The Robin mantle has been passed down. He even went as far as dragging Bruce out of the literal timestream—and if that wasn’t his final act, his last necessary function, then what else is he even here for?

So, yeah. It’s inevitable.

Bruce will pull him aside, voice careful and quiet, and tell him it’s time. He’ll say it with the same even tone he uses for debriefings, the kind that doesn’t leave room for argument. Maybe he’ll tell Tim to pack up his things and go. Maybe he’ll ask him to leave quietly, to spare the others from the trouble of a drawn-out farewell. Or maybe it won’t matter, because they won’t even notice he’s gone.

So until then, Tim is just… waiting.

And while he waits, he makes himself useful.

He’s Dick’s go-happy little brother when the others are too tired to match his energy. He lets Steph pull him into reckless, impulsive plans when she needs a partner-in-crime, because if that's what he's needed for, that's what he'll do. Barbara knows he’s a call away if she needs an extra pair of hands—doesn’t matter when or where, he’ll be there.

He takes the brunt of Jason’s anger, lets him shove blame onto Tim for anything and everything that’s wrong, because if Jason needs something to be mad at, if he needs a target, then Tim is more than willing to be that.

Damian needs someone to look down on? Someone to sneer at, someone who won’t fight back?

Fine. Tim will be that, too.

Because he doesn’t care what he has to be.

He just wants to be needed.

He needs to be needed.

Because the moment he isn’t, the moment they all realize they don’t need anything from him anymore—

The call will come.

And that’ll be it.

[warningsine]

I know that's right. Misty's 1.01 smile was not meant to be evil at all. She helped Natalie. Again. <3

"Natalie and I had a bond you'll never be able to understand."

[lizardkingeliot]

“I guess in terms of, like, keeping the overall arc of Lestat alive, it’s sort of important that we remain connected to the love story at the center of it, which is Louis and Lestat. And so that you feel attached to their separation and their experience previously, and going forward that you as an audience member continue to invest in these characters and their push and pull.”

[pulsingvoid]

first and last DELAINEY HAYLES credits in IWTV season 2

[helmip]

tightly wound

[sunderwight]

Scenario where Yue Qingyuan and Luo Binghe both pick up on and independently confirm for themselves, a few years into the matter, that Shen Qingqiu's soul has indeed been replaced with someone else's. But they have polar opposite reactions about it. Yue Qingyuan keeps trying to figure out how to get SJ back (alone, since it's nothing he can prove and also he sucks at asking for help), while Luo Binghe is doing everything in his power to make sure that Shen Qingqiu stays the new version or doesn't have his soul replaced again. The two of them each entirely unaware of the other's knowledge or actions, basically cancelling one another out.

Yue Qingyuan finds an item that should loosen the current occupant soul's hold on the body, potentially allowing Shen Jiu's soul to come to the fore again (if it's still in there somewhere) or regain control. Luo Binghe, around the same time, discovers a rare herb that is said to help reinforce the connection between the soul and the body, to help with individuals who have troubles with dissociation. Yue Qingyuan gifts the "rare artifact" and gets Shen Qingqiu to put it in his study, Luo Binghe mixes the herb into a medicinal tea and serves it to him every day. Net zero impact.

[sha-brytols]

and the thing is i've said so many wildly conflicting things about how flawed solas' character portrayal was in veilguard but like. i unironically do believe they're All True and like i think i can kind of(?) articulate why

like solas in veilguard to me was a pretty perfect example on how clear it is that dragon age has suddenly and drastically regressed from being an exploration into moral ambiguity and that fine smudged line between "hero" and "villain" to a sudden inexplicable refusal to allow any sort of grey area in character motivations in favor of forcing them into a binary box like its a dnd alignment. and i think this specifically because there is literally No Way to write solas in a morally uncomplicated manner while still maintaining anything that makes him an interesting character.

people who hate solas hate veilguard because it removed literally any nuance to his character and repeatedly paints him as a poor mistreated victim whose only crime is that he was Forced to do things He Didnt Want to by a significantly underwritten and highly anticipated female character, and his regrets are all varying degrees of "it's my fault because i was right and they didn't listen to me :(" and no actual agency in his own decision making. his romance with a lavellan is literally front and center in the game and the only one that even gets more than a passing letter or (in dorian's case) like. two full lines of dialogue. the narrative does everything to silently paint him as the misunderstood tragic hero that no one truly appreciates and even rewrites the inquisitor so they always want to redeem him regardless of their previous disposition

people who love solas hate veilguard because it somehow managed to simultaneously do the same thing in reverse. solas has no genuine regrets or sense of guilt or actual reflection about his past behavior in the entire game. he kills his best friend and the game makes sure to zoom in on his face as varric is falling down just so you can see the sneer of contempt. the war table finebros react segments where its literally just the writers unapologetically utilizing the companions as mouthpieces for their personal opinions makes sure to tell the player that solas is unforgivable and a hypocrite and a coward for his actions. they even like. rewrote an entire part of his character specifically to remove that layer of complexity and dumb it down to the Lying Liar Who Lies. where the narrative silently wants you to sympathize with him, the characters LOUDLY want you to condemn him. your most sympathetic dialogue choices are lukewarm "well... i GUESS i understand why..." delivered in a consistent tone of disapproving resignment.

people who are neutral to solas? you're not ALLOWED to be. here you go. Dragon Age: Solas. everything is about solas. you have to make all your choices based around solas. we've written an entire game to revolve around solas. we rewrote like 4 characters to make sure that you are forced into one of the two extremes.

and it's all because you have a game that physically cannot help itself but to make you make the Good Decision and so they can't decide which decision is good and which is bad so they wrote two completely conflicting stories about him at the same time. he is the best boy. he is the worst. it genuinely feels like the writing team was actively wrestling with each other behind the scenes over whether or not solas is a Bad Guy and thus their only means of compromise was writing him as though he was dr jekyll and mr hyde without any transition or consistency. he is a villain. he is a hero. you are a bad person for not seeing his point of view. you are a good person for peacefully redeeming him. and i know there's people who think this is some sort of ingenius character study but none of this is intentional. he isn't like loghain who commits bad acts in service to a greater good. he's the prideful god who lied to the inquisitor about wanting to free the elves and instead his goal has been about his own personal ego all along. he isn't like flemeth, who does good by people and manipulates the story in your favor all for the sake of her own mysterious ends. he isn't even like the architect who lies and murders and manipulates the warden all in the service of his own deluded vision. he's the guy who wants to destroy the world because his abusive ex is forcing him to. but also he's the guy who wants to destroy the world because he thinks mortal life is insignificant and he should be in control because hes The Best.

all complexity of what was previously a deeply nuanced character has been removed, and it's because he used to be so complex that it's so disjointed and bad because they refuse to actually commit to any one direction because in that case they'd might as well make another character. but they can't. they have to make it solas. because solas is their cash cow and their baby.

they want to make a perfect solavellan happy ending because they want to please the people who love their baby but they're so fundamentally divorced from what their audience wants for solas that they ended up writing a caricaturized ai-generated romance novel for teenagers.

they want to make a cathartic fight scene where you beat the bad man because they want to please the people that hate their villain but they have such blatant contempt for criticism of their precious little baby that they make sure to infantilize and misrepresent his flaws as much as they can so he can be the sad little elf boy that you need to hug.

and despite all of this they ALSO wanted so desperately to avoid making you sympathize too much with the antagonist they were building up to that they had to make sure he acted in the most unforgivably evil ways that they could think of just so players knew this is the Bad Guy and you're the Good Guy and don't you forget it.

it's just constant self contradictory writing. it is so blatant that it's genuinely hard for me to even see veilguard's solas as being the same character. i find myself nodding my head in agreement to his most ardent haters because yeah you're right. they did spend an insane amount of time forcing you to see just how innocent and well-intentioned and pure this egotistical mass-murderer was. and i also find myself nodding in agreement with his biggest fans because yeah. you're right. they did randomly turn this character into a moustache-twirling villain who does everything short of tying rook to railroad tracks and cackling as he runs away to tear down the veil. and all this because they couldn't stand to not have him be in the game in the biggest and most impactful way. they literally could not have a story without solas.