#that's all she's got captain

[least-carpet]

Jin Zixuan, Jin Guangyao, and their Opposite Trajectories

Listen, I never thought I would give a shit about Jin Zixuan but apparently I have Thoughts and I'm tired of this post sitting in my drafts. (This was literally the first MDZS post I ever started writing.) I give up.

The thought is (loosely) that their tragedies are opposite, not in source (piece of shit rapist dad, the Evils of Society, etc.) but in the like... the shape they make? I'm using the word "trajectory" but it's not quite right either.

Firstly, I'm reaching the point where I hate it when Jin Zixuan gets blamed for his own death. Being a dickhead as a teenager should not make it OK for your wife's sect brother to kill you with a zombie, even if that sect brother is much more charming then you.

Like he's not very nice and honestly the ass-kicking he got from Wei Wuxian in the Cloud Recesses was fully deserved. But a lot of the stuff we see him do in the background indicates that he values integrity and is trying to work out what it is and how to do it (badly)—even Soup Drama is about giving credit correctly. (Does it reflect badly on him for him to have been engaged to Jiang Yanli for so long and not know jack shit about her interests? Oh yeah. Is it him fucking up a social interaction trying to do the right thing? Also yes!) So he has zero social graces and is a big loser BUT from what he does he seems like a big loser trying to figure out how to be a good person in a hot mess of a sect.

There's also no reason to assume that he didn't sincerely love Jiang Yanli, given that he dies still trying to fulfill her desire to see Wei Wuxian. Who kills him!

Jin Zixuan's tragedy is that his actual promise—not the handsomeness or the wealth, but his ongoing semi-pathetic attempts to become a good person and do the right thing—is never fulfilled because he's cut down at, like, 20. By someone he's trying to do a favour for, to add insult to injury.

Jin Guangyao on the other hand...Jin Guangyao's tragedy is it seems like he starts out pretty decent and then gets all fucked up.

One of my Jin Guangyao frustrations is the way people who hate him read his future behaviour into his past behaviour. (This also happens to Jiang Cheng.) I don't think MDZS's final version of Jin Guangyao, who during his evil monologue announces that he has committed ancient Chinese peak crime bingo¹, is the same person as the Meng Yao who enters the narrative. He gets loaded up with formative trauma, exposed to a wild amount of violence, and then enters the Jin sect, where up is down, his "family" hates and abuses him, and he's only rewarded when he does evil deeds for his shitty dad, while publicly maintaining a facade of goodness and justice. That is a scenario designed to pickle this guy's brain in evil! That's a scenario basically designed to pickle anyone's brain in evil! He gets ping-ponged furiously from one trauma engine to another and comes out all fucked up and paranoid.

Anyway if he'd died at 20 instead of Jin Zixuan, he would have died lauded as a hero. Instead he's going down in sect history as the creep who murdered his father and married his sister, and it'll be blamed on his poor mom, who he revered and loved.

I guess the uniting factor is maybe the ways in which their promise was squandered by their father and their sect, although the specific details are different. Man, the Jin sibs are all so depressing. (I include Qin Su and Mo Xuanyu in that statement.)

Footnotes:

I don't know that we're meant to take that completely literally—like some of the stuff he claims to have done he didn't do—but he certainly committed at least some of them. And omitted some other stuff that's also pretty bad, to be fair.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

space sweepers but they're delivery people and are at no point on screen through the entire movie

[dearabsolutelynoone]

“Anthony was rather famously besotted with his wife…”

Julia Quinn, On the Way to the Wedding (Bridgertons, #7)

[frommybookbook]

Earlier today, some friends and I were discussing one of those Star Trek captains memes. You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones that pit the captains against each other with pithy descriptions that glorify and champion the men and shit on Janeway. The ones where Picard is describe as the wise teacher and scholarly diplomat; Kirk is the brave trailblazer and lovable rogue; Sisko is the take-no-shit commander and more-than-human uniter; Archer is the quick thinking explorer and the avenging do-gooder; Pike is the empathetic Boy Scout and the quippy everyman…and Janeway is an irrational murderer and erratic loose canon. And, as usual, I went on a bit of a rant. They (looking at you @redsesame, @epersonae, and @emi--rose) told me to share it here so, if you trudge through this whole thing, blame them.

Does Janeway make some questionable decisions throughout VOY (Prodigy!Janeway is a different conversation for another time)? Yes, absolutely. But here’s the thing: every captain does. What I still love about her though and will champion until I'm blue in the face is that Janeway owns her decisions more than I think any other captain does.

Picard and Kirk hide behind the Prime Directive a lot. That's the reasoning Picard gives for not interfering in the drug running in “Symbiosis” and leaving the Ornarans trapped in dependence on the abusive Brekkans. His line, “Beverly, the Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proved again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well-intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous." is a cop-out we hear from him time and time again, especially to Dr. Crusher, as she is the one who most often calls him on his bullshit.

Kirk does the same thing. We still this when he leaves Shanna and the other thralls behind in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and when he forces Elaan of Troyius into a marriage she clearly doesn't want because it's "for a greater good." And all the while, he's got Spock at his side giving him confirmation bias that he's following regulations.

And Sisko, Sisko makes some of the most horrific and destructive decisions of any captain and uses not only the Prime Directive to fall back on, but he's got the Dominion War to blame. He poisons an entire planet to get back at one man he feels betrayed him in "For the Uniform" and don't even get me started on his actions in "In the Pale Moonlight".

Enterprise is so unjustly shat on by the fandom that I almost hate to bring some of Archer's questionable choices into this conversation but I'm going to do it anyway. Similar to Sisko and the Dominion War, Archer has the threat of the Xindi in his back pocket to excuse some of his worst behavior. If Tuvix is the worst thing people can point to for Janeway, then we have to talk about Archer and Sim, the simbiont created solely to be a living tissue donor for an injured Trip, a procedure that will kill the living, breathing, sentient Sim. Archer orders Sim created against the arguments made by Dr. Phlox. He rationalizes his decision with the same argument for the greater good that we see from all the others. He says to T'Pol before Sim is created "…we've got to complete this mission. Earth needs Enterprise. Enterprise needs Trip. It's as simple as that." And it doesn't end there. When Sim is grown enough for the procedure and has figured out what's going to happen to him, he challenges Archer himself, arguing for his own right to live, and Archer sticks to his guns. This exchange directly between Archer and Sim is haunting.

Archer: I must complete this mission; and to do that, I need Trip. Trip! I'll take whatever steps necessary to save him. Sim: Even if it means killing me? Archer: Even if it means killing you. Sim: You're not a murderer. Archer: Don't make me one.

Not only do all of these captains (except Archer, who arguably writes the damn thing himself at the end of the series) have the Prime Directive to fall back on, they also have Starfleet/the Federation/Vulcan High Council right there on speed dial to validate their choices and hear their excuses and give them another commendation. They all know that ultimately, they can turn to someone higher in command to turn to for help.

Janeway is alone. She is alone with her crew 70,000 lightyears from home with only her training and her own moral compass to guide her. Yes, she claims the Prime Directive a lot but she also goes with what she feels is right and she is clear about that with her crew. When she makes the decision to split Tuvix, despite what everyone else says, she sticks to it and more importantly, does the procedure herself. Picard would have forced Beverly to do it, saying Doctor I gave you an order, your conscience be damned, and Archer does the same to Phlox with Sim, but Janeway takes the tool out of the Doctor's hand and says it's my call, I'll do it. When everyone is angry and mad about her destroying the Caretaker's array, she stands up for her decision and says yes, I did it, because it's what my Starfleet training said to do AND because I think it was the right thing and it's on me to make the hard choices.

She also can admit when she made the wrong decision, which isn't something we see from the other captains. In the season 5 opener, "Night", we see her in a depressive state because she's questioning her decision to effectively strand her crew in the Delta quadrant but she comes out of it when she's reminded by her senior staff that the crew believes in her and trusts her, she should do the same for herself. When the Doctor has a mental crisis in "Latent Image" after questioning his own choice to save the life of Harry Kim over that of another crew member, Janeway admits she did the wrong thing by first deleting his memories of it so he could get back to work and then sits with him for days while he works through it because that's what captains do.

And she does all of this without the backup and support of Starfleet. She doesn't have anyone higher on the chain of command. She's 70,000 miles away from the admiralty and her support system. There's no one higher than her to give her a break from making every decision.

To quote my fellow Missourian Harry Truman, for Janeway the buck stops with her in a way it doesn't for any other captain and she is painfully aware of that and owns that and that is why I love her and she's my captain.

[infinite-infinite-stars]

What if... Who Killed Markiplier... but it's Ace Attorney Investigations...

"Ace District Attorney Investigations", if you will.

(Everything you see here was drawn by me, with some backgrounds/that one evidence photo being either screenshots from the show, or edits of official photographs of Mythea Castle, where WKM was filmed)

[gomzdrawfr]

I fear that shiny au has returned once more....

more detail ref from this post (tho i didnt look back so if this new doodle has the wings on the wrong side just ignore LMAO i just wanted to doodle)

[artist-rat]

my old and new tes character Saima <3 she’s a combination of a couple of my prev. ocs!

[grinchwrapsupreme]

thinking about how the captain would have become a ghost and had to watch the aftermath including both Havers' reaction and the reaction of all those other soldiers

[ad-astra-per-aspera-1389]

how did Steve's phone call to Clint even go? "Hey, I know you're retired, but Tony locked Wanda in her room" "he WHAT?" "Yeah he locked her in her room" "I'm on my way" "hey we could use another team member too, while you're at it" "sure, I got you"

Clint really showed up and said "you locked my newest daughter in her room, man, that's kinda fucked" and proceeded to kick ass

[tequiilasunriise]

Jenna and Emma holding hands while talking about Wenclair’s ‘sweet little relationship’ is absolutely adorable, I love their irl friendship SO MUCH because oftentimes actors aren’t that close off screen but NAH these two are actually friend goals who so ship their character counterparts

Link to the iconic, long-awaited interview here

[opal-owl-flight]

Oh yeah I have this

This...hc ig?? I honestly have no idea where it comes from but I see 3 loving anything with kaiju in it. They seem like that kind of secret dork (that only 4 knows abt bc theyve been p honest with her since the start)

[baylardian-1]

"I'm Kay Janeway, deckhand aboard the Warranter Zingara"

i wanted to draw her little "uniform" and Moxie which was the lil weapon she finds and names to sabotage an entire ship lol.

contextually in Fire Ship she loses Voyager, watches it explode while being stuck in a small busted little pod and unable to do anything about it. (her hair and uniform catches on fire and a lot of her body gets burned, PRETTY sure this is the s4 haircut lore) so she's on her own adrift in a pod in the DQ, full of guilt. eventually an alien crew takes her in, she's the only girl onboard in a crew of around 100 young boys, she works as a deckhand, etc etc. oh also their alien culture likes to shorten names, so she lists off a few shortenings of "kathryn" and they land on "Kay" and that's what they call her hehe. im not done with the book but i LOOOOOOOOVE it so far. :)

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

I am absolutely OBSESSED with the Imperator breed I would be so grateful for any scrap of info you wish to spare 🙏🙏🙏 Atrocitas is GORGEOUS

Thank you!!! And trust me if I weren't working 12-hour shifts I'd have already posted a full ref sheet alongside the roi-de-vitesse one 😔

But i can share some notes for now

Additional note: their breed name comes from the shape of their tail featuring a leaf-shaped blade resembling the spear used by soldiers during the early Roman Republic

Also their classification of heavyweight is based on Roman era standards and for a good portion of the early middle ages when dragons were smaller. In the modern era (at the time of Skies over Jura and canon Temeraire) they're comparable to a large middleweight

Here's some concept art that's already slightly outdated but I haven't managed to draw more yet

[hauntingblue]

Gear 5 luffy's laugh is so contagious I just hear the drums and go insane how does this work. What did he do to me

[howlingguardian]

Can someone please talk me out of writing a snippet where Taylor is Captain America's great granddaughter and gets dosed with a vial of his blood and gets super soldier-y on top of the bug powers?

Please?

I've already got so much shit to write.

[fandomssaremysoul]

Hahaha Taako waited every morning for 12 years for someone to wake him up by talking loudly or jumping on him, but never experiencing it until he met a fucking weird ass tiny dwarf dude who always woke up wayyy too early and made tea that he completely fucked up with an insane amount of sugar but always also made a cup for Taako that was made like he liked it and then they waited for the giant brickshithouse of a human fighter to eventually shamble out of bed.

And it was peaceful but painful, familiar like an old pair of shoes but they were just a bit too loose to be comfortable something was missing but what what what,,,

who?

W̷̢̨̖̯̯͔̭̥̹̰̭̩̟̣͓̬̱̦͛̄̃͆͘͜ͅh̶̢̨͓̣̙̳̝̯̥̘̥̞͚̤̰̓̀̊͗̈́́͂̈͝ͅo̸̡̡̨̨͚͉̦̣͓̠̻̬̙͇̙͍̪̜̎̔̿͐͂̆̂͋̇͠͝͝?