#the concept of devotion is... interesting

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[qiu-yan]

2 and 21 for mdzs please?

sorry for the wait!

choose violence ask game

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

in terms of "compelling" arguments, i've got nothing. in terms of bullshit arguments i pulled out of my ass, though....

of course, the easy way out is to argue that jiang cheng is asexual and therefore would never come into sexual contact with anyone. an equally easy way out is to argue that jiang cheng is so rizzless that, even if he wanted to top or bottom, no one would do it with him....that's the easy way out of this question, though.

my own opinion is that, if jiang cheng were attracted to men and/or had a partner who was into pegging, he would have way too much internalized homophobia to give bottoming a try. even if he somehow got over himself enough to admit that he was into men (already impossible), he would still buy into the ancient-greek school of thought on homosexuality, wherein "ackshually it's only gay if you're on the bottom." he would be fully convinced that, if he were to bottom - and worse, if he were to enjoy it - he would become Less Man on an existential level. this would absolutely kill him inside, would make him actively more homophobic than if he were just straight or asexual, and would make him a nightmare for any other man to hook up with.

but of course, the more you adamantly refuse to even consider something - the more you fear something, in other words - the more you end up obsessing over it. if jiang cheng were actually hooking up with men in this scenario (entirely possible because he's like 6ft tall and probably can host because he's rich, which makes him a prime catch in the eyes of like 90% of grindr), he would adamantly refuse to bottom. he'd declare himself a hard top. but would he actually enjoy himself? or would he, as he topped in a lackluster manner whichever men were unfortunate enough to give him a chance, imagine himself in their position - first with disgust, as he told himself he was different than them; then with terror, as he feared that he might one day end up in their position; and then with something else?

because jiang cheng's fear - that he might one day bottom and enjoy it - would quickly mutate into a full-on psychosexual obsession with the concept of bottoming itself. because it's repression king jiang cheng we're talking about, said obsession would eventually become one of those things you're so afraid of that your fear ends up wrapping back around and turning into a fetish. because it's jiang cheng we're talking about, this would then lead to him actually bottoming one day. and then, because it's jiang cheng we're talking about and the universe hates him, he would actually end up enjoying it.

does his mindset change? maybe. or maybe he just becomes Worse.

i feel like i've ended up doing the opposite of answer the question.....sorry.....these are my honest thoughts, though.

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

i'm going to get killed for this, but that's the purpose of this ask game, so i'll be honest....."lan wangji as Love Interest." of course, by this i do not mean to say "lan wangji himself." rather, what i mean is the way in which lan wangji is a "love interest" first and a "character" second. in my view, the story is only really interested in lan wangji as "the guy who loves wei wuxian and is unquestioningly devoted to him," rather than interested in lan wangji as a character in his own right.

of course, the story spills a lot of ink on how much lan wangji loves wei wuxian, how much lan wangji has sacrificed for wei wuxian, how unquestioningly devoted lan wangji is to wei wuxian, and so on. and while this is all true and good, in my view, there are also several other interesting angles in lan wangji's story worth exploring. however, these angles instead seem rather neglected by the story, which appears to only want to discuss "lan wangji's devotion to his One True Love."

some angles i consider to be interesting, and which i felt like went underexplored in canon:

how much of lan wangji's support of wei wuxian is because he believed wei wuxian was right, and how much of it is because he loves wei wuxian and does not want to lose wei wuxian again? where does lan wangji's personal romantic love end and his moral compass begin? the novel equates [standing with wei wuxian] with [being righteous], but it is exceedingly easy to design a situation where the morally righteous path entails sacrificing wei wuxian in some way - how would lan wangji behave in such a situation? if wei wuxian himself had not protected the wen remnants (due to canon divergence or whatever), would lan wangji have spoken up for the wen remnants?

to what degree does lan wangji agree with wei wuxian's actions and consider said actions to be morally justified? comparatively, to what degree does lan wangji consider wei wuxian's actions to be morally questionable, and simply wants to shoulder wei wuxian's sins with him out of love? does lan wangji know and/or believe that wei wuxian killing jin zixuan was a genuine accident? if he does not know, does he care?

what does lan wangji's relationship with his family look like? on one hand, in his failed bid to save wei wuxian, he injured 33 of his own sect's elders, which under confucian principles is a massive wrongdoing. have the injuries of these elders healed? does lan wangji feel guilty? on the other hand, lan wangji's family betrayed both him and the moral principles they espoused, by first nearly whipping lan wangji to death and then joining the first siege of the burial mounds. does lan wangji resent his family for this? does he resent lan xichen and lan qiren, or does he understand that they had argued the punishment down from execution? is that why, after lan xichen's world shattered at the guanyin temple in yunping, lan wangji was able to immediately leave the premises with wei wuxian in tow, without once checking in on his brother?

what does lan wangji think of his late parents? does he want to know why his mother killed his father's teacher, or would he rather not know? does his family keep the knowledge from him, or does he avoid the knowledge himself? what does he think of his father's actions - to him, is his father someone who fell from the path of duty and righteousness for the sake of love, someone who selfishly abandoned his duties and forced his responsibilities onto his younger brother, and/or someone who imprisoned lan wangji's mother against her will and perhaps even forced himself onto her? does lan wangji know whether or not he was conceived consensually? does this bother him?

given the whole history of lan wangji's parents, how does lan wangji view his own, how should i say, sexual interests? lan wangji did once pin down a struggling wei wuxian and forcibly kiss him; would lan wangji make a connection between the nonconsensual nature of this deed and the imprisonment of his mother? furthermore, wang and xian's relationship postcanon seems to have an element of d/s and noncon roleplay to it (which i'm not judging them for, good for them); would that also remind lan wangji of how his father and his father's sect brought about the imprisonment of his mother? or are these two separate things entirely?

in my view, these are all highly interesting aspects of lan wangji's story - and all of these are implied by details given in canon. however, canon shirks discussing these aspects of lan wangji's character in favor of focusing on him as the Male Lead: rather than explore any of these angles, which would further define lan wangji as a person, canon seems far more interested in single-mindedly focusing on how sad lan wangji was that wei wuxian died, how tragic the loss of his One True Love was, and how wholeheartedly happy lan wangji is now that wei wuxian has come back and returns his feelings.

to me, it feels like this guy got sanded down from a "full individual" to a "love interest." it feels to me like the story gives us some details about lan wangji's own life, but then nonetheless insists on reducing him from a person in his own right to a satellite that revolves around wei wuxian (the story's real favorite). because of this, MDZS the novel read as less the wei wuxian and lan wangji story, and more the Wei Wuxian story starring Wei Wuxian, in which lan wangji is a love interest first and a person second.

i forget if i said this before or if i read it from someone else's blog, but it does feel like, if you want to love lan wangji on his own, you have to do a lot of the heavy lifting yourself. or at the very least scrub all the male lead energy off of him first, so that the individual underneath can be revealed.

[pendragora]

"Her love is yours...

But only if you give your heart to her."

This particular part of the verse is hitting different every single time

[natjennie]

fuck. kristen this season is coming for my fucking throat.

[limonjarritos]

VINCE IS SO DOWN BAD FOR RODY OH MY GOD??? LITERALLY KILLS HIS EX GIRLFRIEND TO MAKE HIM HAPPY???? THEYVE KNOWN EACH OTHER LESS THAN A WEEK??????

LITERALLY LIKE- MY MAN FELL HARD AND INSANELY. LIKE WHO DOES THAT? I wouldn't have it any other way. Just the way that as soon as Rody came into his life he was like 'I need this man to be so whole-y mine.'

When I was playing the game my pet theory was that he fell for Rody's brand of love, for how he loved Manon (he did say that he spoke of Manon when they first met) and Rody's personality.

(read more because I am so annoying about this game vv)

Something something, how Rody loves so intensely to the detriment of himself (Manon told him to stop giving, to for once in his life realise that he needed to take care of him self and be stable. He can't just account for the other person's needs <- barely know her but I get why Rody was head over heels). How Rody's love is similar to his cooking, burning, burning himself, burning and oh so overwhelming. And I do think Vince wanted the feel of that burn for himself, wanted to feel the warmth and devotion of which he had been so devoid of. To understand what it was he was lacking. How love and cooking go hand in hand in the story, how Vince's dishes were devoid of love, how he can't taste. How Rody's love surely would be strong enough, would be the missing ingredient to allow him to finally taste something. (Also lack of taste going hand in hand with what looks like depression of some sort, or perhaps just apathy for life. How bland his own life may be. How such a love, such a person could perhaps bring some taste to his life.) Vince seems to have killed Manon as a form of trying to show Rody a similar type of love. Giving him something, giving him a meal made out of Rody's own love. A gift since he couldn't give his own brand of love in a way that matters, couldn't give it without showing his own brand of devotion. I do think he 100% had an underlying jealousy and hatred of Manon, how Rody was still stuck up on her. How she never once mentioned Rody when her and Vince dated (though outside of Vince's pov I'm pretty sure Manon was just doing the healthy normal thing by not mentioning an ex?? but Vince is soooo gone) which is obviously a sin (he doesn't seem to take kindly to people who are mean to Rody. Such as the article and Rody's old college classmate) and proof she wasn't deserving enough of Rody's love. But alas she was still a gift and show of love to Rody.

On the personality topic (thought I forgot about that did you?), Rody is such a brash and kind person. A perfect foil for Vincent's more stoic nature. Rody willing to try and befriend Vincent, running into the kitchen to talk to him. He showed a bit of said love to Vince by trying to befriend him and how could Vince not want more? (why wouldn't Vince try to reciprocate in his own way. Make him happy) I mean he seems pretty feared by his cooks, and the people at the party have mentioned that Vince is pretty ruthless, not at all a person many wish to get to know. But Rody is willing to, yet Vince wants his undivided attention...

Okay wow this has gone on way too long uhh I'm 100% open to further discussion especially if I forgot something! And I haven't really looked too much into the game past playing it, so any reveals the creator may have given I'm mostly unaware of and would love to be informed of more!

Anyways tiny Vincent attack!

[evilios]

Oh, I see, time to leave for Hyperborea and let Dionysus take my place.

[requiemforthestars]

Asari Parents, Gendered Titles & Linguistic Pet Peeves

I need to talk about something that has always frustrated me about Mass Effect and the fandom.

Asari wouldn't have words like "mother" and "father". They. Would. Not! Liara's "My father, if you want to use that word..." or Shepard's confusion when Aethyta calls herself Liara's "father" make no sense.

Unless you assume that they're speaking to Shepard in perfect English? But why would they be? What we get told in game is that each alien speaks their own language but they have automatic translators. But if Liara and Aethyta are speaking in the Asari lingua franca they would be, by default, using non-gendered terms. It would make sense that Asari have a word that means "birth parent" and "non-birth parent/genetic parent" in order to describe that person's biological relationship to the child, but those words would not have any gendered connotation at all. It would be like saying "biological parent" or "adoptive parent". Titles that describe a kind of parenthood but make no reference to gender. So, if they're speaking in the Asari tongue, it'd make no sense that they know that for humans there can be a gendered distinction and they mention that to Shepard (maybe, maybe, when Aethyta says "I didn't pop her out" re: Liara, it's because the Asari words that got translated to her from what Shepard says is something about how she is the Asari term for "birth mother" but even then, it doesn't make sense throughout the whole conversation). They're speaking to Shepard as if they have gendered terms in their language which makes no sense.

And, let's say all three of these characters are speaking the same language (which I assume people in the ME universe would do, nuances are always lost in translation), they would not choose fucking English, or any human language for that matter as a way to communicate, they would be speaking in whatever the most common Asari language is. Asari are arguably the most powerful species in the galaxy? Why would they use a human tongue as their way to communicate with humans? It's humans who probably have to learn at least one of the main Council races' languages throughout their education. That's a must. Think of how people from different countries often default to speaking English. Here they would default to speaking the Asari tongue.

But even if they were speaking English... there's a gender neutral term for "father" here. It's "parent". This is the 22nd century, I know these games are over a decade old but like I don't understand how they can make good points re: how Asari would not understand the human concept of gender but then not think how that means they don't use gendered words in their language? And how humans would obviously know this?

It's just... very lazy worldbuilding? And I know it's only a tidbit but it's personally very annoying to me. And it's only possible if you're a monolingual English-speaking American and think everything works like it works for you and everything is governed by the same rules that you live by. Which, while I understand all of this is subconscious, makes for shoddy worldbuilding.

And it's not just the devs, these English-centric ideas permeate the fandom as well. I have seen more than once femshep Shiara fic where it's post-war and they have/are going to have biological children and Shepard is like "I don't want to be called 'father', I want them to call me 'mother' " and it's this nice affirming moment but realistically Liara would be like "??? But you're not giving birth?" because to her these words have no gender at all and Shepard wanting to call herself "birth mother" is like her calling herself "four legged" when she has two legs. Because again, it'd be a purely biological gender-neutral concept.

Tldr; English-speaking people widen your thinking challenge.

[searchingforserendipity25]

Having cracky 'Maglor part-timing as a formal mourner at funerals for a quick buck and a hot meal' thoughts turning earnest really fast. Maybe partaking in other people's misery and the construction of the temporary compassionate communities that are wakes could fix him. The fraught family fights over baked apples and bad wine are probably nostalgic etc.

[glindyupland]

I just think it’s silly that so many people complain about Villain Amaya as “wasted potential” and that “we were robbed” like-

My pals, post canon fan fiction is right there. The desire to free her husband is right there. Either by touching an evil book while being too eager to remember the obsidian oil, or being possessed by contact (ie what she believes is true loves kiss) when trying to reason with him in the dungeon.

We don’t need a rewrite, we can have a continuation. Both can be true. Amaya is a complex character, she can handle it.

[starpros-sunshine]

seb. seb hes not smiling. and has a fatui background................

I knowwwwww he's still everything to me you do not know how smitten I am with Lyney as a character

[yuridovewing]

hollyleaf is a character that i still really love but also makes me go "oh cmon you couldnt have made a better ending for her?

[death-rebirth-senshi]

I love just abandoning Elden Ring playthroughs I'm just like "okay that's enough" and start a new game...I've been playing Elden Ring almost nonstop (with a little mass effect break) since I got it in November and it's now June. And I'm still like...hm I think I'm done with this strength/int endeavor I want to try blasphemous paladin again

[lohstandfound]

i have not been able to stop thinking about my richjake angel x demon post and now i cant even figure out my own angel/demon lore

[stackslip]

Ok speaking of Viserys and Daemon, I cannot remember were he said it, but the lead writer suggested that part of Daemon's deal is that he wishes he'd been born a woman so he could marry Viserys.... That's such a good window into Targaryen relationships for me lmao

HELLO HI????? I NEED A SOURCE FOR THIS RIGHT NOW IM OBSESSED WITH THIS...... I SAW THIS CONCEPT IN A FEW FICS AND LOVED IT BUT I HAD NO IDEA THE WRITERS INTENDED IT...... i mean it makes complete sense, daemon is utterly devoted to viserys and constantly seeks his approval and attention even if he's being an absolute shithead about it. even his pursuit of rhaenyra seems to be in part bc he wants to get under viserys's skin, or be as close as he can to viserys's own blood......... i love targaryens they're so fucked up lol

[padfootastic]

J/egulus’s dynamic is very funny for me if they both just hate each other, and for the exact same reason: they both despise that Sirius loves this other person so much. Sirius loves his little brother, and James hates that Regulus can hurt Sirius so easily, and that Regulus has the audacity to think that Sirius doesn’t adore him; James knows what path Regulus is headed on but so does Sirius, and it hurts James to watch Sirius get his heart broken as time goes on and Regulus gets in deeper and deeper with the Death Eaters. Regulus hates James for taking his brother away and making Sirius quit loving him, Sirius would’ve gone to Slytherin if not for him and Sirius would still be at home. It’s very interesting to me if James and Regulus utterly despise each other, and the root of this is Sirius and their contradicting views of who Sirius is

no but i think about this way too often for someone who doesn’t rly give a shit about reg and is mostly indifferent or annoyed by him. i’m so much more interested by james and regulus’ dynamic the way you described—there’s a lot of potential for angst, as well as a toxic relationship sort of a deal, ykno?

i do wonder how they navigate it. tbh. because i’m me, i think james’ reasons are much more valid (logically/morally speaking) but ofc, from an emotional standpoint, u can’t negate reg either. and that’s tough, right, because both of them firmly believe they’re in the right. james has the added complication of having to navigate complicated blood-familial ties whereas reg has to come to terms with the fact that chosen family is just as (if not more) important for sirius and he has to both acknowledge and accept them before doing anything else.

sirius is just so—central to both of their lives and identities? and the way they perceive him is so different that they might never reconcile it, ykno? and idk, i feel like in a canon universe, they might just go their whole lives being quietly disdainful but tolerant of each others presence, only so they do not hurt sirius. and i’m sure that peace is hard won—there would’ve been times when they came to blows (or wands?) and both of them had to be on the other of an angry/disappointed sirius and they realised, quick, that they’d rather shut up and deal with it than go through that again.

of course, the only time they manage to put their dislike away is when someone/thing is threatening sirius and they realise he’s more important than their feelings. but that’s a given.

[gudakko]

gaining confidence is nice cause your brain really does start believing hey... maybe people CAN find you appealing/attractive isnt that fucked up