#the penultimate

[gammija]

nothing personal but this kind of comment rlly exemplifies to me a disconnect between canon and popular fanon jmart characterization because they almost literally had this conversation in canon - except, their lines are swapped!

jon, for all his scared grouchiness, is a secret romantic, while martin, for all his forced optimism, is at his core a pragmatist

[transcriptasareversa]

[easyaesthetics]

3rd Semeser + The Onion & Reductress Headlines

[syrena-del-mar]

Navigating the Conflict in My Stand In: Surrender and Softening in Love

(Disclaimer: Ming/Joe is an incredibly toxic relationship; I fully realize and acknowledge that, but Poom makes a critical distinction in Joe's reasoning, and I think it's interesting to dissect. Also, this is fiction.)

It's been some time since I've written any meta, but I can't stop thinking about the video @poomphuripan shared of Poom making the distinction that Joe isn't giving in to Ming, but rather, his heart is melting for him.

It makes so much sense that Joe would melt at the littlest semblance of 'love.' He was so alone for so long. His parents have been dead for longer than he had them, he has no siblings, and his extended relatives don't care about him. I forget if it's mentioned in the show, but in the novel, Joe had a pretty big crush on Sol, and Sol rejected him quite brutally. Even without meaning to be, Joe is always alone at the end of the day.

Yes, Joe has friends, and yes, Joe made his own found family. But at the end of the day, Joe would return to an unlit, empty home. Everyone else would return to their wives or families, while Joe could only return to the pictures of his parents. Meanwhile, for all of Ming's bs and frightening behavior, he was the only one that made his dream come true.

For the first time, with Ming around, Joe would come home and be greeted by the warmth of another living, breathing person. Joe craved to have a human bond, and Ming was the one who was willing (albeit for his own interest) to give it to him. And he cooked for him. He took up space in his home! He remembered the very things Joe had told him he longed for. They had a lot of good times, a lot of good memories, and a pretty set routine that really integrated Ming into Joe's life. But then they fight, his blissful reality breaks, and Joe dies.

But Joe wakes up from what feels like a day's nap when, in actuality, two years have passed. And what does he find? Ming has cared for his apartment since his death and is unwilling to change anything just in case Joe returns. Ming continues to fulfill Joe's dream of returning to a warm home. So he turns on the lights, and he cooks the same dinner that they used to share for two years. And even in his rightful anger of wanting Ming to leave him alone, he's still seeing that. In the two years since his disappearance, someone still thought about him and hadn't fully grieved him. Ming's brother only confirms that.

Giving in would mean that Joe wanted to end the fight with Ming, when no feelings had changed. It'd be him emotionally surrendering himself, compromising his feelings of being just a double for Tong, and fully conceding himself when he still thought that Ming only saw him as a replacement. While Joe might have given Ming access to his body to pay his new mom's debts, he was still blocking Ming out as much as he could. But that's not why Joe forgives Ming; it's not for a superficial reason to stop the feud. There's a visible shift in how he perceives Ming, the guy who waited two years for him, who protected and filled his home with warmth, just in case he wasn't really gone. His motivation was rooted in the slivers of positive feelings he had for Ming, which allowed him to move past the anger that he held for him.

A quote that I've seen floating around the internet for years comes to mind. "And when nobody wakes you up in the morning and when nobody waits for you at night and when you do whatever you want. What do you call it? Freedom or loneliness?" Joe has had that freedom for the majority of his whole life. It's no longer freedom for him. But even his found family isn't fully aware of the loneliness that would wash over him when he would return to an empty home.

After all is said and done, he sees that only one person knows him intimately enough to understand and learn even the most mundane of his desires. Ming, even with all the toxic shit he has pulled, stood by his word of not letting Joe return to an empty home. For Joe, that was enough. It changes how he sees and understands Ming.

It's also why Sol and Joe would have never worked out.

As Poom said, ultimately, it's not that he gives in to Ming but rather he lets his heart melt when he sees exactly what Ming has done for him in his absence.

Even after everything, Joe still loves him.

[inkskinned]

absolutely enchanted with the glowing, grinning something that rushes over people at a good concert, a froth of wildling glee. how an audience leaves good theatre all friends suddenly, whispering oh my gosh did you see. how we giggle and hum the songs to each other, untuned karaoke. how after a bad movie our first instinct is to look at the person next to us and start deconstructing everything.

love every moment in an museum where you can whisper it's just so lovely! and hear a stranger say i know, i was just thinking the same thing! the swelling, pink-bright cheer that you get when you're in a car full of people loudly singing the song badly. the unchoregraphed dancing-jumping of your friends around your room at 2:30 in the morning.

how even after a somber symphony - you lock eyes with someone and they give you this little smile and nod like i know, this cut through me too. we go see a musical where the characters all die, and afterwards, in the bathroom, the women hand each other tissues, laughing self-consciously, saying i cried too! we go to see a musical where the characters all live and make fast friends with strangers, everyone stunned because how do they dance in those shoes?

there are ways that art is personal. that is unbelievably lovely. i will never really understand what something means to you, nor can you understand for me.

but it's cold out and i see her breath in the air as she bounces through her favorite lines, half-laughing, magic-tinged and happy.

oh, we are birds in our hearts! so beautiful - we love art so much, that love makes us so-quick into family.

[saradrawing]

a very lupintic summer part 3: juicy business by the sea

[changanomaly]

I HEAR WEDDING BELLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS 🔔🔔💐💐

[eerna]

Winter is such an icon. she exists as a distant concept for 3 whole books, characters mentioning the Lunar princess here and there. the mentions increase in frequency because Jacin joins the crew and he obviously has a whole history with her, and Scarlet goes to Luna so we get to hear her voice a couple of times mostly to annoy Levana ("father would have given her to me" is so perfect). and then 5 minutes before the end of the penultimate book, there she finally is, on page, talking about "the walls are bleeding" and effortlessly tricking everyone around her and you can hear the applause and cheering from the audience bc the star has appeared and is ready to take her place among the leads. an ICON

[ixtaek]

Wind off-hand mentions how Ganondorf kidnapped Tetra and then he had to fight a puppet to get her back, and Twilight has the worst flashback of his hero career to fighting his possessed Princess. Then Wind asks how he dealt with the spider form and Twilight blanks out.

Across the camp Legend casually calls out “I stabbed her in the face.”

[yen-stanning]

(happy) second to last bad batch eve

(i feel so sad thinking about next week, like what do you mean that's the LAST episode... LIKE WHAT DO YOU MEAN 😭😭)

[sportsthoughts]

Day 156 of offseason gifs - In The Room S07E07

[beatricebidelaire]

was thinking about something. lemony and olaf on the subject of carrying a book.

lemony:

(horseradish: bitter truths you can't avoid)

olaf:

(the penultimate peril)

[boxdstars]

the new fifth year 🪄

for @traceyc-uk

i love this funky little dude, tracey’s art is so killer and their comics especially are FIRE — seriously the fandom is so lucky to have you

[lettersforbeatrice]

The Great Gatsby (2013) / A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril (2019)

[astriiformes]

May I present you all with a humble text post meme

[wigglebox]

Suptober [Extended] - Day 30 || Home