#this man deserves all the praise

[usertoxicyaoi]

anyway people on mdl, and even just general bl watchers that dont watch jbls for whatever reason, will always make me feel a little ... bewildered. they will say things like "japan only makes slice of life/food centered/cute/puppy love bls and thats it" (when i can eaaaasily list off so many darker themed jbls but ok ig yall arent looking and when you do, suddenly its ~too dark~? but ok.). they call segasaki and ritsu and kijima "red flags" and okay yeah *hand waves* whatever, they are. and good for them that they are!!! gooood. see? japan doesnt just make fluffy. but yall couldn't even handle them! whilst in the same breath saying that japan doesnt produce more of these kinda characters and more spicier stories (and they do but yall arent loooking!!!) and when they do and when they start showing the sliiiightest bit of obsessive possesive behaviour, they're squirming uncomfortable in their seats!!! people couldn't even stomach shows like taikan yohou. taikan yohou. and thats like. my favourite show of all time and its not even That Bad yall. ohmygod. but oh no! "oh poor yoh!!! whatever will he do now!!!! trapped in segasaki's enclosure!!!! i don't like this power imbalance beteeen them!!!!" when THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT, my friend!!!!! and yoh enjoooooys that and when he doesnt he says it out loud that he doesnt!!!

so! people couldn't even stomach taikan yohou. god knows WHAT they will say about happy of the end and love is like a poison that will be coming out soon! and never mind even going near sei no gekiyaku or koi kogare utae bc if they thought taikan yohou was "~dark~" when it barely even touched the surface! then sei no gekiyaku and koi kogare utae? will have their heads Gone, spiralling, trying desperately to find a light switch and some bleach to erase their memory!!!!

[ddenji]

okay i think this is about to be an unpopular opinion but…. these two are like 2 sides of the same coin to me. beyond the shared public safety allegiance, they both violate denji's autonomy (yoshida stripping him to his underwear, tying him up, and threating his family in chapter 132 vs fumiko assaulting him in the movie theater in chapter 136) and work against his own best interest for the sake of the government. however, while they both take action in trying to force denji to do what they want, fumiko takes a more directly active role in the space of the fanatic who can't see/ doesnt care about the human behind her idol, whereas yoshida takes the more passive role of the government drone who wont act to protect the human if it means going against orders. in previous chapters, fumiko actively runs away from denji, leaving him to fight for himself, while yoshida passively tells denji that he isnt allowed to protect himself, putting him in harms way in his own right (and there is still the underlying threat of violence there if he tries to protect himself). even in the panels from this chapter, we see fumiko being active about her disregard for denji's well being by asking for little pieces of him, where yoshida is more passive in his disregard of the plan to dismember denji with a simple "yeah" answer. i know that they also have their differences, but i just think that they share intentional similarities (that other characters, particularly in the chainsaw man church, also share!!) that overall lead to denji getting hurt.

[cienie-isengardu]

Tomas & Liu Kang

I’m trying to put things into right perspective about Smoke, Liu Kang’s approach to Tomas and how pushed into background he was during story mode so bear with me while I’m connecting dots.

Also, to be clear, I’m not here to morally judge the characters, just to talk about the dissonance between Smoke vs Liu Kang intro dialogues and the story mode.

For one, the pre-fight dialogues imply that Tomas lost his family due to Liu Kang (Keeper of Time)’s choice: 

Smoke: "Did you intend for me to be orphaned?" Liu Kang: "Some threads must be cut to weave time’s fabric." 

and

Smoke: "I'm not sure I can forgive you." Liu Kang: "Being Keeper of Time meant making many hard choices."

When Tomas was orphaned, Kuai Liang & Bi-Han’s father adopted him and made one of Lin Kuei. If the accusation is true, then we can assume Liu Kang wanted Tomas to join Lin Kuei, as he did in the past timeline(s). So, in theory, Smoke for whatever reason was important enough for the Keeper of Time to get involved and steer events to get the wanted result. 

Which raises a question, why did Liu Kang not bother to recruit Tomas into Lin Kuei the same way he recruited Kung Lao, Raiden, Johnny Cage or Kenshi, by like, actually talking to him and taking for training? Or even why not just ask the befriended Grandmaster to take the boy (and Tomas' family) under his wings, which I think the man would do without further question.

Instead, Smoke was orphaned, taken in by Lin Kuei, adopted as son of Grandmaster and trained in magic to equalize his chances in the fight (in contrast, Bi-Han’s ice powers seems to be a natural part of him, related to specific bloodline).

Now, if Tomas was so important, if not in the greater scheme of things, then just for Liu Kang (and Kuai Liang), isn’t it weird, he is so sidelined and omitted by Fire Lord in the story mode?

Again, not judging characters, solely pointing out this choice of storyline, as this is especially visible during collecting the champions for the tournament arc.

In Chapter One, when the test was over and Liu Kang came to Kung Lao and Raiden to explain things, he specifically called only Bi-Han (the current Grandmaster) and Kuai Liang (Bi-Han’s blood-brother)

while Tomas was totally omitted and stayed behind with the rest unnamed Lin Kuei warriors.

Which, visually speaking, is weird, as just before that scene we could see Smoke walking alongside his adoptive brothers (with Bi-Han leading the group, Tomas and Kuai Liang walking a bit behind their leader, but before the unnamed warriors);

In the next chapter, again, only Bi-Han and Kuai Liang assisted Fire Lord in his quest to recruit Johnny Cage and Kenshi. Again, both Lin Kuei were addressed by their birth names, instead of codenames

while there is no information why Tomas was left behind. He likely was entrusted with escorting Kung Lao and Raiden to Shaolin Monks, yet the lack of proper mention emphasizes the pushing into the background.

We didn't learn officially Smoke's status as adopted brother of Kuai Liang and Bi-Han until Sub-Zero's chapter (#8). Unless I miss something, the first person on screen to actually address Smoke by his birth name was surprisingly Bi-Han.

Which makes even weirder the lack of including of Tomas from Liu Kang, as the Fire Lord and Smoke stayed allies through the story mode and intro dialogues (with some resentment on Tomas' side for death of his family) while the relationship between Bi-Han and Tomas was much more complicated to begin with.

We could make an argument that Liu Kang didn't want to antagonize Bi-Han by including adopted Tomas too much, however:

A) Bi-Han has never denied Tomas right to consider himself one of Grandmaster's sons - seen especially in Sub-Zero's speech pattern, as Sub-Zero always says just "Father", the same as Tomas and Kuai Liang, never putting emphasis on "my" as a reminder Smoke is adopted. The real conflict is not about whether Tomas is his and Kuai Liang's brother or not, but about him being a true Lin Kuei. What is also worth to keep in mind, any tension between brothers happened only in privacy (here and during the mission), never around Liu Kang.

(A similar thing can be noticed in intro dialogues. In Smoke vs Sub-Zero, Bi-Han specifically says "Because your blood is not Lin Kuei" however in Liu Kang vs Sub-Zero, when Fire Lord claims brothers (plural version!) miss him, Bi-Han doesn't correct his opponent about Tomas not being one. He instead says "Then they shouldn't have disobeyed my commands.")

B) Liu Kang did not show Bi-Han any special respect, especially not the kind of respect and friendship offered to Sindel and her husband, Jerrod. And yes, Fire Lord mentioned Bi-Han before Kuai Liang, and addressed him during the meeting before the mission (while the Sub-Zero's younger brothers - subordinates - stood together in silence)

but that basically it? Bi-Han didn't seem to be favored in any special way, I don't think he even was addressed as Grandmaster by Fire Lord at any moment in story mode.

Which is why I personally don't see why Liu Kang would omit Tomas solely to not hurt Bi-Han's ego or to not antagonize the man further - especially since Bi-Han himself didn't push the matter in any specific - openly - way nor didn't deny Tomas the right to consider himself one of Grandmaster's sons in the first place.

Frankly, as we don't see how Lin Kuei were informed about the upcoming meeting, we should ask, did Liu Kang call Bi-Han and specifically Smoke and Scorpion for the mission, or was that choice made solely by Sub-Zero? Because Lin Kuei for sure must have much more experienced warriors that Tomas (and Kuai Liang for that matter) but also sending on dangerous mission the Grandmaster AND the second* in line of succession seems impractical from the perspective of clan' inner safety.

*second and third, if Tomas was allowed at all to be the heir. Considering how neither Smoke nor Scorpion even for a moment considered that option and how Sektor & Cyrax would choose Bi-Han's corruption of the clan before accepting Kuai Liang as a new leader, the inner clan politics may not be so simple.

During the Lin Kuei mission (Sub-Zero's Band of Brothers Chapter) and during Bi-Han's betrayal (Scorpion's Civil War Chapter), the three brothers didn't address each other by codenames and as much as the situation allowed, freely interacted with each other.

However once Bi-Han is removed from the story mode, Smoke is even more pushed into the background. When asked, he will answer and make some (one?) observation however he barely interacted with other characters, mainly sticking to his brother. The most important exception is the scene when the heroes were wondering what to do after the big revelation and Tomas on his own talked about Lin Kuei and Bi-Han.

The story mode at that time was focused on other characters (like Mileena & Shang Tsung) so understandably, Lin Kuei brothers were put aside however even then Scorpion played a vital part, as it was Kuai Liang making the plan of attack, when Liu Kang wasn't around, while Tomas for most part was just there.

Again, no moral judging of characters just a mere observation how Tomas interacted the most freely with his brothers while was omitted by Liu Kang - and like, never(?) addressed by him in story mode, either by name or codename, even if the intro dialogues strongly imply Liu Kang was the one pushing Tomas into Lin Kuei in the first place.

Which makes an interesting contrast to Bi-Han & Smoke’s relationship but also shows how without intro dialogues, the relationship between Tomas and Liu Kang seems… non existing? I mean, even at the end of story mode, Liu Kang mentions Bi-Han

and his brother Kuai Liang building a new clan,

yet there is literally no mention of Tomas and his participation in the creation of Shirai Ryu and training its members (something confirmed in Scorpion and Smoke's endings).

Which only add to the weird feeling of alienating Tomas in story mode, not by Bi-Han but Liu Kang of all possible people?

[yujeong]

At the end of the day, this is what's most important to me.

[whitehartlane]

i’m not being funny when i tell people who say sonny’s ‘too soft’ to be captain and that he’s half the player without kane and that other players deserve the captaincy more than him to get the fuck out of my club and the fanbase like honestly fuck off

[sonknuxadow]

people need to be more normal about ian flynn it feels like the only opinions people have about him on here are either "i fucking hate ian flynn hes actively destroying the sonic franchise and i hope he drops dead tomorrow" or "i love ian flynn and im going to worship the ground he walks on and act like hes the only person responsible for recent sonic media being good" with no in between. wheres the rest of the "i think ian flynn is a good writer and hes done good things for the franchise in recent years but i dont agree with every single thing hes ever tried to do with the characters and he is just some guy to me" gang

[ryan-waddell11]

STOP HE’S TOO CUTE

[nthflower]

Everything that is about powder gangers makes me so uncomfortable in a bad way.

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Roxy reacting to her nails getting clipped :(

Whining. She's whining so much. You think she's gonna sit still while people touch her paws and claws? No! Absolutely not! She can't even sit still long enough for someone else to do her hair or makeup most of the time and she LOVES having her hair and fur brushed! She does NOT like her paws being touched!

Well she doesn't care any other time. She's had her paw beans poked by Cassie and Chica a good few times and never bat an eye. As soon as someone is holding clippers though? No touch. Go away. No one can touch her paws ever. No one has ever succeeded in one piece. Not even Cassie! (Lies) No one can touch them ever!

She wriggles around if someone else is holding her and kicks and fusses so fucking much. She will maybe sit still if there are lots of treatos for her, but otherwise it's not happening. She HATES her claws being cut more than her claws being too long. So she says, until her claws are too long again...

With her hand paws, it's generally expected to go much easier than her feet paws and uh... Yeah no that's completely wrong. Roxy is all sad whining, pulling her paws away every two seconds and unlike a regular dog, she has the ability to grab whoever's doing this and forcibly stop them. It often doesn't, so when she gets too agitated and has had enough, she just chomps their arm instead. It always looks really aggressive, but there's no power in the bite. Worst case scenario is it'll feel like she's pinched them or there'll be a little superficial scratch that'll heal in a few days or something. The aggressive show is just to make sure they fucking stop.

Why is she so bad? Well for her hand paws, she loves her claws being long and sharp. Who doesn't want longer, sharper claws? Roxy just wants to be able to cut through metal like butter is that so much to ask?! Her paw pads and claws are also pretty sensitive so it doesn't feel great in terms of sensory stuff either. For her foot paws? They're just more sensitive and after the chew on with her hand paws, she was immediately held down for that and the whole thing just makes her feel super vulnerable. But she can get past all that!

It just also fucking sucks and she hates it! And her paws always feel so weird afterwards and her claws can't cut through ANYTHING right afterwards and she doesn't like it! So don't you dare try and cut her claws! Even if she asked for help with it! Do not! Lmao she's like the "no take. Only throw." meme with her claws sometimes

But also there's another element here. Since this is all presuming she's biological like in Meteors or any other AU like that, there's also the problem of the quick. It's a small blood vessel in the claws of the dog that you have to be very careful about not accidentally cutting when you trim their nails. They bleed a lot when cut, and it probably hurts like a bitch so it's obviously not great to cut those at all.

If anyone cuts the quick on Roxy cause she wouldn't sit still she will never forget it. All the sad and pathetic dog whining is gone now. It's all growls and violence. A yelp is your only warning before she's biting you and means it this time. This is when the light scratches I mentioned start happening, she still doesn't do any real physical damage, but she's giving them the cold shoulder for like a week. Does it hurt a lot? No not really. Feels like she stepped on a Lego or something, she's fine. Just stings a little bit when she walks on it for a few days which sucks and she's gonna let the whole world know about it just you wait lmao it's her new excuse for not doing things and no one's gonna hear the end of it for a few weeks now you mark her words

"But why can't she just do it herself?" Here's the thing. She will never do it herself. Ever. She won't even file the claws down cause that feeling goes straight through her bones. She will put it off forever and ever until the hand is forced, she will NOT do it herself. So they normally get really bad before someone else does it as a last resort.

Thankfully, she doesn't need her claws cutting very often. They wear down on their own with all her running around and clawing at things so it's only if she's been particularly unenergetic that this becomes a problem. Which doesn't really help her get used to it so that's not helping, but hey! She doesn't have to deal with it that often! That's a win, right?

But yeah, trimming Roxy's claws is an exercise in patience, and a test of how many treatos does it take to convince her this is worth it. There's not a snowballs chance in hell they're all getting done at the same time unless she's sick or something and can't fight back very well. She does tell people to stop when she's had enough btw, she just finds she's not listened to unless she non-verbally threatens to snap someone's arm like a twig between her teeth. Works like a charm!

[annatartastic]

when your mind goes 💕💝 ewan 💕💝 mitchell 💕💝 the moment you wake up from your sleep you know you’re down bad. 🫢

[usertoxicyaoi]

“Immortal Ye, you overpraise him. He is just a child. He only did what he should do. You flatter him.” WORD OF HONOR (2021). Episode 17 / Episode 32.

[kanene-yaaay]

Hc anon here, i was horrendously busy these last few days so i didnt get to send more asks But-!!

I absolutely, 100% Love your little additions, especially the 50/50 wreck or get wrecked by Lan Zhan thing, you're so real for that!!

Now I come bearing another idea, shorter this time though cause I didn't have the time to think about it as much (yet!), but AnyWay:

Since it's canon that WWX both absolutely can Not take what he dishes out in terms of teasing, and that he needs to look away and/or hide his face whenever he get's caught off-guard by someone teasing back (and how dare they act so shameless, he's fragile, can't they see he's a poor innocent soul etc etc)

So consider, if you may: Lan Zhan not letting him look away when he's flustered. And i mean full on holding Wei Ying's face in between his hands, intense eye contact (Hanguang-Jun trademark), not reacting to his whines or to the way his eyes flick to the side every two seconds because he can't. deal. with being looked at when he's flustered.

I just think that it'd be adorable if Lan Zhan were to ask him a very mean and rude question, like what Wei Ying would like him to do, since he's draped himself all over his lap and looks to be seeking his attention...

And Wei Ying is just trapped, unable to hide his face and forced to look at his cruel husband who just keeps looking at him with the same calmly amused patience until he somehow manages to convey what he wants without actually saying it outright (because if he had to, i think he'd actually pass out or start crying from how flustered he is, being perceived like that. Poor guy...)

In any case i think Lan "secret menace" Zhan holding Wei Ying's face and not letting him hide until he's a very specific shade of red and incapable of meeting his eyes anymore has a tonnn of potential

(And it's absolutely adorable!)

Oh, and bonus points if Lan Zhan uses the tips of his pinky fingers to trace along the skin just under Wei Ying's jaw and a little ways down his neck - like he isn't being mean enough, not letting his poor, fragile, flustered out of his mind husband hide in his shoulder at that very moment

No needs for apologies! I am happy to know that my hcs delights you just as much as yours delights me! :DD I get being busy so I hope you're taking a few breaks and taking care as well.

Now!! To the new hc that left me!!!! giggling kicking my legs twirling my hair omggg!! That idea of holding his face while barely tickling and teasing him and just watching as Wei Wuxian gets more and more blushy and cute is wonderful!!

I can only imagine!! Wei Wuxian is being the general tease as he normally is, not letting his husband work and poking, whinning, provoking, kissing and drapping himself on his lap to get his attention and then Lan Zhan finally lets his brush go and focus only and solely on Wei Wuxian.

He holds his face and start throwing back a few teases as well, watching delighted when the other start getting flustered and I can totally see Wei Wuxian trying to turn back the tables, flirting and pushing his face closer, hinting about their everyday means everyday but Lan Zhan just keeps looking at him, absolutely endeared and non moving and the fingers holding his face start moving just the slightly bit to make ticklish sparks dance across his nerves and, only when he tries to scrunch his neck and can't do it (rip my bro, the lan arm strenght keeps winning <3), wwx realizes in what predicament he literally walked, danced, complained and happily threw himself into because now his husband's eyes - sparkling with a rare kind of mischief - are focused on him, his reactions and nothing else.

Also! Imagine if he holds with one hand Wei Ying's face against his chest and now, while Wei Wuxian can't still move away, he gets a free hand to, well.... poke some fun as well And of course, since Wei Wuxian isn't seeing where he is going to attack next, the tickles and teasing becomes even more flustering! (Only Lan Zhan could make a simple 'hm' sound so teasy!)

<33 <3 peace and love! Bet Wei Wuxian will be giggling, protesting and complaining all the time about how mean, unfair and un-loving Lan Zhan is while loving the attention all the while (and knowing his revenge will be delightfully flustering to his Lan Zhan as well)

Aaaaaa!! All the scenarios! What a lovely idea, thank you so much for sending me them <3 <3 thinking about these characters being happy is everything to me <3

[leclercsbf]

feeling very emotional about the fact that people are acknowledging carlos’ ability to come up with really good strategies.

[ancient-day]

Every day I long for post-royal spin-offs for the opportunity to allow both Goro and Sumire to actually interact with the others without falsities or time-restricted threats preventing them from having much needed conversations and conflicts. I still wish we had at least gotten a second cafe scene with the Royal Trio where they could talk about how they actually feel about things like change and helping others. To see Goro try and brush it all off and maybe have Sumire call him out on it because his actions wouldn’t match his words, or even Sumire having to reevaluate her own answer since she was no longer under the influence of trying to be Kasumi and what it means if she still agrees with how she felt back then. Also I still love the potential humor with them ordering iced drinks in the winter this time while Akira has his hot beverage and him being able to call them both out for this. Love these funky little weirdos.

[aperfectphantom]

That World Cup final really was wild cause a couple days later and I’ve kinda forgotten the Argentinian players/goals… all I can think about is mbappe and the player that he is. Like wow. That second goal. Him scoring three penalties. It’s insane. So ready for pundits to turn their attention to him and have him praised for decades to come. Honestly tired of white men being talked about. It’s nice to see a black/Arab man get all the attention, break records, and have kids wanting to be like him.

[ryan-waddell11]

SHUT UP I LOVE HIM