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moonpetrichors-blog · 1 year

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What Do The Sully Family Smell Like?

Tags: Headcanons, Sully Family Scents

Warnings: None

Characters: Jake, Neytiri, Kiri, Lo’ak, Neteyam

Signature scents of the Sully family/what I think they’re attributed with.

I thought it’d be kinda fun to write like unique scents they have and while this isn’t an x reader, it’d be kinda funny in a diff setting if idfk reader is like “neteyam do u use strawberry scented shampoo😲” or some shit LMAOAOA

* ˚ ✦ Read below the cut

╭┈─────── ೄྀ࿐ ˊˎ-╰┈➤ ❝ [11/12/22] ❞

Jake Sully

Jake smells like Cinnamon.

For a spicy man, he gets a spicy scent fr

Nah but I feel like Jake smelling like Cinnamon is super comforting

He’s just got that super homely dad vibe

Cinnamon is spicy, sweet, and warm yet enticing all in one, which I feel like perfectly portrays Jake

Also, how cute would it be when his children snuggle up with him and get instantly calmed by his scent?? 😭😭

Like if Tuk can’t fall asleep it’s guaranteed she will if you put her in Jake’s arms OFHWFEGWEIJ

This is also biased because I love cinnamon. Fav scent for my fav sully 🙏

… … … … … . . ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ,, ⌲˘͈ᵕ˘͈

Neytiri

Neytiri has an old earthy scent.

And I don’t mean like dirt, I mean the way flowers and aged trees smell.

She looks and smells like what you would expect of a Na’vi from the forest.

Similarly to her mate, Neytiri has a woody scent to her.

But ‘old earthy’ can encompass a lot of things.

Neytiri smells like the definition of what it means to be Omaticaya; grass, herbs, running water, a crisp breeze, you name it.

I like to think that wherever home is it’s with her, because she quite literally carries a part of it with her.

Her scent is also super comforting to the family.

Whenever the kids are missing the Omaticaya, cuddling with Neytiri is a way for them to relieve their homesickness.

As for Jake, Neytiri is simply a reminder of all the things he fell in love with when coming to Pandora.

Like the earthly scent she has to her, she really grounds everyone.

… … … … … . . ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ,, ⌲˘͈ᵕ˘͈

Kiri

Kiri is deffo a sage girl 🤭

Like her scent, she’s strong and leaves an impression.

It’s herbaceous and woodsy like her parents, yet bitter.

Yknow, for her sass LMAO

Okay maybe I’m just giving everyone tree smells but like u can’t blame me 💀

I feel like Sage also really suits Kiri because you definitely often see it in the spiritual community

Kiri knows what herbs are good for healing, is deeply spiritual, and is strongly connected to Eywa

So I feel like it’s no brainer that Kiri would smell like sage, a scent that’s associated with spirituality, yk?

… … … … … . . ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ,, ⌲˘͈ᵕ˘͈

Lo’ak

OOO HE’S A SANDALWOOD AND VANILLA BOY

A deep, woody scent like the rest of his family

But it’s also floral and balsamic, yknow?

Lo’ak’s vibe definitely matches his scent since it’s sweet and soft like him, but is also alluring and charming.

He’s a copy paste of his father so of course he smells pretty homely and comforting too

He has a very warm and saccharine scent to him, but the sandalwood is a deep contrast to show how his personality can also take on a wild form.

(I also just love vanilla)

… … … … … . . ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ,, ⌲˘͈ᵕ˘͈

Neteyam

Neteyam exudes a scent of pine trees.

If Lo’ak’s scent has a vibe to it that’s a copy paste of his father, then Neteyam is a copy paste of his mother.

Literally just smells like home.

We all know that Neteyam is good with kids since he has siblings, and Tuk is the youngest.

If Neytiri’s not available to comfort her children after their relocation, you know Neteyam’s scent is the next best thing that soothes them.

He smells sharp, sweet, and refreshing, which I think is fairly accurate to Neteyam’s character.

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ofoceansandtombsanew · 28 days

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saw your yuki/kyo dissection and i was curious to know what's the other ship you think was an obvious possible option?

... after consulting @cafedanslanuit , Imma say it. For the plot. And Imma write my essay explaining my case. But y'all... don't get mad at me for being right. Strap in, this is gonna be a long one lmao.

But before I actually say it, we need to talk about Akito and Tohru and how they parallel one another.

Because these two are the same character at the opposite ends of the spectrum and 2/3 of the key aspects of Fruits Basket that make the show work. Without them, there's no Fruits Basket.

Both of them are quite literally the same character.

Masculine naming convention? Check.

Abandonment issues? Check.

A favored parent and a parent they have negative feelings towards? Check.

Especially since their respective relationships with their parents led to those abandonment issues and how they interact with the world. Akira was to Akito what Kyoko was Tohru. Ren's unnatural hatred of Akito, viewing her as a threat for Akira's attention, Akira's death and Kureno's curse suddenly breaking for no rhyme or reason led to Akito becoming the person she became.

Katsuya's death caused Kyoko to fall into a depression so deep she neglected Tohru for an indeterminable amount of time. Very nearly left Tohru to herself before coming her senses and becoming the best mom in the world that we the audience know her as. But that period of Tohru's life was very forming for who she became.

Kyoko came back after coming to her senses, we know this. But to Tohru, her mother suddenly embracing her for the first time in likely weeks, was the result of Tohru mimicking her dad's speech. A formal way of speaking that became so engrained into her daily habits, it's completely inseparable from her now.

Akito and Tohru's respective experiences ultimately lead them to the same core aspect of their character: Loneliness.

Both of them are terribly afraid of being alone, they just keep people in their lives in very different way.

Akito relied on fear, Tohru used kindness.

Akito used violence, Tohru used compassion.

Akito's go-to was embracing her father's words that she was a special child born to be loved. As such, she could do anything she wanted to the other members of the zodiac without facing any repercussions.

Tohru's go-to was her belief that her not prioritizing her mother over rest is inherently connected to her mother's death. That she should have prioritized her mother over everything. That her mother had to be her number one even in death. Thus, she became afraid of loving anything or anyone more than her mother. And yet, she still didn't want to lose anyone else in her life.

Tohru's kindness is genuine but there is a benefit she gains from it similarly yet juxtaposed to Akito's abuse.

That's why the two of them are able to come to an understanding with one another by the end of the story. Why Tohru was able to set everything else aside to start from zero because she understands that fear of being alone all too well.

They are both a mirror into what the other person could have been like if their circumstances were different. Tohru could have been that bitter, hate-filled woman, while Akito could have just as easily been the sweetest woman in the world.

Akito is Tohru

and Tohru is Akito.

All this buildup is to say that...

I think the only other obvious choice for Tohru was Shigure.

Yes, Shigure.

Y'all heard me right.

The final piece to what makes Furuba work, the one who instigated the plot in the first place.

And I'm sorry if y'all get mad at me for saying that, but I really don't think this is an incorrect assessment. I'll die on the hill that it was an obvious what if.

There's superficial things one can have fun mentioning in regards to these two ー

Across all adaptations of Furuba, Shigure is the first Sohma we are introduced to

Shigure's cursed year is the Dog, Tohru's birth year is the Dog

But the biggest thing for me is in how Tohru is an intrinsic part of something Shigure lacks as a person, that being empathy.

To make myself clear, I'm not saying Shigure is completely void of empathy. Because we can see him expressing it to the people he cares for in the story. (Ex. Wanting to go on a vacation during Golden Week so Hatori can avoid his ex's wedding.)

But for Shigure, empathy isn't something that comes easy for him. As he words it, his kindness isn't as good as the real thing someone like Hatori has. Shigure considers his kindness a hastily manufactured afterthought.

He's someone perfectly content using someone if he gets something out of it. And if he sees someone hesitating to reach for something they want, he'd rather just provoke them into action than attempt to warmly encourage them or understand where they're coming from. Because he doesn't see a point in hesitating at all and frankly, he knows comforting people like that doesn't come easy to him. So he normally opts not to.

As such, he's fascinated by the levels of empathy and kindness Tohru has. Tohru's kindness sometimes even makes him feel guilty and Shigure isn't someone who often feels guilt in the first place.

Contrast to him, Tohru is so pure that Shigure can't help acknowledging how twisted he is. In season 1/the manga's first arc, he even tells Hatori that because of that forced realization he gets every time he looks at her he thinks Tohru is too pure for him.

Compare to that to our final arc of the manga/season ー where it all eventually escalates to Shigure's quiet contemplationthat maybe he should have dreamed of Tohru.

That it's most likely that Akito wasn't the right one to dream of.

That someone as twisted as him needs someone like Tohru to balance it. To be that beacon that can lead him into being a 'normal' person.

He genuinely thinks about it in that moment as he playfully tells Tohru 「もしもの、お話し」 which is more accurately translated as "It's a what-if story".

Had Shigure dreamed of Tohru all those years ago, what would have been different?

...

But Tohru isn't who he dreamed of and this is the bed Shigure has decided to make for himself. One he has kept on the path of for years. So he lets himself think about the what ifs for a moment before ultimately deciding to keep lying in the bed he's made in hopes of the day Akito finally comes around.

But it's in Shigure's mind, and now the audience's mind, that more than likely it should have been Tohru. Tohru and what she represents is who he should have dreamed of.

You can see signs that a relationship with Tohru is something Shigure's considered even vaguely in the series even before that point though.

Sure it's passed as a joke, but when you look back at the scene with the "what if story" goggles, you can't help wondering "was it really though?"

Hell, Shigure desiring Tohru is something that even Akito feared.

She was enraged at the thought very thought of it during the Summer Vacation arc. It's what set Akito off enough to tell Tohru that she is the God of the zodiacs and they all belong to her, Shigure in particular.

Akito was already even in an agitated state before she asked Shigure if he felt anything even partially romantic towards Tohru. Why? Because she's displeased that Shigure isn't kind to her the way he used to be. That he used to only look at Akito but now he doesn't. She wants him to be kind to her again, like he was before.

And Shigure is exceptionally kind to Tohru.

Like he is very careful and considerate when he comes to Tohru which he even confesses to Mayu at one point when she tells him that he should treat her carefully. He tells her 「これでも僕にしてはめずらしいくらい大切にしてると思うんだけどね」 which can, more accurately be given a rough translation of "I think it's unusual for me, but I'm taking good care of her" or even "I think it's unusual for me to value someone this much".

And if you look back on the series, that isn't cap.

Excluding characters like Kisa, Hiro and Momiji (who isn't the same age as the other two but acts youthful enough it is easy to forget), Tohru is the only character Shigure doesn't really treat the way he does everyone else.

Shigure has no problem poking and prodding at people, even in moments where they're very clearly in emotional turmoil when he says them.

Asking Yuki what Akito told him during the Summer Vacation arc.

Telling Kyo that he is using hating Yuki as a shield for what he doesn't want to think about.

(... Telling Akito "bitch I wouldn't have cheated on you if you didn't cheat on me first" lmaooo.)

Even if at the end of the day, it is coming from his own way of caring (trying to get people to act and move forward), that doesn't change the fact Shigure can be a complete asshole. One that will say some very hurtful things to people.

And he's done it multiple times to the same people over and over again. Measuring what's the right amount of what to say to avoid or invoke a specific reaction that he does or doesn't want. Sometimes it's played for laughs, other times it is to rile someone up so badly they cannot contain their aggravation.

So it really isn't cap when he tells Mayu he does, in reality, treat Tohru very gently. For all that Shigure is capable of doing, he treats Tohru with more care than he normally gives to people. Especially considering he has no real reason to since she was a stranger to him until recently.

It takes Shigure until the final arc to do anything of his usual nature to Tohru. And when he does, he asks her if she's mad at him afterwards. It doesn't sound like much until you realize he's never done anything of that sort for any other character in the series.

Yuki. Kyo. Akito.

He'll back off. He might sigh and state it's pointless to continue a debate when he and the other person are going back and forth in circles. But he never asks to see how that other person feels because he doesn't care. Hell, he can tell if that other person is upset with him or done with his shenanigans.

And yet with Tohru, he feels compelled to ask for the first time ever.

And, of course, I can't talk about all this stuff and not mention Shigure's calm fury when Tohru fell from the cliffside. He stayed quiet for damn near 20 seconds as he processed that Akito told him that Tohru fell and we don't see his face the entire time he's processing. Then once he finally pulls himself together, he couldn't even let Akito finish her sentence when he asked if Tohru's 'fall' was a push.

We never truly get to see in Furuba, something that could set Shigure off.

But I think in that moment we get a glimpse of it. A glimpse that shows just how strongly he feels for Tohru. Because it begs the question, if Akito had pushed Tohru off that cliff, what would Shigure have done? How would he have reacted? I don't think even Shigure knew how he would have reacted.

I'm honestly morbidly curious.

That's all to say, that, "what if" story was with Shigure. Not Momiji, not Yuki. It was Shigure.

'If you didn't end up with A, you definitely would have ended up with B'. If we narrowed this down to Yuki and Tohru specifically, there's only two other characters that come close to that. If it wasn't Machi for Yuki and Kyo for Tohru ー YuKyo and ShiTohru would have been at the finish line.

If Shigure had dreamed of Tohru... or hell, what if he had dreamt of Akito but decided that that dream alone wasn't enough to keep the canine sense of loyalty he was cursed with?

There definitely would have been more than just proposals played for laughs and musings of that 'what could have been's.

Well anyway if you're curious to see my take on what it could have been like if Shigure dreamed of Tohru (complete w/ YuKyo and onesided AkiGure) do I have the story for you because I'm writing it on AO3. Read and give me comments to validate my delusions wwwwwwwwwww

#look she's answering #anon #fruits basket #furuba #lmao i was wheezing this because some of y'all might get mad at me for saying it #but at the same time i'm totally right not sorry #fruba #akigure #shitohru #shigure x tohru #kyoru #ish i kinda mention them here #animanga thoughts

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phoenixyfriend · 1 year

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Time to analyze my interpretation and writing of a character that's controversial across fandom for her culturally insensitive/questionable treatment by canon.

Does my writing of Barriss fall in to that questionable territory?

I have a preference for cynical characters struggling with the intersection of their ideals and the difficult grey spaces of their lives, when there are no good choices and they have to struggle against those parts of themselves that are trying to react to pain with selfish self-preservation and lashing out and trying to make sense of the darker parts of the world as it presses in on them. This is evident in my writing of characters like Anakin, Ventress, Jango, post-66 Obi-Wan, post-66 Ahsoka, Bo-Katan... this is a pattern!

Within the context of my other writing, post-fall/recovering Barriss is not an anomaly. Bitter-but-trying, slightly bitchy, cynical Barriss who is struggling with the knowledge that she can never be that sweet, innocent girl she used to be... that falls into my brand. Within the context of me, she makes sense, and if we looked at her solely in the context of my own writing, where I frequently contrast her to similarly-coded Luminara and thus have that deliberate focus on "there are other characters of other backgrounds who Fall, and there are other character that are Muslim-coded that don't Fall," I generally don't feel conflicted about focusing on Barriss who struggles with her faith, her role, and even her mental stability.

But within the context of canon, where one of very few Muslim-coded characters was painted as a terrorist who bombed a religious building in the middle of a densely populated city, where canon authors have been heavily criticized for their commentary on what's Best for her post-66... that, I'm not so sure about. Writing Barriss as I enjoy her in that context is a bit more complicated.

#barriss offee #star wars #the clone wars #phoenix babbles

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rocketturtle4 · 9 months

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Eclipse in progress part 2

Okay so I've only seen two more episodes and I kind of had in my head I'd watch till the end of 8 before writing anymore because I have the time but episode 7 just one two suckerpunched my feelings so I need to go regulate.

For the record while I'm a sucker for crying I get WAY MORE OVERWHELMED when things are bitter sweet and this episode is whoooooooaaaaaa

@wen-kexing-apologist @plantsarepeopletoo @grapejuicegay also @thegalwhorants I'm basically gonna @ you cause you interacted with my eclipse stuff, let me know if you'd rather I didn't

So some thoughts

I had forgotten about Namo he could also have stolen the diary and I think logistically this makes mroe sense because he is in a different year level so not expected to be in class BUT where did he get the key? Whereas Thua being class president potentially gives him key acces idk and I still feel like there's more layers

We still really haven't gotten background on anyone which is why I wasn't going to post yet so my theories havent changed much except

TURNS OUT AKK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CAR

Did both Ayan and his uncle have a necklace? I'm really unsure about whether or not Ayan legit saw his suicide or has just vividally imagined it but n the dreams they're both wearing it whereas I had previously assumed Ayan was wearing his uncles necklace.

Namo also seems to genuinely believe in the curse so where did this rumour come from, I don't feel like it's NEW, did Akk hear it and just capitalise on it? or has someone else being doing this in the past? Is it passed down from the head prefect

also Khan and Wat are prefects were they indoctrinatinated by candelight??

1984 stuff was WAY LESS SUBTLE than I was expecting when Akk first found that book

Ayan convincing Akk he needs to 'tell the truth' and Akk being woried about his family and his reputation is obviously legit but also feels like a coming out metaphor ngl

Khan thinking Ayan is playing with Akk and Thua but gently confronting it rather than getting jealous made me appreciate him even more

ALSO THE POWER DYNAMICS in the framing of Ayan and Neo’s convo on the stairs, Neo is SO MUCH HIGHER and yet from the loew position Ayan managed to be confident and understanding.

IM SORRY ARE THESE CHILDREN EXPECTED TO WEAR THEIR BLAZERS REGARDLESS OF TEMPERATURE????

The three prefects convo was interesting when you consider the queer metaphor of the fact that Wat (so far) ISNT queer and is the one most openly empathetic to the protests, because he doesn't have the same personal stake as our gay boys

I want to know what wanna-be-prefect Nom and Aye think of the three prefects clearly non-prefect behaviour.

FUCK Firsts Goofy Smile is nearly as good as his doe eyes

Akk is way to relatable help me

god they're so proud this is gonna hurt

As a person who silently cries VERY SIMILARLY to Ayan (and just Khao in general because he cried like this on TC as well) I feel VERY SEEN by the way his tears just fall

HOW CAN I BE RELATING TO BOTH CHARACTERS HERE

I spent way to long examining the order of the boys and realising that Aye and Namo had swapped places

and that arguably you're more vulnerable when you're sleeping

THis ENTIRE SCENE

the interchanging eye opening

they both think each other was asleep

he's never really sleeping is one of my FAVOURITE tropes for forwarding a relationship and they doube whammied it but this one was CRAZY BECAUSE ITS NOT GOING TO FORWARD IT

Khan looked SO HAPPY TO HAVE KISSED HIM WAAAAAAAAH

DOUBLE WHAMMY

I have taken way to many screenshots and I can't believe episode 6 was a dream kiss and then episode 7 left us hanging but I'm still stopping for a bit. Have a few more moments that punched me in the gut

bye for now.

#The Eclipse #MY EMOTIONS #rturts is wondering #roc reacts to the eclipse #the eclipse the series

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prpfs · 3 months

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🌵21+, he / they, CST (GMT-6)🌵

Hello!! I’m looking to get my hands on some OC x OC rps. My poor muses are collecting dust on a theoretical shelf, and I lowkey just need to toss them into some messy and seriously feelings-heavy threads.

Who I have to offer:

• Former rodeo star who was once the life of the party turned gruff rancher.

• Workaholic of a bitter lawyer with commitment issues.

• Reserved but gentle novelist who comes complete with a Tragic™️ past… and a werewolf AU for all of the monsterfuckers out there.

I’ve got brainworms to spare! M x A, I’ll gladly write against any gender with zero preference. I’m very trans/NB-friendly. Also please note that all of my muses are a bit older (youngest is in his late 30s) and while I’m wholeheartedly down for age gap plots, I want to give similarly-aged characters some love too.

From achingly painful slowburns to exes who can’t shake each other to relationships that are hanging on by the thinnest of threads - I have thoughts, and I want to hear yours too. And of course, I’m open to problematic themes / elements.

You know the drill: leave a like if you’re interested, and I’ll come to you!

like if you're interested and op will reach out

#oc rp #oc roleplay #original rp #fandomless rp #fandomless roleplay #dead dove

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dudesrock · 10 months

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my opinion on jane and jake's arcs is one i figure a lot of people would disagree with and i'm okay with that. here's what goes through my head when i think about them

1. after homestuck, hussie came out as trans

2. psycholonials has a lot of gender examination in it - with no opinion on the merit of that examination, it shows that gender+conformity are things hussie tends to explore through characters. dirk and roxy also tend to foist gender roles on their friends, while j+j ARE genderweird but totally avoid talking about it. mysterious

3. hussie watched jade get a lot of shit for being useless, and then instantly pivot into getting a lot of shit for being a mary sue. their author commentary has some serious bitterness in it about that, and i believe that they felt stifled from telling a lot of the stories they wanted to with her because people would hate her even more if she was allowed to keep being cool and happy (and what we got, to be fair, made people love jade and hate hussie, so mission success?)

4. homestuck gets so much shit for being too wordy, and besides hussie being clearly tired of writing in act 6, towards the latter half of it there are a lot of character moments that AREN'T spelled out in immense depth (i.e. jade being caught again in the same loneliness of her childhood and justifying it the same way, before davepeta tells her she deserves to just be happy; rose finally learning that the right to happiness doesn't come from earning it) with some faith in the readers to catch subtlety at the few points in time homestuck bothers being subtle. people catch these things and say "more time should have been spent on it," but should it? or are you just used to earlier homestuck's lack of brevity?

5. similarly, a lot of character arcs mirror one another, and hussie doesn't tend to tell the same story twice, so anything that had just been shown with tavros wouldn't immediately be shown again with jake. that's not a matter of honor to the characters, it's honor to the readers. readers that, again, very reasonably, hussie does not trust.

so i ultimately end up reading jane and jake less as characters on their own, necessarily, and more as unrealized transgender woes on the part of the author. the catharsis in their stories (imo) would have been better written by an author who had made more peace with themselves and had more courage to say what they were thinking and feeling. as a narrative tool, jake loses his purpose, because everything hussie might have said kinda gets said with tavros and john. and the passion at the cores of their characters seems somewhat strangled, so they end up feeling like a flop when they might otherwise not have.

i guess a lot of that sentiment, for me, comes from being a fate fan and seeing the progression over the years of how nasu writes trans characters. mordred and astolfo (while beloved) are almost incomparable to characters like caenis. and the existence of caenis lends a lot of retroactive warmth to understanding mordred and astolfo, because it becomes obvious the author really did have something good to say, and lacked a good way of saying it at the time.

so if jane and jake were real people i would agree they were slighted. but because they are not real, and exist as a method of information conveyance, i do see them as "failed," but i don't think that hussie failed the readers with them so much as having failed themselves. and, as we know, hussie is being a lot more open, so the "failure" is one being continually addressed. therefore i have no complaints questions or criticisms about these early trans characters. send post!

#people complain we have no trans characters in homestuck and i agree and they're totally right #but even though we don't. imo we kiiiinda do. not canon confirmed in universe by any means. zero of those #but tons that are obviously written by someone thinking hard about gender. so. to me it counts.#a trans person can write weird cis characters and get credit. imo.#mine

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azusamifuyu · 2 years

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Dare I start with the obvious option for the character bingo and say Mifuyu?

I feel like I could write an essay about my reading of Mifuyu. She very much suffers from some heavy comphet in my eyes. I actually read an essay today about the differences in LGBT issues in Japan vs the West stem from Japan's more collectivist society, which leads to negative options towards LGBT people in Japan to stem more from a perception that they are failing the "group" (you may have heard the phrase, "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down; similarly, the word 違う means both different and wrong) as opposed to it being a personal moral failing like it so often is framed as in the west.

I think this can very much apply to Mifuyu. As the heiress to a very traditional family, she is expected to marry a man in order to expand her family's status as well as bear more children. Her inability to be happy in doing this leads to her feeling as though she is irresponsible, which in part may be why she takes so much initiative in the Wings of the Magius - she has to step up to the plate to protect her lot and keep them on the straight and narrow. It's probably why she continued to stay with them for so long even after they started going off the deep end. Obviously there's other factors at play, such as a legitimate desire to make things better for Magical Girls, especially so that her and Yachiyo can live like "normal" (read: straight) girls. That's just my reading, though.

A lot of fans paint her to be a lot less nuanced though. I've seen a lot of takes where she's just the bitter ex who is abusing/tormenting Yachiyo as if Yachiyo didn't have her problems that lead to their mutual breakup either.

#magia record #mifuyu azusa #hope you enjoyed this mini essay lol

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silvysartfulness · 1 year

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Obviously sxx for the ship ask game though I suspect you got another asks about them already bc, well, *gestures vaguely* they are the ship (as they deserve to be). Maybe specifically the songxue side of it..?👀

Do I ship it?

Yeah, I guess you could say so.

What made you ship it?

I mean, I watched the Yi City arc and there it was? The XueXiao side of it had me ugly-snot-crying like a baby and I drew my first piece of fanart a few days later. And then, like, another week later I was like "Actually, you know what, adding Song Lan back into this mess makes it even better" and yeah.

That was 300k and lots of art ago. 🥲

What I like about the songxue angle of the ship specifically is the hurt, the mutual hate and blame for their shared loss, and how all those complicated feelings translate to a deeply unwanted understanding. In a world that forgot and moved on without the Bright Moon and Gentle Breeze long ago, who else will understand the tragedy, the unbearable the grief of his death? Song Lan and Xue Yang are bound together from their very first meeting - as enemies who ruined each others' lives, as master and slave, as broken companions in a deserted ghost city for endless long lonely years - and that bond is cause for both bitterness and an odd unspoken comfort. Whatever else the other is... he's there.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

The yummy emotions of all that trauma, and how their different personalities will both contrast and reflect each other! At their worst, they can hurt each other like no other by stabbing right at the very most vulnerable spots. At their best, they can bring unexpected qualities out in each other; Song Lan's steadiness offering Xue Yang a sense of stability and security he'd never ever admit to wanting but yearns for all the same, Xiao Xingchen tempering Song Lan's black and white and rather judgmental nature with mercy. Xue Yang's irreverence and humour bringing out something more relaxed and, dare I say it, fun in Song Lan that he wasn't even aware he'd been missing, and allowing Xiao Xingchen the selfishness of simply being human, loved for simply being human. And Xiao Xingchen offering the other two a bright light, his love and his stubborn belief that maybe the world could be something better - even if they have to build that world themselves, no matter the blood, sweat and tears it will take.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I have realized the SXX fandom is divided into groups with some very different takes on the characters (mentally I refer to them as the twitter crowd and the tumblr crowd) and I personally just don't vibe a whole lot with the former..?

In some cliques, there's a great fondness for mean dom Xiao Xingchen, or just Xiao Xingchen as a diva/sadist in general, and I just... really don't vibe with that take on his character. I'm glad others are having fun with the stuff they write and draw! It's just very much not for me. So I presume those fans would feel similarly about my interpretations of the characters. Don't know how much of an unpopular opinion that is, but there's certainly a difference of opinion, so I'm happy for those people to do their stuff over there, and I'll just sit over here and smoosh the blorbos together my preferred way, and we can all be happy out of each others' way. ♥

If you take a step back and look at the MDZS/Untamed fandom in general, I guess the unpopular opinion would be the Problematic shipping of these characters in the first place. The problematic, messy elements of it of course being exactly what makes it good. 😊

Thank you so much for the ask! ♥

#asksilvy #shipping ask meme

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legionofpotatoes · 1 year

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Thoughts on black panther 2 under the cut

The movie is an open wound for better and worse. It's a beautiful, raw lament on grief that hits like a brick and operates with deft grace when it comes to that fickle diegesis of what happened IRL vs what the characters struggle with in context of the story. The bookends, especially, work very-very hard to shed the trappings of genre and get to the very heart of grief, of finding a way through it and into a form of catharsis both bitter and liberating. Coogler's direction and choices are incredible in these moments; he's reaching impossibly deep into parts of us that are vulnerable and tender, ready to trigger and unbalance at a moment's notice, frightened at being touched; yet he cradles them gently, guiding us through his pain with grace and comfort, never letting us down with even a single false note or misstep. In these moments, the promise of cinema feels fulfilled.

It becomes clear that Coogler is a master at reinterpreting his own humanity into a filmic experience without losing a single thing in the transition. The type of storyteller entire nations should cherish.

In-between those bookends though, we have the story proper. We see the depths of unprocessed trauma driving people and nations apart. The narrative ping-pongs between some plots that share in this ethos and others that do not, ending up in a wonky edit that still works in the moment despite itself. The story, however, in its attempts to weave grief into a meaningful plot catalyst, ends up in such murky waters that my face heats up remembering it. It's something of a peeve of mine at this point, and I really hoped not to see it here.

But first, some of the good: it undoubtedly tells a story that gets very dark very fast, and editorial rewrites are welcome additions; riri williams and the hydra lady are clear additions to balance out the tone of the primary conflict with some MCU charm, a move that seems regrettable on paper but ends up something of a saving grace for the fucking runtime (there is a version of this story you can competently tell in less than 2:40 hrs, I'd stake my life on it). And they mostly work! Riri is a delight, Okoye gets an incredible range of emotions to play with, M'Baku rules as expected, and the US stuff is negligible. And as difficult as it was to watch miss Anti-Vaxx Supreme wear the black panther suit and talk about science, her acting chops were annoyingly above reproach. And truth told the dramatic weight of the filmmaking overpowered my real-world biases more times than I expected, so that's something I guess.

The presentation is similarly stunning. The DP finds incredibly visceral ways into intimate moments that are impossible to look away from. The music soars, quietly elevating but never taking control of the rhythm, something that's often a death knell for drama but not in Coogler's capable hands. They introduce new sounds and instruments to the palette, creating a trance of leitmotifs that inspire awe and reverence. The set design, the props, the costumes. My god the costumes are a feast to drink in and appreciate. I would selfishly hope for the camera to linger on them just a few seconds more. The audio-visual artistry is firing on all cylinders.

Which is why what irked me the most falls squarely outside of them and smack-dab on the story department.

Namor and Talocan are, once again, triumphs of character and set design, but his story is yet another in a long line of ugly decisions by the MCU to portray anti-colonialist sentiment as almost inherently genocidal. They're just all murderous autocrats, these pesky indigenous folk whose feelings got hurt that one time. And I know this isn't like, super evident in the noise of the film's plotting, but looking back in hindsight it does drive me up the wall. Knowing that they pulled that shit again.

Let me defend myself a bit here. I get the writing instincts, I'm not stupid. It's a baseline flaw in Namor that needs to be foiled and tempered by Shuri so his own unprocessed grief can end the death march he has set his nation on. It's a starting point, of course it is, I'm not about to launch into the semiotics of behavior modeling in media, down that road lies madness. But like, I'm sorry; the optics of heightening the stakes due to his childhood trauma are still weird as hell when seen in all of their loaded context, in the entire breadth of their start and end points. There are ways of ferreting a gentler conflict of character out of that predicament. Why flip him into evil tyrant mode again? Why do that. Who benefits from doing that. Whose feelings are being carefully protected when doing that. The moment they arrived at his ultimatum I visibly winced in my seat. Again. They did this again.

Why go for this centrist parable when you've done it once already? And pulled off a minor miracle in not making it overtly gross? Why tempt fate twice? I'm not gonna spell it out, but it is evident that the true nuance of these narratives remains a real tough sell for the mouse house.

It sucks even worse here because there really are those ample grounds for personal, character-centric conflict to drive the plot, but instead we see hints of it until suddenly we get killmonger 2.0 with even less thematic clarity and direct engagement with the protagonist's flaws. Another progressive ruler *incidentally* obsessed with mass murder, going against a girl refusing to process her grief and meeting his violence halfway. And sure, yeah, their individual traumas are expositioned multiple times, they exchange philosophies, arrive at the root of their conflict, yada-yada... and then they punch about it. Nothing is learned, nothing is gained, one of them eventually strong-arms the other long enough for them to have unmotivated flashbacks, and then some both-sides bullshit argument gets made and everyone kisses and makes up.

Licking the boot of the status quo while wearing the aesthetics of African brilliance and Mesoamerican perseverance. I don't know, man. Maybe I'm out of line but it genuinely sucks. And I understand what the greater, out-of-text meanings of seeing this alliance be forged on screen can be, I don't deny that incredibly valid read. It's just how we get there, and with what. The optics. It's the progressive tyrant, again. Can we fucking not anymore.

We all know what you are saying with this.

(a tiny side complaint irt to this whole issue is an unfortunate failure to show-not-tell Talocan's allegedly unbeatable military might - their water superiority is not in doubt, but betrays unremarkable adaptability to their opponents. killmonger articulated specific plans to smuggle undetectable vibranium tech to saboteur cells around the world before inciting his hostile takeover. No such plan is clearly stated by Namor, no scalable ground-level threat is demonstrated, and it ends up feeling like his crusade is doomed both in ethos and feasibility - further diminishing his image by tacitly portraying him as incompetent and incapable of tactical foresight. this is a nitpick, but can compound the flaw in some cases)

Ultimately what is most regrettable here is that the rest of the movie fucking rules. Truly. The film oozes love and reverence for Boseman and it bleeds into every nook and cranny of camera language and musical cue. It looks and sounds gorgeous. The levity is partitioned out of its essential moments where sadness is present and needed; and Coogler is hurting bad in the driver's seat, it is as palpable as anything happening to the characters, so where he then arrives at the end feels like a true multi-faceted catharsis bringing a smile to anyone with a heart.

It's an open wound. And we all know what it's like to have one of those.

Just wish it showed better craft at placing that wound within the tale of a nation.

#it's a mixed bag for me fellas sorry but i can't deal with That Trope anymore #i guess there's spoilers here? discussing story optics mostly #I'm sorry if this feels scathing I mostly focus on that one thing that annoys me. there's a lot to love here #and I cannot stress that enough. even moreso than BP1 this feels like a purposeful film #probably good for kids to see more than anything so there's that top mark for it

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reallyprofoundkryptonite · 2 years

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Things I don't think I should really have to say about Krogan:

This man is 100% NOT STRAIGHT. He's either gay or asexual. Probably both.

Krogan would never, ever settle down with a woman (See number one).

He would never have children. He doesn't like kids. He doesn't like babies. Babies are Overstimulating and Loud and you cannot tell a baby nor a toddler to Quiet down because he has a headache

Krogan doesn't mind other people's kids, however. As long as they are above the age of like 4-5 (if they are well behaved and not screaming raging brat monsters, of course) and if not, maybe 12-13. Otherwise, keep them away from him. Krogan can handle a nasty 10 year old any day because he knows if they know what's good for them they won't bother him unless they want the shit scared out of them

Krogan is only cruel out of influence. He is not evil just to be evil. He is not a monster because he wants to be. He is not evil, he is a victim, and he is bitter towards other people because all other people have ever done to him is be cruel to him.

Krogan is a slave. Krogan is not with Drago willingly. He did not waltz off to go with Drago because he wanted to.

Krogan is a deeply traumatized individual. He likes to see other people in pain because it helps with his own trauma and is an inherently bad coping mechanisim- it is also a grateful way of thinking that at least it wasn't him that was being tortured.

Krogan is autistic. Source: I'm autistic and I see some of the traits of my own autisim in Krogan's character.

Krogan has stockholm syndrome. He has not left Drago because he is terrified of Drago, and the outside world. Drago is his abuser. Drago is also his only home, and Krogan does not think he has anywhere else to go. It has been drilled into his head that he doesn't have anywhere else to go, and that he will never be accepted by anyone else.

Krogan deals with chronic pain. I've watched certain parts of the show enough (ie wings of war;) and have noticed on some occasions that Krogan is limping. It's either chronic pain, or he was just beaten for some sort of failure on his end.

Drago is a very large fan of cruel punishments. Krogan does not just have a brand that marks him as Drago's property. He has many other scars from Drago's mistreatment .

Krogan is lucky to be allowed to grow a beard and hair. Slaves were typically completely shaven or had very short hair. Krogan is also not allowed to have hair that is very long or it all gets shorn off and he has to wait for it to regrow so he can continue trimming it himself.

Krogan is probably the most feral person you’d ever meet. While he’s usually able to keep his “oddities” at bay around people. Usually. He’s not always successful. Krogan hisses, spits, shrieks and roars just like any dragon. And similarly, when agitated, and without a weapon, he resorts to brute strength, biting, and making sure to draw as much blood as possible. When he bites, he often goes for the kill. If he draws blood, he knows his target is unlikely to live, as human bites are prone to transmitting infections like sepsis.

Krogan Is Not Stupid. Saying he is a complete and utter lie. It is untruthful. While he may not have the education and thirst for knowledge Viggo has, HE IS NOT DUMB. He is in no way, shape or form, a dumb brute. He can converse plenty fine. He just doesn’t want to. He’s an introvert. He doesn’t like other people very much, if at all. Krogan is also the deadly sort of intellect. Krogan is more akin to a wild animal in his intelligence. He knows how to survive, he knows how to hunt, he knows how to kill, and he knows how to feel empathy. In fact, he is extremely sensitive and aware of other people’s emotions. He just has no clue how to express his own feelings. He wasn’t raised around others enough to know what certain tones mean, what body language is- he shares more body language with dragons than he does people. He can read and write, not well, but he can do it. Krogan is hyper intelligent. Just not in the book smart or strategical sense.

Krogan is a sufferer of PTSD. He has depression, and he has anxiety. He also preforms self harm when he is stressed because he was never taught proper ways to deal with his emotions. In all, Krogan is a mental wreck. If you catch him on a bad day, or during a flashback, he will be absolutely fucking terrified of you, even if he knows one hundred percent that you mean him no harm.

Krogan is a Victim. He is not a monster. He was made out to be one, however. His violent tendencies are only him lashing out because he’s scared, confused and alone. And possibly more.

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essektheylyss · 2 years

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loving your annihilation film reactions. APPARENTLY the movie rights were acquired/film production started BEFORE the book was actually properly published? and the director has said that the adaptation was more of his memory of the manuscript. all this to say that i have tried long and hard to accept and love annihilation the film and annihilation the book as their own things born from the same seed but where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the

HAHAHAHA oh yes, this is... very much an issue in Hollywood. Sometimes it works (iirc The Martian was done like that and that movie is phenomenal!) but... often it doesn't, particularly if the author is not involved.

(I have separate thoughts I will not detail here about the increasing interchangeability of authors and screenwriters pushed by Hollywood but like... if you can already craft a story, format and structure can be learned if you're willing. That's not the problem.)

I did set out to watch it for the adaptation choices because I really love the concept and process of adaptation and I thought the book was phenomenal and had very specific opinions on how you could faithfully adapt it, and in this scenario I think every choice that was actually made was wrong.

But also, once I realized that I thought every choice was wrong, I did start looking at it on its own, and... I find that so much of the framing just of the movie on its own is deeply shallow? (Which, I haven't watched Ex Machina since college, but I remember feeling similarly about that one. Ooooh, your robot is a bitter girlboss. We all saw Bladerunner.)

More specific (negative) opinions, and book spoilers, and my thoughts on how to adapt it below the cut, both in case people do really like the movie and cuz it got reeeeal long—

In my opinion, the scientific aspects of it are the absolute most banal possible application of... well, biology, frankly (especially when you're originally dealing with fungus, my absolute beloved, so I was bound to have many opinions here)—the whole like... instant mutation thing? WHAT. It wants to be surrealist without ever selling me on any of the aspects that make it surrealist or even committing to the surrealism, like it doesn't believe or take seriously its own premise so it needs to explain it to make sure you, the audience, do not judge the absurdity of it, and achieves the opposite, where I just feel like the write didn't know how sci-fi or suspense worked as genres. I'm here to suspend some disbelief! I'm not here to have all of the wind cut from the sails because somebody needed to spend $50 million to try to convince people he was clever.

The structure of the film is bizarre and leans way too hard on exposition dumps and just telling both the characters and the viewer exactly what they're looking at, which negates any of the mystery of "The Shimmer" even once you've divorced whatever this is supposed to be from Area X. I really hate the choice to use camera footage rather than journals, especially given they've maintained the radio and satellite interference.

The way the backstories are set up really feels like it chokes out the purpose of the character motivations and then parades the lifeless corpse of that purpose through the streets pretending it's a theme (and, looking at the base level of where the characters are being led, I'm pretty sure an episode of Hannibal did it better). I will say, I do like Josie a lot, and I think she is actually the only one who maintains the concept of the biologist in the original, and her exit should've been the thesis of the film, and the ending with Ventress is genuinely bizarre (and, frankly, gives me end of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull vibes, which is in zero ways a compliment).

It seems like Lena is the last to understand, which makes no sense considering she's the biologist, and this is a biology puzzle (and gives me the impression that this was not someone who understood or appreciated the aspect of the biological intrigue of it). It started with her explaining mitosis, and she should've been the one to understand it best through it all. The scenes with Lena's doppelganger feel... so meaningless, and again, really just negates the ineffability of the whole concept, and the point of the inevitability! Why did the phosphorus burn down the lighthouse this time but not with Kane. Why did the doppelganger let herself be destroyed only for Lena to go back. (And, frankly, they and the treatment of the biological science have an insufferable vibe of edgy film major who just took a philosophy 101 course. And I would absolutely know.)

In terms of my thoughts on adaptation, I think the first mistake was getting rid of the conceit of having stripped them of names. It's the easiest thing to maintain in film, even easier than in prose. You lose some of the effect when they're not calling attention to it all the time, but you don't undercut it at all. (Same with "The Shimmer" instead of Area X.)

As I read the book, I felt the psychologist's hypnosis would be hard to adapt, but actually, I think film editing choices (jarring cuts, jump cuts, lighting effects, etc) could've made it very easy, especially since you then have to simply transition back to a more traditional flow of editing once the biologist stops being effected by it.

I'd have also organized it roughly as it is in the book starting at the tower, and shown the husband's return in flashback, along with the biologist's memories, probably with a lot of jump cuts. Also, just keep the original timeline of Area X! I don't really get the point in changing it, except to add urgency, even though... part of the horror of the original is that the process is slow but it is inevitable.

In general, much of the rest of the aspects of Area X's weirdness and how it affects the biologist are pretty straightforward, even on film. I imagine they were demotivated by the very... intangible aspect of depicting the interaction with the lighthouse keeper at the end, but honestly... A24 could've done it, no sweat. I'm no expert on effects, but I think both The Green Knight and EEAAO had aspects to them that I'd say were comparable to ways to make that scene work.

And really, I do think that this screenplay feels like it was written to make sure the audience knew that the writer understood all of the clever details, and as such so much of the ambiguity that makes the book fascinating and haunting is lost. Even with some of the fucked up horror effects, it feels a lot more like a generic action movie than the suspense thriller it should've been, especially because so much of it is just stated outright.

(Also, oh my god I hate a climactic title drop in a situation in which it did not need to ever be said to have the effect.)

Which is why I return back to, the first mistake was giving them names.

#megs watches annihilation #also cuz I got to the discussion with the coworker. what the fuck is that subplot about. like it's barely there and it's just. POINTLESS.#HONESTLY STOP DUDES FROM WRITING UNNECESSARY ADULTERY PLOTLINES 2KFOREVER #I knew too. the minute they interacted I knew it was coming.#and on the OTHER HAND why would you cut the fucked up doppelganger sex. like it's RIGHT THERE #if you WANTED uncomfortable and deeply hollow sex THE BOOK HAS IT #anyway I'm done with the movie and I'm gonna go reread the book just to cleanse myself frankly.#mr vandermeer I'm so sorry an ugly bitch like alex garland and skydance would do something like this to you. i read your stunning book.#honestly tho I did watch this cuz I am writing a thing with one similar aspect (that I had all planned prior to reading the book)#(and like. a quarter written lol)#and was like 'wow wtf this is the vibe.' however this was a great lesson prior to starting editing of that in 'what not to do'#LOVE lessons in what not to do love learning from other people's mistakes #also it's not really that overall but there's an aspect of it so

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braywright · 4 months

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Envious Casca: Never Disregard the Classics

One day in December, while scrolling through various book-related articles, I came across a list of holiday murder mysteries. Always a fan of whimsy and camp, I looked through it, not really expecting anything to catch my eye. On the list was Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer with a brief description of what sounded like a classic locked door mystery. I was confused--why would this website recommend such a cliché sounding novel as one of their mystery picks of December? Then I looked it up.

Envious Casca (or A Christmas Party: A Seasonal Murder Mystery) was published in 1941. It follows the story of the Herriard family, and good old Uncle Joseph's attempts to throw a happy Christmas party for them all. Problem is, the Herriards are a bunch of bitter, temperamental, snobby rich people (aside from good old Uncle Joseph, of course). In addition to the Herriards are Joseph's passive, dull wife; an ugly spinster cousin who is nearing the age of (gasp!) 30; the Herriard heir's gold-digging fiancé; a poor playwright just trying to get funded; and an old family friend and business partner. Of course, the whole enterprise falls completely apart when Nat Herriard, the head of the family, is found murdered in his locked bedroom.

Is this the first locked door mystery? Definitely not. Is it one of the first holiday murder mysteries? I can't say for certain, but it's possible. Regardless, I was amazed when I first found the original publication date. A cliché mystery premise from the 1940s still being recommended in 2023? Consider my interest piqued.

I am not going to say that this is high literature. It's a paperback mystery novel, and a holiday mystery on top of that. I am also not going to say that it has some great, universal truth for all readers. It is about very privileged people dealing with the specific problems of a privileged lifestyle. And despite being published in 1941 and set in early 20th century England, no one, not even the London cops or the lower class servants, makes a single mention of either World War. But for a cliché holiday murder mystery about privileged people dealing with privileged problems, it's a pretty good book.

The Herriards all feel like real, deeply flawed people. They are rude and nasty and downright despicable at times, but there are also moments when you can understand their rudeness, even sympathize with it. I also would not want to spend my Christmas Eve listening to a dramatic reading of a play about a prostitute, especially not if my back was hurting and my niece was demanding money for said play. The rest of the party guests are similarly fleshed out. The only characters who felt a bit forced or unnatural were the main police investigator (who only appears for the last half of the book anyway) and good old Uncle Joseph. But given that Joseph's overly cheery manner is important to the plot, I leave it up to you to figure out why.

The mystery itself is.... interesting. I certainly did not predict who the culprit would be, but looking back, it is well foreshadowed by the narrative. The murder method seemed implausible, but it was based on the historical assassination, so it gets a pass. I was not a fan of how they figured out the method, though. It was circumstantial and a bit contrived, as if Heyer got toward the end of writing and decided she wanted to be done already. If it had been handled even a few pages slower, I might have been more satisfied. The last few chapters did wrap everything up nicely and I was fine with where everyone ended up.

Ultimately, I'm glad I read this novel. It kept me occupied during some boring hours at work and did, surprisingly, lift my Christmas spirit a bit. And, frankly, the fact that this short little novel has enough cultural capital to be recommended and available 80 years down the line is amazing to me.

9/10 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#book review #9/10 stars #murder mystery #holiday mysteries #20th century lit

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merrilark · 1 year

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Title: Dune Author: Frank Herbert Genre: Science Fiction Page Count: 617 (not including appendices) Trigger Warnings: The big bad is a pedophile who doesn’t seem to have any qualms about incest... fortunately Herbert wasn’t explicit about this, but it was enough for me to raise a brow of surprise. Other than that, there isn’t much that could be considered triggery beyond your (likely expected) deaths.

Humm. I finally finished this one. I had high hopes for Dune, as it was recommended to me repeatedly by a number of friends, and many online reviews claim it’s one of the best scifi books ever written. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love it, I’m afraid that I’m ending 2022 with a personal stinker.

Dune had been promising, and if there is one thing that it does exceptionally well, it’s world-building. I loved the attention to detail, particularly when it came to Fremen culture, and the sense of tension and alienation you could feel from the main characters as they tried to navigate the new, alien customs. Sadly, though, while Herbert’s strength lies in world-building and politics, he seems to struggle with writing characters.

Most of the characters felt very one-dimensional, but none quite as one-dimensional as Paul, the main character, who was so bland and hard to connect with that he reads a bit like a stand-in for the (male) reader. The main villain, the Baron, was little more interesting; he had a personality, at least, but that personality was “fat, gay pedophile”. Which, you know, Dune was written in the ‘60s, so it’s not exactly that such a characterization was shocking to me as much as it was... tiring? It seemed that every passage involving the Baron made certain to remind us of how obese he was. Similarly with Paul, the book repeatedly had to remind us of how special he was, or how incredible his powers were, typically through the inner-thoughts of another character. At a point, it began to feel a little annoying at best and condescending at worst, as if Herbert was not-so-slyly winking at and elbowing his readers. Did you see that? Did you see how cool and clever that was? Yes, yes. I get it: the Baron is evil and very fat, and Paul is very special and very cool.

The plot itself is interesting at times but so muddied with politics and characters I didn’t care about that it was hard for me to get into. The style, too, is fine but a bit dull and, as mentioned, occasionally condescending and self-praising. I tried very, very hard to like it, and to keep interested, but I ended up skimming the last few chapters because I just wanted to get the book over with.

If I sound harsh, it’s because I’m disappointed, and maybe that disappointment combined with how difficult it was to muscle through 600+ pages has made me a little bit bitter. I can’t blame that on Herbert, though. I think my disappointment can be blamed instead on how hyped this book was for me. Other “worse” books like Red Riding, which I have a severe case of love-hate for, were opened with low expectations. Dune, however, was a book that I had heard nothing but the highest of praise for, and as someone who loves scifi, I went into it expecting beautiful prose, intriguing characters, and Tolkien-level world-building. Instead I got what felt like a political soap opera set rather unnecessarily in space. And that’s fine. But it really isn’t for me.

I’m giving Dune two out of five stars. When it was good, it was very good. But when it was bad, it was a pain to keep reading.

I think people who enjoy politics and philosophy over good characters and plot may enjoy this more than I did.

#this is my saltiest review yet LOL #although i haven't written a review for history of fear yet #but as angry as the ending of that book makes me... i enjoyed it much much much more than dune #sorry dune stans. i am a heathen.#merri reads dune #merri's book reviews #not gonna put this in the book's tags like i have the others. bc fksdlf this is basically dune hate. i'm sorry.

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inquisitoracorn · 2 years

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WIP Whenever, was it Wednesday already?

Hi!! You've tagged me a lot! Sorry! :)))

Through a complex combination of multiple things I haven't been able to engage or respond to anything lately, but, good news, getting back into it again! Ah I really missed it. Thanks for tagging me @noire-pandora, @morganlefaye79, @blarrghe, @johaeryslavellan, @knuttydraws, and @in-arlathan! Consider yourselves tagged back along with @kittynomsdeplume, @musetta3, @melisusthewee, @nivenor-krosis and @dreadfutures to share anything you want if you want!

So, usual introductory ramble, I'm often quite stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to figure out just how much Ostwick politics I should include in the fic. being that most of it is from Jon's pov, there's just gonna be a lot of stuff that he will never see, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't either! Some of this stuff is important so while I obviously want to keep some element of surprise, I don't want everyone to be completely blindsided by what's going on.

So yeah, below is a bit that I may or may not keep if it proves to be too much. Though knowing myself, one person's 'too much' is my 'oh shit I forgot like 5 scenes let me just add..'

Anyway on with the show. Quite a big spoiler ahead mind you! It's in the next chapter though.

"Do not test me, Coradia."

"My lady-"

Lady Bayart opened her fan with a sharp wooden noise, pinning her guest with a seething look. How dare this walking disaster, this paper aristocrat darken her door again after what happened! She stared Lady Ehlgar down until she squirmed in her gilded chair, watched her turn her head slightly out of instinct, letting her carefully placed locks of hair cover the top of her eyes. Hiding. Pitiful. Even with her ridiculous ambitions of bringing her Orlesian court charades to Ostwick, even after all these years, she still couldn't handle scrutiny upon her bare face.

Her amateurish games have been their downfall. Months upon months of careful planning, and it came crashing down on her and van Millberg's indiscretion! It was beyond laughable. It was against reason.

"What could you possibly think you still have to offer me after getting yourself kicked out the ceremony room?", Lady Bayart spat, pointing her fan at her guest and enjoying the effects of her accusatory gestures.

But where was the fun in gloating when she knew exactly what this squirming worm would say.

"How about what you owe me!" she squawked in her thick Val Royeaux accent, "I never thought the Lord Councillor would withdraw his support! This was never the deal!"

"This was always the deal!", Lady Bayart countered, "And if you hadn't so decisively secured your removal from the premises of our agreement you would have been there to read it for yourself! The Lord Councillor's joint assets to your smithies are to be transferred to the Trevelyans. It is final."

Lady Ehlgar, utterly unable to keep her expressions in check, leaned forward with eyes like saucers, "You assured me, promised me it wouldn't affect my trade routes-"

"-When we still had an agreement! Before you ruined us! When Leopold was supposed to be successor, and help you break even!" When that stone-faced ungrateful brat was still on her side. When Lady Bayart hadn't yet destroyed her only leverage on her harpy of a daughter-in-law by trying to have their younger brother killed. A thief not caught is an honest merchant. A thief caught is, apparently, left scrambling for allies. That particular fuck-up was not to be brought up to Lady Ehlgar, however. She could focus on her own fuck-ups.

Did you catch it?;) Don't blame you if you didn't, it was literally a year ago.

#I feel like I write my bitter characters very similarly #any tips or sources for writing more distinct voices let me know #all ears #tsts #dragon age fanfic #inquisitor trevelyan #trevelyan origin #family politics #politics politics #noble plots #I promise I'll go into more detail than this #just curious for now #wip whenever #wip wednesday #if you squint hard #thanks for playing with me :)))

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recurring-polynya · 2 years

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Favourite thing about Byahisa?

I feel like people have gotten the mistaken idea that I am a Byahisa shipper, which I really am not, at least not in the way I am a Renruki shipper. I am interested in their story, which is a tragedy, but I do not, say, think about them kissing in my spare time. I don’t have favorite tropes or anything like that. I guess the thing I like best about them is simply that it happened.

I have said this before, but Hisana is not, in my opinion, a character. She is a plot point. We see her only through Byakuya's memory. We don't know what she was like. We don't get any of the circumstances that lead up to her abandoning her baby sister. Nevertheless, she is the catalyst for Rukia's adoption, for Rukia and Renji's separation, for Byakuya and Rukia's long estrangement, and, I like to think, that their attempts to rememer her played a role in their eventual connection.

I think a lot about this excellent post re: Rukia meeting Kaien by @troius about how Kubo is able to tell incredibly poignant stories with just a snapshot, but I think this one hits it even more: The assistant captain had a wife. Pardon my French, but fuck that hits hard. The assistant captain had a wife.

The panels of Byakuya telling Rukia about Hisana hit similarly to me. It's not a full story. Byakuya has just been stabbed through the heart, and he is apologizing to Rukia, trying to explain himself as he sweats and bleeds all over the ground in a very non-Byakuya fashion. The first thing he says is that she died. There's something I want to tell you. One spring morning, 50 years ago, before the first plum tree blossomed...I lost my wife.

He goes on to tell the facts of the story as they relate to Rukia-- Hisana abandoned her, Hisana never stopped looking for her, Hisana died full of regrets. It's so curious and mysterious to me out of a fairly small flashback, half a page is taken up with Hisana apologizing to Byakuya for not being a better wife, but I don’t get the sense that Byakuya is bitter or mad about it. It's never entirely clear in these flashbacks how much the nostalgic character (in this case, Byakuya) is actually saying out loud, and how much they are just remembering. This is the only part of the flashback that is not actually relevant to Rukia, and I think that this is a part that Byakuya is remembering to him--with pain--that along with everything else, he could never impress upon Hisana how much she meant to him.

We get only a handful of reflections of Hisana-- Byakuya contemplating her portrait during two end themes, Rukia being asked to perform a dance Hisana once performed with the implication that this is a matter of great personal importance to both Byakuya and Rukia, a scene in Fade to Black where Byakuya walks with his wife and supports her as she collapses. These are so brief, but they all impart the same idea, Byakuya had a wife, whom he loved. She died. In the spring. Before the plum blossom bloomed.

Byakuya, as a character, is very stoic and rarely shows emotion, so these glimpses are so poignant and powerful. The other thing that we do know about him is that he was a hothead in his youth, (and then some things happened) and now he's Like That. The (and then some things happened) is so intriguing and mysterious and sad. I was only planning on including the top three panels of the page above, but that last panel-- the hugely empty room, the sun pouring in, Byakuya’s posture. I lost my wife.

I did not have a lot of sympathy for Byakuya as a character when I started writing fanfic, but I had to deal with him, so I dug for something I could latch onto, something I liked about him, and that something was that he had a wife and he loved her. She was common. Marrying her cost him a great deal of political capital and possibly also his relationship with his grandfather. She was chronically ill. She was crushed by the trauma of her early afterlife. Byakuya loved her.

The other thing I like about Hisana, writing-wise, is that she connects Rukia and Byakuya, but she is wholly absent. She is a void in the space between them, a thing they can explore together, but only if both are willing. I am also fascinated with the way Hisana's gravity effects not just them, but Renji. If Hisana had never abandoned Rukia-- an act that she regretted for the rest of her afterlife-- Renji never would have met Rukia, the defining event of his own existence. On the other hand, if it were not for Hisana, they wouldn't have been separated, either, the other defining event of Renji's existence. We don’t really get to see it, but as Renji settles into his role as Byakuya’s second, he must, at times, act as a weird conduit between his boss and his best friend. In some extremely weird ways, Renji, a loud, 6′2″ meathead with too much eyeliner and too few social graces, has taken on Hisana’s role in connecting two people who are absolutely terrible at connecting to anyone.

Bleach is a story about ghosts, or perhaps many stories about many ghosts. Byahisa is a love story that is also a ghost story, and that is one of my very favorite things in the world.

#byahisa #byakuya kuchiki #hisana kuchiki #i have another ask in the pile about byahisa fanfic so hold on for part ii #i said i don't care about tropes of whatever but i DO have a byahisa theme song #which is 'cold is the night' by the oh hellos #it's really a byakuya song #it is HELLA depressing don't say i didn't warn you #SOMETIME I LIKE SAD THINGS #byahisa is just a place i can go to roll around in sad feels when i need to #there's also a very specific thing about plum blossoms being the harbinger of spring in japanese poetic symbolism #they come before the cherry blossoms. when it's still cold #like spring is coming but not quite yet #and given byakuya's spring associations this is particularly meaningful #sorry i couldn't figure out how to work that in earlier but i think about it a lot

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mc-lukanette · 3 years

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What are your thoughts about chloe? and lukloe and liluka? I would say that in my personal opinion, i dont like lila or chloe at all. I know what it is like to have a friend like chloe. I was once too in a toxic friendship but i was too naive to understand. Then i got bullied like 6 times in total all by different people. And i was also blackmailed by my own friends. So i cannot really sympathise with chloe or lila and unpopular opinion: I liked the way the writers did not give chloe redemption. Bullying is a very serious topic and i think the fans take it very lightly. One never knows what it feels like to be bullied and honestly, it is one of the worst and most painful feelings in the world. Just bcoz chloe led a bad life does not give her a pass to make others life terrible. So, I also dislike lukloe and liluka. They just seem so toxic. Like, it is not in luka's hands to make them a better person. It is not his or ladybug's or adriens responsibility. And... I am a lukanette shipper so.... And, if anyone reading this, if you are a chloe stan, its honestly fine as long as you dont excuse every one of her actions or go straight on slandering maribug, the victim of bullying, for not believing in chloe. If i was in maribug's place, i would not have believed in her AT ALL and the fact that she gave her so many chances is so kind of her. If you think i am wrong, then just imagine yourself in my shoes, your own friends using and betraying you, only talking to you when they need something, then some random bullies coming up and snatching your water bottle from your hand, blackmailing you, spreading rumours about you, and the worst of all, you cannot even tell your parents or teacher about this bcoz you are too afraid to cause drama. Now, it is all better bcoz i shifted to another city as my father's job changed. So, what do you think about this? What are your thoughts on these ships? And characters?

Firstly, thank you for sharing your story with me, anon! I’m really glad you at least got out of the situation in a way.

Secondly, I’m basically in the same boat as you. I’ve been bullied and I’m just extremely bitter towards Chloe and people like her. Similarly, I dislike Lila, and both of them get extra “dislike points” from just a writing standpoint (with Chloe and her needlessly long non-arc and Lila with how people magically lose braincells around her). Likewise, I’m not into Lukloe or Liluka; I don’t like “opposites attract” ships and I also view them as equivalents to Lukadrien in that they feel like spiteful ships towards Marinette. I don’t judge people who ship them, but they’re not for me. The idea of Luka being shipped with someone who bullied his sister and crush or who has lied to sabotage his crush is just--no thank you.

#type: salt #((I do think there's something to be said about a hypothetical ship where a character meets another character))#((and they crush on each other with the first character no knowing how the other character has affected others that they're close to))#((and there's an interesting conflict there.))#((But I just don't see Luka falling into that sort of thing.))#((And Chloe and Lila??? no plz no))

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