#btw it is very important for me to say that i typed and i quote | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

actual-changeling · 5 months

Text

Welcome back to Alex's unhinged meta corner, and today I have something surprisingly not kiss-related—though it is still about the final fifteen because hey, gotta keep the brand image.

I read this post by @goodoldfashionednightingale and began typing a small response. Then I made the mistake of drinking half a litre of coffee on an empty stomach right after taking my adhd meds and my brain began vibrating at the speed of light.

But oh, have I discovered parallels. This, my friends, is about the nightingale, where it comes from, what it means, and what the fuck happened in part 3 of 1941.

Ready? Let's go.

Now, as OP said in her post, s1e3 is important. In the script book, Neil himself says that these flashbacks are where the producers would tell him to cut scenes to save money. They suggested every single one—except for the one he ended up taking out, which was the bookshop opening scene set in 1800. The others are building blocks, you need them to see how their relationship progressed and what kind of important milestones they had.

(side note: author is very miffed that english does not have a separate subjunctive form like german which makes quoting lines way more confusing than it has to be)

The one I want to mention is neither 1941 nor 1967. No, what I want to talk about is 1601. This might be about to get a bit rambly but I will do my best to keep it tidy.

The focus of that flashback is on the Arrangement, yes, but it gives us a lot more information than that.

they both see Shakespeare's plays regularly, maybe even meet in the crowd

Crowley prefers the comedies

Aziraphale does not seem to have a preference, he enjoys the tragedies and presumably the comedies too

there is an oyster woman selling food -> reference to their meeting in Rome when Aziraphale tempted him to try some oysters

Aziraphale reflexively denies their relationship

Crowley might say he is not worried but circles Aziraphale the entire time, keeping watch

they both ask favours of each other and both agree to do them

What stands out to me in relation to what I am about to expand on is the line that Crowley delivers after Aziraphale's little 'buck up'—which Crowley finds adorable btw but that's a post for another time.

"Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety."

Why would he say that? What exactly is prompting this? WHY say that specific line?

At first I thought it might be to tempt Shakespeare because he does commit art theft by just copying that line down, BUT I think there is more to that. So much more, in fact. I am wiggling now because I am very excited about this and my adhd meds are kicking in anyway.

First things first: the line itself.

It appears in Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra, a romantic tragedy, which was first performed in 1607 aka six years after this meeting. Enobarbus is talking about Cleopatra and describing why Antony won't leave her. Her.

Ccrowley uses his—again, who is he even talking about? Hamlet? Shakespeare? Random poetic quote?

No, I think this line is about Aziraphale and it's a code. Right after, the next line from Aziraphale is "What do you want?", meaning that this is their code phrase for 'I have a favour to ask of you'.

Age does not wither nor custom stale his infinite variety

Age will not affect his appearance nor will he ever become boring to Antony. Crowley, who later chooses the name Anthony for himself, tells Aziraphale, an immortal, that he will never age and that he will never grow bored of him.

It's flattery, pure and simple, and it's code at the same time. This establishes the important fact that they might use more of Shakespeare's work as code/already have a system in place (even though he steals Crowley's line for later).

They play their little morality game of back and forth, Aziraphale agrees, Crowley probably manipulates the coin toss, and THEN we find out that the oyster woman is called Juliet.

Why? What is the meaning of that? Why give her a name and that name in particular? Why bring the sexy oysters back into it?

Romeo and Juliet premiered in 1597, so it is safe to assume they have both seen it by 1601, but this is mostly for the audience, not for us-or is it?

Aziraphale gives Crowley puppy eyes until he agrees to make Hamlet popular, and while I don't think Juliet itself is a code word, although it's very interesting that the OYSTER woman is the one with that name (especially adding what we now know about Job), Romeo and Juliet might be.

Yes, the Nightingale song came out in 1940 but the bird has been around for much, much longer, and, as many probably know by now, also shows up in Romeo and Juliet.

This is where I am starting to vibrate at the speed of light because listen to me. Listen.

Crowley is Juliet. Anthony J. Crowley. Antony Juliet Crowley.

(side note: I'm not saying that Crowley chose it based on that—though I am not not saying that—but that it is a clue for us at the audience.)

Why do I think that? In the play, Romeo spends the night with Juliet and then goes to leave as the night begins to end. Juliet tries to stop him and tells him that the birds they are hearing aren't larks, which sing at dawn, but nightingales, which sing at night.

Who is the one always pushing for more? Crowley. He is the one trying to convince Aziraphale it's safe, they're safe to spend time together.

Romeo disagrees with Juliet and says 'I must be gone and live, or stay and die'.

Leave and stay alive, or stay and hell/heaven will punish us. It gets even better though.

We all know how Romeo and Juliet ends: Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, kills himself, Juliet finds him and then kills herself too.

Hey, do you know how Antony and Cleopatra ends?

Antony thinks Cleopatra is dead, kills himself and dies in her arms, then Cleopatra also kills herself—by snake poison; Romeo also died by poison.

The parallels are THERE. They are jumping down our throats! Two tragedies, two sides, several familiar names and phrases, same fear, same ending.

I think by now you can guess how this ties back to 1941.

We do not see how that night ends, but we know it ends. One of them wants to stretch it out, maybe even quotes Romeo and Juliet because look at the setting!

Candlelight, wonderful night they spend together, the threat of Crowley's early demise, and, to quote the play once more, this time Romeo: I have more care to stay than will to go.

Crowley thought it was his last night on earth and went with Aziraphale to his bookshop, to be with him, because he cares more about that than the fact that he will be dragged to hell come morning. Do you remember?

"Expect a legion to come for you first thing tomorrow" THAT is the threat. They have until dawn, just like Romeo and Juliet, which is why she is so desperate for the birds to be nightingales. Fortunately for them, Aziraphale saves the day, BUT there is NO SECURITY. They do not KNOW if a legion will still show up or not. If dawn is a deadline and they will need to fight.

Sure, they improved their chances, but who knows? Maybe they will come for him anyway, it's not like hell is all fair and square.

The best part: it gets even better.

Juliet eventually panics and tells him to go, and Romeo drops a line that huh, sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it?

'More light and light, more dark and dark our woes!'

Remind me, what does Aziraphale say again? Ah, yes. Perhaps there is something to be said for shades of grey.

There is more. Yes, even more. We know the whole rescue relies on a magic trick, a switch. Guess what Juliet yearns for while telling Romeo to go save himself?

Oh, now I would they had changed voices too. While they did not for Romeo and Juliet—they kiss and part—they did for our two. One fabulous switch and we're good.

(side note: Toads? Associated with hell. Larks? Associated with the dawn, yes, but also heaven since Romeo says 'Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat the vaulty heaven so high above our heads.')

So, this was a whole lot of information, let's see if I can summarize my thoughts.

I believe the nightingale is a code word that has existed even before 1941 and gained a lot of importance over the years. In 1941, the song is added to the meaning and whatever happened between the two that we have not seen yet, it fundamentally changed their relationship. Maybe they kissed, maybe one of them tried to convince the other to prolong the night but they parted on not-great terms.

The nightingale and the song become a symbol of hope, a goal to achieve, another uninterrupted night, maybe, or an uninterrupted life.

When they part in the final fifteen, it's morning. Crowley points at the sky and says "no nightingales", which at that point has several different layers to it.

No nightingales because their night is over, just like with Romeo and Juliet, and please, please allow me to add another detail, because I am frothing at the mouth over this. The scene I quoted, known as balcony scene, do you know what it is preceded by?

A ball.

Star-crossed lovers defying their sides, falling in love at a ball, getting a hurried, wonderful night together but torn apart by danger of punishment, the nightingale as a dream, as a wish for unhurried time together. Family rejection, torn apart by parents, willing to die for each other so they can reunite in death.

No nightingales. The ball, the romance, is over, their dancing is over, heaven is tearing them apart, and Aziraphale returns to heaven while they are both stuck in a pit of misunderstanding and miscommunication, all bound together by fear for each other.

The thing is, Crowley hates tragedies, he never liked the "gloomy ones", and he does not want them to end in one—luckily, this isn't the end. Yes, they kiss and part, but the play keeps going. We have an entire act 3 to fix what Romeo and Juliet couldn't, to ensure that this is a COMEDY, not a tragedy.

Both Antony & Cleopatra and Romeo & Juliet died out of fear, hurried into making bad decisions because they knew what would happen if their sides were to catch up with them.

Crowley and Aziraphale can reunite heaven and hell with love, not death. This is THEIR story and they are writing the ending. No more day and night, no more deadlines, no more hiding and sneaking about, no more fear of larks and sunshine.

Good Omens will end the way it began: In a garden with two no-longer-star-crossed lovers embracing the song of a lark as well as that of the nightingale.

I hope this made sense to everyone who was no present while my mind started to vibrate itself into a puddle because the thing is I can see Neil doing all of this completely on purpose.

Thoughts? Questions? Additions? Come and join me in my insanity and until next time I have a mental breakdown over this show (probably in like two hours).

#alex talks good omens #good omens #good omens meta #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #good omens season 2 #go2 #aziracrow #crowley x aziraphale #no nightingales #ineffable divorce #the final fifteen #a nightingale sang in berkeley square

825 notes · View notes

ryan-the-dark · 3 months

Text

Claire McCallister knows Becky Botsford is WordGirl.

I know! I know! Give me a second to explain and break this down.

In the very first episode of the series "Tobey or Consequences", Claire is shown to be intelligent enough to craft together devices to counter her son's robots.

This shows she's just as if not more intelligent than Tobey! There's the argument that could be made that Tobey made those devices but why would she make him? He would be able to program ways to short-wire them.

In the same episode, it was referenced that WordGirl calls Mrs. McCallister whenever Tobey commits crimes. Now I know this isn't much evidence, but let's say for this theory, she met Becky by now. This could be when she was suspicious because of how similar "Becky" and "WordGirl's" voice was.

If that ain't enough to convince you, maybe this will. In "By Jove You've Wrecked My Robot", Tobey tells Becky and I quote:

"And if you try to run off and turn into WordGirl, I'll use all the robots to destroy the city."

Now, if Claire's as smart as Tobey and we're using that for this theory, I'm pretty sure when she sees Becky, she'll put the pieces together in similar reasons. "The same hair color, the same skin tone, the same lips" as Tobey points out: "You and WordGirl are the same height, the same hair style and color... The same sparkingly smile. The same ruby lips..."

Now if Tobey put these pieces together, I think Claire, through enough time, could do so as well. I think the reason why she doesn't say anything is because one she has to make sure her son is punished for his crimes. And two, she respects WordGirl enough to not risk anyone who would use that information incorrectly to find out. The only reason she doesn't say anything to Sally who is her friend is because she either found out she doesn't know, think she knows and just playing an act and so acts none the wiser, or just don't want to ruin the current dynamic with the possibility that the Botsfords doesn't know. Another reason, she knows Tobey's happier around WordGirl and doesn't want him to be bothering Becky in her private life.

This is "Robo Camp", a fairly early episode, being season 2 episode 11. At this point, she was trying to push him to cease doing robot activities:

Claire: This is going to be an important trip for you, Tobey, because you’re going to learn to appreciate nature. And hopefully grow out of this silly robot phase.

Tobey: Yes, Mother. That would make sense, except that nature is a thing of the past! Technology and robots are--

Claire: TOBEY! No robots! I don’t want a repeat of what happened last summer at basketball camp... Or two summers ago at baseball camp!.. Or last, last, LAST summer at drama camp!... I mean it, Tobey! No giant robots, end of story! You need to be more independent, and learn to do things on your own!

Btw, I think the reason why they're not very close is because they don't understand each other not that she doesn't care about him or vice versa, but I won't get into that into this blog.

I can see Claire having a moment where she realizes: "Wait a minute Tobey's not happy around other kids. He's more lively around WordGirl and enjoys her company..." That type of thing. So she doesn't do much to try to stop him, not that she approves, but because she genuinely loves Tobey and values his feelings, even though she wishes he would stop with the robot attacks.

It would also explain the reason why she doesn't remove his robot privileges permanently. For people who follow abusive Claire, there's so many things to debunk this. Like in the "Talent Show Tobey" episode where she was cheering Tobey on and was genuinely proud of him until his robot destroyed the building. Given Tobey entrapped WordGirl into reading poems in this episode, you would think she wouldn't care about WordGirl. Well, do remember that it's not like Claire knows. She just thought WordGirl agreed, and was happy that Tobey was doing something she'd viewed as productive and WordGirl was kind enough to help him out.

(More happy Claire please! 💯💯💯)

In the "Guess Who's Coming To Thanksgiving Dinner" episode, she was trying to enjoy the holiday, and when he left, she was searching literally everywhere for him. When he came back, she was happy to see him.

(WE NEEDED MORE SCENES WITH THEM JUST BEING 😁)

In "New Year of Doom!" Tobey and Claire smiled at each other on top of a robot throughout the New Year count-probably the most touching moment between the two and shows she supports whenever he builds his robots just in a constructive way.

I think if she wanted to, she would scrap all of his robots. She literally could, but she knows she would end up breaking his heart. He would be broken because he'll be forced to quit similar to when Miss Power threatened to never allow Dr. Two Brains to have cheese again. She always gave me reluctant disciplinarian type of vibes and would never do anything that would break his little heart. Off topic for a bit, that's why I wish there were more fics about Claire redeeming Tobey instead of Becky because, while I'm all for Tobecky, I feel like that makes more sense considering Tobey pressed so many buttons and disrespects her, and Becky's still a child at the end of the day while Claire is an adult so her mind is wiser, he's her son, and has more reasons to redeem him. Most of all, WordGirl's one of the superheroes of the city and don't have any obligation to redeem any of the villains besides maybe Dr. Two Brains with the whole mouse brain dilemma. She could guide them, but I feel like she would be suspicious about Tobey's change at least for a while. One last thing, while I do like redemption stories, the characters themselves have to change. Guidance is different from forcing them to switch sides. Claire redeeming Tobey stories would allow more ground to be given if that makes sense.

That aside, now, let's say Tobecky happens, and they sort out their issues especially with Tobey's (there's plenty of them as Go Gadget Go shows) I can imagine something like this occurring when a teenager or adult Becky inevitably has to tell Claire she's WordGirl because let's be honest it would avoid a lot of awkwardness. I even see her telling her family eventually, but this is how I actually see it going:

"Mrs. McCallister, I'm WordGirl..."

"...I am not blind, Becky. Though I have tried to be, for Tobey's sake. And for yours. I have suspected things about WordGirl a long time ago. I have put the pieces together as he had, though we do not speak of it. I... pretend that I don't know. And I was happy to, because it made him happy. WordGirl made him happy, when nothing else ever truly could."

If a teenage or adult WordGirl series or some other thing that continues the show ever happened where this theory was true, how do you think Becky would react to Claire knowing that she was WordGirl?

This blog was inspired by:

#claire mccallister #tobey mcallister iii #becky botsford #wordgirl #this is canon to me #damn it all

28 notes · View notes

curiousity-cell · 8 months

Text

i’m very tired so i’m gonna post some of the scenes that made me fall head over heels for the archeron sisters 🫶🫶

gonna start with love of my life feyre archeron. the main character, boss bitch, saviour of prythian. for feyre’s scenes, i chose some scenes that proved how good of a high lady she was always built to be, even before being crowned as one. :)

i have always seen feyre as a blend of both elain & nesta (because you know damn well her mother & father werent parenting her). feyre at her core has always been kind, and brave, and so strong. she’s loving, and caring. as elain says, she is the foundation of the sisters.

she has some moments where she does - what i like to call - explode (like nesta). but that is okay. she’s always apologetic and understanding and the most important thing is that she /listens/. she listens and learns and that’s what makes her a good high lady. she’s open minded and enjoys learning. she absolutely deserves her crown, anyone who criticises her for “not being good enough” has not understood feyre’s character at all.

nesta archeron. tough, strong, passionate nesta. she is fiercely protective & fiercely loving. yes, she’s struggled. of course she has. as the other sisters have, but she worked through it (like feyre) and she’s healed now. here are some scenes that made me just Get her yk?

nesta i love in a different way to the other archeron girlies. elain and feyre i always see as my now-self. my semi healed self. or my “trying to be better” self (as in. trying to be kinder to myself and not push everybody away type of thing).

but nesta was who i was. or rather who she was before acosf. nesta is who i was on my bad days. i’m not proud of it and neither is nesta. nesta says it herself, she would shoot out daggers with her words as a ward to keep herself from being hurt. to mask her hurt. this is, as nesta says in her book not a good thing.

she was cruel, she was unkind and she could be pretty fucking selfish and mean. but she learns. she is learning. that to me is the most important thing for anybody going through similar mental health struggles or struggles in general is that that person learns and is apologetic for how they acted. which nesta, at the end, is. that is why i love nesta. or rather why i came to love nesta. and i’m happy she’s found herself a place in the valkyries and a PURPOSE. which is super important to someone like nesta

that last quote is also really important to me because it shows true growth. seeing past her bitterness of rhys - as being someone who could offer feyre happiness and a safe space when nesta couldn’t - shows so much of who she wants to become. i love her.

finally, elain archeron. we know how i feel about elain. kind, soft, yet also strong, elain. often disregarded, often overlooked, but still powerful elain. as fiercely loving and protective as nesta, but remains gentle. here’s some scenes that made me fall for elain :)

the first scene i posted is one of my all time favourite elain scenes and i think it’s because it encompasses all that elain is in a single quote. elain’s trauma response is always frowned upon by some people in the fandom, because she shuts down, she cries, she isolates herself

this is something that i also do when i’m having a bad mental health day (now. used to be more like nesta but that’s not me anymore). but this scene in particular shows that all elain needs is a little bit of time. a little bit of time to adjust to new circumstances, time to mentally adjust to what’s happened to her & to understand what’s happening around her. which she does.

elain is the one that coaches feyre into thinking about what the next steps should be in helping her people heal. (which btw. it’s okay to ask for help and support from other people. feyre listening to elain and applying what she’s learnt is exactly what’s sometimes needed in a ruler. this is not criticism of either woman).

elain has always been kind at her core. during the poverty, which everyone pins against elain, she is said as being not herself. she is (as all the other archeron sisters are) at her worst. but, during her healing, she finds herself again. she recovers & she apologises for how she was & she is forgiven.

she’s so very strong. elain is so strong, just like her sisters. she’s so much more than “the soft one” and i can’t wait to get inside her head in her book when it comes out. so so so excited.

that’s the end of my thinkpost but i’ll leave u with some of my favourite archeron sister bonding scenes (slash them healing the broken bond between them)

41 notes · View notes

1bringthesun · 1 year

Text

have any of you read “Dancing Girl?” gosh, it just made me sad. Mori Ougai is a really good author haha, hahaha. hah… h-

…

yeah i’m relating this to bsd! Mori. BITE ME!! ahem. so in this essay i will be talking about Elise and Mori’s relationship. i’ve already established i don’t see her as his “wife” or the object of his sexual desires, and i’ve also mentioned i like the “Elise is his daughter,” way of seeing things, however … well, there’s more than just that.

1) Elise represents his inner child

2) Elise preserves the memory of a dead lover and is his “partner”

3) Elise is a child-figure to him

those numbers will be reused in that order to mean the same thing later, but first, background and “Dancing Girl!”

so i think that, within the definition of his and Elise’s relationship, Mori embodies Toyotarou from “Dancing Girl” more than Kanei from “Vita Sexualis” (i think i learned which type of media went in italics and which sort in quotes some time in third grade, but it’s been entirely too long and therefore i’ve forgotten all of it and you’ll have to excuse my poor grammar if im messing it up). why, you may ask? well, first of all, Elise is literally from that novel. second of all, i’ve just skimmed vita sexualis (- an asexual) while “Dancing Girl” managed to catch my attention a lot more. plus, Mori was one of the characters that Asagiri explicitly stated he wanted to add in, and we all know just how evil Asagiri Kafka can be when he feels like it.

… why is the space so long ? why are these spaces different sizes?? this is really bugging me … but whatever, i’ll try my best to ignore it … (nevermind it looks perfectly normal when i post it i guess it’s just a. draft thing)

ahem, so, in “Dark Era,” Mori basically goes “damn Dazai you’re suicidal as hell! you remind me of myself hahah!” and i feel like that’s pretty concrete evidence Mori Did Not have a happy childhood (i mean, duh, considering he was trigger-happy to friendly fire as an important military man at 20 some years old) and was likely suicidal in the past too, to some extent. in that sense, the chains that tie Dazai down, if they’re Odasaku’s last words, are the Port Mafia for Mori. he cannot die as long as he’s sane and capable of leading the PM, because he’s basically the very embodiment of it.

⚠️SPOILERS FOR “DANCING GIRL!”⚠️

alright, onto “Dancing Girl.” i’ll give you a quick rundown. it’s basically about this college dude (25 or so) (haha that reminds me of the, “am i the asshole?” posts. i (M26) just fell in love with a girl (F18) of whom i’ve known since she was a minor and i was still an adult. i got her pregnant by some time after she became of-age, then i left her to pursue my career. am i the asshole?) (godamn it tai you just spoiled the whole novel) (i’ll put a spoiler warning up somewhere in the beginning) (bear with me) with depression who falls in love with a… looks at the parenthesis and sighs deeply.

he doesn’t see any point in anything because his life was just a glorified projection of his mother and school’s desires, so he starts being a little more hedonistic and learning about the arts instead of becoming a lawyer like they wanted him to. he meets Elise (her name) and basically immediately feels attracted to her in some way he can’t put into words (she’s 17ish when they meet btw) and starts teaching her things and basically acting like a sponsor to her. they don’t start getting romantic and/or sexual until some unsaid period of time passes. now i personally choose to interpret this as her turning 18 before they do all that stuff, but since it never explicitly says, well… yeah. Toyotarou is used to living his life in a cushy-ish manner as a child prodigy and what have you, but he eventually gives that away to live with Elise. that being said, his “giving it away” was less of a choice to be with her and more of a digression from a perfect machine into a person with his own stunted feelings.

she makes him satisfied, and he makes her very deeply happy, but eventually he chooses his career over her and she goes crazy because of how betrayed she feels- she really deeply loved him, after all. he pays her mother enough to keep her afloat and to take care of the baby he left in her stomach, and went back to Japan without another word. Toyotarou! you bastard!! (it’s not like he was without remorse, though)

anyway back to the numbers.

1) Mori’s past is pure speculation, but he was a military doctor ranked quite high as a very young man, one that didn’t hesitate to shoot someone on his own side no less (like i said) so it’s probably a given he didn’t have a stress-free childhood. this is an excerpt from “Dancing Girl,” in which i think explains the possibility that Elise represents the angry child inside of Mori that he never got to let out as a real child.

2) given what i said above, this also feels pretty self-explanatory. we basically only know two things about Mori, that he would do anything for the greater good (which is usually the PM/yokohama), and that he longs for a “partner” who will understand and not leave him. it’s possible Fukuzawa filled that role for a while, but Mori is a little unhinged and did some bad things out of obsession, which severed their ties because of Fukuzawa’s innate nature. Mori has called Elise his partner (tsuma, AKA person who stays by my side) (i know nobody says tsuma and means it that way but considering “Yatsugare san” exists (yes i’m looking straight at you, AKUTAGAWA RYUUNOSUKE), i wouldn’t put it past Asagiri to use tsuma in that manner) before and acts dramatic as all hell when she dies. it’s almost like … someone called Elise really DID die before?

3) this requires the least explanation. we already know Mori likes children in a non-pedo way, shown by things like how he helped Atsushi gather his courage in Anne’s room (which did nothing for him, btw) and his profession in the beast AU. but what sort of mafia don has a cute daughter?? that’s like ASKING for her to be killed. so Elise, the product of Vita Sexualis, is the next best thing he can have!

Elise also is a lot like the Toyotarou, while Mori acts more like Elise when they’re together. it’s just something i noticed watching the two interact in BSD and DG. the whole idea of having no autonomy is kinda Elise’s (BSD) thing, isn’t it?

my phone is now 20% and i have no charger. i have probably 69 viruses and also since i have apps like tiktok, wechat, and discord… you can imagine how much this poor device suffers, but i regret nothing. yahoo! hope you enjoyed my rant~

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #dancing girl #a german dancing girl specifically named Elise #bsd elise #bsd mori #mori ougai #Mori Elise #can i call her Mori Elise?? i mean she’s basically his daughter anyway so #Mori and Elise #toyotarou #god they make me sad #Mori is so traumatized and so babygirl #not all would understand #anyway i’m getting carried away even in the hashtags.. is this who we are???#AH MY PHONE IS AT 5% WHAT THE HELL.#okay i’m posting it now i hope this gets some attention because otherwise i might go crazy /j

88 notes · View notes

volixia669 · 2 years

Text

Vampire Chronicles Basics

Okay, with the new Interview with the Vampire show coming out, there’s probably going to be some folks who might be curious about the books and wondering why there’s so much disrespect towards the author. This probably isn’t the ONLY primer, but like, whatever.

Note: I never got around to reading all of her books, and some of this is drawing from memory though wikipedia is helpful.

Contextual History Lesson Time!

As a media criticism type person, I find it important to not examine media in a vacuum, and take into account what was happening at the time it was created.

The timing of the first three books is notable. Interview with a Vampire was released in 1976, The Vampire Lestat was released in 1985, and Queen of the Damned was released in 1988.

So we have one book with gay subtext released post free love movement but prior to gay folks becoming more known in society, then two more released during the aids crisis with the queer subtext/text still going strong. This? This is huge. Reportedly, there were people sending Anne Rice letters about how amazing it was to see themselves in the characters. Some these days might roll their eyes at how subtext might be revolutionary, but please understand. During the aids crisis, the queer community, particularly gay men, were being blamed and discriminated against to horrifying levels to the point gay men still can’t give blood.

So for a book series to have not only the metaphor of penetration and being an outbut but also have these characters seem very gay? It’s huge! It’s like a weight being lifted off, even just temporairly, while you go, “Someone sees me and my situation.”

The Vampire Lestat even had Lestat’s mother questioning her gender and deciding to dress and act more masculine. Sure, these days we’d call it “problematic” trans rep for many reasons, but back in 1985? Except for certain more indie films, trans people weren’t even talked about.

Which is a huge reason the series got big among the queer community, others caught wind, and eventually that movie with Brad Pitt was made.

And now we’re in the 90s with a few things happening. One of which being Anne Rice uh...Firing her editor? Not bothering with an editor? Whatever happened, the quality of writing goes downhill.

Additionally, Anne Rice was going through...a lot, and it shows in her writing. She started as one sect of Christianity, left it after a family member died, was athiest/agnostic for awhile, then went to a different sect of Christianity when another family member died, then eventually was in her own thing of believing in God & Jesus but not following any particular sect. Then she died.

This is relevant, as we see Lestat go from prissy rockstar to literally meeting Jesus. So. There’s that.

Another thing that happened in the 90s was the internet becoming bigger, resulting in things like forums, chatgroups, livejournal, and essentially online fandom. People in the Vampire Chronicles fandom began sharing their fanfiction.

Anne Rice hated that. It was her world, her property, her Gary-Stu, and therefore only she could write Vampire Chronicles. She began suing anyone who was writing fanfiction, yes, even the broke teenagers.

She wasn’t the only one doing this of course, but she was certainly adamant about it. Additionally, there’s an emotional element too. Because her work was one of the few popular media where queers could see themselves in, it was like a betrayal to have her say, “No, I hate anyone who loves this world so much they’d write fic.” (not a real quote btw just how it felt)

This is why many fanfic writers in the 2000s, early 2010s, and a few even today write disclaimers at the top of their fic. Because a “I do not own this property. This property belongs to blah blah blah” was one of the few defenses (however flimsy) fanfic writers had. It’s also why, as of the last time I checked ff.net, Anne Rice’s works are not allowed on that site.

That said, from this backlash against fandom, Archive of Our Own and its lawyers were born. The volunteers of OT3 are why y’all will be able to write Lestat fucking Louis into next week and post it there without worrying about Anne Rice’s estate hounding you.

The Books Themselves

So! With that lengthy history done, what about the books? To start off with, while the movie, and this new show are called “Interview with the Vampire”, that’s just the first book. The series as a whole are The Vampire Chronicles.

So we’ve got:

Interview with the Vampire (1976)

The Vampire Lestat (1985)

The Queen of the Damned (1988)

The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)

Memnoch the Devil (1995, the one where Lestat meets Jesus, a lot of people hate it, I think its hilarious with some interesting theological points)

New Tales of the Vampires-Pandora (1998, prequel about an older Roman vampire) New Tales of the Vampires-Vittorio the Vampire (1999, another prequel, about a 15th century Italian Nobleman vampire)

The Vampire Armand (1998, it’s Armand’s story and also I maintain the first 60 pages reads like an M-rated fanfic on ff.net, which is objectively hilarious imho)

Merrick (2000, crossover with another her series called the Mayfair Witches)

Blood and Gold (2001, now the ancient vampire Marius gets his own origin story.)

Blackwood Farm (2002, more Mayfair Witches crossover)

Blood Canticle (2003, EVEN MORE CROSSOVER also was originally gonna be a conclusion buuuuuuuuuuut)

Prince Lestat (2014, Lestat is back and is facing pressure to lead the vampires because I guess all the ones with enough of a brain cell to go that would be a TERRIBLE idea are dead)

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantic (2016, I guess we’re now in Atlantis?)

Blood Communion (2018)

As you can see there’s a lot of books and content. Especially because Vampire Chronicles wasn’t her only series. On top of her erotic romance series that even my “sure you can watch Criminal Minds while 9 years old” mom was like, “Do not touch that,” she had her Tales of the Mayfair Witches series, which AMC incidentally also has the rights for. So...Lots of books, one world with vampires and witches and Jesus.

However, because of the drop in quality as well as the level of batshittery (no I’m still not over Lestat going to fucking Atlantis), last I checked the main reads are the first three, with Vampire Armand also being thrown in because I mean, after you see Antonio Banderas as Armand you want to know more about him.

Of course by all means! Read more of the books! Maybe you’ll get a laugh like I did! Maybe the quality doesn’t seem so bad to you! Maybe you enjoy batshittery!

And if you don’t want to give the Anne Rice estate more money because she was a bad person, there’s plenty of libraries that have the books! Trust me. They do. Some might even have them in ebook version, so you can use apps like overdrive or libby to check them out without even leaving your house!

Appropriation in Vampire Chronicles

This is gonna be short since I’m sure there’s whole pieces about this and I don’t have the books in front of me nor am I part of any of these cultures, but I do want to run over that yes, there’s certainly some cultural appropriation in this series, particularly of Egyptian Culture, but also of voodoo and creole culture.

I want to warn of this, so it doesn’t catch anyone off guard, especially since “Merrick” and “Queen of the Damned” in particular are uh. Full of this. I also have no idea if the more recent books are any better in this regard.

That said, I’m curious about how the AMC tackles these aspects, as its already quite clear they’re not following the books 1:1, which is actually going to make for a better story.

Hopefully all that is helpful!

#vampire chronicles #interview with a vampire #the vampire chronicles #anne rice #interview with a vampire amc #this turned out longer than i thought #but yes hello people new to this welcome to a fandom with a shitton of baggage #also yes theres a lot of personal opinion about the books #BUT I'M SORRY WHY TO FUCKING ATLANTIS WAS SHE SMOKING CRACK BEFORE KICKING IT?#read memnoch the devil for the hilarity of lestat coming to jesus and cool theology and nothing else #also literally the only thing i remember from tale of the body thief is lestat jacking off while in a human body #...i think that's just from reading it when 12 so unused to such things #granted i reread it when in college and it was still a weird scene #even with context #ANYWAYS HAVE FUN Y'ALL AND RESPECT AO3 FOR BEING WHY YOU DON'T HAVE TO FEAR THE RICE LAWYERS

112 notes · View notes

thyandrawrites · 2 years

Note

the scale is actually read from right to left so the tiny dot is until where he can use his fire safely and the middle one is the power at which he actually uses it sadly

Uhm

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to argue. Your translation is correct. The end on the right is the ideal point, the activation without drawbacks. But whether you want to read the graph from right to left or not, the dot (that indicates, and I quote, his "resistance meter" btw) is still very clearly in the middle??

So I'm not sure why this is phrased like you're jumping straight into "oh no this is so sad" mode. This is good news!

Well, more like "we been knew" news, imho, but from the reactions I'm seeing, Hori was right to make this omake lol

The point of this clarification was not to say that he has an ideal fire resistance. That has never been the case, an no one is denying that there's a threshold for his tolerance. But this is a "glass half full" type of scenario. People are looking at it and focusing on the half empty part, but Horikoshi simply presented a fact. A glass filled halfway through. There's water there. Not enough to fill it, sure, but why were we expecting it to be full in the first place, given what we know of Dabi's quirk and its drawbacks?

Dabi's arc shows us that everyone always focused on what he couldn't do, so I find it ironic to do so here too. I believe that's why Hori made this note. The rate at which he's burning in the current arc reinforces in us readers the bias that he was never made to be perfect. But focusing on that makes us dismiss what he can do. The half full part. As Horikoshi put it one sentence above, the fact that his ice constitution manifested more strongly doesn't mean his fire tolerance is zero.

In other words, the fact that there's a threshold for the firepower he can use without drawbacks doesn't mean that he can't summon his quirk without injury. If every time he summoned as much as a lick of fire his body took damage, then his resistance would've been null. Say, on par to Rei's, who is a pure ice user.

What this tells us is that there is a threshold in the first place. This is important to note because we've only seen Dabi's burns expand, so naturally we tend to assume that fire is his own natural enemy. But that's not actually true! The existence of a limit means that his body does possess some tolerance. So it's not his quirk that is the problem, like his father tried to spin it. The problem is that Dabi was only taught to use in a way that is not compatible with his natural stamina levels. So he emulates and exceeds the fire output of a fire user who possesses full fire resistance, but because his body doesn't have the same tolerance, he burns out quicker and ends up in far more pain than your average abled fire user.

But the fact that his body is not engineered to reject his quirk makes it less a matter of biological incompatibility and more a matter of mislabeling his actual skills and expecting him to fit a box he doesn't belong in.

#Ali replies #Bnha #My post #Dabi

34 notes · View notes

lovetals · 2 years

Note

Hey I just discovered your blog and wanted to send in a request since it doesn't seem like anyone has yet....uh...may I request a Madeleine cookie x reader? I think I'd like hcs plz...possibly to get an idea for one shots I could request for him in the future lmao! Btw call me snow anon!

madeleine cookie headcanons

synopsis: general bf hcs of madeleine cookie (+ incorrect quotes)

character: madeleine cookie

deets: gn! reader, fluff, when saying your name out loud it’s written down as (reader) cookie rather than (your name), espresso mentioned in incorrect quotes

notes: hhhhhh i procrastinated on this for way too long, so sorry snow anon 😭 every time i try to write this i either get a brain crash or grow upset with what i wrote ajdkfhs—but! this is no time to complain!! this is (hopefully) a slump that i’ll get over one day. tho i will say that i’m not that proud with this, so sorry if you aren’t that satisfied with this content, but i do hope these are enough to inspire some ideas for you if you request some more!

also—my first ‘named’(?) anon!! yay!!! i didn’t think i would get one for awhile tbh, but ayy we got one! i should add an anon list to my intro post now that i think about it… 👀 but anywho—welcome to my blog! ^o^)/

❀ there’s never a moment of doubt with madeleine—he won’t let you doubt yourself or your relationship. as a prideful knight it’s difficult to bring his self esteem down or any of the confidence that those close to him have, including you

❀ even if you weren’t feeling insecure about anything madeleine still likes to praise you about everything; from your physical attributes to your personality and though it sounds like he’s repeating himself at times i can assure you he’s not merely saying it to be nice, he’s saying it because he genuinely means it

❀ madeleine is also a very touchy person, even in platonic relationships he’s always giving out hugs and piggyback rides (i hc that he gives them all the time for the kids hehe), so when he’s dating you? oh boy

❀ he’s always touching you in some way; handholding, hugs, carrying you in his arms, picking you up lion-king-style—you name it, he’s doing it. also, expect a lot of kisses. doesn’t matter if it’s in public or not, he will give you a smooch right then and there. i’d honestly say his love language is physical touch, but he seems to convey his love for you in any way possible so he doesn’t limit himself to just that, physical contact is just easy to do for him cause he can do it whenever :)

❀ whenever he’s feeling extremely happy about something he likes to pick you up and twirl you around before pulling you into a hug

❀ first kisses are an important moment in one’s relationship and i’m sure even madeleine knows this. this may come off as more of an unpopular hc, but i don’t think madeleine would initiate the first kiss. sure, he may be the cuddly and affectionate cookie in the relationship, but he wants to wait for the perfect moment to finally kiss you, which may take awhile so this task might fall onto you

❀ as a knight he probably gets into fights a lot so he tends to dedicate most of his battles to you :) (this is for you, (reader) cookie!)

❀ absolutely teaches you how to fight!! just ask and he’ll show you how to hold a sword! this causes him to daydream a lot about the two of you fighting side by side one day… maybe he should commission someone to make you some armor?

❀ madeleine doesn’t strike me as the type of cookie to get jealous. in situations like someone flirting with you he’s kinda oblivious to their intentions and drives them away without meaning to lmao (after they run away he’d just turn to you like, “was it something i said? 🥺”)

❀ but one scenario i can envision him getting jealous in is if you were to start praising someone else. madeleine loves your attention so to have it go to someone else that might be better than him?? they are clearly asking for a duel! >:( no, it’s not a fight, it’s just a contest with madeleine showing off how he’s better than them at something

❀ this gorgeous cookie is a fan of gifts—giving, receiving, it doesn’t matter, he just likes them a lot. he gives you tons of presents just because he can and they can be quite excessive… and expensive. if the amount of gifts you receive almost daily bother you madeleine says he’ll try to tone it down, but it’s kinda hard to when almost everything he gets you is because they reminded him of you

❀ madeleine would appreciate anything you get him even as something as minuscule as, let’s say, a pen, but he does have a bit of a preference for handmade things. he’s just so in awe with your talent and to think you took the time to make it just for him?? why, he’s never shone brighter than before! (and, no, angel cookie wasn’t the cause of the sudden light)

❀ will go around and show off the thing you created just for him, boasting about how lucky he was and how amazing you were—madeleine is a great way to boost your sales if you did commissions just fyi

❀ madeleine likes to return the favor btw so if he’s ever getting a handmade gift from you expect something crafted by him soon. i think he’d actually start gifting you more things he’s created after the first one—it’s just so fun! it actually leads to him taking classes to learn how to make something and inviting you to learn along with him

❀ oh, and who could ever forget matching items?! he’s such a huge fan of matching things. doesn’t matter what it is; if it’s a pair, he’ll get it. do not separate.

❀ pet names? absolutely. his nicknames for you can range from “darling” to “my sugary sweet baby schnookums <3” (he says the heart out loud somehow). he repeats the nicknames you choose for him back to you, so unless you want to be called his “little scrimblo” then don’t call him that, though i can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want that 🙄

❀ all in all, madeleine is a wonderful boyfriend to have: there’s never a dull moment with him around and he’s just so loving that there’s no room for hate in your heart towards anyone

now let’s do some incorrect quotes >:3

madeleine: here’s a toast to the cookie i love most in the world!

y/n: don’t say my name, don’t say my name—

madeleine: (reader) cookie <3

y/n: madeleine, when i said to put the star on top of the tree i didn’t mean that you should climb to the top and stay there

espresso, trying to get away from madeleine: look! it’s (reader)!

madeleine, gasping and turning around: omg where?!

(extra: he’s still looking for you even after espresso snuck away o(TヘTo) )

y/n: if i run and jump at madeleine he’ll most certainly catch me in his arms—watch

y/n, turning and running: i’m coming in!

madeleine, already dropping the plate in his hand: come here, babe!!

y/n: oh, no, you’re losing a lot of strawberry jam! quick—what’s your type?!

madeleine, bleeding out: y… you…

y/n: i meant your jam type!!

madeleine: oh! red

111 notes · View notes

digestionsack · 2 years

Text

Thought Bubble

*Disclaimer: This is anti-St*ncy. I am in no way bashing St*ncy shippers (I will respect you regardless of what you ship provided you don’t go out of your way to be disrespectful), but proceed at your own risk.*

So I was kind of mulling over this whole St*ncy thing…we know that the life Steve wants—6 kids, Winnebago, sort of “white-picket-fence”—is not the type of life that Nancy feels would suit her. It’s giving Nuclear Family vibes, and Nancy, having seen the impact of trying to live that life in her parents’ misery, knows that this life would not be best for her (btw this is not me bashing Steve for wanting that life. Steve is obviously a much better person than Ted Wheeler and if Steve likes the Nuclear Family thing and it will make him happy then he should go for it).

But I feel like if I’m going to talk about St*ncy’s incompatibility as a whole, I need to talk about how Nancy isn’t the right person for Steve romantically just as Steve isn’t the right person for Nancy romantically. And to examine that, we need to go back to when they were actually dating—in S2. One scene that stands out to me in particular is the scene in Nancy’s car where she and Steve are going over Steve’s college essay. It’s clear that Nancy doesn’t think it’s very good (don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying she’s actively being an asshole about it or trying to be mean), and Steve sees this, so he gets really down on himself and starts acting exasperated (probably to evade and deflect his feelings of negative self-worth).

Now, Steve’s behavior in this scene could be shrugged off just a kid insecure about their essay, which would make sense, but the way he is portrayed as feeling inferior to Nancy when it comes to academic strength is something important to note. I find that to be a really interesting writing choice.

Because…Steve has been shown to have great platonic relationships with people who are academically stronger than him. Hell, his two main relationships are with Dustin and Robin. Dustin, who is a proud, self-proclaimed nerd and Robin, who is multilingual and casually cracks Russian codes. With Dustin and Robin, Steve never feels lesser-than. When Robin affectionately calls him a dingus, Steve rolls his eyes good-naturedly and comes back with a witty retort. When Dustin uses Sherlock Holmes quotes to tease Steve about being oblivious, Steve shrugs it off and the moment is used as comedic relief.

What’s more, Steve is shown to value his own strengths and qualities when he’s with Dustin and Robin. Because he knows that when they tease him about being a “dingus,” they aren’t actually intending to call him stupid (not that Nancy ever intended to insinuate that Steve is stupid, but again I say, it’s all about compatibility). When Steve isn’t focusing on his own insecurities, he finds things about himself that he feels confident in. Steve is the one who cracks the music portion of the Russian code, even when Dustin and Robin casually make fun of him. Steve prides himself on teaching Dustin hair care and how to talk to girls. What I find interesting is really one of the only times Steve verbally praised himself in a genuine manner when he was with Nancy was when they were broken up, and even then he was sort of self-deprecating.

“I may be a shitty boyfriend, but it turns out I’m actually a pretty damn good babysitter.”

He truly does not see himself as smart around Nancy, and although she tries, she can’t understand or really help him feel better about himself.

So no, I don’t think Steve and Nancy will get back together come S5. No hate to St*ncy shippers (you do you, I’m sure you guys are very nice), but I personally don’t want them back together. Steve needs a romantic partner who understands and can relate to him just the way he is, and who makes him feel confident in his own skills and qualities. Nancy needs someone for whom she doesn’t need to put a buffer on her ambition, who will not hold her back when she goes after what she wants. Steve and Nancy are great characters—just not with each other.

And like @there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow said in one of my previous thought bubbles about Steve, it would be so impactful for not only El to chose self-love, independence and platonic/familial relationships over romantic ones at the end of the show, but for Steve to also take a step back from romance—especially since he’s been shown to be constantly chasing girls since S1. Like @there-was-a-hole-here-itsgonenow said, having a young man who has been previously known as a “ladies man” of sorts ending up prioritizing platonic relationships over romantic ones would just be so great to see.

#steve harrington #character analysis #stranger things #byler #tagging byler because I trust y’all

14 notes · View notes

emiliasilverova · 2 years

Text

Putting the “Silver” in “Silverova”

(Or: a long post about my main Bondverse OC)

I was rewatching bits of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night—the version with Daniel Craig, that is. Mostly it was to confront the “trauma” (with big quotes; I should probably say “utter discomfort” instead) that this movie induced on me all those years ago. What I didn’t expect was to find out that, in fact, said movie influenced my writing, my themes, my characters a lot more than I thought. Subconsciously, though.

…

Alright. I need to talk about Silver.

Name: Kaiko Morikawa

Date of birth: January 3rd, 1988 [28 years old in-verse]

Place of birth: Kyoto, Japan

Nationality: Japanese and French

Localities frequented: Formerly based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Recently spotted in: Miami, Florida; Tangier, Morocco; Baku, Azerbaijan.

Occupation: freelance mercenary; assassin for the Janus Syndicate (formerly)

Physical description: Height 5 ft. 9 in (175 cm). Slim and toned, gender-neutral appearance. Complexion, light. Eyes, hazel. Hair black in a ponytail. Thin, oval face. Eurasian features. Right-handed.

Distinguishing marks: a silver-hued prosthetic left eye; a trepanation scar on her scalp, masked by her ponytail; marks of a removed tattoo on her left wrist.

Orientation: demisexual; demi- or aromantic

Extracts from MI6 file: Unclear relationship with the head of the Janus Syndicate. Intel gathered from Russian informants suggests that she climbed up all levels of the Syndicate’s hierarchy in the span of a few years, from errand girl all the way to one of Janus’ personal enforcers. However, according to 007's report, it appears that she broke away from her employer and is actively conspiring to eliminate him. The event triggering her defection, if she did defect, is unknown.

On a similar note, the way she came to Saint Petersburg from Kyoto also remains largely unexplained. According to Japanese records, the Morikawa family was brutally murdered by a local yakuza gang in 2005. The daughter—Kaiko Morikawa—has been missing ever since.

[…]

Mistrustful nature, prone to sarcasm to mask insecurity and anxiety. Has been observed to lash out in violence under stressful conditions, likely driven by an history of trauma. Rather quiet, introverted personality otherwise.

Uses switchblade knives as a weapon of choice, but has been trained to operate all kinds of Soviet/Russian weaponry (as can be expected from a Janus Syndicate operative).

***

So this is Silver. I call her that, by the way, because when I created her 15 years ago she was “SilverEye”—a female twist on GoldenEye, not the movie or satellite, but the main character of the obscure videogame GoldenEye Rogue Agent. I’ll try to steer away from that character and game here, otherwise I would digress in yet another rant. All you need to know is, they explain why she literally has a silver eye.

Silver is an extremely important character for me. Just as important as Alec/Janus, and that means a lot—those who know me (or who've just seen my Tumblr posts so far) surely can tell. But there’s the problem: Silver is an OC. That means I can’t quite talk about her as freely as about a canon character such as Alec. Because people either are not interested in, or outright frown at, OCs. Because that means having to explain her whole story, as it definitely isn’t included in the canon everyone knows. Oh, I tried to do that. 9 years of work, 90K+ words total, a monster of a longfic that I can’t write anymore because of all the retcons I would need to steer it in a satisfactory direction. This, people, is Missing Connection. The zone between fanfic and original fiction is a very weird one, I can tell you that much.

Yet, despite my writing hardships, I don’t want to stop talking about Silver. Her type of character is one I don’t feel I’ve seen often, especially in this fandom. Sure, Lisbeth Salander’s awful experiences influenced hers more than I ever expected (can't say too much about that btw, I'm trying to avoid spoilers on Missing Connection), as I found out last night. She draws from female characters like O-Ren Ishii, Beatrix Kiddo, the Major Kusanagi, Private Vasquez or Ellen Ripley, but also from male ones like Sonny Crockett, Dalton!Bond or Alec himself. Hell, when I read the Bond novels, sometimes she and book!Bond have the exact same kind of reactions or internal monologue.

But perhaps the most unusual thing about her is her gender identity/sexual orientation. She’s a cis woman, but she doesn’t give a damn about traditional femininity. It just doesn’t appeal to her, hence her gender-neutral presentation. She’s attracted to very few people not because of all the crap she went through in her life, but because that’s the way she rolls. She doesn’t fall in love, she thrives in (very trusted) friends with benefits relationships. And I’m not going to lie—I feel represented by her in that regard.

That being said, I could be wrong on her being uncommon. At the end of the day, I’m an isolated person who’s barely scratched topics like sexual orientation or gender identity. I also haven’t even read that many Bond fics. But still, no matter what, I want to keep Silver alive in one way or another. I want to keep exploring her identity, her 1980s aesthetics, her twisted relationship with Alec, her grey morality, her outsider’s point of view on the Bond universe, her struggle to keep her sanity among a bunch of insane canon characters… and so many other things. But what I also want is not to be doing that just for me. The lack of interaction has plagued me ever since I started writing, and I’m sick of it.

Lately, in the remix I penned of an MI6-centric fic, she appeared as 0011. That’s an alternate version of her of course, because there’s no way the actual Silver could be hired as a 00 agent. I’m not sure this is what I want to do with her in the long term, but at least that could be a good way to make her known by more people. As is this post. So, to you who have come so far into this: do you want to hear more about Silver in the future? If so, in what way/form? I’m genuinely curious to see your answers.

#007 Fest #007 Fest 2022 #Team00 #james bond #007 #bond villains #OC presentation #drawing #ace spectrum #just me agonizing over my OC's legitimacy #headcanon?#ramblings

10 notes · View notes

fortunemars · 4 months

Text

Beh me when I see someone defend ppl who neglect their daily lives and friends family and relationships to play games as (not directly quoted) "a distraction and coping mechanism to avoid (insert stupid doomer take on life)" and I'm just like.

Page break, rant below

Dude Idk about you but if you're so addicted to your games that you're refusing to leave the house or talk to people or do anything other than game, then you have some serious things to think about. Bc yes it can be a coping mechanism but there is a point where it does more harm than good.

Defending gaming addiction and saying that guys who play games 24/7 and neglect everything outside of their screens are just "struggling with coping with the horrors of life" is such an amazing way to 1- make neglected partners feel like absolute shit by telling them it's a coping mechanism and implying that getting upset about it makes them the bad person (cause that happened to me) and 2- tell people that it's okay to doom scroll through games 24/7 and ignore the world around you instead of giving them ways to ACTUALLY cope.

Yes you can cope by playing games. No you should not cope by ignoring the world around you and neglecting everything else.

Give people options to do instead, don't brush off the bad parts of a bad coping mechanism and just say it's okay bc "at least they're coping".

Btw this is absolutely not to say you can't have a hyperfixation! I'm ND, I know how intense those can be and I know how often I can get stuck doing something without even considering the outside world. What I'm talking about here is willingly choosing to ignore everything except your game so you don't have to deal with it. Avoidance is the worst thing on earth and we should not condone it in any way.

++btw I say "guys" and "men" this whole post, I just want to say that I know that isn't fair bc it's possible and very common in all genders and all types of ppl. I'm heavily biased in this conversation and I'm acknowledging that while also acknowledging that ANYONE can be neglectful or abusive especially in this way and I don't excuse any of that.

All people can be toxic, not just men and not just cis men, so don't let anyone get away with this shit bc you think it can't happen bc of their gender. Abuse does not conform to gender roles, it can happen to anyone and be perpetrated by anyone, gender doesn't change that. There are way too many people who are told and convinced that they were not/are not being abused because it doesn't match what people's idea of abuse looks like and that's horrible. Please don't downplay shitty treatment because of a person's traits.

Remember that You are the most important person in your life, you need to value yourself because if you lose yourself then there is no you to live through. Please don't avoid leaving someone who treats you like shit cause you don't want to be intense or drastic or "too much". It's not worth it to stay with someone that's hurting you. There is no excuse for abuse, you do not deserve to be hurt.

If it's safe for you, if you have somewhere to go or people able to protect you then please do not stay with a partner that is hurting you. No amount of pain inflicted on you is okay. You're never required to accept an apology, especially if there is no change. At the very least, try to accept help and ask for support. I know it can be hard to disconnect emotionally and that doesn't make you a bad person. Sometimes we just need help, that's completely okay.

(and if it's not possible for you to leave safely then that's okay too, remember to stay as safe as you can, protect yourself and reach out if it's possible. You are never less valid for staying with someone if you cannot escape, you're never less valid because you've been abused. We love you and we want you to be safe, safe and alive.)

#in response to the last thing i rebloged #i just think thats a stupid take #we arent over reacting or stupid for getting upset that our partners are neglecting us #if they're choosing to use an avoidant coping mechanism constantly without communicating with or working with us #then we shouldn't be told we're wrong for being hurt by it #we shouldn't excuse toxic behaviours by saying they're coping mechanisms. it just lumps ppl who use real ones in with the neglectful people #yeah giving ultimatums like this is shitty and we should absolutely try another way #but there are a lot of ppl who are never taught other ways to communicate #so maybe teach healthy communication skills instead of excusing shitty actions #tw abuse #tw neglect #tw vent #vent post

0 notes

somnianus · 3 years

Text

On Chinese and Eastern Dramatic Acting vs Western

Part 1 Part 2

Mostly in ref to the Untamed/Word of Honor, but applies to a lot of East Asian works-

I’ve been getting the sense that people I know from the west (also being Asian-American myself) often interpret Chinese/Japanese/Korean drama and theatre to be too corny/cheesy/over-acted. A quick search on some internet forums confirms this. Maybe it’s because I used to watch a lot of C-dramas when I was a kid (Legend of the Condor Heroes/Return of C Heroes/Journey to the West/The Reincarnated Princess/etc), I personally did not notice that the acting was over the top.

I don’t really speak for the quality of acting of these actors because I barely follow them in their careers, but I do know that some of them are immature actors or don’t have much formal training (which may cause the cheesiness above). However, Eastern dramatic acting in general does seem like a common complaint, so I decided to look into it - this is all coming from someone who JUST recently got back into watching C-dramas btw, doing my own research so don’t mind me if there’s some incorrect things down here, I am by NO means at all an expert in drama and theater (lol):

^Villains are often depicted with very exaggerated facial expressions (Above, Xue Yang, The Untamed)

Part 1

1. Chinese concept of mo vs western equivalent of “mimesis” or “imitation”

From this, an excellent chapter on Chinese theatrical concepts vs Western concepts.

Mo plays a significant part in traditional Chinese theatre, usually held to be antithetical to the realism of Western theatre because of its emphasis on theatricality.

Mo means mimesis or imitation, but in a very different sense from the Western concept. One of the first Chinese scholars to use this term, Fu Sinian, used it to compare Western theatre to Chinese theatre:

Presenting a real event and performing an entertaining show are not compatible. The former emphasizes imitation (yige zhong mofang^b); the latter stresses spontaneity and entertainment. The former performance produces a lifelike image; the latter has nothing to produce. The former puts emphasis on the plot; the latter puts emphasis on theatricality. Therefore they are completely contradictory to one another.

This guy actually goes onto critique Chinese theater, saying it should be more like Western realism, so that there will “be no singing, and the acting will imitate people’s real gestures.” However! Other Chinese critics tried to approach Western vs traditional Chinese drama as two DIFFERENT but still valid forms of art. For example, Yu Shangyuan (1927) said western performance is “writing realistically” (xie shi) and chinese performance as “writing suggestively” (xie yi). Western dramas really rely on an accurate/semi-accurate representation of life and realism. Traditional Chinese drama and acting relied on the “symbolic and imaginative.”

Then what is mo? It is the emotional display, the emotional revelation, that is shown on stage. Starting from the Yuan dynasty, the Chinese drama was thought to be a continuation of poetry rather than its own independent stage art.

Poetry is where the intent of the heart goes. Lying in the heart, it is “intent”; when uttered in words, it is “poetry.” When an emotion stirs inside, one expresses it in words; finding this inadequate, one sighs over it; not content with this, one sings it in poetry; still not satisfied, one unconsciously dances with one’s hands and feet. [anonymous, 1975, from Shi Daxu 200 BCE]

Chinese drama with dancing and singing, was the most expressive product of poetry. The importance of mo cannot be stressed enough - it is the measure by which traditional Chinese drama was judged, how well this drama make you feel? Love, pain, loss, guilt, happiness? Plot becomes something that doesn’t matter as much (more on that later).

^Beijing/Peking Opera - highly stylized, emotive, “unrealistic” performances

To emphasize how central and important this concept is, it’s thought that a good Chinese playwright never fails to “seize a highly dramatic scene to stage an elaborate presentation of an emotional state.”

Love is of source unknown, yet it grows ever deeper. The living may die of it, by its power the dead live again. [Peony Pavilion, Mu dan ting]

This quote really shows how important it was to show these emotions on stage, to inspire the audience to feel deeply. Chinese critics believed that the best part about drama was how efficient it is to display emotion. Playwrights should “depict extreme bitterness, extreme happiness, extreme silliness, and extreme sobriety; imitate these feelings to the utmost (miao mo jin xing^p).”

Such performances are not necessarily accurately mimicking reality, but they are obtained through the “revelation” of a character’s internal emotional world.

2. Mo vs the depiction of reality or theatrical truth

The Chinese concept of aesthetic truth relates a lot to theatrical truth. In a lot of traditional Chinese art, painting, poetry, etc, aesthetic truth is not empirical, and doesn’t have to be accurate to life, or realistic. It’s a “truth that lies beyond mere superficial likeness.”

To the Chinese artist, an accurate resemblance between art and reality is not only superficial but often distorting. Chinese artists hold a dialectical view on the “form” (xing) and the “spirit” or “content” (shen) of an artistic object. According to them, xing and shen are not always complementary. On the contrary, they often stand in opposition to one another. (referenced in the chapter above)

Traditional Chinese artists would rather represent the object with the wish that their representation matches its spirit, or abstract identity, than its actual form because a “photographic image is a shallow image.” It’s easy to draw a picture of something realistically, but it’s much harder and more satisfying to depict its nature, its feeling, its spirit.

This also naturally affects theater and dramatic performances.

Dramatic writing can be divided into two types: “a painting-like work” or a “transformed work,” in which the latter has higher artistic value because it reaches more towards the essence of dramatic object. Realistic imitations are fine, but they’re not really enough to reveal the mo or true feelings of something.

In addition, traditional Chinese dramatists believe that “all dramas are nothing but allegories. One need not ask about their origins in actual life.” You might be able to see, then, that these older playwrights and critics really fancied the overdramatic depictions of emotions.

a. The Chinese notion of theatrical truth/aesthetic truth vs European

Onto what we, as part of the Western audience, are more used to:

For Italian neoclassical critics, the pleasure of a drama hinges on how accurate, how realistic, the depiction is. Castelvetro, the leading Italian Neo-Classical critic and creator of the concept of “the three unities,” claims thus:

We cannot imagine a king who did not exist, nor attribute any action to him.

Another Italian critic, Robortellus, said that a creative/imaginative story with no “verisimilitude” (truthfulness, in this context, realism) is less appealing than one that imitates a real-life event:

Thus if a tragic plot contained an action which did not really take place and was not true, but was represented by the poet himself in accordance with verisimiltude, it would perhaps move the souls of the auditors, but certainly less.

So basically, it’s fundamentally the opposite of Chinese theater. Italian dramatic works prized being realistic, being properly adapted from reality and real events. Chinese dramatic works, however, enjoyed the emphasis on heartfelt emotional demonstrations, or mo. Even in critical writings, the word “truth” is used, but it is usually used to modify the word “heart” or “emotion.” It is very concerned with the internal, the truthfulness of heartfelt emotional expression.

Taken these contexts, you can see why the Chinese stage/dramas are wholly “unreal” as Tao-Ching Hsu puts it. Everything, the makeup, the costumes, the props, is expressive and suggestive rather than imitative.

b. Bejing/Peking Opera, jingju

A famous example is the Beijing/Peking Opera, jingju. The makeup and costumes themselves are fantastical representations. The colors and patterns suggest different moods, temperaments, characters, and even changes in emotions. Actors would make distinct movements to depict distinct emotions with varying levels of energy. The stage itself may be sparse, because it is not as important as the expression of emotion and drama.

The stage is sparse not because of the lack of technology or funding, but because it leaves room for the actor themselves to fully express their internal thinking/feeling/emotions. Characters can cross hundreds of miles in a few steps or may take the whole stage to cross a supposed road. This representation looks “unreal” to a realistic-minded audience, but it is very genuine to a Chinese audience.

Summary (so far)

This crucial understanding of the concept of mo (the emotional revelation), and the way traditional Chinese drama depicts life and stories, informs how their modern works are also portrayed. Coming from a Western dramatic background, where realism and plot are the most important aspects of a work, it can be very confusing, right? Even Chinese scholars began to judge their own dramatic works through a Western lens.

How does this traditional background affect modern Chinese dramas and works? I think it still has a very large effect, even though much of Western ideals about dramatic works have been heavily integrated into modern Chinese dramas.

Part 2: On Theatricality and how it transfers into Chinese Cinema

#cdramas #theater #acting style #beijing opera #the untamed #word of honor #kdramas #jdramas #theatricality #east asian cinema

122 notes · View notes

meowlayn-art · 4 years

Text

💜 💀Someone reposted my work on Pinterest, and I am NOT happy. 💀💜

So it has been brought to my attention by a dear fellow artist that someone uploaded my Lucifer piece on their Pinterest. I wrote it on EVERY bio of EVERY social media I have : DO. NOT. REPOST. MY. ARTWORK. Anywhere. PERIOD.

The person who uploaded the artwork told me they got that image from a different source than my social media (not an excuse, btw, and again, my watermark says ‘do not repost”) but funny enough, they do not remember where. (°◡°♡) And it was in good quality meaning someone either took it for Tumblr, or Twitter in the first place.

SO.

I already explained it in great length why it is extremely damaging to repost someone else’s artwork when I reblogged this very important post from @otonymous.

But I guess it wasn’t enough. So here are a few lines and doodles, in attempt to explain why it is damaging for content creators to get our work stolen (and I very much insist on this word) and then reposted without our consent and knowledge, especially when some of us are relying on it as a direct or indirect source of income.

Shady argument #1 : “it’s free to use”

This argument is often used and actually comes from a conversation I had with a (former) follower of mine on Instagram that reposted (and unfortunately, still repost) artwork found on Google and Pinterest (this is another case, and it wasn’t my own work, but sadly enough, it proves my point).

I won’t enter too much into details regarding copyright infringement laws (since every part of the globe has a different way to protect content creators: in the US you have the DMCA, in France and most european countries we have basically le “droit d’auteur” or “author’s rights”) but basically finding a content on the internet DOES NOT give you permission to reuse / repost this content elsewhere. NEVER HAD. Usually if you find artwork on Google Image or Pinterest that’s because other people stole them from social media / websites and put them on another platform.

Shady argument #2 : “the watermark”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA no. It doesn’t work like that. (plus what type of monster would remover a watermark, uh ?)

This amazing tweet from GraphicFighter explains in very simple and educational words why reposting never benefits the artist (they even gives statistics), and why it is overall very bad for illustrators, watermark or not.

Not only because watermarks can be hard to read (especially if an alphabet / symbol system you don’t know), but also because almost no one bothers to click on our social media links when they exists – that’s basic web user behaviour.

So do you really thing they’ll have a look at the watermark and bother looking for the artist ? Nah.

Shady argument #3 : “hey artist, it’s your fault”

This one also comes from a conversation I had with someone who kept reposting artworks, and I quote their words :

the fact that the photos are freely available on Google means that they are open for use. If this is not the case, then the artists themselves have to limit it in some way, so this is the problem with them.

Needless to say, I nearly choked when I read this last sentence. It is 2020, aren’t we past always blaming the victims ?

In this day and age, Internet is the most efficient way for us to gain visibility and have a chance to get hired for jobs, so of course we post on the net. That doesn’t justify ANYONE reposting our content.

As of today, I have seen ONCE (and only ONCE) an artist put a Pinterest pin creator on their website (a tool that helps you create a pin from whatever content from their website). That is their PERSONAL CHOICE, and one that enables them to have control and redirect directly to their website once someone see their work on Pinterest. I can with confidence say that this is an exception that proves the rules and that shouldn’t justify reposting other’s artists content without at least their consent.

So again, we artists, in the vast majority, DO NOT choose to have our content put OUTSIDE of our social media. We cannot track it to see if it wasn’t linked to something shady, we cannot make sure people see our websites, we basically DO NOT HAVE CONTROL OF OUR CONTENT ANYMORE. If you found it on the net, it is probably because some other people TOOK IT, and put them “in the open” on the internet without a care in the world so no, it is NOT and will never be an artist’s fault.

YOU REALLY WANT TO REPOST ?

Don’t just assume every content creator is ok with reposts because a few content creators allow it with credit (and they do as they please, I am not here to judge them for that).

If you really, really wish to ASK if you can repost someone’s artwork and want to contact the artist but don’t know how, you can google their name (if the watermark hasn’t been cropped), make the effort to look for them on social media, or even use Reverse image Search on Google Image.

If we, content creators, spend hours and hours on a piece that you enjoy, the very least you can do is spend a few minutes to look for our name.

And if you don’t manage to find the source of a specific content despite your efforts ? Do. NOT. Repost it. Anyway. Is it frustrating for you ? Yes, it might. But not as frustrating and devastating as it will be for the person from who you steal their work and often, their livelihoods from.

💜 WHAT REALLY HELPS 💜

Reblog, retweet (without comments), reshare in your Instagram stories : show your favorite creators your love THE RIGHT WAY - a way for them to keep creating content and getting rewarded / paid for it.

Thank you.

#psa #repost culture #please do not repost #reposting #long post #I usually am super chill but this time I AM UPSET #I don't know if you can tell

969 notes · View notes

queerbrujas · 4 years

Note

so you said you could write an essay about n's bisxuality, could you expand further on that 😳 btw i absolutely enjoy your "ramblings" and every thought you put out on your blog is so well-articulated and thought out ♡ please ramble anytime

Oh anon, bless you for this, I was highkey hoping someone would ask, lol (and thank you so much for the sweet words! you are wonderful and please accept all my love).

I’m gonna bring up one of my fics a little bit here, not to be self-centered but just because these are, once again, definitely things I’m trying to touch on with them. I have a lot of thoughts on this topic and just generally about N’s relationship history. And I do apologize in advance because this will end up a rambling mess, lmao. Under a cut because it got long:

This fandom is obviously heavy on the female player base, so most of what gets explored and written about and depicted is M/F pairings with m!UB and F/F pairings with f!UB. I’m definitely part of this trend too, because all my detectives are women. So, because we tend to see the same type of content (and to everyone who is creating M/M, NB/M, and NB/F content: you are all a wonderful and valuable voice in this fandom), remembering that these characters are bisexual (pan in M’s case) seems pretty important to me, as well as just a really interesting thing to explore in general.

And N in particular is such a fascinating character for this because unlike any of the others, they’ve been actively having romantic relationships for the past 300 years. A hasn’t been involved in any (at least since turning), F has only been in our world for 7 years so they've only encountered modern values, and M only has sex (which is its own issue). But N has been navigating dating and relationships for three centuries and this includes changing attitudes towards, well, everything. Gender and sexuality being one of those things. And I think we can safely assume the relationships they’ve had have been with people of different genders.

And yeah, most supernaturals are bi, the Agency has probably always been fairly open about these things because they have a different mindset from humans, etc., etc. But historical context is still a thing, and I think it’s interesting to explore it. (This is why I said that these thoughts 100% extend beyond canon, because I don’t think it’s something that will or even necessarily needs to be explored in-game, I just have a lot of feelings).

So, one of my WIPs involves Nat having a relationship with a human woman in the 1940s. This is obviously very different from Nate having a relationship with a human woman in the 1940s. There are codes that need to be navigated and things that need to be implied instead of said outright and so on. But then, it’s not only relationships with women that they’ve had, is it?

So how does Nate pursue a relationship with a man in, say, 1850? It would be very different from how he'd have approached a relationship with a woman in the same time period. How does Nat pursue a relationship with a man in 1850, knowing as we do that N has always been the pursuer in relationships, the one to make the romantic gestures? That's a very interesting dynamic flip to have, and something I’d love to see. I see N as being someone who is very aware of societal codes and absolutely not above using them in their favor if there’s something they want/someone they're interested in and want to charm—all that subtle gauging of interest and tentative comments that we see with the detective just fit into this.

Tangentially related sidenote here: one of the reasons I, and I think many others, love Nate (and love the idea of having Nate and Ava in the same universe) are the typically quote unquote 'feminine' traits that he has, a male character who is nurturing and gentle and open about his feelings. Many words have been written on this so I won’t repeat what others have said. But it wasn't until I started writing Nat in a historical context that I realized she's also quite subversive in her own way, with her confidence and the way she’s presented in general (another bit I bring up in my fic, in one of the snippets I've posted—whiskey was a man's drink, for a very long time, so Nat drinking it becomes noteworthy in a way it just wouldn't be for Nate).

So basically, because this has been more questions than anything else, we have a character who's been navigating romantic relationships for 300 years as a bisexual man/woman (of color, no less) and that really just makes me go even more heart eyes for N.

#nate sewell #nat sewell #the wayhaven chronicles #this was a mess but i have Thoughts #twc thoughts #n asks

114 notes · View notes

allaganexarch · 3 years

Note

I've been considering writing fanfic but am worried that I'm not talented and that people might be mean. Any tips on getting over either of those things? Do you just have to like, go for it? I love your work btw! 🖤

dooooo iiiiiiit joinnnnn usssssss

There’s a great quote from the movie Carol that goes something like – “Isn’t talent something other people let you know you have? All you can do is keep working. Use what feels right, throw away the rest.”

My biggest piece of advice, and my personal guiding principle, is to write something that YOU want to read. I like reading my own fics, because I write about the characters and scenarios I find most interesting, I issue personal challenges to myself that I find fun and rewarding, and I write in a way that I generally like. I think writing to please yourself specifically takes at least some of the pressure off. I won’t lie and say that others’ approval doesn’t matter to me, but I find that if you like your idea and think it would make a good story, there is SOMEONE else out there who has been waiting to see it, or didn’t know they wanted it until you wrote it!

This may just be my own personal experience, and specifically on AO3, but I find that people are generally much nicer about fanfic than they used to be. Avid fic readers tend to appreciate your effort, and fellow writers tend to be happy to hype you up. You’re not likely to get blatantly rude comments on your first fanfic, for example, no matter the objective quality.

I’d say the greatest danger to look out for is people being sort of underhandedly discouraging—people who might seem to mean well, but the things they say just rub you the wrong way for reasons you’ll have a hard time working out. Maybe they feel that their personal taste in fic or writing is somehow objectively correct, or maybe they feel a bit entitled or attached to certain fandom interpretations of the source material or characters. This is, I think, a worst-case scenario. Another worst-case is just receiving very little or no feedback, though this can be mitigated by forming personal connections with fellow fandom people.

If you’re nervous about sharing your work, I’d say it definitely helps to find trusted friends to share it with first, or a discord-type thing of like-minded people. There are lots of fandom/ship discords, for example, and I’m sure also writing discords, though that isn’t my scene personally. Engaging with the fandom(s) you want to write for can also help you gauge your potential audience, and what kind of reception new writers tend to get. Some fandoms are very welcoming, while others can be a little more tight-knit, for lack of a better word, and might take more time to break into. Bigger fandoms can be saturated with content, while smaller ones might not even check for new content right away. I wouldn’t get too bogged down in this, it’s just good information to know going in so you might have a better idea of how you will be received as a newcomer.

If you are nervous about things like typos or structural issues, you can ask someone to proofread your work for you, but honestly—be careful not to let a fear of mistakes or a tendency towards perfectionism take away your fun. This isn’t published fiction or an academic paper—it doesn’t have to be technically flawless. I’d bet almost every single one of my all-time favourite fics had a typo or an odd sentence somewhere—it’s really not that important. If you want to write fanfic, chances are that means you have a story you want to tell. That’s what’s important. Write to appeal to yourself first and foremost, and as I said earlier, if you like reading your story, chances are good that someone else will, too!

I hope this has been mildly helpful, and please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you on your journey!

#and thank you so much also!#exciting tag for writing things #exciting tag for answered asks #i wrote this in word so let us all pray that the formatting does not go to hell when i post it

9 notes · View notes

jcisthebestfightme · 4 years

Text

BJYX Song #15: Summer’s Wind

BJYX Song List

Disclaimer: This is all a dream. Actually though, I’ve procrastinated this song so much that it started haunting me in my dream as an overdue assignment for school so I definitely need to write this to get it out of my system.

The song I wanted to write about today is “Summer’s Wind (夏天的风)” by Landy Wen in 2004. This song’s melody was written by Jay Chou, one of dd’s favorite artist. This song wasn’t super famous back then but now is often seen in tiktok in China because of covers. I’m not sure if it was as widely popular when gg quoted in 2018. Gg knows a lot of songs and often dig up sorta obscured (at least not super popular) songs that he likes.

An extensive backstory about gg’s post on this song and his trip in Japan can be found in this amazing post written by @twolonesomestars. The most important kadian about this post is that it was the 521th Weibo post and 18th Weibo video (he had to delete some stuff to get here.) Also, something that wasn’t mentioned was that his post kadian at the time “12:43″ and 2:43 in the song corresponds to the line “I look at your cool smile, yet there are times when it’s shy.” I think this line perfectly describes dd and also gg has said that his first impression of dd is shy, instead of the cold aloof description other people usually give him. This kadian further strengthens that this song is about dd. We have also seen gg kadian the time of his post to the lyrics of songs before, as seen in “Nan Hai” and a song from the album “Kepler” (not that song though).

youtube

I’m going to channel in gg’s circumstance after filming TU and Japan trip for this analysis.

七月的風懶懶的 (July’s wind is lazy)

連雲都變熱熱的 (Even the wind became hot)

不久後天悶悶的 (Soon, the weather is getting stuffy)

一陣雲後雨下過 (Rain came after a cloud went by)

Right off the bat, as with the title, there are a lot of motifs we’ve already seen before like “wind”, “cloud”, and the over theme of “summer.” To me, “wind” is something this is transient and can symbolize feelings that can come and go. This is probably something gg was struggling with, whether his feelings for dd or dd’s feelings for him is transient like “July’s wind”. The first stance also described the discomfort of summer’s heat, which we know they complained about when filming CQL. Metaphorically though, I think the heat and “stuffiness” represents stuffed-up emotions, and the “rain” that came washes away those feeling and brought some clarity, which may be what gg came to realized post-Japan.

氣溫爬升到無法再忍受 (Temperature, has climbed to a point of unbearable)

索性閉上了雙眼 (I just closed my eyes)

讓想象任意改變 (Let imagination morph and change freely)

I think the “temperature” and “heat” described can be about the electrifying connection and feelings between two people. It’s almost like the sexual tension has climbed to a point of unbearable limit for them, but they don’t know what to do with it. With reality that is hitting them after filming, they can only imagine all the different scenarios and happy ending they can have.

場景兩個人一起散著步 (The scene is two people walking together)

我的臉也輕輕貼著你胸口 (My face softly rest against your chest)

聽到心跳 (I hear your heartbeat)

在乎我和天氣一樣溫度 ([You] care about me, just like the weather’s temperature)

Doesn’t this entire part just sounds like a very vivid picture of the entire filming of TU, especially since the first line even said a “scene”? Two people walking together, one in white, one in black. While filming, gg often have to rest into dd’s arms. It’s all very pure and romantic. No wonder this song can remind gg of the summer in 2018.

夏天的風我永遠記得 (Summer’s wind, I will always remember)

I think summer’s wind is something carries feelings for gg. He said he will always remember that summer and those feelings. After filming wrapped, I think he wasn’t sure how long this wind will carry. There was too much uncertainty at that moment. In the end of 2019, we know he sang a song about summer’s wind lasting throughout the year into other season so we received the answer that this wind, and thus love, will persist. But in end of summer in 2019, this certainty was not there. All gg can be sure of is that he will always remember that summer, those wind, those mountain, because it’s very precious to him.

清清楚楚的說你愛我 (Clearly say you love me)

I can see dd being very honest about his feelings that summer. Dd is not the type to hide what he feels and he probably expressed to gg clearly how he felt. But I think gg needed some time to think so he went to Japan, also to shed the character of WWX and his love for LWJ. But I think this line is gg acknowledging that he knows of dd’s feelings and how candid, sincere, and unambiguous dd’s feelings are. It also juxtaposed gg’s possibly jumbled feelings. I don’t think it’s that gg love dd less or that he’s uncertain of his feelings. I personally think he was certain of his feelings on 6/22/18 when he posted “If I were a song”. But I think he has a lot of different emotions that is coming to him all at once and he need some time to sort them out one by one. I can relate to having overwhelming emotions and also thoughts due to too many concerns and I think gg is also the type to get in that state.

我看見你酷酷的笑容 (I saw your cool smile)

也有靦腆的時候 (There are also times when it’s shy)

This is the line that I think gg kadian to describe dd. “Cool smile” is a very good description of dd, and probably the way most people who don’t know him well will say that is their first impression of him. Dd seems aloof and is overall a cool guy but unapproachable. But gg was the only that said that dd was “shy” to him on first impression. He saw through dd right away, that dd is hiding behind a shell of ice because he’s scared. Dd is a very sensitive person and he’s afraid that others won’t like him or how others see him so he protect himself by acting cold. But like this line and also gg’d interview that he has said before, once dd opens up, he’s very warm and adorable, and that dd likes to laugh a lot. It’s such a precious relationship to have someone that truly understands you and see the best of you.

夏天的風正暖暖吹過 (Summer’s wind, is currently warmly blowing)

穿過頭髮穿過耳朵 (Going through hair, going through ears)

The “summer’s wind”, which are the emotions from the summer is currently passing through the entirety of the body, so it’s enveloping all parts of gg and dd. “Hair” and “ears” also also parts of the body that ggdd like to touch each other often when filming, as we seen from the bts clips. If I remember correctly, gg’s ears are very sensitive and doesn’t really like other people touching them (I remember a clip of his X-Nine’s member either touching or blowing into his ears and he flinched away.) But we can see dd touching gg’s ears in the TU bts. This means that gg lets dd have these intimate touches, just like these summer’s wind.

你和我的夏天 (Yours and my summer)

風輕輕說著 (The wind is softly saying)

This line is probably the most straightforward part of the song. The “summer” that just ended in gg’s post in 2018, belongs to 2 people. This the message of “summer’s wind”. The wind is saying that this summer is love between 2 people, and these 2 people can only be ggdd.

溫柔懶懶的海風 (Gentle and lazy ocean’s wind)

吹到高高的山峰 (Blow up high to the mountain’s peak)

溫的風山的鋒 (The warmth of the wind, the peak of the mountain)

吹成了山風 (Has became mountain’s wind)

This part to me is signifying change in feelings. The “gentle” and “lazy” warm ocean’s wind is like the ambiguous, fun, but uncertain relationship they had in the summer. They’re in a warm and safe place for these feelings to be able to developed, since they were pretty sheltered when filming. But once filming has ended, this warm “ocean’s wind” has converted into “mountain’s wind.” Mountain’s wind to me is much colder and harsher, and signifies the harshness of reality and the difficulties they will need to face going back to the real world. But it can also be that this warm, soft wind has now strengthened, that it can become sharper, and able to face the harsh climates of the mountains.

為什麼你不在 (Why are you not here?)

問山風你會回來 (Asking the mountain’s wind if you will come back)

Gg went to Japan with his friends (I think friends from college. He did not go with wzc btw, I just found this out like 2 weeks ago lol.) But dd was not there. And I think part of gg’s reluctancy at this moment is that he wasn’t sure if dd will always be as certain of his love as they did that summer. I don’t think it has anything to do with dd’s age, character, or anything he said. Honestly for anyone that has ever been in love, especially when the relationship just started, there will be some insecurity and you worry if the other person will love you forever or if they will change their minds and abandon you. I think this is a feeling that we can all relate to. So right now, gg may feel like it’s just him and “mountain’s wind”, which is the converted version of his love form the summer, and he’s unsure if dd will come back for him but it seems to me like gg is waiting on the mountains if dd every come, just like how WWX waited at the end of TU on the mountain for LWJ to come get him.

Overall, I think this song “Summer’s Wind” represent an end of gg’s ambiguous feelings of flirtation in the summer of 2018 while filming TU. In this post, he said “Summer’s wind has ended.” But I don’t think this necessary means his feelings for dd has ended (Spoiler alert, it didn’t.) It’s just that that stage of their relationship has come to a close and they need to find a way to open up a new chapter of their life together.

#bjyx #yizhan

56 notes · View notes