#huge blow on the pride tbh
Note
When Fake Peppino got defeated infront of that giant crowd, did some clones think they might've had a chance on taking him on after seeing him get his ass kicked by Peppino?
Only for a moment.
#fake took the loss very hard#he’s never been beat before#and here comes some fat assed Italian out of left field to ruin his killstreak#huge blow on the pride tbh#skull issue#he wanted to kill pep so bad#pizza tower#fake Peppino#Peppino#gore#body horror#peppino clone#ask
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Alright people, it's time for more Villain Leo lore!!!
Today we are diving into Leo and Splinter's relationship!!!
Read under the cut because this got so LONG, these two have so many issues and there was so much to work with.
Alright, so it's no secret that Leo and Splinter have a....less than ideal relationship. You can see throughout all of TMNT history that Leo looks up to Splinter an insane amount, and Rise Leo is no different.
This boy looked up to Lou Jitsu his whole life, and we can often see him doing the same movements and catchphrases that Lou did. Granted, all the boys do, but Leo seems particularly attached to Lou
And we've all seen the smile comparisons, it's insane how similar his grandiose smile is to Lou Jistu's.
The point is, Leo really looks up to his dad, and we can see this in his actions and attitudes towards not only Lou Jitsu, but also Splinter in canon.
"Trust me pops!"
I mean, just look at how happy he is to be there with his dad, in his element. This episode is Leo at his peak, outsmarting everyone and predicting his family's moments to the letter.
Also, idk about you, but that smile seems incredibly genuine. That's not even a Lou Jitsu smile, that's a 100% Hamato Leonardo smile at his dad whom he looks up to so much.
And what does Splinter say to his son's ask for trust?
"I knew I should have brought Purple!"
....what.
That is his SON. His 14, maybe 15 year old son, who is asking for his father to trust him.
....and he responds by saying that he wishes he had brought his more intelligent twin brother instead, who he has already shown an implied favoritism towards in the past
"And I thought Purple was the funny one!"
"Told you guys I was the funniest."
This is a pretty harmless comment tbh, but Leo takes so much pride in his quips, one-liners and puns that this had to sting a little bit.
There's such a huge amount of content to sift through when it comes to these two, and that fact actually saddens me because I had SO MUCH to pick from when making this post, but here's some highlights.
One thing that I noticed while watching a Splinter and Leo compilation is that during the memory episode, Leo is the only one Splinter directly hits
NONE of the other three were directly hit like this is any point in the episode and yeah, this could totally be played off as a bit or just a case of wrong place, wrong time, but we'll get to my theory later, right now I'm just laying out the facts.
An important detail I'd like to point out here too is Leo's face after the first hit.
Guys, he looks HURT. Donnie and Raph are looking at him, checking that he's okay, but he is looking right past them at the shadow Splinter, who is dressed and looks just like his childhood idol, who just hit him specifically right in the face.
Not only his idol even. No, the most pure and unfiltered representation of his father, the man who's raised him his whole life.
And he just got hit in the face.
Ouch. For a kid as emotive as Leo (who I honestly think feels his emotions even more intensely than Mikey when he lets them out), this is a devastating blow. Literally.
Then, let's talk about this scene, you all knew it was coming.
"Can someone tell my son I am NOT TALKING TO HIM!!"
"You got this pops! I love you!"
Guys this scene hurts my heart. Like, once again, he can't be older than 15 at this point. Yeah he's being a badass stratigiser this whole episode, but you cannot convince me that he wasn't at least a little excited to see his dad, his HERO in action, and wearing a matching outfit as well, and show his dad, his idol and hero, exactly what he's capable of. Leo absolutely worships the ground Splinter walks on and what does his father have to say to his son"s encouragement??
"NO!"
GAHHHH like yes, Leo was kinda being a little shit this whole episode and could have clued his dad in on the plan a little bit, but honestly that could have ruined everything if Splinter had any holdbacks.
Not to mention, this is the only Leo and Splinter episode we get. Donnie gets the derby, Mikey gets the Hidden City bonding, even Raph gets the ending of the memory episode, and in each, they have a genuine moment of bonding with Splinter.
Splinter never ONCE apologized for his actions in this episode. Not once. RAPH is the one who tells Leo in this episode later on that he trusts Leo, something he's been begging Splinter for the entire time.
All of a sudden, this moment doesn't seem so out of place.....
"I love you soooo much!" "No, no you don't, I'm your least favorite!!"
This line could totally just be a throwaway line, but as it was pointed out to me by the wonderful @nardos-primetime, the alarms that the boys did for Google home have a REALLY upsetting one for Leo
youtube
Go to about 1:57 and listen to that one and just......cry.
NOW that line in "Rat Flu" makes a LOT more sense. Splinter LAUGHED at Leo when he asked if he was his favorite. LAUGHED at him.
But wait, you may ask. What about the ending? Splinter made Leo the leader, obviously he trusts him!
....yeah, just take a look at their faces here.
Donnie and Mikey are basically horrified beyond belief and in complete shock
Raph is.....blue screening, honestly
And Leo looks completely taken aback and shocked and scared and honestly, I don't blame him. There is absolutely NO precedence for Splinter to do this. He has proved time and time again that he does NOT trust Leo, he never ONCE tells Leo that he trusts him even though he asks for that trust during the entirety of "Unhappy Returns". NONE of them look happy about this new change.
You could see this as Splinter finally giving Leo a chance, but I see this a lot more as one of the more popular Fandom interpretations of Splinter wanting to give Raph a break. Raph had a huge breakdown during the finale and I don't think it's unreasonable for Splinter to have heard of that and decide that his beloved eldest needed a chance to recover.
Who better to pass this burden on to than his least favorite son!
We also see in the movie that this shift in power dynamics really doesn't do much other than create a lot of interpersonal conflict between Leo and Raph, something Splinter does absolutely nothing to help out with, other than telling them to quiet down.
Now that we have all of our evidence (and I put more work into getting evidence for this than for the English project I'm supposed to be doing right now can I just cite this as a source for me being capable of gathering evidence???) we can actually get into the analysis of how this all would affect him.
First of all, I mentioned that I would discuss the repercussions of the memory episode. This analysis is more for Splinter, but I feel like it's still important. We've seen time and time again that Leo is very similar to how Splinter was as a young teen in both looks and attitude. If Splinter truly resents his younger self and how he acted, it would make a lot of sense for him to also subconsciously resent his son who acts a lot like himself at that age. This would cause him to lash out at Leo in his subconscious, the one place where his true thoughts and feelings are on full display.
I just wanna point out his face again here, Leo looks so hurt. He definitely already knows that he's not anywhere near Splinter's favorites at this point, but it still hurts him to see that get confirmed.
This brings me to my next point of Leo's psyche. He is a very confident, witty, smart teenager, but he's still just that. A teenager. He's anxious, insecure, and very self-reliant. He looks to others for praise often and rarely receives it, usually having to hype himself up. His relationship with Splinter only emphasizes these qualities about him and makes Leo look so much worse in Splinter's eyes because his son is just a modern-day representation of his past self.
Now let's put this into perspective of Leo's decent into villainy.
If Leo is hurting and under the impression that his brothers are maybe starting to dislike him, even hate him, adding Splinter on to this can only make it worse.
Maybe he goes to his dad for tips on how to lead when he feels like he can't talk to Raph anymore and needs his father's advice.
Maybe he sets up a dinner for him and Splinter to just chat and bond instead of sitting at the dinner table with another one of Mikey's meals that he feels too sick with anxiety from his little brother's disappointed looks to eat.
Maybe he goes to his father crying from another nightmare after not feeling welcomed in Donnie's lab anymore after they fought for an hour the day before.
And maybe, just maybe, Splinter waves him off every time.
Forgets.
Laughs at him.
I mean, this is a kid who relys on others to build him up, to praise him and love him because after all....
Who is he without his family?
Maybe it's time to find out.
First // Previous // Next
Link to an AMAZING ficlet by the FANTASTIC @beetleviolet
#rottmnt#rottmnt leo#rise of the tmnt#leonardo#tmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#villain leo au#master splinter#Splinter#leonardo hamato#hamato yoshi#lou jitsu#Rise analysis#rise of tmnt#rise tmnt#rise leo#teenage mutant ninja turtles
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Thin On The Ground Thursday
Thanks @forabeatofadrum for the tag, and for all the tags over the last 2 months while I basically disappeared off the face of the earth.
I've not been up to very much, tbh because all of my energy and brain space has been taken up by work. I've been working hard on my apprenticeship work on top of my full time job, which is currently feeling extra tough. I'm feeling generally good about it; I do think this sort of challenge is going to be particularly good for me, but it is tiring.
I've tried to make an extra effort to keep up contact with friends and actually see people in person, in order to combat the stress and depression spiral I know I could easily fall into with all the extra work, and it is helping. I went to a drag show last week with some friends and we had a great time.
Today I went to a very exciting meeting at work about organising my hometown's first ever Pride event. Not to blow my own horn but it's only happening because I went to a meeting I wasn't invited to and made some noise about why we don't have Pride... And now we're getting Pride! This is another thing to add to my huge list of work commitments, but I refuse to give it up (despite a member of my team having a dig about how much time I'm spending on other things 😒).
Tomorrow I'm having my lashes done in my lunch break for a hen do I absolutely don't want to go to on Saturday 🙃 (love the bride, just don't know anyone else at the hen do and don't have the energy).
Anyway, I've waffled on far past anyone's limit for reading. Well done if you've made it this far 🥲
Won't tag anyone because it's late but I hope you've all had a good week! 🖤
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🍓 🍩 for Gabriel?
Switching gears everyone. It's Gabing time.
Hello Ty for the ask!!! :D
Answers UTC⬇️ - Ask game here!
🍓 - what's a bad habit your f/o has?
Hmm well this is difficult, as he is an angel of the Lord! Not that he doesn't have his flaws but he has very few vices or temptations because he's not drawn to sin like humans can be. BUT I would definitely say he has a bad habit of pride. Not in the sense of thinking highly of himself specifically, but having so much pride in his angelic status that he falsely believed for many, many years that angels could not ever be in the wrong. (Incorrect) (Do you not remember Lucifer?? That whole thing?? You were there for that babe) Despite making many mistakes over his lifetime, he has always believed he was right and just for doing so, and that his actions were the Will of God. And despite having done away with it, that way of thinking still seeps into other parts of his life/personality if he isn't careful.
He also struggles with anger, especially directed at himself. He has a habit of ruminating on his past and he sees many of his victories as failures in hindsight. Sometimes he has outbursts, followed by periods of isolation. He's by no means perfect, but I still love him. Hu band <3
🍩 - what are some irl things that remind you of your f/o?
OH OH OH!!!! Well. Angels/angelic imagery, obviously. Old Orthodox Catholic hymns and chants... Any song ever played on a huge pipe organ... Also?? White button up T-shirt + gold jewelry combo. The lamp in my room <3 (Has a very warm glow like how I imagine Gabriel to have).
And one time I was blowing bubbles at sunset with my little cousin and the light bounced off the bubbles in a way that reminded me of those little glowy circles/sparkles that surround him when he uses God's Light <3 <3 <3
This is the only decent one I could find with the sparkles but TRUST ME there are little circles that pop up, they're most visible when he teleports long distances. Which tbh was ALSO super jarring to get used to lol.. Um ... Yeah I like hhim <333 He's ummmmmmm <333333 My baby my hubby my lovebug my handsomd
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pet!Muzan (tbh all your pet AUs but Muzan is the most interesting) but like... reader has a life, ya know? You keep a demon as a pet and all, sure, but you go out, you get stuff to eat, you flirt with pretty people. And sometimes, when you get home, when you get horny; you get yourself off. Muzan can hear it, too. Stockholm syndrome + the fact that he has literally nothing to entertain himself with... hmMMMmmm
At first, Muzan is just plain disgusted with what he hears. He hates being owned, in the first place, and being witness to that from his captor is unpleasant, to say the least. But as time goes on, as he gets increasingly bored and stir-crazy, and as whatever scraps of kindness you give him start digging in their claws, Muzan develops a bit of a new outlook. It's something, and in the end, it starts to get to him. With absolutely no contact in that regard (and him knowing that his heats will soon be inevitable), there's a part of him that wants to just give in and let himself fantasize. Listening to you... it's easy for his thoughts to wander.
The first time he gets himself off to the thoughts of what he can hear, it's the beginning of the end. He hasn't touched himself like this in ages, and the fact that it's to helpless longings for the person who owns him is a huge blow to whatever's left of Muzan's pride. He can't stop thinking about having any form of real intimacy or kindness, even as he hates himself for being weak enough to long for it. The worst part is that the more he thinks about having any kind of real closeness, the more he wants it.
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Poorly describing my versions of the Gotham rogues:
Joker: “yolo” in its most dangerous form, def is writing a slow burn enemies to loves fic about him and Batman. Gay and homophobic 💯 The other rogues don’t invite him to pride celebrations anymore cause he’ll keep calling people slurs “as a joke”. Him and Edward have longterm beef, like schoolgirl levels of petty drama.
Harley Quinn: would describe herself as a “girlboss” unironically while committing heinous crimes. tweeted “clowns aren’t funny” after breaking up with Joker (ended up causing a huge scandal). The OG “I can fix him” girl. Is sort of the rogues free underground therapist (god knows they need it) cause they can’t get professional help without being sent to Arkham.
Poison Ivy: Breaking News: Cottagecore lesbian commits mass murder cause her plant wilted. She’s what republicans think environmentalists are. Would get in a fist fight with that vegan teacher cause “plants have feelings too”. Has beef with most of the male rogues, supports ‘kill all men’ without realizing it’s a joke (she prefers ‘kill all humans’ but figured she had to downgrade because the Gotham city sirens are humans technically).
Cat Woman: “OH NO! It appears I’ve gotten stuck backwards in the bank vault step-Bat 😏😏😏😏😏😏, looks like I’m not stealing any more diamonds today 😰😩”. Mad respect for Selina, she just wants diamonds and bat dick, no tragic backstory or complex motivations needed. I personally like to headcanon her as wearing a straight up cat costume (ears and a tail like a true furry) cause it’s way funnier to imagine a sophisticated rich woman dressing up as a cat to steal shit than whatever bullshit DCs up to these days. Trans catgirl supremacy 💎👍
Scarecrow: That one guy who gets angry at people because “Halloween costumes are meant to be scary 🤬😡😑😒”. Doesn’t even attempt to express emotions, is the human embodiement of this emoji: 😐. His presence is more jarring than threatening, his intimidation levels are somehow underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. The other rogues have collectively decided that he’s asexual under no assumption other than that they don’t want to imagine Jonathan having sex. Overtime Jonathan has become basically fearless (he smokes his own fear gas like vape just to feel something). Jonathan and Harley became good friends when they both worked in Arkham, their dynamic is surprisingly wholesome.
The Riddler: Didn’t get hugged enough as a child and is now making it everyone’s problem. Would hold a bank hostage to show Batman his third grade spelling bee medal. Is the only autistic rogue that gets accommodations in Arkham because he won’t stop bugging the guards. FTM trans ofc (his names Edward Nygma for Christ's sake). He ran away from home at seventeen and faked his own death (his deadname is legally dead lmao). Uses the terms “alpha, beta, and omega male” unironically.
Two Face: “Yeah, I mean, I didn’t wanna blow up the orphanage either, but Y’know the coin said-” The other rogues talk to Harvey as if he’s constantly at his breaking point, which is half true. Harv is a stone cold mf, he’s the rock that’s holding Two Face together tbh. Edward calls Harvey and Harv Jekyll and Hyde cause he’s that original. All the rogues have at least a sneaking suspicion that Bruce Wayne is batman and use Harvey as their little primary source (being ex besties and everything), until they find out Selina and Bruce are a thing of course. No matter how much evidence he’s faced with Harvey will never accept Bruce Wayne is batmam, he’s not ready to consider that one of the only positive people in his life has been duking it out with him this whole time.
Penguin: He’s the rest of the rogues chill gay gangster uncle I don’t make the rules. The iceberg lounge is like the Batman villain equivalent of The Central Perk from friends (aka: its their default place to hangout). Oswald always makes a fuss about them not making reservations ahead of them but at this point it’s just performative. Everyone’s 99% sure Oswald and Edward fucked at some point (Edward always makes a show of flustering Oswald when he needs a loan). Ossie always takes care of the others belongings when they’re in Arkham (he has a special place in his heart for Jonathan‘s crows).
The Mad Hatter: I love Jervis lmao he just really likes Alice in Wonderland and that’s a valid ass villain motivation 👍. One of the smartest rogues but doesn’t get enough credit because of how childish he is. He dresses in kids clothes, not just because he wants to but because he’s small af and can’t fit in shit. In public while the rogues are undercover Jervis usually wears a beanie or a baseball cap (he’d get spotted instantly if he wore his usual, but on bad days Jervis can’t bear to be without a hat). Jonathan and Jervis play chess a lot together in Arkham, and frequently engage in intellectual discussion, Edward tends to be a piss baby when Jon encourages him to do the same, he’s not ready to accept the reality that Jervis can match his intelligence.
Killer Croc: Waylon has a surprising amount in common with Jonathan, they share southern solidarity. He doesn’t travel out of the sewer often so the rogues will occasionally come to visit Waylon there (Edward always makes sure to complain loudly about the smell). Will show immense affection and loyalty to anyone who treats him as human (poor guy just needs a friend ☹️).
Mr Freeze: Literally just dead inside, someone give this poor bastard a hug. Victor stands as the most awkward rogue, he‘s sorta like the odd one out. The other rogues don’t interact with him that often because he’s sort of a party pooper. He’s the straight friend on thin ice, haha get it. Mr Freeze is my sisters favorite Batman villain because she thought the ice puns were funny in Batman in Robin, little does she know I’m embarrassing myself on tumblr in her glory.
Music Meister: So many of the Gotham rogues have horrible childhood trauma and Music Meister is just like “people bullied me for being a theater kid 😩😭💔😔”. In all honesty he’s iconic, in my au universe thingy I have him join the dork squad latter on and he sticks out like a sore thumb for a bit. I feel like him and Jervis would really hit it off though (mind control buddies, ha), although Jervis would always get him to sing Alice in Wonderland songs. In Arkham they have him wear a dog collar thingy and zap him when he sings, he gets bullied for that lol.
anyways I’m sure I could make more of these, but it’s 2:20 am and my mind went blank. If y’all liked this I could always put more au headcanons out (I have A LOT)
#gotham rogues#batman rogues#batman villains#rogues gallery#dc rogues#batman rogues gallery#two face#harvey dent#scarecrow batman#jonathan crane#the riddler#edward nygma#headcannons#mr freeze#victor fries#music meister#killer croc#waylon jones#mad hatter#oswald cobblepot#jervis tetch#selina kyle#cat woman#harley quinn#pamala isley#harleen quinzel#poison ivy#joker
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Heard you wanted to be spammed with requests-
So uh- Idk if you do platonic headcanons but- maybe platonic Stardust crusaders with a pillar crusader? Doesn't matter what,,, gender the bby pillar person is,,, just,,, sweet pillar babe who's tall af- and totally acts like a doofus at times---
You dont have to do this tho uvu
Stardust Crusaders + Pillarman! Reader HCs
It says Pillar*man* in title, but reader will be gender neutral, I think that's just the species (?) name! Also I like doing platonic requests so I don't mind doing this at all ! <3
Joseph Joestar
He met you around the time he met Santana
You were stuck in the same Pillar as the youngest pillarman, also playing the role of a guard dog before you were turned into stone
The main difference between you and your (uh forced adopted?) brother is that your face broke out in a huge smile and giggles filled the room when he booped your nose and told you to be happy
You were loyal to Kars, but throughout the time in Battle Tendency that decreased due to the realization that he never cared about you and did abandon you without thought
Joseph was there to comfort you through it and you helped in defeating Kars in return
After BT, you were sent to be studied at the Speedwagon Foundation and years later they were able to replicate the red stone of Aja for you
Ultimate Y/N ! Ultimate Y/N !
Sunburn no more
You became a nature deity, similar to Kars
First thing you did when the study was done was prank Joseph into thinking that the Ultimate Lifeform came back
Although it didn't work all too well, your forced down smile and stifled giggles definitely wasn't a sign of Kars, despite the mighty wings you sprouted
You lived with Suzi Q and Joseph for the majority of your new life and you adored being apart of their lives
Also they did make you babysit Holly numerous times even though you had no idea what a human baby looked like until now
Should've learned their lesson when one time you were caught making a rough sketch of what would have been a traditional pillarman tattoo on a 10 year old Holly, claiming that it's needed for her to grow up big and strong like you
Although you weren't a stand user, you had experience fighting ancient supernatural beings stronger than some stand users and you were a deity among men. Joseph didn't wait to take you with him when he found out that Dio was making a return
When Holly got sick and it was clear the crusaders had to go to Egypt, you didn't hesitate to sign up. It was a rare time that you were serious and your loyalty to your aged best friend shined through. You loved his family and you saw Holly grow up, of course you'd be there for him
Throughout SDC, you mostly just laughed at him (mostly during the fight with Mariah) and cracked jokes with him to ease tense situations
Also that bit at the end of the show where he pretended that Dio possessed his body?? He got that from you and you both laughed while Jotaro gave you both a glare
Iggy
Oh my god you barked back.
Y'all gossip with each other in dog, you're a nature deity, of course you can understand him perfectly
Added bonus of your powers is that he naturally relaxes with you
Sleepy gremlin
Jotaro Kujo
It took him a while to warm up to you
You were raised by Kars and Esidisi, dealing people who come off as cold and have occasional outbursts of anger come natural to you
He first doesn't think of you as anything when he first saw you
It wasn't until you sized him up, easily towering over the 6'5" teen, his eyes widened in astonishment a little
He has no problems with you, you're respectful to his mother and you respect his privacy for the most part
You're real bonding moment was when you made a lame, but fairfly obscure, fish pun when beating up the stand user of Dark Blue Moon
You both talked about marine life, he was genuinely interested in your experiences with ancient marine species and types of life before evolution made them what they were today
Although he doesn't like the happy go lucky types of people (they remind him of his annoying fangirls) you'll be the exception
A moment you both really became friends was in the Steely Dan fight
You shot your hand up in excitement, offering to aid in beating the hell out of the cocky bastard that mistreated Jotaro and Joseph
It was a good moment for you both to have light hearted banter and you ended the fight with a smile and a high five
Although persuading Joot to do the high five went more like: "Jotaro please" "No." "Pleassseeeeeee" "*sigh* Leave me alone after this."
I thank that you can't see stands. I can only imagine the endless lighthearted fights you and Star Platinum would have, you both giving each other proud smiles of how strong your friend has become
Noriaki Kakyoin
You gave a welcoming and cheerful aura when he woke up at the Kujo household
Out of all Crusaders, I do like to think that you would think of Kakyoin as more of a little brother
Probably because you miss Santana a bit tbh, red hair and a more reserved personality?? Easy for that to happen
Although you do make sure to keep that distinction between the two separate beings, gotta be healthy bby
You were one to always encourage him to get more out of his shell and be the friend he deserved
He would encourage you to speak about Pillarman society/culture when you both roomed together
One time you pranked him by giving him a handful cherries and giving him a tiny jumpscare when the cherries actually did turn back into your hand
Sometimes you both make fun of Polnareff together </3
Jean-Pierre Polnareff
,,,,big tall gentle giant? Oh my god he would've melted for you at first
He flirted with you first thing after the fight with Avdol, only to be immediately shut down with your laughter
It's not the first time someone hit on you, but his attempt was so cheesy and bad that it was funny
Don't worry he didn't keep on flirting with you though, it was clear that you weren't interested
That and you told him that you were over 1000 years old
You both were outgoing so it wasn't a big surprise that you two got along so well
He actually enjoys your tales of past fights and how it was like not being able to be in the sun for the longest time
That and he asked for hair care tips, your hair is very beautiful to him and to keep it as such even when you were turned to stone? Impressive
You both are dumbasses together, but you're the one to save his ass all the time
Especially during the first fight with Hol Horse, guns can't kill you and even then your skin can create a harsh shell to soften the blow
You just laughed it off, said that it tickled, and encouraged Polnareff to chase after the (now) frightened cowboy
You and Polnareff also have a lot in common too and you both are able to be for each other when it comes to Polnareff's grief over his sister and you technically being the only pillarman alive
Omg Y/N I can't believe you have yourself an emotional support himbo I'm jealous
You're also a wingman/wingwoman for him, years and years of experience (and using Joseph in his younger years as a "what not to do" reference) led you to being the perfect helper in getting whoever Polnareff wants
Muhammad Avdol
He's read about the Pillarmen, but he never thought that they were actually real
So when he met you he was flabbergasted
You and Avdol's friendship is like him unintentionally parenting a 7 foot 5 year old on one of those kid leashes
He knows that almost nothing can cause you great harm, but he still worries
Because of that his favorite form of hanging out with you involves chatting over tea or showing you foods you might not be aware of
In all honesty, it's greatly appreciated since your diet switched from vampires and humans to absorbing like 2-3 raw cows every other week. Your "palate" is not as expansive as you may think
While in India, you were able to buy some Henna and Avdol was very open to you giving him a mock Pillar tattoo
He wore it with pride and was very greatful
Sometimes when he gets homesick you make your arm into a chicken, and although it isn't the real thing, he appreciates it
You also show him ancient Pillar rituals too and it's his favorite thing to listen to
In return, you bother him to show you how to read tarot and tell him about (in your words) "occult business~"
You balance each other out and Avdol cherishes you greatly
When the mission to Egypt was over, he did name a chicken after you btw
#jjba#jojo's bizarre adventure#jjba part 3#jojos bizzare adventure stardust crusaders#jjba x reader#stardust crusaders headcanons#stardust crusaders x reader#Joseph Joestar x reader#jotaro kujo x reader#jean pierre polnareff x reader#noriaki kakyoin x reader#muhammad avdol x reader#platonic x reader#platonic headcanons
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The Demon Brothers vs an Obstacle Course
(You know, one of those foam filled monstrosities with all the stuff in the way, the things to hop on and crawl under, that stuff.)
Lucifer-
This man would take some convincing to actually get him to run the course. He's not really the type that likes running frantically through a multicolored maze.
But! Thanks to your persuasive powers and endless grace (or whining, etc), he begrudgingly agrees.
Besides, any chance to show his skills is a welcomed one. He's not quiet a showoff, but he hardly turns down a challenge.
And man, he makes this obstacle course look like child's play. One second he's at the start, and the next thing you know he's flying past you.
He's gone.
He's already finished. Did you really think you'd beat him though?
For a guy who said this sorta thing was "Pointless and childish", he sure did take it seriously
Kinda sus if you ask me
And that cocky look he's giving you... should you be annoyed or aroused? 🤔
Mammon-
He is HYPED.
Mammon pegs me as an adrenaline junky so he doesn't refuse. He loves stuff like this!
He's usually the one that takes you out to do stuff, so he's excited when you suggest running an obstacle course!
Extra as hell so he's dressed in light clothes SPECIFICALLY for speed
And man, he's practically bouncing off the walls. Makes it a point to brag about how many obstacle courses he's ran in the past
"If it's a human world obstacle course, it'll be a cinch! Somethin' like that's nothing to the Great Mammon!"
Definitely makes this into a money-based competition. "Loser's gotta pay for lunch after this, alright?" Probably didn't even bring his wallet smh
Runs as fast as he can the moment the whistle blows, and immediately gets his leg stuck on a climbing net and has to be rescued
"Ya didn't see that, ya hear me?! I didn't get stuck or anythin'! I was just.... I dropped something, so I went down there to grab it! There's no way I'd get tangled up in a dumb thing like that!
Ok mammon whatever you say ily
Then proceeds to yeet you into the foam cube pit so he can get the upper hand
Leviathan-
Levi refuses. Gomenasorry.
But seriously, how did you manage to get this guy out of his room for something like this?
He doesn't even know why you asked him. Does he look like he likes running around getting all gross and sweaty, just for a pat on the back and a sticker for participation??
Now if you bribe him by promising to buy him that new Ruri-chan figure that's only been released in the human world, then he miiiight peel himself out of his bathtub to go with you.
And when he's actually running the course, he finds that it's pretty fun..! For the most part. He's not a huge fan of getting hit in the face by foam stuff.
But when you suggest that the two of you treat it like you're winding through the Accursed Forest in search of the Sword of Resurrection, he's suddenly weirdly good at getting through the course.
It's supposed to be a race, but you're his Henry so there's no way he can abandon you! May or may not be an excuse to hold your hand too
He's not the fastest though, but he means well. Probably Naruto runs
Satan-
Something like this isn't really Satan's idea of a good time, but can he really say no to that face?
You've begged him all week to come with you, and he's finally giving in. If the two of you can go for a peaceful dinner date afterward, to end the evening on a chill note.
He's read a few things about human pastimes and public sports, and obstacle courses sort of fall into those categories, right?
He doesn't get the appeal, but it can't hurt!
And it's not unusual to think that Satan would be good at avoiding all the stuff in his way, right? Sure he gets smacked from time to time, but have you seen his room??
This man lives in a labyrinth of books. He's no stranger to squeezing around stuff.
He's not super competitive though so he pauses every now and then to make sure you haven't fallen into a foam abyss or something
Honestly a real gentleman even though this is supposed to be a competition
Satan just wants to have a good time hanging out with you, even if he doesn't really care for stuff like this 💕
Asmodeus-
Uhhhhh
Running around and getting sweaty??
Having to hop, climb, and crawl around???
And getting nothing out of it except a broken nail, dirty clothes, and messy hair?????
Hard pass. Sorry, leave a voicemail after the tone ✌️
Okay, but if by some miracle you ACTUALLY manage to get this man to run an obstacle course with you, you deserve a medal
And surprisingly, he actually has fun with it!
Looking beautiful isn't his only fixation, you know. He likes to have fun too!
Especially if he can get all hot and sweaty with you ;;;;)););););;)););))
For a man that always seems to be nothing but graceful, he can't seem to win in this obstacle course.
You're trying so hard not to laugh while you watch him strain to climb up robes, awkwardly crab walk under things as to avoid touching them with his new outfit, and stand still for ten minutes straight just to fix his hair
At this rate you might as well just let him piggyback you to the finish
Beelzebub-
This hulk of a man is not built for agility and grace so he will 100% just barrel through the obstacles. I want to see him run full speed toward the finish like with like, pieces of foam and stuff all over his clothes from ripping apart all the stuff in his way
He plays the devildom's equivalent to American football so it's not like there's anything that can stop him.
Especially if there's the promise of an edible reward for whoever wins? He's gonna get to the finish first if it's the last thing he does.
He zooms past you and mutters a rushed "Sorry MC". He doesn't mean to hurt your pride, but he wanna wIN.
And as soon as he passes the finish line, he'll turn right back around to go get you, wherever you might be in the course.
He technically won, so now he'll go pick you up so you can make good on your promise to feed him
Carries you off into the sunset like a princess to the nearest McDonald's
Belphagor-
How did you manage to wake him up
Furthermore, how did you manage to convince him to do something so physically demanding
You must have something hanging over his head, because there's not much in this world that would convince him to run an obstacle course
Probably wouldn't do it even if Beel asked, because Beel wouldn't ask
You've gotta be okay with carrying him tbh
Otherwise he'll vouche for watching you run around
He's having fun as long as you are
Probably lays on one of the soft spots on the obstacle course and naps
That's the closest he's getting to participating 💕
#obey me#obey me shall we date#shall we date obey me#obey me mammon#obey me beel#obey me beelzebub#obey me!#obey me belphegor#obey me! shall we date?#shall we date? obey me!#obey me headcanons#obey me! headcanons#list
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I know KH1 was essentially retconned and everything Ansem did "was for MX". But I think a cool way around that would be if MX was actually upset with Ansem for giving into his heartless nature and losing sight of the overall plan. Like going off on him about how it was a good thing Sora, a 14 year old child, defeated him or all his hard work would be undone.
Imagine the huge blow to Ansem's pride. The temptation to turn against MX but realizing he really has no where else to go. Especially since his body is technically no longer a heartless. It's a replica. So he'd bitterly have to swallow his pride but maybe slips clues to the Guardians.
tbh ansem really is an interesting link in the whole Real Org 13 group
like out of the norts bruv's the only one to even vaguely talk about the idea of going against or acting out against them but ultimately deciding not to seeing it as pointless by then
really makes me wonder how the dynamic between all of them was, or at least if ansem had any other motives or just what his personal thoughts were during the whole thing. if only seeing vexen's betrayal was the thing to push him even just a bit then Man(TM) yk
#snap chats#everyday i wish we got to see more personal scenes of ansem and everyday i wish his ending speech was elaborated more#yk what i mean. like dawg you cant just drop that and NOT expect me to go Excuse Me#like xemnas talks about how he just took the people around him for granted and the pain he feels which. ALSO Excuse Me#i miss xemnas and him on the lowest of keys being a sad antagonist i do but this aint bout him today#i dont think he ever had any serious intentions to leave but just the concept that there was that small thought#VERY interesting especially considering at this point he's more of a puppet than his own person yk#like he was brought back specifically to help MX so he should be honed on THAT not what he wants#the concept of ansem communicating with terranort's guardian did remind me that like- bro hardly uses his own yk#which begs the question Yall Got Joint Custody On That Or Yall Got Your Own#fuckin Master Xehanort Said It's MY Turn With The Guardian#im sorry this is a Real Talk discussion but ive always wondered how that played out with them#regardless im always down to discuss ansem because he just lives in my brain rent free at this point#i dont want to regard him as a character perfectly in the gray because he does do twatish things for his own benefit#but with that in mind it does make his goodbye more interesting since it shows Just The Smallest Bit that ounce of selfishness#again i dont think he would ever ACTUALLY leave or do anything to jeopardize everything but Say It With Me Now: It's Interesting
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Hi! Loving your meta on suibian :)) Just wondering what were your frustrations with cql, especially considered you've watched this in multiple mediums? (I've only watched cql)
Hi anon! thank you so much!
Oh boy, you’ve unlocked a boatload of hidden dialogue, are you ready?? :D (buckle up it’s oof. Extremely Long)
@hunxi-guilai please consider this my official pitch for why I think the novel is worth reading, if only so you can enjoy the audio drama more fully. ;)
a few things before I get into it:
I don’t want to make this a 100% negative post because I really do love CQL so much! So I’m going to make it two parts: the changes that frustrated me the most and the changes I loved the most re: CQL vs novel. (again, don’t really know anything about donghua or manhua sorry!!) Sound good? :D
this will contain spoilers for the entirety of CQL and the novel. just like. All of it.
talking about the value of changes in CQL is difficult because I personally don’t know what changes were made for creative reasons and what changes were made for censorship reasons. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to evaluate the narrative worth of certain changes when I don’t know what their limitations were. It’s not just a matter of “gay content was censored”; China also has certain censorship restrictions on the portrayal of the undead, among other things. I, unfortunately, am not familiar enough with the ins and outs of Chinese censorship to be able to tell anyone with certainty what was and wasn’t changed for what reason. So I guess just, take whatever my opinions are with a grain of salt! I will largely avoid addressing issues related to how explicitly romantic wangxian is, for obvious reasons.
OKAY. In order to impose some kind of control on how much time I spend on this, I’m going to limit myself to four explicated points in each category, best/worst. Please remember that I change my opinions constantly, so these are just like. the top contenders at this specific point in my life. Starting with the worst so we can end on a positive note!
Henceforth, the novel is MDZS, CQL is CQL.
CQL’s worst crimes, according to cyan:
1. Polarizing Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao on the moral spectrum
I’ve heard rumors that this was a censorship issue, but I have never been able to confirm or deny it, so. Again, grain of salt.
The way that CQL reframed Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao’s character arcs drives me up the wall because I think it does a huge disservice to both of them and the overarching themes of the story. Jin Guangyao is shown to be responsible for pretty much all the tragedy post-Sunshot, which absolves Wei Wuxian of all possible wrongdoing and flattens Jin Guangyao into a much less interesting villain.
What I find so interesting about MDZS is how much it emphasizes the role of external forces and situations in determining a person’s fate: that being “good” or “righteous” at heart is simply not enough. You can do everything with all the best intentions and still do harm, still fail, still lose everything. Even “right” choices can have terrible consequences. Everyone starts out innocent. “In this world, everyone starts without grievances, but there is always someone who takes the first blow.”
It matters that Wei Wuxian is the one who loses control and kills Jin Zixuan, that his choices (no matter how impossible and terrible the situation) had consequences because the whole point is that even good people can be forced into corners where they do terrible things. Being good isn’t enough. You can do everything right, make every impossible choice, and fail. You can do the right thing and be punished for it. Maybe you did the right thing, but others suffer for your actions. Is that still the right thing? Is it your fault? Is it? By absolving Wei Wuxian of any conceivable blame, it really changes the narrative conclusion. In MDZS, even the best people can do incomprehensible harm when backed into corners, and the audience is asked to evaluate those actions with nuance. Is a criminal fully culpable for the harm they do when their external circumstances forced them into situations where they felt like they had no good choices left?
Personally, I feel like the novel asks you to forgive Wei Wuxian his wrongs, and, in paralleling him with Jin Guangyao, shows how easily they could have been one another. Both of them are extraordinarily talented sons of commoners; the difference lies in what opportunities they were given as they were growing up and how they choose to react to grievances. Wei Wuxian is adopted early on into the head family of a prominent sect and treated (more or less—not going to get into it) like a son. Jin Guangyao begs, borrows, steals, kills for every scrap of prestige and honor he gets and understands that his position in life is, at all points, extraordinarily unstable. Wei Wuxian doesn’t take his grievances to heart, but Jin Guangyao does.
To be clear, I don’t think the novel places a moral value on holding grudges, if that makes sense. I think MDZS only indicates that acts of vengeance always lead to more bloodshed—that the only escape is to lay down your arms, no matter how bitter the taste. Wei Wuxian was horribly wronged in many ways, and I don’t think I would fault him for wanting revenge or holding onto his anger—but I do think it’s clear that if he did, it would destroy him. It destroys Jin Guangyao, after all.
(It also destroys Xue Yang, and I think the parallel actually also extends to him. Yi City, to me, is a very interesting microcosm of a lot of broader themes in MDZS, and I have a lot of Thoughts on Xue Yang and equivalent justice, etc. etc. but. Thoughts for another time.)
Wei Wuxian is granted a happy ending not because he is Good, but because public opinion has changed, because there’s a new scapegoat, because he is protected by someone in power, because he lets go of the past, and because the children see him for who he is. I really do think that the reason MDZS and CQL have a hopeful ending as opposed to a bleak one hinges on the juniors. We are shown very clearly throughout the story how easily and quickly the tide of public opinion turns. The reason we don’t fear that it’s going to happen to Wei Wuxian again (or any other surviving character we love) is, I think, because the juniors, who don’t lose their childhoods to war, have the capacity to see past their parents’ prejudices and evaluate the actions of the people in front of them without having their opinions clouded by intense trauma and fear. They are forged out of love, not fire.
In CQL however, it emphasizes that Wei Wuxian is Fundamentally Good and did No Wrong Ever, so he deserves his happy ending, while Jin Guangyao is Fundamentally Bad and Responsible For Everything, so he got what was coming to him (even if we feel bad for him maybe). That’s not nearly as interesting or meaningful.
(One specific change to Jin Guangyao’s timeline of evil that I find particularly vexing, not including the one I will discuss in point 2, is changing when Jin Rusong was conceived. In the novel, Qin Su is supposedly already pregnant by the time they get married, and that matters a WHOLE LOT when evaluating Jin Guangyao’s actions, I think.)
2. Wen POWs used as target obstacles at Baifeng Mountain
I know the first point was “here’s an overarching plot change that I think deeply impacts the narrative themes” and this second one is “I despise this one specific scene detail so much”, but HEAR ME OUT. It’s related to the first point! (tbh, most things are related to the first point)
Personally, I think this one detail character assassinates like. almost everyone in attendance, but most egregiously in no particular order: Jin Guangyao, Jin Zixuan (and by extension, Jiang Yanli), Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen.
First, I think it’s a cheap plot device that’s obviously meant to enhance Jin Guangyao’s ~villainy while emphasizing Wei Wuxian’s growing righteous anger, but it fails so spectacularly, god, I literally hate this detail so much lmao. I’ll go by character.
Jin Guangyao: I get that CQL is invested in him being a ~bad person~ or whatever, but this is such a transparently like, cartoon villain move that lacks subtlety and elegance. Jin Guangyao is very dedicated to being highly diplomatic, appeasing, and non-threatening in his bid for power. He manipulates behind the scenes, does his father’s dirty work, etc. but he always shows a gentle, smiling face. This display tips his hand pretty obviously, and even if it were at the behest of his father, there’s literally no reason for him to be so “ohohoho I’m so evil~” about it—if anything, this would only serve to drive his sympathizers away. It’s a stupid move for him politically, and really undercuts his supposed intelligence and cleverness, in my personal opinion.
Jin Zixuan: yes, he is arrogant and vain and likes to show off! But putting his ego above the safety of innocent people? Like, not necessarily OOC, but it sure makes him much less sympathetic in my eyes. I find it hard to believe that Jiang Yanli would find this laudable or acceptable, but she’s given a few shots where she smiles with some kind of pride and it’s like. No! Do not do my queen dirty like this. She wouldn’t!
Wei Wuxian: where do I start! WHERE DO I START. Wei Wuxian is shown to be “righteously angry” about this, but steps down mutinously when Jiang Cheng motions him back. He looks shocked and outraged at Jin Zixuan for showing off with no concern for the safety of the Wen POWs, only to like, two seconds later, do the exact same thing, but worse! And at the provocation of Jin Zixun, no less! *screams into hands* The tonal shift is bizarre! We’re in this really tense ~moral quandary~, but then he flirts with Lan Wangji for a second (tense music still kinda playing?? it’s awful. I hate it), and then does his trickshot. You know! Putting all these people he’s supposedly so concerned about at risk! To one-up Jin Zixuan! It’s nonsensical. It’s such a conflict of priorities. This is supposed to make him seem honorable and cool, I guess? But it mostly just makes him look like a performative hypocrite. :///
Lan Wangji: I cannot believe that Lan Wangji saw this and did not immediately walk out in protest.
Lan Xichen: this is just one part of a larger problem with Lan Xichen’s arc in CQL vs MDZS, where his character development was an unwitting casualty of both wangxian censorship and CQL’s quest to demonize Jin Guangyao. One of the prevailing criticisms I see of Lan Xichen’s character is that he is a “centrist”, that he “allows bad things to happen through his inaction and desire to avoid conflict”, and that he is “stupid and willfully blind to Jin Guangyao’s faults”, when I don’t think any of this is supported by evidence in the novel whatsoever. Jin Guangyao is a subtle villain! He is a talented manipulator and liar! Even Wei Wuxian says it in the novel!
(forgive my rough translations /o\)
Chapter 49, as Wei Wuxian (through Empathy with Nie Mingjue’s head) listens to Lan Xichen defend Meng Yao immediately following Wen Ruohan’s assassination:
魏无羡心中摇头：“泽芜君这个人还是……太纯善了。”可再一想，他是因为已知金光瑶的种种嫌疑才能如此防备，可在蓝曦臣面前的孟瑶，却是一个忍辱负重，身不由己，孤身犯险的卧底，二人视角不同，感受又如何能相提并论？
Wei Wuxian shook his head to himself: “This Zewu-jun is still…… too pure and kind.” But then he thought again—he could only be so guarded because he already knew of all of Jin Guangyao’s suspicious behavior, but the Meng Yao before Lan Xichen was someone who had had no choice but to suffer in silence for his mission, who placed himself in grave danger, alone, undercover. The two of them had different perspectives, so how could their feelings be compared?
Chapter 63, after Wei Wuxian wakes up in the Cloud Recesses, having been brought there by Lan Wangji:
他不是不能理解蓝曦臣。他从聂明玦的视角看金光瑶，将其奸诈狡猾与野心勃勃尽收眼底，然而，如果金光瑶多年来在蓝曦臣面前一直以伪装相示，没理由要他不去相信自己的结义兄弟，却去相信一个臭名昭著腥风血雨之人。
It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Lan Xichen. He had seen Jin Guangyao from Nie Mingjue’s perspective, and so had seen all of his treacherous and cunning obsession with ambition. However, if Jin Guangyao had for all these years only shown Lan Xichen a disguise, there was no reason for [Lan Xichen] to believe a famously violent person [Wei Wuxian] over his own sworn brother.
Lan Xichen, throughout the story, is being actively lied to and manipulated by Jin Guangyao. His only “mistake” was being kind and trying to give Meng Yao, someone who came from a place of great disadvantage, the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately dismissing him as worthless due to his birth or his station in life. Lan Xichen sees Meng Yao as someone who was forced to make impossible choices in impossible situations—you know, the way that we, the audience, are led to perceive Wei Wuxian. The only difference is that the story that we’re given about Wei Wuxian is true, while the story that Lan Xichen is given about Meng Yao is… not. But how would have have known?
The instant he is presented with a shred of evidence to the contrary, he revokes Jin Guangyao’s access to the Cloud Recesses, pursues that evidence to the last, and is horrified to discover that his trust was misplaced.
Lan Xichen’s willingness to consider different points of view is integral to Wei Wuxian’s survival and eventual happiness. Without Lan Xichen’s kindness, there is no way that Wei Wuxian would have ever been able to clear his name. Everyone else was calling for his blood, but Lan Wangji took him home, and Lan Xichen not only allowed it, he listened to and helped them. To the characters of the book who are not granted omniscient knowledge of Wei Wuxian’s actions and circumstances, there is literally no difference between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao. Lan Xichen is being incredibly fair when he asks in chapter 63:
蓝曦臣笑了，道：“忘机，你又是如何判定，一个人究竟可信不可信？”
他看着魏无羡，道：“你相信魏公子，可我，相信金光瑶。大哥的头在他手上，这件事我们都没有亲眼目睹，都是凭着我们自己对另一个人的了解，相信那个人的说辞。
“你认为自己了解魏无羡，所以信任他；而我也认为自己了解金光瑶，所以我也信任他。你相信自己的判断，那么难道我就不能相信自己的判断吗？”
Lan Xichen laughed and said, “Wangji, how can you determine exactly who should and should not be believed?”
He looked at Wei Wuxian and said, “You believe Wei-gongzi, but I believe Jin Guangyao. Neither of us saw with our own eyes whether Da-ge’s head was in his possession. We base our opinions on our own understandings of someone else, our belief in their testimony.
“You think you understand Wei Wuxian, and so you trust him; I also think I understand Jin Guangyao, so I trust him. You trust your own judgment, so can’t I trust my own judgment as well?”
But he hears them out, examines the proof, and acts immediately.
I really do feel like this aspect of Lan Xichen kind of… became collateral damage in CQL. Because Jin Guangyao is so much more publicly malicious, Lan Xichen’s alleged “lack of action” feels much less understandable or acceptable.
It is wild to me that in this scene, Lan Xichen reacts with discomfort to the proceedings, but has nothing to say to Jin Guangyao about it afterwards and also applauds Wei Wuxian’s archery. (I could talk about Nie Mingjue here as well, but I would say Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen have very different perspectives on morality, so this moment isn’t necessarily OOC for NMJ, but I do think is very OOC for LXC.) This scene (among a few others that have Jin Guangyao being more openly “evil”) makes Lan Xichen look like a willfully blind bystander by the end of the story, but having him react with any action would have been inconvenient for the plot. Thus, he behaves exactly as he did in the book, but under very different circumstances. It reads inconsistently with the rest of his character (since a lot of the beats in the novel still happen in the show), and weakens the narrative surrounding his person.
None of these overt displays of cruelty or immorality happen in the book, so it makes perfect sense that he doesn’t do or suspect anything! Jin Guangyao is, as stated, perfectly disguised towards Lan Xichen. You can’t blame him for “failing to act” when someone was purposefully keeping him in the dark and, from his perspective, there was nothing to act upon.
This scene specifically is almost purely lighthearted in the novel! If you take out the Wen POWs, this just becomes a fun scene where Wei Wuxian shows off, flirts with Lan Wangji, gets into a pissing match with Jin Zixuan, and is overall kind of a brat! It’s great! I love this scene! The blindfolded shot is ridiculous and over-the-top and very cute!
I know this is a lot of extrapolation, but the whole scene is soured for me due to you know. *gestures upwards* Which is really a shame because it’s one of my favorite silly scenes in the book! Alas! @ CQL why! ;A;
3. Lan Xichen already being an adult and sect leader at the start of the show
This is rapidly becoming a, “Lan Xichen was Wronged and I Have the Receipts” essay (oh no), but you know what, that’s fine I guess! I never said I was impartial!
CQL makes Lan Xichen seem much older and more experienced than he is in the novel, though we’re not given his specific age. In the novel, he is not sect leader yet when Wei Wuxian and co. arrive at the Cloud Recesses for lectures. His father, Qingheng-jun, is in seclusion, and his uncle is the de facto leader of the sect. Lan Xichen does not become sect leader until his father dies at the burning of the Cloud Recesses. Moreover, my understanding of the text is that he is at most 19 years old when this happens. Wen Ruohan remarks that Lan Xichen is still a junior at the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign in chapter 61. (If someone has a different interpretation of the term 小辈, please correct me.) In any case! Lan Xichen is young.
Lan Xichen ascends to power under horrific circumstances: he is not an adult, his father has just been murdered, his uncle seriously injured, his brother kidnapped, and his home burnt to the ground. He is on the run, alone! Carrying the sacred texts of his family and trying to stay alive so his sect is not completely wiped out on the eve of war! He is terrified, inexperienced, and unprepared!
You know, just like Jiang Cheng, a few months later!
I see a lot of people lambasting Lan Xichen for not stepping up to protect the Wen remnants post-Sunshot, but I’m always flummoxed by the accusations because I don’t see criticisms of Jiang Cheng with remotely the same vitriol, even though their political positions are nearly identical:
they are both extraordinarily young sect leaders who came to power before they expected to through incredible violence done to their families
because of this, they are in very weak political positions: they have very little experience to offer as evidence of their competence and right to respect. if they are considered adults, they have only very recently come of age.
Jin Guangshan, who is rapidly and greedily taking the place of the Wen clan in the vacuum of power, is shown to be more than willing to mow people down to get what he wants—and he has the power to do so.
both Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan were crippled by the Wen clan prior to Sunshot. And they just fought a war that lasted two and a half years. they are hugely weakened and in desperate need of time to rebuild, mourn, etc. both Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are responsible for the well-being of all of these people who are now relying upon them.
I think it’s very obvious that Jiang Cheng is in an impossible situation because he wears his fears and insecurities on his face and people in power (cough Jin Guangshan) prey upon that, while we, as the audience, have a front row seat for that whole tragedy. We understand his choices, even if they hurt us.
Why shouldn’t Lan Xichen be afforded the same consideration?
I really do think that because he’s presented as someone who’s much more composed and confident in his own abilities than Jiang Cheng is, we tend to forget exactly what pressures he was facing at the same time. We just assume, oh yes, of course Lan Xichen has the power to do something! He’s Lan Xichen! The First Jade! Isn’t he supposed to be Perfectly Good? Why isn’t he doing The Right Thing?
I think this is exacerbated by CQL’s decision to make him an established sect leader at the start of the show with several years of experience under his belt. We don’t know his age, but he is assumed to be an Adult. This gives him more power and stability, and so it seems more unacceptable that he does not make moves to protect the Wen remnants, even if in essence, he and Jiang Cheng’s political positions are still quite similar. He doesn’t really have any more power to save the Wen remnants without placing his whole clan in danger of being wiped out again, but CQL implies that he does, even if it isn’t the intention of the change.
It does make me really sad that this change also drives a further thematic divide between Lan Xichen and the rest of his generation. Almost everyone in that generation came of age through a war, which I think informs the way their tragedies play out, and how those tragedies exist in contrast to the juniors’ behavior and futures. Making Lan Xichen an experienced adult aligns him with the generation prior to him, which, as we’re shown consistently, is the generation whose adherence to absolutism and fear ruined the lives of their children. But Lan Xichen is just as much a victim of this as his peers.
(the exception being maybe Nie Mingjue, but it’s complicated. I think Nie Mingjue occupies a very interesting position in the narrative, but like. That’s. For another time! this is. already so far out of hand. oh my god this is point three out of eight oh nO)
(yet another aside because I can’t help myself: can you believe we were robbed of paralleling scenes of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen’s coronations? the visual drama of that. the poetic cinema. it’s not in the book, but can you IMAGINE. thank u @paledreamsblackmoths for putting this image into my head so that I can suffer forever knowing that I’ll never get it.)
I said I wasn’t going to talk at length about any changes surrounding Wangxian’s explicit romance for obvious reasons, but I will at least lament here that because a large percentage of Lan Xichen’s actions and character beats are directly in relation to Lan Wangji’s love for Wei Wuxian, he loses a lot of both minor and major moments to the censors as well. Many of the instances when he encourages Lan Wangji to talk to Wei Wuxian, when he indulges in their relationship etc. are understandably gone. But the most significant moment that was cut for censorship reasons I think is when he loses his temper with Wei Wuxian at the Guanyin temple and lays into him with all the fury and terror he felt for his brother’s broken heart for the last thirteen years.
Lan Xichen is only shown to express true anger twice in the whole story, both times at the Guanyin temple: first against Wei Wuxian for what he perceives as gross disregard for his little brother’s convictions, and second against Jin Guangyao for his massive betrayal of trust. And you know, murdering his best friend. Among other things.
I’m genuinely so sad that we don’t get to see Lan Xichen tear Wei Wuxian to shreds for what he did to Lan Wangji because I think one of the most important aspects to Lan Xichen’s character is how much he loves, cares for and fears for his little brother. The reveal about Lan Wangji’s punishment in episode 43 is a sad and sober conversation, but it’s not nearly as impactful, especially because Wei Wuxian asks about it of his own volition. I understand that this isn’t CQL’s fault! But. I can still mourn it right? ahahaha. :’)
I’ll stop before I descend further into nothing but Lan Xichen meta because that’s. Dangerous. (I have a lot of Feelings about how there are three characters who are held up as paragons of virtue in MDZS, how they all suffered in spite of their goodness, and how that all ties directly into the whole, “it is not enough to be good, but kindness is never wrong” theme. Anyways, they’re Xiao Xingchen, Jiang Yanli, and Lan Xichen, but NOT NOW. NOT TODAY.)
So yes, I’m a Lan Xichen apologist on main, and yes, I understand my feelings are incredibly personally motivated and influenced by my subjective emotions, but no I do not take concrit on this point, thank you very much.
4. all of the Wen remnants turning themselves in alongside Wen Qing and Wen Ning
Okay, back to plot changes. This change I would be willing to bet money was at least partially due to censorship, but it hurts me so deeply hahaha. It makes literally no sense for any of the characters and it completely janks the timeline of events post Qiongqi Dao 2.0 through Wei Wuxian’s death.
It’s not ALL bad—this change makes it easier for the Peak Wangxian moment at the Bloodbath at Nightless City (You know. Hands. Cliff. etc.) to happen, which I did very much enjoy. It’s pretty on-brand for CQL to sacrifice plot for character beats that they want to emphasize, so like. I get it! This moment is a huge gift! I Understand This. CQL collapses the Bloodbath at Nightless City and the First Siege of the Mass Graves into one event for I think a few reasons. One, Wangxian moment without being explicitly Wangxian, which is excellent. Two, it circumvents the Blood Corpse scene, which I do not think would have made it past censorship.
I’ll get to the Blood Corpse scene in a minute, but despite being able to understand why so much might have been sacrificed for the impact of the cliff scene, I still wish it had been done differently (and I feel like it could have been!), if only for my peace of mind because the plot holes it creates are pretty gaping.
The entire point of Wen Qing and Wen Ning turning themselves in is specifically to save their family members and Wei Wuxian from coming to further harm. That’s explicit, even in the show. Jin Guangshan demands that the Wen brother and sister stand for their crimes and claims that the blood debt will be paid. The Wen remnants understand that Wei Wuxian has given up so much for their sakes, that he has lost his family, his home, his respectability, his health, all in the name of sheltering them. To throw all of that away would be the greatest disrespect to his sacrifices. Wen Qing and Wen Ning decide that if their lives can pay for the safety of their loved ones and ensure that Wei Wuxian’s sacrifices matter, they are willing to go together and give themselves up.
So. Why did they. All go?? For… moral support???? D: Wen Qing says that Wei Wuxian will wake up in three days and that she’s given Fourth Uncle and the others instructions for his care–but then Fourth Uncle and the others all go with them!! To die!! There’s also very clearly a shot of Granny Wen taking A’Yuan with them, which like. Obviously didn’t really happen.
Wen Qing, who loves her family more than anything in the world, agrees that they should all go to Lanling and sacrifice themselves to…. protect Wei Wuxian? Wen Qing, pragmatic queen of my heart, agrees to this absurdly bad exchange?? Leaves Wei Wuxian to wake up, alone, with the knowledge that he had not only killed his brother-in-law but also effectively gotten everyone he had left killed also??
I can’t imagine Wen Qing doing that to Wei Wuxian. Save his life? For what? This takes away everything he has left to live for. You think Wen Qing doesn’t intimately understand how cruel that would be?
(Yes, I’m complaining about all of this, but I’m still about to cry because I rewatched the scene to make sure I didn’t say anything untrue, and g o d it manages to hit hard despite all of that, so who’s the real clown here!!)
Anyways. So that’s all just like. Frustratingly incoherent. It’s one of several wrongs I think CQL committed against Wen Qing’s character, but my feelings about Wen Qing in CQL are pretty complicated (I love her so much, and I love that we got more Wen Qing content, but that content sure is a mixed bag of stuff I really enjoyed and stuff I desperately wish didn’t exist) and I decided I wasn’t going to get into it in this post. (is anyone even still reading god)
This change also muddles Lan Wangji’s choices and punishment in ways that I think diminishes the severity of the situation to the detriment of both his characterization and his family’s characterization. The punishment scene is extremely moving and you should read this post about the language used in it but. sldfjsljslkf.
okay well, several things. In the context of CQL, which really pushes the “righteousness” angle of Wei Wuxian (see point 1), I think this scene makes a lot of sense in isolation: both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are painted as martyrs for doing the right thing. “Who’s right and who’s wrong?” The audience is asked to see the punishment as “unjust”. That’s perfectly fine and coherent in the context of CQL, but I don’t think it’s nearly as interesting as what happens in MDZS.
Because CQL collapses both the First Siege and the Bloodbath into one event, Lan Wangji’s crimes are sort of unclearly defined. In episode 43, when Lan Xichen is explaining the situation, we see a flashback to when Su She says something along the lines of, “We could set aside the fact that you defended Wei Ying at Nightless City, but now you won’t even let us search his den?” (of course, this gives us the really excellent “you are not qualified to talk to me” line which. delicious. extremely vindicating and satisfying. petty king lan wangji.) Lan Xichen goes on to say something like, “Wangji alone caused several disturbances at the Mass Graves. Uncle was greatly angered, and [decreed his punishment]”. (Sorry, I’m too lazy to type out the full lines with translations, just. trust me on this one.)
Lan Wangji’s actions are shown to be motivated by a righteous love. Wei Wuxian is portrayed as someone innocent who stood up for the right thing against popular opinion and was scapegoated and destroyed for it, having done no wrong. (See, point 1 again.)
In MDZS, Lan Wangji’s crimes are very specific. It isn’t just that he caused some “disturbances” (this is just Lan XIchen’s vague phrasing in CQL—we don’t really know what he did). He steals Wei Wuxian away from the Bloodbath at Nightless City, after Wei Wuxian killed thousands of people, and hides him away in a cave, feeding him spiritual energy to save his life. When Lan Wangji’s family comes to find him, demand that he hand over Wei Wuxian (who is, remember, a mass murderer at this point! we can argue about how culpable he is for those actions all day—that’s the whole point, but the people are still dead), Lan Wangji not only refuses, but raises his hands against his family. He seriously injures thirty-three Lan elders to protect Wei Wuxian.
I don’t know how to emphasize how serious that crime is? Culturally, this is like. Unthinkable. To raise your hand against members of your own family, your elders who loved and raised you, in defense of an outsider, a man who, by all accounts, is horrifically evil and just murdered thousands of people, including other members of your own family, is like. That’s a serious betrayal. Oh my god. Lan Wangji, what have you done?
Lan Xichen explains in chapter 99:
我去看他的时候对他说，魏公子已铸成大错，你何苦错上加错了。他却说……他无法断言你所作所为对错如何，但无论对错，他愿意与你一起承担所有后果。
When I went to see him, I said, “Wei-gongzi’s great wrongs are already set in stone, why take the pains to add wrongs upon wrongs?” But he said…… he had no way to ascertain the rights and wrongs of your actions, but regardless of right or wrong, he was willing to bear all the consequences with you.
I think this is very different than what’s going on in CQL, though the differences appear subtle on the surface. In CQL, Lan Wangji demands of his uncle, “Dare I ask Uncle, who is righteous and who is wicked, who is wrong and who is right?” but the very act of asking in this way implies that Lan Wangji has an opinion on the matter (though perhaps not a simple one).
Lan Wangji in MDZS specifically says that he doesn’t know how to evaluate the morality of Wei Wuxian’s actions, but that regardless, he is willing to bear the consequences of his choices and his actions. He understands that his actions while sheltering Wei Wuxian are not clearly morally defensible. He did it anyways because he loved Wei Wuxian, because he thought that Wei Wuxian was worth saving, that there was still something good in him, despite the things he had done under mitigating circumstances. Lan Wangji did not save Wei Wuxian because he thought it was the right thing to do. He saved him because he loved him.
He is given thirty-three lashes with the discipline whip, one for each elder he maimed, and this leaves him bedridden for three years. Is this punishment horrifyingly severe? Yes! But is it unjustly given? I think that’s a much harder question to answer in the context of the story.
Personally, I think that question underscores the broader questions of morality contained within MDZS. I think it’s a much more interesting take on Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji as individuals. This asks, what can be pardoned? The righteous martyr angle is uncomplicated because moral certainty is easy. I think the situation in MDZS is far more uncomfortable if you examine its implications. And personally, I think that’s more meaningful!
(Not even going to touch on the whole, 300 strokes with a giant rod, but he has whip scars? And they were also sentenced to 300 strokes as kids for drinking alcohol…? CQL is not. consistent. on that front. ahaha.)
God, every point so far in this meta is just like “here’s one change that has cascading effects upon the rest of the show” dear god, okay, I’m getting to the Blood Corpse scene.
So in MDZS, the Wen remnants (besides Wen Ning and Wen Qing) do not go to Lanling. After the Bloodbath at Nightless City, Lan Wangji returns Wei Wuxian to the Mass Graves. Wei Wuxian lives with the Wen remnants for another three months before the First Siege, where he dies and the rest of the Wens are killed (except A’Yuan).
(Sidenote that I won’t get into: I love the dead spaces of time that MDZS creates. There’s very clear gaps in the narrative that we just never get the details on, most notably: Wei Wuxian’s three months in the Mass Graves post core transfer, and Wei Wuxian’s three months in the Mass Graves post Jiang Yanli’s death. They’re both extremely terrible times, but the audence is asked to imagine it instead of ever learning what really happened, what it was like. There’s something really cool about that narratively, I think.)
The Wen remnants are not cremated along with the rest of the dead. Their bodies are thrown into the blood pool.
At the Second Siege, when Wei Wuxian draws a Yin Summoning Flag on his clothes to turn himself into bait for the corpses in order to allow everyone else to escape to safety while he and Lan Wangji fight them off, there’s a moment when it gets really, truly dangerous—even with the help of the juniors and a few of the adults, they probably would have been killed. But then a wave of blood-soaked corpses come crawling out of the blood pool of their own accord and tear their attackers apart.
At the end of it, the blood corpses, the Wen remnants, gather before Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning. Wei Wuxian thanks them, they exchange bows, and the blood corpses collapse into dust. Wen Ning scrambles to gather their ashes, but runs out of space in his clothing. Several juniors, seeing this, offer up their bags to him and try to help.
It’s just. This scene is so important to me. Obviously, it couldn’t be included in CQL because of the whole undead thing, but it’s such a shame because I maintain that the Blood Corpse scene is one of the most powerful scenes in the whole goddamn book. It ties together so many things that I care about! It’s the moment when the narrative says, “kindness is not a waste”. Wei Wuxian failed to save them, but that doesn’t mean that his actions were done in vain. What he did matters. The year of life he bought them matters. The time they spent together matters.
This is also the moment when the juniors finally see Wen Ning for who he is—not the terrifying Ghost General, but a gentle man who has just lost his family for a second time. This is the moment when they reach out with kindness to the monster that their parents told them about at night. It matters that the juniors are able to do that! That they see this man suffering and are moved to compassion instead of righteous satisfaction.
(Except Jin Ling, for very understandable reasons, but Jin Ling’s moment comes later.)
It’s also the moment that we’re starkly reminded that many of the adults in attendance were present at the First Siege and directly responsible for the murders of the Wen remnants, including Ouyang Zizhen’s father. We’re reminded that he’s not just a comically annoying man with bad takes—he also participated in the murder of innocent people and then disrespected their corpses. But what retribution should be taken against him and the others? What retribution could be taken that wouldn’t lead to more tragedy?
There’s someone in the crowd in this scene named Fang Mengchen who refuses to be swayed by Wei Wuxian’s actions. “He killed my parents,” he says. “What about them? How can I let that go?”
“What more do you want from me?” Wei Wuxian asks. “I have already died once. You do not have to forgive me, but what more should I do?”
That is the ultimate question, isn’t it? What is the only way out of tragedy? You don’t have to forgive, but you cannot continue to take your retribution. It is not fair, but it’s all you have.
okay. so. those were my four Big Points of Contention with CQL, as I am currently experiencing them.
Honorable mentions go to: Wen Qing’s arc (both excellent and awful in different ways), making 13/16 years of Inquiry canon (I think this is untrue to Lan Wangji’s character, though I can understand why it was done), Mianmian’s departure from the Lanling Jin sect being shortened and having the sexism cut out (there’s something really visceral about the accusations against Mianmian being explicitly about her womanhood that I desperately wish had been retained in the show), cutting the scene where Jin Ling cries in mourning for Jin Guangyao and is scolded for it by Sect Leader Yao (my heart for that scene because it also matters so much)
but now!! onto the fun part, where I talk effusively about how much I love CQL!! this will probably be shorter (*prays*) because a lot of my frustrations with CQL are related to spiraling thematic consequences while the things I love are like. Simpler to pinpoint? If that makes sense? we’ll see.
CQL’s greatest virtues, also according to cyan:
1. this:
[ID: Wei Wuxian, trembling in fear, screaming “shijie!” as Jiang Cheng threatens him with Fairy in episode 34 of The Untamed drama. /end ID]
I understand that this is like, a very minor, specific detail change, but oh my GOD, it is like. Unparalleled. Every time I think about this change, I get so emotional and disappointed that it’s not in the novel, because I think it strengthens this scene tenfold. In the novel, Wei Wuxian calls out for Lan Zhan, which like, I get it. The story at this point is focused on the development of his romantic feelings for Lan Wangji, so the point of the scene is that the first person he thinks of in a moment of extreme fear is Lan Zhan, which surprises him. That’s fine. Like, it’s fine! But I think it doesn’t have nearly the same weight as Wei Wuxian calling for his sister to save him from his brother.
Having Wei Wuxian call out for his sister drives home the loss that the two of them have suffered, and highlights the relationship they all once had. Jiang Yanli is much more relevant to shuangjie’s narrative than Lan Wangji ever was, and this highlights exactly how deeply the fracturing of their familial relationship cuts. Wangxian gets so much time and focus throughout the rest of the novel. I love that this moment in the show is just about the Yunmeng siblings because that relationship is no less important, you know?
Calling out for Jiang Yanli in the show draws a much cleaner line through the dialogue. “You dare bring her up before me?” to “Don’t you remember what you said to Jin Ling?” It unifies the scene and twists the knife. It also gives us more insight into how fiercely Wei Wuxian was once beloved and protected by his siblings. Jiang Cheng promised to chase all the dogs away from Wei Wuxian when they were children. It’s clear that Jiang Yanli did as well.
Once upon a time, Wei Wuxian’s siblings defended him from his fears, and now one of them is dead and the other is using that fear to hurt him where he’s weakest. The reversal is so painfully juxtaposed, and it’s done with just that one flashback of Wei Wuxian as a child leaping into Jiang Yanli’s arms and calling out her name. Extremely good, economical storytelling. The conversation between shuangjie is much more focused on their own stories independent from Lan Wangji, which I very much appreciate. Wangxian, you’re wonderful, but this ain’t about you, and I don’t think it should be.
2. Extended Jiang Yanli content (and by extension, Jin Zixuan and Mianmian content)
Speaking of absolute goddess Jiang Yanli, I really loved what CQL did with her (unlike my more mixed feelings about Wen Qing). Having her in so many more scenes makes her importance to Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian a lot clearer, and we get to experience her as a person rather than an ideal.
On a purely aesthetic level, Jiang Yanli’s styling and character design is so stellar in CQL. The more prevalent design for her is kind of childish in the styling, which I don’t love (I think it’s the donghua influence?). And even I, someone who’s audio drama on main 24/7, personally prefer her CQL voice actor. There’s only a few characters in CQL that I look at and go “ah yes, that’s [character] 100%” and Jiang Yanli is one of them. I was blessed. I would lay down my life for her.
I’m really glad that CQL showed her illness more explicitly and gave her a sword, even if she never uses it! Her weak constitution is only mentioned once in the novel in chapter 69 in like two lines that I blew past initially because I was reading at breakneck speed and was only reminded of when my therapist who I conned into reading mdzs after 8 months of never shutting up oof brought it to my attention like two weeks ago. /o\
We never read about Jiang Yanli carrying a sword in the novel, though we are told that her cultivation is “mediocre”, so we know that she at least does cultivate, even if not very well. Highlighting her poor health in CQL makes her situation more clear, I think, and explains a little more about the way she’s perceived throughout the cultivation world as someone “not worthy of Jin Zixuan”. The novel tells us that Jiang Yanli is not an extraordinary beauty, not very good at cultivation, sort of bland in her expressions, and, very briefly, that she’s in poor health. I really love that description of Jiang Yanli, because it emphasizes that her worth has nothing at all to do with her talents, her health, her cultivation, her physical strength, or her beauty. She is the best person in the whole world, her brothers adore her, and the audience loves and respects her for reasons wholly unrelated to those value judgments. We love her because she is kind, because she is loyal, because she loves so deeply. Tbh, her only imperfection is falling for someone so tragically undeserving of her. (JK, I love you Jin Zixuan, and you do deserve her because you are an excellent boy who grows and changes and learns!! I can’t even be mean to characters as a joke god.)
Anyways, I just think the detail about her health is compelling and informs her character’s position in the world in a very specific way. I’m happy that CQL brought it to the forefront when it was kind of an easily-missed throwaway in the novel. It does mean something to me that Jiang Yanli, despite her poor physical health, is never once seen or treated as a burden by her brothers.
Something partially related that really hit hard was this:
[ID: two gifs. Jiang Yanli peeling lotus pods, looking up uncomfortably as her mother loses her temper about the Wen indoctrination at the table from episode 11 of The Untamed drama. /end ID]
D8 AAAAHHH this was VISCERAL. The novel is quite sparse in a lot of its descriptions and lets the audience fill in the missing details, so Jiang Yanli’s expression and reactions are not described when, after Jiang Cheng quickly volunteers to go to Qishan, Madam Yu accuses her of continuing to “happily peel lotus seeds” in such a dire situation.
“Of course you’ll go,” she snaps to Jiang Cheng. “Or else do you think we should let your sister go?”
This scene triggered me so bad lmfao, so I guess it’s kind of weird that I love it so much, but I felt Seen. Something about the way her nail slips in the second gif as she breaks open the pod is like. Oh, that’s a sense memory! Of me, as a child, witnessing uncomfortable conflict between people I cared about. I know this is an extremely personal bias, but hey, so is this whole meta. Because Jiang Yanli is often silent and quiet, it’s more her behavior and expressions that convey her character. It’s why the moment she lets loose on Jin Zixun is so powerful. We don’t get to see a lot of it in the novel, but because CQL is a visual medium, her character is a lot easier to pin down as a human as opposed to an abstract concept.
Anyways, in this moment, which I also think is a tangential reference to her weak constitution (it doesn’t feel like, “your sister can’t go because she’s a girl”; it feels like, “your sister can’t go because she couldn’t handle it”), we get to see Jiang Yanli’s own reaction to her perceived inadequacy. We see it in other places too—like how upset she is when Jin Zixuan dismisses her in several scenes, but this is the one that hits me the hardest because it’s about how her weakness is going to put her little brother in grave danger.
Last Yunmeng siblings with focus on Jiang Yanli scene that isn’t in the novel that I’m just absolutely wrecked over: the dream sequence in episode 28, when Jiang Yanli dreams about Wei Wuxian sailing away from her, but no matter how she shouts, or how she begs Jiang Cheng to help her, she can’t bring him back home.
I’m not going to gif it because I literally just like, fast-forwarded through it and started sobbing uncontrollably in front of my laptop, dear god.
I don’t know where the CQL writers found the backdoor directly into my brain’s nightmare center, but?? they sure did! IDK, I can see how this might be kind of heavy-handed, but it just. The sensation of being in a dream where something is going terribly wrong, but you’re the only one who seems to see it happening? But there’s nothing you can do? I feel like it’s a very fitting nightmare to give Jiang Yanli, who is acutely aware and constantly reminded of how little power she has in the world: not good enough for the boy she likes, not healthy enough to cultivate well, not strong enough to keep her family together.
The whole, elder siblings trying and failing to protect their younger siblings pattern is A Lot in the story, but there’s something particularly painful about seeing it happen to Jiang Yanli because of that awareness. All the other elder siblings are exceptionally talented or powerful in obvious ways. All Jiang Yanli has is the force of her will and the force of her love, and she knows it isn’t enough.
I care a lot about the Yunmeng siblings, okay! And I think CQL did right by them!
I’m only going to spend two seconds talking about Jin Zixuan and Mianmian, but I DO want to mention them.
Anyways, because we get more Jiang Yanli content, we ALSO get more soft xuanli, which is Very Good. Literally my kingdom for disaster het Jin Zixuan treating my girl right!! CQL said het rights, and I’m not even mad about it! I’m really happy that we get to see a little more of how their relationship plays out, and how hard Jin Zixuan works to change his behavior and apologize to her for his mistakes. The novel is from Wei Wuxian’s POV, so we miss the details, alas. Jin Zixuan covered in mud, planting lotuses? Blessed.
I think part of making Mianmian a larger speaking role is for convenience’s sake, but oh boy do I love that choice. Especially the Jin Zixuan & Mianmian relationship. Like, they’re so clearly platonic, and Mianmian is never once portrayed as a threat to Jiang Yanli. They just care about and respect each other a lot? Jin Zixuan’s distress when she defects from the Jin sect gets me in the heart, because it’s just like. God. I think there’s a lot of interesting potential there for her own thoughts re: Wei Wuxian. After all, she leaves her sect in defense of him, but he later kills a friend that she respects and loves. The moments shared between her and Jin Zixuan are minor, but they hint at a deeper relationship that I’m really glad was in the show.
3. To curb the strong, defend the weak: lantern scene (gusu) + rain scene (qiongqi dao 1.0)
I think I basically already explained why I love this so much in this post (just consider that post and this point to be the same haha), but just. Okay. A short addendum.
As much as I love novel wangxian, I really think that including this scene early on emphasizes why Lan Wangji loves Wei Wuxian so deeply. Of course he thinks Wei Wuxian is attractive, but this is the moment when he realizes, oh, this is who I love. Having that moment to reflect upon throughout Wei Wuxian’s descent is so excellent. I have enumerated all of my issues with the “perfectly righteous Wei Wuxian” arc that CQL crafted, but having this narrative throughline in conjunction with the novel arc would be like. My favored supercanon ahaha. (It would need some tweaking, but I think it would work.) It shows us exactly who it is that Lan Wangji sees and is trying to save, who he thinks is still there, underneath all the carnage and despair and violence and grief. This is the Wei Wuxian Lan Wangji loves and is unwilling to let go. This is the Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji would kill for, that Lan Wangji would stand beside, that Lan Wangji would live for.
4. Meeting Songxiao
As much as I love the unnameable ache of Wei Wuxian never meeting Xiao Xingchen and learning only about his story through secondhand sources in the novel (and the really cool parallel to that where Xiao Xingchen tells A’Qing the story of Baoshan-sanren’s ill-fated disciples: both Xiao Xingchen and Wei Wuxian learn of each other only through the eyes of others, and that is Very Neat), I think the reversal that this meeting in episode 10 sets up wins out just slightly.
I said once in the tags on one of my posts that “songxiao is the tragic parallel of wangxian” and like. Yeah. Basically! If we take songxiao as romantic, the arc of their relationship happens inversely to wangxian, and that parallel is so much clearer and stronger when we have wangxian meeting songxiao in their youth.
The scene of their meeting really does have that Mood™ of uncertain youth seeing happy and secure adults living out the dreams that they’re afraid to name. Wei Wuxian’s eager little, “oh! just like me and Lan Zhan!! Right, Lan Zhan??” when songxiao talk about cultivating together through shared ideals and not blood is. Well, it’s Something.
When they meet again at Yi City, there’s a greater heaviness to it. So this is what happened to the people you once dreamed of becoming! Wangxian have already come to a point where they have an unspoken understanding of their relationship, but Songxiao have lost everything they once had. When Song Lan looks at wangxian, it’s like looking at a mirror of his past, and everyone in attendance knows it.
To me, that unspoken parallel is really emotionally and thematically valuable. All that good, and here is the tragedy that came of it.
okay, look! I managed to keep it shorter!! here are my honorable mentions: that scene where Jin Guangyao tries to hold Jin Ling and Jin Guangshan refuses to let him (it’s hating Jin Guangshan hours all day every day in this household), the grass butterfly leitmotif for Sizhui (im literally crying right now about it shut up), the Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing sideplot (look I know it’s wild that I actually liked that given that I headcanon JC as aspec, but I actually really like how it played out, specifically because Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian are NOT romantic—it sets up an unexpected and interesting comparison)
um. Anyways. I uh. really care about this story. And have a lot of thoughts, which I’m sure will continue to evolve. Maybe in 8 months I’ll return to this and go well, literally none of this applies anymore, but who knows! It’s how I feel right now. I cried literally three times while writing this because MDZS/CQL reached into my chest and yanked my heart right out of my body, but I had fun! *finger guns*
and like, I know I had a LOT to say about what frustrated me about CQL, but I really really hope it’s clear that I adore the show despite all of that. I talk a lot because I care a lot, and my brain only has one setting.
anon, this was like 1000% more than you bargained for, I’m SURE, (and I’m still exercising some restraint, if you can. believe that.) but I hope that you or someone out there got something out of it! if you made it all the way to the end of this meta, wow!! consider me surprised and grateful!!
time to crawl back into my hovel so I can write Lan Xichen fic and cry
(ko-fi? ;A;)
#the untamed#the untamed meta#mdzs#mdzs meme#mo dao zu shi#mine#mymeta#asks and replies#Anonymous#HOOOOOO BOY GUYS#we are just shy of 10k on this#*buries face in hands*#cyan writes#cyan gets too deep in the weeds#i will be shocked if more than like ten people read this#by the end it was just like well i guess this is just for me now lmfao#anyways. i will now. leave the internet for a while. thanks
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Sweet Pea and Fangs//Mission Accomplished
Request: If you're busy you can ignore this. I really like your poly! Fangs and Sweet Pea and I was wondering if you could do another one. Maybe about what being a family with them would be like. (You know like what kind of fathers would they be.) Thanks!
hey!! this was super cute to write! i hope you like it!
- Okay, so lets just say right now
- They would be the best dads in the world
- And you can bet that they both have mugs with ‘best dad in the world’ written on them
- Which they of course use literally every day
- So much so, that you have to replace them every couple of months
- Usually because Sweet Pea puts his down on a table to aggressively
- Or because Fangs doesn’t stir coffee, he bashes the spoon from side to side until he breaks the mug, the spoon, and occasionally himself.
- Anyway
- So lets say you got pregnant at like 24/25ish
- All three of you had moved out of Riverdale
- Because I mean lets be real, its not the safest place to start a family
- With the murderers and the cults and the gangs and literally everything else
- Plus, it had been Sweet Pea and Fangs’ dream to get out of the southside and riverdale and to have a better life than their parents did
- So all three of you have stable jobs that you love
- And a cute little apartment
- Filled with photos of the three of you
- And so many memories of your life together
- Including some random dog statue that Fangs found in the skip behind the apartment complex
- To this day you and Sweet Pea have no idea why he was there in the first place
- But you think the scratches on his hands, face and neck had something to do with it
- And so many plants
- So basically you’re parents already...right?
- Anywayyyyyy
- So, you guys were doing pretty good
- Vey, very happy together
- And you’d just come back from visiting Toni and Cheryl and their new baby girl
- Who is adorable by the way
- So you’d be chilling at home
- You and Sweet Pea watching something on Netflix
- While Fangs cooks dinner (its his turn and he’s the best cook)
- And you’d notice Sweet Pea and Fangs exchanging looks
- So you’d be suspicious
- And eventually, after the two of them giving each other very odd looks all throughout dinner, you’ve had enough.
- ‘okay. what’s going on?’
- ‘we wanna have a baby’ Fangs would blurt out and you and Sweet Pea’s eyes would both go wide.
- ‘what?’ you’d look between the two of them
- Fangs is pushing the last bit of food around the plate
- Sweet Pea is refusing to make eye contact with either of you, finding the ceiling fascinating
- While you’re tapping your foot against the floor
- ‘hello? anyone care to expand?’
- And Sweet Pea would sigh, and tear his gaze from the ceiling, settling on you.
- ‘fine. we’ve both been thinking about it for a whil-’
- ‘and then we went to see toni and cheryl and their kid is so cute and they look so happy and we want to start a family with you’ Fangs would interrupt.
- Of course you’d also thought about having kids.
- Sweet Pea and Fangs are the love of your life
- They’re who you want to spend the rest of your life with
- Plus you’ve been dating since you were like 16, so it makes sense
- But it was difficult enough for Toni and Cheryl to have a baby
- This is going to be complicated
- Both of them will obviously be this kids dad...
- But what if when its born the other gets jealous?
- What if they feel like they’re not properly apart of it?
- Would you even find out who the biological dad was?
- Or would you just leave it?
- What about when the kid is older?
- There’s already enough stigma about kids having two moms or two dads
- What about one with two dads and one mom?
- So, you’d all sit down after dinner and talk about everything
- The possible problems
- How you would raise it
- If you’re all ready
- And you’d finally figure it out
- Well, the best that you could anyway
- But in the end you’d figured that you’d all be alright because you had each other
- So then the fun bit ;)
- You’d be trying for a few months
- Much to the happiness of Fangs and Sweet Pea
- They weren’t complaining
- And then when you do get pregnant
- Holy fuck are they happy
- Like literally jumping around, hugging each other, hugging you
- They’re literally the happiest people ever
- The first thing they do is call Toni
- Because well, they have to tell their best friend that she’s going to be an aunt.
- And a few minutes later, Cheryl texts you a video of Toni on the phone, jumping up and down as they tell her.
- Anyway, so once they’ve calmed down they instantly go into protective mode.
- Like
- ‘oh, sit down. standing up is not good for the baby.’
- ‘what?’
- ‘do you need a drink? food? a nap? a hug?’
- ‘i’m good’
- And you think this is just going to last for a few days
- But no
- This continues all through the pregnancy
- And afterwards tbh
- They are so protective
- You always sleep in the middle so they can both keep you two safe
- Even if it is a nightmare when you need to pee
- Fangs did suggest a bucket by the bed but you and Sweet Pea both agreed that was too far
- They go to all the scans
- And cry
- Every. Single. Time
- Sweet Pea’s suggests going to the baby classes
- Even though you’re kind of unsure of what people will say
- But you go
- And its surprisingly, okay
- You get a few strange looks
- But who the hell cares
- And Sweet Pea and Fangs both have their own little notebooks that they’re furiously scribbling notes in
- And they always take turns to practice on the fake babies
- Plus, before you all go to bed the three of you will read baby books, occasionally swapping them every so often.
- ‘did you know that new-borns are short sighted’
- ‘ha, four eyed loser’
- ‘i’m sorry. how old are you sweet pea?’
- So they’re just the sweetest
- And every time they come back from work they aways have something for the baby
- Literally. Every. Time
- No matter what.
- ‘how many shoes do you think this baby is going to need?’
- ‘i don’t even think babies need shoes, at least not for the first few months’
- ‘no baby needs this many leather jackets.’
- ‘yeah, but its got a snake on the back! how could i just leave it there?’
- ‘where did you find a leather jacket for a baby with a snake on the back?’
- ‘...the serpents made it for us.’
- And they buy the most weird stuff
- Like you’re getting amazon packages every other day
- The neighbors think you guys are doing something illegal
- Sweet Pea buys a baby grow that has labels for where the arms and legs go
- And when you ask him why
- ‘its for fangs. i’m just helping him out’
- So in retaliation, Fangs buys one with instructions of where to feed the baby and where to change it
- Also this doesn’t stop when your baby is born, they’re still buying stupid t-shirts with stupid slogans on well into its 20s
- Your favourite thing they’ve bought is definitely the fake tattoo sleeve
- So, you’re keeping the gender a surprise
- Because who cares
- So you’re going for like a yellow or gray nursery
- And Sweet Pea and Fangs are insisting on doing it all them selves
- The painting
- The furniture
- The little accessories
- Everything
- Needless to say you hear a huge crash within five minutes of them starting
- So you do it together instead
- You start painting while they put the crib together
- There’s some left over screws at the end but they decide against telling you that
- It looks stable enough
- And just to make sure, Fangs tested it out...and got stuck
- They make sure to take tons of pictures throughout the entire pregnancy
- Much to your annoyance
- ‘I’ve just thrown up for the third time in five minutes...stop taking my damn picture.’
- ‘i want to capture every moment’
- ‘why!?!?’
- But you love the majority of them
- There’s some of you by yourself
- Some of them with you and one of them
- Others with the three of you together
- Both of them looking at you like you’re their entire world
- (which you are)
- And there’s a few pictures of just the two of them with fake pregnancy bellies on, in the style of a professional photo shoot
- Another late night Amazon purchase
- Which when you opened you were...confused to say the least.
- When you’re nearing your due date they make sure at least one person is with you at all times, just in case you go into labour
- And that works, until the day you actually go into labour and you’re alone
- Fangs is at work and Sweet Pea had to run to the store to get ice cream and snacks
- And then it happens
- You’re panicking but trying not to, but its not working
- Sweet Pea comes back and then he sees your panicked face and he drops the food and almost himself to be honest
- He’s running around trying to find your bag and his bag and Fangs’ bag
- And you’re trying to ring Fangs but he’s not answering
- Sweet Pea eventually gets through to him when you guys get the hospital and you can hear Fangs screaming down the phone
- He makes it there in five minutes, even though he works at least fifteen minutes away
- They’re on either side of you
- Both panting and telling you to breathe
- Basically they are being ridiculous
- And very unhelpful
- Especially when the breathing is mainly to calm themselves down
- And then Sweet Pea gets distracted, blows a rubber glove up and it pop’s
- And to be honest the fright it gave you, you thought you’d given birth
- But when its time for you to start pushing they’re right next to
- Holding your hands
- Saying so many nice things
- Being so sweet and supportive
- And they also take a moment to hug each other while they watch
- Like they’re crying
- At one point Fangs just screams
- ‘i told you not to look down there’ Sweet pea scolds
- ‘does it go back to normal?’ Fangs would ask
- ‘god, i hope so’ You’d groan in pain
- But then your daughter is born and they’re smitten
- This tiny little life is theirs
- And it relies on them for everything
- And they’re so proud of you
- Literally they’re heart is going to burst with love and pride for you
- They love her so much
- And instantly take their roles very seriously
- The first night they let you sleep because well you’ve just given birth, you need a rest
- And it gives them a chance to bond
- They take turns holding her
- And feeding her
- And just talking to her
- ‘we’re you’re dads’ Fangs would whisper
- ‘i’m sweet pea. nice to meet you.’
- ‘what are you doing?’
- ‘introducing myself. i have to make a good impression, and we need to teach her manners’
- ‘shit, you’re right. hello, i’m fangs, your other dad...do i like, shake her hand?’
- ‘hmmm, yeah. i think she’s too young for a high-five’
- ‘thats your mom over there. she’s asleep at the minute so we have to be really quiet, but she loves you so much...and so do we. you’re our entire world’
- They’re so gentle with her
- And with you
- When you get home, the three of you show her around her new home
- And show her all the pictures on the walls, explaining the memories behind each of them
- You also make sure to introduce her to her siblings (the houseplants)
- When she’s a little older Sweet Pea starts teaching her how to defend herself
- ‘she’s three sweet pea, she doesn’t need to know how to karate chop someone’
- ‘yes she does. i’m always going to be around to keep her safe...but just in case. which reminds me, do you know how to karate chop someone?’
- Fangs teaches her how to cook
- Like she knows everything by the times she’s 10
- Both of them teach her stupid (and sometimes inappropriate) jokes
- Out of the two of them, Fangs is usually the one to tell her off
- Actually, its you...you’re the one to tell her off if she’s done something wrong because they both can’t bring themselves to shout at her
- Its difficult for you too (so its a blessing that she’s actually pretty well behaved, unlike all three of her parents)
- Fangs is definitely the most over protective
- He follows her around when she starts to crawl, literally if she moves a centimeter, he’s up and following her around.
- Sweet Pea is always the one to cheer her up when she’s sad
- And you’re the one she always goes to when she’s hurt herself or if she just needs a hug
- She loves all of you so much
- And you love her
- They still insist of taking pictures of literally every moment
- It actually increases after she’s born
- You really don’t know how thats possible
- Even she gets annoyed at it
- ‘really dad? another one??’
- ‘hey! when all three of us are dead and buried you’re going to look back at these and wish we’d taken more’
- They make it their life mission to teach her every single thing they know about the world
- And all three of you make it your life mission to make sure she knows how loved she is
- Which you definitely accomplished
#sweet pea#fangs#fangs fogarty#sweet pea imagine#sweet pea x reader#sweet pea x you#sweet pea x y/n#fangs imagine#fangs x reader#fangs x you#fangs fogarty imagine#fangs fogarty x reader#fangs fogarty x you#riverdale#riverdale imagine#sweet pea x fangs#sweet pea x fangs x reader#fangs x reader x sweet pea
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The Taint of the Common Man (Meve/Reynard/Gascon)
Okay, so I finally tried to play Thronebreaker again and it turned out that my comptuer/steam/whatever had actually kept my save!!! So I didn’t have to start over, which was good, because the beginning was kinda boring, which is why it took me so long to continue. But it’s also kinda bad, because now I do not remember anything about Gascon’s introduction beyond “they fought, Meve won and threatened to hang him next time”. Which like... I could probably make it work, but knowing the details seems important for writing Meve’s feelings and reactions to Gascon.
Anyway, this is a continuation of the thoughts that this lovely post inspired, and because I’m me, those thoughts grew a plot. Both the link and the rest of the story involve a VERY dubcon/noncon premise, so please engage only if you can. Also, spoilers for Chapter 1 of Thronebreaker (aka major plot things that happen once you reach Lyria’s capital).
Okay, once again: HUGE WARNING for Dubcon/Noncon stuff. Like, it’s how the story starts and it’s gonna be something dealt with through the whole story. My idea is basically a story that starts with Meve losing EVERYTHING, and then, through her quest to reclaim her throne, she learns how to be a better queen to ALL of her people, not just the noblemen. End game is intended to be Meve/Reynard/Gascon, but tbh, idk how they get there. Like, at first, Meve and Reynard hate Gascon A LOT, so they have to learn to love him and that takes time.
I’m kinda still learning about these characters as I think this through, so apologies if you find them ooc or if I contradict canon (without meaning to. Sometimes i do it gladly lol)
So we start with Meve returning to the Lyrian castle, only to find that her son and the Council of Peers (read: ruling council that advises the monarch and consists entirely of peerage aka nobility) have betrayed her and surrendered to Nilfgaard. She’s thrown in a dungeon and though her son orders that she is not to be harmed, she knows enough about reality to know they’d never let her live.
She’s on guard, waiting for the guards to come and kill her - only when footsteps approach, it’s not the guards at all, but the fucking Duke of Dogs, the leader of the Strays of Spalla, a gang of bandits that plague merchant caravans and noblemen alike. Gascon, the proclaimed Duke of Dogs, opens the cell door and steps in and tells Meve that he’s freeing her, because the Council of Peers used him and his men and he can’t abide betrayal. But there’s one condition - Meve has to ask him, all nice and polite-like.
Meve, of course, refuses, because she’s nothing if not prideful. So Gascon closes the cell door and leans back against it and says something like, “guess we won’t be leaving, then. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to do something else on your knees,” or some sort of implication like that that makes it clear he’s suggesting that she blow him in exchange for release. And Meve is furious and her pride cuts at her, but dammit, she has no hope of freeing Lyria from Nilfgaard’s grasp while stuck in here. So she goes to her knees. And Gascon is surprised - from his view, she could’ve just begged him??? - but like... the QUEEN is on her KNEES for HIM, a (decidedly un)common bandit who she’d threatened to hang not a week prior.
Also, I think there’s also a part of Gascon that blames Meve for the massacre of his family. According to the wiki, the year before King Reginald (Meve’s husband) died, Gascon’s family revolted against the king and were soundly squashed, with Gascon at a mere 8 years old the only one to survive. From there, he fell in with the Strays of Spalla and eventually became their leader. Remember this bit, ‘cause I’m definitely gonna come back to it. But anyway, Gascon doesn’t like Meve. He’s doing this because it’s the right thing to do and a little because having the queen indebted to him feels awfully good. Also, Meve is good with her mouth.
So good, in fact, that she drives him crazy, taking him to the edge and teasing him and teasing him and teasing him until his legs are shaking and the cell door is all that’s holding him up. I don’t think he actually begs, because his men are around the cell watching this, but he has to bite his lip hard to keep from doing so.
For Meve, there are many complicated feelings happening. On the one hand, this is humiliating and degrading and it’s shameful that she’s fallen so far as to be forced to service a fucking bandit and even worse that his men are SEEING this happen.
On the other hand... look, Meve was widowed 8 years ago. Somewhere in there (or before?), she comes to love and trust Reynard - who her husband, upon his deathbed, told her that he alone could be trusted. But she hasn’t made a move, because it wouldn’t be appropriate and she doesn’t want to ruin things between them.
Point is, it’s been 8 years since she’s had sex and she has had cause to desire some sex. Queens can probably get amazing sex toys, but like, an actual cock? it’s been AGES since she’s been able to play with one and she kind of missed it.
Additionally, in an effort to combat her shame and humiliation, she decides to flip the script on them. Gascon wants her to blow him? Fine, she’ll blow him so well that he utterly falls apart. And maybe she’s a little of practice, but Gascon is young anyway, he probably doesn’t even know better lmao. (But later, she’s oddly grateful that she had this chance for ‘practice’ before it actually mattered)
Eventually, she lets Gascon come - or maybe he uses his grip on her hair to pull her onto him? (She may decide to make it a good blowjob, but that doesn’t mean he’s earned deepthroating) - and the Strays, who have gone from hooting and hollering over the queen’s humiliation to flushed and aroused at the skillful way she destroyed their boss, let them out of the cell.
Next, they go to the city jail to release Reynard, who was arrested as soon as the coup happened because everyone knows that Reynard’s loyalty to the crown is absolute. Reynard is sitting against the wall and he smiles brightly at the sight of her, so Meve strides into the cell to unshackle him. So of course Gascon, who now stands in front of the door once more, suggests something like, “such faithful loyalty deserves ample reward, does it not?”
And Meve is conflicted. Because AGAIN, the Strays of Spalla are watching them and Gascon is trying elicit sexual favours from her. But also, it’s Reynard. She’s wondered for so long what Reynard’s cock would be like and how he would treat her. And, she justifies to herself, she was already forced to give a piece of filth like Gascon a blowjob. Reynard most certainly deserved better.
So she orders him to stand and goes to her knees and is almost eager to get him in her mouth. And Reynard is caught entirely off guard here, because he was ready to skewer Gascon for the mere suggestion, and then she’s ACTUALLY DOING IT!!! And it’s not like she’s alone in having thought about it, but he always assumed that he would be the one on his knees. So for her to do so... he’s awed and a little horrified that he is party to degrading his queen in this way. And also aroused. REALLY fucking aroused, because Meve is on her knees for him! And unlike Gascon, he has earned deepthroating. Fortunately, he’s already leaning against the wall, so he doesn’t collapse.
If Gascon hadn’t had the most intense orgasm of his life like 10 minutes previously, he’d definitely try to see if he could join in, even though they really don’t have the time for that sort of thing. But suffice it to say, Gascon remembers each and every moment Meve spent on her knees vividly.
Reynard comes (and Gascon is reluctantly pleased to have a companion in the wait-you-want-me-to-fight-after-how-hard-I-came!? club) and they all leave the dungeons - and get found by a patrol of guards. They have to fight their way out and Meve thinks Gascon managed to slip away - right up until he comes to their aid with his whole crew. With Gascon’s help, their motley crew flees the capital of Lyria (largely by traveling thru the sewers).
That night, they set up camp somewhere and instead of the royal supplies she’s used to, all they have is whatever the Strays of Spalla had, which means stolen and/or threadbare, ‘cause they’re not exactly living the high life. And Meve knows she should get some rest, but she can’t stop thinking about what happened in the prison(s) and she decides that, as long as Reynard was willing, why shouldn’t she pursue the man she loved?
So she goes to the mess tent and it’s predictably full of drunken soldiers - well, drunken warriors. This rabble didn’t deserve to be called soldiers - and clusters of people playing dice and cards. She spots Reynard at one of the card tables - but sitting across from him is none other than the motherfucking Duke of Dogs. Half-formed plans to kiss Reynard drown under the flood of fury she feels and she summons Reynard to her, ignoring Gascon, who definitely tries to flirt with her. At this moment, she has VERY conflicted feelings about Gascon and most of them are negative. But also, they need him. She is very much aware that his men are the only reason she has any chance at all of taking back her home.
Anyway, Meve confronts Reynard, who explains that he doesn’t trust Gascon as far as he can throw him and whatever mischief Gascon is up to, whatever he thinks he can gain from helping them, Reynard is ready for the doublecross. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer is very much his philosophy, compounded by the way he has learned not to reveal - well, much at all. People probably find him very... is softspoken the word? Not like he speaks soft, but like, he doesn’t say a lot. He learned to keep his mouth shut after he managed to survive insulting the king, so he plays things pretty close to his chest and people find it hard to guess what he’s thinking.
Gascon, for his part, is helping Meve because it’s the right thing to do (and a little because again, queen indebted to you? Very handy). He’s probably aware that Reynard doesn’t like him, even if Reynard acts friendly enough? Like, literally Reynard is so loyal to Meve that he was imprisoned and she was sure of his fealty. And Gascon has found ways to rationalize what he did i.e. raping Meve - she could’ve just begged! She had a choice! - but even though Reynard got a blowjob out of it, I’m sure Gascon would assume that Reynard would want him dead for the blowjob that he got.
I don’t precisely know what Reynard and Gascon’s relationship is like during this, tbh. I think it’ll be Meve’s POV, so she may have a limited view, but I think it’s definitely complicated. Made worse, of course, by both Meve and Reynard beginning to see the redeeming qualities in Gascon. But that comes later.
For now, Meve accepts Reynard’s explanation and knowing that he would do anything to protect her soothes some of the ruffled feathers from a very trying day. So she decides to subtly ask him something like, “come to my tent?” that like, isn’t blatant ‘cause they’re surrounded by drunk men, but also is pretty clear. And Reynard’s eyes widen and it hurts so much to do, but he tells her no. She’s had an intense fucking day - betrayed by her son and court, imprisoned, forced to give multiple blowjobs and work with lowly bandits and shit. Like, she’s been through a lot and he knows that she’s not able to be in her right mind. So he says no, part of him hoping that if she actually means it, she’ll try again in the morning.
But what Meve hears is no, not interested. Which makes this the third time today that she gets to be humiliated in front of the fucking Strays of Spalla, because not only is the man she loves rejecting her, but like... is he rejecting her because she’s tainted now? How is she supposed to interpret him enjoying a blowjob from her one hour and rejecting her advances the next?
And the taint... I think that’ll be a theme in this fic (thus the title). Like, at the height of her power before the fall, Meve was “pure” - which in this case means firmly assured that she was right in everything, as she was always destined to be. There’s no questioning of the world order or if she’s qualified to lead. She simply knows that she is.
But now she’s been betrayed, her nobility and her title ripped from her grasp. And not only that, but she’s demeaned herself with a common thug! She even says it in the game - “look how far we’ve fallen, to be surrounded by peasants and deserters and bandits”. For her, this entire situation is almost like “being common” is reaching for her, trying to pull her in, and she wants to resist, because she’s always been taught that the nobles are BETTER than the common people. But as she works with her army of thugs and commoners, she starts to learn that poor people are people too (gee, who’da thunk it?)
That journey takes time, though, and we’re barely at the start of it!
So, Meve gets rejected. She’s hurt and humiliated and at the moment doesn’t have a kind word for ANYBODY. She maybe cries herself to sleep and hates herself for being weak.
Then morning comes and she has her regular strategy meeting with Reynard, as she did every morning. And it’s awkward and Reynard is as silent as usual, always so deliberate about every word that leaves his mouth. And she wants to ask, but yesterday’s humiliation was enough. She can’t repeat it.
So even though they SHOULD’VE gotten together, they fail to, because Meve is stubborn and prideful and Reynard is closelipped and proper. And Meve kind of hates even the sight of Gascon, but since he IS the leader of the army that is currently only at her disposal because of him, she invites him to join the strategy meetings every morning. If Gascon helps provide a buffer between her and Reynard, so much the better.
Okay, I don’t actually know how everyone ACTUALLY gets together, BUT as they travel through the countryside of Lyria towards the Aedirnian border, a couple of important things happen.
1) Meve sees the real conditions of the people living in her realm. Even in areas that the lords had reported prosperous, people were starving and dying. She starts to learn that these are her people too.
2) Meve and Reynard get to know Gascon. Not just over their strategy meetings, but as they observe him and the Strays of Spalla they (Meve especially) begin to realize that their judgements were all wrong. Because yes, the Strays of Spalla are bandits. They steal from wealthy merchants and even wealthier nobles. That had always been enough to know before.
But now they come to know that that stolen food and blankets and supplies and coin went to the starving peasants in these lands. Hell, most of the Strays are from these areas. These are their people, even if Meve hasn’t figured out that they’re hers too.
Anyway, idk how they get together or how the story ends - is it with them getting together? Getting to Vengerberg to ask for help to reclaim their home? Ousting Villem and taking Lyria back? idk, I haven’t even gotten that far in the game yet lol.
So yeah, here’s a very long synopsis of a story that manages to have almost no porn and lots of angst, despite being inspired by a purely porny post lmao.
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Tobirama with a s/o who’s scared of water - Part I 🌊
I’m still surprised that I’ve never seen this idea being explored in anywhere, at least in hcs (if you have a fic or something with this concept, please contact me 😜), but imagine how strange and mind blowing it would be for Tobirama to live with someone whose biggest fear lies on water, which is like a second nature of him. How would he deal with such situation?
Fandom: Naruto | Tobirama Senju
Warnings: mentions of trauma, painful memories and drowning; fear of deep waters
Symbols: 💗 | ◻ | ▶▶
Being the best Suiton user at his time, the idea of someone whose worst fear is water never crossed Tobirama’s mind, but here he is, living with you and loving you
Don’t get me wrong: he wouldn’t look down on you because of this, but you see, water feels like a second skin when he’s surrounded by it, it’s in his nature, so he would never consider this possibility spontaneously
So that in this case he took some time to connect the dots and start considering the possibility of this being aquaphobia (does it exist?, he might have thought)
As a regular ninja, you already knew how to walk upon water, but you would avoid it whenever you could (you didn’t even know how it was possible for you to learn that tbh)
But in situations when this wasn’t possible, you almost always were left behind, or he would have to carry you half the way
(It used to kill your pride, but since he never complained or questioned you, you never said a word about it)
And of course you never performed Suiton. Like, NEVER
This condition not only affected your work as a shinobi, but your daily activities as well
Whenever Tobirama invited you to go to the river with him, you never stood by the shore with him while he fished. Dangling your feet under water while sitting there? UNACCEPTABLE
Bathing houses were one of his favorite places, of course, and because of this from time to time you had to torture yourself inventing a different excuse for not going with him
There was an occasion when you had no choice but to go to the bathing house, and you were secretly glad to know that women and men had separated places there, so that you could hide in anywhere and then pretend you were on the water
Even entering a bathtub was a no for you: you always preferred the shower
During your missions together, whenever he started to prepare a Water Release you would go as far as possible from him and offered support from a safe distance, only returning to his side after all the water disappeared. At first, he supposed it was just a precaution, but when you openly refused to approach the water, he understood that there was something you weren't telling him
Sometimes he would observe you while you slept (he always came to sleep after you), and he noticed that you used to be restless after missions when that happened
However he didn’t start a conversation about that. You know him, he's not good at these things and preferred to let you speak when you feel prepared. He didn't want to invade your space
However, things changed after that particular mission
Your adversary was a skilled Suiton user, and they explored this at its limits while fighting against you
There was a moment when you saw yourself surrounded by rocks and other natural obstacles, and they used a jutsu that quickly filled the place with water, and you had no way out
You tried to do something, but your hands wouldn’t move to form a seal, and your feet were paralyzed. You thought you were going to die
Fortunately Tobirama came in time and saved you
In the end the mission was completed and the enemies were defeated, but once you packed to go back to the village you knew you were going to have a conversation about that moment
Though you have been living with him for a long time and thus you trust him as no one else, it was the scariest thing you've ever done
You explained that your problem started after an episode when you were a child
During a day of training as a 5 year old genin, you were practicing walking over water while your sensei was watching. He knew you couldn’t swim, still he didn’t provide you extra care just in case of an accident, stating that he couldn’t favor you over your team mates
Yes, you already talked to Tobirama about your sensei’s ruthless methods, but you never told him that things came to this point
It was when everything happened: for a second you lost control over your chakra and drowned when you were in the middle of the river you had to cross. You were lucky that your team mates were close to you and brought you to the shore
The experience gave you nightmares for several months after that, and even taking a bath was difficult for you. However, no one knew about it, not even your parents
You always believed that the idea of drowning and not getting any help was scarier than the water itself. Still, every time you approached the water, the sensations of that day came back
After that, you tortured yourself for years to master your chakra control, so that you would never be under the risk of drowning even not being able to swim. You always avoided missions in places like the Land of Waves when you could, but sometimes that wasn’t possible and you simply had to face your source of fear
Tobirama listened to your whole story without interrupting you. After you stopped speaking, he remained in silence for a long time
You knew what he was doing: he was trying to think of a practical way for you to manage your problem
It didn’t soothe your anxiety, though. You knew that managing in his vocabulary meant facing your fear until you overcome it. And being a master of Suiton, you knew he could provide the perfect management tools in this case
He explained to you exactly what he was planning and asked for you consent. You were scared, of course, but you trusted him as trusted no other person, so you said yes
In the next morning Tobirama took you to an isolated place around the village, where you both wouldn’t have restrictions in dealing with a huge amount of water
The first stage of your training consisted in you learning how to get used to be close to water. He wanted you to know how to differ when water could represent danger and when it was inoffensive
Since you already knew how to identify it as a sign of danger, he wanted to teach you to be comfortable around it. For this he stood close to you and slowly created a shallow pool around you two; it didn’t even cover you knees
You startled and held him tight, but then you stopped and tried to breath deep while he spoke to you, reminding you of everything you talked before start to training
“Remember what I told you about breathing, y/n. Concentrate in it. You are not under the water now. You are able to breathe. Focus your attention on it”
You were still clinging to him, but instead of pushing you away he held your hands as if he wanted to help you to cross a difficult path
“Do not stand still. Try to move your feet, your legs. Understand that you are able to walk on this amount of water. Then walk with me. Follow me”
You took one step, then another, and then a third one. It was strange to move your feet with the water restraining their movements
But after some time of attempts, walking on water started to feel natural
Still, when you stumbled on something on the submerged floor, you were frightened and grabbed Tobirama’s hands with all your strength
He pulled you closer and whispered some encouraging words
“This is just the first day, and you did a great job. I think that’s enough for now”
PART II IS COMING SOON 🌊
#tobirama#tobirama x reader#tobirama senju#tobirama headcanons#tobirama scenarios#tobirama senju x reader
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About that r/mdzs post I think the reason they say that it's his flaw is because they think it would inconvenience the Jiang Clan. People in here baby the fuck out of the Jiang Clan. I have seen posts where people talk about how JFM was biased towards wwx because he didn't punished him for punching JZX in cloud recesses but he scolded jc for you know? Telling wwx that he should have let the others die in the Xuanwu cave. They talk as if wwx is an reckless idiot who is destroying YMJ's reputation. The slightest blow to YZY or JC's pride is seen as some massive abuse by those people.
i think that is the case. maybe it's because JC and YZY themselves make such a huge fuss if their pride is hurt, that a lot of readers come away with the unquestioned opinion that causing them any sort of negative emotion is a genuine crime.
r/mdzs is quite overrun with jc and madam yu apologists, and people over there seem to have some really weird views on the story in general. i once saw someone ask on there if wwx actually invented modao in the novel, and the majority of replies including the top comment seemed to think that he didn't?!?! they were talking specifically about the novel too. r/mdzs is just a whole clusterfuck tbh, even worse than scrolling through the mdzs tag here on tumblr.
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good things about living in the south, after 1.3 months:
warm! WARM!! they have like two feet of snow back in washington, but day before yesterday it was 70 degrees here and I get to wear t shirts and skirts constantly.
the foliage is so PRETTY??? washington trees and mountains are nice, but it’s all evergreens there, and here there are *~different colors of trees~* and weird bushes and year-round flowers and just like. WARM nature. washington has cold nature. different kinds of beauty, and this kind is new to me so I am reveling in the novelty
there’s... so much to Do here... I think that’s not a feature of the south so much as it is a feature of living in a Real City, but our closest Real Cities in washington still didn’t have this much cool stuff. there are sushi burritos. sushi burritos.
the sunshine is different, tbh, and it feels stronger and better.
the air isn’t dry like in the PNW so hand/body lotion is almost unnecessary. like it’s still nice to have but not because you’re trying to save your cracked, bleeding, sandpapery hands??
there are so many jobs oh my GOSH. it’s a job hunter’s utopia.
people genuinely are more friendly on average! it’s weird! but nice!
Waffle House is actually awesome?? like it’s not GOOD food necessarily, but it is rich and filling and cheap and craveable, like McDonald’s. they have sausage-egg-and-cheese grits bowls, which are incredible.
iffy things about living in the south, after 1.3 months:
haven’t had summer yet and apparently we’re going to melt. I enjoy things very warm and am Highly Intolerant of the cold, so I’m hoping I’ll skate by with minimal discomfort, but that’s probably just my hubris talking.
there are, uh... roaches in the living spaces here. like you come out to the kitchen in the middle of the night and turn on the light and a goshdarn roach scurries under the fridge. this is Traumatizing. we had pine beetles back home but they STAYED OUTSIDE.
similarly, my workspace has millipedes all over the floor. I thought they were just fat worms at first, though, and worms don’t bother me, so I got used to them before I found out they have Legs. so that’s... kind of okay?
there’s very little Freely Available Nature here? like, in our area of washington, if you drive onto the backroads for like 20 minutes in any direction, you’ll hit some Empty Nature and can do almost anything you want with it. technically a lot of it is owned by people but nobody cares if you hike through it if it’s not fenced off. bunch of secluded lakes, bunch of climbable mountains, etc. here, there are a ton of national parks but not much true Empty Nature? it’s weird and a little uncomfortable. definitely no target shooting in the woods around here.
since people ARE more friendly here, my Very Good Customer Service Skills have become Average Customer Service Skills. this is a blow to my pride.
it genuinely doesn’t feel like the Christmas season here, what with the weather and no snow. not bad so much as odd, since we’re skipping Christmas this year anyway, but still... odd.
ANYWAY though, I adore it here and the pros outweigh the cons by a HUGE margin. 10/10 would move to the south again.
#listen okay#I got to go to okinawa once and it was incredible--the calmest most gentle place I have ever been#and this is... not that but it's SO MUCH CLOSER#I feel very happy and fortunate to be here
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tag game 🌈
i was tagged by the lovely doreen ( @gunsatthaphan ) to answer these questions. 🥰💜
1. why did you choose your url?
i love win metawin. simple. my previous url like very early on was sarawatined and then i went to metawwin then i removed the w. hehe
2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.
i always considered making one (i got lazy) but then i realized that this blog is my personality and i like having one blog for all my interests and likes bc it represents my brain lmao and i’m aware it’s a mess but i love it.
3. how long have you been on tumblr?
i made this blog on april last year but i’ve been on tumblr since october 2009 so i’ve seen it all.
4. do you have a queue tag?
nope! i prefer scheduling posts tbh.
5. why did you start your blog in the first place?
the main reason was 2gether. i made it during the final eps and i just remember seeing everything on my dash and being so fascinated bc it was my hyperfixation at that time. my friend angel had made a blog and i was hesitant to come back to tumblr at first bc my prev. blog got hacked and deleted and it was a scary experience for me. but i ended up doing it and i was super happy. also, i started watching thai dramas like around 2016 so it was nice to find all these dramas on tumblr again and even new ones afterwards.
6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?
she’s my wife 💍 (that CK shoot.... man. i edited it on photoshop and idk i like how it turned out and i really like the bg color. and how she’s holding a film camera as in to represent all the dramas i watch ;) or smth like that)
7. why did you choose your header?
well i love brightwin, they were a huge part of the reason i made this blog so i like having a win url and a bright layout and technically when i had a twitter i had a bright username so they just complemented each other. 💕
8. what‘s your post with the most notes?
gay wat. happy pride folks 🌈
9. how many mutuals do you have?
well i think everyone i follow follows me back with some exceptions so over 100+
10. how many followers do you have?
too many for so little time that i’ve been here. *blows a kiss* thank u so much. 🥺
11. how many people do you follow?
163.
12. have you ever made a shitpost?
if my random text posts that i end up deleting count as that then... yes
13. how often do you use tumblr each day?
daily on the app. it makes everything so much easier. on my laptop, maybe 3/4 times a week. but a lot overall.
14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?
no pls i hope that never happens fjdkkdkdk i’m here for love and from love. thx
15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this‘ posts
oh. very guilt trippy. i found that sometimes posts can be triggering or ppl are just not in the right mindset to reblog/interact. you are not a terrible person for scrolling past a post. pls dont let anyone tell u otherwise.
16. do you like tag games?
love them!!! but sometimes they get lost in my notifs and i don’t see them when someone tags me :( i’m gonna try to do more of them when i can.
17. do you like ask games?
yessss i love getting asks it makes me so excited like ppl care wow
18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?
idk by definition. but a lot have been around way longer than me and make content for so many different fandoms as well so they’re more known as well.
19. do you have a crush on a mutual?
i have crushes on ppl every single day and then do nothing about it. (but yes 😏)
20. tags?
this was so much fun to do. thanks for tagging me angel @gunsatthaphan 💜💜💜💜💜💜
i’m tagging: @earthmixs @jaehwany @brightwin @phapundao @theghostvalley @ataleofthousandstars @lastwilight @itoldsunset @kaonoppakao @uppoompat @yesdramas & @scrubbfantine have fun!!!! (only if u want to)
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