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#human > monkey > power
the-monkey-ruler · 4 months
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How many forms of the 72 changes could cultivated animals/yaoguai handle? You said that the heavenly soldiers could only handle a limited number.
I don't think I said that they "could only handle" like it's not a requirement.
It's more like an observation. And this is my PERSONAL take based on these observations
Overpowered (Wukong and Erlang) - 72 transformations
Powerful (Highest rank soldiers/runaway heaven yaogaui)- 36 transformations
Strong (Most celestial solider/Demon Kings) - 18 transformations
Impressive (training immortals/stronger earth yaoguai) - 1 to 2 spells
Common (most yaoguai) - humanoid body
Weak (cultivating yaoguai) - cannot speak
We see that Wukong having 72 transformations is considered unusual. On the level of like a once-in-an-immortal-lifetime kind of genius that happens once in a million years. The only other person we see with this same power is Erlang Shen who is considered the best fighter in all of heaven and the only man that can go toe-to-toe with Wukong. I cannot stress enough how powerful Wukong is as a demon and how he being able to single-handling take on all of heaven is something very unusual and a massive threat within himself.
So from that we can easily assume since only the two most powerful characters in the novel have the 72 transformations have this kind of power that this is not common and that other demons shouldn't not be able to have it. Personally I think that no one else but Wukong and Erlang have this level or even come close.
Then we see what is the next level with is the 36 transformations. This is what we see that Zhu Bajie has. Bajie who was the Canopy Marshall of the Reeds, who was in charge of 80,000 men alone and only answered to the Jade Emporer himself because he was so highly ranked. From this observation, we can assume that Marshalls or other extremely high-positioned celestial soldiers have the 36 transformations. Pretty much every powerful celestial that isn't Erlang Shen himself.
I would argue that only MAYBE some Demon King could have 36 transformations, but this is highly unlikely as most yaoguai cultivate through eating humans and not through proper training under a teacher. There could be leeway that perhaps heaven-runaway animals that claim to have cultivated through heaven-means could have this power. This makes it so that maybe 5 Demon Kings out of the nearly 30 could have this level of transformation, and especially the ones that have said they cultivated because they gained knowledge in heaven, not just ran away. I would say this is like Yellow Wind Demon, Yellow Robe Demon, Golden and Silver Horned Kings, Scorpion Demon, and Bull Demon King.
And last is the 18 transformations. This is what we see what Sha Wujing has and he was a Curtain-Lifting General, which is a slightly higher position but we can assume to be closer to the common celestial solider power-wise. This is what I believe that most celestial soldiers have been able to master and is the standard. And what I think that most Demon Kings are able to master as well. I would find it impressive if Demon King could gain a human form, let alone master other spells. I would say this is like Black Wind King, White Bone Demon, Singled Horned Rhino King, Nine-Headed Insect, Jupiter's Rival, Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord, and White Deer Spirit.
We see only higher rank demons like Generals able to perform maybe one or two transformations and that was to escape combat. Only Demon King seem to have one to more than one spells. Or we see that some demons are able to master serval spells I would but they are not powerful as Wukong is easily able to overpower them. I say these impressive demons are like Tiger Vangarud, Tiger Immortal, Elk Immortal, Antelope Immortal, all Eight Tree Spirits, all Seven Spider sisters, and Iron-Backed Grey Wolf.
As for normal everyday yaogaui that have cultivated on their own I would say that they are not capable of transformation spells at all. Most demons we see on this journey are underlings and we see none (that I remember) perform any spells. Just that they are able to cultivate by eating humans to understand language and gain a humanoid body takes all their accumulated power, and they are under a teacher to learn more, they are following a demon king to serve. We see this like Sly Devil, Wily Worm, Hill-Pawing Tiger, Sea-Lolling Draong, Going and Coming, and Springe Grace.
And demons that are still cultivating and cannot speak like the Python Demon.
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blixxkixx · 7 months
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I need to spread my luffy nuzzles his friends like a cat propaganda
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imminent-danger-came · 8 months
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Hello! I just recently watched LMK and predictably immediately got brainrot and I've been Loving reading your meta and theories! Love your takes and analysis, they all feel very well though out and well supported by canon and i can't help but chomp them up like a little goblin.
I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on something that i've noticed and feel could make for intriguing developments and/or conflict later. Something I've noticed is every time after MK comes down from his monkey form he seems wildly drained (most obvious in s4e8 and tew special), and i was wondering what you make of it? Is it just the effect of him constantly pushing it down, does it seem like it's too much for him to physically handle? some other third thing? More importantly, if it's a Thing that's gong to be a constant symptom of his monkey form how do you think it's going to come into play in future episodes? Especially relating to any of your theories (eamk, mk vs wukong, mei hero mk warrior, etc...)? Just thinking how MK could be convinced or manipulated into a position where he's at risk of hurting himself from power overuse or maybe how in a direct fight against monkey MK the win condition might not be overpowering him but out lasting him.
Aw thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed the show!
Anyways *inhales cigarette* I wish I knew what was going on with MK any of the time anon. It seems like he can't help but flicker into Monkey Form at some points, yet prolonged use leaves him weak. During his fight with Azure he starts off feeling very un-MK-like, but halfway through he begins to act more like himself. At the end of 4x13 he's practically thrown out of his Monkey Form by reality fraying apart. And, despite his monkey form being his true identity (maybe), it hurts him. It causes him pain whenever he starts flickering into it. Like, what. What is going on here
So at this point, it seems like MK's Monkey Form is too much for his body to handle...but why. I've drawn a connection between Monkey Demon MK, Samadhi Fire Mei, and Jade Emperor Azure many times before, like the way they're all containers for uncontrollable power, but MK's case is particularly strange.
My first thought would be that it's tied to the way MK views himself and his identity. So maybe it's part him pushing it down, part it being too much for him to physically handle, and part secret third thing.
But yeah, I'm super intrigued to see how all this will be implemented in the future! I really like the idea of outlasting MK to beat him
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kuraikyu · 8 months
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Because this one fanart made me feral for a hot minute WATCH me make another AU based exactly on that (*and yuuuuuuuuuuuup with all those piercings too). BYE.
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If Meilai and Erlang are able to have a baby, what would they look like & what would their name be?
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I’m joking
They would have little
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However he did not inherit his mother’s wings
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whathebrick · 6 months
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what people don't consider is that bai hua has the potential to be just like macaque and that's why teach is so protective of her. he doesn't want her being 'corrupted'
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siixkiing · 8 months
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Here Comes Monkey King
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spinosauridae · 2 years
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Making a theoretical dino evo that looks kinda human because you want it to be intelligent: ❌
Making a theoretical dino evo that looks kinda human because you wanna explore the evolutionary pressures that made humans bipedal in the manner we are: ✅
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sistertotheknowitall · 3 months
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I love the idea of Danny being just Some Guy.
Like yes he’s Phantom, yes he has ghost powers, yes he’s the King of the Infinite Realms. But to the BatFam? That is just Some Guy. A random dude - if you will.
They are positively baffled by him. Like he’s completely normal as far as they (and the background check) can see. Yet, he. Is. EVERYWHERE. (Not actually but it sure feels like it.)
The kids have a running bingo card of where he’ll turn up. Outside a warehouse they’re raiding? Check. Stopped a mugging? He was the one being mugged. Tim’s favorite coffee shop? He was just hired as a barista.  Seriously it’s like everytime they turn around he’s there.
Which wouldn’t be such a problem if he REACTED NORMALLY. But no. He doesn’t flee in fear, stare in awe, he doesn’t even try to say thank you. This man looked Batman in the eye and called him the furry vigilante - TO HIS FACE! He casually referred to Dick as “the flying monkey one” to Red Robin while also calling Tim a literal walking Red Flag. When he crosses paths with Duke he doesn’t always speak but he does always give him a snack. (Sometimes it’s candy, sometimes it’s fruit but it’s always food. And he only gives them to Duke.)
He once told Jason that he didn’t care that he was a crime lord and built like a brick house, Danny would kick his ass and drag his “rotted milk soul” too hell if the gun fights kept going on past midnight. (He had exams in the morning damnit.)
He will only call Damian “baby ninja” no matter how many times the kid insists that his name is Robin.
Spoiler and Orphan? The only ones he’s respectful to but even they get the occasional random comment. (“It may be a Tuesday, but if the universe is gonna make me the human equivalent of a pin cushion then I have the right to keep the knife.”) (It was actually a Friday but who were they to argue with a man bleeding out in an alley.)
Eventually the Batkids start keeping score of who has had the most out of pocket thing said to them by this random white boy.
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homosexuhauls · 11 months
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It's just bizarre that so many people managed to get to adulthood without learning the "two wrongs don't make a right" lesson
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cursingtoji · 9 months
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as requested, a longer version of this drabble
synopsis: geto spared one woman from the village he exterminated due to the pleading of mimiko and nanako, now he has to live in between preaching a world without non-sorcerers during the day and sleeping with one during the night; a dive into the mind of a conflicted man.
cw: canon events (no major spoilers), death topics, fem submissive reader x cult leader geto, smut, oral (m -> f), 1.6k words.
part 2
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The day was horribly busy, on days like these, where he had to talk in front of a crowd for such a long time, then entertain donors, then eat curses, Geto can’t sleep due to the loud noise of his mind, he would probably sleep if he was in a equally loud environment, but, except for the sound of your soft breathing, the room has dead quiet.
Dead quiet.
Geto sits up, the cold air hitting his bare chest as he takes in the sight of the red temple across the open window, a ruffling makes him draw and narrow his eyes to the figure in his bed.
He remembers the day he first saw you, trying to sneak in the room where Mimiko and Nanako were locked in, he was in the process of exterminating the people in that village so he didn’t think twice when he grabbed you by your hair ready to let a curse rip you apart but the deafening sound of the girl’s scream stopped him, only then he noticed a bag with food that fell of your hands.
He could see from a distance, you were like the rest of them, a regular non-sorcerer and a few minutes ago he decided what he wanted.
A world free of non-sorcerers.
He can’t make an exception. He shouldn’t.
The twins had tears in their eyes. They’re young and his responsibility now, so a helping hand couldn’t be a sin. He could leave you for last. 
Somehow he finds in his heart to spare you, and once he consolidated his power as a leader, he took the three of you in, the girls only leave your side when he’s around, they don’t approach anyone else except the two of you.
The first week you were around sorcerers he could see the fear and confusion in your face. Nanako tugged his clothing and he squatted to listen as she whispered to him “She cannot see them”.
So he provided special glasses for you, one with cursed energy so you could see what people like you shouldn’t, and he made Nanako hand it to you as you slowly began to comprehend what the weird events around you actually were.
She should be thankful, she’s only alive because of me.
He thought about that constantly, especially when watching you smiling and minding your own business.
And you are grateful and respectful towards him, almost never making eye contact, just keeping your head down and only calling him “Geto-sama”, he appreciated that, you should know your place.
It’s only a matter of time before he grows fond of you too, with his influence and your submission, it didn’t take long before you were in his bed, being happy to serve him in any ways.
It’s a contradiction having you around, he knows it. A monkey.
You sleep so peacefully, he wonders if you understand how lucky you are to make it this far.
Tonight could be your last night on earth, how deserving are you to live in his ideal world? You have two little girls that adore you, is that enough? He could just tell them something awful happened.
His cold fingers trace the back of your neck, ghosting your cervical spine.
You fell off the stairs and broke your neck, so sad.
That’s believable, the temple has many stairs.
His index finds your pulsing point.
A man attacked you, another monkey, and cut your throat, how horrible.
His eyes drop to your rising chest.
You fell on the lake and drowned, a terrible accident.
There’s so many possibilities to get rid of you without them blaming Geto.
Warm fingers unexpectedly find his hand, your small hand covers his. Suguru feels his human side returning to him, the dark cloud over his head slowly fading away as you take his wrist and you turn your head to kiss his palm.
He feels like crying, confused and guilty.
The bedroom is dark enough for you to miss the look of despair in his eyes, he allows you to caress the veins in his forearms, tracing it all the way to his biceps until you find his neck with your arm completely extended. Suguru gives in to the light pressure you make, bringing him to lay back down with you. You kiss his shoulders, his chest, his neck.
He doesn’t feel worth your kisses.
Again the contradiction.
You kiss his jawline and he stops you with a hand over your lips, he doesn’t want you to feel the way his lips quiver, you don’t ask questions, just accept and kiss his palm again, holding it against your cheek.
Geto is hard on you sometimes, giving humiliating tasks such as cleaning up the remains of someone who wronged him or capturing a curse that will for sure attack you. As much as he sometimes thinks of creating a space between the girls and you, the little ones always find a way back, helping you clean while keeping a non-morbid conversation topic or helping bandage the scratches you got from the small but feisty cursed spirited you were assigned to.
Yet you never once complained, always bowing in obedience with a soft “Yes, Geto-sama” coming out of your lips.
He knows when to treat you well too, sometimes he knocks on your room at night, sometimes he sends someone to call you over to his. When his whole cult speech was over he would dismiss everyone except you, to be alone in the giant spacious room with him, he likes to take you there, where your quiet sounds of pleasure bounce through the walls and create an echo.
You’re good to him, not to his cause, to Geto-sama you’re useless, but to Suguru Geto you’re an anchor.
He returns your kisses, sucking on your clavicle then down the soft skin of your breasts, where he takes in one nipple and licks until it gets hard enough for him to gently bite on and make you gasp.
Your hands find his hair, his long soft locks, the same ones you brush ever so patiently when Mimiko and Nanako turn it into a mess of knots from braiding and tying tiny silicone elastics on, you don’t scold them, even if it means to stay hours with Geto trying to undo it afterwards. 
They will grow up to be spoiled.
But he also could never scold them like a father is supposed to, deep down he knows he won’t need to, they adore him, anything he’ll say they’ll do. 
They’re good kids, he supposes he owns it to you too.
Suguru leaves a wet trail of kisses down your body until he’s between your legs, he first starts by licking the surrounds of your clit teasing patiently as you get wetter, the sleepiness doesn’t allow you to protest or whine, only to close your eyes and take whatever he’s willing to give you while tangling your fingers in his hair.
When he finally gives your nub some attention in the form of sucking, your leg twitches, he squeezes it and places it over his shoulder, at this point he’s laying on his stomach vaguely thrusting his pelvis onto the mattress to relieve a bit of the aching in his cock he gets when eating you out.
He adds more tongue as he moves down your needy hole, which pulsates around nothing, Suguru hums nuzzling your glossy folds, the vibration goes straight to your hardened nub.
“Geto-sama” you moan when he fucks you with his tongue, the tip of his nose hits your clit perfectly, once he looks up to see you falling apart on him you shiver, his eyes are predatory, you wonder if you should retrieve your hand from his head, but he quickly closes them again, losing himself in the taste of you. God, you taste so good. What makes him get through the day when he has to absorb those disgusting curses is the thought of getting lost between your legs, sucking your nipples, eating his own cum off you, sucking your tongue…
He feels your orgasm approaching as you tug his locks harder, whimpering softly. Usually he would make you beg, stopping his ministrations just before you get there and delaying it until there are tears in your eyes. Tonight he’s enjoying the silence, he might just let you go ahead, but there’s something he wants to hear.
“Say my name” he orders with a raspy voice.
“Get—“
“No” he bites your inner thigh, “My actual name.”
“Suguru” you roll his name so beautifully on your tongue.
“Keep saying it” he dives back, making out with your pussy and paying extra attention to your puffy clit as you call his name in a prayer.
He misses it, the way his first name used to be used, nowadays is just “Geto-sama this, Geto-sama that, master, sir”. It would inflate his ego if it didn’t come out of monkeys' mouths.
But Suguru? He left that for you only, even the other sorcerers he considers family just call him Geto.
Before he realizes you’re already cumming, hole pulsating around his tongue and heels digging on his back. He slows down his pace, nibbling on your glossy lips then taking your hand out of his hair to kiss it like you did earlier, the act makes your heart swell, you caress his face, thumb rubbing the dark circles under his eyes.
“Suguru” you call his name again, this time looking straight in his eyes, they don’t seem predatory anymore as he moves up finding a safe spot on your chest, where he lays down listening to your heartbeat as your fingers work through the knots in his hair, this time caused by yourself. Your other hand caresses his back and shoulders, whatever skin you can find to soothe him. Now he doesn’t have the loud voices in his head and bitter taste in his mouth and manages to fall asleep again.
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part 2 ->
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weaselle · 1 year
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i wanna do a thing where i lay out studies that show things in different primates that show us parts of ourselves as humans. Call it Primates: Through the Looking Glass or The Monkey in the Mirror or something
There are studies and documentaries that show things about Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Baboons, Macaques... that just make sense to me. That if shown right would make sense to a lot of people, i think.
like... they were studying this one group of gorillas --
okay wait. First of all, you know a silverback (the Big Male) of the group is not the leader or in charge or anything, right? He has a role, and it includes a certain amount of control, which i’ll explain briefly, but he’s not, like, in charge.
wait, you know all that Dominance/Alpha theory about wolves is all wrong, right?
wait wait wait, and also that like, the bull or the stag or whatever in a herd is not in charge of anything, right? right?
hold on. the wolves is it’s own post, the herd thing i might get back to, we’re on gorillas, okay. Silverback is basically just the male head of an extended family in which plenty of the leadership is handled by the women of the family.
There are often 2-4 silverbacks, but one, usually the largest, will clearly be senior to the others who are often his sons or brothers. Silverbacks have three main roles
1: defend the group from all physical threats aside from people, these threats are mostly random male gorillas, chimpanzee baby-snatching gangs, and the occasional leopard. Just his alert presence handles most scenarios, and then maybe a few times a year he has to risk his life fulfilling this responsibility. It is this role that provides most of whatever actual power he has over the group, namely this: while he isn’t necessarily the one deciding when and where the group goes on a daily basis, if the most powerful/capable silverback does decide to travel a direction, they pretty much have to go with him, the family isn’t safe without him.
2: make babies. And this is one area where the ladies of the group will sometimes sort of vote with their ovaries, and favor a silverback that isn’t the main one, like “yeah, Frank, you are the biggest, but honestly you’re a dick and we’re going to make sure the next generation of silverbacks isn’t another one of you.” When you see a main large silverback in a group of gorillas, it isn’t, like, his blindly loyal harem, they have to approve of him. Also gorilla females move between groups, and sometimes they take members with them or start new groups and stuff. Anyway i’m getting off track, one of the silverbacks jobs is making babies
3. keep the peace This functions a lot like being in the back seat with your siblings with your parents up front. Basically any disputes within the group have to be handled within a certain parameter of decorum, because if it gets too out of hand HE’s going to come over, and He’ll be upset, which is low-key terrifying because He’s huge, and there’s no telling who He’ll decide is at fault or what he’ll do about it, so letting a situation get out of hand is a losing scenario for everyone involved really. Tho typically he will favor senior females in disputes, in a “don’t you talk that way to your mom” kind of way.
one last thing, silverbacks don’t actually transfer power between silverbacks via battle every time.
Like i was just reading accounts from a multi-generational observational study of some wild gorillas that featured one big silverback just straight up taking over by performing the silverback duties better and becoming preferred by everyone else in the group. There was no fight, it just became, i do the job better, everyone likes me better, kicking my ass can’t change that, and boom, he was the primary silverback. And the other silverback might have been a bit dull, or a bit of a bully, but like us their species’ success is largely dependent on social intelligence; once he saw the writing on the wall, that other, slightly larger sivlerback didn’t even bother trying to change the situation with a physical fight, he understood what had happened.
okay so all that was just to tell you all this story. lol. Here’s what i saw in one documentary:
This very big, getting old silverback, who was hugely popular and successful, with a very large and tightly bonded family group, and a couple of his hulking adult sons backing him up. Everybody in his group seemed to love him a lot, he was particularly calm in that gentle giant sort of way, a safe, emotionally steady presence, happy to help raise his sons and daughters with kindness, and who could become a raging nightmare if pressed by a leopard ... exactly what a band of gorillas wants in a silverback.
But one of his adult sons had plenty of silver on his own back, and was getting itchier and itchier to be main man of the group, and this is where we start our little drama
It seems to be coming to a head, and the observers are nervous about a fight for the position. The silverback and his son are both are huge, probably approaching 400lbs, mostly muscle, with long thick fangs and skulls topped with jaw muscles as big as human biceps to wield those teeth, which nature has given them primarily to fight other gorillas with. 
But then the next day, the old man leads the fam up the mountain.
it’s winter, which is why they have come down the mountain in the first place. But as we discussed, if he goes somewhere, they have to go, so they all follow behind.
up he goes, and then he sits. And waits. It’s cold and there is much less food up here at this time of year. There’s nothing to do but sit hungry in the cold. His size and metabolism makes him the most able to withstand the cold, but even he is pretty uncomfortable. 
And so he sits. And his family, perhaps confused, but loyal, sits around him.
But his son, the other huge silverback, with years of training even as an adult under his wise father, is ready and able to go off on his own. Finally, he stands up, makes clear his intentions to leave this uncomfortable place. A small handful of the other gorillas stand with him -- if he goes down the mountain, then they can safely leave as well. He turns and heads down the mountain. After a moment, a few more gorillas leave the main group to follow. All in all it winds up being nearly half.
The wise older silverback thoughtfully watches his son leave with about half the group. He sits a while longer in the cold, in the company of those most loyal to him, and then takes them along a different path down the mountain
And those two groups still ran into each other sometimes, and were friendly. And sometimes a couple gorillas would change between the two groups. They were still close.
But i just thought that was such an elegant, meaningful way for that gorilla to handle that whole situation. And it makes a completely human sort of sense to me. 
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jbk405 · 1 month
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Okay, so, either the trailer for Monkey Man was horribly put together, or I completely misunderstood what was presented, because I had NO IDEA what I was getting into. The entire plot took me completely by surprise several times.
This film is deliberately political. I can't recall the last time I saw an action film have such a clear focus on government. It's relatively common for the Big Bad to be a person in government -- that makes them an even bigger threat because in addition to the Criminal Thugs they employ they also have the Police and Media on their side -- but when this happens their actual politics don't matter. They're also a drug dealer, or human trafficker, and that's what the hero is fighting against. Usually we don't even learn what their politics even are. We may see them give a speech saying "Family values!" intercut with them doing drugs and having sex so we know they're a hypocrite, but that's the extent of it. In this film we know that the villains are part of the Hindu Nationalist movement, and are encouraging violence against religious minorities and gender-nonconforming people throughout India.
The condemnation is so direct that I'm not surprised Netflix backed out of distributing out of fear of the backlash in India. The only way the film could have been bolder would be if they used actual political party names instead of the "We're not actually saying 'Bharatiya Janata Party'" angle.
I was also completely unprepared for the inclusion of the hijra temple commune. I was already surprised just by the mention of crime against trans people on the news in the film, but then the main characters finds himself rescued and rehabilitated and welcomed into their society with open arms. They counsel him both philosophically and physically, and prepare him to resume his quest. And then they join him!
A literal army of trans women toppling the oppressive power structure was not on my BINGO card, I'll tell you that.
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This movie was intense and an experience, and if you can see it in theaters I say you go right now!
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yandere-daydreams · 3 months
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tw - implied non/con, extreme pet play, dehumanization, psychological/physical abuse, and unbalanced power dynamics.
commissioned piece. donate to palestinians in gaza here.
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Sometimes, you really do think Suguru thinks of you as a pet.
It shouldn’t be as difficult to believe as it is. Of course you’d be less than human to him, less than equal to the god-like status he has among his followers. But, Suguru knows he’s not a god, and while you might not be the only person he claims to be superior to, you are the only one he keeps locked in a steel-barred dog crate padded only by thread-bare blankets and distant memories of what it felt like to sleep in a real bed. You’re special – albeit, not the kind of special you’d like to be. You can disregard most of his grandiose speeches about ‘complete non-sorcerer elimination’ and ‘killing off those worthless monkeys’ as the self-indulgent rambling of a deranged cult leader, but he doesn’t seem to be phoning it in when it comes to you.
He doesn’t talk to you. Communication occurs solely through blunt orders (come, sit, bark, etc.) or sweetened, syrupy baby-talk, cooed as his fingers card through your hair and pet down the length of your spine. You’re expected (something learned purely through trail and error, reward and punishment) to follow him around happily, to sit at his feet and clamber into his lap whenever his eyes find yours and he taps his thigh, that expectant smile already tugging at the corner of his lips. Depending on the day, you’re either coddled and adored like a beloved pet, allowed to walk on two legs rather than four and fed treats out of his open palm, or treated like a stray who’d wandered in off the street and refuses to leave. You do prefer the former to the latter, but it doesn’t really make that much of a difference, not if you’re being honest with yourself. Either way, you always seem to end up on your knees between his legs as he sits above you, a fist curled around your collar as he tells you to lick, puppy, lick.
Speaking of – you’re not allowed to wear clothes. You used to hate it, to steal his shirts and hide in closets, to do anything you could to salvage what little pride you had left, but it’s hard not to get used to something forced onto you so constantly. The only thing Suguru’s ever given you to wear is a simple, black, leather collar – studded with silver spikes and drawn tight enough to bite into your throat when he pulls on it, which he does often. You’re thankful he doesn’t make you wear those cutesy animal ear headbands or, god forbid, a tail, but not as thankful as you should be. As unbearable as it’d be, having him dress you up like a cat or a dog or some wide eyed, sexed-up rabbit would take the edge off. Like this, it’s harder to believe he thinks of you as an animal, as something cute and small and vulnerable that he can love and care for. It’s harder to deny that he knows you’re human – he just doesn’t see why that would ever mean you couldn’t also be his pet.
You think, when you’ve exhausted all other silver linings, that it’s (partially, at least) his excuse to keep you. You know what he does to people who aren’t like him, you’ve seen what he’s like at his worst, and you know that, if you weren’t his pet, you’d just be another non-sorcerer, another nuisance the world would be better off without. If you’re a pet, you can’t be a person, and if you’re not a person, it means he’s not going against his warped ideals when he pulls you close to his chest, when he ghosts his lips over the top of your head, when he fucks you so softly and so gently, you can almost believe he cares whether or not you enjoy it. Pets are supposed to be loved, and so he’s not doing anything wrong by loving you.
You know what would happen to you if you weren’t his pet, too, if he couldn’t make excuses for himself. You’ve seen how wide his smile can be when he comes home with blood on his clothes, how little effort it takes for him to hook his hands under your arms and carry you to his bed, already muttering about how perfect he’s going to make the world for his pretty, precious pet. You’re not allowed to leave his cramped apartment, but he talks about putting you on display for his acolytes as he ruts into you with an almost animalistic brutality, about showing all of those filthy, degenerative insects what a well-trained mutt looks like. You know that you should do more to fight back, that your humanity should be worth more to you than a few half-hearted escape attempts and the occasional pained whine, but you’ve seen see what he can do, heard about the dismembered bodies he leaves to rot in a ditch behind his temple, and—
And, no matter how much you hate him for it, no matter how much you hate yourself for it, it’s true.
When it comes down to it, you’d rather be his pet than be nothing at all.
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writingwithcolor · 4 months
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Author with cultural disconnect: How do I write without making it seem as if I hate my own heritage?
Anonymous asked:
I’m a white-passing Asian author, and I’ve never felt all that connected with my heritage. My current story centers on a fairy (re: fantasy-world POC) child and ends with her realizing that her parents are toxic af and her human best friend’s family takes her in. This is the perfect opportunity to sort through my own issues with my heritage and finally convince my monkey-brain that it’s okay to not know how to cook Vietnamese food or celebrate tet or speak Vietnamese… But I also realize that if I’m not careful, this could easily slip into “Hey, I hate my heritage and so should you!” So how can I stop that from happening?
Writing for yourself first, not an audience
I ask you a simple question: why put pressure on yourself to have any sort of non-offensive messaging for a story that hasn’t been drafted yet and is to convince your monkey brain it’s okay to exist as yourself?
That seems like the fastest way to stop the story from being actually cathartic and instead a performance art piece when you already feel hung up on performing as “properly” part of your culture.
As I said in Working Through Identity Issues and Other Pitfalls of Representation, not all stories you write need to be for public consumption. Especially stories you’re using for your own self-processing and therapy, because you’re trying to get a cathartic moment that is rewriting your own story.
At what point does the public need to be involved in that?
I do understand the compulsion to want to post—I have definitely posted some Questionable™ material in my drive to get validation for feeling the way I do, wanting people to witness me and say “same.” It’s a powerful urge. Sometimes it’s worked, but most of the time it’s just made me feel horrifically exposed.
But you really do not have to post in public to get any sort of validation. Set up a groupchat with friends if you want the cheerleading and witnessing—people who will know your story and give you good-faith interpretations and won’t accuse you of anything. Honestly I’d suggest setting up this groupchat anyway; as someone who just got one again after quite a few years without it, my productivity has skyrocketed from being around supportive people.
Let the monkey brain have its monkey brain moment and shut off the concept the story is for the public. Shut off the concept of performing for an unknown audience. It’s for you. Be authentic, no matter how bad it would look to outsiders. They’re not reading it. Part of getting catharsis, sometimes, is being the worst version of yourself, somewhere nobody else can see it.
Deciding to publish the work
If, after you do write it, you find that you actually do want to polish it up and put it somewhere… edit it. Rewrite it entirely if that’s what it takes. Take the story through the same drafting process every story needs to go through, ripping out the unfortunate implications as you go.
Editing can be its own form of healing, as you try to figure out what this character would need to not be hateful. As you realize, once this longform journal entry is out of your head, what was bothering you now that you can see it pinned down on a page. But you absolutely do not need to write with the intention of editing in that healing. When I’ve tried, it’s fallen flat.
The healing will come from being yourself, no public involved, and writing about your feelings in their rawest form. Anything else is extra.
There’s no point in trying to put guard rails on the drafting process, not for a deeply personal piece. And by the time that drafting process is done, you’ll likely have specific scenarios and contexts that you can ask about, and you might even have ideas on how to fix it yourself once the story has a shape to it.
This is 100% a situation where there’s no real sense in idea workshopping something in the plotting stage. You’re doing something for you. Decide if it’s for public consumption later (while acknowledging “no” is a perfectly valid answer), and only figure out how to make the story not overtly harmful if you decide to put it out into the public.
~ Leigh
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gold-rhine · 2 months
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i keep seeing posts about how furina was Actually Competent As A Ruler, which i think are misguided, even if they are coming from well-intentioned place. like, ppl love furina, and so they have an impulse to advocate her good qualities, which is v understandable, but where it derails i think is in assumption that agency = power, so ppl feel the need to prove that she was Actually Good At Power.
This also shows bc these posts *always* bring up neuvi, to either compare furina to him and say that he Did Her Dirty By Stealing Her Power, or to be like, actually they were Dual Rulers, and even if he was running the government, she was Girlbossing Too, like she was handling diplomatic relations or smth else, we just never got to see The Girlbossing.
both Stealing Power and Girlbossing Off Screen takes, I think, are not only textually incorrect, but also miss one of the central points of Fontaine, which is that its government was a hot mess and NO ONE there was Good At Power. Neuvi was absolutely not Girlbossing himself. Whats the point of like trying to prove furina was in charge of More Things, when all of the things were in shambles. The only efficiently run institution in fontaine is autonomous prison.
like, Furina is Marie Antoinette coded for a reason. She is a critique of monarchy, literally a divinely appointed monarch, that shows that putting in power a random person just bc of their birth circumstances, while they are not qualified at all, and then forcing them to be a figurehead under intense scrutiny of society that expects them to somehow be More Divinely Special than normal ppl, will be horrible no-good for both that person AND society. We had to watch her cry every day for 500 years cut scene for a reason. losing archonhood *frees* her to be what she actually wants.
Neuvi on the other hand, is a thesis of how impartiality for a ruler turns into indifference and inaction. Yes, he was incorruptibly fair in his judgements, but he was judging using the flawed laws inside of a flawed system, and this lead to tragic cases like Navia's dad' death and general bureaucratic and inept government. Like we had to listen to Navia yell at neuvi about it for like 5 minutes straight, come on. He realized that the system was flawed (his stories mention his disdain for courts being run like opera performances), that laws were often nonsensical, but he didn't try to change it, because as a dragon, it was basically not his circus, not his monkeys. only when he started to care about humans and forced by a crisis, he challenged the system, and his final ruling as he ascended to the power of god of life again, is markedly NOT impartial, but made with favor for humans. The thesis is that the judge should rule from a position of caring FOR the judged.
these two are explicitly not Cool Divine Bosses Ruling Together or Neuvi Stealing Furina's Importance As An Archon, but two sides of one miserable coin about how badly run fontaine actually was.
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