ATONEMENT (2007) dir. Joe Wright

This is obviously a lil bit geared towards those who were alive and watching tv in the 90s, but youngins who've found their way into these shows, feel free to chime in. I was just thinking that most of us had a singular show that was OURS back then, even if we might've watched the others. Which one did you fandom the hardest / would you have fandomed the hardest?

having the hc that minato is ace is incredibly funny sometimes when you think about how ryoji is oh so very bi because it's like. "ah. death stole my ability to be attracted to people," in the same way that ryoji stole minato's eye color and energy level. like wow, thanks ryoji, you just keep finding things to steal from minato!

brugmansia [angel’s trumpet]

What if Hua Cheng had memorialized the temple?

I don’t think he did, canonically. I imagine that was a memory he wasn’t keen to linger on, especially not to such an extent as to record it, to hover over the details in his mind and commit it to physical imagery. But I could see where he might - maybe catharsis, so that night can exist somewhere outside of his head. Maybe twisting, spiteful justice, so the world won’t be allowed to forget what it did to his god. Maybe just desperation, to record every shard of Xie Lian that he has in an effort not to lose a single piece while he searches.

It wouldn’t be graphic; I think it would be something more stylized, more symbolic. Xie Lian is tied to his own altar. He has replaced the divine statue that should be there instead, the god made present the way he was for Hua Cheng once, the way he was for all of his people once. He is surrounded by blades, but they aren’t piercing him yet. Hua Cheng can’t do that to him even in paint. Bai Wuxiang is not featured, because Hua Cheng would not force any version of Xie Lian into that monster’s presence, but there is a ghost fire hovering near. There is a small, crushed flower on the ground at the foot of the altar, like it was dropped from the Flower Crowned Prince’s hand moments before. The entire tableau holds its breath in the anticipation of something horrific.

It’s painted in a shadowed corner, with a cloth hung in front of it. Not out of shame, or even because of Hua Cheng’s own trauma - out of respect for the prince’s privacy, unwillingness to make a moment of such incredible, painful vulnerability a spectacle to anyone else without the prince’s say-so.

That doesn’t stop Mu Qing from finding it.

Mu Qing, who was already horrified, Mu Qing, who was looking for Xie Lian to drag him out of the caves immediately because he’d seen a statue that suggested things he would rather not think about in regards to his former prince… Mu Qing brushes the curtain aside in that tucked-away corner and stops.

A hundred blades are pointed at His Highness. A hundred faces leer and sob and stare. And Xie Lian sits at the center of it all, head lowered, waiting for the slaughter.

Is it so unreasonable that Mu Qing takes it for a threat? Is it so unreasonable of Mu Qing to drag Feng Xin to what he’s found, for the both of them to slip an arm around each of the prince’s own and pull him away from wherever that altar is somewhere in the complicated network of twisted, obscene worship? That thing painted on the wall - it can’t have ever happened. They would know. Mu Qing and Feng Xin, who spent every day of their early lives with the prince, beside the prince, trailing along behind the prince… they would know. They would have been there; they would have prevented it. This is the fantasy of a ghost king who laid ruin to thirty-three heavenly officials and found his thirst still unslaked.

(Mu Qing does not consider the eight hundred years of Xie Lian’s life he knows nothing about. Feng Xin does not consider the eight hundred years of Xie Lian’s life he knows nothing about. It’s a habit they’ve grown skilled at, over eight hundred years.)

They don’t explain to Xie Lian, so Xie Lian has no opportunity to explain to them what they saw. And Mu Qing isn’t wrong, when he concludes that Xie Lian has been stalked and watched and hunted since he was seventeen. He isn’t wrong. He just doesn’t know, yet, what direction the threat is coming from. There’s no time for anyone to tell him, or Feng Xin, who tied the restraints and provided the sword.

They’ll find out. Masks are made to be removed.

Fucking love the idea of the chassis being an amplifier because you kinda get the best of both worlds from the whole chassis theory argument where wheatley's still being influenced but you keep the complexity of his character intact, plus you get the double whammy existential crisis of being driven to do horrible things but still having to deal with the fact after you come to your senses that no matter which way you look at it was still all you. In this essay I will

Ignore the giant rant in the tags its 1 AM

We almost got a 13' version instead of 3' but the director said cut

Finally got around to finishing Netflix's ATLA adaptation. I have a LOT of notes, but I think the biggest one is this:

At the end of Season 1 of the original, Aang had at least started learning waterbending alongside Katara, and a little bit of Firebending with Jeong Jeong. Outside of the Avatar State, he had at least started 3/4 elements.

By the same point in NATLA, he's only at 1/4. I don't think this kid has bent a single drop of water. So far he is just a *really* good airbender who can do some spirit world stuff. That should give you a good idea as to why I have a few issues with it.

Ok so. Miles Edgeworth is trans. Gregory was definitely a trans affirming father so when Miles told him he was like “sure son. What name do you want to go by?”

And so all Manfred von Karma knew was that Gregory Edgeworth had a son. When he gains custody of Miles, he just. Does not realize that the kid he’s now in charge of is a trans boy. (Maybe Miles already had a name change. Idk. Somehow legal name wise, von Karma just. Does Not realize.)

So Miles grows up being raised as a boy and von Karma just. Doesn’t realize. Until puberty begins.

And he notices something, that Miles isn’t experiencing puberty the way he would have expected and he’s like hmmm. I am not sure what is happening.

And then like preteen Miles, incredibly nervous, comes to him and he’s like, “excuse me, Mr. von Karma, sir, but would I be able to start puberty blockers please?”

And von Karma’s just like “WHAT!”

He’s so caught off guard and so used to thinking of Miles as “Gregory Edgeworth’s pathetic son” that he just… kinda lets Miles medically transition bc he’s so caught off guard by the realization.

And for his entire life, Miles is like. Unable to wrap his head around von Karma being surprisingly trans accepting???

remembered that one person trying to gain a moral high ground by going “it’s weird to have hcs about abuse!” and like. god they would fucking explode if they saw the stuff i have about the fire hazard siblings childhoods they’d self destruct i think

Finished The Night Circus. underwhelming. felt like it needed at least two more drafts tbh.

sorry to everyone that absolutely loves this book like I do see it. I see the appeal. But imo none of the elements that made it interesting were used to their full potential. I thought the plotline would have benefited from a tighter causal chain instead of things just happening at some point because someone decided it might as well happen now, I guess.

It's definitely a valid choice to treat the reader as a sort of outsider in order to prioritize a sense of mystery, but in some ways I felt too far removed to properly care about any of the characters or stakes.

Lots of unnecessary summary; not enough convincing me. More moodboard than story. Also apparently no one involved in any step of the publication process knew how to punctuate.

Me after I research the way ppl with light coloured hair were treated at school in Japan and make a bunch of headcannons about how Ichigo was probably picked on for his hair since he was little and teachers probably turned a blind eye or encouraged it and Masaki would always come to pick him up and yell at his teachers when they made comments about her 'fixing' his hair so he could fit in and then she decided to put him in karate classes so he could at least learn how to defend himself when she's not there and told him that he has to get big and strong so he could protect himself and his sisters like the superheroes on TV and when she died, everything got so much worse for him and he quit the dojo but he was getting older and bigger kids starting picking on him and beating him up and he wasn't good enough to beat them so he would come home all bruised and yuzu cried every time so he always tried to hide it from her but Karin always knew somehow and Isshin always patched him up and tried to reach out and tell him that he could talk to his teachers but Ichigo always refused because he didn't want anyone to take his mother's place and it would only make things worse for him if he got adults involved and Isshin understood that but hated feeling helpless, like he couldn't do anything to protect his own kid until finally it got bad enough that he couldn't stand by anymore because one of the stupid shits pushed Ichigo down the stairs and he broke his arm so he told Ichigo he would either have to get directly involved or Ichigo had to learn how to fight properly so he could protect himself and obviously Ichigo picked the latter so Isshin basically taught him hakuda because that was the only hand to hand combat he knew and this accidentally made it so that Ichigo dipped into his reiatsu reserves and made him as abnormally strong as he was in canon and after a while this training devolved into their usual silly chaos in canon because Isshin is not nearly as bad as the fandom makes him out to be and that's how they bond:

Forgot just how upsetting gloomed korok forest is

anyone else finding it really, really personally nauseating that the pjo show would remove gabes entire character and replace him with someone less abusive to make sally a Strong Female Character. like wow, im sure glad that youve proven that women who are abused are the REAL threat to feminism, and they should just try talking back more!! what a good message to send to abused kids. sorry, kid. i guess you just didnt argue hard enough and #Own your abuser into seeing how cool and strong you are. what do you mean that arguing with an abuser will only make them hurt you more? but look how snappy and cool and feminist sally is now!!! youre clearly just being abused wrong.

ok im a really chill and normal person and i get over things and am well adjusted but take a walk with me here. just give me my time to complain when im not in the absolute fucking trenches. and yes i believe i suffered more than those in trench warfare. it was literally a lesbian situationship with a bistraight girl come on. just. magenta choppy shag with the roots coming in. camo cargo pants black t shirt with red lettering and striped long sleeve (sign someone likes music. confirmed). lip ring big black stud earrings and nails. red docs. i think lesbians should be allowed to kill one dyke baiter in their lifetime idc

me having hope for bucchigiri?! to still turn around and impress me is totally not (it deifnitely is) based on the fact that utsumi crafted such an enjoyable experience with sk8 for me that i seriously cannot comprehend bucchigiri?! having no pay off