#Jiang Dain

[leedongwook]

“Stay away from him, if you don't want to hurt him."

Kiseki: Dear to me 奇蹟 // Episode 1

#kiseki: dear to me #kiseki dear to me #taiwan bl #taiwan drama #taiwanese bl #taiwanese drama #taiwandramaedit #dramasource #gay romance #boy love #bl series #Chen Yi #Nat Chen #Jiang Dain #Ai Di #haleyskisekideartome #mone #my gifs

[yostresswritinggirl]

What are you talking about? She’s on a forced vacation because of her shenanigans. I fucking wish— Childish Jiang…

Alice is pretty important given her contributions to Teyvat. Klee, first and foremost.

The Tree That Stands Alone quest where you find treasure in Mingyun and it turns out all three sons let their greed for treasure kill them. Their dad has filled the chest each year with some mora so they could later use it to buy some stuff and reminisce about the old times except they’re all dead now. That was so sad.

A lot of the NPCs were done relatively well, I think. The world quests really hurt in a good way and definitely adds to Dain’s argument against trusting the gods. I still think we should have be able to beat the shit out of Azar.

Madame Ping for giving us the teapot. It’s taking forever to build furniture and collect wood, though. I’m almost there.

Overall, I’m pleased at the complexity and contrast (and similarities!) between the immortals and mortals in the game. It’s like “What of duty?” “What of sacrifice?” sort of thing. I admit, there are instances of bad writing in the game, but it’s… it’s a pleasant thing to explore in game and lore.

Bloom anon

*sobbing in hands* What is this thread, weren't we just simping for NPCs, how did it end up like this Bloom anon

Also sudden thought I had earlier but Gold and Alice are now girlfriends in my eyes, I am converted, baptized. But yes, here and there, even the minimal ones Genshin does put in work to make them nice and likeable, sometimes even brutal about it (except for Xavier's er second movie, I cringed so hard at the film). But yes on that, we should have been given the option to beat up or leave Azar to the forest like the guy in the Aranara quest

Even tho it fucking hurts, I love how genshin can go ham with npcs since they won't have to worry about killing them off here and there, the flavor of it all and everything. Even the tiny ones where they're just living their lives, but watching it all progress is so good. There are even some pieces where the npcs parallel characters or resemble their stories

One thing I wanna note is I hope we get back to Jeht, I'm worried for her and I really wanted to be there after the Golden Slumber quest (but also MIHOYO PLEASE GIVE ME LOREMASTER WORLD QUEST I WILL TAKE SO MANY PICTURES, KNEES ON THE GROUND)

#bloom anon #genshin impact #exile.goblet #npc fuckers

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (01/22/24)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce (8/10)

When I first read The Immortals Quartet back in middle school, I wasn't a huge fan of this book, and I also didn't remember much about it. Even now rereading it, it's probably my least favorite of the series, but I do have a new appreciation for it. I really like how Daine is meant to bring the animals, humans, and immortals together and the message of environmentalism. Also, I listened to this as an audiobook, which has a full cast and is amazingly executed. Daine doesn't exactly have a ton of character development, but she is forced to work past some prejudices, which is particularly interesting considering the reader has not been prompted to look deeper into this matter before.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (10/10)

This volume of MDZS was gut-wrenching in the best way. The emotion is palpable, and I found myself tearing up at multiple points. The culmination of Wei Wuxian's backstory is perfectly tragic, but there are some more lighthearted elements thrown in there. I think the character work is the strongest in this volume out of the five. Not only concerning Wei Wuxian, but Jiang Cheng as well, as the reader finally gets the answer to why he hates him so much. In the present (and in a moment or two in the past), the romance continues to develop very sweetly at a pace I greatly enjoy.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (9/10)

I really like the ending to MDZS; it pulls together all the plot strings very nicely but leaves some character ones dangling in a way that feels realistic but not unsatisfying. After the intensely traumatic events of the main plot, it makes sense that there would still be conflict and lasting effects from all the various deaths and betrayals and whatnot. Still, it is largely a happy ending, especially for the main character. I will say that except for the first few, the extras bored me a little. In my opinion, there's an undue amount of focus on characters that are really just boring or unlikable to me; I would have much rather preferred to see more about the main couple and major side characters, such as Jiang Cheng or the younger disciples.

Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon (6/10)

This one is a novella that is a blend between horror, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance, which sounds very interesting, but I ultimately found it lacking. In terms of what I liked, the romance is quite cute. Even for a novella it progresses way too quickly for my tastes, but they're sweet together. There's also some very interesting magic. Unfortunately, there's a lack of tension concerning the main plot; nothing is introduced to put the characters on a timeline. And then, despite the potential of the various kinds of magic, there is virtually no worldbuilding. It is not established whether magic, despite it being very common, is widely known or just easily identifiable to those in magical communities, and the rules of the three different kinds of magic introduced (ambitious for a novella) are hardly addressed. This was a mildly interesting, quick read, but I cannot think harder about it or I will get very frustrated.

Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce (10/10)

This was just a joy to reread, being my long-time favorite of the Immortals Quartet. This book marks a turning point as Daine becomes much more independent, exercising her powers for her own gain and ends, and the overarching plot of the series comes to a significant head. This is also the point at which the romance starts to be more heavily hinted at, and I don't care about the age gap, I think they're adorable and it's fiction. The worldbuilding is quite well done, introducing a whole new neighbor to Tortall. Carthak is very obviously based on Egypt, and I loved that Tamora Pierce made it very clear that although the current ruler is rather awful, Carthak is a hub of culture and learning, and even more advanced than Tortall in some ways, even if there are drawbacks to their society.

Year of Reaper by Makiia Lucier (CR, 10%)

I am only a little ways into this novel, but I am hesitant so far. I am personally not a huge fan of plague plotlines, and it seems that will be a major factor in this book; everything will lie on the execution. I don't often read male protagonists in YA novels, so I am interested to see what I think of Cas. (It's a little awkward that his name gives me flashbacks to my Supernatural days.)

The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente (CR, 13%)

After my last novella was a bit of a disappointment, this one seems incredibly promising. The premise is unique and grabs my attention, the last of humanity on a small nation built on the Pacific Garbage Patch, especially considering the situation of the main character, Tetley. Tetley also has a great voice so far; I hope her extremely unreliable narration lasts throughout the story.

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (CR, 15%)

I am not particularly enjoying this book so far, but I hope that will change because it has nothing to do with the book itself and everything to do with the absolutely insufferable audiobook narration. I could hardly focus on the story with how exaggerated and childish the narrator sounded, so I will be switching to a typical book and will hopefully like it much more.

The Realms of the Gods by Tamora Pierce (CR, 72%)

Finishing up my Immortals Quartet reread, this audiobook is the opposite and lovely to listen to. I think I underestimated how much of a grip Daine and Numair have on me because they truly have invaded my brain. Plotwise, Tamora Pierce does a great job with the rules concerning her gods and working them into the story in present but not overpowered ways. Even though I don't really have many chances to listen to an audiobook right now, I hope to finish this one within the next week.

#books #reading update #wolf speaker #tamora pierce #immortals quartet #mdzs #mxtx #heart haunt havoc #freydis moon #emperor mage #year of the reaper #makiia lucier #the past is red #catherynne m. valente #the realms of the gods #love theoretically #ali hazelwood

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a commonplace book: late spring

sunday, april 24, 2022

we're entering the season of the year where 'normal routine' (aka the academic term) is over, and things like 'travel' and 'vacation' and 'having a social life' start to seem, if not wise, then at least available...

which is why i spent easter weekend in cat-sitting isolation in a highrise apartment and fighting against mounting writing stress

anyway! read on for some gay pirates, more blorbo-adjacent music thoughts, and my complicated reactions to the end of the immortals quartet oh my god

reading confession time, i was glad to be done with in the realm of the gods (book 4 of the immortals). which was a weird feeling, when i enjoyed emperor mage so much. but this is exactly the reaction i had reading these the first time around, too, so that was at least reassuring! i'm sure the goal with this book was to be ~chaotic~ because they are battling the goddess of chaos, but that in itself felt like an unnecessary addition, a scattering of the focus--and everything that came as a result, from the time spent in the divine realms to the darkings even, only registered as a sharkjump. the tone made no sense; i didn't...feel anything when daine reunited with her parents, re-reading the arrival at romance btw her and numair made me like that relationship much less (which just sucks, because i liked numair as a character up to that point, and also could be persuaded to get onboard with them as endgame, i just hate!! how it happens in this book! and i hated it as a kid, couldn't and can't understand how this could be wish fulfillment for some hypothetical reader on the cusp of adulthood who would be gratified to imagine being thus desired... i have like Close Reading / Analytical reasons to back up my different irritations, but also, the atmosphere and vision are just not as fun or suspenseful as the Graveyard Hag situation in book 3. the emotional punch in this book is when [redacted] dies-- the arc in the series regarding stormwings is the best part, tbh.

listening

i liked basia bulat when i first heard gold rush back in, oh, 2016, and i still love her-- her voice, her lyricism-- and now i have the added 'oh wait she's canadian!' thing on top of that. she was playing in my area not too long ago and i was like...but didn't pursue it, and now i'm regretting that. i'm only just getting into her full back catalogue now, thanks to the garden (2022), a reissuing of selected songs songs in more acoustic/pared down/string arrangements which i've been enjoying as background/shower music since february. the songs are full of poetry, it always feels like there's fully-realized narrative underlying each one. and, because those narratives tend to be more sweeping or grand or intense than i can ever really relate to my own life, they're incredible blorbo-fodder. feels weird to make that the main takeaway from a piece of music which stands on its own incredibly well, which i'd love to see in concert and which moves me deeply, but also--take fables here for example, in the new cover of the garden. the lyrics:

Am I still to know I’ve been living for a ghost? In my mind the brightest colours are unfaded Stories fail you when you’re grown Don’t believe them anymore My love for you is bold but it won’t save you My love for you is bold but it won’t change you My love for you is bold Take it all

over a plucked string accompaniment? you look me in the eye and tell me that's not lan zhan in seclusion, 16 years of inquiry for a ghost whose bright colored ribbons he still sees but couldn't save.

also gold rush is very evocative of the yunmeng shuangjie, if i may-- this? this is jiang cheng reacting to the [redacted] reveal:

how could i be the last to know? when they told me where the fool had gone oh i was but the youngest one up there on the hills they're climbing on ... another sight of gold, you rushed 'oh i could never fight them off' another story of the one you lost...

watching started our flag means death while cat-sitting, and spent the first ten minutes of episode one scraping my jaw off the floor with how genuinely i was enjoying it. the hype, i thought, it can't possibly live up to the hype! and it doesn't universally, and there's plenty to discuss and critique and respond to and that's really fun and also something about hearing it, finally, having music and voices and delivery of the lines to accompany the faces and quotes i kept seeing in gifsets-- it just was genuinely fun. and i say that as a fairly picky age of sail fan, who is still to be convinced by black sails (i know i haven't gotten through to the best bits, i know), who grew up on hornblower and the aubreyad and jacky faber. except for potc, because i was alive and had a pulse and was young and impressionable in the early aughts, i wasn't a pirate media person, i was a navy media person. this though, as much as i did want to quibble over a few things, managed to make its own absurdity part of the vision, part of the aesthetic, that it just doesn't matter-- the fact that it starts out as a workplace comedy, too, just delighted. but i think my favorite parts are the moments that balance the comedy with stuff that is sadder, or harder, or the bits of plot and characterization that do carry over from episode to episode--i haven't finished it yet, but i've noticed this already.

showed the first ofmd ep to my housemates, one repaid us in kind by showing us the first few eps of the bbc series ghosts (2019-) and it is, similarly, so incredibly good despite the hype that tells you it's going to be good. there's the same (or similar) richness in the supporting characters, humor, moments of pathos. not certain that there's going to be the same follow-through on characters growing or changing (when you have an ensemble where each character's got a Thing, that makes them funny, i find that Thing tends to last), but i'm again delighted. good tv this week.

playing just got out of an epic, all-day dnd session organized for my bff's birthday. our instructions were to build level 20 characters, to have three attuned items and go nuts on overpowering our builds, and also bring in 2-3 lines about our heroic deaths. through some dnd beyond wonkiness earlier, i had literally no choice but to make a blood arcana wizard, who did become a version of wwx i will admit (this wizard twink! had no wisdom and negative intelligence! but was charismatic as shit, stacked with necromancy spells, and had a lucky feat that saved my ass multiple times! no musical casting, though). we slew some dragons, entertained a god, no one even died. it was great

making visited my spiritual homeland (lowes') nemesis this weekend (home depot) to get soil and batteries and lightbulbs, felt delirious in the garden center, will be transplanting tomato seedlings before i leave for some travels. that's in just barely a week, so there will be! more makings soon. i need to fix the raised bed, i need to prep deck pots, i need. not to panic.

working on hnnnnng trying to wrap up loose ends before said travel-- fellowship app still needs a 'statement of dissertation progress,' which i have plans to finish and send to a friend in exchange for reading through something of his; i've got RAship work to finish on monday, and it feels like death by a thousand emails at this point. each individual task feels like it should be, oh, fine! i'll just bang this out and it'll be ugly but quick and then i can edit it! when instead, it's like, no, you will sit and agonize over this for four full days. trying to call this what it is (fear of failure) and not hide from it, but i did read lethal amounts of fan fic saturday and basically not sleep until 4am, so. that's going well, clearly.

#also working on: trip planning #but less said abt that the better #it'll be worth it it's all gonna work out and be great #ilcb #weekly roundup #in lieu of a commonplace book #Youtube

[watanabes-cum-dump]

Genshin impact characters and songs that fit them???

Just to clarify: Characters can appear multiple times, this can also apply to groups, and yeah

Dainsleif - Soldier (Fleurie) 

He was a knight in the royal guard, and the chorus “Soldier keep on marching on/ head down till the work is done/ waiting on the morning sun/ soldier keep on marching on” 

It just seems so fitting since he’s immortal and roaming the lands now. It’s sort of like “Don’t give up hope yet” and I really hope Dain doesn’t lose hope. 

Kaeya - Set Me Free (Nico Collins) 

Kaeya singing about how he wants to run from fate. Nuff said. 

Ragnvindr Brothers - Achilles come down (Gang of youths) 

I know that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers, but the great thing with a lot of love songs is that if you show a different imagery you can show siblings. 

Both of them are depressed as hell and I doubt they would want one another to die. 

“Achilles, Achilles, just put down the bottle/ Don’t listen to a word you’ve consumed” Works for Kaeya for obvious reasons. And “You crave the applause, yet hate the attention/Achilles your act is a ruse” fits Diluc for some reason. Idk. It just works

Ragnvindr Brothers - Empty Space (Reiinary) 

This song is originally a SheRa (?) song and it’s just so sad. Just listen to it and you’ll get what I’m saying. I know that I have the Ragnvindr brothers on this list a lot, but I really want them to end up on better terms by the end of Genshin since I had my heart ripped out of my chest by Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying in GDC. Let the siblings be happy for fucks sake. 

Khaenri’ah as a whole - The Plagues (Prince of Egypt soundtrack) 

Idk why but I see the destruction of Khaenri’ah going two ways; 1) a bloody fucking massacre in one night, or 2) A slow downfall due to curses from the archons like the plagues from Moses’ story from the Bible. 

I imagine maybe Dain being Moses and telling the gods to stop the slaughter, like yelling at them on a cliff while Khaenri’ah burns in front of him. 

Also the archons as the choir (that’s actually supposed to be God in the movie which is pretty fitting) that say “Thus said the Lord” as in the “lord” their talking about is Celestia’s will or something. Because they can’t disobey Celestia’s orders.

If I were to animate this,  I would make the archon’s these imposing black silhouettes with eyes glowing their respective colours so that it would make Dainsleif and Khaenri’ah as a whole seem small and weak compared to them. 

Khaenri’ah trio - Cradles (Sub Urban) 

Mainly because of the “Fire’s spreading all around my room/ the world’s so bright/ it’s hard to breathe/ but that’s alright” because I just like the idea of having Dain watching as Khaenri’ah burns. 

“I see the world through ink and bleach/ Cross out the ones who heard my cries and watch me weep” works really well for Dain??? I mean think about it, his mask is the ink, and he’s “crossing out” the archons. 

Also because of the sort of music box sound is sort of childish, and Kaeya and Albedo have a lot of trauma from their childhood so it could work. 

Archons - They’re Only Human (Death Note musical) 

Idk why??? I just eh??? I originally thought Venti as the female voice, but I think the Tsaritsa would fit better since she turned against the other archons. Idk who would be the male voice though since we don’t know what the other archon’s are like and Venti and Zhongli just wouldn’t work for it. Maybe one of the harbingers??? 

Xingqiu x Chongyun - Russian Roulette English demo cover 

It’s just such a cute song and really gives me highschool au friends to lovers vibes. Idk just fits

Kaeya x Albedo - Sweater Weather (The Neighborhood) 

Ah yes, our two disaster bisexuals to the Bisexual Anthem.™ Idk I just picture them at the beach just being all lovey dovey and maybe even a little spicy. 

If I animate it it’s gonna be black and white and a modern au of course. No questions asked. 

Beidou x Ningguang - Everybody talks (Neon Trees) 

Just because they’re both pretty famous figures and people would talk if they got together. Also the way the singer sings the song just sounds kinda fruity?? Like idk what it is about it but it is definitely not a straight song. 

#genshin impact #kaeya genshin impact #diluc genshin impact #dainsleif genshin impact #beidou genshin impact #ningguang genshin impact #albedo genshin impact #xingqiu genshin impact #chongyun genshin impact