#and the fanon dynamic people give to them therefore makes very little sense to me

[lunar-years]

I'm rewatching TL (nothing new there) and its really bugging me this time round how Ted is clearly aware that the traumatic event of his childhood has had a negative impact on his psyche and the way he behaves as an adult, yet he seems unwilling to give Jamie the same acknowledgement

yeah i think a lot of the disconnect between them actually comes from Ted comparing his situation and dad trauma to Jamie's situation and dad trauma without recognizing that they are actually very different situations and that he and Jamie are two very different people who deal with trauma differently as well.

Like, his whole speech about "sometimes having a tough dad makes you stronger/better/whatever the fuck" when Jamie asks to be let back on the team is for me a reflection that 1) One of Ted's own personal coping mechanisms is telling himself he's "overcome" the trauma of his dad's death and come out the other side of it a better & kinder (curious, not judgemental) person. When really he very much hasn't overcome it (in fact it's not something that can be 'overcome,' so to speak) and has only shoved it deeper down until it all comes bubbling back up again during the show.

And 2) it's easier for Ted to assume Jamie copes in the same way (and will therefore be reassured by the notion that he's a great player because 'surviving' his father's abuse has made him tougher and more driven) rather than actually reflecting upon or unpacking Jamie's completely separate situation.

what's fascinating to me is that when Ted superimposes his own situation onto Jamie he has Jamie playing two roles. One is Ted himself, who desperately and genuinely wants to forgive his own father (and therefore he think forgiveness is a good idea for Jamie) and the second is Henry, who Ted wants desperately to forgive him (and therefore he needs to believe Jamie can forgive his father, so that Henry will forgive him).

Anyway, that's why Jamie features so heavily in all of Ted's panic attacks despite the fact that the two of them are not actually that close and Ted actually knows very little about him.

Of course, the person who comes out worse in this messy dynamic is Jamie, who gets a lot of very bad advice from Ted as a result. And yeah it can be really bothersome as a viewer because I do think the state of Ted's mental health does continually result in him letting Jamie specifically down.

#I think #also ted is sort of aware of that and it's part of what makes wembley SO triggering for him #because right in front of him is the thing he's never acknowledged and it's impossible not to acknowledge it #i think ted spent a LOT of time convincing himself what he saw at the end of season 1 was something different than what he was seeing #I don’t think ted has ill intent of course it’s just. the horrors honing in. #and the fanon dynamic people give to them therefore makes very little sense to me #anyway #ch: ted lasso #jamie tartt #ted lasso meta #asks #ted lasso

[bibibbon]

MHA chapter 415 leaks

A lot of the problems I have with this chapter are already ones that I talked about in previous chapter posts which can be found here 👇

However I still wanna talk about things that I don't like in this chapter.

1) the memory sharing thing and how random it is. I stand by the point that this plot point came out of nowhere, is a speedy and cheap way to try and build up what little development izuku and shigarakis dynamic lacks. The memories that are being shared also seem very inconsistent like why did one memory trigger another? It makes no sense why Izuku's fight with todoroki would ultimately trigger the usj and why the fight itself would be triggered by a convo that stain and shigaraki have. In my opinion, this is also a very good way for hori to just show off how he has improved his own art and be like "oh look at how good my art is now" which kinda sucks because we don't get any story but just some cool looking manga chapters

2) power of rejection?!?! Seems like a fancy plot armour for izuku not to lose all of his quirks to me🤷‍♀️. The power of rejection just sounds like such a cliche way to be like oh izuku won't lose his quirk to plot armour because he physically cannot lose his quirks since shigaraki is rejecting them. Like seriously what is it with Izuku not being able to keep his powers and we are just having him HAVE TO PASS DOWN HIS QUIRK FOR NO REASON?!?!?! you already passed down the quirk that caused the most distress aka kudos so won't izuku suffer even more if he passed down blackwhip which is the quirk that is keeping him both alive and is giving him the ability to move like why would izuku the and transfer that?!?! Seems stupid to me 😭 and low-key further reinforces the idea that the power of rejection is (A) there a plot point introduced to make it so that izuku doesn't lose his quirks and (B) so horikoshi can still create intense looking manga pages that he won't be able to create if izuku can't use his quirks anymore.

3) The unnerving focus on the police officer who took Tenko home. This manga page low-key confirmed the one theory that was like the police officer is afo and that AFO gave tomura his quirk which if it is true just doesn't line up or make sense when it comes to canon. I see how this theory can help develop both the parallels further in fanon but in canon it just damages tomura's character and its like an excuse that we should pity shigaraki even more because this police guy who was supposed to help him was a villain who gave him a destructive quirk and made him go insane /cause his families deaths. This also takes away from the half baked plot point that the gene for quirks actually heavily influence behaviour but if this theory is true then shigaraki just wants destruction because he wants destruction 🤷‍♀️ nothing more and nothing less.

4) Eri becoming relevant to the plot now? I have already said this and I will say it again Eri's quirk is too narrative breaking and too powerful. You literally cannot have the plot go on since we discovered that Eri can legit just rewind people to a time they were at their prime like she did with mirio. This brings up the question as to why she didn't do this with aizawa or all might and therefore her quirk could be used to make the series and characters have no long lasting concequences. Also how are the heroes so irresponsible thaT THEY COULD LET A CHILD SIMPLY RUN INTO A DANGEROUS AND TERRIFYING BATTLE FIELD LIKE WHATS WRONG WITH YOU ECTOPLASM DO SOMETHING YOURE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THE CHILD ARENT YOU?!?!?!!? also this is such a shame Eri could of actually been a very good character who symbolised the traumatic events that victims of hero society faced and how young children could be kidnapped and exploited for powerful quirks however instead of getting anything like that we just get Eri BECOMING A TOOL FOR THE HEROES WHICH IS SOMETHING THAT SHE WAS Traumatised TO DO DUE TO OVERHAUL MAKING HER A TOOL FOR HIM AND NOTHING ELSE?!?!? talk about double standards. This is also making the Eri will rewind shigaraki into Tenko theory much more plausible and I hate that theory for so many reasons. However, it's either this or the theory that she will have to separate Izuku and shigaraki BECAUSE FOR SOME forsaken REASON THOSE TWO ARE SOMEHOW MERGING AND BECOMING THE SAME PERSON LIKE THAT MAKES ANY SENSE

5) where did the damage that kudos quirk was supposed to do to shigaraki go? Is it me but I seriously don't see shigaraki getting any damaged or recoil from kudos quirk like I could see some of it from the last chapter where shigaraki was somewhat struggling but that's it nothing else. Shigaraki can now fight perfectly fine and isn't getting the recoil hit if a nuke something that izuku was suffering with the majority of the fight which just seems unfair at this point like?!?! Its also another example of how hori fails at show don't tell

Seriously I still don't like the leaks but at least we got my girl hatsume and la brava that's the only good thing I can think about when it comes to these leaks.

#mha critical #bnha critical #mha #hori is a bad writer #horikoshi critical #izuku deserves better #bhna critical #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #the leaks are all over the place i dont like them at all #bnha

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

I find it really intriguing how the ATLA writers could have gone a “brotherly love” route with Zuko and Aang, but they never did. Even in LOK, the only thing that I remember Iroh saying about their relationship was that they canonically became the best of friends and that Zuko knew Aang better than anyone, even more than Katara and their children. I find the direction of their relationship a contrast to how often the bond between the male protagonist and the male antagonist that are spiritually linked in other media is reduced to “they were like brothers” and put aside for the respective heterosexual romances of the leads, even though the relationships between the leads often have homoerotic subtext and can be interpreted through a queer lens. I guess what I’m wondering is: would you classify Zuko and Aang’s relationship as brotherly? Do you support interpretations where their relationship is viewed as brotherly? And finally (I’m sorry for all of the questions): why do you think the ATLA writers - who seem to mostly be composed of cishet men - never took the “brotherly love” route and left the nature of their relationship ambiguous?

This ask has been in my inbox for a Hot Minute 💀 my apologies, my friend. And since I haven’t seen LOK, I won’t try to speak on the front. Before I continue, though, @likealittleheartbeat has an AMAZING analysis here about the interpretation of Aang and Zuko’s relationship through a queer-platonic lens that I found to be an incredible read and arguably could answer this ask on its own, lol!

I guess the general “issue” that must be addressed to answer these questions is simply how we define brotherly. That “we” can be divided into the viewers and the writers, only adding another layer of complexity. Because the reality is that we can’t jump into the creators minds and see exactly how they intended Zuko and Aang’s relationship to be interpreted. We can make deductions, e.g. the existence of Kataang and Maiko suggests Zuko and Aang were not intended to have a romantic relationship within canon (duh, lol). In fact, you could even add another division to the “we” - the writers, the viewers, and the characters themselves (i.e. interpretation through the cultural lenses that inspired the show).

All of this is to say that there is not going to be one agreed-upon definition of “brotherly,” lol! Since you seem to be asking for my personal opinions, I’ll go with my personal definition. If anyone has differing thoughts in response to these questions, please feel free to add them in a comment or rb! I think there’s a lot to explore here and my sole opinion is Not the be-all and end-all, lmao.

So, what is my personal definition of “brotherly”? I’m not going to try to make a formal definition, lol, but the gist of my interpretation is a platonic relationship akin to that of siblings. To me, there is a difference between having a “brotherly relationship” with someone versus a “friendship” (I almost used “friendly relationship” but that didn’t feel right jskdfhakdls). I think these two can overlap and/or be the same, but - for example - I have friends who I would say without hesitation that I am incredibly close with, but I also would not classify that friendship as “sisterly.” (Again, these are strictly my personal thoughts, and I encourage further discussion in comments/rbs!)

I’ll take your questions one at a time:

Would you classify Zuko and Aang’s relationship as brotherly?

Personally? Probably not. To me, there is a sense of superficiality associated with the term “brotherly” that in my eyes can be reductive to platonic relationships between men (can be, not always lol). I think with Zuko and Aang, the relationship just runs much deeper than “brotherly” can connote. For one, they are the primary narrative foils of the show! The only relationship that comes close to theirs in terms of narrative significance is Kataang (which is a very different dichotomy, btw, I’m not trying to compare them lol). We have numerous episodes dedicated to the parallels between Aang and Zuko, including but not limited to “The Storm” and “The Avatar and the Fire Lord.” I mean, this is an actual quote from the latter episode:

Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?

We see variants of this line and the notion of friendship itself associated throughout that episode explicitly with Roku and Sozin, Roku and Gyatso, and of course the Gaang at the end, but implicitly we also know it’s about Aang and Zuko, too. Aang says, “Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, have to be treated like they’re worth giving a chance.” One common take with this line that I’ve seen is interpreting it as foreshadowing for Aang’s decision to spare Ozai - which obviously is a fair assessment - but we cannot also ignore how much it applies to Zuko joining the Gaang. Specifically, Zuko reconciling with Aang.

We all know Aang was the first person to extend friendship to Zuko back in “The Blue Spirit” and tbh, after he saw Appa licking Zuko, you can tell Aang was nearly willing to extend a second chance to Zuko then and there lol. Aang and Zuko’s friendship, them being drawn together, is a relationship that transcends lifetimes, transcends social norms/expectations, transcends a loss greater than anyone can imagine (for Aang) and offers a new opportunity arguably far more than deserved (for Zuko). I think ascribing a qualifier of “brotherly” to their relationship therefore limits this transcendence because of how much their dynamic encompasses.

Do you support interpretations where their relationship is viewed as brotherly?

Of course! One of the reasons I love A:TLA - especially my small corner of the fandom - is how many interpretations that every relationship presents, be it a small “difference” (such as calling Zuko and Aang’s relationship “brotherly”) or a more drastic one (exploring fanon possibilities with rarepairs, let’s go #AangRarepairWeek 😎). So even if this interpretation isn’t one I’m inclined to in the literal sense (i.e. it’s the “brotherly” qualifier I feel I dislike, because I do love platonic Zukaang as much as romantic Zukaang), I absolutely encourage others to make the most of their fandom experience and product/support content that they enjoy!

Why do you think the ATLA writers - who seem to mostly be composed of cishet men - never took the “brotherly love” route and left the nature of their relationship ambiguous?

I will say that we don’t really have any way of knowing the sexualities and gender identities of every single A:TLA writer, lol. I’m not saying they were all queer in some way, of course, but I just want to establish that we don’t and can’t know unless told. If that makes sense 😂

As I mentioned earlier, I have no way of getting inside the writers’ minds to determine their intentions when they were writing Zuko and Aang’s relationship, so all you’re gonna get here are my best guesses lmao! For one, there wasn’t really a need to outright label Zuko and Aang as having a “brotherly” relationship. The existence of Kataang and Maiko again speak for themselves. Most viewers - especially casual watchers - don’t need the show to state “these two only love each other in a brotherly way” to conclude that the relationship was platonic (or rather, was not romantic), especially considering that the show was made in the mid-2000s (i.e. sad but true, most people weren’t watching A:TLA with a queer lens 😔). So I wouldn’t say they left the relationship “ambiguous” so much as there wasn’t need to qualify it further than simply being platonic.

Of course, I do think there is an ambiguity that comes with Aang and Zuko’s relationship, which I love to exploit in my Zukaang fics 😌. Was that ambiguity intentional? Again, I’m inclined to say no. But I can’t speak with certainty and - as I discussed earlier - I truly think Aang and Zuko’s relationship would be limited by being called “brotherly” when their connection runs so deeply and is intertwined so heavily with the spiritual themes of the show. Thus, it’s possible the writers were purposefully emphasizing that spirituality by not labelling them as “brotherly”! But as I said, there’s really no way to be sure.

At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters how someone chooses to label Aang and Zuko’s relationship. I mean, I’m always a little horrified when a person completely overlooks their narrative significance as foils (because I personally can’t imagine dismissing either of their importance to the other), but hey, to each their own. Brotherly, queerplatonic, romantic, and hell, anything in-between - these interpretations are anyone’s for the taking. Have fun with it! 💛

(I hope this at least kind of resembles the answer you were looking for, anon 😂)

#aang #zuko #aanglove #zukaang #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla meta #the avatar and the firelord #amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

[girldraki]

for the character thing. uh. either iceberg or tally ran

iceberg edition:

favorite thing: how much he fucking sucks? hes just so terrible and constantly grasping for power and, at times, Actively Breaking Foundation Rules to do so as if that'll actually help him. god he's the best

least favorite: OH MY GOD. PASSIVEBERG. if your character exhibits exactly one symptom of mild depression and literally, non-figuratively enacts the Guess I'll Die meme when their PRIMARY CHARACTER TRAITS have been being a spiteful bitch the whole time you need to fucking give up and start over. Also obligatory "ruined everyones goddamn iberg characterizations and via sex at frigid temp character assassinated the gearberg dynamic"

also the misogyny that's not very cool

fanon pet peeves:

already elaborated on: we're sorry we have to be little bitches about gearberg or we die. It's literally easier to find "uhm gearberg is overrated + toxic actually" takes than fucking gearberg content. we are so tired

....new.... complaints...: we've said SO MUCH about fanon ibergs that this will be generally hard. uhhhh. i mean its sort of covered in the previous bullet but even platonically it makes us sad when people write icebergs who actively hate gears. like thats just his weird boss.. he doesnt actually have a reason to hate him other than You Think He Needs An Antagonist.. we are biased but also right

talloran edition:

favorite thing: theyre the best thing to come from the wretched place that is the scp wiki and we love them sooo much and yes we did take our melatonin before we started writing this. but omg theyre so strong <3

least favorite thing: that tale from august that was essentially the talloran 2 thing (guy who thought of frankenstein first voice) but like. in a vaguely ableist Not Right In The Head And Therefore Bad way. bestie theyve been fucking tormented

fanon pet peeves:

previously discussed: the amnestics thing. me after JUST ESCAPING Unreality Nightmare 3 Million Years: hm today i will degrade my own sense of perception

not heretofore articulated (doing synonyms is getting hard): the problem with THIS one is that theres just not a whole lot of talloran takes we get actively mad at out of what talloran content exists. oh well. we get annoyed by how the only people anyone writes them interacting with are draven, kondraki, and sometimes clef? even within that family unit theres 1-3 meris to talk to including one that (blank are shilling) would have really interesting perspective on their situation, pspsps,

#ask #abc-ia

[hklnvgl]

Hi! I have a totally random question lol. I've seen a few people compare Pynch to Wolfstar (and Adam and Ronan to Lupin and Sirius as people too). What I don't get it folks saying that Wolfstar was a 'better' (stronger? more interesting? idk) ship than Pynch. I mean..? I don't see it, personally. What am I missing here?

👋 hi! i’m gonna begin this (i’m guessing it’s gonna get long—i’ve actually filled two pages of handwritten notes to try and make sense of my many opinions about this) with a disclaimer: my approach to shipping is very different when it comes to pynch and other fandoms. normally, i’m not actually a very active shipper—when i read fics for other fandoms i normally look for plot and feelings and, because most of the time there’s shipping involved, i usually don’t mind if a ship is there and might actually enjoy it but it’s not something i tend to go out of my way to search for. i just don’t usually ship fictional couples romantically! it’s all the same for me if they’re canon or not (though if they’re canon they will have more canon scenes together so that might help me to eventually ship them? idk i’m just the least romantic person you can find out there 🤣)

so that’s why i haven’t read a lot of wolfstar fics (i think maybe 2 or 3 where the focus was on their relationship? i remember a quite lovely texting au) and even less meta—when i read hp fics i will look for explorations of harry’s abuse, which is what gives me feelings, and in those wolfstar is usually there bc they adopt harry or something like that.

that said, and having therefore canon!wolfstar in mind (perhaps the similarities are stronger in fanon, i just don’t know enough to say!), i really don’t see why people would compare them either (apart from the fact that they’re popular mlm ships?) and i do have to agree with you that pynch is a more interesting ship (for me!)

and, yes, i can see there are a few traits remus and adam might share if you squint, but imo once you start really thinking about it they’re two very different characters! they’re both said to be poor on text, but in adam’s case that comes from the family he was born into and if i remember correctly remus’ dad was middle class (i can’t remember exactly but i think he worked for the ministry?) and remus was poor only because he couldn’t hold a job due to him being a werewolf. idk if people’s comparisons go further and they see cabeswater as a parallel to the werewolf thing? but if that’s the case adam made that choice himself and he embraced it eventually and it’s actually crucial for the resoultion of the series’ plot! remus being a werewolf was great for book 3′s plot twists and for shunning him out of society and little else. personality-wise i guess they’re both smart? i do think remus is more the type to give up after a while but 🤷‍♀️ (oh is it bc if wolfstar were canon it’d be implied that remus is bisexual bc of tonks??)

now when people compare ronan and sirius they only look at the surface which makes me super mad! they say they’re the same just bc they’re brash? and wear leather? and were born in rich families?? but sirius was abused as a child and left his family bc he was the odd one out (which in the lynch family would actually be more accurate to say declan is??) and ronan’s trauma comes from a wildly different place! arguably niall (and aurora? apparently from that little snippet of mister impossible i haven’t read yet) were also abusive to him but definitely not in sirius’ way? (that’s actually closer to adam’s family’s brand of abuse!)

i’ve also seen people say the gangsey’s dynamic is the same as the marauders’! and i’m sorry but i really think that’s not true! for starters we only see the marauders as a whole in flashbacks! and not even then bc lily was not part of the group yet (i guess people compare her to blue bc they’re the only girls??) imo the marauders (or what we see of them) do not inspire healthy friendship feelings! james is the leader and a big asshole and only sees sirius as his equal—he is very happy with peter’s (apparent) worship and i guess they all were super happy to believe remus was the traitor bc they didn’t trust him enough (a werewolf will always be a werewolf) and everyone completely oversaw peter (which i guess is why he did what he did but he’s too plain of a character to have had believable motivations when he turned to voldemort) and he was considered second-class among the group. also that scene with snape in book 5, where we see them all together, is not the gangsey’s dynamic at all??

anyway. back to wolfstar/pynch. the only canon moments in which they give me similar vibes are, for wolfstar, in book 5 when harry firecalls grimauld place from umbridge’s office (i think it was that moment) and we kind of can guess sirius and remus are spending time together at the house and have this caramaderie going (that i guess could be interpreted as shippy) and, for pynch, back in trb when ronan is driving adam to the trailer park for the last time and he says: “man, you don’t have to go back in there” (and i remember thinking in my first read something long the lines of “aw, they are friends after all!).

so. because adam and ronan are part of the main cast of their series they are more flashed out as character (i’ll always think sirius and remus did have potential but everything was too tangled in the plot and, besides, hp is harry’s story!) and i actually do care more about what happens to them as individual characters! but i also ship them! their relationship and their dynamic simply appeals more to my personal tastes! i believe they are perfect for each other and i could read a thousand alternative first meetings and soulmate aus with them as protagonists and i’d never get bored.

as of wolfstar, well, as i said i don’t mind if i go into a fic and they’re a couple in there (they’re cute, sure!), and they’re great friends and obviously care for each other, but we do see too little of them together and how they would counter their respective differences for me to say they’re a perfect couple (they might have been in a different universe and i’m sure there are plenty of fics out there that explore that, which i personally have not read simply bc i lack the motivation to do so).

tl;dr: i like adam and ronan more as separate characters and i just love the dynamic they have in canon, which is why i enjoy reading/writing about them as a ship. imo, wolfstar had potential but hp was not about them and if people say they ship them i nod as i do when a friend tells me irl they’re seeing someone new and i hope they make each other happy.

perhaps someone who’s more deeply in the wolfstar fandom can add a different view to this?

#pynch #wolfstar #trc #hp #i do realise i didn't answer your question #sorry this was long to say i have no idea why people might prefer wolfstar to pynch #ask #d #creativefiend19

[heterophobiclanwangji]

Stupid Sexy Shizun

(an unnecessarily long post about Shen QIngqiu, romantic storylines, and dangerous fanon)

I see a lot of varying characterizations for Shen Qingqiu, especially vis a vis his allure to the other (typically male) members of the cast. Frankly, I do think the entire thing is funnier if a lot of people are in love with Shen Qingqiu, who only really recognizes Luo Binghe (and even then only after nearly apocalyptic levels of drama), and I’m willing to believe that he is unwittingly attractive for the following reasons:

he unintentionally falls into suggestive situations (the Skinner incident with the immortal binding cables, the Huan Hua Palace Water Dungeon, also with immortal binding cables For Some Reason, the succubus incident with Liu Qingge, etc.)

he may fall into improper/informal forms of address (for example, calling Binghe by name the first time they meet, rather than Luo Binghe or any of the previous Shen Qingqiu’s, er, nicknames)

he doesn’t always understand physical boundaries the same way as other characters (yikes @ the scene in one of the extras where he gives Binghe spiritual energy via skin-to-skin contact and fails to understand how/why that would be inappropriate, and potentially the situation with Liu Qingge cleansing his meridians, although I have reservations about that)

he tends to objectify people, which makes more sense when you realize he’s evaluating them based on his understanding of their characters and function in the original plot and cataloging differences, but reads differently to people who don’t have that context (which is almost everyone) (he makes internal comments about how hot a lot of the characters are, and I feel like he stares at people, but I can’t remember a specific incident for this; in conversations, it comes up in lines like “even if something bad happens, it won’t happen to you,” or “I knew you would definitely win,” both spoken to Binghe--at this point Shen Qingqiu doesn’t know Binghe very well and still sees him as The Protagonist, but to Binghe they just seem like heartwarming moments of security and belief)

he has trouble enforcing platonic guidelines to his relationships due to his fundamental belief that no one would find him attractive, be it romantically or sexually, and therefore sees no reason to draw that distinction (not going to cite specific incidences for this, it’s more of a recurring combination of his low self-esteem and lack of self-awareness, which I may talk about later in another post).

however, some reasons I have seen in fandom that do not seem likely based on my understanding of the plot and characters (although I will be the first to admit that I do not remember every single detail of the novel or extras, and that Shen Qingqiu is not the most reliable narrator to start with) are as follows:

fan language (technically possible, no indications given in canon, and you cannot convince me that Mr. I-Named-This-Poison-With-No-Cure-Without-A-Cure, Great God Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had the patience and wherewithal to research or create a comprehensive fan language)

owning and using slutty, slutty inner robes (this would require the cutthroat, inscrutable original Shen Qingqiu to own such robes in the first place, I don’t remember any canonical references to improper dress aside from instances where he has been disrobed--the Skinner incident, Huan Hua Palace Water Dungeon, and his QingSi treatment--, and Shen Qingqiu has a healthy paranoia about governing his appearances so people won’t realize he isn’t the original goods; yes, the Peak Lords suspect him of being possessed anyway, but to my knowledge their reasons centered around his personability and investment in his students rather than robes or hair ornamentation)

eating suggestive foods (this one is slightly debatable. again, he doesn’t see himself as someone people would find attractive, so I can’t discount the idea that he would inadvertently eat something in a suggestive manner. however, I saw someone have him request dishes involving aphrodisiacs, and I was like, WACK. He probably had a cataloged index of the different weird plants and monsters of PIDW before his transmigration and ranted excessively in the comments about all of the pointless precursors to papapa, up to and including creating different plants/animal organs that have the same or better effects and then yelled at Airplane for not keeping better track of his own inventions. This is the guy who saw Liu Qingge under the effects of succubus poison or whatever and immediately knocked him into a cold bath. you won’t catch him slipping that easily)

enabling Binghe to get away with suggestive/improper and sexualized behavior while he was still a teenaged disciple. I think this one really gets to me because that narrative of the virginal innocent Shizun and his perverted disciple is the exact view that the outside world has of their dynamic, as represented by the fragments of The Resentment of Chunshan that we see in the extras. People see Binghe as a depraved monster (he is a demon, after all) and make insinuations about his treatment of Shen Qingqiu’s corpse during the five years between his death and resurrection. For contrast, the crux of the novel is Shen Qingqiu realizing that Binghe is hurt and insecure and desperately begging to be loved. In the extras he even goes through some of Binghe’s memories and remarks about how, contrary to rumor, all Binghe did was keep his body from rotting while he searched for ways to revive him. I won’t say that Binghe wasn’t a teenage boy and never did what teenage boys do, but the extras showed us that Binghe would rather throw himself into a cold lake than act inappropriately towards his Shizun, and I can’t remember him making any sexual advances until after Shen Qingqiu came back to life. In canon, Binghe is ill-informed and generally bad at sex, which doesn’t speak to me like someone who was just waiting for the right moment to strike.

I will read a hundred fics about Shen Qingqiu inadvertently causing people to fall in love with him, but a lot of fanworks try to make it about a physical allure rather than his personality and the ways in which he feels comfortable interacting with other people. People respond to his kindness and his feelings of duty and honor, and it makes me feel cheated to see interpretations downplay characteristics of his actual personality, especially when it degrades the characters around him, too. Yue Qingyuan feels protective of him but generally listens when Shen Qingqiu tells him not to draw his sword, and in canon he gave Shen Qingqiu enough space that he was surprised by the extent of his grief when Binghe was in the Endless Abyss. Liu Qingge is also protective of Shen Qingqiu and is involved in getting Shen Qingqiu’s promise to remain with Cang Qiong Mountain Sect before the Maigu Ridge incident, but doesn’t stop him from leaving when he decides to go. Binghe makes some questionable choices, but his anger and insecurity are understandable even without the rampant communication failures and the influence of Xin Mo, and the end of the novel shows that Luo Binghe is willing to leave if that’s what Shen Qingqiu wants.

Sometimes fan interpretations get really intense about this, as if Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, and Luo Binghe would catfight over Shen Qingqiu. Granted, Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe are willing to throw down at any given time, but the main romantic development comes from Shen Qingqiu treating other people with respect and receiving respect in return. While people do try to influence Shen QIngqiu’s decisions, the ultimate choice is his own.

One of the points of the novel is that people matter and their choices affect not only themselves but the people around them. I don’t care if Shen Qingqiu is some kind of accidental sex god, because his choices and especially his decision to care about other people give Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, and Luo Binghe each something they didn’t have in the original storyline: Yue Qingyuan gets a chance to explain himself and his failures, and is relieved of his burden of caring for Shen Qingqiu; Liu Qingge gets to live and see his little sister grow up; and Luo Binghe gets to be loved and cared for.

As for Shen Qingqiu, he got to choose his own happy ending.

#scum villain #shen qingqiu #scum villain meta #bingqiu #svsss #svss #other characters and ships to a lesser extent #sorry yue qingyuan and liu qingge #me when i was most of the way through the post: wait am i a luo binghe apologist??? #i keep a 'luo binghe did some things wrong' sign next to my 'the misunderstandings in scum villain make sense actually' sign #i feel like i got. way too passionate about this #i do not expect this to get notes #my posts

[dent-de-leon]

Allura for the ask meme!

Why I like them: Sooo many reasons!! I love how she’s a princess completely dedicated to her cause with this whole regal bearing, but still loves shiny things and playing cute games with her mice and just being herself. I love how she’s not as prepared and confident as everyone imagines, how she’s hesitant to be in charge at first, how she’s not sure if she’s ready and is still learning her role just like everyone else. I love how she’s not patient and motherly like people make her out to be, I love how she’s a force to be reckoned with and has a well honed strength in every sense of the word. I love how they took her old pink outfit from the 80′s and didn’t decide it was unfit for their warrior princess, and instead made the color a point of pride and relevance, something that mattered to Allura and belonged with her character arc.

 I love how Allura is prim and proper at times but also allowed to start food fights because, yeah, she’s a teenager too. I love how passionate she is, how she’s someone ruled by her heart at times with a longing for the past and wide-eyed hope that she can genuinely make the universe a better place. I love how dedicated she is to her cause, how she’s willing to give everything it takes to keep the people she loves safe. I love how she’s had a tragic past but still knows how to smile and wants to have fun. I love how she really likes flowers and jewelry and small comforts that remind her of home. I love how she considers the space mice her friends and likes to gossip about the other paladins with them. I love how much she’s grown as a person over the course of the series, how she was able to reach out to Keith again and rebuild that bridge of her own accord. I love how she’s really opened up to Lance and they’ve grown so much closer, how she genuinely seems to reciprocate his affections. I love Allura’s courage and drive. I love how fond and uplifted she looked when Blue chose her. I love her whole character arc as a paladin and would be sad to see her leave the team after all that. 

Why I don’t: Fanon Allura really does get the shaft a lot. It made me dislike her just seeing how she wasn’t allowed to be a teenager like everyone else. How she was the Team Mom and only the Mom, dutifully caring for all her children and also married to Shiro because somehow they’re both 20 years older than everyone else and must Be Together because Space Parents law dictates it be so. Because Allura isn’t motherly or nurturing towards the paladins in the slightest, because I’m sick of female characters being forced into a motherly role. Because automatically putting Main Guy with Main Girl and Space Princess with leader Space Knight and having the whole fandom accept it as canon just bothered me. 

Because antis preached it as the Golden Ship and you weren’t allowed to ship them with anyone else for so, so long. Because people tried to shove Shiro’s characteristics onto Allura to suit their happy little Space Parents motif but she’s clearly more fiery, passionate, aggressive, self-righteous, has an anger and desire for revenge in her–because she’s so much more clearly like Keith than Shiro, but that makes her too rough around the edges for the Space Mom role so they file her down. Because antis keep editing Allura out of the picture and dropping in Keith because somehow Lance’s love for her isn’t valid enough. Because somehow Allura isn’t ever allowed to reciprocate and have feelings of her own. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Just like with Lance, it’s The Red Paladin and A New Defender! I think seeing Allura’s very personal link to the Red Lion–and how she broke down at its rejection, watching her speak about Alfor and how much being a paladin means to her, the reason for her armor…that was all just so heart-wrenching and lovely. It also made me so much more attached to Paladin Allura than I ever thought I would be, and when Blue accepted her you felt a rush of pride and warmth as well. 

Then there’s A New Defender, which again gives insight to both Allura’s weaknesses and strengths, her insecurities and innate potential. She feels betrayed by the use of Altean magic against her, she struggles with this fear that she isn’t skilled enough to handle this, that she was never trained and therefore can’t outmatch this. But then Lance urges her own, makes her realize that she’s the Heart of Voltron, and she’s had that power inside her all along. Both episodes provide great character development for Allura on her own, as well as further her bond with Lance and really seem to establish requited feelings on her end. It’s really endearing. 

Favorite season/movie: Season 3!! It builds a lot on Allura’s character as well as her bonds with the rest of the team (also, that good allurance content). Seeing Allura’s journey as a paladin got me way more invested than I anticipated, and it really felt like she belonged on the team. It was nice to see that shift in her dynamic, in her really becoming one of the paladins rather than someone back at the castle. It was pretty refreshing to see her on the front lines and bonding with a Lion, even if it wasn’t how she initially hoped or intended. Lots of growth and learning on her end. Some Good Stuff,, 

Favorite line: Allura’s plea to the Red Lion, especially, “I want to carry on my father’s fight, but I need your help. Please, I must do this.” ;; Hearing how committed she was, how important this cause was for her, how she was just laying her whole heart bare…that really got to me, and it was so well voiced. Damn good scene that hurt my heart and really shed some light on how much this all means to her,,

Favorite outfit: Listen I am just really partial to everyone’s space pajamas okay,, she just looked so cute in them they were both adorable and regal

OTP: Talked about this one already over here, but allurance!! :’D 

Brotp: Keith and Allura!! As I said before, they have a lot in common, and I think their likemindedness makes for a really neat team. They’ve both experienced so much loss and grief in their lives, even despite been born at opposite ends of the war. And watching Allura learning to trust him again, see how Keith never pushed her or held a grudge against her in all that time, how he never demanded any apology because he understood Allura’s feelings and felt she was valid for having them. How they start to open up and lean on one another for reassurance despite their withdrawn natures–Allura letting Keith know she believed he was capable of being the Black Paladin, Keith comforting her after everything in the alternate universe. They certainly clash from time to time, but I think that, despite all their hardships, they’re gradually growing closer and it’s just nice. 

Head Canon: That she loved the little Lotor helmet Zarkon gave her and ended up wearing it a lot as a kiddo ;; 

Unpopular opinion: Never liked sha/llura or the accompanying whole “Space Parents” motif. Also don’t like how it’s very popular to have lots of “Altean Lance” AU’s where he’s given a great deal of Allura’s character and backstory and they’re also both conveniently siblings so there won’t be any romantic feelings between them. 

A wish: That she and Lance live happily ever after and Allura helps everyone rebuild, quite possibly forming a “New Altea” for refugees across the universe. Or also!! Pollux is a thing, and Allura gets the comfort of at least knowing she and Coran–and Honerva–aren’t the only Alteans still alive. I would also love, love to see her apprentice under an Altean magic user or druid of some sort since at the end of season 4 she mentions that she’s never been trained. Keith got to train with the BOM, and so I really hope Allura will get to train with another magic user. oH also!! White Paladin Allura please,,

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Allura being kicked off Team Voltron or otherwise having her character development as the Heart of Voltron lead to nowhere. Also sh/allura (sorry, but antis ruined it for me early on) 

5 words to best describe them: Duty, righteousness, wistful, passionate, charm

My nickname for them: Space Princess!! ✨

#allura #voltron #allurance #lance #keith

[nelliganmagazine]

Possibilities that Disappear Before a Landscape - Interview with Tanya Beyeler  from Theatre Group El Conde de Torrefiel -  FTA 2017 June 5-June 6

A talk with Tanya Beyeler about her Barcelona company's new play Possibilities that Disappear Before a Landscape and about ideas regarding  a "sluggish, lethargic Europe where everyone continues to live their daily lives and get drunk, despite a palpable collapse of both its underlying capitalist systems and the socialist utopias that nourished it in the past". "The Barcelona company El Conde de Torrefiel sculpts surprising, seemingly dormant landscapes throbbing with underlying, unacknowledged chaos. A theatrical excursion like an exhibit of contemporary art." James Oscar: The writer Frantz Fanon in his Wretched of the Earth, a 1960s classic book on "revolution "says :

"The Third World does not mean to organize a great crusade of hunger against the whole of Europe. What it expects from those who for centuries have kept it in slavery is that they will help it to rehabilitate mankind, and make man victorious everywhere, once and for all. But it is clear that we are not so naive as to think that this will come about with the cooperation and the good will of the European governments. This huge task which consists of reintroducing mankind into the world, the whole of mankind, will be carried out with the indispensable help, of the European peoples, who themselves must realize that in the past they have often joined the ranks of our common masters where colonial questions were concerned. To achieve this, the European peoples must first decide to wake up and shake themselves, use their brains, and stop playing the stupid game of the Sleeping Beauty." The last part reminds me of you talking about "sluggish, lethargic Europe where everyone continues to live their daily lives and get drunk, despite a palpable collapse of both its underlying capitalist systems and the socialist utopias that nourished it in the past...people who are bogged down in their daily routines...privilege wake up…tranquil citizenry". I always think of this scene in Antonioni's Blow Up where the band is playing on stage and all the "cool kids" are not dancing or moving- they just stare ahead in space - vacuous and immobile. Can you elaborate on this general state of affairs of this blank stare, lethargy which seems to be your starting point? Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): This image of the “sleeping beauty” is very interesting because of the idea of an imposed sleep, a poison that doesn’t allow us to wake up and react. I don’t think it is a quite deliberate sleep, but there are very particular chains. These chains are totally perverse and numb to our responsibility in our historical present. Philippe Murray talks about the concept of “Homo festivus” which I like very much as a definition, as well as the one for “Homo economicus” because it marries this dichotomy between extreme irrationality and extreme rationality. I feel there is a tension between these two ways of existential behaviors that describe our way of life, and that there is a huge gap in between them that creates these accelerations in order to move from one to another, that creates this schizophrenia of nowadays, and that is in this garb that we could find our real space, that we can equalize with our real nature. This piece was conceived between 2014 and 2015, in a moment where we were totally exhausted and we had a deep need to stop. Even if we would not know what should stop. At the same time, we had the feeling that all the people that surrounded us, our friends, family, etc in Spain, were in the same situation. A lot of work, a lot of events, a lot of travels, a lot of everything, and everybody was tired, with a lot of things to do, a lot of activity but not really focussed, nobody had time to meet with others in quietness, or to meet with himself (themselves), everything was scheduled, even entertainment or free time was scheduled.

Entertainment is a “must do” thing (you have to be there in order to be updated, to be seen, to exist). Then we had the sensation of being kind of soldiers, workers of an invisible army, tired and without any benefit, poor and defeated: Cheap travels, cheap clothes, cheap relations, cheap friendships, cheap works. Everything very volatile, a real miseducation of bonding. The image was of being maddened cells of a sick organism, and like the metastasis of cancer,  those cells reproduce the illness in order to spread it with the frenetic pace. From this confused amount of feelings, we start to create the piece as a landscape, a panoramic view that doesn't attack the audience with its presence. James Oscar: There are some interesting new European filmmakers that seem to be experimenting with various forms of representation in the context of the current moment of crisis and lethargy. I am thinking of Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor and A Pigeon Sat on A Branch Reflecting on Existence), Quentin Dupieux (Reality and Rubber), and Yorgos Lanthimos (Lobster, Dogtooth). Some of these artists are using speculative thinking, allegory, abstraction,  irony, the absurd, the mundane (everyday scenes?)  and other forms of representation to address a similar issue you are interested in - the moment of this crisis.  What forms of representation are you using in El Conde. What form of representation are you using to try and wake people up. Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): Forms of representation are a very powerful tool to work directly on the meaning. Film frames are not at all the same as Theater, therefore the approach to images is very different. From the filmmakers you named, I like very much how they are hackers of reality as they present some very everyday situations/dynamics/images but they are tapped, they have interferences that open a huge dimension of (new) possibilities. Lately, on stage, our big concern was how to open new possibilities of meaning and sense using a close, recognizable language and forms. How to work in the abstract field from a concrete starting point. Right now, our stage devices are text and images. Text, always presented as a speech, reflection, or small story is a very concrete element, that allows us to break the rules of the narration and aesthetic without losing a grounded point. Text allows us to work images freely, and text and images don’t have to match. We are much more abstract with the image work, very much near to dance language, in order to offer an unpredictable aesthetic experience to the audience. All movements, colours, shapes on stage are choreographed, we always compose a big score of those elements and there is an important rhythmic component in the presentation of images, sound and light. Text allows us to go deeper with words in the ideas that surround the piece. It is always presented with distancing, off-recorded- voice, or projected text. The written text on stage is an added strong element of the choreography and at the same time gives the audience the opportunity to appropriate the text, as each of them might read it with their own voices. James Oscar: You speak about " increasing the layers of meaning in each of these staged images". Philippe Couture says, "Your work is based on disassociation between imagery, the body and the text. Why did you opt for that deconstruction"  You also say, "It's a question of viewing things from a distance so as to better perceive them." Can you elaborate on these comments:

Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): Distance is definitely our way to approach the stage work. For the moment, this is the way that feels more ethical and fair towards others. Real life bombs the individual constantly with invitations to participate; there is a constant appeal to the first or second person. Outside we are constantly assaulted by mechanisms that call you to be this or that way, to look this or that way, to say this or that, to act and take a position, to decide but there is not very much place for reflection or for contemplation, or for doubt. The present is absolute and it erases the future and the past. This is very dangerous  - I think. Distance is the way to see with perspective, to give space to others, to seduce them from far away, to shorten the distance together, little by little. James Oscar: You mention Spencer Tunick and the philosopher  Zygmunt Bauman. Do you feel they just show the symptoms but offer no "solutions"? Of El Conde, beyond providing a representation of the symptoms, what else are your intentions? Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): Zygmunt Bauman is not anymore in the piece as unfortunately, he died some months ago.The piece seeks to picture a present and the different layers that shape the present theatre and the multiple ways of perceiving this present. El Conde will never dare to offer a solution since we ourselves don't have it. We use the stage as a place to share our questions and worries about the world we are living in. We are contemporary theatre because we present human matters (that are always the same) with contemporary forms of approach to them, and we do so to an audience of people who are living our same historical moment. We offer the audience an aesthetic experience related to these matters, with forms that break the standard rules of the construction of the discourse. James Oscar: A Brazilian friend recently came from Spain and she was frightened by the unhidden and confrontational racism she was subject to everyday. This seems to be an important issue globally now. Does El Conde have any reflections in regards to this? Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): It's funny, as I had the same feeling in Brazil (not towards me). This makes me think that racism is an ancient issue, actually defined as global issue, probably rooted in a very deep and basic part of our human nature. It is very much installed in society, and each country deals with it in a different way. But still, it is racism. I have racist behaviours. Towards tourists, for instance, I feel very inflexible. Because I feel them as a threat for my ecosystem, my environment. James Oscar: The word disappear is in the title of your upcoming show. Can you explain why ideas of  "disappearance " are important in your work- the disappearance of people's ideas, ideals, social responsibility? What do you mean by "disappearance" in El Conde? Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): The concept of disappearing was very present in the starting point of the piece. It is not always important in the company’s work, but it was in this work. The tragedy of the human being resides in its disappearance, and that even if humanity progresses, humans have always to start from zero. Each person that is born in this world needs to experience things (for) from itself. The experience of others is not enough. Each body has to move about through its own experiences. Time disappears and with it History and the stories of predecessors. And the Presents covers the layers of the Past. James Oscar: Walter Benjamin refers to a state of emergency. I have always said that citizens should call their own state of emergency? Would El Conde be something that might fall under a kind of citizen-led call for realizing a certain state of emergency?

Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): I’m afraid not. We are doing theatre which is a very minor media. Our influence is absolutely harmless. Art doesn’t change the world. It reflects or thinks the world. If I would have felt able to move crowds I would have done another thing. James Oscar: Why the blow-up castle, why the gong, why the plastic bags - in this latest play called Possibilities that Disappear Before a Landscape Tanya Beyeler (El Conde de Torrefiel): It's complicated to give a rational answer, as many of the decisions for this were taken during the creative process which is full of unpredictable movements (and moments), driven by intuition, taste - all in combination with other elements First, I  think I could say that the blow-up castle was a kind of whim, as it was something that we always wanted to have- these bouncy things on stage, things related to childhood games and big entertainment for children like a water park, amusement parks. Then, the piece which plays a lot with emptiness needed some moments of big elements. And that’s why the bouncy castle. Of course, we would have liked to have had a bouncy castle full of children jumping,  but it was not possible. The gong again, responds to a dramaturgical need. We need a noisy scene, and we liked very much the gong sound as well as the shape on stage. Plastic bags were the result of material in the rehearsal where one of the performers would wrap himself in plastic film (like the meat pieces for the kebabs). Then this image moved to a lot of plastic bags, of grocery stores. As we need big things on stage we started to add and add bags until it became this. It fits very well with the scene that speaks about a guy in a supermarket and his thoughts about pre-frozen food.