#i know i know these people aren't used to dealing with grief etc etc but ignorance is an explanation not an excuse

[rustedleopard]

So you guys remember how after Hinawa was announced as dead, Flint was immediately tossed into jail after he (very understandably) lashes out in his grief. And then by the time he breaks out of jail (not released by a fellow Tazmillian, breaks out with a nail file), the service is already over and she's buried six feet under the dirt with no proper goodbye from her husband or even a glimpse at her or anything???

That was fucked up

#mother 3 #sorry but the Tazmillians there did a massive massive blunder. like seriously wtf??? #flint didn't even get to see her. the last memory he has of her is from however many days before when she went to visit her father #they should've let him see her one last time! that was stupidly unfair. no matter what your opinion on flint is you should at least be #able to acknowledge that that was completely messed up #even if they were worried about him lashing out again they had the whole village there in case something happened. he should've been #allowed to see her. even if she was so horribly mangled from the drago that people felt it would be best to spare him the sight #that's not their decision to make. that's his WIFE. canonically acknowledged as the love of his life. he should've been allowed to see her #and make the decision to look for himself. #i know i know these people aren't used to dealing with grief etc etc but ignorance is an explanation not an excuse #playing that part in the beginning of the game the first time immediately made me go 'oh. i don't like these people' #(yes i know retrospect changes your interpretation of this section but still)

[sapphic-agent]

I know that this isn't a problem unique to MHA, and this isn't even a new complaint within the fandom, but the way the series deals with trauma (physical and mental) is off-putting.

Eri endures years upon years of isolation and abuse? Well, all she needs is a song and dance, and now she's smiling! Because of this, she's completely and 100% recovered from what all Overhaul put her through!

1A endures villain attack after villain attack after villain attack? Well, we've offered them counseling, not that they've been showing signs of burgeoning PTSD or anything, so they really don't need it!

Izuku mentally and physically pushes himself past his breaking point during the Dark Izuku arc, going without food, sleep, and ignoring his unhealed injuries? Obviously, all he needs is for 1A to drag him back by force and make him take bath! He's 100% good as new now!

I've already complained enough about Bakugou's bullying, so I won't rehash that.

Sir Nighteye repeatedly disregards All Might's boundaries in the name of protecting him from a horrible future, using two teenagers as a means to an end in this regard? It's okay! He had a point all along, and he truly cared!

Aizawa, Present Mic, and Midnight lose an incredibly close friend in a freak accident during their school days? Midnight's feelings aren't even explored, Present Mic neglects his own grief in favor of Aizawa, and Aizawa uses his grief as an excuse to be an asshole to everyone around him and play God with his students' futures, with NO ONE calling out his behavior as what it is.

I think the overarching problem with MHA is that Horikoshi simply doesn't know how to handle the subject of trauma or how victims can be affected by it.

It think it's why characters like Izuku, Todoroki, Eri, etc. don't feel like real people sometimes. Because if he actually focuses on their trauma, he also has to make them more complex and complexity can be very ugly. If he keeps them surface-level (Izuku being friendly/saving others, Todoroki being blunt/dry, and Eri being a cute kid), he doesn't have to get into the nitty gritty of their characters.

It would also mean making it about 20x harder to redeem Bakugou and Endeavor.

If we had more than vague flashbacks of Endeavor abusing 5 year old Todoroki, beating Rei and pushing her into insanity, and willfully neglecting Touya as his mental health deteriorates more and more, he would be seen as a lot more than simply overzealous and misguided ambition that got out of hand. He would be seen as a monster. Horikoshi has to keep flashbacks of the Todoroki family surface-level or Endeavor's redemption wouldn't have been nearly as well-received.

And of course we've gone over Bakugou. He has to saturate Bakugou with comedy or the shit he pulls would come off a lot more disturbing. If every scene with him was like the Battle Trials, he wouldn't be looked upon nearly as favorably. He wouldn't be funny or endearing (he isn't to me anyway, but I'm talking about in general), he would just be deranged and violent.

There's also the fact that Horikoshi tries his best to keep things lighthearted. I think it's because he's more comfortable doing so and it explains why Dark Deku was so disappointing. To shroud the story in a darker tone- especially with a character he tries to keep light and cheery at all times- really didn't work for him.

I think the proof is in him keeping so many characters alive when they should have died. He is unable to write the affect characters like Gran Torino and Bakugou dying would have on Izuku which is why he couldn't commit himself to killing them off.

Problem with Aizawa is that no one (Horikoshi included) sees a problem with his behavior. He's justified in his "tough love" and is seen as such a good teacher. Although for Midnight and Present Mic, I feel as though he just doesn't bother giving them any depth at all. Midnight only exists for perverted jokes and Mic is simply supposed to be a contrast for Aizawa (a prop really). He actually did start to give Midnight depth and character, but it was only like five minutes before killing her off😐

(It would have been nice if Midnight being an R-rated hero was a product of society. Her being sexualized her whole life because of her quirk/appearance and just deciding to embrace it because it was the only way to reasonably become a hero has always been my headcanon. Her civilian clothes aren't revealing (not that that really matters) and when it comes to being a hero she's very sweet and encouraging and so unlike what we see usually. When she was being interviewed about her costume, she actually started to give a really good answer before Horikoshi decided to make a cat fight out of it. That really sums up the story as a whole, it starts off really deep and intricate before eventually being interrupted by juvenile jokes and unnecessary situations)

I really wish we could have seen more of Eri's recovery. I feel like her trauma is really overlooked/ignored outside of being a plot device to be saved by Izuku and Mirio. I think the light novel of Aizawa having Bakugou of all people watch her is proof of that. Why on Earth would he take the chance that Bakugou- someone who has repeatedly dismissed others' trauma, attacked those weaker than him, and been insensitive to others' feelings, and has a destructive quirk- could trigger her? Why use Eri- an abused, traumatized kid- as a tool to make Bakugou better? But sure, Aizawa is such a good teacher, right?

(Seriously, what the fuck?)

Someone needed to tell Nighteye to shut the fuck up. This doesn't really contribute anything to this post, but I needed to say it. There's literally nothing good about him (HE STRAPPED HIS SUBORDINATE TO A TICKLE MACHINE TO FORCE HER TO LAUGH)

#anti bakugou katsuki #mha critical #bnha critical #ask #anti aizawa shota #anti enji todoroki #anti endeavor #anti sir nighteye #tw child abuse #tw trauma

[symphonic-scream]

Okay. Another in a long line of aus that have been coming from my mind lately

P4 but it's P5

Aka, the P4 Tokyo au

Gonna lay it out, but if you just wanna know everyone's roles scroll to the end for the list of the arcana :)

Alright. Let's do this

So, Yu Narukami was walking home one night when he hears a woman scream. He runs over to help and sees a man trying to assault her so he steps in. The man, drunk, falls over and gets hurt. The blame is placed on Yu, who is arrested and found guilty

Now, his parents don't want to deal with him, sending him to live with his cop uncle in Tokyo. Dojima isn't too happy about it, and to keep Nanako safe, he has Yu live in the old Yongen police station, now a storage building. It's dusty and old, but Yu thinks he can clean it up a bit

He's at a new school. Everyone seems to hate him. He spots a boy on the way to school, watches a teacher berate the kid before he pedals his bike faster. It's raining. The water from his tires flies up dousing Yu and a girl chasing after him

She's Chie Satonaka, formally a part of the martial arts club at Shujin, kicked out due to the extreme number of demerits she's earned. All from the same teacher that yelled at that boy

The boy being Yosuke Hanamura, who transferred last year. Kids being blamed for his father's business taking over a whole slew of smaller businesses in another area of Tokyo, just another big supermarket. But then as well, a certain teacher keeps spreading rumors about him and his family's business. It isn't helping

Anyways. Yu and Chie stumble into the Metaverse, find the shadow of King Moron, and a little bear named Teddie. Then they're back in the real world and shit and blah blah

We know the story by now. The third joins the team, they steal the treasure, etc

In the real world, Teddie is one of those Teddie bear dogs. The tiny ones. I think that's funny

Anyways. They save the day and things move forward. They are the Phantom Thieves. They're going to keep stealing treasures and saving people

On to arc two! After the teacher thing, Chie gets approached by a girl in a kimono, as they're walking through Shibuya. A local group was doing advertisement for a special like traditional style decoration event at an inn. And. One of the young designers wants to use Chie for inspiration

After. Having her soul bared to her. Uhm. Yeah.

Anyways there's a senior designer there that keeps trying to convince everyone the inn is haunted or something. He's an asshole. Wants to ruin the inn so he can buy it to be his personal mansion

Anyways Chie nearly has to get nude but before that they convince Yukiko Amagi to join them and defeat the designer

So. There's that

Anyways next arc!

So. Dojima is still a cop. He's on the case of a large crime group in the city, with another detective Adachi, and. A teenager.

A first year at Yu's school. Pretty much a kid. The cops aren't happy they brought the "genius Detective Prince" in cause they couldn't end it soon enough, but. The whole unit is sick of this kid on day one. Doesn't talk to them. Stands there. Uses big words.

The kid doesn't have friends at school. But, they get closer than anyone else does. Aka, they find both the Phantom Thieves and the crime ring. At the same time.

Naoto Shirogane is looked down on for being a kid but also was never allowed to be a kid. Lonely as fuck. Pressured into throwing themself at the crime boss with no backup

The team finds them insufferable at first. Until they're in the palace and Naoto breaks. And then gains their persona

(Genderfluid Naoto here. Some days he, some they, some she.)

So we've got a "criminal", the reason everyone's parents are broke, Shujin's most violent second year, an interior designer, and a young detective. Oh and Teddie

It's. Going great for them

And it lasts a while until, they get a strange request. An anonymous online fan wants their heart stolen. They're worried they'll resort to extremes soon, and don't want to wish that grief on their loved ones. It's, a lot,

And. They investigate enough to find out the request came from within the Dojima house

Former idol Risette has been living with them since she was attacked, assaulted. She doesn't go out, has a fear of being around crowds and, shit like that. She blames herself, she's read too many online comments. She was asking for it, and all. And she feels, gross. So, they go to steal her heart

And she joins the group! As their Navi! Fun!

Then the second years go to Hawaii, leaving only Naoto and Rise behind in Tokyo, and when they return? They have another palace!

This one idk but Kanji joins the team here. It's Kanji he's gay and likes manly things like sewing.

Anyways after that it's, another Palace that's honestly not chosen cause idk who'd be the Judgement (Margaret?? Maybe) and Adachi joins the team and then betrays them and then they're after the prime guy and then God

But yeah. Thief Team

Fool - Yu

Chariot - Chie

Lovers - Yosuke

Magician - Teddie

Emperor - Yukiko

Priestess - Naoto

Hermit - Rise

Empress - Kanji

And yeah. I've got some ideas for it and all but. Yeah. Ask me about it

#p4 tokyo au #persona 4 tokyo au #yu narukami #chie satonaka #yosuke hanamura #teddie #yukiko amagi #naoto shirogane #rise kujikawa #kanji tatsumi

[chloeseyeliner]

(there's ranting. you've been warned.)

um... happy monday to the young royals fandom/edvin's fans in general.

(via edvin's instagram stories)

he is... he is twenty years old. good grief.

(i won't comment on anything regarding his physical appearance on this post, even if everything i'd say would be very, very positive, due to the fact that, although he's never going to come across this, it would still go against his wishes.)

can we just please, please leave people alone? this behaviour... it's not healthy, for anyone involved.

generally speaking, we live in a society where beauty standards are, unfortunately, an inextricable part of some people's lives. these same people believe they can force their own standards, "inspired" by a million different factors surrounding all of us every day (family, school, friends, the environment we grow up in etc etc), to other people, the "trend" (if i can call it such) especially targeting complete strangers, mainly on the internet.

and yes, that includes celebrities, too. famous people, if you prefer this term better. artists. whatever they want to be and are- most of us have been there to not know a day where these people's rights on their personal lives and choices and clothes and pets or whatever a paparazzi or a fan is going to decide does not fit their standards of the day have not been infringed on.

because, believe it or not (and i am NOT refering to the wonderful, respecting, brilliant, supporting majority of fans, at least in this specific fandom), your favourite actor is not your friend. even if the comments on their appearance, for example, like in edvin's case, are written in a playful, sarcastic tone, this cannot be understood through text on a screen- another problem of our society's current state; harmful words you write on a screen, whatever the intention is, do not just stay there, floating around. you aren't trying to communicate with your notes app. a person is reading them, even though you may think they will never reach them, because, for instance, of their huge audience. and it can (excuse me for my language) fuck them up the same way it would fuck someone (e.g. at school or at work) up to say the same harsh words- again, even if you don't correctly estimate the power they can hold- to their face.

so, again, as i have written and reblogged posts in the past regarding similar issues in this specific fandom,, which i love so so dearly, my intention is not to play the part of the "angelic fan" or whichever label might fit the text.

my intention is to maybe, just maybe, reach someone out there who will change their way of thinking; who will have second thoughts when writing a comment about a mustache (for god's sake); who will gain a little grain of empathy towards a fellow global citizen of theirs; who will try to cease some of the "madness"... before a person whose only intention was to make their dreams come true by entering the, in this case, film industry feels obliged to address the issue via a platform on the internet, as if not commenting on his looks etc is not the sensible thing to do... before this attitude turns to bullying for real. if it hasn't already.

that's all i had to say. i am apologising for the length of the post or any mistakes, since english is not my first language and i am quite mad and disappointed, maybe little hurt actually, especially as someone who has been struggling with their physical appearance and comments on it since i was literally a child.

i cannot imagine dealing with that plus being famous and having people judging you all the time. jesus. i really hope edvin has his support system near him and that he will be alright. <3

#seriously okay #at first i was like #maria don't address the issue people are going to say there are more serious stuff going on #but then i was like #yes i acknowledge the very serious stuff surrounding us at the moment and not only in a social media space with only generic posts and such #(like many people OF COURSE) #(and people don't have to know everything we can act on justice withour the internet knowing) #so yeah i did it #because it pissed me off very much #this is not healthy at all tbh #i am not being judgy i thought taylor swift and selena gomez would be my besties when i was like eleven #but parasocial relationships are not good #neither is (technically speaking here) online bullying #some comments appeared on my instagram feed when i liked edvin's post the other day #but i did not want to comment on it if edvin did not say something bc it felt very personal so yeah #this happened #young royals #edvin ryding #cw discussion/(better) mention of physical appearance issues #anyway #i still canot believe that respecting one's boundaries is not taken for granted nowadays

[hallucinateonpaperspines]

someone bothers Ashley during her Shark week, ......it doesn't end well? Do the bots know about that tid-bit about human females bodies ( otherwise ratchet is going to panic) ?

oooohhhhh boyyyyyyyy; I got plans for this. Mostly of the humorous variety.

The "humanness" aspect of Ashlyn and the kids has kinda been on the back burner for a bit due to some necessary lore, relationship building, etc that's plot-relevant, BUT I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN. The fun will be coming soon

I'm using Ratchet as a little bit of a buffer for the weirdness, Ashlyn, unintentionally, set off a human research-binge early on so the medic has already gone through all the stages of grief and preparedness. That includes period care.

I know some fics have it where a Cybertronian's sense of smell is sensitive enough to pick up blood, but not react to some other orders like sweat for some reason, I don't have that in this fic. If anything, humans are more sensitive than the typical bot. EHem- so there isn't any obvious sign that waves down everyone's attention that Shark Week has begun.

They're not getting out that easy.

Ratchet has an entire robot-sized shelf dedicated to feminine hygiene products, from tampons, cups, and pads (reusable and normal), to pain medication and heating pads. He's even splurged on more just-in-case products. Man is covering all bases.

And he may also be sneaking in the occasional hormone scan for both Ashlyn and Miko, whenever they give him the opportunity for a check up.

That said, there aren't any obvious changes that set off any red-flags. Miko might be a little quieter and more lethargic, and Ashlyn might be quicker to snap between hyperactive antics and silent calm (she might also let that sadistic smile slip a bit more often) but neither are clawing at the walls, bawling their eyes out, or threatening murder. Because they're not stereotypes from the internet, they're real people to who a period is a sucky addition to normalcy.

SO, in the Autobot base, where Ashlyn does have her privacy respected, there really isn't much that is really event worthy. Ratchet, ever observing is ready to step in should anything "get weird" on behalf of both human and bot comfort. Other than a brief reminder via organic consuming organic food, Team Prime has been able to avoid the squishy and alien parts of humanity.

That is not always going to be the case.

Say... a group of aliens vocal about their disregard for the organic population? Perhaps containing an individual recently traumatized about the "grossness" of that populace? A group completely unprepared to deal with the nitty-gritty of care beyond keeping that thing alive? That same group already ticking off an emotionally turbulent individual who is now also dealing with hormone fluctuations, cramps, and cravings?

*cracks knuckles* Now THAT is a Shark Week.

#ao3 author #ao3 #tfp #transformers prime #aligned continuity #of timelines and trolleys #ashlyn moore (oc) #periods #Ash may bleed but its not her blood that would be spilt in that situation #JA322 would see the offering of chocolate as proof

[tavina-writes]

@add1ctedt0you responding here in a new post bc the other one was long and this will also get pretty long! (also no worries about bothering me I'm never bothered by yelling about stuff I love yelling about stuff!!)

For your second question: I think there has to be a distinction between like "cultivator" and a traditional wuxia style martial artist. I kind of use this a bit too interchangeably in meta, but technically LOCH jianghu members aren't really cultivators. They're very human martial artist who don't get the chance to be immortal (I guess unless you're Zhang Sanfeng from HSDS who apparently lived to be 230 years old.) The distinction here is that typically (from what I understand) cultivator novels/cultivators are people who seek to cultivate to immortality/godhood/etc through whichever mode of action they've chosen. In traditional Chinese philosophy this sort of "cultivation" also means secluding oneself from the outside world and societal concerns and affairs.

A wuxia novel is about martial arts heroes who are tied up with dealing with societal affairs in the Jianghu. MDZS isn't really a traditional cultivator novel either -- it's a really interesting blend of genres and ideas, and I see a lot of the bones of traditional wuxia in it! Which is one of the reasons why I'm drawn to it!

The flying on swords bit is as far as I know, a cultivator novel thing, which, since LOCH isn't a cultivator novel, they can float, walk on water, scale surfaces we wouldn't be able to etc, but they can't fly on swords. The interview you mentioned with MXTX to my recollection said that MDZS cultivators live a maximum of 500 years. So my perception has always been that they can't achieve immortality either and probably live normal human lifespans.

I think for your first question, Novel!HYS will always be the king of my heart when it comes to just HOW much of a blorbo he is. This man is a dramatic kingpin he's. he's just SO.

Have a selection of some of my favorite book related pull quotes about him:

Venerable Lingzhi coldly replied, “I did see a young lady, but the one I saw was dead one, not a live one.” Huang Yaoshi’s heart turned cold, “What?” he quickly asked, his voice was trembling. Venerable Lingzhi replied, “About three days ago I saw a body of a young girl floating on the surface of the sea. She was wearing white clothes with a gold ring on her hair; originally her face must be so pretty. Ay! What a pity, what a pity! What a pity her body was swollen by the seawater.” What he described was exactly Huang Rong’s clothes and adornments, every single one was accurate. Huang Yaoshi’s mind was greatly troubled, his body shook, his face turned pale; a moment later he asked, “Are you telling me the truth?” Everybody else clearly saw Huang Rong boarded the small boat just a moment ago; now they heard how Venerable Lingzhi was deceiving this man, taking pleasure in others’ misfortune; but even as they saw Huang Yaoshi’s grieving face, nobody made any sound.

From Legend of the Condor Heroes, Chapter 22 "Wandering on a Shark's Back."

Further pull quotes from 22:

Ouyang Feng noticed his look and realized his grief had reached its peak so he started to have a murderous intent. Although he himself would not suffer a loss this oncoming force would not be easy to resist; hence he quickly said, “I had just come in on board this board today, and it was the first time I met all these people. When this Reverend saw some floating corpses, your daughter was not necessarily among them.” Sighing, he continued, “Your beloved daughter is such a good girl; it is very regrettable if she really died at such a young age. If my nephew found out, he would die of heartbreak.” This speech had shifted the blame from his own shoulder, but clearly did not offend either side. Listening to Ouyang Feng Huang Yaoshi was completely in shock; his heart sank in an instant. He was of the kind who loved to vent his anger to others; otherwise when the Twin Killers of the Dark Wind stole his manual, why did he break Lu Chengfeng and his other innocent disciple’s legs and expelled them from his school? This time he felt his chest was icy-cold, but his blood was boiling hot, just like when his beloved wife died some years ago. His hands were trembling, his face turned from snow white to crimson red alternatively. Everybody was looking at him in silence; their hearts were filled with unspeakable fear. Even Ouyang Feng was anxious; he gathered his ‘qi’ in his ‘dan tian’, his whole body was alert, ready to take any attack. The entire deck was unusually quiet. Suddenly Huang Yaoshi let out a long laugh, it sounded like a never ending dragon roar. This latest development has taken everybody by surprise; they were startled. They saw him facing upward and laughing wildly, getting louder and louder. His laughter had caused a chill in the air; those who listened to it felt more and more miserable. Gradually the laughter turned into weeping. The people could not bear it any longer, they felt like they shared his grief and were about to shed tears too.

Like, his reaction to hearing (inaccurately) that Huang Rong had died was just SO. Like, the thing about Novel!HYS is just that his emotions are SO vivid and so huge in amplitude. His highs are SO high and his lows are so low. Insane yoyo of a man. Beloved blorbo. What a guy.

The exquisiteness of the coffin wood, the various plants and rare orchids, the different flowers that bloom at different seasons, everything was Huang Yaoshi’s personal choice. They glittered under the moonlight, each radiating its own unique scent. Huang Rong pushed the tombstone three times to the left and three times to the right; then exerting her strength she pushed it forward. The tombstone slowly moved to the side, revealing a long and narrow stonewalled tunnel. She went in; and after making three turns she arrived at another secret door. Beyond this door was where the coffin was placed. The room was bright from the oil lamp inside a precious stone container, illuminating Huang Rong’s mother’s memorial tablet. Alone in that small underground room, seeing the painting of her deceased mother made by her father’s own hand, Huang Rong’s heart was filled with a roller coaster emotion; she thought, “I have never seen Mother. I wonder after I die, will I meet her? Was she really that young and beautiful as in the picture? Where is she right now? Is she at the sky above, or in the earth below, or still in this room? I am going to stay here forever to accompany her.” Along the wall of this tomb there were precious jewels, antique collections, and paintings and calligraphy from famous artists; each worth a fortune. After his wife died, Huang Yaoshi roamed the sea and lakes to collect these precious articles. Whether it was inside the imperial palace, or inside the house of some rich government official, or in a robbers’ den high up on the mountain; as long as he knew there was a treasure, he would come and steal or take it by force. His martial art was high, he had keen eyes and sophisticated taste; hence he managed to collect quite a bit of treasures piling up inside his wife’s grave. Huang Rong could see the bright pearls, beautiful jade, emeralds and amethysts glimmering under the firelight; she thought, “These precious jewels don’t have any feeling, yet they will live for million of years. Today I am looking at them in here, but in the future my body will turn into dust while they will still be here. Is it true that among the living things, the smart and intelligent won’t have a long life? Is it because she was so smart that my mother died when she was only twenty?”

From Chapter 19 "Great Waves and Schools of Sharks"

When she was little her father often took her here; he would tell her mother anything that happened outside, regardless of how trivial those matters were. In the past several years she did not go with her father as often yet it still did not surprise her to hear her father talking in front of the coffin. She was still upset with him, so she did not want to see him. She wanted to wait quietly until he left, but what she heard next surprised her. “I have found your heart’s desire,” he said, “I know you have suffered a lot that year you rewrote the Nine Yin Manual; I want to find it and burn it in your presence, so your spirit in heaven will be consoled. I have searched in vain for fifteen years, but today I have found it.” Huang Rong was surprised, “Where did Father get the Nine Yin Manual from?” she wondered. “I did not want to intentionally kill your son-in-law,” she heard her father continue. “But it was they who insisted on riding on that boat.” Huang Rong was puzzled, “Mother’s son-in-law? Is he talking about Brother Jing? He rode on that boat, then what?” She opened her ears wide and listened attentively. Huang Yaoshi recounted how miserable and lonely his life had become ever since his wife passed away and how bad he missed her. Huang Rong listened to him pouring out his heart and her own heart was filled with sorrow. “Brother Jing and I are merely teenagers and we love each other. I don’t think it is impossible to see each other in the future; but I cannot leave my father,” she thought.

From Chapter 19 "Great Waves and Schools of Sharks"

Huang Yaoshi loved his wife very much. Moreover, his wife died because she wanted to make him happy. Therefore, he wanted to commit suicide as a sacrifice to her. But he knew his martial art was profound, he would not die easily by hanging himself or simply drinking a poison. Plus, if he died on the island, he was sure his mute and deaf servants would mutilate his body. Hence he went to the mainland and kidnapped a highly skilled boat builder to build him this fancy boat. This boat’s keel was no different from a regular boat; except that the bottom of the boat was not nailed together with ordinary metal nails, but was put together by ropes and glue. Mooring on the marina it looked like an extremely magnificent and beautiful yacht; but as soon as it sailed to the sea, the waves would disintegrate the rope and glue, and the boat would certainly sink. Originally he intended to put his wife’s coffin on the boat, take the boat to the sea and while the waves rocked the boat, he would play with his jade flute the jade-colored tidal wave song; together with his wife they would be buried thousands of feet under the sea. This way he would make a clean end to his life and not disgrace his reputation as a martial art master of his age. However, every time he wanted to go he could not bear to take their daughter along; and who would raise her if he died? Finally he decided to build a tomb and placed his wife in it. He repainted the boat every year, so it always looked new. He was going to wait for their daughter to grow up before he would take his last voyage.

From Chapter 19 "Great Waves and Schools of Sharks"

LIKE. What a guy. What an experience. We KNOW how Feng Heng died, but Huang Rong is never traumatized by the fact that her mother died giving birth to her. Her father has never hit her, blamed her, spoken (.5) of an angry word to her, disciplined her... The first time he yelled at her in her life for talking to ZBT (who he had been torturing every day for 15 years at that point! and COULD have been super dangerous) she huffily up and RUNS AWAY bc "DAD DOESNT LOVE ME ANYMORE! SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN RONG'ER IS GONE!"

Novel!HYS bought his daughter toys and is always shown hugging her when they meet again or carrying her when she's injured and taught her anything she wanted to learn even though she was never interested in anything for longer than a month. He told her about her history, never faulted or blamed her, and loved and spoiled her until she was pretty much ungovernable.

Seeing the cupboard door suddenly shatter and reveal Guo Jing and Huang Rong, Huang Yaoshi and the Six Freaks leapt back from each other, startled and delighted at the same time. Suddenly seeing his beloved daughter, Huang Yaoshi was unsure if he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes. “Rong’er, Rong’er,” he called out, “is it really you?” Huang Rong, still holding one palm enjoined with Guo Jing’s left, gave a slight smile and nodded her head, but said nothing. At this, Huang Yaoshi’s joy exceeded all expectations; putting other thoughts behind him, he laid Mei Chaofeng’s body down on a bench, went over to the cupboard, and sat down cross-legged. One touch of his daughter’s wrist, and he felt her pulse and breathing firm and steady. Then, reaching through the cupboard doorway, he pressed his left palm against Guo Jing’s right. The many currents of sizzling qi boiling and bubbling inside Guo Jing’s body were already unbearable in the extreme; by this point, there’d been several times when he’d wanted to leap up screaming and shouting to relieve the pressure. When Huang Yaoshi’s palm came to enjoin with his, a stream of inner power flowed through with tremendous force, and instantly he felt a gradual settlement. Using his right hand, Huang Yaoshi set about kneading and massaging all the critical acupoints on Guo Jing; so profound was his neigong that, in just the time it took to make a bowl of rice, he had saved Guo Jing’s life.

From Chapter 26 "New Allies, Old Arrangements"

His HIGHS are just as high as the lows are low.

Huang Yaoshi, upon hearing his beloved daughter had somehow become the Chief of the Beggar Gang, was utterly bewildered. “What a bizarre move from Brother Qi!” he remarked. “And how heretical of him! Perhaps he’s thinking of stealing my nickname – no longer being the ‘Northern Beggar’, and instead being the ‘Northern Heretic’? The ‘Five Greats’ would then be the ‘Eastern Beggar’, ‘Western Venom’, ‘Southern Emperor’, ‘Northern Heretic’, and ‘Central Who-Knows-What?’” Her tale having reached the fight between Huang Yaoshi and the Freaks, Huang Rong gave a laugh. “That’s all,” she said. “There’s no use me saying what happened next!” Huang Yaoshi announced: “I’m going to go and kill those four bastards Ouyang Feng, Lingzhi, Qiu Qianren and Yang Kang. Come with me and watch the fun, kid.” He was talking about killing people, but because he was looking fondly upon his beloved daughter, his face was all smiles. Taking a glance at the Freaks, he felt rather contrite. Yet although he knew himself to be clearly in the wrong, he was still unwilling to hang his head and admit a fault to anyone, only offering: “The movement of qi hasn’t turned out too badly. It didn’t make me harm someone good by accident.” As for Huang Rong, she’d originally resented the Freaks for prohibiting Guo Jing from getting married to her. But now that Mu Nianci and Yang Kang had gotten engaged, this issue had already been resolved. “Daddy,” she giggled, “how about admitting to the teachers that you made a mistake?” Huang Yaoshi gave a snort. “I’m going to go and find Western Venom,” he said, changing the subject. He added: “Jing’er, you come too.”

From Chapter 26 "New Allies, Old Arrangements"

He's HILARIOUS in the book too. Like, truly, this guy is FUNNY too on top of all his other personality traits. Why do people keep forgiving him of his crimes? He's talented at everything, incredibly funny, unhinged, without any manners whatsoever, and he KEEPS DOING CRIME and ADMITTING IT whenever he's accused of ANYTHING. What a funny situation it is that he finds out about a crime (15) minutes ago and then starts going "IT WAS ME. IT WAS ALL ME! I'D DO IT AGAIN! I'D DO IT WORSE THIS TIME! ALL THE CRIMES IN THE WORLD ARE MY FAULT!"

LIKE. There's also something to be said for the way that the narrator always says, "his beloved wife" "his beloved daughter." It gets me okay, that HYS is such a deeply traumatized person who reacts badly to almost everything (and is self aware he reacts badly to everything), but the narrator cannot pry him from the word 'love.' His love for his wife. His love for his daughter. The way he himself is defined by these mentions, how Feng Heng has never stopped haunting him.

I wrote about his relationship with Huang Rong and how unaffected his love for his daughter is by his trauma surrounding the death of his wife more here.

I wrote about another key scene with HYS and his backstory here.

Also if you want to cry about the boat thing some more:

in HSDS we learn that he finally DID go suicide boating after hearing that his daughter's entire family died at Xiangyang. Guo Xiang (who is the only survivor) comes to her grandfather's house on Peach Blossom Island to look for him and there's a line of "and the docks were empty, all of the boats had gone."

Just. "All of boats had gone." BREAKS ME.

#huang yaoshi #rs: daughter and dilf #rs: one song a night for sixteen years #meta #my meta #legend of the condor heroes

[lovelessrage]

Heyy I have a few questions, I hope that's alright. How do you deal with big negative life occassions? Venting to people I'm close to helps me a lot with grief, etc. but if you don't really get close to people, do you have a different way of coping?

Also, what do you do when you need people you're close to for like. logistics? Like someone to take care of you after surgery? Doesn't life get a lot more expensive if you for example have no one to pick you up from the airport, so you have to order an Uber each time? Or help you with large Ikea furniture so you have to pay for the delivery + building fee which is expensive af?

1. I do have people in my life I trust enough to talk to, but generally I don't like talking about my problems in that way in general. I prioritise general trust over a deeper bond or love, so even if I don't talk with someone often, if I have that trust built up, I can talk to them. It's not my preferred means of coping, either. I tend to like solving things on my own time, coping through art and other hobbies.

2. This is actually one of the most major issues in the aspec community as a whole! While I prefer to be by myself, it is useful to have a circle of people around you that would help you out with the way society is built. I have enough people I trust to ask about moving furniture or other one-day-a-pop tasks, but in full honesty, I'd be screwed if I needed a major surgery; it's why top surgery has been incredibly unviable, beyond all the regulations to meet. The only thing I don't have to worry about is that I don't travel often, but I do worry about things like elder care; in the ideal world society would be built to have better social services so people aren't constantly reliant on what networks they may or may not have, because this isn't aro-exclusive by any means! Losing your family in accidents, generally being a loner, having an addiction that may have isolated you from loved ones, being a runaway, etc. all lead up to this issue of not having a lot of people to turn to unless you know someone already!

Even if I don't get emotionally close to people, I have people I know can have my back off general life experience or having known them for a long enough time. Trust has always held far more value than love in my life. In my ideal life, I wouldn't have solid friendships, but I've still built up a community of people who care enough to help me out, even if there's no love; it's just mutual concern. Community's always been a necessity, regardless of if you feel anything for people around you. I'm glad I can rely on people and they can rely on me, aplatonic or no [plus, ringing in favours is always an option if you've helped someone out in the past].

#loveless aro #loveless aromantic #loveless aplatonic #loveless apl #loveless #aspec #scowl corner

[skye707]

Skye!

Help, please?

I’m feeling incredibly lousy and the lowest of lows, being a bereaved orphan who misses their Father a great deal and in a bad spot mentally, with zero healthy coping methods. Would you mind an ask of what the Rids would think of me hanging out as to not be swallowed by the darkness? (I might not want to leave…. At least I’d finally have company…)

My Dad was always working on something, would get angry easily and had a potty mouth but I loved being useful and helping him out, even if some interactions were silent.

I’d think that Telltale and Arkham might tolerate me, since I tend to gravitate towards men that remind me of my missing parent. I’d quietly admire them and hope to make their time less stressful by offering a hand, but expecting rejection…

As for Unburied and BTAA? I don’t know enough about their characters.

BTAS, Gotham, YJ and Dano would all be nice to hang around in general, no matter what, I suppose?

As for ZY…? I’m not really sure. He is a Riddler that I like, but he is such a wild card! I feel like if the situation isn’t about him, then why bother?

BIG SIGH and tired of being tired

These little guys can, without a doubt in my mind, sympathize with feelings of loneliness and despair. For most of all of their lives, they haven't had anyone to hold their hand or encourage them to be their best self. As such, when presented with the opportunity to be that light for someone else, they jump on it immediately (the extra boost to their own ego is a welcome added bonus too).

Unburied is asking if there's anything you want to talk about. Not necessarily about what is bringing you grief, just anything in general. Your favorite color, why it's your favorite color, favorite animal, etc. Words and their expression of the soul have more power than most people realize, and he finds that the biggest problems can be solved simply by taking the time to express them in the form of conversation. Not all puzzles are with your hands; some solutions are found solely in the mind. He's the one you can call at 3 am and talk to until the sun comes up.

ZY is a distraction, in a good way. No one gives him credit for it, but he's just as smart as any of the other Riddlers. He just solves puzzles in a roundabout way. Feelings aren't permanent; emotions shift and change, so if he can keep you occupied with a joke or some ridiculous game for long enough, you can come to a calmer emotional state where you can deal with your feelings in a more rational place. He's more than willing to be that for you.

Dano understands where you're coming from more than anyone else. When he sees this, he's reminded of his own personal struggles and what he became because of them. He didn't have anyone and felt completely alone in a dark and dangerous world. No matter what it takes, he's not going to let the same thing happen to someone else. No words have to be spoken. He holds you tight and doesn't let go. You can scarcely walk anywhere around the house without him trailing behind you. Maybe, this is why he survived the horrors of his childhood: to be a guardian angel for someone else in the same situation, and he's determined to make sure you come out of it better than he did.

YJ wants to include you in any and everything he's doing. Making cereal? He's asking you if you want a bowl. Going to the store? You guys can get snacks together. Going upstairs? You can help him (he falls up the stairs very often). Either way, he wants you there. Hanging out with Dano has showed him the reality of loneliness and depression and he wants to save you the pain if he can. Also, anything you want to do he's right there with you.

Gotham is in the kitchen baking. You can sit down, and he'll ask what your favorite kind of cake is. Seriously, any kind of cake. He's breaking out the measuring cups and scales. He's telling you every single fact about the ingredients or cake's origin he can think of, doing whatever he can to keep you out of your head. The mind can be a very dark place when you're alone, he knows. But you're not alone, you're with him! And did you know...

BTAA is pulling out his favorite well-loved deck of cards asking if you know how to play poker. If not, that's fine he enjoys the mental challenge of introducing someone to a new game. The first couple of rounds, he's letting you win (much to his own infuriating irritation but he's telling himself it's necessary for you to know how to win). After that though, he wins a round and is celebrating with arias and dancing. Do you know how to dance? Well, he can teach you that, too!

Arkham sees you mosey into the garage/workshop and asks where you came from. You tell your story, and he nods and rubs his hands along his chin (unknowingly wiping grease across them). If you're an experienced craftsman with working appendages, he needs you to hold this piece of metal while he welds it together. Wait! You need a welding mask! Every once in a while, he stops himself from berating you. No one likes to be kicked while their down, he knows. Instead, he gives a little grumble and you two move onto the next part of his amazing project while he explains how it works.

BTAS has been watching each of these interactions over the pages of his newspaper or listening to conversations while he vacuums, sorry he was eavesdropping. After a few hours of working in the garage, he pulls you aside and tells Arkham he can't just keep you cooped up in there like one of his...robot children. The two of you go for a walk as the sun begins to set on the day. He brings you to his favorite little quaint park and shows you all his favorite flowers. If you're lucky, you can get him to spill some gossip on the other Riddlers or Rogues. In his mind, laughter is the best medicine and something he considers himself fluent in.

Telltale is sitting on the couch working on a puzzle box when you plop down beside him. He gives you a long look, and you start to think maybe you should move. However, he pushes the box into your hands and tells you to try your best to solve it. He's offering firm assistance when he sees you struggle. Suddenly, the box opens and music begins to drift out of the inside of the box. The inside mechanism spins swiftly until you can make out the image of a question mark from the various pieces moving. He gets up and tells you to keep it and practice.

(I don't think I can say I know exactly what you're going through, however, I do know how it feels to think you're completely alone. I know how it feels to look around and wonder if you're ever going to be happy again. Consider this your message from future you: happiness does come back. Maybe not as soon as you would like, but it does. Look for the beauty in life, take care of yourself, make a proper meal, look in the mirror and tell yourself that this is just a step in a long journey.)

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness. Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide.

[etherealsign282]

I hate how some of our lives revolve around the louder of the mental health community. The ones who demand for people's emotional labor all the time or use those cute lil psychology buzzwords to trap other people with mental illnesses with guilt trips.

It's always "put your time aside when someone trauma dumps. When someone vents. When someone is angry and triggered by something unrelated. Keep an eye out for friends who do this or that. Always be available for anything. Be ready to talk to them about anything, even if it's triggering." Before y'all deny, yes it happens.

Y'all just... make DEMANDS to random people you don't know, to extend a listening ear before you even consider the *quiet* illnesses/symptoms that other people might be going through. Grief, paranoia, anxiousness, distrust, trauma, etc. Things that make it hard to be an effective communicator and listener in the moment. I hear y'all constantly say to listen and lend a hand but you never check with them to see if they're in a good mental space to take more grief or pain from problems that aren't even theirs.

And then y'all take a step further and guilt trip people! "If you don't talk to them, you'll regret it! They'll die and it'll be your fault! You're an awful friend and not a good mental health advocate!" As if that's not just a bunch of fear mongering tactics to guilt trip someone into becoming exhausted and deal with compassion fatigue because they'd rather suffer than let their friends suffer. That's enabling people pleasing behavior and it's very toxic and not at all mental health advocacy. Not to mention possibly *triggering* to trauma or paranoia.

You're not doing people any favors and that's why y'all constantly shout it in the first place. You feel resentful because no matter how much you try to force conversation so you can vent their ear off, you don't feel quite heard enough. You think guilt tripping will make it better but it WON'T. They're gonna get more and more tired and you're gonna get louder and louder and nobody will feel heard or respected because you don't see them as a separate person with their own separate things. Some of you don't even bother asking if something is wrong with them before jumping the gun to offense.

And the worst part is some of y'all think that type of shit is FAIR. "they need to stick up for themselves". Or "it's not my job to care about them". Or "they aren't the expressive type so the least they can do is listen." Some of y'all LIKE the doormats of the mental health community. Because instead of seeking professional help, looking up healthy coping mechanisms, or at least seeking consent, you'd rather exploit a bunch of yes-men so you feel temporary relief, and then you get to blame them when everyone is too tired to keep it up, because y'all got too comfortable in the roles of giver and taker. And act like it's their fault that they're not mentally healthy and being irresponsible, when you guilt tripped them into not caring about themselves by saying their friends would die if they didn't!

Y'all wanna sit in your toxic traits and negative symptoms and push all of it onto other people and they're just supposed to have the "good" symptoms while dealing with it. Y'all HATE when we finally tell you our boundaries because you think it's disrespectful. Because y'all have the expectation that there are those who are supposed to baby and give and they're not mentally ill enough to need help (and if they are, it's "a lot easier to control"), and those who are like feral beasts and can do whatever because "they're impossible to get under control" so the only thing to do is appease them and understand them! Obviously there's no way someone can be held responsible for something if they already came into this world, foaming and ravenous. /sarcasm

Listen, the reality is it's impossible for people pleasers to learn healthiness if people constantly guilt trip them and make them feel like boundaries and self control towards their empathy is *wrong*, just as impossible it is for you to learn self control if you manipulate people to cater to you and never want to hear the words "no" or "not now".

#emotional abuse #mental health #mental illness #actually mentally ill #mental health community #mental health stigma #toxic #people pleaser #reciprocated energy #energy vampires #rant #mental health rant

[fishedeyelenz]

OC Emoji Asks for Camille!

💥 COLLISON - what emotions do they have trouble dealing with?

👪 FAMILY - what is their family like? what is your ocs relationship to them? does your oc have any siblings?

🍟 FRIES - do they order food often? or they prefer to cook their own food?

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

🎵 MUSIC NOTE - what is their playlist like? their favourite artists? do you associate a particular song with them?

🌈 RAINBOW - what advice would they give to their younger self?

Thank you for the ask!!!

Collision- she is very quick to bury her grief and anger, coping with the bad things that happen to her by going "it is what it is", "it was mean to be this way, no use of crying over it". This kinda burying of her feelings causes her to be passive aggressive and sometimes a downer. Sometimes when she's sad you can see her with years in her eyes but she seems to never break down. Only if she's very close to you she will she cry in front of you. Somehow is a good shoulder to cry on though. When she has Bean however it'll be very hard for her to cope with her daughters negative feelings, however she let's her get them out, as she doesn't want her showing them down like she does.

Family- Camille is an only child, Canadian born. Her mother was french Canadian, though she doesn't speak much of french anymore since her mother was institutionalized while she was a kid, as her mom developed schizophrenia during her early childhood. Her father is a good dad, very supportive but also wasn't really sure how to deal with her grief and anger, and always told her she was too strong to feel these emotions and tried to distract her from them to a fault. Maybe told her once in a moment of vulnerability that it scares him when she feels like this. In the sgmcatv timeline after college she got married to a man who was both physically and eventually emotionally distant to her, and they divorced after 15 or so years of marriage. Because he was always busy with work and business trips they never had children, which is a shame since Camille loves children. In the rits timeline there is ofc Billy who after a few years of knowing each other impregnates her with Bean. She loves her daughter more than anything.

Fries- she very rarely orders her food , instead opting to cook for herself. She's a pretty good cook I think. Likes making soups and casseroles and all that good stuff. Can bake too, though her cakes usually turn out lopsided.

Masks- Yeah, of course. I mean, primarily in the job sphere, as she is a teacher/mentor, depending on the timeline. She has to take a certain professional pedagogical approach with them of course. In the private sphere, she does put up a stoic mask, always choosing to be a calm mediator even when she's boiling inside. Billy is probably one of the only person she is truly vulnerable with. She also tries to mask some of her weirder traits and behaviors with okay results.

Music note- She likes music in general, her fav artists being Talking Heads, Blue oyster cult, Pattie Smith and The Beatles. Doesn't really have a playlist as she listens to records primarily, but I do have a spotify playlist for her ( https://open.spotify.com/playlist/74HKr6Ffb0rtiDgNffbo54?si=8KztgDKhQQKEuyIKaeDXLg ). You can kind of see what songs I most associate with her there.

Rainbow- she would say to not get too hung up on things that aren't working, and let things go. It's okay to cry and to be mad and vulnerable and her negative emotions aren't terrible things she should purge. In the sgmcatv timeline she would tell her either to have a serious talk with her husband early on or to divorce him earlier.

#oc: camille #Ask #Sorry it's taking me a while got quite a few ask <333 thank you all for asking though love to answer them <33 #For the person who asked about Lily - will do it but might take a while #Questions are making me think and will help with developing her

[bemamar]

People tell me the reason why you are emotional about ur abuse is because you are in your 20s and women in their 20s are emotional because they are young.. is it true I am just being emotional ?? And I’ll get over it as soon as I hit my 30s as they say?? :/

tbh I’ve always been emotional in general but the idea that they try to tell me my feelings is just young-adult over reactions made me feel like I am 15 years old who’s crying over a video game, I am in my mid 20s tho.

Hey anon... That's, not true at all (and it's misogynistic). Whoever told you that either is or is acting like an asshole, and definitely doesn't know the first thing about abuse. First of all, let's eliminate the concept that women are more emotional than men, yes? That's just bull right off the bat. That aside, I think the simplest way I can explain this to you is with a metaphor.

Being abused is in a lot of ways like watching someone you love die. And in that parallel, recovering from abuse is like grieving that death. We grieve the relationship, we grieve the person we loved, we grieve the person we were ourselves, and (specially in child abuse cases) we grieve for the time we lost, and the person we could had been if it weren't for it, our hopes and dreams.

The thing about grief is no one grieves the same. It's painful, and it's not a straight line (it definitely doesn't happen in neat little stages), and it's confusing and heart wrenching, and we all need different tactics and methods to handle it. Some people need to believe that in some way it was meant to happen, and they find that makes them stronger, and that's okay. Some people find that the only way for them to truly move on is to forgive whomever or whatever was responsible, and that's also okay. Some find strength in their anger and indignation, and putting those feelings into change for themselves, and they never feel the need or just simply nor the want to forgive, and that is also very okay. Some people push it into the past, and are able to focus all of themselves on the present, and don't want to relive it, not to risk retraumatizing themselves, and that is also valid. All of it is valid. And all of those people, all of us, will have days now, or ten, or twenty, or fifty years from now, when something, or someone, or a situation will put us back in that place, and we will need to cry or scream, or take a day off, or whatever it is, just like it happens when you are grieving. The difference is, once you've grieved, then the impact those moments have on your life are minimized, the time they rock you for is shorter, and it becomes easier to remember who you are now and the things that you've learned, and the things that are good about your life now. That doesn't mean you get over it, you get on with it.

No one gets over grief. We just find different ways to deal with it, to keep living, to find happiness again, sometimes even more than you had before, but sadly, that is just something that will always be there somewhere. That doesn't mean at all that it's hopeless, it just means something happened to you that changed you, and however you do it, you need to grieve what you lost, and (if you can) you need to seek the help of someone else. No one expects a grieving person to get over it by themselves. No one is going to go to a parent who lost a child, or someone who lost a partner, or a child who lost a parent etc and be like: "ugh why are you still crying when we talk about this? Aren't you over it already? It's been 10 years, you should be over it. You're an adult now, stop crying over your dead loved one." So why on Earth would we expect abuse survivors to deal with this? It sounds just as callous, cruel, and plain stupid as that would.

Therapy is your greatest ally, really, to find the way you want to deal with it, and then to gain the necessary tools and tactics that will help you the most imo. The thing about abuse is no one really knows crap about it, unless you've studied it, even when we've been through it. Therapy is hard but it's also a series of mind blowing moments of validation for things you didn't even know were abuse in the first place. It's someone taking you out of the woods and showing you the forest, and then the path through it, the valley and the hills and the dead end trails. We still get lost, and have ups and downs, but you won't be alone in it anymore, you'll have someone to have your back, which is really all we can ask for in life, I think. If you have support, and you are taught to give yourself support, the rest becomes easier and a lot more manageable.

I'm sorry someone told you that. There is nothing wrong with you. Hyper sensitivity is also not a character flaw, on the contrary, it can be a huge strength. I hope that if you are not already, that you are able to find professional help (and remember not to be afraid to keep looking until you find someone you feel at ease and comfortable with), and I wish the best of luck in general.

I don't know if you are talking about parent or partner abuse. Mine was the former so my resources are focused on that, but if you wanna have a look at this channel, it might be helpful to you (extremely so if you are talking about ca) and just informative in general. I hope you have a good day, week, life, and know that you are valid and you have a right to your process whatever it turns out to be.

#tag; an original answer #child abuse #victim blaming

[do-what-the-knight-tells-you]

Two things I'm chewing on post- Umbrella Academy Season 3.

HEAVY SPOILERS

The First one is old!five, in a separate post over here.

The second one is: Allison’s arc, and how the siblings respond to it, and what we may see going forward

-

The show doesn't have the greatest track record with following character arcs... Some of Viktor's isolation from the first season is addressed in the second season etc, and they do in general you know seem to mature and change somewhat. Klaus probably has one of the most distinct arcs of anyone, and that's actually (I expect)for the same reason that Victor does, because it's connected to their power use... But in general, arc continuity is patchy.

So, an element of second season I hope not to see repeated is that because of the length of time that the characters experience between first and second season, a lot of them felt to me like we didn't have to deal with their characters from the first season. Character problems they had or interpersonal issues etc we're dropped or smoothed over with that transition. Now, I'm hoping that is a direct result of the time weirdness at the beginning of second season, and we're not going to see that in fourth. I'm hoping that that fourth will resume pretty much immediately where third left off.

Allison's grief and anger spiral, her failure to deal with that, her lashing out and escalation of power use was a lot this season, and it was handled inconsistently and in my opinion not particularly well by the other characters.

I'm curious whether that's because the writers aren't sure how to handle it, or weren't noticing how far they've taken it... Or if it's a case of something that they're planting now to be used later.

In the following sections, I will say things like “I was frustrated”, and I want to be clear: since we do not obviously know where 4th season will go, assuming they get that last season they are hoping for, it’s possible that some of the things I mention are intentional on the part of the writers, and I/we are Meant to be frustrated! That’s cool. Not knowing if we are Intended to feel frustrated with a character, or if it’s accidental and it’s really the writers that are frustrating, is one of the pitfalls of talking about stuff before it’s done. So when I say things like “I was frustrated”, please keep that in mind, that I am discussing my own response to the behavior / portrayal of a fictional character whose arc is not yet finished. This is not intended as any kind of critique of how Real People in the Real World do or should handle their trauma.

Thanks.

Long-ish exploration of Allison’s S3 choices under the cut.

I was very frustrated. I was frustrated, feeling like she was spending a lot of time blaming anyone and everyone and lashing out, and not nearly so much time actually working through things, or owning up to pieces of her own behavior, or seeking help from her siblings, particularly siblings who may actually have a chance of understanding and having good advice. (The fact that this is a perfectly fine arc for a character to go through, if it’s paid off later, doesn’t make it not frustrating, if that’s the plan. things can be frustrating and Also good writing.)

(though, a point in the column of it being a writing mistake is potentially not-great handling wrt racial dynamics. This is not my topic to speak on, but Even I felt like it was a bit weird that she was the only one with much awareness the civil rights movement was going on in S2. Like sure, it’‘l hit her differently, obviously, and she has the potential to be more/differently caught up in it, but it does at time feel like shes on a veeeery different show than the others. with awk crossovers. So the idea the writing may be uniquely awk for her in other places isn’t a bad one.)

It’s a pretty standard Umbrella move for the siblings to not be Particularly aware of what’s going on with each other... whole plot lines are built on it, Whole siblings go missing without notice, whole wars are fought in vietnam... etc.

But for Viktor and Allison, they have apparently talked some already! So for once, that shouldn’t be the issue. and they should have the most in common. both lost partners, though obviously of different lengths and intensities, and to a certain degree they both lost children. Victor didn't birth his, but there's no way he didn't feel parental about Harlan (which, God, makes Allison's decision there all the worse and more despicable). And they both were living in a time period where their identities were restricted/marginalized/criminalized.

They should have some traumas in common, they should have some griefs in common. He could have been a good source of support and advice for her.

Because whether his experience was shorter in that era, or he learned a lot more about how to deal with his emotions and trauma after the disastrous end of the first season/revelations of second (possibly partly because he knows now at high cost that he can't afford to lash out, that too many people get hurt if he lashes out, if his self-control fails)... Viktor seems able to take his similar losses and griefs and experiences and grow from them now, and move on, where Allison is very much still stuck in her grief and trauma, and also is fundamentally unable/unwilling to see that there is any element of her own behavior in it.

I'm obviously not trying to like blame her for her own trauma and loss top-to-bottom... I'm just remembering the way in which her original loss of her daughter was because of her own mistake / misuse of her power. She would not have been available/willing to go hang out with them at Reginald's funeral in the first place, and thereby get caught up in all the other family drama and dragged back to the '60s and all of that, had she not been estranged from her new family because of her own mistake.

When you add to that the fact that a logical assumption about changing the past will be that it changes the future, it definitely should have been a risk people were acknowledging that when they got to the future something like her kid not having been born was a possibility.

I think it's a possibility that other characters had acknowledged, incl non-viktor characters, and that's why there were a few comments sort of urging her to wait or be cautious when she went to look for her daughter... And I would have rather seen her anger directed more broadly on that subject, than again straight at Viktor and then Harlan, who we know was innocent. Like he did it, but it was an accident and sort of an understandable one.

I personally just couldn't stop thinking about that anytime she got mad and attributed this whole mess solely to Viktor. Like friend, you had some agency in that. Specifically, you had some agency in your original estrangement from your family, and you had some agency in what happened to Viktor and the ways in which he was pushed into the explosion in that first season. And you're not owning up to any of that. It would obviously be very painful to own up to it, but you're not owning up to any of it and that's helping you get self-righteous about it and completely externalize your anger and hurt. It’s obviously devastating to have gone through all of this, and to have made the hard choice to leave your partner for your daughter, and suuuuuper devastating to make that exchange and lose them both... but yeah. Diving into anger instead, while not unexpected, is obvs not good.

And we see on the show that it's escalating, from her willingness to assault Luther, to outright murder of a vulnerable and (mostly)innocent man. This is not like five making his way through the time agency. She could have handed Harlan over alive. With her power? Absolutely. Instead, she chose to kill him, she wanted to kill him, and he was very vulnerable at that point. And again, more or less innocent.

She chose to kill someone who she knew couldn't fight back and was likely viewed by Viktor as a sort of adoptive kid.

So we have that, that feels like it was not addressed as deeply as I would have liked, and we have her attempting to SA Luther (Which, in universe I can maybe see why someone with his backstory mightn't have given that more weight, could have been more likely to just sort of default back to the fact that these kinds of things happen to him, his bodily agency is violated multiple times over the course of his life, I can see why he might not have given that quite as much weight, not as much as it deserves, might not have held her to account as strongly as I feel she should have been)...

And we have Five and the others spending a lot more time critiquing Viktor (Viktor who did lie to them again, and we can see why they would be concerned about his lying, but was lying to them in order to protect someone he views a little bit as his kid and definitely as his fault/ responsibility... This is Viktor's fatal flaw, and a good one since you understand why he continues to end up in these positions... I appreciate the uncertainty in Harlan's portrayal where there were a few moments where you thought perhaps he was evil and Viktor had fallen for the exact same damn ploy once more), and the sibs not really censuring Allison until she crosses that line and makes the basement comment to Viktor. Which is a big red line that they finally recognize as a line since that's what originally pushed Viktor over the edge, to everyone's detriment, in first season.

So. Do the rest of the siblings not speak out on her behavior more/sooner because

1. Messy writing, writers not realizing how far they've pushed this

2. The siblings themselves not noticing how bad Allison is getting, partly as a feature of the normal umbrella academy trope where they do not talk to each other enough, despite all the talking they do

3. Are they seeing it but they don't know what to do about it? They know how to talk to Viktor, now, they know how to correct Viktor. Do they not know how to correct Allison? Are they concerned that if they correct her too much, she will use her power on them? Do they feel so uncomfortable with or ignorant of the trauma she's been through that they don't know how to navigate well enough to correct her? Additionally, there’s a potential arrogance/assumption that she’s more right/more knowledgeable about interpersonal dynamics etc element that's part of her character particularly in the first season that could be brought in here/contribute to this.

I personally am hoping that a lot more of number three is going on, and that we will see some of this addressed in the last season. That we will see her have to face more seriously the nature of her power and face the fact that when the going gets tough and she gets frustrated or upset, then she drops her moral reservations against using her power in certain ways. That we will see other people impose and maintain boundaries with her for these reasons... And that we see her figure out how to, if she can, deal with and live with the traumas and griefs she has experienced. Whether that's by actually asking for support from her family, especially from family members who would get it, or whether that is a more individualistic method of dealing with it.

.

Anyway. I found it fascinating. An enjoyable season for me, much in the line of previous seasons. It had its problems, but again, they were a lot like previous problems I've seen, and did not bother me for the most part.

Here's hoping for a fourth and final season!

#I particularly liked how they handled the trans stuff #apparently this is partly because most of the season was written already when Elliot came out #So they were almost forced to handle it as casually as they did #I thought they handled it well #The scene about the party and Luther was freaking adorable #My only critique is that Allison would definitely have been transphobic at the end #She's willing to outright say that the family should have left Victor in the basement #She's invoking extrems trauma he went through and betrayal and neglect by his family in an attempt to hurt him #there's no reason she wouldn't also have been potentially transphobic to try to hurt him #dead named him or misgendered him or whatever #Except I'm sure that this was also a conscious decision on the writing to not be transphobic #Which is also a fine choice #Just not to even go there #I'm cool with that #Just stuck out to me when she was being deliberately cruel that she didn't also choose to be cruel in that way #umbrella academy #umbrella academy spoilers #umbrella academy meta

[friendlystarfruit]

Thoughts on TikTok? I see videos of celebs or random vloggers talking about their happy families and healthy relationships with their parents. It makes me feel bad that I never had it. I mean ik I can manifest it. But I missed a lot of happy moments as a child. I sure would love to live my life again as a kid but I feel that my past built the present me.

I havent studied the issues of social media in great deal but it makes sense that people on social media that get popular present the ideal life. Oddly tiktok is one that is very strange indeed people often get into trouble with bad challenges some dangerous.

The happy family tik toks at least aren't dangerous but can make people feel bad about their own life.

You dont get to choose the brain you are born with, your parents, where you grow up, your , race , etc so much of life isnt in your control, but even if relationships with your family are difficult , even if they can never be what you want them to be (and who knows maybe they can) I know you mentioned you know this but make sure to remind yourself you arent doomed to be unloved, unwanted and not complete , lovers, friends and even new family members can become an important part of your future and your happiness , our childhood and childhood relationships have a big effect on us but you can still succeed and develop into a happy and successful human being who has recovered from unhealthy relationships and made new ones , and yea I know though you already know that and you still feel you missed out , you just feel how you feel, maybe its like like grief ? maybe its yearning.....whatever it is its human but it isnt something that has to forever old you back. You can makeit through (= even if it starts with letting yourself feel how you feel and setting up a plan to overcome those feelings to enjoy your future or to channel those feelings into helping others and being the needed empathy and understanding to be the family you never had for other people.

I get on really well with my mother , I get on better with my father now. I still have demons with my youth too and I know there are people who dont get on with their parents who do really well, I dont wanna go on here about my demons but for me time did a lot to help me....a lot of time and Im still not there yet but at least now I dont feel living is too difficult to be worth it

I understand why you can both miss being a child but not want to go back, for one as you said your past makes you , you and our identities are a large part nurture , in fact a lot of our brain development is shaped by our childhood. Being a child though has some amazing perks too as well as you feel you are owed a healthy and happy childhood but you know how different youd be with it and that can scare us because what makes us "us" is our past both good and bad.

#ask #anon #ask anon #hope you have a good life anon #hugs

[boethiah]

its not your obligation to answer this ask, but what do you think about people losing hope in a stable future due to climate change? it might just be me but i cant envision a future where we actually 'win' this, millions, possibly billions are going to lose their lives whether or not we act now. Do you have any advice for those of us who feel we came too late to make any substantial change? dont feel obligated to respond ik this is an emotionally charged ask

i guess my main piece of advice is this: stop thinking of the climate crisis as some inevitably calamity that'll happen at an undisclosed time in the future. the catastrophe is already happening. people have already lost their homes and lives to it. the way people live is already changing because of it. wherever you live, ask your parents what the climate was like when they were children, and compare that to now. there's no reversing it; it's already underway.

as for how to deal with its happening? my own perspectives have been influenced a lot by a book by a journalist, dahr jamail, called "the end of ice". i shared a long quote from the epilogue once but i'll quote part of it here:

""The question is not are we going to fail. The question is how,” author and storyteller Stephen Jenkinson, who has worked in pallative care for decades, states. [...] When he talks about our failure to care for what is entrusted to us, he is also saying that the time to change our ways is long past. “Grief requires us to know the time we’re in,” Jenkinson continues. “The great enemy of grief is hope. Hope is the four-letter word for people who aren't willing to know things for what they are. Our time requires us to be hope-free. To burn through the false choice of being hopeful and hopeless. They are two sides of the same con job. Grief is required to proceed.” [...] I grieve, yet this ongoing process has become more like peeling back the layers of an onion– there is always more work to do as the crisis we have created for ourselves continues to unfold. And somewhere along the line I surrender my attachment to any results that might stem from my work. I am hope-free.

i highly recommend anyone with similar anxieties get a copy of the book itself, because it's beautifully written and puts a lot of things into perspective. but this is the philosophy i've adopted in my own life. jamail likens it to being by the bedside of a dying friend. there may be no preventing what's to come, but we can still be present, and more importantly, there is still work to do.

our work needs to be on adapting to the ways the world is going to change. it means strengthening protections for refugees driven out of their homes by changing climate, advocating for the rights of indigenous people to tend to what's dying, improving the way we respond to natural disasters, advocating for the immediate cessation of burning all fossil fuels, etc etc. there's SO MUCH that needs to be done and i couldn't begin to list it all here. i don't think we can "win" climate change any more than anyone can "win" history; societies have always gone through crises, all we can do is try to survive them and help others survive them. whatever you're currently doing to make the world a better place, keep doing it. mourn what we've lost and then plan how we'll deal with what's coming.

most of all, just go outside and appreciate the world we live in right now. let go of hope, grieve what we're losing, and then proceed.

#probably the last climate thing ill post for today but yeah. idk i hope this helps #'the end of ice' is a very good read and really has informed how i think about this. its just a mourning process

[beware-thecrow]

Nuuu. Not bad. Just human~ we all deal with sadness and anger and grief and all that differently. Doesn't make you bad. *cuddles* especially since you do stuff to make sure the "bad stuff" doesn't happen or happens a lot less (i.e. going to recharge with a friend so you don't become hateful up people who don't deserve it etc)

KAJSKAJKSJAKJS there you are right, i'm always very careful of not punish people with my anger, people are not to blame of my shitty circunstances, but i do believe anger is a very useful feeling when is well directed. It comes from a place of self respect when is healthy. Is a sign that we know when things aren't fair to us and that we deserve something better, so i really encourage people to use their anger as a means of motivation to get things done, to be brave and fight for what is right, to be assertive, to be clever. Now, i do belive i'm a bad human being because i do enjoy a little to much to be enraged JAJAJA but i guess such are the pleasures of life. But, please, friend. Don't hate yourself. If not for sentimental reasons, i can say this to you: hating yourself is actually quite useless and only stops you from world domination.

#geri talks #seriously #hiro is a good person #a sensitive one #i'm a bad influence #look at the shit i'm telling him #my logic can do that much #hiro darling

[mustloveshera]

Still not over how Glimmer laughed at Shadow Weaver's open attempt to gaslight Adora or how she used her status as Bow's best friend to try and sway him to her side over Adora's. I get that she's going through a LOT and that she isn't as bad about it as Catra but she has a pretty nasty tendency to act as a toxic friend. It goes all the way back to s1 where she viewed Bow as being in the wrong for having friends that aren't her and Adora (possessiveness) until he rightfully called her out on it.

ahh yes, the complexities of glimmer!

glimmer’s reaction to bow having another friend seemed…more complex than just being possessive. it demonstrated that glimmer was terrified of being alone, being left behind, going through change, losing someone who had somehow decided to be her first and only friend until she was ~18yo. her reaction wasn’t calculated–at least, not in the way she wanted it to come across; it was emotional and desperate and clumsy. her behavior was wrong and unhealthy regardless, but i think there was more at play than just, “i want bow to myself.”

part of it comes from her lifelong interactions with people like her aunt, who couldn’t even fathom glimmer finding a friend at all. it’s understandable that she’d panic when she felt like she was losing him. castaspella had instilled in her a belief that she wasn’t capable of making friends, so if bow ditched her for someone else, where would that leave her? again, still wrong, but i’d much sooner accept that apology (even if delayed) than one for this next part…

glimmer’s reaction to shadow weaver’s gaslighting was all the more horrifying because she knows why adora is so “paranoid.” that’s what happens when you’re raised in an abusive environment by an abusive parental figure. glimmer knows about shadow weaver’s “mom stuff”, and she’s seen the effect firsthand many times. she’s watched adora struggle and suffer while trying to recover from that abuse. for glimmer to laugh along with shadow weaver, the person responsible for adora’s “paranoia”, because adora had been annoying her lately? that’s…really bad. i consider this far worse than what she said to adora about angella, because that was said out of grief when she was already worked up about a season-long conflict, whereas enabling shadow weaver’s gaslighting came across as downright callous and traitorous.

as for using her position as bow’s best friend to convince him to agree with her, that seems pretty standard actually. since they were questioning her motives and plan, appealing to bow’s familiarity with her (which would remind him of her good intentions and kind heart etc.) makes sense. it didn’t come across to me as “you need to be on my side because you’re my friend” but “you know me, you know i’m doing this for the right reasons.” she had done it earlier in the season as well, and that had been the “constructive” phrasing that bow had been hoping for. while this approach can be constructive to an extent, because it encourages the other person to assume best faith, when pushed too far, it can be used to manipulate others into going along with things that they believe are wrong. in bow’s case, he chose to stand his ground and follow his own heart, not hers, even if he knows she’s a good person. many people in history have been led astray by friends who seemed to have the best intentions and gone into hell with them (to extend the metaphor).

glimmer has the capacity to be an amazing friend, but also a horrible one. she’s the one who went out of her way to try to cheer up adora on mystacor, and then chose to play along with using that against adora when she was annoyed at her. when she’s caught up in her own misery, she lashes out at others, saying horrible things, making hasty decisions, etc. it’s not a good look, but it’s realistic, especially for a young adult who has no parents. a lot of people struggle to deal with grief and negative emotions, and they often unleash those unresolved feelings onto those who would be most likely to put up with it–their close friends. glimmer is deeply flawed and immature, but she’s willing to grow and change and fix her mistakes (unlike catra, thus far), and i’m confident she’ll continue to do so.

#spop #she ra #glimmer #shadow weaver #adora #bow #lukapost #lukathinks #Anonymous