#their brains must be smooth

[randomingoftherandomness]

There is a thing I don't get, why Yuanzhi was so against the idea of Ziyu becoming the sword wielder?

Just because he wanted his brother to be it? Or because of the rumors about Ziyu's mother? I mean, Shangjue was always logical on the reasons why he didn't want Ziyu to be the leader while Yuanzhi seemed to just do what he was told to do.

I read an answer on Reddit where Yuanzhi was described as Shangjue's dog, with no opinions of his own, petty and oblivious. Many people regarded him as the true villain of the show because he caused pain and played tricks for no real reasons. Do you think he is like that? Only smart for poisons?

Me to the Redditor who said that:

Knuckle and buckle, kids, you're on the Gab Meta Train.

1. Gong Ziyu started out hella unqualified and everyone knows it

Don't come at me and tell me Gong Ziyu was the most worthy candidate to be the Sword Wielder because based on the first character setup, he definitely was not it. He was known to frequent the pleasure house, he stumbles home drunk in broad daylight, he has no involvement in the family's affairs, and he is most definitely more known as a dandy than anyone who is being groomed to take over the helm of the family.

Honestly, off the bat, in real life, would you want someone with a proven track record to lead you and protect you and your interests, or would you want some dude who is better known for hanging out at a brothel than he is actually handling paperwork or has a track record of maturity?

Yuanzhi, who is younger than Ziyu, but already is contributing to the day-to-day running and the development of tech and research for the family.

Which means...?

He has skin in the game about who he wants to lead him in the family. And that's a very valid stance to take. It's more than "oh Gege told me to do this, so I will" because that's such a sad 1 dimension take, and again, to that Redditor:

Of course, we as the audience know that Ziyu will shape up. He will step up and he will answer the call, so to speak. But Gong Yuanzhi and Gong Shangjue did not. And if you really think about it, they're pretty much 'employees' of the Gong company. They just didn't agree with what top management decided and vocally voiced that opinion.

If you reeeeeallly want to think about it, they were just unionising :)

(gonna put this under a read more coz it got long)

2. Gong Shangjue has instilled a mentality of "Family First"

Relating to the first point.

Shangjue is obviously Yuanzhi's North Star. He is who Yuanzhi is shaping himself to be, and for all we know of his character, of course he would. He's basically the perfect man to aspire to be in a society like theirs.

So, when Shangjue says, "Family is the Most Important", don't you think Yuanzhi is gonna listen? Gong Shangjue is Gong Yuanzhi's most important person. He's family in a way that the rest aren't. Even if he doesn't outright say "I want that position", Yuanzhi would have done anything to help support him and get him there.

And going on the point where Shangjue and Yuanzhi were on Ziyu's case coz of the rumours that his mom was possibly pregnant when she married into the Gong family; I know other users on the MJTY tag have quite possibly discussed this matter (shoutout to @kingsandbastardz @swiftletinthecloud @romchat for their lovely metas and analysis posts ❤️ I consume them with much gratitude and glee), but let me crudely try to wrangle what has been beautifully said into my my own words;

For a family that prides themselves with being very strict about their familial rules, the fact that there is some measure and level of doubt persisting about Ziyu's parentage should have and must disqualify him from the position itself. Ziyu's dad could have easily kiboshed the rumours but he didn't, why?

More than that, the implication given to Shangjue over tea was that the position of Zhiren was always meant to go to him. Rewatch that scene where he last saw his uncle. Tell me differently.

The whole paternity issue is just one facet of a very Ziyu shaped problem. Having a murky paternity will raise issues of succession. Why do you think the nobilities of Europe back then had a court of people, usually people of importance, to be present when a marriage was consummated and a child was born? This is to make sure that there was no doubt that the marriage was legitimate and the line of succession and paternity remains unbroken.

(there were always exceptions to the rule, of course, but you get my drift, right?)

Of course, we got the resolutions to all of these issues; Ziyu was always the bio son of the Zhiren, he probably didn't kibosh the rumours because he never wanted to have his son carry that burden of leading the family when he could tell that his son had always wanted to leave the Valley, and Shangjue never coveted the position in the first place, he just wanted the right person to lead.

3. Yuanzhi has no opinions

Yuanzhi's just a dog to Shangjue? Well, if he's a dog, I wanna be one too Woof Woof.

Yuanzhi has his own motivations and drive. They just so happened to be Gege-shaped. I don't see how that warrants being called someone's dog.

He doesn't have his own opinions? Bro quite literally almost died to prove a point that the porridge was poisoned and Shangguan Qian cannot be trusted. HOW IS THAT NOT HAVING AN OPINION?

WERE WE EVEN WATCHING THE SAME SHOW???

Honestly, it's Reddit so I shouldn't be this surprised about the hot takes that happen on there, but damn if some people lack two brain cells to rub together to critically consume the media in front of them.

4. Yuanzhi is a reactionary character

Think about it; how many times throughout the narrative did he cause problems for no apparent reason?

If anything, don't you think that Ziyu & co. are the ones who deliberately do things to antagonise him and Shangjue? It's almost midnight as I am typing this and the old noggin is starting to lag, but let's focus on the blood GPS incident.

Yuanzhi saw that the people in the Yu residence were being a bit suspicious so he goes to snoop (cause + reason = reaction). Jin Fan is best boy, but Yuanzhi did not instigate that fight, he did (with good reason i know i know). (offense + defense = reaction). Ziyu & co. tried to stuff him into the closet (*snerk*) and what does he do? Bites down until he bleeds because he knows Gege will find him if he sniffs him out. And he did. A successful reaction.

In my opinion, he's like gunpowder -- left alone, they'll be fine. When given a spark, will react.

And again with feeling... To the Redditor who spouted such utter shite;

Class dismissed

#if it sounds like i have taken offence and would like to challenge to a duel of honour at dawn; it is and i do #I'm filled with fight me energy #gong yuanzhi #GRRR HOW DARE THEY #their brains must be smooth #the lights must be on but no one is home #because you can't be that stupid can you? #oh wait. yeah. yeahhh you can #my journey to you meta #my journey to you #gab rambles

[usermaroon]

men stop trying to hit on me by shitting on my interests challenge: IMPOSSIBLE 😱😱😱

#do they really think this is gonna work LMAO #their brains must be smooth #text post

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

epic fail <3

#howdy: im about to be soooooo smooth <3 #howdy five minutes later: *putting up a 'Store Closing: Everything Must Go' sign* #all he wanted was to give barns an opening for pickup lines... smh... #while i love the idea of howdy being rizzed as fuck #cause realistically he probs would be #i also like the idea that hes so Cringefail when it comes to romance #he's constantly tripping over himself #luckily for him barnaby loves him anyway! #either that or he Is rizzed. but barnaby is really good at misinterpreting everything he says #both are Amusing! #scribble salad #welcome home #laughingstock #barnaby x howdy #howdy x barnaby #theyre both Such Disasters in my mind #like they both try soooo hard to Convey Their Feelings and they both consistently miss by a hair #and yet half the time they're both still like 'haha nailed it' #babes you did Not. you didn't <3 #I LOVE THEM I LOVE THEM I LOVE THEM THEY WONT LEAVE MY BRAIN I LOVE THEM-

[rottmnt-residuum]

Hiii, hope I’m not late for the party

I had a lot of fun drawing this

Here’s the original

BEAUTiful

#anniversary drawathon #i can tell you didn't trace it- YOUVE dONE an AMAZING JOB AT REPLICATING IT #im very impressed #the smoothness of aprils lines makes my brain happy #the amount of attention you payed to the original is staggering #very impressed indeed #your hand-eye coordination must be great

[civetside]

drag kings gideon and camilla are so important to me now thank you

no thank YOU for encouraging my behavior

#ask #i almost didnt post that one but i must spread the drag king love #ill draw all your favs a drag persona just try n stop me #now i need to try and think of funny pun drag names for them but my brain is small and smooth

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Maybe this is "chronically online" of me but I feel it's disrespectful, or at least tone deaf to be posting about films made in "israel". Maybe you could skip them at least for the time being, if not disregard them entirely? Given the ongoing genocide, it puts a bad taste in my mouth to see things they've made be put up without any sort of acknowledgement of it or anything. I don't believe it's a political statement or whatever (and this isn't meant to be a call-out) it just seems weird. Cheers for considering it if you do.

I'd like to first make a reminder, that this answer is exclusively written by mod Sus only, and should not be considered as entire blog's or other mods' (or its original mod's) collective opinion. They can make their own statement if wishing so, but I take the full responsibility for this answer.

I don't think you can make this kind of topic apolitical considering what it involves and touches. If you make a statement about something that involves something as heavy as war, it's going to be political.

It's not like the thought of "is this right thing to do?" hasn't ever occured my mind when I've seen these movies in queue and their country of origin is Israel. But I, personally, have been looking at this topic through the lenses of "separaring art from the artist." Movies are a form of art, and they are made by the groups of invidiuals with their own ideas and views. While I do understand the idea of not wanting to give an artist, group or in this case, a country, visibility and wanting to boycott them, I don't think it can't really be applied in art. Not if the said problematic target is not even the one who created it or benefiting from it. These israeli people who made these movies are not their goverment. These movies were made before the current political climate boom (the conflict itself has been going on for longer than some of us are old) by individual people because they wanted to create. The country or the people causing the fuckery are not benefiting from the visibility enough to make it matter.

That being said, I think trying to ignore or erase something that's not directly related to the problematic thing in attempt to not support it is the laziest from of activitism. It's "boycott everything russian" again. Us refusing to acknowledge these movies made by people who are not benefiting their country does not help people in need and facing horrible, awful things in their own home.

This is under no circumstances, in any form, meant to be taken as supporting the genocide, Israel or to erase the existence of the conflict and genocide going on. As much as here in the horror circles we love joking about violence and killing, causing deaths of any real life people is awful and one of the most unacceptable things there can be. We acknowledge there's horrible things going on in the world and don't want it to be not acknowledged. But this is not a place for that.

Art, that was not made to reflect and represent those awful times, should not be the victim of sins of someone who didn't create it. The artists should not be the victims of sins of their group. The movie creators and their creations shouldn't be blamed for awful acts their goverment makes. Blaming them does not help the people that are the real victims.

I'd like to imagine Tumblr, as a social media site, as a place of escapism. This might of course not be same for everyone, but when I come into Tumblr, that's when I want to leave all the real world news behind and just enjoy things I like without remembering world has awful things in it. This is a mere small, independent horror movie tumblr blog, where we encourage people to talk about movies and horror genre. I'd wish we could leave as much of these heavy real-life topics outside the blog and posts we make, even if they are good to be acknowledged. (Now if other mods of course want to be the ones to discuss these things, they can. I'm not taking part of them.)

Now, what you can do if you don't want to see movies that were made in Israel by israelis?

We tag movies by country of origin, using Wikipedia as source for these. You can block "israel" tag to avoid seeing them. You can not vote in the poll. If following a blog that allows Israeli movies to be published in it, you can unfollow us. Curate your own social media feed. If you see something you're uncomfortable with, erase that from your own exposure.

As the final statement, as a singular person in the Internet. You don't have to agree with me and in places like Tumblr or anything, I don't think we can agree with everything. But the kind of black-white thinking, where you think everything with any kind of connection to problematic thing is bad and people attached to it are bad, is not healthy. It will make you stay on your toes all the time, and it's not flexible way of thinking. You're not going to make it in the world if you see everything inside it only that way.

Focus on what matters. If you're going to fight, fight the actual enemy, not the gravel under its shadow.

#you must forgive mod sus' smooth brain trying its best to word everything but i really do wish whatever i say would not be taken wrong #it is likely some sentences make no sense but thats on me i proof read this twice #not a poll #ask #mod sus

[bardic-inspo]

Astarion just shouted "Shut that oversized chicken up!" To a. Hook Horror.

#stari baby your brain is so smooth #he also looked at a hole that had to be from a bulette and said “wow must be a big mole” #megh plays bg3 #astarion #bg3 #i'm having too much fun with their combat commentary this round

[mythiclings]

I'm a very simple person, therefore I have simple ideas and simple needs....

#hien rijin #ffxiv stormblood #ffxiv art #im so sorry i fended off the thought for like two days and then gave up #i mean i see hot outfit and i must have fave chara wear #smooth brain move

[darkwizart]

mr. pants-on-fire!

#transformers #maccadam #mtmte #mtmtell #idw rodimus #darkwizartart #i'm trying to butter my texture game to lay out the sandwich fillings of bigger projects on them! #trying to pry myself away from the mindset of 'shit must look smooth like in my american comic books' #because that needs...so much fucking brain juice to not look flat and i abhor art where i glide of instead of having stuff to bite into #i'm experimenting ALWAYS!! getting silly with it!

[lanshappycorner]

I was not made aware until I saw the previous fanart that the manga artist drew him like this

#how does the artist walk around with a brain so big #it must be so wrinkly and huge no smooth brain in sight #he looks so good throws up every day i thank fanartists for existing too i need to find more fanarts of this

[eyesofshan-if]

Pengu

Stay.

If that's what you expect me to say, you're wrong.

Our relationship meant nothing to me.

I can't say that,

I loved you.

And to be honest,

I hated you.

I would be lying to myself if I said,

I want to talk to you.

Why is everything so different now?

You might have an answer to share.

But before you do.

Leave.

Now read it up from bottom to top.

⬇️

🪤↩️🆒

⤴️🆓

*gets lost on way to cheesetrap*

#asks #poetic anon you must understand that my brain is very smooth

[stretchedoutonthegrass]

Me: Can I please sleep now?

My Brain: Comeonshakeyourbodybaby,dotheCongaI knowyoucan'tcontrolyourselfanylongerComeon,shakeyourbodybaby,dotheCongaIknowyoucan'tcontrolyourselfanylongerComeon,shakeyourbodybaby,dotheCongaIknowyoucan'tcontrolyourselfanylongerFeeltherhythmofthemusicgettingstrongerDon'tyoufightittillyou'vetrieditDotheCongabeat

#itme #mine #personal #conga #gloria estefan #I am so tired #and yet #it’s just the intro of conga on loop in my smooth ass brain #why #why must i suffer

[seijorhi]

hii rhi, do u have a schedule for posting your works?¿ ( im in love with your acc and works ilysm )

i do not

#idk what to tell you #i am at the mercy of my very smooth brain #the stars must be in alignment #the fic is finished when it is finished #and posted the very second it is done #(and i have thought of a title for it) #usually i try to post on sundays but #that's not always the case #rhi answers #also thank you <33

[ineffablestardust]

my favourite thing as an ao3 writer is when I comment on other people’s fanfic on ao3 but with the knowledge in mind of comments that I thoroughly enjoyed receiving as a writer on ao3, so then getting a reply back from the author is just so rewarding because I know damn well how it felt to receive a comment of that ilk on my own piece,,  

so then you’re just giggling and kicking your legs for a whole minute :’) 

share the love y’all !! unhinged appreciative comments are the best way to turn one’s day around !! (and make some friends!!)

#ao3 #fanfic #fic writing #writing #I'll share a unhinged but sweet comment I received that was particularly memorable #'your brain must be so wrinkly- take my brain it's small and smooth' #or something to that effect #it was so sweet but I had to be like 'but I'm sure your brain is just as wrinkly dear'

[imwritesometimes]

It's such a dreary day again all of my instincts are screaming at me to go get back in bed, turn on l&o on again and grab my notebook and scribble out more lupo/cutter. but I have to stay strong

#it's so shitty outside and it's only going to get shittier and literally rn most of my job is ~flood watch~ from home and be vigilant #which sounds like 🤷‍♀️ but there's so much planning that goes into shit rn my brain is exhausted #and longs to be smoothed #but I must do other things. I guess. 😞 #erin explains it all

[motherboardmania]

what is up tspin nation!!!

#sillywacky #scientific sillies #im not putting oc tags on this sorry #WARNING FOR. LONG RAMBLE IN TAGS #guess who JUST started hir entry an hour ago. over 40 hours after the challenge was announced #and i had multiple hours to start. and i just didnt because my brain didnt want to yet #it is five in the morning. i got the script done at least and its gonna be fun to draw. but Hooooly shit #i have GOT to start working on entries earlier!!!! #duality of denver. challenge 1 gets announced and i start immediately. finish entire entry (with many distractions) within 12 hours #or. alternatively. challenge 2 gets announced. i wait 40 hours before even starting. and draw on whiteboard with friends instead during tha #ILL BE OK DW. IVE BEEN SLEEPING. just not at normal times #and im more excited to draw so now that i have the script done it will be smooth sailing #However. I must sleep soon. im going to be working on this entry all day today when i wake up. but its gonna be fun