Latest Posts by lezleonardo - Page 5

star trek has always handled trauma/mental illness well imo but sisko explaining to the prophets in the first episode that humans live in linear time and can't ever go back... and then the prophets are so confused and show him his wife dying and ask "but you exist here?" that was. that one.... hit

1x17 - Dramatis Personae

Best video on this App actually

i’m So sorry Chappell Roan

[description: a video of Quark and Odo from star trek edited to fit the song Good Luck Babe by Chappell Roan end description]

Every once a while Wen Qings death and just the general nightless city ordeal haunts me, because imagine being Wen Qing and your brothers accidentally kill the heir of the clan that's been itching for an excuse to stage an official attack on your family, You know time is limited, But the Jins send an ultimatum " give your life up for your family and we'll leave you alone", you accept of course (you always knew you were never going to make it that far anyway, atleast your family would get an extended chance) so you burn, burn as people cheer around you including a man who owes you and your family a debt greater than any other (Jc) But even than you die at peace knowing your family would have a chance, knowing the man you now consider a brother would have a chance.

But that doesn't happen either way, Your whole family dies except one, the man you consider a brother gets supposedly thorn to shreds and the only living family member whom is a child is in the care of a bedridden man (who's bedridden for defending you family in the first place)

I feel like What happened with the Wen remnants really gets idk ignored by the fandom a bit, maybe not ignored but like it's definitely softened up, I personally don't believe that Wen Qing genuinely believed the Jins would keep their promise of peace Wen Qing is to smart to fall for their lies, though I feel she could've deceived herself in a moment of total desperation.

i find it funny that some jc stans will laud jiang cheng’s political savvy and also say how jc always treated wwx like a brother (to then make wwx’s ‘promise-breaking’ seem like such a *massive* betrayal) and then go around and say that of course jiang cheng could not have helped wei wuxian because “he had to look after his clan!” while referring to the newly recruited disciples, forgetting entirely that if jc did consider wwx a brother, wwx and jiang yanli would be his ONLY remaining family and as such, if he were to prevent another event like lotus pier, it would include safeguarding wei wuxian, his “brother”, first and foremost! they also forget that “political savvy” and jiang cheng do not have any meaningful connection because it was precisely his lack of political acuity and tendency to let his emotions dictate his choices that allowed jin guangshan and the rest to manipulate him into withdrawing his support from wei wuxian.

i just don’t get some of the fandom’s vehement defence of characters in mdzs who had immense power (purely by nepotism and name-brand recognition basically) and the efforts to go around and around in talking points to absolve them of their guilt and wrongdoings, even if it is simply caused by wilful ignorance. for jiang cheng, ignorance can never be claimed and his actions are damningly wrong. he IS a fucking clown and in a striking moment of growth, he himself acknowledges this. there was no excuse that would justify him persecuting and aiding in the genocide of the wens and it is undeniable that he abandoned wei wuxian before wei wuxian ever suggested separating from the jiang clan.

I was thinking about the difference between how Spock has been treated all his life ( TOS Spock) by others including his mother and then there’s Jim.

In the following scene, Amanda tries to elicit emotions out of Spock.

The thing is, Spock doesn’t need to be reminded that he has a human part. Every single moment of his childhood he struggles with it. By this age, in this scene above, he has displayed incredible personal courage to handle it. He has dived deep to realize who is he is. Neither human nor Vulcan but choosing to be more Vulcan because he is drawn to those values. 

She then goes on to remind him why he was in anguish.  

Yes, the other boys tormented him. The point is he understands that. He is a  grown man now. He is extremely intelligent and is respected throughout the quadrant. She though shows no respect for him. She tries to revert him back to the helpless and struggling five year old he was. Because that for her is when she can connect with him. Even as a five year old he had stopped opening up to her. Because - while the other boys tormented him, they were still strangers. It was still possible to process non-acceptance from others. But own mother?

The she does this.

So, after the “other boys” had tormented him. what does she think she has done just now? Has been doing? 

Contrast that with following scene.

Notice Jim, having known Spock for a long time, still doesn’t assume anything. He asks. He asks if Spock feels insulted. They both know the previous scene was insulting. This is the critical difference. He shows respect for Spock. Gives Spock an opportunity to express his emotions as Spock wants to - not how he is supposed to. Something Amanda never does. Or Sarek. Spock responds in his own unique way. He doesn’t say “No, Jim, I am fine”. He conveys how he does feel insulted but he is also wise enough to realize how emotions work. That simply acknowleding emtoions is child’s play. To be wiser beyond that, one has to understand that emotions come and go. And that it’s in our control. We can choose to let go of an emotion and no longer feel insulted. This is what Spock has been striving for. This is something he tried to tell Amanda when he says “how can you live on Vulcan and not understand Vulcan”. 

So, Jim, who is NOT Vulcan, nor tries to be, and is a very emotional man, how does he respond to this moment?

Good. Why, good? Because Jim is saying, “I am glad you’re in touch with your values. It’s good because I want you to be exactly who you are.”

Jim doesn’t lecture Spock about his human side nor does he insult Spock by mocking his Vulcan ethics, which are in constrast to all the humans onboard the ship. He accepst Spock and supports Spock for what Spock has chosen to be. And he does what Spock’s parents or family never did. 

“We’ll tackle him together.” He says “WE”. The unspoken message is  - You and me, we are equal, I “see” you. I feel seen by you. (You have put up with my kind of insanity). I respect you. I respect your struggles and admire what you have become and continue to become. With you by my side, I feel stronger. You don’t have to rescue me. I don’t have to rescue you. We can tackle this TOGETHER.”

And this is why Jim and Spock are what they are to each other.

Breaking news: man is jealous of his own pet.

I think they'd be friends

Some quick tmr redraws of old stuff I found in my art gallery

Hello! I'm hoping you guys could share your favorite Bashir/Garak fics with me, any kind honestly :D

(Fic doesn't have to be centered around them)

getting all dressed up (totally not just for the mall cop that visits him multiple times a day, every day. that's just a coincidence)

I love how you said he'd have a emo phase. To me honestly modern!wangji is totally goth (specfically white goth) (Saw someone say that the lans are basically wearing funeral clothing all the time which is totally gothic and I can't get it out if my mind now)

Like he'd be in full goth get out, dramatic makeup and everything!

Wwx goes to meet his family and is totally expecting to see Adam families irl, only to realise Lwjs family is just a basic trad family. (Note mod!wwx is emo!)

lan wangji has 1a hair

A list of mdzs X star trek hc species hehe.

Wwx=Betazoid

Lwj=Vulcan/human. His mother was a human (note: lxc behaves more human than vulcan)

Wq&Wn: bojoran

Jc&Jyl: both humans lol!

The jins: Also humans though I'd imagine all illegitimate children to be half-half species.

The nies: Nmj is half-human half-kilngon, nhs is half-human half-andorian

what the whole "please comment on fic you like, it will encourage more writing" vs. "fic writers shouldn't be writing for engagement and validation" debate fails to really grasp, for me, is that comments shouldn't be boiled down to "engagement and validation" in the first place. by which i mean: comments aren't payment for a service, they are communication and connection. they represent the audience reaching back.

i don't write just for myself. are you kidding me? the point of storytelling, to me, is to present certain narrative arguments and produce or encourage an emotional response to them. That communication is essentially useless if there's no endpoint, no listener. To me, there is no point if I'm not communicating with someone. When I write, I am talking to a reader. If you've read anything I've written, then I was talking TO YOU.

you are well within your right to consume fic as ~content~ and withhold your "payment" out of a sense that the writer should be satisfied at having created anything at all in an unresponsive void. but please be aware that it feels really good when you talk back.

Give me one good movie kiss

And I’ll be alright

(Click for higher quality)

Can't believe this only has 200 smth notes, this is Renaissance level art my gosh.

On the other hands AHH LWJ I LOVE THIS SO MUCH SBWJXHX. Happy late birthday 🎂.

quick little thing for my babygirl’s birthday 🎂

Lwj totally learned how to draw throughout the 13 years just so he could preserve the true image of wwx :)

(Also ahhh I love this freckled wwx my love)

A smile most cherished

how it feels to have no social media presence as an artist

Finished the disabled tyrants beloved pet the other day. Let it be known it really is not as weird as people make it out to be.

NHS and nmj since from what I remember nmj can't reincarnate so no meeting again for NHS

Putting sworn siblings here too coz why not.

Don't you love the way MXTX writes siblings?? So cute and absolutely adorable <333

No coz why is LXC and LWJ the only pair that are relatively ok??? MXTX either hates her siblings or is an only child coz like why would you do that-

God you worded my thoughts beautifully, 100% agreed.

Hii! I hope you are having a good day! I have a question concerning Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s righteousness. Also I think this might also be a hot take? Many people have said that Wangxian are the only morally upright people in the novel, but in Lan Wangji’s case that's only when he matured yes?

I'm not trying to say Lan Wangji is not righteous, he is! He is better than most of the cultivators in the gentry, that's how he got his title after all. I'm just confused because I have seen people claiming that he is just as good as Wei Wuxian (before Wei Wuxian's death).

If Lan Wangji really was as good as Wei Wuxian that time. Why didn't he put the same effort in helping the Wen remnants the same way Wei Wuxian did? Why didn't he go and confirm whether or not the Wen remnants really were being unjustly abused?

Wei Wuxian gave up his reputation, his clan, his comfort, and nearly everything to save the Wen remnants. And I'm sorry to say this (I'm not trying to hate, I'm just stating facts), Lan Wangji didn't.

My problem isn't with Lan Wangji (I adore him). My problem is people saying to say that Lan Wangji was as righteous as Wei Wuxian pre-Wei Wuxian death. Yes, Lan Wangji did try to help Wei Wuxian (defending Wei Wuxian several times in the cultivation meetings, and supporting Mianmian, helping Wen Ning when he was just awakened). But my problem is when people equate those actions to what Wei Wuxian did with the Wen remnants. Lan Wangji at that time did not put in the same effort to help the Wen remnants just as Wei Wuxian did. That's what I'm trying to say. Lan Wangji pre-Wei Wuxian was still maturing, he has some hesitationto help the Wen remnants back then, he was not as good as Wei Wuxian back then. BUT Lan Wangji IS as good as Wei Wuxian post-Wei Wuxian death. He learned from his mistakes, and acted with more conviction to do the right thing.

Also another question, what made Lan Wangji hesitate to help Wei Wuxian all that much in the past (Wen remnants case)? Was it because of his family and clan? Or was it some other factor? Was he hindered in some way?

What do you think about this?

Hi anon, I’m not really recovered enough to do meta, but you caught me in a good mood, so I’ll give you some answers anyway.

First off I think that take that literally only Wangxian are morally upright is a liiiiittle reductionist, because that erases for example Mianmian and the juniors and Wen Qing and Wen Ning and a-Qing and Xiao Xingchen, all of whom are people who we know to have strong morals and the fortitude to do the right thing in the face of loud opposition and societal disapproval. But also I think that while Lan Wangji’s morality is much more apparent in the present, it is consistently strong throughout the entire novel. He just doesn’t shout about it.

First off, given the Wen Remnants claim, Wei Wuxian leaves right from the banquet to go chase them down, which is something he can do without incurring greater societal rancor because he was not a guest at the banquet. Lan Wangji is a guest and both host and guests do have rules and expectations to follow that would make it much more difficult for him to chase after Wei Wuxian without bringing down ire upon the Lan too. Remember, at this time in the book, the Lan Clan is still rebuilding their home that was burnt down with the help of the Jin, they are not quite as free to do as they please as the Jiang are. By the time he would have been able to get there, Wei Wuxian would have already spirited away the Wen from Qiongqi Path, meaning there’d be nothing for him to see. In addition it’s not as if he’s doing nothing at the banquet, he speaks in defense of Wei Wuxian both against the Jin and his own family, which is not doing nothing by any means. He’s fighting on different battlegrounds because he and Wei Wuxian are in different positions.

As for your latter questions, I wonder if you’ve ever heard of the concept attacking on two fronts? Yes, Wei Wuxian sacrificed everything to protect the Wen and give them time, but for all of that sacrifice, it’s doing nothing to stop the roar of the mob. He is an imposing figure to be sure, but he is one man and they are many. In addition, he is mostly staying in one place and working on keeping them alive, meaning that while the Wen are safe, everyone else who is not a cultivator is still having to deal with the hypocrisy of the cultivation world alone, which is where Lan Wangji, who appears wherever chaos is and helps people with their problems however small they seem. In addition to that, he is also continually speaking out at meetings on Wei Wuxian and the Wens’ behalf, we see him do this at the same meeting as Mianmian leaving her clan and we know he spoke up other times from when he and Wen Ning chat on the boat. Just because he wasn’t there in the burial mounds doesn’t mean he wasn’t doing anything and his morality was more questionable, it means that he was fighting those battles on other fronts - fronts where Wei Wuxian could not go, where Lan Wangji does have more power because he is a clan heir, because he is Hanguang-jun, because he is someone noble and strong willed enough to stand up to the bloodthirsty mob again and again and keep shouting back.

Also anon, the reason why Lan Wangji hesitated to “help” Wei Wuxian that much in the past (which he doesn’t, he gets rebuffed by Wei Wuxian half the times when he tries to help and successfully gets to help the other times) comes mostly down to Phoenix Mountain, where he made a significant, grievous error and crossed lines he should not have crossed with Wei Wuxian and that is what shakes up his confidence in helping Wei Wuxian for a while. He’s ashamed of himself for acting the way he did and wronging Wei Wuxian in his actions and it is that dissonance between his wants to be moral and his wants with Wei Wuxian that rattle and force him to spend time rectifying things. He keeps his distance and is cautious and careful with Wei Wuxian because the last time he did what he wanted heedless of what Wei Wuxian wanted, he ended up pinning him to a tree while blindfolded and forcing a kiss on him. That isn’t something that he is taking lightly, and it is clear that it has shaken him to the core.

Really, what I would argue that the biggest difference in Lan Wangji pre and post thirteen years is where he’s just done with trying to win by the rules the cultivation world sets. He’s seen what happens when you follow those rules, how even when you stand up to them in the ways they claim to respect that their words mean nothing, and he won’t give them the benefit of the doubt any longer. Which is something that can only come with maturity and is also something that Wei Wuxian learned in that same time span, Wei Wuxian never turned the defenses he’d made for the Burial Mounds so that they would respond to Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng brought a siege on him.

The answer I have for you anon, is that they both have been equally moral in their youths and more so as adults because they are both learning and growing and developing that core within them as they grow. Be careful not to conflate sacrifice with morality, while it can indeed be a sign of great morals, it is not the only way such morals can be shown, and to suggest that Lan Wangji’s actions - helping others who still need his aid when the Wen are being taken care of by Wei Wuxian, speaking out on their defense, rescuing Wei Wuxian and taking him back to the burial mounds after the events of nightless city, and then surviving and living to save Wen Yuan and to raise him and other children so that they will not make the mistakes their elders did - are less moral because he gave up less than his life to do so is something that I find distasteful indeed.

Vulcan!lwj meets betazoid!wwx for the first time only to feel the waves of chaotic aura this guy has.

Meanwhile.

Wwx: wow! What an emotional vulcan!

"He killed 3000 ppl!" That's literally confirmed as false. 2nd of all everyone in nightless city literally grouped up there to watch an innocent women burn to death than spit on her ashes than team up to go kill her (knowingly) innocent family, everyone there was on there way to attack wwx but god forbid wwx fights back (and even than him fighting back was a last resort)

Fans who believe or try to frame what happened at nightless city as Wei Ying being the one in the wrong or even say his actions were unjustified boggles my mind because he didn't even start it!

He showed up and quietly listened to Jin Guangyao openly break his promise to Wen Qing and Wen Ning. Watches as he riles up the crowd into lusting for his and the Remnant's death, calls him out on it, tries to argue against their accusations with very legitimate points.

AND GETS SHOT.

If he wanted them all dead, he could have so very easily hidden himself in the shadows and played his flute. Condemning them to die before they could even lift a finger. But no, he showed up to TALK.

The clans were happy about him getting shot too until they realized they'd just made him angry.

Wei Ying didn't show up with the intention to fight. He didn't show up to seek revenge. He didn't show up with any desire to even cause harm. But that arrow and the way the clans reacted to it made it more than clear that talking wasn't going to persuade them to leave him and the Remnants alone. So he fought. Not for himself. But for the Remnants. His family.

And that was his fault? The people there that night KNEW what they were doing. They reaped what they sowed. They showed up with the intent to kill an innocent group of people who had done them no harm.

He had every right to lethally attack and defend himself against the people who were also lethally attacking him.

Framing the whole incident as Wei Ying being the one at fault is the PROPAGANDA that the clans created. Why are so many readers falling for it????

A strong start. 

It's been a while since I've asked for fic recs. So here: please share you mdzs fics with me (Any kind of fic as long as its wangxian friendly :))

ppl will be like i don’t want to read ooc fics and not realise fans have so many personal interpretations of canon that ooc means a different thing to different ppl. like my favourite fics i’ve ever read all have slightly different characterisations and yet i devour them all with hunger. what makes a fic great, to me, maybe has more to do with consistency of voice than with a consensus on what ‘in character’ means, more to do with the quality of writing and the strength of the premise and whether my heart gets shattered and healed or not

I finally read Autumn flower by @scarlettohairdye so I had to draw wlw t4t wangxian for Lan Wangji’s birthday. I'm not crying, you're crying!! 😭

<3 Bones <3

Happy 100th birthday, De (January 20, 1920).

I agree with this especially the shen jiu one. Don't get me wrong what shen jiu went through is horrifying! (And sometimes I feel like the fandom really doesn't take the stuff he went through srsly but that's a story for another day) but we have to remember that traumatic past DOES NOT EQUAL a justification to abuse!! Like what binghe went through was traumatising I feel like people forget that the tea incident was not the worst thing shen jiu put him through, by the time shen Yuan had transmigrated this child had been whipped, forced to kneel infront of the gates for who knows how long, bullied physically and verbally by this peers, Shen Jius past is an explanation to his behaviour. Not an excuse. I repeat.

(Actually I feel like this isn't just a svsss fan issue but a mxtx one in general Jc fans also have this mentality of "Oh he had a sad backstory! That's why he did all that he did!")

can we get 7, scum villain for the ask game pretty please?

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

I can't lie, Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu.

Now before you crucify me and say "oh but you like LQG and he's an ass" HEAR ME OUT🤚

I feel like the "everyone loves shen yuan he can do no wrong" is a little annoying and SOME of the fanfics I've read or the art I've seen have just reduced him to a damsel in distress or babyified him and I am mad because his canon self is so funny (exhibit A, how he acts in the donghua)

also he's kinda annoying in those fics too and mfs tend to over feminized him when that is a fully able bodied grown man with a job (several of my blood vessels explode violently when someone calls shen jiu mamajiu cause brother eughhh)

as for Shen Jiu, I just think the glaze for him is insane and I cannot get over the fact that this guy is a voluntary abuser to basically an innocent child and his fans (SOME FANS BTW SOME FANS THE NORMAL ONES R FINE) are like "he did no wrong!" "He's just a diva!" "that's just a skill issue on lbh's part" just cause his backstory is tragic, some even outright excusing it cause he technically suffered more like erm💀 (i also know this is old discourse within the community but this is my opinion, you asked so you will hear what I say)

The thing is about these characterizations with the Shens is was that it funny at first but now I find it so annoying and SJ's characterization into some tsundere bottom made me cry real manly tears

My main point: I liked SQQ first, he was my fave when I was first dabbling into the fandom, but then I made the mistake of picking up fanfiction and now either feel indifferent to them or outright annoyed when they show up AND IT'S SO SAD BECAUSE THEY'RE GENUINELY SUPER INTRESTING CHARACTERS UGH

The LGBT+ community, or as we're better known, the KPELIHD community