m-le

Latest Posts by m-le

It’s also slowly expanding to Winx with Sky and Brandon 🤭

You gotta love German dubs cause nowhere else you get the core four ninjas as psych characters 😂

Shawn = Zane

Gus = Jay

Buzz = Kai

Mary = Cole

Me and my friend @m-le are giggling like crazy abt this!

Another party fun fact abt this is that Kai’s voice actor is also the Voice actor for Anakin Skywalker which is absolutely hilarious if you think about it.

Really you can totally spin a very interesting multiverse conspiracy net with German voice actors and it’s just sooo much fun 🤣

the way p&p 2005 said: here's one of the most beloved enemies to lovers romances of all time, we don't need to change anything but here's keira knightley and the most socially awkward mr darcy you have ever seen. we're going to sprinkle in a hand touch and an almost kiss during an argument following a love confession in the pouring rain. what excellent boiled potatoes. yearn. you will think about this movie every day for the rest of your life.

I’m watching pride and prejudice for the first time and as I saw Mr. Darcy I felt as if I had seen him before. After long watching and careful consideration, I had a sudden thought and I knew where I had seen such an unpleased frown mixed with such challenged emotions before : Miles Edgeworth, prosecutor of the Ace Attorney franchise.

It fits so perfect. In Phoenix we find the strong willed and free spirited protagonist that is Elizabeth Bennet. Thus I must insist on a Pride and Prejudice AU of Ace Attorney.

As such it all begins with Pride and Prejudice, doesn’t it?

New Ninjago au idea :)

A „10 things I hate about you“ Au with the Smith siblings, but less angsty cuz wdym u paid a guy to get with ur sister 🤨

Nya would not do that and also there is not a universe where the ninja aren’t friends imo

Plot Basics: nya wants to date jay >jay also wants taht > ray and maya are a bit hesitant about that > the sibling clause is coined so Kai has to date someone in order for nya to date > nya and jay think about it and start playing matchmaker with Kai and cole > cole could already have a crush it noz and jay maybe just convinced him taht it’s a good idea idk or he’s calling in a favour > the movie plot more or less happens > everyone is happy and we have two couples

Ofc it can be jsut like the movie but I like when AUs take the inspiration and also the source material anf make a new brain child out of it cuz the characters are not the same which influences the choices they make etc.

But yeah I’m leaving this here and letting it sun :)

Shoutout to @emiko-talks83 <3

yea .

Bernard Dowd and the Art of Recontextualization

I'm what you might call a "fake Batman fan" - that is, I've only watched most of the Batman animated series', all of the live action movies, most of the animated ones, played some of the video games... so, you know, probably thousands of hours of my life in Batman related media. But not the comics! Fake fan!

Frankly, I find the comics medium the way DC and Marvel do it to be really hard to follow. There's the fact that you can't really follow an individual solo character without them getting caught up in massive crossover events that ruin their arc and pacing, there's the soap-opera-iness that encourages cheap and revolving conflicts inherent to the longform monthly release schedule, the writer roulette, and there's also just that going back to try and thread a particular continuity or character is an exercise in frustration. Oh and the retcons. Everyone hates those. They've (basically) never been good. Don't remember this part it will never come up aga

But, you know, despite this - or maybe because of this - comics is a breeding ground for ideas. Because of the quick turnaround and the demand for novel conflicts, comics just churn out idea after idea. Good ideas, bad ideas, doesn't matter. Get it to print. Retcon it later if we write ourselves into a corner. Comics are often soooooo first draft coded. This is why I personally prefer adaptations - they often reimagine ideas and retcon them into new narratives where they can serve a more coherent plot. But what happens when a character is picked up for a second draft ... without actually contradicting the earlier material? While enriching the earlier material, even?

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin and uh... 20 year old comics under the cut!)

So, uh, quick disclaimer - because I have very little overall knowledge of DC's Comics continuity, there may be more interesting examples of times that what I'm going to point out was done. But I love Bernard and from a writer's POV I'm impressed with the way they did it so we're talking about Bernard lmao

The Beginning (Robin 1993) - Reading comics from the 2000s hurts in a way I can't describe

Okay so I heard Tim Drake is dating a guy now? (Penny Sonic voice) Whoa he's bisexual I didn't know that! I'm sure people on the internet are being very normal about this. Cool let's find out more about his new bf. I like starting from the beginning... so like yeah hold on while I crack open the Robin comic and take down what this guy's deal is.

😬

So basically the TL;DR of Bernard in his original appearances is that he seems to be an attempt to introduce some normal stakes teen drama into Tim's life. He has all the Funny Guy Friend Classics - he's got an inflated sense of his proficiency at pulling girls, he's inexplicably drawn towards the protagonist (who is cooler than him), he wants to date the most popular girl in school, and he wants to get down with older women!

This might just be me but while I was going through this I thought like, he almost reads a little uncanny, like he's been filtered through a Disney Teen Special. In practice he mostly serves to introduce Tim to the Real Plot, Darla Aquista, and be one of his ties to civilian life, which is, like, fine. He's ultimately just a background character and he's so unimportant that he only has one appearance after their school gets shot up(!!!), which is, again, to be more of an accessory to the Darla plot.

After this display of "wow this guy's kind of lowkey insane for offering to his resurrected bestie supervillainess to be her manager actually", he's dropped forever. Comics! We're not gonna unpack that.

The Sequel (Batman: Urban Legends) - We're Gonna Unpack That

Until almost two decades later when he calls Tim up for a date. And while I'm trying to skim over a lot to get to the point here and I don't really know the FULL context, it is notable that Tim is in the middle of an identity crisis / the cusp of adulthood when this happens (I think he just lost a spleen or something. That sucks dude). It's pretty implicit that part of the reason he's going to see Bernard is because he's someone familiar in a time when he's facing a lot of new and scary stuff.

And at first blush, he really does seem like the same dude. The familiar arm over the shoulder, the banter, it's all very casual and similar to the ribbing from high school -

- and I guess nothing has happened to Bernard in the interim haha he's just the funny friend guy right?

I really like the way they did this. I'm just unambiguously going to praise how good this is if you just came off the 2000s stuff. Comics have kind of breakneck pacing by nature but they really manage to condense down and then pull off a neat sleight of hand over the course of like four pages here. They re-establish Bernard as a silly guy and then wham you with the fact that yeah actually we ARE gonna unpack that. Fuck you Tim Drake life is ever changing and nothing stays the same

So the TL;DR on the rest of the Urban Legends storyline is that stuff like, HAPPENED to this guy while our focus was elsewhere. He learned martial arts, presumably so that he wouldn't be so helpless in the next school shooting level event, he got into a pain cult, he's just Not Doing Well. We find out, reading between the lines, that calling Tim on a date was probably one of his last attempts to reach out to someone when the cult stuff was getting really bad.

I've heard people complain that Bernard is uninteresting or not a character or entirely focused on his relationship with Tim, and I think that criticism is really weird considering that his entire re-debut focuses on the point that he's been having his own life and making his own (often wild) decisions - ones that really changed the course of his life - while Tim was gone. And it's also notable that this story is about how the fact that he's his own person and has changed and has made the nerve-wracking decision to take action and call Tim inspires Tim himself to take a leap and fling himself into the uncertain waters of young adulthood.

Me when I have my bi awakening and call to get out of a rut simultaneously because Cute Insane Guy Inspired Me. iconic

So that's how Bernard has changed. But that's not recontextualization, that's just the writers taking a guy and making him do another, cooler thing. Well hold the fuck on because we're not goddamn done.

What did he mean by th-

The Recontextualizerrrrr (Tim Drake: Robin) - Bernard is the funniest person in Gotham City. I'll not be taking constructive criticism on this

Tim Drake: Robin is the followup to the Urban Legends story and Tim is the main character fr. Obviously. but Bernard is also a major character. Later, he even gets to be a POV character. But they don't do that for several issues, instead treating us to his shenanigans from Tim's point of view as he solves a bizarre serial murder case and like, they're cute! And neither of them are normal in the slightest. I love that for them.

Again, TL;DR, there are a lot of interactions where Bernard talks to Tim both in and out of costume, but we don't get to see his POV until they go out to a restaurant and meet Bernard's parents there by accident and Tim has to run off to do Robin stuff. And like... a lot of stuff happens in this one bois. Whammy after whammy

We're suddenly introduced explicitly to a lot that was only implied or just completely unavailable before. Bernard's parents are ragingly homophobic. Probably were never great even before that. He suffers from depression. All that is a lot to. wait. hold on a second

he knows?????

HE KNOWS????

Okay so if you stop at this point and reread the entire run so far you find out that Bernard is in fact the biggest troll in the entire universe. This is the moment that cemented him as my favourite, by the way. Like I had a feeling that he knew and I was just laughing my ass off when my suspicions were confirmed.

But this is really interesting on top of that because Bernard has been revealed to be, at this point, a guy who you should look deeper than the surface to understand. Someone who masks his true self and whose true motivations you can only uncover if you're really looking past the facade. Even with Tim, he sort of offers Tim and Robin half the story each, taking advantage of Robin's "distance" to give out information he wants Tim to think about but that he's reluctant to talk about frankly while at the same time almost daring Tim to open up about his identity.

Absolutely most normal way to tell your bf about your cult trauma. You'll always be famous to me Bernard Dowd

This is a really neat trick by the writers. It makes Bernard a multifaceted character who got to quietly develop while we were mostly focused on Tim, and there's some clever clever foreshadowing they set up in this run to achieve this. If it were just this, I would call it good writing.

But it actually goes one level deeper than that and becomes something really really special. because as we all know, Bernard was not conceived to be this way, he was a one-off guy who was kind of annoying and he was essentially retconned to be, like. Gay? Have depth? Be funny? All of those things?

The Seamless Retcon (Robin 1993 Again) - We took your guy and we gave him gay subtext and it worked astoundingly well

This is not a new observation btw, I've seen a ton of posts to this effect. But oh my god. Some of these panels really hit different with the new Bernard lore. Like holy fuck just read this back to back

There are tons of moments like this. There's SO MUCH that the revelation that Bernard is queer adds to his initially extremely underwhelming tenure in the Robin comics. A reread almost begs the question of what Bernard must have been thinking at any given moment! BRO YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO FUCK HIS STEPMOM. That's completely believable as a next-level closeting move and goes from kind of annoying to turbofunny.

Like yeah of course he's acting like a douche. His father is a status-chasing asshole and he's five racks deep in the closet. Of course he gravitates towards Tim - his gaydar is pinging and he thinks Tim is cute. And it's also pinging that Tim is like. You know

None of this would hit as hard if the writers had not set up Bernard as someone who masks so much. They worked it in that character trait to mean that you could always glean information deeper than the surface from his top level interactions.

Because of this, Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread. Like I said, that's a set of observations that are not new to me. But something that really gets to me is how seamless and intentional it is. It really feels like the writer sat down and took their time devising a guy that is believable as that other guy, but only if you read back with certain context.

The conclusion - Comics. Man.

So is this just about how Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread and that he can exist independent of Tim and all the haters are wrong. Yeah of course. 💖

But also like, I have thoroughly proven to myself that I was kinda wrong to just reject the published comics medium out of hand. I see now that there's room for the writer's roulette to hit the jackpot and that something I mistook as an outright flaw, the winding and unfocused and often improvised nature of it, can be ridden like a wave if you're skilled enough to do it. Meghan Fitzmarten is a goddamned genius.

I guess I have to read comics now. Fuck

Very random

But does anyone else have problems with socks that have a elastic band at the top (almost all of them) cuz they feel like they’re cutting off ur blood circulation or something idk

Cuz I favour the ones without the elastics as a result but u don’t really find them anywhere

Anyways would love some opinions

Ok so ppl of the internet

There’s no challenge because I’m right and no one will convince me otherwise

Fr tho I was thinking why no pairing with them really felt right and then it hit me: they’re all aro ace spec (it isn’t advertised on the picture like that but trust me bro)

But yeah they’re all on the spectrum because I said so and I’m aroace so I think I’m like the authority

In the end remember it’s all just funky brain waves (but I am objectively right so..)

Over and out :3

Its time :)

Im soooo happy u actually drew it 🥰🙂‍↕️

Was waiting for this 🤞🏻

Heavily encouraged by @emiko-fan-2podcasterin

Hatte einen Post über die TKKG Episode „Hinterhalt am schwarzen Fels“ gesehen und der Part mit dem Wolf heulen von Tim hat eine wilde Idee bei mir gefestigt:

Tim als Prinzessin Mononoke und dann Gabi als Ashitaka (der Typ von Prinzessin mononoke halt) und dann halt der Plot des Filmes aber halt mit dieser Änderung…

War einfach dieser Sprung von Wolf zu Prinzessin mononoke der extremst Sinn für mich gemacht hat lol

Enjoy this peace of wild thought of mine

Heavily encouraged by @emiko-fan-2podcasterin

Hatte einen Post über die TKKG Episode „Hinterhalt am schwarzen Fels“ gesehen und der Part mit dem Wolf heulen von Tim hat eine wilde Idee bei mir gefestigt:

Tim als Prinzessin Mononoke und dann Gabi als Ashitaka (der Typ von Prinzessin mononoke halt) und dann halt der Plot des Filmes aber halt mit dieser Änderung…

War einfach dieser Sprung von Wolf zu Prinzessin mononoke der extremst Sinn für mich gemacht hat lol

Enjoy this peace of wild thought of mine

Gedanken meinerseits zu die drei ???

Falls die drei sich je fürs College oder so trennen müssten, gibt es zwei Optionen:

1. sehr dramatische Situation, viele Tränen, viel Depression, viel alles, sie gehen zu dritt zur Therapie für mehrere Termine, löst sich freundlich und einigermaßen gut

2. auch Drama, Streit, Schuldgefühle, schlechte Kommunikation und die ganzen schlechten Seiten von deren basically co-dependency, reden vllt für eine längere Zeit nicht

In beiden fällen gibt es deren weirde co-dependence aber in einem Fall klären sie dies bevor es zum brechpunkt wird (weil co-dependency nicht healthy ist auf langzeit)

Am realistischsten ist es aber sowieso dass die ne WG machen und zumindest in der gleichen Stadt College/Arbeit haben (finde ich zumindest). Aber auch da müssen sie natürlich irgendwann ihre Probleme ansprechen 🤷🏻

Noch ein Gedanke

Habe die Rewe Edition Die drei ??? Bücher gelesen, welche jetzt nicht super charakterisieren aber

Man hätte zum Treffen zwischen Peter und Jeffrey auch Verabredung oder halt Treffen sagen können aber es wurde explizit das Wort Date genutzt

Ich spreche nur das aus was auf den Seiten steht (don’t boo me, im right)

Weiß aber auch nicht wie Canon diese Bücher sind . But still they exist with very queer undertones✋🏻

Und auch zu den Editionen: ich liebe Ellen, sie taucht zwar nur kurz auf aber sie ist so relatable . Sehr viel Liebe an Ellen und an Mandy die drei Sätze hatte und im Customer Service arbeitet, es ist nicht einfach🫶

Das war’s für heute

Disclaimer: Ich weiß nicht doll viel und bin müde also falls was nicht stimmt… der Mülleimer steht neben der Tür (/j)

It’s also basically all @emiko-fan-2podcasterin fault so… :)

Sometimes it’s just late in the night and im suddenly convinced that I can start any hobby at the same time with the right level of commitment and have it all go well.

I’m setting myself up for doom and also kinda ignoring my studying

But yeah, I’d be a great dm for a original dnd campaign

Maybe it will make its way out of my notes and dreams lol

finde wir sollten mal super spezifische deutsche AU prompts einführen.

- star crossed lovers meet in der Schlange vorm Pfandautomaten

- du triffst deinen soulmate in der bahn, eure augen treffen sich, der himmel voller geigen. ihr nickt euch kurz höflich zu, keiner von euch sagt was, du steigst die nächste station aus weil du noch zu aldi musst, ihr seht euch nie wieder

- enemies to lovers: wir haben uns auf ner wg-party getroffen und streiten uns bei club mate welches Bundesland besser ist (titelvorschlag: dein lokalpatriotismus ist nur ein stummer schrei nach liebe)

- Kaffkinder AU: sie sind zusammen bei der freiwilligen Feuerwehr, teilen sich ihr erstes radler an einem sommerabend um halb acht aufm Bolzplatz und hören sportfreunde stiller auf nem mp3 player

- Zwei Referendare bonden weil sie realisieren dass Bundesjugendspiele auch als Lehrer scheiße sind und gründen eine unheilige Allianz gegen das Kultusministerium

- found family trope: ihr seid die vier einzigen Leute unter 50 beim CSD planungskomitee eurer kleinstadt

- nochmal enemies to lovers: ich bin tempolimitverfechter und du fährst nen BMW :/

- du bist ein cop und ich hab seit 2014 keine Rundfunkgebühren bezahlt, secret identity, heavy angst, organised crime au, 400k, rated m for violence

feel free to add more

As someone who has watched a few Arthurian adaptations, I was immediately intrigued by „Gwen & Art are not in love“ by Lex Croucher.

I mean ur telling me we get the Arthurian myths in combination with a medieval queer love story ?!

Even though I nowadays tend to have problems starting printed literature this one flew by and I finished reading in the span of a day and a bit.

To start not only is the story great but I’m also a big fan of the cover art <3

We get not only the exploration of the queer love stories between Gwen & Bridget and Art & Gabriel but also growing Friendships and some battle action fitting for the Middle Ages.

Next to the fighting it does also have some minor alcohol abuse and partly deals with death. And since it’s the Middle Ages and people just love hating other people, the mentions of queerness etc are not always positive.

Im personally a big fan of how all the relationships evolve and the people change :)

Spoilers for the plot of the book!

Little rant from me :|

Although it was a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, I must admit that the typical plot of:

character a either did something accidentally wrong or is said to have done something wrong (although that’s false) and character b immediately believing that and now judging/having a grudge against/hating character a. Which then only confuses character a who doesn’t get any information from anyone around them to what they’re said to have done wrong and is jsut lost and hurt. Especially after things are jsut starting to look right between the characters.

It’s not that it is that unbelievable that it happens (it’s here and there) but more that sometimes it just annuls like every character growth the two or more characters had together and after there is never really a apology or an acknowledgment of this being hurtful to character a, since it jsut confirms taht character b would be easily able to believe this about character a. And my biggest fight with this trope is that the friend of always tend to just side with character b although they’re often both they’re friends or even character a‘s friends.

Luckily it’s not that big of a part on the book but it tends to really ick me when reading something which is really great.

Personally I just loved how Arthur helped both siblings more or less take some responsibility and self control for their own desires and life wishes. It was interesting to see the differences in how they acted around being queer, since they were raised very similar but oh so different.

Also just some special mention of my boy Sidney: he’s not only the most loyal person in the story but also is just a really amazing best friend to Arthur all while he also has his own little love story :)

It may be extremely simple but I loves the conversation Art and Sidney had about the pendant („it’s cold and black jsut like my heart“ „no, your heart is soft and yellow, like marzipan“😭)

Some other favourites of mine: we have a map of Camelot :), Bridget’s witch friend, the court magician, Excalibur nine 🙂‍↕️, everyone in the castle thinking Gwen and art were getting intimate, Gabriel’s more or less obsession with birds, background gay King Arthur/Lancelot, Agnes <3

Sometimes it was really frustrating how oblivious and sheltered Gwen was but seeing that she had not had any friends (not sure if it was explained) and also did not leave the castle, it seems realistic enough that she turned out like this. Still hard to read at a few instances. But I could definitely see how she and Gabriel are siblings as they both are really afraid of dancing out of line.

Also Arthur definitely had enough self loathing and alcohol issues for the both of them. Like, my guy, when are u sober. And also they both were immature when they were younger since they’re were children (duh) but also like how should gwen have known taht ur dad is a fcking ass (just my opinion )

I definitely do love all of the main cast so that is not meant to bash any one of them. They’re just realistic and all have flaws (although I’m not sure about Bridget she is pretty perfect :3 only female knight, noble ladies tend to fall in love with her, strong and capable, knows her boundaries (especially with not wanting to be treated like a secondary thought by her lovers)and she wields Excalibur nine) and good features. :)

Not always the biggest fan of open endings but I think here it does work well although I would have loved to see the speech and followed reaction 🤷🏻 maybe we would have seen Merlin and Morgana get back from their sabbatical hm

Spoiler ending here!

So I know it sounds negative at a few instances but do read the book it’s great. I think it’s a very easily enjoyable story that really pulls u in and makes u feel as part of the group. :))

Thsi is not eloquent or the best review in any way just me somehow bringing my feelings and thoughts to screen :) 🪼🪻

Okay so extremely random probably but please someone indulge me

(This has spoilers for final destination I guess)

I just watched the first Final Destination Movie w/ @emiko-fan-2podcasterin and before we saw the last death happen, an idea came to mind:

An au were instead of Carter dying at the end, they get just away from the situation in Paris and are now more or less bonded together. This entails moving in together, going to college together, having same classes etc etc , because they are trying to infinitely avoid the others deaths by having a constant cycle of saving going on.

So now they are like „Welp I guess we’re stuck with eachother ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ“

So everyone around them: teachers, students, neighbours […] only knows them as a trio and u can not understand any circumstances find one without the other two.

Now this whole thing is a comedy sitcom with a bit of catastrophe a la Murphy’s law and a hilariously casual way they handle it after the time that passed.

Also in the humble opinion of my friend and I: they are in a poly relationship like at least after a few years it won’t just be Alex&Clear and Carter anymore but Alex&Clear&Carter (no I don’t take criticism on this)

I will sadly not be writing the whole thing cuz I always get stuck when writing very easily and I don’t want anyone (not even myself) to have to wait for my writing :|

Would love to hear some opinions on this since I don’t even know how existing the Final destination fandom in 2024 is especially since my knowledge of it is only from the first movie :)

(P.s. I loved Seeing Ali Larter in this personally since I only knew her from legally blonde which is one of my favourite movies :))) )

Foreshadowing is a literary device

this.

Sometimes the line between aromanticism and polyamory can be blurry as HELL and I think the anime Romantic Killer truly understands that.

I've been obsessed with Jiang Cheng since halfway through my first watch of cql, and here's why. He always keeps doing better than I expect him to.

(wow, this got long. rest is under the cut!)

He's introduced as the brother-killer, the ruthless sect leader with a reputation for being merciless. Then cut to the flashback, a Jiang Cheng who is fifteen, surrounded by his sister and brother and happy about it, occasionally doing stupid teenager things, trying so very hard to be Ideal Heir, while Wei Wuxian is the prodigy that keeps stealing his thunder effortlessly. And you go, "oh, I know this story. It's a tragedy, because these brothers loved each other once, but one's ambition will eventually breed jealousy which will fester into hate and end, tragically, in the death of the better half." It's Cain and Abel! You've seen how it ends, it's the first scene you see, of course that's where it's going!

And then you see how the three siblings help each other survive a frankly horrible and abusive household. They try to do for each other what their parents couldn't; Yanli tries to be their mother, Jiang Cheng doesn't believe the rumours about Wei Wuxian being jfm's illegitimate son or hold it against him as he very easily could've learnt to from his mother, and Wei Wuxian does his darned best to get jfm to acknowledge and love his son as he does for Wei Wuxian.

You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop!! Yunmeng burns, Jiang Cheng chokes his brother in the rain, and you think this is it, this is where it finally breaks. But he sticks with his brother and sister, he makes some stupid decisions in his grief and pays dearly for it. When he wakes up without a core he is broken, his 'ambition' is destroyed, and you remember him choke his brother and think this is it, and then... it isn't. Other than the one grieving rant in the rain, he never blames his brother for their loss, never demands that he fix it all. When Wei Wuxian does come with a solution, Jiang Cheng doesn't act like it's something he was owed. It's his brother, his brilliant genius brother, who miraculously fixed this impossible thing! He's the most Jiang of them all, of course he achieved the impossible!

And then he's the young sect leader in a bloody war, needing to win, needing to prove his worth and his sect's worth at every turn. This is where he becomes the ruthless, powerful man we meet in the first few episodes! Only.... he finds Wen Qing, who is the enemy in the eyes of the Jianghu, and offers to protect her (only her because he knows his limits, he can't protect all her people and his own, and his duty to his sect is first). He goes looking for his brother, months on end, haggard to the bone.

Then Wei Wuxian shows up wielding a power that's the worst taboo in their world, a power frighteningly similar to the power-drunk villain that they war is being waged against! He's doing unspeakable things, terrible torture in the name of revenge! Ah, so this is what it finally is! The moment they finally fall out for good, where Jiang Cheng cannot abide to tarnish his sect's reputation with Wei Wuxian's, and their love turns to hate.

But.... Jiang Cheng sees what he's done, and the first thing he does is to hug him tight. He asks about Wei Wuxian not carrying his sword, but even after the diplomatic nightmare of a war council, Jiang Cheng is just worrying. It's the most open, the most honest we've seen him so far, and he is concerned for his brother. He shuts it down when Jin Zixun tries to pick a fight. He takes responsibility for the person everyone's wary of, because that's his brother and he trusts him! He's hiding things, yes, but one day he will be ready to talk and Jiang Cheng will wait till then.

Then the war's won (by Wei Wuxian, of course!) and he has a sect to rebuild. And his brother is not at his side. First he's slacking off and drinking around town, then he runs away with the Wens to the Burial Mounds. It's terrible for the sect's and Jiang Cheng's own precarious position in Jianghu. Surely, this is the last thread of Jiang Cheng's love for his brother, the beginning of the man we were introduced to? But it's fucking not! Yes, he's frustrated. Yes, he's mad. And yet, he doesn't force his sister into a diplomatically advantageous marriage (which I strongly believe is the bare minimum of being a decent human being, but is something that wouldn't have been a questionable or dishonourable thing for him to do in the culture and world this story is set in) because she is not a pawn and he respects her choice above the politics! He tries to defend his First Disciple, his brother, and is overshadowed by much more powerful leaders who are bigoted and/or afraid of his power. And when it all goes to shit, they fight! This is the end of it, surely? But no! It's all fake! They fight, make up a lie about how the Yunmeng Jiang has supressed Wei Wuxian and his Wens in the Burial Mounds so they can live without being under attack for however long, and then have shady meetups to discuss their nephew's name!!

In the carnage of Nightless City, their sister dies at his hands, and the horrible realisation dawns that this is what pushes them over the brink, literally. And then!! AND THEN!!!!! EVEN THEN IT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR HIM TO KILL HIS BROTHER!!! The first scene was a lie, WEI WUXIAN HAD TO THROW HIMSELF OFF!!!!!! And when he's finally back, what does Jiang Cheng do? Kill him? ban him from ever returning to their home? No! He wants to drag him back home and make him apologise, explain himself!!

A lot of this is very focused on the brothers, but even outside of that, Jiang Cheng keeps subverting the expectations that the story builds for him right in the beginning. For all the talks of 'disciplining' his nephew (which could unquestionably entail some form of corporal punishment, as we see in other parts of the story) and the childhood Jiang Cheng himself had, the idea of his Jiujiu raising his hand against him is unthinkable to the point of incredulity for Jin Ling. When Jin Ling has his breakdown over Suihua on the Lotus Pier docks, I was full bracing myself for Jiang Cheng to yell at him for crying in public without any shame or dignity, but what does he do? Calls his nephew to his side and demands to know who made him cry, so he can fucking wreck them for daring to do that! He has a mere day to process the Golden Core reveal, and after all the yelling, he actually apologises to his brother!!

Then, in the mother of all sucker-punch moments, we find out that the one grief-riddled, frustrating moment of apparent stupidity whose domino effect this entire thing has been, was in fact Jiang Cheng willingly sacrificing himself, sect be damned, to save his brother and sister. And like!! How do you have such a character who simultaneously is and is not what he seems to be!!!

I (and a lot of the audience) immediately played into the simple brotherhood-destroyed-by-jealousy plot that it seems to be at first, but that's the intention! The entire story keeps showing how misleading, how vicious rumours can be and how horribly it can affect who someone is in the eyes of society. We see this happen in the story, of course, but the narrative also relies on the audience to make the same mistake, to take the tropes that seem obviously implied at the start, and then unravels the true complexity of the story as it moves forward. We got played by the narrative and it was so worth it!! Wei Wuxian is the prime example, of course, but cql (and mdzs from what I gather, though I haven't read the books) does it with such nuance and brilliance for Jiang Cheng, how do you not immediately lose your entire mind about it for the rest of forever!!!!!

Me and my friend talking about Charles and Erik be like:

Friend: They ruin me every time I think about them too much

Me: They could’ve had it all with a compromise but NOOOOO CHARLES, YOU HAD TO GET SHOT AND LET ERIK CRIPPLE YOU

Friend: But also : communication??? They don’t know her !!! Like literally??!!! Talk with a couples therapist between you and her having a spray bottle for cats in her hands

can i just say that the friendship between shawn spencer & burton guster means absolutely everything to me. these characters are genuinely just the bestest of friends. theyre pals. buddies even. they are everything that i aspire to be and have. they have their ups and downs but like seriously they are awesome for each other and its so refreshing to see.

Transmasc Shawn, except he grows up in the 80s, with no vocabulary for this in his small city cop household childhood, so he's a tomboy demanding to be called by the male version of his name because it's "cooler" and wants to play with the boys. And his dad always wanted a son to step into his footsteps and trains him and pushes him to sharpen his skills. And both of his parents, wellmeaning but misguided, think it's just a phase.

And he doesn't grow out of it, and puberty just makes it worse. He becomes angry, rebellious. He dates girls, like Abigail, but he knows that he needs to leave to find himself, even though he's still missing the precise vocabulary for it.

And then he leaves for a while, takes odd jobs, travels through America, and meets another trans person for the first time in his life. Maybe at the dance group in Buffalo. Or in rural Argentina. He doesn't tell anyone when he begins to transition. He's somewhere halfway across the continent and he's fully himself for the first time.

And, meanwhile, Gus is doing an internship and he gets introduced to the concept of "sex changes" (it's the late 90s or early 00s) and he has so many questions, enough that the doctor thinks he's mtf, but Gus is just figuring out that his friend was "born in the wrong body" (again, 90s-00s) and that there's solutions for that.

And then Shawn turns up again and he's just. A guy now. Gus takes a second to recognise him on street but when he does he's overjoyed. His father needs time to process it. He's not overtly transphobic, he's just processing that his kid never felt comfortable enough to tell him this. And Shawn tells him he tried telling him, but he didn't know how. And Shawn tells him he always wanted to have a son anyway so what's the problem. And there's a bit of tension between them but Henry realises his son is a lot happier than his daughter.

And then Psych happens and Shawn has to juggle several secrets and identities at once. But it's fun to say things like "when I was a girl scout" and "when I got my first period" and "when I was a little girl" and have everyone laugh because it's so unbelievable to everyone that he's not just joking.

Almost forgot to post this but..!

If we believe in bi Shawn Spencer (which ofc we do) then we too have to believe in bi Burton Guster.

Why? You may ask; because Shawn does not just know he’s bi. That’s a realisation for later :)

Why does he not know that he’s bi? Well because Gus also does not know that he is bi.

Now imagine small Gus and Shawn talking:

Shawn (small and oblivious): hmmm I think that guy is really pretty. Is that normal Gus?

Gus (also small and oblivious): Idk, but I think the same. Must be normal.

Shawn: You’re Right. Want to learn how to shoot a bow?

Gus: Sure

Alas they never questioned it and Shawn never had a realisation cuz if Gus thinks the same it must be a “normal” thing. (Normal in this situation a cis straight thinking that ofc isn’t right but yknow what I mean)

It’s not that Shawn isn’t aware of homosexuality etc but he just thinks that his “attraction” to men isn’t a sexual or romantic one cuz he and Gus feel same on the matter and as long as he doesn’t know that Gus is bi he also won’t know that he’s bi.

Also they’re both neurodivergent which at that time is a whole nother thing.

That at least is my humble opinion on the matter.

My faves :)

i want to be your wall!

I’m a big fan of all of these having main colors to work with and making them more stand out against eachother but also leaning more into the design of teh celestial spirits themselves <3

redesigning star dresses part 2!

part 1

notes and individuals are below!

virgo ~

- really wanted to step away from that sexy maid aesthetic. my goal was to mix maid with a princess silhouette to reference virgo’s nickname for lucy.

- so i added elements of cinderella’s look like the side fabrics, choker and longer dress.

- using just black is so boring so i brought in some pink and chose to instead use greys

- so many lucy dresses have pigtails so changing the hair also has a more practical element because it’s pulled away.

~ scorpio

- I actually love the og scorpio dress. It’s so different to all the other looks and so easy to distinguish that it’s scorpio.

- i wanted to play into a trackstar / athlete look just so it has an aesthetic that stands out. i also used shapes found in scorpios tail and neck frill in her armour and top.

- i absolutely love the new hair, i wanted it to resemble a scorpion tails! Also just was bored by the normal head band and u know what why not do a cutest bow.

~ sagittarius

- my least fav og dress is is sag. the colour, the lack of shade range and the outfit is just…. yer not cute.

- so i was inspired by more fantasy archers and sag’s colours are screaming cool earthy ranger.

- i think the final result much better resembles sag in the colours and aesthetic.

~ capricorn

- this luxus bad girl moment and i love it. The og one is pretty good but i wanted to fully push it more.

- there’s strands of hair coming out of her bun to resemble horns and belt to resemble a tail.

- the og design is too black so i went with a darker purple to stand out. I didn’t want virgo and capricorns to look like a matching set.

~ aquarius

- there was a lot of pressure to do aquarius well because it’s significant star dress, a fan favourite and my own star sign!

- i leaned more in the mermaid aesthetic by using more fin silhouettes and pearl detailing

- i wanted to make it more practical so a more supported bikini and mini skirt under the fin like fabric.

~ full set

i’m so super proud of these designs and i’ve actually seen an improvement in my art. Maybe in the future i’ll do a piece with all of them or do yukinos dresses so lmk if ur into that.

if ur looked this far ty so much for reading all my notes xxx

Just had a thought that geminis dress could also be one of those loop dresses were the dress is connected to teh sleeves , atleast aesthetic wise

redesigning star dresses part 1!

notes and individual pieces below <3

keep this in mind i love the og stardresses! i just wanted to challenge myself and i’m an inspiring fashion designer!!! my goal was to create dresses that reflect the spirits and u could easily match them up.

these were my initial sketches, i wanted every dress/outfit to have a different colour and silhouette to make them more recognisable.

aries ~

- pink was the obvious choice for a colour. I didn’t want to use any major black like in the og design because aries design is so light and bright!

- i really think the og stardress hair is lacking. A fun fluffy 80s hair adds to the whole sheep aesthetic and creates a different silhouette to other designs.

- the 80s hair also inspired a more 80s look with fluffy legwarmers and big hoop earrings.

- i also wanted to bring in those pink pompoms on the side of aries dress so i made them star shaped and put them in lucy’s hair

taurus ~

- why put her in a bikini if she’s a cowboy??? this haunts me everyday.

- I couldn’t put her in mainly black and white cos that’s virgo i comprised and landed on a brown.

- for inspiration it was pretty obvious to go with a cowboys and the wild west! i always disliked the one leg pants her og design has so i modified it to a cut out.

- her og design was a mix of the aquarius and scorpio one and it always didn’t stand out to me, so i think by exaggerating the cowboy aesthetic it stands out much more.

gemini ~

- her og design is actually one my favs. so i really only made minor changes

- the colours stood out against other dresses and were easily identified as gemini. the dual colour symmetrical dress is a great way to reflect the double spirit.

- Gemini is a pretty symbol spirit so to reflect them i used circular shapes and organic lines. i changed the head piece mainly because i struggled drawing it but i realised it made the design too top heavy anyways.

- i extended the dress width and length mainly for silhouette reasons (she wears so many skin tight dresses) as well as to give a nod to the dresses the alternate geminis wear.

cancer ~

- my issue with cancer star dress isn’t the dress itself. I actually love the dress in the manga. it’s the colour. WHY IS GREEN?!?

- if it weren’t for the symbol i wouldn’t be able to match this dress with cancers design, so it had to change.

- other than that there’s no major differences, the ribbon tie is meant to resemble scissors, i love the claw shape hair ties in the og design so i brought them back and i brought the stripes in cancers top to her bow.

leo ~

- i was inspired by beauty and the beast, in the movie the beast kinda looks like lion.

- i swapped the yellow and black in the og design since it has a pretty similar colour story to virgos dress. The og kinda gets lost next to leo since the black doesn’t have variation and leo is in a deep black too.

- i wanted to make her hair bigger like a lions mane and curled around her face.

I need people to understand the love I have for the manga series called “I want to be a wall” by Honami Shirono. The manga talks about the marriage between Yuriko (aroace woman) and Gakurouta(gay man) who try to adapt to societal norms and their families pressure and expectations through that marriage. In the end their goal is to find their own happy ever after. Not only do we learn about them as people but they also grow next to eachother as partners and friends, while learning how to be ‘married‘.

I cried multiple times throughout reading it all cuz of how they voice their feelings and how realistic some of these situations are. But also many happy tears. All in all I’m happy to have experienced their journey and that of the others whose story was shown <3

The need to share this came cuz I just got delivered the third part and finished reading it with too many feelings to really talk about it. I just felt really understood in Yuriko’s character and how she feels about love, marriage and relationships and think that in the end it talks very sensible on the queer themes in all of it.

Part of the story are queer relationships, discrimination and the feeling of otherness.

So happy pride month ppl and read “I want to be a wall” 🏳️‍🌈

Just watched the Friday the 13th and the first Mr.Yang episode of psych with my friend (@emiko-fan-2podcasterin ). And I must admit as a disliker of horror, the first of these episodes was already nerve striking and a bit too much for me ( I’m extremely jumpy), but then on top of taht the emotional turmoil of the Mr.Yang episode with the awkward conversation between jules and Shawn in the end. That. That killed me, like I was mentally exhausted after that. So yeah… I definitely adored the Yang episode for the turmoil it gave me but also I need some time to recover from that.

And of course my friend was just very amused by my scaredness and inner turmoil at all of this

Anyway watch psych ppl

good news i finished Tim Drake : Robin, bad news i need More i want More i crave More i should've had a DC interest back when this was on going because i would've been the biggest hypeman ever.

Tim Drake unaware king, he doesn't know he lives in a place that would be the Top One Spot for hiding twenty bodies stitched together like the second coming of human centepede.

this also shows timbern loserboyxloserboy they are both losers about each other. they are so whipped with each other. i bet they sleep with the other in their mind and they twirl their hair while thinking of the other. Losers.

it also showed the 'vigilante is accused that they are dating their Own Vigilante Self' and its Funny

in conclussion, read Tim Drake : Robin so you can see him as a badass vigilante and the most loserboy boyfriend ever. he Cannot lie to bernard, he is Whipped.

An underrated aspect of But I'm A Cheerleader is that the butch, hairy, gnc woman is the only character who has a Conversion Camp revelation that she is, in fact, NOT gay. People just see the way she looks and put her in that box, so she simply feels like she HAS to occupy it. (This is exemplified by Rupauls immediate next insistence that she IS gay, and "who is she fooling?" Which comes off as very ironic from someone trying to con these kids into becoming straight.)

Much of the "conversion" in this film is just reintroducing strict gender roles, which does happen in conversion situations but this is obviously a very campy, over the top example. Of course the POINT is to show that the fact youre gay has nothing to do with your adherence to gender roles (both Dolph and Megan ARE picture-perfect images of the Man and Woman- even if they are gaslit into thinking they arent. Yet they are still gay!). But I think its oddly nice, in an older movie too, to see it put so plainly that the opposite is also true.

Your lack of adherence to strict gender roles doesn't determine your sexuality- but you'll be lumped in all the same and punished anyway, because that's how heteronormativity works. And that was always the purpose of gender roles to begin with- to keep people in line.