#like how the fuck did we decide on that

[front-facing-pokemon]

#something is very obviously different about these two compared to my normal images on this blog. i acknowledge this #also the sv model is Really good. and since they always stare straight at the camera anyway… and no one pays attention to the background… #and the only high-quality phantump model i could find was so horribly shiny that its eyes were just white voids #in my defense‚ phantump always just stare straight at you in game #the lighting is different‚ yeah. that's probably the dead giveaway. beyond the background. but like. i'm the only being on the planet who #really likes phantump anyway. i feel like it's a generally forgettable pokémon to most folks #phantump #HELLO this one is a weird one. i have some explaining to do. so when i did this one i didn't know how to edit models really at all #and when i got the models for these‚ the xy models were super shiny. shiny to the point that it made their eyes fuckin invisible #and i decided that since you could barely tell it was phantump‚ i needed a different way to get these images #i remembered that in the SV dlc‚ every time you find a wild phantump‚ it just fucking. stares. at you. and i was like. aha #i kinda remembered because of the test stream that i did. tumblr user alligayytorr (am i getting the right amount of Ys) said #“haha i am getting a sneak peek” when i zoomed the camera in on a phantump. and i remembered that. and i was like. i can utilize this #and ended up using just an in-game screenshot of SV in replacement of the regular content. later on‚ after that #once we got into gen 7 and it became less and less reliable to find models‚ i had to learn how to edit them manually to remove the shine #i am a software dev. not a 3d modeler. this ended up coming down to editing the code of the models directly (which i ended up writing a #script to automate). now‚ today‚ january 22nd (the day of me writing these tags and updating this post)‚ i remembered this post was in the #queue and was not normal. so i went back‚ ran the script on the phantump and trevenant models‚ and unshinified them #then edited these two posts to be normal. i have left the original pictures i took under the cut for reference and as bonuses #because i really enjoy phantump. so that's why those images are there‚ and that's why these tags are here #just for posterity's sake‚ the folks who come here mostly for my commentary‚ i've left the ORIGINAL tags of the post when i initially #made it with the SV pictures up at the top (i wanted to rearrange them‚ but tumblr makes that Very difficult‚ so i left them as-is) #so if these tags are confusing to read i Apologize. but i hope now that you're at the bottom you understand what happened #i'm gonna go edit the trevenant post now

[morrigan-sims]

Pirate Outfts

I was bored, so I started trying some different outfits on Zara... The last one might be my favorite, if only because I already used another swatch of the first one for Wolf, and I can't have them wearing the same thing... But I also love being able to see all her freckles in the 2nd one...

#ts4 #the sims 4 #sims 4 CAS #ts4 CAS #adventures in cas #my sims #cas #ts4 fantasy #ts4 pirates #sims 4 fantasy #sims 4 pirates #oc: Zara #(she's only about half mine but oh well. I came up with the idea for her and my DM took what I gave him and has been cooking with it.) #I'm so fucking nervous to see how her conversation with Rook is gonna go. #He's planning on surprising her which will be... interesting. #and we recently found out that she knew where he was for those two years and didn't do anything about it... #and the DM says she's been having her own problems in the meantime but she's not a captain anymore... #it's been 3 fucking years since Rook has seen her and she's still nearly a god in his eyes. #I've imagined a dozen ways the conversation could go and there's probably dozens more. #I just gotta wait A FEW MONTHS to find out. 😭😭😭😭😭 #funny thing is I never decided on a surname for her I don't think. #seems like I ought to but I just never did. She's always been Zara to Rook and to me. #pirates

[transmechanicus]

Really fucked up that two ppl can care about each other and make their best efforts to communicate and still end up hurting each other so badly they cannot stand to be in the same room.

#my stuff #i feel soooo bad talking to my therapist about the same topics over multiple weeks #like i feel like they're sooo sick of it like damn can this bitch get Over It alreadyyyy #hi yes actually can we talk about the near catastrophic sense of betrayal and loss that has haunted my soul for over a month? #can we talk about how I overcompensate for other's possible feelings and emotions to desperately mask my terror at feeling out of control #can we talk about how even when I know ppl acted with logical reasons necessary for their situation it still hurt me? #and that this pain fills me up with so much anger and frustration that I'm powerless to put anywhere that won't hurt someone #so it just cooks me inside and makes me grind my teeth constantly for weeks #im so angry i did not deserve to be treated like this it's not fair and I have no capacity to fix it or control when it feels better #i just have to survive and wait until i forget about it and hope they don't decide to reach out and fuck it all up #cause i can see that happening #i'll finally be free of thinking about them and generally going about my day unbothered and they'll ask to get coffee or something #and I have no idea what I should do in that scenario. because I don't think we can be friends. #and you have not treated me with the compassion and warmth I treated you #i would want to say mean things. hurtful things. I would want to bite back for once. #and that's not me. that's not who I want to be. #i don't wanna see you. go away. don't talk to me if you're not going to make the pain go away.

[matcha-goblin]

People when a human rights issue doesn't affect them: Oh, I'm not really involved in politics haha

People when a human rights issue does affect them: This isn't about politics! It's about people's lives!!

#for real it's like ppl use the label of “politics” to justify not caring about it #why is “politics” automatically boring and abstract and nothing to do with us? #and then when a political issue stops being abstract #it can't be political anymore #since when did we decide that giving a fuck about how human lives should be governed is just for the nerds? #not caring about politics is a privilege #politics #us politics #political commentary #human rights #leftism #i guess this is maybe a radical leftist take? #idfk

[ectonurites]

SUPER DARK TIMES [THE FROST — MITSKI]

this movie's had my brain in a vice grip all week

#super dark times #sdt #josh templeton #zach taylor #daryl and charlie are also there but this aint about them #well it is about daryl. it’s *all* about daryl at the end of the day. but ykwim #im simply a sucker for stories about best friends where everything gets sosososo fucked up 🤷‍♂️ #sam draws shit #sam edits #<- yeah it gets both tags i opened after effects for this #this movie fell into tht sweet spot for me where it was the right combo of compelling characters who felt Real with great visuals but also #with enough moments i was like ‘what. why?’ about that it keeps me thinking trying to decide how i feel about/interpret elements of it #like. i enjoyed it but it's flawed in the exact ways a piece of media needs to be for it to rotate around in my brain for a while #also i truly did NOT have the time to draw this i have so much other shit to get done but i couldn’t focus until #i got this idea out of my head so. here we are

[moongothic]

Honestly I think crocodile/dragon and crocodile/Doflamingo are only interesting when treated as failed relationships spinning off into increasingly petty grudges and instigations. Become a warlord to piss off one ex by working with his hated father only for the OTHER ex to ALSO become a warlord to drive you insane. Etc.

I am now going to take his as an opportunity to rant about Dragodile because I unironically think it's an interesting ship if Crocodad Real and I don't think I'm ever going to find a better excuse to rant about it unprompted lmao SO HERE WE GO

But yes like. Dragodile is so fucking interesting to me

A marine and a pirate falling in love with each other is already some starcrossed lovers kinda BS. But then it's like, a FORMER marine and pirate who is WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT. That's EXTRA JUICY, it adds layers to the starcrossed lovers shit, and I am not immune to it, it's FACINATING, like what was the dynamic here

But also we don't even know when Dragon left the marines and when he and Crocodile first met, so for all we know it could've been some real enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies shit AND THAT'S SO INTERESTING

(Also the mere concept that Dragon could've been chasing Crocodile around kinda like Smoker tried to chase Luffy, only for Crocodile to become a Shichibukai and Dragon having to give up because they're on the same side now (kinda). Like. That is so fucking funny. And then he leaves the Marines to start a revolution. Or just out of spite dshgjdgs)

Then there's the absolutely hysterical part where Crocodile is the meanest, most intimidating, standoff-ish asshole around. So the idea Dragon was fucking into that is INCREDIBLE. THIS MAN LIKES BEING BULLIED DFSHFKGHFGJHDS (It's possible Young Croc might've been less mean but it's funnier if he wasn't)

And yeah. Somehow. In complete secret. A romance blooms.

And then there's a baby.

And Crocodile transes his gender.

And there's a divorce.

And 17 years later Crocodile has commited dozens of unforgivable warcrimes that are almost exactly the kind of things Dragon wanted to stop the government from doing to begin with.

Mind you, I don't actually think there's coming back from that, this relationship was burned to the ground and the ashes blown away by wind, there is nothing left

But could you imagine if despite the anger and the hurt and the warcrimes they still somehow loved each other

I would just

#Moon posting #Crocodad #Sir Crocodile #Monkey D Dragon #Dragodile #OP Meta #I keep on mentioning Dragodile Divorce but to be fair we don't even know if they had been married #All we do have is the fact that Crocodile Very Specifically doesn't wear a ring on his ring finger (in the manga) #(First half of Alabasta it's his middle finger but from the second half onwards it's consistently been his ring finger) #And there's that SBS where a person asked if the Shichibukai were gonna remain single etc and if they had any kids #And Oda was like ''hMmM I wOnDeR iF aNy oF tHeM hAvE bEeN mArRiEd... Anyway I imagine their kids would be like this'' #And then very very specifically he only did Doflamingo Mihawk and **Crocodile** #So like. If Crocodad Real. The two could've been married briefly (in secret). Probably just engaged in my personal opinion #Also like. Like we all know Iva's Magic HRT is POWERFUL STUFF right #There is something so deeply tragic to me about the just the mental image #Of Crocodile trying to put on his engagement ring post-HRT only to realize it doesn't fit his massive man hand #Like a horrible premonition of how this relationship was going to end #Even if he was the same on the inside he no longer literally fit the mere concept of the woman Dragon had fallen in love with #Can you imagine the series of emotions Crocodile would've gone through realizing that #Or who knows maybe he realized it all much earlier-- when and however the fuck he decided to get HRT from Iva-chan #There is much to be said about One Piece's running theme of loneliness and the loneliness queer people experience #God Oda please I need this man's backstory #I need to know what the fuck happened #I NEED TO KNOW HOW THE DIVORCE HAPPENED #NGL there's a part of me that almost hopes Dragon was Objectively Horrible (in a heated moment that he really regrets) #Just so Crocodile could be at least a little justified in being at resentful towards Dragon #I dunno it would not sit too well with me if the Cishet Man Dragon was 100% In The Right And Never Did Anything Wrong #And then it's the transgender man who does all the morally questionable horrible shit because he's an evil queer #(There's more than plenty of positive queer rep in OP to balance out one (1) evil trans character don't get me wrong) #(But it would be sad if Crocodile was An Evil Queer especially because he's the one who has transitioned)

[the-real-list-of-ominous-threats]

I will make your weird masochist friend call you a tsundere and beg for you to hit him

#read the tags #this is entirely my own fault #i am very aggressive and use threats in real life just like i do on here #and to be fair i kept doing it after i found out because i crave chaos #i mean the whole situation is objectively really fucking funny so here we are #tw kink mention #figured I'd better mention that just in case #adam if you did decide to make a tumblr and follow me then uhhhh #sorry lol #i'm threatening people with you now because that's just how it goes #mod lore #(i feel so weird typing that but also i think it's an objectively funny tag) #(haha. i have lore.) #lizzy is going to see this and laugh at me #my friends know about this blog if they ever check it I'm never gonna hear the end of this one #because of the tags not because of the post itself #like to be fair i did once choke him to make him shut up. in hindsight i have no idea why i thought that was a good idea

[alyona11]

The duality of man is when you love Hadestown so much that you hate Hadestown

#me being me #idk something something show getting generic #like it’s still a good show but a good show and 4/5 and 8/10 rating for a show such as hadestown is shameful #I do think that hadestown should hit like a life changing event that made me fall in love with it #not like some generic Broadway/WE show that you see and vaguely remember liking a year after #and like it’s kinda sad to understand that it doesn’t quite hit like this now #either because of acting choices of some folks (which tbh not fully their fault and I wrote a post about it) #either because Anaïs decides to make a lyric change which is like the most obvious downgrade #that it makes me think ‘oh the show thinks I’m stupid’ #instead of idk making the one change people have been complaining for years #like even fuck it just idk leave what works working #idk I feel like seeing WE made me thinking about it more #and I did enjoy the show a lot and I had fun #but also I keep thinking how some small bits didn’t fit and the show didn’t hit as it should #which makes me feel of people who will experience ht for the first time and might not understand the show’s full impact like I did #idk just thoughts

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

helloooo my dearest darling listeners, i am back on my soapbox to regale you all with the marvelous things i witnessed/experienced on my Whimsical As Fuck™️ three hour drive today. not necessarily in order <3

some cute does with bigass floppy ears / very sweet waitress who called me "hon" and put the most tasty looking crepes on my table / a pair of hawks divebombing a golden eagle / a kite (the bird) / a flock of magpies / some GORGEOUS scenery / a rainbow / lovely rain sprinklings / MORE gorgeous scenery, i mean what the fuck / fields of purple/orange/red tipped bushes / a meadow of buttercup-yellow very tall grass, in which many picturesque trees stood / lots of fluffy, adorable, tasty cows / a large herd of likely-feral horses with a wonderful variety of patterns & colors / the fluffiest husky ever / the juxtaposition of cold wind through an open window + warm sunlight / the most stunning snow-coated mountain of whites and blues in the sun, wreathed in clouds / no seriously some really fucking Gorgeous scenery, i was near tears with some of it

#i am feeling. Better Than I Have In A While #you know! last night i was very unhappy that i would have to do this drive! #but after my 2 hour doze in the ihop parking lot #and a nice breakfast of crepes and tea w/ my book #i was feeling better and decided Fuck It. im gonna make myself enjoy this drive #im gonna take my goddamn time and really absorb my surroundings #by fuck i will stop at a rest stop and take a walk! and i did all of it! #life is actually worth it! glad to have continuous confirmation of that #its so nice to drive and actually see things #beautiful landscapes... wildlife... Geography... #instead of just Flat. Scrub. Brown. More Scrub. Dirt. Dead Scrub aka Tumbleweed. Boring Brown Hills. No Weather. #i can go outside the clouds are Full and the air is Fresh and birds are Singing and i am Alive #absolutely unprompted #i expect the feeling of realness to fade soon but i will enjoy it while it lasts! #and maybe if i feel it often enough it will outlast the disconnect! #now i think i am going to treat myself to a pork bun i just bought & get one of the nice beers from the garage #ive Earned It! #you all treat yourself to something you like as well. we have all earned it simply by existing! #you're here today! Yippee! indulge! #im feeling so fucking whimsical today... ill go work on setting up my extra monitor and figuring out how the fuck that works! #my mic has already arrived! i have hope that i will do a test stream Soon!

[snekdood]

yall are willing to die for trans women and not trans men and we should talk about it actually

#transandrophobia #you'll do anything to protect trans women but dont have that same energy for trans men. interesting. #anyways i think the reason this is is bc ppl like this think bc we're men we dont need to be helped or protected #that somehow we should have figured out how to do this on our own. that we dont need community bc we're already solid and tough enough #which is weird like. how are you trans friendly but then you dont do any other basic progressive shit like #getting rid of gender roles entirely instead of now instead applying them to trans people also? ?? #like you dont get to be all 'men should express their emotions and be vulnerable' and then reinforce the traditional gender roles on- #trans men still. like have you or havent you decondtructed that shit in your head or did you iust see someone reblog something that seema #correct w/o even doing any critical thinking or self reflecting or anything on your end at all #i didnt suddenly become made of rock and become invulnerable when i transitioned. bc that narrative for men in general is inaccurate- #and harmful. and even if i did become super buff and capable of mowing down my enemies that wouldnt mean i dont suddenly need community #that doesnt mean i become immune to bullets or that i dont need a space to express my emotions regarding being trans n shit #like yall really just want to leave us out here to die it seems like. we have nowhere to go. no real community bc yall wont give us the #time of day or compassion or anything. you think 'men bad' and thats the deepest your political analysis goes as far as im concerned. #and if thats the case how much better are you than a terf who just decided they were 'okay' with trans women? #p sure this post was inspired from a trans guy literally being a meat shield for other trans ppl and no one gave a fuck.

[blinkpen]

my family loves me but in a way that does not make me feel loved

and it hurts because i cannot make myself not love them

#sometimes you just have to think about how fucking alienated you are and how they literally dont get and it refuse to try to get it #ad it sjust #fuck #man #i know i know so many people online support me #but it is natural i think to ache for familial love and lament #i did nothing wrong but exist wrong #i want to be loved the way i am #but i cannot fix that #its not even that hard we let my brother chaneg his name just he wanted to #we stopped using the nickname we always used since childhood bc his wife eprsonally decided she didnt like it #why is using a new word for me so hard #i think if they even ATTEMPTED it'd mean the world to me #they could try and constantly fail! but a tleast that means they care enough to try at all! instead of telling me Not Possible from jump

[to-dance-beneath-the-diamond-sky]

You ever read a book or watch a movie and relate to a character so hard that it scares the crap out of you and then proceeds to trigger a full on mental breakdown? because that was Brian Lackey from Mysterious Skin for me

#it scared the shit out of me how much I related to him #Like okay damn what traumatic shit from my childhood have I repressed #anyways I had a lil menty b over it #and then Israel decided to ramp up and go full genocide so now I’m having a mental breakdown over that #And we can pack all the unaddressed unknown childhood trauma that may or may not have happened because I can’t fucking remember anything up #and pretend none of it ever happened #and I’m gonna convince myself that I was just making shit up and being crazy for relating to this character #because there’s more horrific things to have a mental breakdown over than shit I can’t remember from my childhood #so yeah #gonna force myself to not reread that book or rewatch the movie again #Because DAMN did it make me mentally unwell #and DAMN did that scare the fuck out of me #Anyways yeah I’m done neurodivergently oversharing in the tags #Mysterious Skin #brian lackey #scott heim #gregg araki #Personal

[mokeonn]

One of my favorite things about being in my early 20s is that I'm starting to understand that I can use things not for their intended purpose. When you're growing up, you get told what an object is and what its intended purpose is, and as a kid/teen, I just accepted all of it at face value. As a young adult it's finally clicking that I can simply do things a different way if it makes me happier. Sure, I was taught that you stand to take a shower, but there's nothing stopping me from just sitting if I don't feel like it, ya know? I might have always had my medication in the kitchen, but if I'm no longer remembering to take it, I can just move it somewhere where I can remember. You don't have to specifically store all food in the kitchen, you can have a little snack cart or snack station in another room.

The downside to finding out the various ways you can use objects is that you develop habits that would probably go on an r/relationships post where everyone says you're a little freak.

#simon says #i just developed a new habit (it's too tmi to put here) and I just know that it's some weird shit #it works and it makes me feel better so I'm gonna keep doing it #but it's some shit that would end up viral where everyone would go 'yo op you should break up with them thats weird' 😔 #i was just thinking about this though because every week or so I learn that I can just do what I want #because there's no fucking object use police I can do what I want #i HIGHLY suggest getting into this habit. if you find something annoying or frustrating you can just do it differently #'I hate washing the dishes because my legs hurt from standing for so long' you can bring a chair and sit or you can break it up into chunks #like on the one hand I'm learning this because I have autism and a plethora of other mental disorders #and it's FINALLY clicking that I can self accommodate whenever and however I so please #I'm just sorta learning that if doing something makes me feel better/happy/gets the job done to do that thing #even if it requires using an object in an odd way #hell there's even some little things I've been playing with #for example: my whole life we sorta just lifted blinds only about halfway up #just sorta how we did it ya know #well recently I decided I wanted more natural light in the sunroom/my office so I wouldn't have to turn on the lamp #and I lifted the blinds all the way up to the very top #and honestly?? it fucking rules. the room looks nicer; i get natural light; i can see the forest out back and it's quite calming and nice #like for ages I just never thought about doing that because it just never occurred to me that I could #i just always put blinds about halfway up because that's about how high blinds do in my household #another little one I learned is that I can just... wash my hair #sometimes when I get too depressed or if my body doesn't need a shower but my hair is greasy #I just shove my head under the bathtub facet and wash my hair #it's just a small thing but for years if my hair needed to be washed I would just take a full shower #now I just fix my greasy hair. bc greasy hair is a huge ick for me but sometimes my body is still clean or im too tired to fully shower #like there's nothing stopping me from doing that and it doesn't hurt anyone. it's just a way of bathing that I wasn't taught #but yeah those are some recent examples of me learning I can just... do stuff differently #the free will is kicking in babes and it has decided I love finding ways to use things differently #it's why im doing a bg3 run where I just press loot all no matter what and use whatever I can in odd ways #anyways I might delete this later might not who knows

[quietwingsinthesky]

or funnier: maybe lucifer does apologize (poorly) to sam and castiel (this does not help anyone) (they do not want it) (he’s so proud of himself for making strides in his Redemption) but he doesn’t even talk to dean. and dean (<- problems man) brings it up resentfully, probably in front of cas and sam, and lucifer goes ‘:/ what did i even do to u, man. beat u up? that’s just ur day job, deal with it.’ and dean has to figure out how to articulate that actually, lucifer possessing sam or cas was a crime against dean and he deserves something for that, without sounding like he’s insane.

no, actually, thought about it for a minute. he would just say that outright without considering that it’s a wild thing to claim. and he’d then turn to the two of them like they’ll back him up about this. and you know what? they probably would. <3 what is wrong with this family. he’s still not getting even an apology from lucifer.

#the apologies are the most useless thing in the world they mean nothing. dean is just mad he was being ignored #and because lucifer is only doing this because he’s head over heels for mary and wants her to like him. #dean’s mommy issues have turned on and decided this is proof his mom doesn’t love him actually. #because her devil not-boyfriend isn’t begging for his forgiveness (note: he did not do that for sam or cas either. he just said ‘damn. sorry #i fucked u up. alright we’re good now.’ and left. because he is terrible.) #(dean voice) sam tell the devil how him possessing you hurt me. hurry up we don’t have all day.

[stardust-vi]

Dumb ramble but I hate that you can't critique The Thing you love within a fandom space without some dude breathing down your neck like "Well actually that means you hate The Author and The Thing! And what about all the times The Author did this Good Thing? Checkmate, liberal." as if you can't be critical of something because you love it and want it to be better.

#just. i'm in a rush rn so i'm probably not articulating myself well and i could go more in-depth with my thoughts #at the risk of someone spinning my words into “cringe blue hair pronoun wants to cancel araki!” which... will happen inevitably #even though i don't know how many times i can repeat “i do not hate araki #this is specifcally about jjba btw because like. #look i love it and araki has done some good things (or at least had good intentions in most cases) #but i'm so over the fact he constantly has to reach for some form of traumatizing women in his writing #and I already hear “well it shows they're a villain!” #but does he HAVE to use assault? why does he have to use that instead of demonstrating their villainy in other ways #that don't need to use it as a crutch #i'm not even saying you can't ever write about assault #that's not my argument either. #I'm not even accusing him of being a bad writer or person but just. Can we please retire the overusage of assault for shock value? #i obviously don't hate people who enjoy the series regardless #i'd be a massive fucking hypocrite #i mean i've literally been in this damn fandom for 6 years and just now decided to post my art. #but i'm tired of any time someone brings up legit criticisms of the misogyny in his writing #it's met with “but araki did this-” like it changes anything. #i'm glad he did somewhat improve writing women over time compared to the earlier parts #that said. that doesn't cancel out the blunders he did make or will make in the future #even if he has good intent. #or really any criticism of the writing being hit with “but its not supposed to make sense #anyways rant over. probably going to delete later bc im tired. #tw assault #assault tw

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Ive seenyou mention wuxia a few times now and i wonder what that is. Would you mind explaining it to me?

not the most qualified person to explain this as i'm not, in fact, from china; but i've read a couple of wuxia so here goes:

wuxia is a genre of fiction from china specifically, about martial artists in ancient china. i don't think a specific time period is like required? obviously some dynasties are more popular but idk how it goes in that front. it just has to be Not Today and probably Too Long Ago. like pre industral revolution i think. again idk if that's a requirement, but most i've seen are from around the same relative murky pre-electricity era.

xianxia is a subgenre of wuxia that's specifically more fantasy-like, and it's not just martial arts, but also spiritual powers and cultivation (which i have no fucking clue how to explain without two hours and three tangents other than chinese magic system. if you've ever heard of chi/qi as an energy, it appears there). so like- genshin is by all accounts a xianxia, it just doesn't use the more common specific xianxia terms like cultivation. some of those are very weird to translate and probably not common for the average non-wuxia reader, so it makes sense why they're going for alternatives.

chongyun and xingqiu and xianyun are very much straight out of a xianxia. xianyun's entire story quest was the closest genshin has gotten to a straight xianxia plot so far. i highly reccomend ashikai's video on unnecessary visions if you want more info on why genshin is a xianxia hahah

cyanide narwhal has some talk of some stuff from xianxia, but that's mostly because well- fucking liyue, that's how it works there. the whole light energy striking down someone who's getting powerful and giving them godhood if they survive the strike is, while not exactly like that, something that happens in some xianxia as well. like the way adepti work in general is just very xianxia. ashikai does a much better job explaining it than i do tbh but yeah

TL;DR: wuxia is chinese martial arts fiction in ancient china, and xianxia is a wuxia subgenre with more magic elements. also genshin is a xianxia

#i was going to recomend some xianxia if you're curious but like #genuinely don't know which one is a good starting point #like i'm tempted to say just dive headfirst into mdzs like most of us did but like #is mdzs the best place to start if you know nothing? unsure #genuinely #given how it's made to feel more lighthearted and formatted more like it's a fucking videogame #svsss might be a good launching pad #but tbf it's been a while since i read it #also it has unskippable sex scenes (i think??) so like- if you don't want to read that you're kind of out of luck there #not that mdzs doesn't have that either but they're not literally Plot Relevant. like the plot does not hinge on their horizontal tango #there's probably a good wuxia to start out there but i can't really remember right now #like mdzs is the easiest to recomend bc it's trial by fire and you're going to come out of the other end knowing like 80% of it all #plus it's not nearly as traumatizing as some of the other options #and it's so easily accessible it's almost funny #like take your pick: novel. live action. animation. audio drama. comic #it's fucking everywhere and the fandom is fucking huge so that's a giant plus #but that doesn't change the fact that idk if you can watch a couple episodes to get a feel for the wuxia genre. like would that work?? #so i guess i'll leave that to everyone else to comment with any recomendations if they have a good one #for like an introductory work #or just decide mdzs is just the easiest point of entry. that can always be it. i mean we all made it anyway