#not touching that topic sorry | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stressfulsloth · 11 months

Text

Hrngh I just. I don't want to argue with people but. Being an addict is not a moral issue. You are not more morally good and pure for never having experienced addiction. You are not inherently bad for being an addict. Like the recovery narrative centres becoming a "better person" or being "redeemed" BUT BEING IN ACTIVE ADDICTION DOES NOT MAKE SOMEONE INHERENTLY A BAD PERSON. You don't need to be redeemed. That kind of dichotomous thinking is detrimental to recovery, setting people up to see relapse as a moral failure, a weakness in character, something they need to repent and self flagellate for. When it's just... not. It's a part of the process.

And even beyond that, if you can't bring yourself to uncouple addiction from morality, you have to see that addiction never happens in a vacuum. To ignore the socioeconomic factors that contribute, the way that addiction and alcoholism intersect frequently with chronic pain, the way that our society is essentially made hostile to people experiencing addiction which then in turn self-perpetuates... it seems needlessly cruel as well as ridiculously individualistic. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps type of mentality. Poverty and chronic pain are significant contributing factors in many cases of long term addiction; it is far more useful to blame power structures that allow people to remain in poverty, their pain untreated, the inequalities and failed safety nets, disregard for vulnerable populations, all amounting to social murder. Choosing instead to place blame and vitriol at the feet of addicts is unhelpful at best and frankly malicious at worst.

#this is not about one thing in particular just a combination of multiple things ive seen recently but it is getting to me a bit tbh #personal #alcohol #addiction #yes conversation today prompted this but also #frustrating anti harm reduction person earlier and general tone of conversation around these topics in general..#i'm sorry for going on about it and i don't want anyone to feel attacked but this. touched a nerve.#it's the moralising and the blaming and argh can we just be a bit more conscious of the language we're using idk #brain fog is 👍#oh and also mentioning recovery- harm reduction often involves what people who talk like this about addicts would get mad about anyway #people act like you have to do it as fast as possible and suffer the consequences bc you know. 'you did this to yourself'#< awful thing to say btw #but like. it takes time. it's more important for a person to be well than to be sober #completely lost my thread now sdfghjk

20 notes · View notes

soleminisanction · 2 years

Note

Since you’re in a meta-ing mood, what do you think of the fandom trend to portray Tim Drake as a ‘genius idiot’, basically a supercomputer brain for crime and business, but can’t cross the street or talk to people without injury or insult that is always his fault. Lots of times this ties in with the idea he’s desperate to get Robin back and the other Bats will basically have to have an intervention to get him to ‘grow up’ and move to his own cape. As you can see, I’ve run into a meta bog

I can sum up my opinion on that fandom trend in two words: It's bullshit.

It's part of a modern trend that I hate, the idea that "the smart guy" archetype automatically defaults to a (badly) autistic-coded tech bro with no social skills. It gets slapped onto so many characters it never should have applied to, and Tim is a big one. He's not even that much of a tech guy! He liked technology, sure, but that was supposed to flag him as a nerd in the 90s, not as some exceptional talent in the field. Him using a computer in his investigations more than Bruce was the narrative equivalent of teaching your parents how to use social media.

No, I've said this before and I'll say it again: Tim is and has always been a detective prodigy. Which means that his skill set lies in observation, deduction, sociology and psychology.

Tim gets people, he's good with people, he can empathize with them, analyze them, and manipulate them in equal measure. Anybody who pretends otherwise just flat-out doesn't read comic books, because the evidence is everywhere. To the point I really don't feel like hunting it down right now, because I've done it before, and other people have done it before, heck I've reblogged a fair number of them myself under my meta tag because I'm always happy when somebody recognizes it.

But also, like, people could figure it out if they used some basic common sense: not only do detectives need to be good with people, but so do businessmen. Being able to persuade and/or manipulate people is like 90% of that job, especially when you're the company spokesperson.

It's just... so obviously wrong, but people are lazy, I guess. (Looking at you, Wayne Family Adventures. -_-)

As for the tie-in with Robin, that's the biggest eye-roll of all. Tim isn't "desperate" to get Robin back, he's slipped back into it because Damian, for all his whining and demands, refuses to do the actual job.

Damian doesn't want to be Robin, not really. He doesn't care about its symbolism, he chafes under his father's command, he's too antisocial to fill Robin's role in the community, and he's not even all that attached to Gotham.

What Damian wants is the respect that comes with Robin as a title, the perceived legitimacy it grants as a member of the Bat-family and within the caped community, and the symbolic gesture of making him the squire to his father's knight. All of which speak to an emotional need that a) is not and should not be "the point" of Robin, a role that by this point is bigger than one person, and b) is clearly not being fulfilled by his attempts to be Robin. The role is far more stifling for Damian than it ever was for Tim.

Meanwhile, Tim is right there, still believing with all his heart in Batman's mission and in the importance of Batman and Robin as symbols of hope and justice, just like he always has, and still perfectly content to fulfill that role if no one else is going to step up and do it. So of course he's going to take the mantle back, it's the exact same thing he did the first time Dick said he wouldn't stop being Nightwing. Tim didn't have a good reason to stop being Robin in the first place.

Heck, technically speaking, he never actually stopped being Robin, not really. People forget this, but the Red Robin persona? Is specifically supposed to be a Robin who stayed Robin and NEVER "outgrew" the role. It was originally created for the Kingdom Come take on the Golden Age/Earth-Two Dick Grayson, who never became Nightwing, he just grew up into a Robin who was more like Batman. Red Robin was just a more serious, less cartoony take on the idea.

I've always thought that's part of why it didn't work for Jason; he's somebody who actually did need to outgrow Robin, partially because he was kind of rough fit to begin with and partially because by that point it was already wrapped up in so much trauma for him that it wouldn't have been healthy to cling. But it worked for Tim because, when you get right down to it, he really didn't have a reason to give up Robin at all -- least of all to coddle the ego of a spoiled brat -- and probably would've just told Damian to go fuck himself if his quest to bring Bruce back didn't involve shady shit like breaking into museums and illegally entering protected heritage sites.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, been a long day at work and I'm tired but TL;DR -- "genius idiot"/coffee gremlin Tim sucks, the real Tim is sweet and empathetic and only as awkward as any other teenage boy, and he should get to be Robin for as long as he damn well pleases.

#tim drake #my blorbo #meta #damian wayne critical #robin #red robin #robins #dc comics #dc #fandom ramblings #rambling on a topic I've touched on before #sorry if you were hoping for citations and shit I've done this essay a few times and it's well out of my system by now #fandom #ask me stuff

119 notes · View notes

muninnhuginn · 9 months

Text

Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi timeline

This is my attempt to piece together what I think the most likely chain of events is regarding the twins from the evidence we have as of season two episode nine.

X years prior to present day

Li Tianchen meets Liu Xiao at the fountain. Liu Xiao says that you have to really gun for what you want. He speaks of how the world is a "jungle" and only a few can evolve and become "hunters", else they must be prey. Li Tianchen internalises this.

Seven years prior to present day

Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi live with their parents. Their father (Li Fan) hears rumours of their mother (Liu Lan) cheating on him (rumours which their neighbour stoked - he's one of the rumour birds in ep 9) and uses it as an excuse to physically abuse her and threaten them all with a hammer when they try to help her. Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi flee to the other room. At this point, Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi are touching each other (but not Liu Lan) and Li Tianxi is clutching the photograph taken earlier that day. It appears as though Liu Lan (possessed) takes the hammer and approaches Li Fan but we don't get to see the full scene before CXS is thrown out of the dive and there is no knife involved at this stage. When we return, Liu Lan is dead by knife and Li Fan by hammer. Li Tianchen later claims to Qian Jin that he killed both of them. However, we haven't seen what actually happened and Tianxi's later retelling has a flashback of Liu Lan apologising to her which must happen sometime in the blanked out scene.

The twins meets Qian Jin at the site of the crime scene, who takes them both on board and modifies the police files relating to their case. The twins have their police files erased and vanish and Qian Jin quits the force.

Y months prior to the current day

We next see Tianchen and Qian Jin at a meeting with Liu Min. This appears to be several years later as Tianchen seems much older. Liu Min says Qian Jin has already helped "resolve matters with that woman" (I do think he literally means in a lawyerly way in retrospect rather than a murdery way, especially when QJ's first response to him asking to take care of the online attacks is to say "I'll send them letters".). As Liu Min has use of his legs at this point, this places this scene at prior to season one episode one and so months before season two.

Liu Min is asking QJ and Tianchen to target his "haters", that is, those who talk badly of him or spread rumours about him online, and his first target is Tianchen's former neighbour. It seems that the neighbour hasn't changed his rumour-spreading ways. Tianchen laughs.

Chronologically alongside and after season one episode one

Liu Min tries to threaten Emma after the games company news breaks and his embezzled money is at risk. It gets out of hand and he ends up with a crashed car and paralysed legs. Emma heads to the bridge, intending to commit suicide, but is stopped by Cheng Xiaoshi. Emma is then possessed via photo by one of the twins and leaps to her death, Cheng Xiaoshi as the only "witness". (The story currently wants us to place this as Li Tianchen doing the possessing and given red eyes speaks this does make most sense but I'm keeping my options open. Tianchen's powers at least include touch possession though and we saw him receive Chen Bin's photo not long before his potential possession.)

End of season one/start of season two

Possessed Liu Min abducts Xu Shanshan and is invited to CXS's "game" the next day. When they show at the photo shop they're trapped in the developing room where they mention that they were "only an agent" (because they were carrying out the killings on behalf of someone else?) and that they would never kill "innocents". Once CXS reveals this was all a trap to get a confession, red eyes then retreats from Liu Min. Liu Min is taken into police custody.

Later that day, when CXS jumps back to try and save Emma, Qiao Ling is possessed and stabs Lu Guang. When CXS returns, possessed QL claims that CXS "cheated" in their game and lets slip that CXS's powers "also" involve photos, with the "also" having heavy implications.

Liu Min is possessed again and made to commit suicide. It's unclear in which order Lu Guang's stabbing and Liu Min's "suicide" happen and whether they occur simultaneously or not.

Happening chronologically alongside season two episode two

Qian Jin retrieves a photo of Chen Bin and passes it on to Li Tianchen.

Chen Bin is (potentially) possessed, confiscates Liu Min's phone and passes it off to Xiao Ma (Qian Jin's lackey). He then falls from top of the hospital building. (Note: Tianxi's telling of her backstory shows a shot of Chen Bin apologising and crying. It could technically have taken place at any time, but it makes most sense it fits here)

One of the twins at the staircase asks Xiao Ma for Liu Min's phone. They don't speak and even though at a glance the fringe seems to resemble Li Tianchen's it seems to make more sense at this stage for this to be Li Tianxi. This occurs chronologically before the scene in the next paragraph as Xiao Ma is confronting CXS and QL when LG tries to leave his hospital room and is arrested immediately following the confrontation.

Lu Guang tries to leave the room and receives a photo from what appears to be Li Tianxi. This has a photo of Liu Lan and Li Tianxi on the front and the back says about not wanting to lose a good brother, with a childish doodle next to it. The Tianxi delivering the photo wears a blue jacket and a mask which appears to match with the twin on the staircase.

Season two episode four

A few days appear to have passed since episode two as Chen Bin's funeral has now taken place.

Qian Jin speaks to Xiao Ma and realises that one of the twins took Liu Min's phone. (He updates Liu Jing on this after the funeral though he may have known of it before). Given Tianchen and Qian Jin appear to still be in cahoots as of s2e9, this points to it being Li Tianxi who intercepted the phone.

"Li Tianxi" phones Qian Jin. QJ asks "have you found him?" (I'm using Funi subs here so can't confirm but about 90% sure it was translated like this because the Chinese subs used 'ta' (他) which does mean 'he' but sounds identical to 'ta' (她) which means 'she'. In other words, it could just as easily be "have you found her?" and the og subs used the male 'ta' for ambiguity) Qian Jin comments that this (plan) is "pretty risky" but so long as it's carried out before the police realise it should work. Most likely this is Li Tianchen disguised as Li Tianxi soon to walk straight into a police station. This Tianxi is wearing the pink hoodie as far as I can tell.

This all implies that Li Tianxi is "missing" already and when this is put together with the hospital scenes in episode two, she likely went awol back then or not long after. Li Tianxi fled wearing a school uniform rather than the hoodie of the hospital scenes and it is in this that she is later found.

Qian Jin and Li Tianchen discuss the specifics of Li Tianchen's escape from the police station beforehand. Qian Jin lays out all the instructions of the plan so Tianchen just has to follow them and retrieve CXS.

"Li Tianxi" shows up at the police station and asks for CXS.

Season two episodes six to eight

Tianchen-as-Tianxi uses CXS's sympathies to get him to touch him whereupon he possesses him. He then also possesses Wang Juan and together they leave the police station. Tianchen makes it to the docks but isn't able to take CXS. Instead, LG is taken himself.

Miscellaneous notes

Clothing-wise, in s2, we appear to have Li Tianxi wearing a blue hoodie and a mask at first during the hospital scenes and then later a school uniform when she decides to flee. This is copying Li Tianchen's outfit in the meeting with Liu Min (and his general colour scheme prior to that).

Li Tianchen wears a pink hoodie and when disguised as Li Tianxi he also adds a mask and wig.

In both cases I suspect the mask is used to obscure their identity. Tianxi retrieved the phone as Tianchen and Tianchen infiltrated the police station as Tianxi.

Whilst this layout of events places Liu Min's phone with Tianxi, at the time she is taken into police custody she no longer appears to have it. It may be hidden somewhere important to her or in the place she was found.

I can't place exactly when Li Tianchen meets Liu Xiao again, but am reasonably sure the chronology in the episode is accurate here and it's before LTC meets Liu Min for the first time. Liu Xiao said that LTC would have opportunities to "hunt" in the near future and there Liu Min was. Also, we know that Liu Xiao was studying abroad around the time of the present timeline so it has to have occurred before then (from the 'will we meet again' and 'it's almost time' I'm tempted to say this scene is just before LX leaves for abroad honestly).

Also, LX says the difference between a 'hunter' and a 'beast' is that a hunter hunts even when not hungry - this is where the scales get tipped from self-defence to actively killing - it's an important mental shift for LTC.

#some of this is repeated from my other posts but I just wanted to put it all in one place #I put Chen Bin's possession as 'potential' because he has a history of leaking info from the police if he thinks there's good cause #and because we still need to see the 'sorry' scene which probably fits in the gap before he dies #I've tried to stay on topic and not go on tangents about powers etc but tianchen we know for sure has touch powers #we don't see him use photos but we know emma has to have been possessed via photo and red eyes emma spoke (tianxi is still mute)#so either tianchen also has photo powers or if it's tianxi with those powers he's using his powers to use hers #tianxi had the photo when we cut to black after all. but also idk about her memory of liu lan apologising during that scene #link click #shiguang daili ren #link click spoilers #shiguang daili ren spoilers #long post #seen some people also point out that in tianxi's telling tianchen is always patting/touching her whilst she's asleep #which seems cute but if it's how he accesses her power it suddenly becomes vaguely horrifying instead

13 notes · View notes

bandtrees · 1 year

Photo

“My only hope is for one word. A simple, trivial word from a certain person…”

bungou stray dogs is an anime that iv had a fondness for since like..2018. but only now am i doing fanart for it, as iv gotten back into it via a rewatch with my friend ^_^ akutagawa was my favorite character as a mentally ill 15 year old and continues to be my favorite character as a mentally ill 20 year old

#scribbles #ryuunosuke akutagawa #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs fanart #bsd fanart #some general rambles abt my relationship w this anime incoming #nowadays its not a super serious interest cuz all my love to me i feel iv kinda outgrown how... hot topic slogan-y it is (ALL MY LOVE)#and i have a better eye for some of the issues in it. but its still got a nice place in my heart #i dunno if this person is still...around? but i first watched it with a friend as a teenager and i enjoyed it!#and when i fell outta touch w that friend i'd wanted to return to this anime but always felt bad about it. cuz it was Her Thing #but nowadays i have another pal (hi dark) who i watch a lotta anime with and i decided to take this opportunity to properly rewatch it and #idk im happy i am #especially bc when i first watched this anime in my youth it was a period where i was still freshly affected by like. trauma #and that colored my perception of it (COUGH MY DAZAI HATRED SORRY hes still kinda annoying tho)#(i'm way more normal about him now though XD)#and in general its a very Mentally Ill Teenager anime. so its cool to return to it as a more #mature well adjusted person. just finished season 1 of my rewatch and im eager to fall back in love w this show haha #anyway all that aside LOOK AT THIS RENDERING IM SO PROUD OF ITTTTT

31 notes · View notes

bloodofgrapes · 2 years

Note

I’m so obsessed with the way you draw nrmt ;-; You draw them like actual men… it’s a huge problem among aa fans where one of the two of them (usually edgeworth) gets written or drawn as a tiny long-eyelashed hairless submissive twink and it’s like. They’re Grown Men. And no one will ever be able to convince me that edgeworth would let his guard down/let go of his control-freakiness enough for some of the shit he’s portrayed as doing lmfao 🫣 I’m certain a big part of it is that you’re gay and You Get It lmao.. I’ve sent you way too many asks in the past few days and i’m sorry if it’s weird but idk you’re my fav ace attorney artist and i appreciate you sm

Alrighty, finally free enough to tackle this anon. So, before I say anything, I want to preface this with my belief that there’s no right or wrong interpretation of a character in fandom—I love to see the immense variety of ways that characters are depicted, and I think it’s fascinating to get to see through the lens that people view them. What I will be talking about in this ask though, is my (and clearly anon’s) personal preference. I just wanted to get that out of the way, because I would be very unhappy if people read this and thought that I judge any interpretation of the characters I spend much of my time talking about on the hellsite.

With that out of the way, I do agree with you anon. I’ve hesitated to answer asks like this in the past (you’re not the first to say this), but you have put it in a way that I think fits how I feel about them. I am a gay man—I love men in any shape or form they come in, but I truly adore masculinity. Hairy belly and ass, boxy builds, square jaws and hands, receding hairlines, deep voice, the works. This is not to say that these characteristics cannot also be feminine, but I am approaching this in the context of speaking about male characters, and the things I enjoy from them—but make no mistake, I love effeminate men just as much, especially in the variety of ways that they can manifest.

Which is a good lead in to something I have always loved about Edgeworth, from the first time I played these games nearly twenty years ago: Edgeworth has always struck me as inherently traditionally masculine, even in spite (or perhaps because) of his more flamboyant tastes, such as wearing a bold pink suit, jabot, preference for frilly things and flowers, etc. He’s not what any boomer would call a man’s man, but I feel like a lot of fandom overlooks that he’s barrel chested, deep voiced, stoically cold, and prone to masking or outright shutting down his emotions. As a gay man these traits really resonate with me—I embody many of the same things, while also having a certain air of “fruitiness”, if you will.

I’m in my mid-thirties, and while I believe it’s never too late to have heroes or feelgood characters, it’s a little unusual for me to have a character that makes me feel “seen”, at least in the way he does. Being a trans man specifically, I’ve spent much of my life grappling with the inherent masculinity and femininity I was born with, so it’s always been a comfort to me (even if I didn’t quite realize it when I was younger) to see a man that sacrificed absolutely none of his masculinity while wearing frills and a bright pink suit. So I love depictions of him (and Phoenix, because I think he’s viewed not dissimilarly in this fandom) that lean away from the typical shiny smoothness of most anime, and more into making them standard 30-something males. As I said in the first paragraph of this, it's all personal preference, there’s no right or wrong way to vibe with these characters, but I appreciate you anon, because I do think that we’re in a very small minority in this fandom, and while that’s not a bad thing by any means, it’s nice to see a kindred spirit <3

#I could touch on my thoughts on Edgeworth's control freak nature and how that relates to a lot of the kink art I draw of him #but it's meadering a little off my main point here and something I'd prefer to tackle separately if I ever get around to it #rest assured I've thought about it a LOT though haha #also this is somewhat off topic but since I'm rambling about personal preference #I also like to depict Edgeworth as being just a smidge shorter than Phoenix #their canon heights are 5'10 and 5'9 respectively but damn it #Edgeworth has looks fame and wealth #bumping Phoenix up to an even 6' is FAIR #sorry Edgeworth Phoenix should have at least one thing over you #and it should be height #also anon #you do not bother me at all #the asks you've sent have sincerely made my day every time I've received them #thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity to ramble

60 notes · View notes