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#I actually loved this scene SO much you don't get it. It's so poetic in MANY different levels.
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People don't talk enough about the fact that the moment annabeth truly started respect Jason was the aftermath of the incident in ithaca. After Jason came face to face with his mom's ghost trying to lure him into gaia's trap.
This was not only a pivotal Jason moment but a huge stepping stone in annabeths character development.
She was able to compare Jason's situation to Luke's, and realised how truly noble Jason was, since he could've easily ended up like Luke considering the familial issues they both had, but didn't. Annabeth always worried in MOA that jason would turn his back on the team, but He didn't give in to the remnant of his mother's temptation of evil, even after all that he's been through. Which caused her to understand that jason is very trustworthy and is like the last person to betray anyone.
A part of me wonders that annabeths real reason to mistrust jason is only partly because he is Roman, and mostly because he bore some sort of resemblance to Luke, which was quite painful for her since she trusted luke only for him to backstab her. This may be a stretch, but it's a Lil theory I had.
’Annabeth took a shaky breath. ‘No other right choice, maybe, but ... a friend of mine, Luke. His mom . . . similar problem He didn’t handle it as well.’
I feel like, based on her tone when she talked about luke to Jason here, this is also the moment she truly realised that she shouldn't have put luke in a pedestal like that, even after the evil stuff he did. She realised that Luke could've changed, but he chose not to, and chose revenge instead, to me, this is the moment she FINALLY came to that painful conclusion about Luke, many many books later. Bc even in lost hero, annabeth seemed very wistful while talking about Luke to Jason (I mean, jason even sensed nostalgic attraction from her tone, so there's that).
I also feel like that's the moment annabeth was freed of her doubt of Jason's intentions. We know that she was very mistrustful of him during MOA and I feel like she always had that lingering doubts up until this moment tbh. But based on what she witnessed, she realised that Jason was truly a good person with a good heart with genuine morals. A hero through and through. Which is what made her admit to Apollo that "Jason was truly one of the best of us" a VERY high praise coming from a child of Athena, who's fatal flaw is hubris.
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avelera · 9 months
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It sounds so self-obvious when you say it aloud, but the key to writing romance is that the characters need to be into each other.
I've seen so many so-called "romances" in mainstream movies and shows that somehow fail to achieve this very simple principle. Usually they're het romances but not always. I've also seen established lgbt+ couples who we're told are married but who never show any particular interest in one another to confirm this supposed love in a show-don't-tell manner.
Below the cut I want to explore how to write love (romantic or otherwise), what makes it work in fiction, and the important difference between why characters fall in love vs. why they choose to pursue or stay with the person they fell in love with, because those distinctions matter.
Let's quickly touch on failed fictional relationships before moving onto functioning ones. Because the thing is, it's important to flesh out relationships and romances if they are written into the story even if they aren't the focus of the story or they are doomed to fail as part of the plot.
I see it a lot of times in fictional relationships that are clearly plot points and so the author doesn't bother to invest in them. If a relationship is established with the protagonist just because this current partner is going to break up with them, thus launching our actual romance plot, then there's a temptation not to fully flesh out that doomed-to-fail relationship.
But to skate over the failed relationship is a missed opportunity for a writer. Relationships reveal a great deal about us, as do failed ones. Even if the relationships don't work out, we get the chance to learn what the protagonist is looking for in a relationship, what didn't work in the failed one, and we get to learn more about their love language. This also requires that we see these romantic partners are into each other, or were into each other, and how, before it went sour. Even if it's one sided and doomed to fail, we need to see what the infatuated side of the pairing was into about the other person. Even if it's just physical, that too is revealing.
Romeo was in love with Rosaline before he fell in love with Juliet. But we don't skate over what he loved about her. We learn that Romeo frequently falls in love, he's often impetuous in love (which we will see carried forward later in the famous balcony scene with Juliet). We learn that he is poetic about that love. We learn how much he loved Rosaline, and whether or not we believe he was in love or think that love is wise, it is important for establishing later, when he meets Juliet, the order of magnitude difference between his love of Rosaline and of Juliet. One left him broken-hearted when he lost her, but he quickly recovered. But Juliet? He was willing to die for love of her. The love of Rosaline set up the contrast in how Romeo loves that would be massively important to the impact of the story later.
I bring up this example because many years ago in a high school lit class, the teacher said that Shakespeare never explains why characters fall in love, and so writers don't have to explain why characters fall in love.
It didn't quite sit with me right, because I think it's only half true. The full maxim, and what writers today can learn with regards to romance is:
You don't have to explain why characters fall in love. You do have to explain why they stay together and/or pursue that love.
Actually, it's often better to not explain why a character fell in love. It's ineffable. It just happens. How often have we met or been introduced to someone who is, on paper, perfect for us with similar interests and compatible families or lifestyles, only to not feel any sort of spark? How many grand romances, in contrast, are about people who on paper are terrible for each other but just can't seem to quit one another and keep being drawn back together?
This doesn't just have to apply to romantic love, by the way. How many people are inevitably drawn back to toxic or abusive parents, even though they know this person has a negative impact on their life? How many people stick it out for friendships that damage their health and self-esteem, all out of love?
Again, you don't need to explain why someone loves, but you do need to explain why they pursue it or stick with it. The reasons can be societal, they can be because of guilt, they can be because of adrenaline, or because of long history together, or if it's a successful romance, it can be because they don't just love each other, they also really really like each other!
Now, this might seem somewhat inherently self-contradictory. I'm saying you have to show that people are into each other but that you don't have to explain why they fell in love??
But showing that people are into each other is actually about why they pursue it and stay with the person. The falling in love itself is simply the gravity between them, the magnetic bond, what draws them together. In fiction, we want that to be powerful, overwhelming, inevitable. If the story is about love, we need to see why these people can't walk away, or can't walk away for long, or are miserable when they do. They are drawn to each other, powerfully, destructively or gloriously.
But you can be drawn to someone without having a single conversation or knowing anything about them. We initially fall in love with our image of a person, what they mean to us, what we think they will be in our lives. Real love is about learning who the real person is and continuing to love and to like that person. Real long-term love is loving that person even when they change from the one you first met, and they love you too as you change. But the opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy. The love is the pull.
Why characters are into each other, or why they like each other, is the force that makes them continue to pursue that person. The love itself can be the thing they're into, by the way! "I can't get this person out of my head, I can't put it in words, but they haunt me and I'm into them for that," is a totally valid way to build a romance or character relationship without any other things that they like about each other!
But as said, it can and probably should be more than that in a successful love story. The construction of the love and like of the relationship can also be Love + Long History + Physical Attraction + Deep Understanding. Gomez and Morticia Addams love each other, they'd love each other if the other was unconscious, they'd love each other to the grave and beyond. But they're also into the fact that they're both incredibly extra romantics who love demonstrating their fascination to each other, in ways presumably no other partner could keep up with. They waltz at odd hours, engage in thrilling sword fights, raise a family together based on their shared worldview, and stare deeply into each other's eyes at every opportunity. They don't suffer one another, they adore one another's presence and quirks and foibles. They are seriously whackadoodle into each other and we see it in the joy they take in one another, how much they like each other in addition to that love.
Characters who are in love should be obsessed with something about the person. Remember, these aren't real people, I'm not giving real world relationship advice. This is fiction. You can write a tepid relationship but it will be sort of boring to read. That might be the point! The tepid relationship might be in contrast to your protagonists, for example!
But my point is that in all fictional relationships there should be something in which the characters are each other's biggest fan. In mother/daughter familial love, they might love one another's outspokenness on what is important to them, we can see their eyes shine when the mother or her daughter gives that big important speech, filled with love and pride for them, and encouraging their outspokenness at every turn, inspired by it.
If the love is between two brothers, related or otherwise, we might see that love in darker times. A brother has to pick up the other from jail. It is painful, heartbreaking, but he can't turn away, he can't not do it. That's love. But, maybe the brother he picked up cracks a joke on the ride home, makes the other laugh despite himself, and suddenly, he remembers the good side of the love too, that his brother can always make him laugh. This is important because it shows us not just that these brothers love each other, but why they continue to interact with each other despite the pain and disappointment. That might actually be tragic rather than happy. One brother might not be able to escape because of the other's ability to make him laugh. That too is love, not just the magnetic attraction of it but the reason it continues to draw them together inevitably, that ability to understand one another and make the other laugh, when he really should probably walk away for his own sake.
The reason so much slash shipping exists in fanfiction is because very often, platonic love is fleshed out in the mainstream more often between two same-sex characters with greater depth than romantic love. A mainstream show might present us with a couple who we are told are attracted to each other and from there the writers assume that is enough to explain why they got together. Nothing deeper. No spark of liking one another in addition to wanting one another.
But in a buddy cop film, the buddy cops are usually obsessed with each other. They stand up for one another when the chips are down, they save one another in moments of peril, they look into each other's eyes and discuss what is important to them in life, like solving the mystery they're working on, and in doing so find understanding with one another's worldviews. That is infinitely more satisfying as a love story than simply telling me that a beautiful Barbie and Ken of main characters have slept with each other and therefore are dating and "in love".
Obsession is key. But don't get too bogged down in how the love exists. It exists because that's love. And we are fascinated in fiction by powerful love of all sorts. We love characters who don't just suffer each other but are into each other, ludicrously, obsessively, even tragically. Turn up the love to the whackadoodle maximum and break off the knob and I guarantee, you will at the very least have characters that people will watch with interest. We love characters who are obsessed with something, or someone. Their love reveals to us what is lovable about that character or thing, it makes us love them.
And then, because love alone is not always enough, show us the joy that keeps them coming back to each other. Show us some good times mixed in with the bad, tragic as they might be for how they prevent the cutting of ties that maybe should be severed. Show us why they can't give up and walk away. Show us too why they like each other. That is what draws a good love story together.
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Don't you think it's funny cause actual canon gay characters in BL manga will say "I love you" but only the shounen bromance can spew out some of the most romantic shit akin to a 19th century poet writing a letter expressing his surpressed love for his lover 😭.....
Genuniely can't tell if it's bait or not, but I'm going to treat this ask seriously anyway.
Here, have some examples of beautiful and poetic expressions of love in BL media!
I'm going to start with my favourite murder husbands, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu from Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers!
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This happens in episode nine, less than one third into the story- it's that early, they've known each other for like a week and are already able to tell they're meant to be. They've made their decision to be together, and over the course of the story:
They defend each other multiple times and fight side by side in multiple episodes, sometimes protecting their adopted kid/mentee Chengling as well
Zhou Zishu is willing to go against the whole martial arts society for his boyfriend. With zero hesistation, might I add.
They both know the other has done horrible things (lots of murder on both sides here) and that's not only okay, it's a big part of why they're soulmates and get each other so well!
Zhou Zishu is slowly dying (poisoned nails in his chest, long story) and Wen Kexing can and will risk his life to save him. Don't worry, they get a happy ending both in the show and the novel even if the show's last episode is behind a paywall and Netflix didn't even include it for some reason?
But enough about them, let's move on to the immortal fantasy genre boyfriends Hua Cheng and Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing!
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Please note how Hua Cheng is ready to accept Xie Lian in whatever state he's currently in- as a god, a fallen outcast, even grieving and angry and at his absolute lowest. He's stood by Xie Lian in his worst moments, even if at the time Xie Lian had no idea it was him.
Hua Cheng has loved Xie Lian for 800 years, ever since he was a boy Xie Lian saved from falling to his death during a procession.
Xie Lian became a god, then fell due to horrible circumstances, almost committed a war crime against another nation that destroyed his country, spend 800 years wandering the mortal realm as a poor cultivator with his powers greatly reduced, and eventually ascended to become a god again. Throughout it all, Hua Cheng loved him and did his best to help him and then find him.
They're both adorable and the definition of a power couple once they're reunited- no spoilers, but they eventually fight an incredibly powerful god side by side and win & the last scene in the story is them reuniting for good since there's no more obstacles to their immortal love.
Let's move on to my favourite Japanese BL, Our Dining Table (also available as a series that came out semi-recently, but the examples below are from the manga.)
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Yutaka is a lonely salesman who meets Minoru, a restaurant worker and his much younger brother Tane grieving the death of their mother.
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Yutaka and Minoru hit it off by bonding through food they cook and share. The series is incredibly heartwarming, and as seen above Yutaka becomes a much happier person thanks to both his new relationship and big brother-like bond with little Tane.
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As a little bonus, the whole found family together!
This post can't be complete without Golden Stage (or Golden Terrace, as the English official translation calls it).
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Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan aren't even in love at this point! This is at the beginning of the story, when their marriage has just been arranged by the emperor and they're still bitter rivals.
Yan Xiaohan is already protective of his future husband- later on, he also builds him a mansion meant to accommodate his disability (nerve damage in both legs, which requires a wheelchair and/or crutches). They're both incredibly powerful military generals, and the emperor was an idiot thinking an arranged marriage would humiliate them.
Of course they fall in love, of course they're a power couple, of course they send each other letters through trained geese when they're separated during the war, of course they run to each other as fast as they can across a wide cold river when they're finally reunited! Of course they're important to me!
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....Aaand how about some Wangxian to wrap up this post? They need no introduction, an absolutely wonderful and complex relationship in a complex fantasy/intrigue story available in several forms - the books, the animated series (as seen above), the live action series, the audio drama, there's so much!
Some of their most beautiful moments:
Lan Wangji writing a song for Wei Wuxian and naming it Wangxian. Years after it's composed, Wei Wuxian plays it and LWJ is able to recognise him even in a different body.
LWJ begs WWX to come with him to Cloud Recesses, to safety, after WWX makes himself an enemy of the whole cultivation world for protecting innocent people.
They confront the final villain together, and work together to expose his crimes. This is also when their final love confession happens, and it's hilarious- in front of everyone's salad, WWX declares he also wanted to sleep with LWJ.
Despite censorship, the animated series was still able to allude to their wedding, showing them in red wedding robes (unfortunately can't find a gif rn)
Respectfully, if you genuinely think BL doesn't have beautiful love confessions and displays of romance, you need to find better BL.
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gregorovitch-adler · 5 months
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My thoughts about The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes:
Let's start by summarising the movie -
No crime-solving happens in the first 34 minutes. The first act is all about Holmes and Watson's dynamic, exploration of the nature of their relationship with each other, etc. If you're the type of person who only watches/reads Sherlock Holmes for the cases, you'd believe this portion is skippable. Only the blink-and-miss detail about the "Midgets' case" is important as far as Holmes' detective work is concerned.
However, if you think exploring Holmes and Watson's interpersonal relationship and their casework are both equally important, like I do, the first act is GOLD. Most of the Tumblr gifs about this movie are from the first 30-35 mins lol.
1.) Holmes enters and they bicker like an old, married couple.
H: Oh, come now, Watson, you must admit that you have a tendency to overromanticize. You have taken my simple exercises in logic and embellished them, embroidered them, exaggerated them ---
W: I deny the accusation.
H: You have described me as six-footfour, whereas I am barely six-footone.
W: A bit of poetic license.
Not only is this whole scene just delightful in general but the theory about Watson being an unreliable narrator in ACD canon is actually being supported throughout the movie, starting right here.
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W:It's those little touches that make you colorful...
H: Lurid is more like it. You have painted me as a hopeless dope addict - just because I occasionally take a five per cent solution of cocaine.
W: A seven per cent solution.
H: Five per cent. Don't you think I'm aware you've been diluting it behind my back?
This exchange was lovely. Way to slip in their closeness through a few words.
2.) Watson doesn't think it's odd to barge right in when Holmes is completely naked and taking a bath?
Also, why the hell does Holmes bathe with his bedroom door wide open?
And what's that thing he's taking a bath in called? Does anyone know about this stuff? Was this thing common in that timeline? It doesn't seem to fit a grown man like Holmes.
I have so many questions and I'm speechless at the same time. I'll just drop this here:
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3.) Then Watson persuades Holmes to go to The Swan Lake ballet.
Watson enjoys that ballet, a little too much at that, mostly because he's staring at all the women on stage. (We'll get back to this later.)
Holmes on the other hand has dozed off. All he can admire about the most beautiful dancer, Petrova, is her strong arches. Which is... 🏳‍🌈
Then that whole scene about Nicholai and Petrova and Holmes in the dressing room. XD
Petrova offers a Stradivarius violin to Holmes in exchange for sleeping with her for a week, so that her child would be beautiful like her and brilliant like Holmes.
Holmes gets out of the situation by lying to both of them; saying he's in a relationship with Watson.
Honestly, that whole bit. Just look at the lines:
N: She has been dancing since she was three years old, and after all, she is now thirty-eight.
H: (gallantly) I must say she doesn't look thirty-eight.
N: That is because she is forty-six.
And:
Nicholai: (about Tolstoy) Too old --- Then we considered the philosopher, Nietzsche --
H: Absolutely first-rate mind ---
N: Too German --
Etc. They're all so funny. This whole scene is something else.
In fairness to Holmes, he did try to get himself out of the situation by lying about having hemophilia in his family, or saying that he's unromantic because he's English, etc but Petrova was having none of it.
Watson coming into the room all of a sudden gives so much clarity and calmness to Holmes. He just knows what to say to help himself because of Watson.
This unforgettable exchange:
N: You mean, you and Dr. Watson - He is your glass of tea?
H: If you want to be picturesque about it.
On a side note, I absolutely loved Nicholai's face journey throughout both scenes - in the dressing room, stuck in the middle of Holmes and Petrova's awkwardness, and later on when he asks about the alleged Holmes-Watson romance to Watson after having spread the rumour in the whole room.
I just loved his reactions a lot.
According to this movie-
Caprice of Mother Nature = Gay.
Half-and-half = Bisexual.
Watson comes to know about the rumour, after having had the time of his life with both men and women in the ballroom. Watson is pissed off, he goes home and confronts about the whole thing to Holmes.
They have a row at Baker Street, in which Watson is being extremely heteronormative again. Thinking too much about his reputation without stopping to question his own feelings and his weird fixation on Holmes' love life.
There's that famous line again:
W: Holmes, let me ask you a question. I hope I'm not being presumptuous -but there have been women in your life?
H: The answer is yes -- you're being presumptuous. Good night.
Awesome.
This marks the end of Act I.
The existence of these 33 minutes of the movie is proof that the writing team in this adaptation knows that exploring Holmes and Watson's characters and what they mean to each other is as important as Holmes' casework. Billy Wilder takes this seriously, even though there are some jokes here and there about it.
The whole of Act I is filled with raising questions about Holmes and Watson's preferences, etc. Does Holmes feel love or is he just a machine? Does Holmes feel love for Watson? Does Watson know about Holmes' feelings for him? Does Watson feel the same way about Holmes?
In my opinion, all the answers to the personal questions about Holmes are as clear as a day. What's really questionable is whether Watson knows and/or feels the same way about Holmes or not. Different viewers might draw different conclusions/inferences after watching this movie.
After this, the movie takes a turn because "Gabrielle" enters the picture, and the actual crime-solving begins from here. The tone becomes a bit more serious in this act.
A young woman, completely wet and in shock enters 221 B. Watson has to pay for her fare to the cabbie before he and Holmes take her upstairs to take care of her.
She can't remember anything at first, then from her wedding ring, Holmes gets to know her name: Gabrielle Valladon. Her husband's name is Emile Valladon.
She appears to have temporary amnesia because of getting hit on the forehead and almost drowning in the Thames.
She reveals info about herself that she's from Belgium, her husband was here in London for a job, they used to write to each other, and after some time, the letters from her husband stopped coming. She'd gone to the London police first after coming to this city. She says the police had advised her to consult Sherlock Holmes.
Now, this should make the viewer skeptical of her. Scotland Yard does consult Sherlock Holmes when they need him, but they aren't going to let him have the whole case if there's a situation like this.
Besides, that woman ending up at Baker Street specifically seems to be planned, anyway. Also, there's always this man who keeps waiting for her or someone else's signals on the outside.
I know what we see on screen comes from Watson's drafts on loose pages, but this movie's narration seems to be Third Person Omniscient POV to me. Where the viewer is privy to more information as compared to the characters.
The three of them keep looking for her husband's whereabouts, and she pretends to be helpless, needy, and fragile (to stroke the ego of the men around her, I believe. I mean that could be one of the reasons...) with temporary amnesia throughout most of the movie. Holmes and Watson don't suspect a thing about her as they keep working for her and she keeps sending cryptic messages to the "Trappists" (German government) with her parasol.
The thing I love about this act:
Ilse von Hofmannsthal aka Gabrielle Valladon is actually a competent character who happens to be a woman. We can see something shady is going on with her even though we don't know her real name, but one of the most brilliant people on the planet doesn't suspect anything. He thinks she's just a woman looking for her husband's whereabouts. He thinks her back story is real.
He keeps on thinking that until Mycroft basically tells him in the third act which is why we're able to see for ourselves that Ilse was genuinely able to outsmart Holmes. We don't have to be told by the narrative voice about Ilse's strengths (*cough* unlike BBC Sherlock and a lot of female characters written by Steven Moffat *cough*).
I, for one, felt respectful of Ilse or "Gabrielle" for real. It was quite refreshing to me after having watched some modern Holmes adaptations.
Holmes, Watson, and "Gabrielle" go looking for the cause of Emile Valladon's death after they've found his coffin in the graveyard, in the guise of having a picnic. Holmes and "Gabrielle" pretend to be a married couple - Mrs and Mr Ashdown, and Watson is their valet. The scenes after this point are delightful mainly because of Watson's reactions (which could be read as his jealousy over Holmes, too).
Also, me when Holmes calls Watson 'John' in an archaic Holmes adaptation:
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Because of his sort of stupidity, Holmes takes Ilse, a German spy, right in front of the submersible (which he thinks is a mechanical 'monster' that lives underwater) in a boat, along with Watson.
Ilse was trying to grab as much information as she could about that secret project because she was working for her country. Who knew someone would show her the live version of that model so readily (albeit unknowingly)? :P
The three of them are obviously unable to find anything about Emile Valladon, so they go back to the inn room they're staying in.
That's when one of Mycroft's men comes to pick Holmes up and take him to his elder brother. Here's when the third act begins, I think.
Mycroft had warned Sherlock not to pursue "Gabrielle's" case any further during the second act. But Sherlock didn't listen, because a.) he's an empathetic man, and b.) Mycroft can't just order him to do or drop something just because. Sherlock is not a child anymore.
I know Mycroft was only trying to protect Sherlock, and that he couldn't have told him the real reason to stop him at that time, but still.
Either way, months of planning and testing the submersible have gone to waste because Holmes did not suspect at any point that his client, "Gabrielle Valladon" might have just been lying to him since the start. Can't blame Holmes for that. Ilse was meticulous.
Mycroft shows the model to the queen and she strongly disapproves of the model and curses it a lot. Personally, this seemed to be a shitty decision on her part, and I felt so frustrated and annoyed at her in that scene. She didn't even care to hear about its features. She just rejected it on the spot! :(
Mycroft decides to 'give the submarine' to the German government. It's implied that the Trappists were drowned along with the submarine itself in the deep waters. (That's what I gathered from that scene - correct me if my interpretation was wrong).
In conclusion, while Ilse is genuinely able to outsmart Holmes (unlike some writers forcing us to believe it in their adaptation because they told us so), the German government isn't able to go anywhere with the info they've gathered through Ilse because of Mycroft's last move. Moreover, the English government would have sent her to jail, if Sherlock hadn't suggested Mycroft send her back to her own country.
So, in the end, it's a lose-lose situation for all of them.
1.) Sherlock Holmes didn't know that Ilse was faking her name and her whole identity for a long time, so he unknowingly helped a German spy, thinking he was just helping an ordinary client. Ilse almost had him and the viewers could see for themselves that she'd outsmarted him.
2.) Even after Ilse von Hofmannsthal has got what she wanted for her government, as a spy, they aren't able to make use of that info because of Mycroft. And she has to get out of England anyway.
3.) Mycroft Holmes also fails, to some extent, because ages of effort to plan the submersible, hide the plans, and test the model in secret - all of it has gone to waste. The queen doesn't even want to hear him out in the end.
But even if it was a lose-lose situation, the battle was damn intriguing because of the high intellect on both sides - Holmes brothers and Ilse.
Months later, Holmes receives a letter from Mycroft about Ilse's arrest and execution by the Japanese government. Reading that, he's so moved that he can't even finish his breakfast. He gets up and asks Watson for his cocaine supply. Watson tells him, and then Holmes grabs the bag and goes to his room. Holmes shuts himself in, Watson gets up from the breakfast table too, sits beside the fireplace, and begins to write something on a piece of paper. Probably about the case, but for nobody to see.
End of Act III and the movie.
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I loved the background score of this movie. It's quite touching and refreshing to listen to.
A lot of dialogue exchanges in the movie are so deep if you stop to think about them. It's unbelievable how much writers can convey through a few words. Some of them are quite funny too - particularly from Act I. There's a thin line between being funny and mocking, and TPLOSH didn't cross that. It was nice.
I love this portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. It's clear how deeply they've understood him from the original canon. Pretends to be dismissive and closed off but actually cares about everyone way too much.
I also liked Mycroft in this movie, even if he didn't have much screen time.
About Ilse von Hofmannsthal - I loved her. Seriously, this is how you write female characters, modern writers! People say ASIB is a direct adaptation of TPLOSH, which is true, but I'd prefer TPLOSH over that episode any day, and one of the reasons is the way the female lead has been written in the former. Not exactly a fan of how Moffat wrote her in his adaptation. He did her dirty, I'd say.
Characters like Ilse make me think that the writing team of this movie knew what feminism is. I can't say the same for the modern Holmes adaptation that has been heavily inspired by TPLOSH.
I loved the plot of this movie too. The case in itself was also pretty interesting and kept me hooked throughout. Even if it wasn't exactly resolved finally, and the ending was melancholic.
I wasn't expecting the movie to be this good. Which is why it took me so long to sit down and watch it.
I only have one complaint about this movie - Watson's characterisation.
I mean, Watson wasn't half as bad as I'd expected (I thought he was going to be horrible, based on the snippets of the movie I'd seen before), but still. I like how he doesn't fall into the bumbling idiot stereotype. As far as the casework is concerned, Watson is also quite competent and observant in his own right. He can handle the medical work too.
I've got problems with his heteronormativity, and the fact that when it comes to deducing what lies in Holmes' heart, he's dumb as bricks. It's annoying. Like, it's one thing if he doesn't feel the same way about Holmes, but he doesn't have to be so weird and homophobic about it. Also, I think Holmes should've told him about the truth related to Ilse and the 'mechanical monster'. I've had enough of 'keeping Watson in the dark for his own good', damn it! He should be more in the knowledge.
Watson's character was the only element in the movie that didn't receive justice from the writer. As a Watson-centric fan, I need this to stop happening in future Holmes adaptations. People should see more from his POV too, and stop to actually see where he's coming from, and properly understand his character in the next show/movie/whatever they make.
What I gathered from the movie about the characters and their interpersonal relationships-
Holmes is in love with Watson but doesn't admit it... for valid reasons this time. (side eyes at Watson's homophobia).
Watson is deeply attached to Holmes but sees him as a close friend. I wish he felt the same way about Holmes in this movie, but alas! Though if he doesn't feel that way about Holmes, why the hell does he seem so jealous of Ilse in Acts II and III? This is beyond me.
I think what they've tried to show is that Watson is too close-minded to confront his possibly repressed feelings for Holmes, deep within his heart? Maybe. It could very well be my wishful thinking lol.
But as far as Holmes' feelings for Watson are concerned, it's not even wishful thinking. It's just... right there. I wish the subtext about Holmes' pining were spelled out. I know why it couldn't (the Doyle estate was being a pain in the ass at that time), but still. It's quite clear what they wanted to write as far as Holmes' emotional side was concerned, but they dropped it from the scripts after Act I and decided to focus on the case instead.
Holmes is dismissive of 'Gabrielle' at first, but he becomes sympathetic for her after some time. He reaches out to help her with her situation, and as the plot moves forward, he grows affectionate for Gabrielle/Ilse, which is why he doesn't hold a grudge against her when he realises he's been outsmarted by this woman (even though his ego was mildly hurt for a while).
The way they maintained a balance between the plot and the characters is commendable. I love seeing well-written women in fiction and this movie showed me that.
I was surprised to see how good this movie turned out to be, as compared to my preconceived opinions. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes has officially become my comfort movie now. Miles ahead of BBC Sherlock, in my opinion.
Thanks to my discussions with @jamielovesjam in a previous post about this movie lol. I wouldn't have wanted to watch the movie if not for the long talk I had with them. Also tagging @gaypiningshit and @helloliriels for further discussion.
End of my unnecessarily long rambling.
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wangxianficfinder · 8 months
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In the mood for...
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1. Hi! I'm wondering if there's a fic like this?
(cql) fight where lwj lunges with his sword, and wwx doesn’t move, not thinking lwj would actually hurt, but lwj accidentally hurts him? @karinasnowwwx
Regrets by antebunny (G, 38k, wangxian, miscommunication, misundersandings, time travel fix-it, temporary character death, angst w/ happy ending, fluff, hurt/comfort)
Give Me What I Want by Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle) (E, 60k, WangXian, Bad Guys Made Them Do It, Canon Divergence, Episode Related, Angst with a Happy Ending, Burial Mounds, fuck or die aftermath, Angst) the third fic in the series "Give what you like" has a scene like this
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2. hi!! i'd like to request fics that are similar to rather cruelly used and rather reserved by x_los.
i saw someone mention that they'd like specifics for these types of asks; i don't have something in particular in mind (i'd love to get any recs at all!), but some examples could be: this type of back-and-forth conversational humor; the sort of poetic way the prose is written; wwx grieving a-yuan before finding out he's alive; and/or how the confession/relationship is portrayed.
i especially liked the lines where wwx asks if lwj knew wwx loved him and lwj responds "sometimes, i knew," so fics where lwj or wwx sort of. suspect each other likes them/they sort of fall together naturally are also super welcome!
i know this is a lot but i tried to be as helpful as possible. no rec has to accomplish all of these, i just really liked that fic lol @kisskissgotohell
and having a marvelous time by varnes (E, 108k, WangXian, Yúnmèng Siblings, Sound of Music AU, (i know!!! i know. stay with me on this.), Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Family Feels, spies to lovers???, Protective Siblings, Sometimes You Just Want Your Dads To Admit They’re Your Dads, Angst with a Happy Ending)
threadfic by saltyfeathers (Not rated, 49k, wangxian, chapters tagged individually)
Works by Vamillepudding
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3. so I've seen a lot of fics with variations of 'Xiao xingchen and song Lan join and/or ally with (while still being rogues) the YilingWei sect'. But what about fics where wwx ends up joining the sect Xiao xingchen and song Lan had planned to found? (And not in a 'wwx raised by another sect' type way, but like a diverging au).
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4. ITMF canonverse fics where Wangxian have to deal with prejudice over their relationship. Hey, I love a good everyone-is-super-supportive-except-for-YZY fic because they deserve it. But MZY's treatment alone makes it clear that homosexuality is looked down on & the lack of any pushback can get boring. I don't want anything that stops them getting together, but I want to read something where they have to deal with negative reactions, whether it's sneers & gossip or having to leave their sects @thispatternismine
Just As Much by Gemiblu (E, 23k, WangXian, Jealousy, Boys In Love, Homophobia, demonic cultivation bondage, Power Bottom WWX, Cockblocking, Semi-Public Sex, Crying During Sex, Intimacy, New World, Female Characters, Casual Intimacy, mentions of non-canon character death, description of violent acts, post marriage, Explicit Sexual Content, Kissing, Affection, supportive married couple, Pet Names, YLLZ WWX)
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5. can i request some xiyao fics? i recently got into that ship and i'd like to read some of yalls favorites :) preferably no lxc/jgy/nmj unless there's a focus on lxc/jgy, and no abo/mpreg/porn without plot please!
Meng Yao vs. the Board of the Homeowner's Association Series by Ariaste (M/T, 119k, WIP, XiYao, WangXian, Modern AU, Established Relationship, xiyao and wangxian are both already married, Family Feels, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Slice of Life, Discussions of Past Trauma, wwx's canonical kinks, HOAverse) there's a reason it's recced all the time!
save the bees (ride a beekeeper) by Ariaste (T, 4k, LXC/JGY, modern, Fluff and Humor, Meet-Cute, Bees, Flirting)
ask until your heart gets it right by Stratisphyre (G, 6k, JYL/JZX, JZX & JGY, implied LXC/JGY, Canon Divergence, Fluff and Humor, Unreliable Narrator JZX, warning for JGS behaving exactly as expected, Meng Shi's canonically shitty situation, Minor surprise pairing at the end, Fix-It, Everyone Lives au)
a micro utopia born as the overture plays by tardigradeschool (T, 18k, JGY/LXC, wangxian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Marriage, Fluff, Scheming, Everyone Lives au, Kid Fic, Spanish translation by  finisterre12)
Marriage Principles series by Fahye (E, 38k, wangxian, LXC/JGY, canon divergence, arranged betrothal) LXC/JGY on the second part
Aftermath by KouriArashi (T, 57k, JYL/JZX, wangxian, LXC/JGY, JZX & JGY, JYL & WXX, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Everybody Lives, Romance, Developing Relationship, Family, Sibling Bonding, Light Angst, Politics, Attempted Sexual Assault, some murder on occasion, People talking about their feelings, processing their trauma, The good shit)
Whispers in My Ears by tabulaxrasa (T, 3k, wangxian, implied LXC/JGY, Canon Divergence, LWJ stays at the Burial Mounds, Gossip, JGS is the worst, they have a son, Everyone lives, Podfic Available)
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6. Hey, thanks for your work as always! For the next in the mood for I'd love a compilation of high energy fics, just writing that is high spirited and fun or high energy and super engaging.
live from new york by varnes (E, 87k, WangXian, XuanLi, Modern AU, SNL AU, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, and they were ROOMMATES, Frottage, Light Bondage, could not be lighter or gentler bondage)
The Scarlet Lotus by rainbowninja167 (M, 137k, WangXian, Marriage of Convenience, Secret Identity, Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical war crimes, Yunmeng Bros, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Miscommunication)
kiss with a fist by daltoneering (E, 23k, WangXian, Modern AU, Secret Agents, Enemies to Lovers, Rivals to Lovers, Enemies With Benefits, Mutual Pining, Light Angst, Action & Romance, Action movie-typical violence, A HEIST, james bond inspired, Blood and Injury, Shooting Guns, please read a/n for further warnings!, (this is meant to be fun though I promise!))
Meng Yao vs. the Board of the Homeowner's Association Series by Ariaste (M/T, 119k, WIP, XiYao, WangXian, Modern AU, Established Relationship, xiyao and wangxian are both already married, Family Feels, Domestic Fluff, Family Bonding, Slice of Life, Discussions of Past Trauma, wwx's canonical kinks, HOAverse) (link in #5)
ID Bro Saga Series by Bowandtie (T, 39k, WangXian, Modern AU, dating app, Liberal use of emoji, 3zuns as bad friends forever, Slow Burn, super slow it's practically sous vide, Crack) Please read first!: Hey mods I suggested a fic (ID bro series) for no 6 for recent IMTF , I read this series a long time ago and was revisiting it and I found it had some (not much ) humor that is insensitive (like chapter 3 has a joke about Auschwitz). The author is clearly not a native english speaker and might be unaware, though they didn’t correct it though a comment kindly suggested it. I wanted to apologise, I must have overlooked. I don’t want to promote anything that is insensitive or might hurt anyone.
10 RMB lucky chickens by Raitelzen (T, 25k, XiCheng, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Neighbors, Chickens, mafia, Motorbike, Pathology Students, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mental Health Issues, Pre-Relationship) Last one is crack fic
ridiculous future bullshit Series by sami (T, 61k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Future Fic, in theory it follows on from an au, specifically The Same Moon Shines Series, in actuality I'm not committing to this that hard, Humour, immortals through history, Modern AU, Sort Of, University, outsider pov, Pride, Chaos Gremlin WWX)
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7. Hi! Looking for a fics where LWJ died, but WWX hasn't. Doesn't matter what caused his death - punishment, accident, or protecting someone - anything is okay. I wanna read sth about WWX's feelings about it. LWJ'S resurrection after years would be great too
In the new dawn by ballofstring (E, 9k, XiXian, WangXian, Canon-Typical Violence) warning: it's wwx/lxc pairing.
Moonlight by lunarvelle (E, 14k, WIP, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Omega Verse, Alpha WWX, Omega LWJ, Bottom LWJ/Top WWX, Canon Divergence, YLLZ WWX, WWX Creates a Sect | Yílíng Wèi Sect, LWJ Has a YLLZ Kink, Submissive LWJ, Horror, Case Fic, Pining LWJ, Whump, Dark WWX, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Age Difference, Angst with a Happy Ending, LWJ Whump)
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8. #itmf a fic similar to "after all i drifted ashore" by lingering_song, as in wwx does exactly what the cultivation world wants: give up the yin hufu and dissappear with his wen army and heretic powers; when the jins become the next wen sect, reign over all the others just as he said, and they come asking for help once again. i sincerely would prefer if wwx isnt forgiving to the ones that hunted him down after he down and betrayed him buy trying to lead a siege against him.
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9. hello!! could you please rec fics with the "secretly virgin wei ying lying about how amazing he is in bed and then getting fucked by lan zhan" trope?? or anything similar to it! i've been craving it so much but idk exactly how to find those through ao3 tags *cries*
thankyou so so much! hope you have a lovely day/night <3
Teach Me The Ways by likeafox (E, 58k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, The Porn Is the Plot)
Straight at the Sun by diamondbruise (E, 33k, WangXian, Canon Universe, no war though, Mutual Pining, Pining while fucking, Misunderstandings, First Time, Anal Sex, wwx desperately wants lwj's attention, lwj desperately wants to marry wwx, Miscommunication, Jealousy, in abundance, Happy Ending)
Lead Me On Through by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 54k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Practice Kissing, practice other things, horny boys in love, questionable logic, Questionable Choices, they're dumb but cute, but dumb, but really cute, slight knives, Happy Ending) I think this one also fits but I can't remember exactly. Has similar wwx you clown vibes though
Wei Laoshi, Poonslayer by FeelsForBreakfast (E, 6k, WangXian, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, POV LWJ, straight boy wwx, Loss of Virginity, Getting Together) op might want to check the sbwy tag, I feel that is where you would find that trope the most cause its Wei ying talking /lying abt being with girls lol
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10. Was rereading Beast of Gusu series, and as much as I love Foxxian/Dragonji fics (or any other combination of animals), can I get some more recs where only one half of WX is a shapshifter/non-human/etc? I've also read the tiger fic, the one where LWJ is cursed as a plant, and the one where everyone in the Burial Mounds is cursed as a monster, so you can skip those! Please and thank you!!
You are what you eat by deliciousblizzardshark (E, 17k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Eldritch WWX, Horny LWJ, Body Horror, Possessionof a sort, Cannibalism, kind of, Mild Gore, Teeth, Fluff and Humor, Smut, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Monster sex, Switching, Light BDSM, Rimming, Self-Lubrication, Seriousness treated Crackily, Implied/Referenced Torture, Dead WWX) eldritch horror creatures wwx but honestly a puppy really Also there's a shapeshifter comp as well! It includes more than just foxxian :)
find some comfort here by ScarlettStorm (E, 38k, WangXian, Modern AU with Magic, Fox WWX, animal rescuer lwj, Pacific Northwest setting, Adhd wwx, Established Relationship, Comedy, Smut, not just fox wwx but also foxboy wwx, to his own extreme horror, petting, both platonic and sexual, Scent Kink, Like a lot of scent kink, mildly telepathic sex, Blowjobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Sex Toys, Some A/B/O Dynamics, but in a non a/b/o world, No mpreg, yes self-lubrication, switch rights, Emotional Hurt/Comfort) WWX is a shapeshifter, LWJ is not
Uh, where can I find the LWJ is a plant mentioned in #10???
What We Grew in this Forsaken Place by Admiranda (T, 27k, wangxian, modern cultivation, shapeshifter LWJ, WWX has a fear of dogs, bunny crimes, genius WWX, unexpected pet owner WWX)
The Sun Will Rise series by vespertineflora (E, 129k, wangxian, Fantasy au, Fairy Tale au, Fairy Tale Elements, Human/Monster Romance, Tentacle Monsters, Plant Monsters, Tentacle Sex, vine sex, Vines, Monster LWJ, Human WWX, Mildly Dubious Consent Consensual Non-Con, Eventual Romance, Slow Romance, Happy Ending, Groping, Edgeplay, Hand Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Prostate Massage, First Time, Multiple Orgasms, WWX Has a Fear of Dogs, Homesickness, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Loneliness, Canon-Typical Violence, WWX Has a Rape/Non-Con Kink, Light Bondage, Light Masochism, Overstimulation, BAMF WWX, Stabbing, Near Death, Poisoning, Protective LWJ, Seduction Aphrodisiacs, OFCs, Snow and Ice, Snowball Fight, Lost Love, Falling In Love, Drunken Kissing, Sex Pollen, Submission, Subspace, Multiple Penetration, Love Confessions, full body restraint, Emotional Sex, Reincarnation) OP from #10 here, someone asked for the Plant!LWJ fic I mentioned? It was this series
blossoms at the roadside by bleuett (T, 12k, WangXian, Different First Meeting, Getting Together, Tenderness, Gardens & Gardening, Happy Ending, a little sprinkle of touch starvation, wangxian going 0 to 100 in seconds, Hand Feeding) In the process of finding the other, there was also this one I remembered, and thought, why not include both?
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11. hello! i'm looking for established relationship modern au wangxian fics, please! bottom wwx/lwj top only 🙏🏽💖
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12. Itmf fics where wwx got good or excellent reputation!! @whateverweilanlovechild
It's so sad that there are no fics where Wei Ying got good reputation 😭. I'm changing my itmf, please do one on fics where Wei Wuxian is loved by a collective people, like people of yunmeng or people of yilling. Something like that?
❤️ The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts by aubreyli (T, 20k, wangxian, In-Universe RPF, Romance Novel, Post-Canon Fix-It, primarily drama-canon with cameos from novel-canon, The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts by aubreyli [Podfic] by Rhea314 (Rhea))
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13. Sorry I just put in a request but I started thinking about wen ning, which made me sad soooo do you have anything wen ning centric? Thank you so much, have a good day @twlaei
Truth, Like an Arrow by Nahiel (T, 3k, WangXian, Technically this is a death fic, but I don't think it's sad, Time Travel Fix-It, POV Outsider, Sort Of, I don't know this fic is weird, assisted second death, but i still don't think it's sad, wn thinks poorly of himself, the author doesn't share this opinion, CQL Verse) Short Wen Ning-centric time travel fix it
do not go gentle by RoseThorne (G, <1k, WN & WQ, WWX & WQ, LSZ & WQ, major character death, Canonical Character Death, Spirits, Ghosts, LWJ Plays Inquiry, Song: Inquiry, Protectiveness, Grief/Mourning, Love, Acceptance, Family, Angst, Podfic Welcome, Post-Canon, POV Third Person, POV WN)
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14. Hii I'm wondering if there are fics where wangxian gain some sort of power that changes events in canon? @karinasnowwwx
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15. hi <3 i'd love to ask if there are any new-ish fics about the core transfer going wrong? it's been a couple of years since i went looking, for stuff like 'impossible remains' by jengabears etc (could be much less angsty like the transfer simply not working ahaha)
Drowning in the Sun by Zelos (T, 8k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Golden Core Transfer, Canon-Typical Violence, Brotherly Love, Sunshot Campaign, Family Dynamics, Grief/Mourning, Angst, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng Feels, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng Dynamics, [Podfic] Drowning in the Sun by flamingwell) I hope this meets what you're looking for. The transfer succeeds and everybody is alive, but Jiang Cheng was aware and paralyzed the whole time…
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16. Hello everyone, I’m in the mood for heartbreaking and saddest wangxian fics you know.
I want it to be wangxian centric, no yunmeng bros or JC focus and I don’t care if it’s canon compliant or au. I’m ok with omegaverse but not with omega LWJ.
Thank you all in advance and for all your hard work @kanrax-blog
Wei Wuxian Makes a Wish series by natcat5 (M, 119k, wangxian, major character death, underage, madoka magica au, modern w/ magic, time travel, high school au, body horror, self-harm, angst w/ bittersweet ending, time loop, mental instability, suicidal thoughts)
Concord by Deastar (T, 41k, WangXian, Arranged Marriage, Gūsū Lán Sect Rules, Depression, Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending)
我的皇后是農民 | sowing seeds in the cold palace by sweetlolixo (E, 78k, WangXian, Imperial Palace, Emperor LWJ, Imperial Consort WWX, Farmer WWX, Only WWX Could Have an Empress to Farmer Pipeline, Angst, Romance, Wingman LJY, Wife-chasing-LWJ, LWJ will grovel to the ends of the earth to make it up to WWX don't worry, Arranged Marriage, Best Boy A-Yuan, not LWJ friendly)
the heartlines on our hands by occultings (microcomets) (E, 47k, WangXian, Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, First Time, Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death)
in wild plums and river willows by SnowshadowAO3 (T, 17k, WangXian, Angst with a Hopeful Ending, Canon Universe, Grief/Mourning, descriptions of physical pain, alcohol mention, Fatherhood, The importance of legacy, Living for your dead love's semi-adopted child, Hurt/Comfort, Hallucinations vs. ghosts and not fully knowing the difference because you're grieving, Canon Temporary Character Death, Grief and love as inherent bedfellows)
总有一天; a place to hide (can’t find one near) by yiqie (E, 76k, WangXian, Modern AU, Pianist, Getting Together, Mental Health Issues, Suicide Attempt, Suicidal Thoughts, Depression, Hospitals, Overdosing, Eventual Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Additional Warnings In Author's Note) mind the tags on this one
both are cathartic-sad
When the Words Stop Coming by mrcformoso (G, 7k, WangXian, Canon Compliant, POV WWX, POV LWJ, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Pre-Sunshot Campaign, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Canonical Character Death, Love Confessions, Rejection, LWJ is a Panicked Gay, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Trauma, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Sad with a Happy Ending)
New Perspective by mrcformoso (T, 8k, WangXian, Angst, Hopeful Ending, Fatherhood, Regrets, Flashbacks, POV LWJ, LWJ-centric, Canonical Character Death - WWX, Pining LWJ, LWJ Has Feelings, LWJ Needs a Hug, Character Development, Dead WWX, Introspection, Feelings, LWJ is Bad at Feelings, Character Study, Regretful LWJ, Breaking Toxic Cycles, Canon Compliant, LWJ in Seclusion, Post-LWJ, in Seclusion, Child LSZ)
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17. Hello to you all! My semester just ended and now I'm free for a week probably? I do have hundreds of fics downloaded but yk it, it's never enough >ᴗ< so ITMF Nie Mingjue - Lan Xichen - Wei WuXian friendship. Well WWX's friendship with either of them is fine as well. It doesn't matter if it's older or younger WWX. Both canonverse as well as modern era fics are welcome ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა @tinyfoxpeach
Tumblr Fic by @shanastoryteller
Been There, Done That by FlautistsandPeonies (G, 34k, wangxian, NMJ & WWX & LXC, WN & WWX & WQ, LWJ & LXC & LQR, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Not Everyone Dies au, WWX Canon Genius, Single Father WWX, Father-Son Relationship, NMJ/WWX/LXC Sworn Brotherhood, Sunshot Campaign, jc canon characteristics, YLLZ WWX, WIP)
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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***
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dangerpronebuddie · 21 days
Note
Maggie, you don't understand how much I need the shooting to actually be Eddie's oh moment. Can you imagine how DELICIOUS the pining would be if Eddie gave up because he thought Buck was straight and couldn't feel the same way about him just to find out Buck is very much NOT straight and be like "oh, it wasn't that I'm a man, he just doesn't want me" UGH, I want it so baaaaaaaaaad. It's never gonna happen, the logical way to get here is to have none of them be aware of their feelings and figure that out together, but OH MY GOD IT COULD BE SO GOOD
AAAAAAAHHHH! I had not even considered what that pining could be now that Buck is canonically bi. "Oh, it wasn't that I'm a man, he just doesn't want me" I'M FINE!
It would be perfect if the shooting was his oh moment!!! Spending years knowing he's in love with Buck and knowing there's no way, and now that he knows there is a way, he's still not an option?? OUGH!!! I mean, that whole scene is poetic! The way his eyes never leave Buck? The way he keeps reaching for Buck even as he begins to fall? How he stayed conscious until he knew Buck wasn't hurt????? Perfect realization.
But, if it wasn't his oh moment (we're correct until proven otherwise!) having him stumble through his own realization would be *chef's kiss!*
And yeah, it's probably not, unfortunately. I think he wasn't telling Buck the entire truth about what he remembered in 6x12, but there's every possibility he doesn't remember after all. I choose to stay delusional about this!
If it isn't, I'd like to see him go to someone about his feelings, like Hen, Chim, or even Bobby and want advice on it.
And I want an episode from Eddie's pov. How he sees Buck. The potential for mutual pining is AMAZING!!!
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ddejavvu · 2 years
Note
Hii!!
Can you please do more grumpy!reader and sunshine!Spencer?
The last one you wrote WAS SO CUTE!!!!
I love you so much!! Have a super awesome and wonderful day!!
thank you thank you thank you, i love you too!! sunshine!spencer has my whole heart, i swear :(
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You prided yourself on being unflappable. Sure, you lashed out every once in a while, when you were really pissed, but you'd managed to set enough of a brooding exterior for yourself that you had to get really angry for people to notice.
So the dirty looks you'd been sending to one of the officers in the precinct you were working in weren't anywhere out of the ordinary. If anyone asked, you'd blame it on the atrocious haircut the man wore, and they'd believe you.
It wasn't his haircut, though. You were sure the overly volumized hairdo was in compensation for something miniscule, and it was definitely a problem. But the bigger problem came from the condescending scoffs the man let out whenever Spencer spoke. Or from the judgmentally astonished looks he threw his fellow officers whenever a particularly obscure fact was thrown out.
This was no different. Spencer was halfway through explaining how one of the letters they'd been sent by a killer had significantly different dialect included, indicating that you weren't looking for one person anymore, that you most likely had a team of criminals working together. Before he could finish his thought, the officer had huffed exasperatedly.
"I don't see why you think this matters, Mr...." The officer squinted at Spencer's badge grandiosely, putting on a show of not knowing his name, "Reid. What difference does it make what words he uses, the handwriting's the same. I dunno if you guys get paid more for catching more people, but I think we'd all appreciate it if you just stuck to the facts here, and didn't start picking these stupid letters apart like you're in a high school english class to try and make up more trouble than we actually have. They don't say anything, it's all just poetic nonsense."
There was a moment of tense, unforgiving silence, and you watched Spencer's lips twitch ever so slightly. A nervous tic. Then you spoke, your voice tinged with venom.
"Doctor."
The officer just looked confusedly at you, which seemed typical of the man.
"He's a doctor," You spat, "Address him as one."
"I don't think-"
"I know you don't. You know, I'm not surprised that you brought up high school english class, because I guarantee that's the last time you've ever thought critically about something in your entire life. And that was a while ago, wasn't it?"
"Y/L/N-," Rossi gently grabbed your arm, but you shook him off, paying little to no attention to the possible ramifications of your outburst.
"It seems very on-brand for you to say the words 'poetic nonsense.' You're the type of person to write off every single thing you're not able to comprehend as complete and utter nonsense, to make yourself feel smarter than you are, aren't you? But it's not working," You grabbed the letters Spencer had been analyzing off of the table and thrust them towards him, "Because for the first time in god knows how long, you've got someone competent in this room, and you're getting shown up. Spencer," You turned to him, finally breaking eye contact with the bristling officer, "Continue. Tell us what it means."
Spencer's hand shook slightly as he shuffled through the pages, and part of you felt bad for putting him on the spot after making such a scene. But if he wasn't going to stand up for himself, you were.
"This right here." Spencer pointed vigorously to a phrase he'd noted, "This is regional dialect. Southern Florida. That narrows our previous suspect pool, somewhere in the 600's, to about fifteen."
"The info on those fifteen suspects is being passed around now," Hotch's voice made your stomach twist uncomfortably, "Y/L/N, a word?"
You let your unit chief lead you away, into a hallway off of the room you'd just been in. His gaze was always stern, but it was just a hint worse now, and you prepared yourself for the lecture you had coming.
"You need to separate your thoughts from your feelings."
"Sir?"
"Everyone on the team knows that you're in love with him," He started, gesturing stiffly to Spencer through the glass door you stood beside, "But your actions cannot reflect that."
"That is not- I didn't... I'm not in love with him!"
"Don't start." Hotch held a hand out, effectively silencing you, "I'm not here to help you decipher your little crush, I'm here to make sure none of us get fired, and you're getting pretty damn close. Do you understand? Never again."
You never liked talked down to. You felt the same rage burn in your gut as you had when the officer was drawling on about Spencer, but the respect that you had for Hotch as your superior outweighed it enough to silence you. You bit your tongue, nodding tersely and averting your eyes to the dingy floor.
"And for fuck's sake," Hotch paused with a hand on the door, his vulgarity making your eyes widen a fraction, "Ask him out when we get back. I can't watch this anymore, you're both so oblivious."
He was gone without another word, ducking back into the conference room and ordering officers into groups. You stood stiffly in the hallway, heart pounding and head spinning as you tried processing all of the different, conflicting emotions you were experiencing.
Before you could calm yourself down enough to reenter the room, Spencer excused himself, slipping out into the hallway and frowning slightly at your dazed expression.
"He didn't... He didn't fire you, did he?"
"No," You shook your head, a sigh escaping your lips, "No, I just got lectured."
"I'm sorry," Spencer's voice was cautious, "If I had said something..."
"I'm glad you didn't." You crossed your arms over your chest, "Because then it would have been you on thin ice. You don't deserve that just for doing your job."
"You don't either," He mused, glancing sadly at you, "Are you sure nothing else happened? You seem tense."
"I'm okay," You urged, "Really. Just annoyed, I guess. But I'll get over it. Just gotta get back in there."
Spencer nodded, his signature tense grin on his lips as he tilted his head to the door, "You coming, then?"
"Yeah," You thanked him as he held the door open, but stayed behind the threshold for a moment, "Spencer?"
"Hm?"
"You're good at your job."
His smile deepened slightly, spreading up his cheeks, "Thanks, Y/N. And you're good at protecting people. I'm pretty sure I saw a tear or two in his eyes."
You scoffed lightheartedly at Spencer's teasing, gently bumping into him as you strode through the door, sending one last nasty glance to the officer you'd mouthed off to, seeing a satisfyingly pathetic expression on his face.
Even if you'd lost your job, you didn't think you'd have regretted standing up for Spencer. Nothing had been more important to you in that moment than keeping Spencer unscathed, and the knowing stares you got from the other members of your team were well worth it.
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mogoce-nocoj · 6 months
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Spent some time compiling my favourite bokris fics and here they are! This turned out to be rather long because I wrote little descriptions for every fic as well as why I liked them <3
Kisses by applegrass23 I think the first fic on ao3 that solely focuses on Bokris and the one that got me into this ship because while it's angsty and unrequited, I loved the focus on Kris and it's so well written. My heart broke but I loved it so much.
Pink by cursed_throwaway Explicit. Power dynamics and humiliation and a focus on Kris's 🍑. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, I liked it though.
we don't talk about it anymore by vanvanvanvan Bokris get-together fic with eventual breakup (their “creative differences”) only they don't get back together as a band afterwards. They meet up again eventually and try figuring it out, loved their dynamic and the focus on early bokris.
measured intervals of absence by Anonymous Fell in love with this one. I'd call it a rather experimental narrative, with Bojan trying to negotiate his changing feelings toward Kris and the anxiety he feels. Beautifully written. Very poetic.
(go on) Leave me breathless by Anonymous Explicit. Choking kink negotiations. One of the best bokris dynamics. They're just so loving and the trust they have is beautiful and also, yeah, the choking kink.
Release from the What happens on the bus stays on the bus - Tour Drabble Collection by Anonymous Explicit. Kris has a rough time, Bojan makes him feel better. Sweet and full of comfort and trust.
Ko me tvoj objem zakriva (When I'm in your arms) by Anonymous Longfic, finished. Favourite bokris fic I've ever read but be prepared for a 60k slowburn. Follows Kris from first meeting Bojan to meeting Jan, joining Joker Out and falling in love with Bojan along the way. Includes a lot of references to the band's history such as Kris and Bojan's first meeting, their break, writing vse kar vem, Martin leaving etc. Has my absolute favourite Kris characterisation, addresses his need for control and anxiety moments. His eventual realisation that falling in love with Bojan was inevitable for him as well as him and Bojan figuring out what to do with it really hit me hard, personally. If you like slowburn you will be rewarded with the most beautiful scenes at the end because they're SO sweet to each other and made me cry. If you mention this fic to me I probably won't stop talking about it.
Breakfast by ludolefebvre Coffeeshop AU. Trigger for Kris depression episode. Bojan is the cute server who tries to get through to him. Loved the focus on Kris and Bojan's puppy behaviour, even if it's an AU.
I've never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight by JuliaBaggins @occhi-verdi-come-il-mare Perfectly encapsulates the post-Stožice high everyone was feeling. Mentions our favourite Kris Stožice outfit and Bojan and him working out their feelings for each other. Their dynamic is beautifully written and I particularly loved how Kris acted in this one <3
Interregnum by Nothing_Rhymes_With_0range Deals with Bojan trying to deal with his feelings after Martin has left the band and finding his solution in Kris. They're so unsure in this but also very sweet and yeah. They'll figure it out, as long as they have each other.
K is for Kind by Calli_Thaala Bojan and Kris finding adjectives for each other. Short, sweet, captures their dynamic perfectly.
Be My Baby by zojassparkle Longfic, finished. One of the best bokris longfic out there, following a pining Kris discovering himself and eventually realising that his feelings might not actually be unrequited after all.
Slap Your Tall Friend Day by Calli_Thaala Peak annoying Bojan. Joker Out's dynamic is also absolutely hilarious. Enjoyed reading it a lot.
that song doesn't have distortion by honey_and_venom 5+1, Soulmate AU, ongoing. Kris is Bojan's soulmate but they Do Not Talk About It. Loved the idea of their first words being their soulmarks and how sometimes you need a lot of time to really see one another because life and relationships are difficult.
The Space Between by SamePlaceandTime @reserved-fruit Post-Thailand fic dealing with all the Bokris moments we've seen lately. It's them slowly discovering that they might be ready to push their boundaries a bit further than just friendship and it's full of sweetness and comfort <3
Speaking of, special shoutout to @reserved-fruit's bokris fic prompt series, here on tumblr and here on ao3. I haven't managed to read all of them yet but I particularly liked Eat the Damn Soup and The One Where They're Found Out.
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13eyond13 · 2 months
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What headcannons do you have on B during his career (for a lack of a better word) as a serial killer? To me, he's like one of the funniest characters but also the most pathetic in the most poetic try-hard way. Why do you think he's such a try-hard? He's coping but what is he coping from?
OMG B!!! Haven't thought about my favourite stupid son B enough lately, so thank you for this ask....
So he's a try-hard because he is probably VERY INSECURE, to be blunt. He probably has very little sense of self-worth or a concrete sense of identity outside of trying to one-up L, and he takes that to the extreme in a highly comical way. He's also no doubt traumatized from his insane childhood as a shinigami hybrid who watched many people (including both his parents) die while knowing they were going to die / was also raised very weirdly and abusively/experimentally at Wammy's and made to feel like he was only worth something if he could be as smart and talented as the legendary L. In his mind he decided that creating his own destiny would be better and rebelled against that expectation by being like, "why be the next L when instead I could DEFEAT L by creating a brilliant crime that he can't possibly solve?"
ANYWAY there's a reason he is the most creepypasta villain / emo boi / dark academia darling of the fandom, and that highly melodramatic backstory is a huge part of it - which I DO love dearly in its own mid 2000s way, even though I also sometimes sigh at it because of the extra villainous cartoony edge it adds to L's backstory, and don't always want to take it very seriously as part of L's characterization in the manga plot...
So on my most recent re-read of the LABB novel, I feel I was a bit struck by just how... Not Good B's impression of L actually is? And this was kind of hilarious to me to think about. I feel like when I was younger and really into shipping LxB I read it just as "clearly B has a massive crush on L and is doing his best to imitate him perfectly because he hero worships him and sincerely wants to be him so bad!" HOWEVER this time around I remember thinking something along the lines of "wow, this feels almost like B just googled how to cosplay L and then lazily threw something together 5 minutes before crawling under the bed", hahaha. So he either just kinda sucks at imitating L (and maybe so, but he also managed to trick the families of the victims into letting him investigate the crime scenes, so he's probably not THAT bad at acting when he wants to be?) or maybe he's intentionally trying to make a mockery of L. It is ALSO FASCINATING from a psychological POV to imagine he's just being a troll about it all and trying to make fun of L with how he behaves! Like! Was he intentionally mocking L with his impression of him to somebody who would never even get the stupid joke in the first place? If that's the case, it's excruciatingly cringy to me that nobody even gets his joke the entire time, hahaha.... poor Naomi suffered more than Jesus at some points during that investigation, I swear...
B trying to do a scathing impression of L to somebody who has never even met him before:
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ANYWAYS. I think that whatever the case, he PROBABLY hoped/expected L himself was going to show up to the crime scene to confront him, at any rate. And so therefore he probably initially dressed up as L not to genuinely pass to anybody as L, but maybe expecting to do some ominous dark mirror/ arch-nemesis big reveal shit to L?? Perhaps once he realized that Naomi was the only one coming / was working for L he just changed gears a bit and decided he'd just lead her through the clues as best he could while trying out this cosplay of the guy that he wants to offend most, but this is in my mind pretty much how it must have gone.
One of my fave headcanons about him is that he re-read that crossword puzzle he made / that the police threw out without solving SO MANY times while he was sweating off his makeup under the bed, as well... that's why he had to show it to Naomi as soon as he got out... he was like "I PUT A LOT OF WORK INTO THIS DAMMIT, and SOMEBODY is going to appreciate it" hahahaha. Ohhh, B....
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zarvasace · 1 year
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Another Point in Favor of Vidow
By this point, many of us in the Four Swords manga fandom are aware of the relationship that is (or maybe isn't) implied between Vio and Shadow. I agree that it is up for some debate, but also my opinion is that the relationship is as clear as it can get, operating within the bounds of its context—that is, early-2000s Japan, kids' manga, the bias against gay couples.
This is just another pin on the conspiracy board of red lines!
The moon is present in three main places during the Vio/Shadow arc—very first (and most damning) when the two meet one-on-one, once in a panel showing the Fire Temple that the two are hanging out in, and once behind the two as they ride on the dragon to cause chaos. (Many thanks to @hauntinghyrule for helping me find those!)
There is a common belief in Japan that the author Natsume Souseki once told a student that their translation was wrong. They'd translated "I love you" as "kimi o aisu," and he thought it was far too blunt. He was a product of the Meiji era, and preferred the idea that the Japanese language should be more poetic and subtle. He then proposed the idea that instead of "ware kimi wo aisu," one should say "tsuki ga kirei desu ne" instead, which translates to English more as "the moon is beautiful, isn't it?" (You can read more about that, and why the guy might not have actually said it, here!)
You can see where I'm going with this.
Whether or not Souseki actually said it, the phrase is widely understood to be a sideways way of saying "I love you." The moon has a lot of meanings in Japanese culture and language, and I won't say that this is the interpretation, or if our lovely authors meant this at all, but they might have. They seem fond of hinting at it. ("We feel blessed that the characters' feelings came across so clearly.")
If we can read into the presence of the moon as presence of romantic possibility, what happens then? Well. A lot.
When Shadow first approaches Vio, he's seen hanging out on top of a pine tree with the moon bright and full behind him.
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This isn't the actual manga panel, I don't have that right now, but this art was based on that specific scene, and you may recognize it. There are a few other panels this scene that Vidow shippers like to call out—Vio's apparent blush when Shadow casually moves his sword away (a power move regardless of intent that made me fall in love with him), or the way Shadow hangs on Vio when persuading him to turn to the dark side. If we can read the moon's presence as a hint towards romance, then it's pretty clear what's being implied here—there's an element of seduction.
The second place we see the moon is just after Vio and Shadow's heart-to-heart on the balcony, one of the only canon interactions between them during this period without a lot of plot happening. Here's the panel I mean:
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Like hauntinghyrule pointed out, if the moon is visible here, it was likely present during that conversation. That feels like reaching, but I think it's pretty significant that we can see the moon in this panel, too. It's here for that bonding moment. It's part of establishing the tone and setting. If the moon is inherently romantic, then so is this scene.
And then the third panel that the moon is seen in is this one, Vio and Shadow flying on a dragon to bring chaos and fire:
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If the moon means romance, then this is a date. They've had their moment, they're in love, all is going well.
It might not mean that much. I could be veering into atla-levels of overanalyzation, for sure! However, this feels like something that could definitely be intentional. "月が綺麗ですね" is understood to sort-of kind-of mean "I love you," turning the moon into a symbol of implied love.
And...it's very thematic, even if it isn't intended. Come on. The moon, hinting toward unspoken romance in some of the scenes where Vio and Shadow's dynamic is at its most stable? Dramatic. Amazing.
...You could read even more into it, and say that Vio is Shadow's moon—reflected light of the Hero or the Princess, guiding him to see the good, a desirable light in the darkness that Shadow insists he has to stay in. There's something lovely about that interpretation, too. :)
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The RalsAlmanac, Volume I
Okay, here it is! A series of essays that will attempt to definitively explain just who or what Ralsei is, referring to scenes from the game as evidence, as well as external sources where appropriate.
There will be some conjecture, as there's just so much we don't know about him, and what little we are given isn't exactly the most revealing. However, I've done my best to cleave as closely to the source material as I can, and I believe there's a strong case to be had here.
Hopefully you'll be able to see where my points come from, or at the very least you'll learn something you didn't know before. Either way, thanks for your consideration!
Volume I - Ralsei Is A Character In A Role-Playing Game.
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Self-indulgent reference out of the way, lemme ask you a question.
Who is Ralsei?
It's a question that seems like it should be easy to answer. He's the Prince From The Dark, the third of the three Delta Warriors, he exists to serve the lightners, and is the most precious little cinnamon roll that ever lived. He enjoys baking and crochet, can hold a tune, is a decent interior-decorator, and holds his friends Kris and Susie in very high regard.
Thing is, that's about all you can really say about him without veering into speculation and headcanons, and they're more surface-level observations than anything else. What exactly does "Prince From The Dark" mean, for instance? Prince in what sense, exactly? Ceremonial, or with the actual power that royalty conveys? Where does he rank in comparison to, say, King or Queen, both actual rulers of actual kingdoms? The title of "prince" would suggest that he answers to them, but while they rule their own municipalities, Ralsei's title implies he rules over ALL dark worlds. You could go on asking these questions forever, but I think you see what I'm getting at.
A more productive avenue of questioning might be: What role does Ralsei play in the story of Deltarune? Perhaps more of his underlying character and motivation could be gleaned by looking at what he does for the story and the game. And this would be correct... sort of.
We tend to think of him as the squishy healer of the party, the Heart and moral centre of the Fun Gang. And he absolutely is that, but he's also quite a bit more. He plays all sorts of different roles and character archetypes in the first two chapters of the game, including but not limited to:
the old man whose purpose is to wax poetic about the ancient prophecy...
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the know-it-all tutorial fairy who walks you through the basic game mechanics...
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the straight-man DM trying to keep everything on the rails...
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the young sheltered noble experiencing the outside world for the first time...
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the demure love-interest to the main protagonist...
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the Polyanna determined to see the good in everybody...
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the mysterious waif who knows things he shouldn't...
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...eye candy…?
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...and so on and so forth.
And so what, I hear you cry. Characters in video games can have more than one personality trait, after all. And yes, this is true! But usually, the different aspects of a character's roles, how they interact with, reinforce or contradict each other, can tell us more about their inner world - what motivates them, what they actively like and dislike... in short, it grants them depth and allows us to engage with them as actual people, rather than just a series of game functions and character traits dressed up in a pretty bow.
But that's not what we see with Ralsei. In fact, far from showing us any real, deep aspect of his character, each new guise he dons and part he plays in the narrative further obfuscates him from us. We learn no new meaningful information from any of these exchanges... except for one thing, but we'll come to that in a moment.
This vexes us, because we WANT to know more about him, but all we end up getting is stock JRPG tropes dressed up in a warm, fluffy coat. There HAS to be something deeper, we reason - he's hiding things from us, so he must be a secret villain. Or his backstory is so tragic, so traumatising, that he cannot properly articulate it to us right now. Or maybe what we see really IS what we get - a simpering, airheaded fool whose only desires in life are to be cute, please his betters and do what he's told. Yet even this explanation seems... unsatisfying, especially since we KNOW he harbours some angst about himself and his sense of identity.
And speaking of which, that one thing we learn? Right at the end of Chapter 2's Acid Tunnel sequence, he utters a single sentence:
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This is arguably one of the most significant lines of dialogue in the entire game up to this point. But what does it mean, exactly? I believe most people assume it means he doesn't have a clear sense of who he is outside of his ordained purpose, which is certainly valid, and definitely something I believed for a long time. And yet, this explanation does not deepen our understanding of his character in any meaningful way; looking back over all his interactions with the cast, it does not allow us to glean any further information about him.
And you can say that's because he himself doesn't know what he's like... but again, this doesn't actually change anything, and we just end up with a circular logic trap. We don't know anything because he doesn't tell us anything, and he doesn't tell us anything because he doesn't know anything, so how can we be expected to know anything, except that no-one seems to know anything about him… which is very frustrating to us Ralsei scholars, and gets us no closer to truly understanding him.
But look at what he says again. Really look at it. It’s a very strange way of saying “I don’t really know who I am”, isn’t it? After all, if that’s what he means, then why doesn’t he just say that? I’m certain you’ve realised by now, but it’s because that’s NOT what he’s saying at all. He literally has no clue what being “himself” is supposed to be, because he wasn’t even created with a sense of “Ralsei-ness” in the first place. Little wonder, then, that we can’t discern anything about his internal world, when there is nothing there to be discerned.
But before I elaborate any further, I want to talk about a couple of scenes in Deltarune that are just... puzzling. This is relevant, I promise. The first is during the dialogue with Rouxls Kaard before the rematch with K.Round. Ralsei says something interesting in the lead-up to the fight:
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Note Susie’s baffled reaction to this. Then not long afterwards, he continues with:
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Throwaway joke, right? We laugh because Susie's right - K. Round and its crown do look exactly the same to us, and so Ralsei's dramatic utterances are deflated and lose their impact. We laugh, beat the boss with Susie's help and forget all about it. But here's the thing - if K.Round looks the same to us, and it looks the same to Susie, and presumably by extension the rest of the in-game characters... when why exactly does Ralsei take the time to insist otherwise?
Is he... lying? Our most precious little boy, guilty of perjury? Say it ain't so! :O
The second scene is in chapter 2 - Queen has challenged us to a game of Punch-Out on her absurdly tall arcade machine, and we can talk to the characters before trying to interact with it. Talk to Ralsei, and if you answer "Gaming is my life" to his prompt, he says this:
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Most people don't even come across this in their playthrough, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's new to you reading this. But again, note this strange discrepancy between what Ralsei reports is happening and what Susie says is actually happening. It becomes apparent to most people that Kris can affect the tone of their voice when saying what we tell them to, which affects how the response is taken by other characters and gives us a subtle clue about how they actually feel about certain characters or situations.
Are we to assume, then, that Ralsei isn't actually listening to how Kris says things, but only what they're saying? And if that's correct, then... what does that say about him?
Taken at face-value, within the context of the game, neither of these events really make much sense. It just looks like Ralsei is being overly-dramatic, or lying, or perhaps even insensitive to what their friend is trying to tell him, which doesn't quite track with his per-established shallow traits of kind, all-loving and moralistic. It's perplexing and seemingly out-of-character for him. So it might help to consider, in each of these scenarios, who exactly Ralsei is talking to.
Is it Kris and/or Susie? This would make the most sense, but it's actually not that likely, considering the aforementioned discrepencies between his descriptions and Susie's observations. So is it himself? Again, if he can see things the same as everyone else in-game, that wouldn't make much sense, because then he's just saying stuff that... isn't true? Or in the latter example's case, just completely ignoring what Kris is saying, which doesn't seem to entirely gel with what we know about him.
So, who does that leave? Well, the only other person - or should I say entity - who is present for both of those scenes is... us. The player of Deltarune. And that might seem even stranger than the previous options, until you realise what it is he's actually doing - providing flavour text, additional exposition informing us of details that we wouldn't - or shouldn't - be able to make out on a pixelated display with no voice-acting, attempting to give us a richer sense of these events in order to increase our sense of immersion in the game and world of Deltarune. In effect, he's playing the part of a character in a role playing game, doling out “flavour text” that contradicts another character’s experience of the same scenes, and he's doing it entirely for OUR benefit. Not Kris’s, not Susie's – ours.
He tells us that K.Round's crown is different, and that it is in pain from its forced control, to try and increase the stakes of the fight, and to give us a motivation that's not "here's the exact same boss again lul". He responds to Kris's words the way he does, not because he doesn't understand the nuances of their tone, but to try and amp us up for the upcoming challenge, and to validate our choice when we select the dialogue option "Gaming is my life". Because we cannot hear Kris's tone of voice - and Ralsei knows that. To him, Kris's tone literally doesn't matter, because he doesn't believe it matters to us in that exact moment.
And here’s the thing: if not for Susie’s asides immediately contradicting him, we’d likely take what he says here as what’s actually going on. To Ralsei, the reality he and his friends experience is not important – it’s the image of that reality that he’s trying to convey to the player. It’s like he knows he’s part of a game, meant just for us to experience and enjoy, as opposed to a real world filled with real people having real experiences.
And the reason I brought this up is to illustrate what I believe Ralsei to actually be - namely, that he a walking, talking, singing and dancing amalgam of stock JRPG characters and tropes that's trying very hard to present as an actual person, to the point of knowing absolutely nothing about who he even is outside of that. Put in even blunter terms, he's literally a fluffy goat-shaped vehicle to set the player on their journey through the game, to keep them playing and to keep them invested. People looking for deeper aspects of his character come up short and are disappointed because they're looking for something that does not currently exist.
And just so that I'm clear, I do not mean that Ralsei is "acting", or that he's "wearing a mask", because that would imply that there was actually something underneath his "facade" to begin with. No, this is who the Prince of the Dark is - a very convincing fascimile of a person, following his directive to ensure that the story of Deltarune is resolved, and that the game of Deltarune is played to completion. And once you realise that, a lot of things that Ralsei says and does that seemed strange before suddenly make a lot more sense.
As for the why... well, that'll have to wait for another time. But hopefully you can begin to see how my future essays in this series all tie in to this one, because I think you can only really understand those with the framework that this text provides. I hope that my reasoning made sense and wasn't too difficult to follow, but I'll be happy to provide additional information, clarification, or even just discussion on any aspect of this essay... even if we just wind up (respectfully) agreeing to disagree. Would love to hear what people thought about this!
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Thanks for reading!
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arashi-no-saxlphone · 1 month
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Your feelings remind me of Jack-O so much. Being made only for the purpose to die so someone else people actually want can come back, feeling like there's genuinely no point to you existing and your failing those around you the longer you continue to do so. When Sol says "Have I ever called you Aria?" just snipe me through the skull next time Daisuke, don't drag me like this ;_;
YES YES YES Dude Jack-O Valentine is so fucking cool. What a fucking character arc and story and she's yet another one of those Guilty Gear moments where you play against her like "What's with this silly goofy lady?" and you read anything or watch Xrd/Strive story and have to lie down for a while.
The fucking scenes with her and Sol in Strive make me so insane. There's the one you mentioned here (Sol showing genuine emotion I am collapsing and sobbing) and then the part on the highway where Jack-O is just like "Frederick...?" Sol: "Yeah?" Jack-O: "...You're smiling." Sol: "Hm...." Like I am deceased. ALSO THE WAY SOL IS LIKE "Have I ever called you Aria?" AND JACK-O IS ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE WHO CALLS HIM FREDERICK??? POETIC CINEMA!!!
Jack-O is definitely one of the many examples of characters in this series feeling doomed by the narrative in some way and trying to come to grips with their existence or finding a way to live that won't make them miserable. Everyone finds a way to do it through many different means! (someone in the tags of an old post said a big part of it is relationships in Guilty Gear and I think that's a really good one). For Jack-O it's her connection to Sol - not because she's a unit made to house bits of Aria, but because she and Sol forge a new and separate relationship based on who she is as Jack-O. Sol accepts her as a different person and not this echo of his wife and I think it's part of what helps her feel that she can exist hiw she chooses to- she is not doomed to be temporary vessel.
Anyway thanks for this ask I love getting excited and Guilty Gear does it for me so easy - I think part of what makes this series so fantastic is the narrative and the character writing makes them all so profoundly human and relatable; even the characters that explicitly AREN'T human struggle with and posses humanity!! I think anyone can look to any of those characters and see echoes of themselves or other people and feel that it's going to be ok (It will work out!! (haha The Hourglass reference)).
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meraki-yao · 2 months
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RWRB Bullet Comments Part 2: NY First Kiss
Hi I'm back with another bullet comments post! This time the new year's kiss as requested by @tal-vez-o-quizas!!!
⬇️ Is what the screen looks like lmao
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How the hell did Alex find him
Puppy is looking for footsteps
ohhhh the little prince is jealous lol
My entire screen is filled with laughter
Confession under the Moonlight
It's not about culture shock, mostly Henry's jealous, oh I feel so bad for the prince
This scene is shot so beautifully!
The scenery here is so pretty!
God, this is such an artistic shot
this part 5:20, thank you uploader (the movie was uploaded in parts, 520 sounds similar to "I love you" in Chinese)
Henry: May the gale that rushes into the blossom Caress her and never let her be broken (A Chinese poem about being understood)
His socks and shoes are soaked
Oh Henry is so sad...
Henry's nose is red ahhhhh it's adorable
look at the prince's teary eyes
Puppy doesn't know what he did wrong, but puppy knows to ask
At midnight he really wanted to kiss Alex, but he is a prince, he can't, and now he's depressed
a great virtue of Alex's: apologizing even with he's not sure what he did wrong
This movie is so cute
Get ready get ready!!!!
The little prince is so pretty
Henry baby you're so pretty
Henry kind of looks like a grown-up Prince George
An English Rose (describing Henry)
The prince really looks like a blue-blood
Wow they even included steamy breaths
This is such as fantasy
Look, a snowflake fell onto Henry's shoulder and melted
This is a beautiful fairytale
"Be a writer live in Paris" is a (Oscar) Wilde meme
Breaking News: The prince of England wants to live in Paris hahahaha
The prince of England has too much hair this is sci-fi lmao
Why does everyone in English-dominant areas have some sort of longing fantasy towards Paris? What's so good about Paris anyway?
English people: Wait, live in Paris? No no no no no you can't
Ohhhh and then they went on a date in Paris
Everybody look carefully! Henry's lips are already swollen… they shot a lot of takes for this scene, and he can't even cover the swelling lmao
Those who desired me I have no interest in, yet those I desire I cannot have (my English translation of a very poetic fan translation of the "people I date don't interest me" line)
Here to watch the British way of hair-grabbing
*a lot of exclamations and feral screaming
The kettle is boiling (aka intense screeching sounds)
Brave Kitty!!!!
Wow Wow Wow WOW WOW WOW
The first son is actually responding to the kiss!
So soon? I'm screaming!!!!
That's a passionate kissing-back, Alex
I straight up turned into a rubber chicken
I'm just gonna quietly pull back the progress bar a couple million times...
FUCK!!!
Henry kissed Alex just because he wanted to pour his feelings out, he didn't imagine Alex would kiss him back
I fucking love how straightforward this is
Ahhhhhh I'm blushing I'm blushing I'm fully pink now
Puppy wanted to keep kissing, Kitty stepped back first
I'm crawling on the floor
HE DIDN'T REJECT THE KISS
Oh damn Alex wants more
OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS
DON'T BE SHY KISS HIM BACK
...Okay, so to briefly summarize: The shot is pretty, Alex is a good boi, Henry is pretty, Fuck France (no offence French Folks sorry lmao especially my friend @alittlefrenchtree😂) , screaming at the kiss
Yup there's you go!!! Lemme know what scene to do next!!!:D
Previous Parts
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So, I started writing a completely different post about the Heart confrontation scene and was gonna start it with "[Episode 5] was just so well done and they laid everything out on a platter for me to digest that I don't really feel the need to wax poetic about colors in this episode" but uhhhh, haha oops, I played myself. I was looking back through part 4/4 to talk about Heart's confrontation scene, and uh...
IT'S COLOR TIME.
Fuck you @respectthepetty! you created this monster.
So we already have Wen = Blue and Jim = Red but I've given the internet too many analyses about Wen and Jim and because once again the side couple strikes, all I care about is supporting this precious first love between Li Ming and Heart so that's what I'm gonna write.
Like father-figure uncle like nephew, Li Ming is red, and his love interest, Heart is blue. But because Wen and Jim are also red and blue I think there needs to be something else tying Li Ming and Heart together visually and that is stripes. (shhh, yes, I know Wen had a shirt with stripes on in it episode 4 but that served a very specific purpose of being red/blue color coded for the purposes of being caught between Alan and Jim) THIS however:
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stripes.
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stripes.
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stripes.
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stripes
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stripes
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stripes
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STRIPESSSSSSS
Is exclusively a dedicated HeartLiMing motif.
And stripes makes sense as the connecting factor between the two of them. The plot line for Heart and Li Ming centers so much around how trapped they both feel in their respective lives. Li Ming trapped by poverty, Heart trapped at home. Li Ming trapped on the cusp of adulthood and independence, having a difficult time being understood by his uncle (despite Jim's best efforts), Heart trapped in his own body and mind, because his parents refuse to learn how to understand him. Their plot is about being teenagers, teenagers testing boundaries, breaking boundaries, rebelling against the authority they have known their whole lives in order to better understand who they are as people. In order to be able to make their own mistakes and start learning how to navigate the world without a "true adult" there to make decisions for them. It's about breaking free of the barriers your family has always placed around you to keep you safe.
Horizontal stripes of course, also make me think a bit about paper, and writing is a crucial, vital, and important part of how Heart and Li Ming started getting to know each other. If you want to get even more abstract about it, lines in relation to Heart and Li Ming make me think of hands, of fingers (the vertical lines especially) in reference to sign language and its importance in allowing these two to communicate and understand one another.
Okay I said it was color time, I lied again, sorry, it actually was stripe time.
NOW IT'S COLOR TIME.
We've seen a lot in this show, in my opinion, with blue lighting around the Red Rascals, both Jim and Li Ming. Especially Li Ming because all of his interactions with Heart until the middle of Episode 4 have been immersed completely in Heart's home.
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and what I love about blue lighting is that it makes red pop so Li Ming is still the most central and eye catching presence on the screen, despite the fact that he is bathed in blue. Despite the fact that he is in Heart's room, in Heart's house, he is the center of attention for viewers in this moment, but also for Heart as a whole.
And even in Ep. 4 once they finally leave Heart's home, Li Ming is still constantly covered in blue because he is doing all of this for Heart.
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And when they go to the church where Heart is introduced to other Deaf people for the first time, Li Ming is still immersed in blue because, once again, he is in Hearts's world. The world that Heart should have always had access to from the minute that he became deaf. The world he's been deprived of by his parents for three years.
Also notice, by nature of Li Ming wearing a red shirt in these scenes that the white and amber lights that act as the secondary wash in these scenes casts far more red tinted light on to Li Ming than it does to Heart. For the majority of episode 4, Heart's lighting pallet is blue or white, blue or amber. Li Ming's has a bit more red to his. AND AND AND AND it speaks to the talent of the lighting designers and directors and just general film crew in this show that they are able to use so much blue in this show and have it signify so many different things. Alan's blue lighting is colder than Wen's, Heart's blue lighting is colder at home than it is when he is outside. It's more of a blue green outside because they are mixing it with more reds/oranges and less white, you can even see it in these screen caps how much bluer and colder the first picture in Heart's room (and even when they are in his driveway) looks compared to the pictures outside where they are also lit with warm tones.
We know already that Heart cares about Li Ming, because he is his friend, because he finally has a life line, because he finally has someone to talk to, who treats him like a normal fucking human being, and trusts him, and and and...and we know that Heart is attracted to Li Ming because we got that scene where Heart pretty obviously checks out and is flustered by Li Ming without his shirt on. But I don't know if Heart fully has a crush on Li Ming at either of those points. And my argument for that is the lighting, because until Heart is standing in front of the speaker at the church with Li Ming, we don't see Heart in any objectively warm light.
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I think this is the moment that is supposed to indicate that Heart is fully leaning in to having a crush on Li Ming, because this is finally the moment where his face is warm not blue, not bright, not cold, and not in white light. And I'm asking you to compare this image with the ones above it, at the street vendor, the secondary light wash on Heart is not amber, it's white. The back lighting on Heart's neck in the picture of him and Li Ming talking to the Father at church is definitely warmer, but it is not as warm as the light on Li Ming's face. But at the speaker scene, he is fully bathed in warm light. But the warm light isn't red light either, it's not objectively or definitively Li Ming's color, though it is his emotions.
You know what is objectively, definitively red light?
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This is.
And like yeah, we can talk about the red bag on Heart's side, or the fact that in this lighting the blue square of the American flag on Li Ming's sweater matches close enough to the blue in Heart's shirt. We could talk about getting on each other's level by swapping colors through their clothes or their accessories. But I don't want to do that this time, because I am a slut for lighting and this lighting this definitively red lighting on Heart's face is what this episode is about for me. I think this is the point Heart realizes that he is in love with Li Ming, and Heart is fully ready to accept Li Ming as part of his world. Probably the most important part of his world.
Anyway, off to go take a million more screen shots of the confrontation scene so I can shout expletives about Heart and Li Ming's reactions to everything going on in that scene. Talk about a side track of epic proportions.
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wangxianficfinder · 9 months
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Fic Finder
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1. Hi! Can you help me look for this fic (cause its been months since the last time I read it) wherein WWX is LWJ’s husband and he is teaching in gusu wearing gusulan robes? I remember students likes wwx that one sect leader went to Cloud Recesses to insult wwx for seducing his son.
Btw, the fic includes photos of WWX wearing gusulan (white robes) (I think they got the image where Xiao Zhan was Shi Ying)
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2. Hi! Can you help me find these 2 fics. Thank you very much
A) Twitter thread fic wherein nyancheng went to book signing of his fav author zewujun.  I remember after the book signing, lxc reach out his hand for handshake and when they shakehands, bolts were felt and they went into heat/rut. Apparently they are soulmates. Nyancheng was embarrassed because his ears and tails pop out due to heat. (I actually forgot lxc animal trait)
B) Modern Au where in wwx is in the airport with police and ambulance because apparently wwx plane went missing for 13 years (???). The people in the plane (including wwx) thought that they have been in the plane for few hours but outside the plane, its been years. Wwx didn’t even aged up while his family (including lwj) aged up
2B)
看客散去唯你我不忘 | the world forgets but i still remember you by prettyxianxian (T, 11k, wangxian, modern, manifest au, flashbacks, multiple POV, angst w happy ending, hurt/comfort, everyone lives au, insecurities, JC & WWX reconciliation, good parent YZY & JFM)
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3. Hey! I hope you guys are doing great and resting in the midst of everything in life and updating this blog as well. Unfortunately, I fear I'm here to add to your burdens 😅
So I was looking for this fic. I remember it being set in the Canon era where Wei Wuxian is just extremely intelligent, and he goes on this  whole tirade about how he came to the conclusion concerning the waterborne abyss witht the use of talismanic theory in the library while Lan Wangji makes the charcoal for him to write and at the end Wangji is just so fascinated by Wuxian while the latter is like, "sorry for unloading that whole thing on you" kind of vibe. 
I can't seem to remember what the name is. I was looking for it in my history, and it's just so difficult when it's just that kne scene you remember. Do you suppose you could help my misery. Thank you in advance. @poetic-writes
FOUND? 🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 663k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement)
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4. Hi! I'm looking for a fic where wwx is a musician in university living in this huge dorm. He sometimes hears beautiful piano music (lwj) coming from somewhere in the building but he doesn't know where. They start to play music together and don't know each other's identities. They don't find out each other's identities until graduation or something. @its0nnetflix
FOUND? sounds like through a window softly by impossibletruths (T, 14k, wangxian, modern, college/university au, music au, neigbors, graduate school, music as a love language) on AO3 except that LWJ is a violin player
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5. okay, i once started reding a wangxian fic that was based on another fic called "the simplest way forward" and it was like this, wangxian were roommates and someone dropped Yuan off at their door and that's all i remember because i didn't finish it and now i can't find it, help me please and thank you <3 @akutamichan
FOUND? so take my hand (take my whole life too) by cicer (E, 92k, WangXian, Modern AU, Accidental Baby Acquisition, oh my god they were roommates, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, this fic is not about trauma, it’s about the yearning, slowburn)
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6. hi! i was looking for an E rated sbwy gym fic where wwx thinks of him and lwj as really good gymbros. one point theyre at a smoothie(?) place where wwx says hes glad they started seeing each other (as friends) but lwj interprets it as romantic. jc had said wwx was feminine when theyre were 14 or smth and so wwx has a mild complex abt it. i rmbr wwx has an old flip phone and nhs makes a joke how wwx is rich enough to buy a new smartphone instead, also when lwj sends photos it takes forever to load in. i think lwj did soundtracks for movies too? and wwx mentions watching those movies for him. sry thats all i rmbr! i believe its possibly deleted, and if so does anyone have it downloaded?
#6 has been privated I think 😓
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7. For the next fic finder I was wondering if you could help me find two specific Hogwarts AUs?
- Moved to a YiZhan FF/ITMF post
The second one is really vague and I’m sorry for that but I remember a WangXian fic where Wei Wuxian is part Veela and maybe he’s a Slytherin or Hufflepuff? I can’t seem to remember anything else besides there being a focus on Wei Wuxian’s volatile nature and battle prowess due to his Veela blood. He may have also killed a guy, or at least severely harmed some guy in self defense. I loved their world building and I’m so upset that I’ve lost both of them. Thank you for the help in advance.
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8. Hey! Been following for a while and enjoying all the finders and recs from this page!
I have a request though, I'm trying to look for this fiction where wei ying is a general (i think) and lan zhan is a dragon, and there's a war between all sect, with the lans, the nie, and wen on one side, against the jin and jiang on the other. There's also animal shifters among the gentry where I think the jiang might be water birds?? I can't quite remember. The jiang and Jin end up defeated and the others win. Wei ying.is also a genius tactician and is respected by the other side of the war. I can't remember the name of the fiction and I'm desperate to find it. I think it's a completed fic too
Many thanks if you find it! (And could you tag me so I definitely see the post this request shows up if its found?? I forget things easily) @elderredraccoon​
FOUND! Crossing Paths by Ilona22 (M, 21k, wangxian, shapeshifter au, graphic depictions of violence, war between sects, war crimes, not JC friendly, happy ending)
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9. Hi! I'm looking for a WangXian fic where WWX and LWJ go back in time but WWX goes back a very long time before his birth. He holes up in the Burial Mounds and becomes notorious as the YLLZ. He's also pretty depressed I think? When WWX realizes that LWJ is born he storms into the Cloud Recesses and demands LWJ's hand in marriage -- LWJ is only 12 (I think) at this point and LQR and LXC are horrified but LWJ agrees without their input (he still has his original memories). WWX starts out just treating LWJ like a child he's very fond of but when LWJ gets older and becomes an adult, they resume a sexual relationship and I think WWX comments on how they're slowly shifting their dynamics from Kind Mentor WWX/Young Mentee LWJ to Bratty Bubbly WWX/Calm Dominant LWJ. I remember really liking this fic but I don't remember what any of its tags were or whether it was a single fic or a series of one shots etc etc. I would appreciate the help! @sssrha​
FOUND? An Unusual Betrothal by ahealthydoseof (G, 74k, wangxian, time travel, age difference, immortality, BAMF WWX, younger LWJ, older WWX, misunderstandings, fluff & crack, worried parents, rabbits, food, non-sexual intimacy, murder, fix-it of sorts, developing relationship, humor, arranged marriage, jealousy, friendship, family feels, dysfunctional family, fatherhood, angst, hurt/comfort, mentor WWX, natural disasters, sworn brotherhood, serious injuries, kissing)
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10. Looking for a fic, please help! the wens had won the war years ago. I only remember a scene where lan wangji and the juniors were in a shop or restaurant of some sort and wen xu comes in and intimidates lan wangji to where the juniors defend him. He thanks them later saying it’s hard for him to deal with wen xu. (he had lan wangji in captivity during the war, lan wangji still has Nightmares about it). I don’t remember where wei ying is or if he “died”. Thanks!!!!
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11. Hello! I'm looking for 2 fics that I have wanted to rec on ITMFs so many times but just can't find! Both are canon divergent, not modern au.
A) it is a sort of eldritch wwx. He was eaten by a demon that like. Consumed his memories and wanted to be wwx? And then he gets back to sunshot, vomits up wen chaos teeth, has sex with lan zhan and also eats cows whole? Its a good one!
B) this one I remember just one scene. It is post sun shot, a confrontation at the jin banquet with yllz wwx. Yu Ziyuan is alive and checks his core in public and realizes he is coreless (i really think its her! But maybe someone else...). This might have been schemed by wen qing? Fix it after this point i think. @absurdlyadmiredarmchair​
11A)
FOUND! You are what you eat by deliciousblizzardshark (E, 17k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Eldritch WWX, Horny LWJ, Body Horror, Possession, of a sort, Cannibalism, kind of, Mild Gore, Teeth, Fluff and Humor, Smut, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Monster sex, Switching, Light BDSM, Rimming, Self-Lubrication, Seriousness treated Crackily, Implied/Referenced Torture, Dead WWX)
11B)
FOUND! seldom all they seem by Fahye (E, 24k, wangxian, canon divergence, arranged marriage, or rather arranged betrothal, weapongrade thirst)
not found Yearning for Miles by Murahi (M, 378k, WangXian, LQR/SiSi, Canon Divergence, Angst, Fluff, Slow burn, Mutual Pining, seeing the future) There is a scene like this quite far into the fic. It's chapter 64 to be precise 😊
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12. anyone know of a fic where wwx falls into the wen treasure room after sunshot, it's the only thing i remember about it
I don't know what the fic for #12, but I think I've read it before and Wen Qing & Wen Ning show a group of people onto the Wen throne room through a back door, and WN had to open it as it could only be opened by a male Wen. There was a big Wen family tree on the wall of this secret entrance.
FOUND! Better Things to Do with a Flute in Wartime by Anonymous (E, 365k, MingXian, WangXianJue, Sunshot Campaign, Fix-It, Magical Healing Cock, Dual Cultivation, mild Dom/Sub, Undernegotiated Kink, Golden Core Reveal, Breathplay, Choking, Painplay, Subdrop, Topdrop, Major Character Injury, Canon Divergence, What-If, Temperature Play, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Fisting, Spanking, PTSD, Trauma, Self-Harm, (in the pursuit of cultivational badassery) Something similar happens in chapters 43-45
Not FOUND! ❤️ Gentians in bloom by teawater (M, 251k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, AU after cold spring, Political Marriage, Dysfunctional Family, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, LQR bashing (not really), POV Multiple, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Eventual Happy Ending, BAMF WWX, JC is actually a lot better than canon, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, YZY bashing (again not completely)) the one mentioned with the wen family tree is, in chapter 33
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13. Hi 
Firstly, I want to say thank you, this blog is awesome, and I have found so many good Fics to read as well as find ones that I have lost or forgot to bookmark. 
Secondly, I would like help to find a fic, from what I remember Wei Ying was drunk on the rooftop when someone approached. In his drunken state, he thinks it was Lan Wangji that showed up so he goes on saying things like are you here to punish me again. He also asks why Lan Wangji hates him so much, but the whole entire time it was actually Lan Xichen he was talking to. I think it takes place after he got punished for drinking in Cloud Recess, and then something happens and he almost falls off the roof but Lan Xichen catches him. Lan Wangji had apparently witnessed the whole thing and tried to apologize but Lan Xichen coldly tells him the apology should be given to Wei Ying instead when he wakes up. 
Again, thank you so much in advance. 
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14. Hi 👋,  for the next fic finder - im trying to find a fic i saw awhile back. I cant remember too clearly but i think lwj got separated from the lan clan when he was young and found himself in a brothel. I remember when he was young - he only had to clean etc but as he was growing,  his good looks started getting noticed. I think he also asked someone to curse him so he looks hideous or something. 
Please help me find this 🙏.  Thank you so much 🌸
FOUND? Turn Left by kianspo (M, 204k, WangXian, NieLan, Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Friends to Lovers, eventually, references to child sexual abuse, not main characters,  Neurodivergent LWJ, Slow Build, Lán Family Feels, specifically, Twin Jades of Lán Feels, lwj-centric, Twin Jades of Lán Dynamics, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies)
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15. hi! i’m looking for a fic that’s gone missing! it’s a modern au, where lan zhan and wei ying are strangers that are matched by a hotel and are going to spend wei ying’s heat together. it’s supposed to be a hotel where u can safely share a heat without the threat of pregnancy but they throw that out the window and just spend it together. oh! it’s a smut fix lol. but yeah that’s about it. hopefully u can find it, i randomly thought ab and could not find it anywhere :’) 
random detail: lan zhan’s cello fingers were pointed out @alt-stay
FOUND! Lucid by lazulink (E, 9k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Assigned Heat Partners, Strangers to Lovers Speedrun, Scenting, Nesting, Knotting, Mating Bites, Cunnilingus, Rimming, Humiliation, Blow Jobs, Breeding Kink, Spanking, Consensual Non-Consent, Consensual Somnophilia, Breathplay, Loss of Virginity, Light Dom/sub, Alpha LWJ, Omega WWX, PWP, Intersex Omegas, Under-negotiated Kink, Implied Future Mpreg)
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16. Strange one again, I'm looking for a fic that mentions the situation at Lotus Pier is made harder by the fact that JFM has his servants, YZY has hers, but because they're so separate, nobody knows whether his servants outrank hers or whose orders take precdence, and how WWX gets tangled in it. Pretty sure it's a Lan commenting on the disharmony, but not 100%.
FOUND? Alliance AU by Ilona22 (E, 17k, wangxian, ABO, arranged marriage, intersex omegas, canon Jiang family dynamics, not JC friendly, matchmaking, night hunts) is 'Lotus Pier' Ilona22 is the third fic in their Alliance AU. It's an ABO series, and the bit about the separate household is from the perspective of a servant there witnesses happy Wangxian at the Lotus Pier markets
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17. Hi! For your next fic finder can I please request this wangxian time travel fic where LWJ goes back to where WWX just reappeared after the burial mounds and LWJ asks him to marry him and WWX takes it as a joke??? thank you! @iyo-luv
FOUND? Lan Wangji's Prank by shiroakuma (E, 23k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, everyone lives au, pining, golden core reveal, YLLZ WWX, first kiss, first time, love confessions, wangxian get happy ending) hi!! so, for the last fic finder, #17 might be "Lan Wangji's Prank" by shiroakuma? i say might bc lwj asks to court wwx, not marry, but this is the only fic that came to mind when i read the request <33
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18. So I’m looking for a specific fic that I know is on ao3, can’t remember the name of the story nor the author though.
And that’s after looking through my history on ao3 for over an hour.
All I really remember from it was that it was short, like one to ten chapters long.
(And yes I do consider 10 chapters short)
It took place in cloud recess study arc, jiang Cheng punched or got into a physical fight with Jin Zixuan, in the classroom if I remember correctly.
Wei wuxian was injured. Somehow, story could be after the waterborne abyss.
Oh and the Jiangs asking WWX why he didn’t defend Yanli. Despite the fact he’s injured on the floor. @ravenwithwings​
FOUND! If only you knew (what goes on in my mind) by makexianxianhappytoday (G, 7k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, angst w/ happy ending, not Jiang friendly, protective LWJ)
Not FOUND! No Refunds, Satisfaction Guaranteed by la_muerta (E, 20k, WangXian, Robots & Androids, Childhood Friends, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Rimming, Come as Lube, Semi-Public Sex, Light Bondage, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Dom/sub Undertones)
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19. Hello! I’m trying to find a fic where lan zhan orders a sex robot/android and wei ying goes to deliver it but there’s a problem with getting it up to the apartment so he goes to the apartment to talk to lan zhan and lan zhan mistakes him as the robot and wei ying for some reason decides to go along with it? Please help I can’t seem to find it anywhere! 🙏💜 @rainingkittens​
Not FOUND! Heartspots & Human Things by flowerofgusu (E, 17k, wangxian, major character death, modern, romance, falling in love, angst w happy ending, with a twist, grief/mourning, versatile wangxian, eventual smut, demisexual LWJ, tragedy with a twist, tenderness, second chances, learning to love again, sex robot WWX, morally grey NHS)
FOUND! No Refunds, Satisfaction Guaranteed by la_muerta (E, 20k, WangXian, Robots & Androids, Childhood Friends, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Rimming, Come as Lube, Semi-Public Sex, Light Bondage, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Dom/sub Undertones)
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20. hello! thank you for your help. I'm looking for a modern au fic where wwx was in an abusive relationship with wen chao (or wen zhuliu? one of the bad wens). all I remember is that a-yuan was wen chao's biological child and wwx wanted to protect him so he suffered the abuse for years and when wen chao went to prison wwx adopted a-yuan. hopefully someone recognizes
FOUND! how to make your dad fall in love with your high school teacher in five steps; the complete and bulletproof guide by ravenditefairylights (T, 90k, wangxian, modern, coffee shop au, nonbinary LSZ, hurt/comfort, trauma, past abuse, past domestic violence, healing, hurt WWX, found family, hospitalization, therapy, single parent WWX, pining, teacher LWJ, unreliable narrator, chronic pain, queer platonic relationship, genderfluid WWX, autistic LWJ, fluff & angst)
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soloh · 2 years
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I love a monologue declaring romantic feelings soooo much, BUT the writers for Superstore having Amy ask Jonah why the hell he's stuck with working retail longer than he's ever committed to anything in his life before, and Jonah just saying, "Why do you think, Amy?" instead of going on a whole spiel was SO GOOD.
Obviously we as viewers can infer the whole inner monologue based on that, we know that he could tell her that he still loves her, and that even when she wasn't working in the store anymore he stayed because it was a reminder of her etc. etc., but we don't hear him say it out loud. Instead we get straight to Amy's reaction, knowing that she already knows damn well that Jonah still has feelings for her, and stayed in his shit-ass retail job because it was the one thing still slightly connecting them, and it just hits so much better like that.
I've watched the show through 3 times now, and I still tear up at this point because you just get the sense that Jonah is so defeated by his own feelings for her that he, the king of generally unnecessary monologues and poetic verbal bullshit, can't even form the proper words to explain how heartbroken he still is, when to him she seems fine and happy in her nice job without him and just moved on with no problem, even though it actually was really freaking hard for her too.
They say hardly anything in this scene but the things they do say are so carefully chosen to evoke all the emotion and aaahhhhhhh it's just such good writing (and acting) and I love it.
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