#but thats open to interpretation

[theminecraftbee]

help. iskall had to get mumbo to explain what "unhinged" means to him. because he didn't know that english word. and people keep calling him that this season,

#hermitcraft #iskall85 #THATS SO FUNNY. #iskall baffled: does it mean i have trouble opening up? since i am not a door with hinges? #mumbo: that's a really sweet interpretation but no it means the doors have blown off and you're crazy.

[saphushia]

need to be hooked up to an IV of etho music content i need it i need it i need-

references -> || nameless ghoul from the band Ghost || BTS || sheila rock - the rehearsal ||

#i tried really hard to find more concrete image sources than just descriptions and img links but #i spent a good hour chasing threads and thats the best i've got #i dont know much abt music other than. musicians hot. seeing ppl play music hot #tried different color style for that first one its fun #ethoslab #vintagebeef #beetho #<- open to interpretation. they're dorks <3 #hermitcraft #mcyt #art #fanart #hermitcrap #i think etho has an insane ear for copying songs he hears and putting notes together but can't read sheet music for shit #etho the kinda guy to go 'eh yeah i'm okay at playing' and then near-perfectly play a song he heard one time

[stil-lindigo]

hook, line and sinker.

--

sequel to fishing twine. The end of the story of the fisherwoman and her sea monster girlfriend.

#once again here with my sapphic monsterfker agenda #the fisherwoman and the monster #i love to make bittersweet stories #or maybe this isnt bittersweet #intentionally left the womans reaction a bit open to interpretation #but imo theres only one way this ends #anyway thats all from me #thank you all for the love on fishing twine #i appreciate it a lot #stillindigo art #sapphic #lesbian #lgbt #mermaid #stillindigo comics #soliloquy down to three

[junebugdunes]

something soft

#god these 2 mean everything to me #specifically the scene after ch 2 where susie stands up for kris at the bunker doors #thats what made me draw this #shes grown so much since chapter one #its so nice seeing her happy #they have such a nice friendship #her pushing her hair out of her face was such a good way to visualize her opening up more #anyways sorry i just really love susie #deltarune #deltarune chapter 2 #deltarune fanart #kris dreemurr #susie #not krusie but you can interpret it any way you want #idc #my art

[dukeofqueers]

i’m going back to my roots and og kin

#undertale #wd gaster #gaster #grillby #grillster #fanart #sketch #art #my art #i wanted to draw more before posting but my arm is still shit so. some other time #i get possessed by past me like every two years & binge the whole grillster tag on ao3 each time lol #they mean so much to me #i'm cringe but i am free #@meanpersonaart's interpretation of gaster opened my eyes to the possibilities so if it looks similar thats why #i wanna work on my own take tho

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

i keep thinking about ocelot takarazuka i dont really see the influence like he just looks like a middle age guy with masc features manner and fashion so what do you think the artist actually meant? there's nothing feminine about ocelot like how does the "is that a man or woman" thing play in here cause i don't see it. He's not like raiden or raikov. He's just a guy 🧍‍♂️so how does the all female theatre thing apply

Hello Anon! Full, immediate disclosure, this answer is messy and disjointed. I probably don't even answer the question your asking end of the day, but I'll try my best.

I believe this is the post you're wondering about?

As I said in this earlier post I'm not a Japanese speaker, so I have to go on interpretation, and what has been offered by the translations available. I can't help but think there is going to be some sort of nuance missing as a result, but I'll do my best.

To start, I think you and I might have a slightly different view on masculine and feminine-to me the two concepts are pretty interchangeable, but I do understand where you're (probably, I don't know you personally after all) are coming from and that, no, Ocelot doesn't have many traditional 'feminine' characteristics.

You'll note that in the original post, Shinkawa refers to getting inspiration from the idea of 'women in their 40's (the age Ocelot almost is in MGSV)' and 'long, flashing eyelashes'. (My interpretation here is that by this, he means in the way long eyelashes that are considered sexy have an eye-catching flow to them. Sort of like how we can say 'fluttering lashes'. Intended to draw a person's gaze in, and command their presence).

Doing some cursory research tells me that the Takarazuka Revue (because Takarazuka is also a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.) is an all-female musical troupe located within that same city. Started in 1913, by Ichizō Kobayashi.

(I also got distracted by this version that is a performance of Casino Royale, so there's that)

Anyway, ahem.

"Kobayashi believed that it was the ideal spot to open an attraction of some kind that would boost train ticket sales and draw more business to Takarazuka. Since Western song and dance shows were becoming more popular and Kobayashi considered the kabuki theater to be old and elitist."

Throughout the article, there is also this;

"Takarazuka has had a profound influence on the history of anime and manga, especially shōjo manga.[27][28] Osamu Tezuka, a highly influential manga creator, grew up in the town of Takarazuka. His mother knew many of the Takarazuka actresses, and as a child he knew them and watched many of their performances"

I can assume that the performances have a lot of influence on media, and it's not uncommon for MGS to take inspiration. There could be an entire article on the things MGS takes inspiration from, even outside the most obvious like Escape from New York, character model bases, etc.

Cycling back to the original point, (there is also a video that exact post comes from, but I don't have the link on hand, on YouTube *no translations). I think that it's entirely possible Shinkawa took 'loose' inspiration, or a little more. I can see why and how he might've based Ocelot's look on the idea. (Loose shirt, tight pants, scarf open neck). But there is also the element of which Takarazuka is a performance, more than anything.

It's acting. Playing. Something Ocelot does all the time. Half of his time on screen, he's putting on some kind of performance. While this is something he does the least in MGSV, that never fully changes 100%. (And after all, he's also hypnotized for most of the plot). So there's a counter argument to be had that this is one of his greatest performances pre-MGS4. But that's a different post.

Ocelot presents/is masculine. But, he has longer eyelashes, his clothes are a little more 'free' than the standard military garb when he's allowed to choose his own outfit. (Again this is specifically MGSV Ocelot, though there's something to be said about his chosen attire being such a sharp 3 piece later on).

At the end of the day, maybe a way you can look at it is to say that, Shinkawa looked to Takarazuka when designing MGSV Ocelot to give him a sort of 'flow' to his looks. He was attracted to the idea of taking elements from Takarazuka, because Ocelot is a performer, and he sees some possibility for feminine additions in his looks *or* might've thought it more 'fitting' than Kabuki.

But again, I don't know if we see fully masculine and feminine the same way, (and maybe Shinkawa personally associates long eyelashes with sexy women; or women made up to look like men but with longer lashes) I can't know for sure myself. I think you would need a native or very good Japanese speaker to interpret it fully.

If I was to offer you a personal opinion-I can see it. I can see where there's a draw that one might have with the look, and where Shinkawa might've gotten said inspiration. But I am not entirely certain how to put that into words either? My perspective isn't going to be 1-to-1 of yours either.

Maybe someone else can interpret all this better than me, I definitely feel as if I've not done this justice at all. Because at the end of the day, I don't see a hard divide in masculine and feminine in Ocelot, but I think that you, Anon, see him as 100% masculine. But again, I can't speak for you and I am not sure.

#asks #answered asks #revolver ocelot #mgs #sorry anon this is probably the clumsiest ive ever answered an ask #i think there's too much thats open to interpretation to give you a clear cut answer like you might want but im not sure #maybe I'll come back to this later if i can think of a better way to explain it anon but i didn't want to leave you just hanging either #i also kept getting distracted by theater pictures so uh sorry about that #character posts: revolver ocelot

[scorchedhearth]

i actually dont think jason would openly talk about the batarang scar like you see in fics because that's a sign of failure and you know he hides those. failure of his plan, he didn't get what he wanted and didn't plan well enough but also -mainly- failure of his relationship with bruce and he's really private, he wouldn't air that out in front of just anyone. i don't know about you but i wouldnt freely give details of how my father maimed me (and killed me) because his morals go above his personal feelings and relationships and i tried to push those. i don't even think the rest of the batfam knows what really happened at the end of UTRH and both bruce and jason like to keep it this way, secretive as they are

#sure jason could say what happened but right after hes still a bad guy and his words wouldn't be trusted #and later on hes trying to mend things with the fam so it would be counter productive to bring that out (in his own eyes. #imo thats the kind of things you nerd to talk and work through to go somewhere and not let it fester but anyway) #again a lot of this is my interpretation but i dont like how fandam make the fam to be so open. theyre all so secretive and paranoid #jason wouldnt be handing out free cards about his triggers and trauma. not any of them #dc #jason todd

[matrose]

i will say it again...the appeal of legolas and gimli is not that they bicker the appeal is that they love eachother‼️ its not about enemies to lovers its about overcoming thousands of years of animosity through love‼️ they were barely ever enemies they worked together from the start and they bond in the first book and spend the next two books obsesssed with eachother pleaseeeeee !!

#where is that post abt how gimli and eomer are more enemies to lovers than legolas and gimli #i mean i guess to each their own if oyu like them as enemies to lovers and as like constant bickering couple thats fine of course !!!!!!! #but i dont see that at all!!! ive never gotten that vibe from them (books only) #i dont know who peter jackson is and i dont know what movies are!!!!! #idk it doesnt feel accurate to the narrative and the sort of story that is told with them.... #of course dwarf & elf relations are complicated and very mnuch open to interpretation #even more so with the silvans and the folk of erebor #disregarding peter jackson as you do of course #its a dificult complicated thing #but the thinf about legolas and gimli is that they just love eachother . they just do

[bionicboxes]

sorry for thinking too hard about minecraft lore do you still think im cool (I am not sorry)

#minecraft #enderman #endermite #parasites #tw parasite #ask to tag #box art #everything in the end is bugs i think. yes that includes the enderdragon. #just thinking abt endermen and the end a lot because of my Frequent Uninvited Guests in my base #i really love that minecraft has lore that's clearly constructed to be as open to interpretation as possible #minecraft is a sandbox game and so its lore is just as much of a sandbox. #it gives you pieces to work with and then lets you build whatever you want. i think thats Neat

[lotus-pear]

Your latest knkdz art.... HFSGJDKHDKHSKHQYS

I love how dazai looks so comortable and conent around kunikida...and i love knikidas expression sm. He looks like hes thinking about how damaged dazai is and is ready to protect him at all costs...banger art as always

TYSM BUT ALSO,,,,,,,,,,,,,YOU DONT UNDERSTAND ITS THE REVERSE,,,,,,,,,THAT CAPTION I PUT???? THATS DIRECTLY FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH ASAGIRI REGARDING DAZAIS THOUGHTS ON KUNIKIDA AS A PARTNER. DAZAI ADMIRES HIS CERTAINTY AND MORAL COMPASS BUT IS ALSO PAINFULLY AWARE OF WHAT THE DISEASE OF IDEALISM CAN DO TO SOMONE (yk like what happened with the azure king) SO THE QUOTE GOES SMTH ALONG THE LINES OF “WHATEVER HAPPENS, PLEASE DONT BREAK” MEANING DONT LOSE YOURSELF TO YOUR IDEALS😭😭😭😭😭

#idk what the og quote was i’ve been searching days on every fucking site and i can’t find it #killing myself fr atp i think i just hallucinated it #like it came to me in a dream #ANYWAY TYYYSM ITS HONESTLY OPEN TO INTERPRETATION THATS WHAT I LIKE ABT ART #MULTIPLE PPL CAN LOOK AT THE SAME PIECE AND COME TO A DIFFERENT CONCLUSION #lotus’s asks

[rainbowresurrection]

I get that a lot of ppl think that The ClosetTM wouldn't exist in the future and thus Spock would never be in one.

But it's implied, at least in TOS, that there are areas of Vulcan culture that are ironically more rigid than modern human cultures, most notably regarding sexuality and gender roles. It stands to reason that concepts of homosexuality could still be taboo on certain planets, the same way certain Future ProblemsTM in Star Trek are also taboo (and usually allegorical references to present-day issues).

Especially when factoring in shit like Amok Time and even the implications of Shore Leave, written by a queer dude who was frequently injecting *repressed* male sexuality into storylines (a defining characteristic of Spock in the original series).

I mean, it's legitimate to interpret him as an openly queer alien absolutely, but I feel like denying the opportunity to explore his struggles through a closeted lens limits the scope of queer topics that can be discussed by and through the character, especially given the fact that the climax of his character arc in The Motion Picture is Spock accepting himself and realizing that it is okay to love (everyone, but Captain Kirk in particular for some reason!). And I think it's okay to relate to the denial of his emotions in a very gay way.

I also think that there are misconceptions around closeted gay male behavior which adds to the funk of the issue. Anyway that's my gay guy ramble for the night

#for example a lot of closeted gay men are just as flamboyant as open gays #the whole “Spock is such a sassy queen so how could he ever be in the closet” is just not a great angle for me #i was insanely flamboyant when I was in the closet I just wasn't openly homosexual #which is its own struggle #and closeted experiences are just as important as open ones #that's just my take for the night 💯 #star trek #the premise #sttos #spock #i am open to lots of different interpretations #i just have seen multiple people poo on that idea for some reason lol not sure why? #thats how I originally related to him growing up #lgbt

[flamboyant-king]

Cammy went on a trip for a month to meet up with old friends and told Harvey to do the same. So, Harvey had to fend for himself socially without his emotional support fairy and he realized, "Hey, I can do this. I don't need to have Camellia with me all the time to do these things I've been afraid to do....but I do *want* them here."

For Cammy's side, they realize that it's nice to have a home to keep coming back to. The fairy village used to be that, but Harvey's garden is their home now.

And yeah, I cry, what of it?

#its a canon event. but in the back of my mind it would also be the moment they realize how much they love each other #but thats between me and you #ill say this is harvey around 28 when the garden is more homie. hes on his feet now and has a clearer memory of old friends and family #so he would reconnect with cammy's push since cammy travels around alot and makes a lot of friends and tries to visit whenever possible #but cammy doesnt want to be his crutch forever. harvey CAN stand on his own. he was just afraid to take the first steps without em #he doesnt reconnect with his family eli and his parents until 29 ish. he has the means to do it but #there is a fear he cant describe that kept stopping him #cammy goes along with him for this. to meet eli and even fly to the philippines with him to finally see his parents again #THATS where the canonical ending of the narrative is. when his trip to the philippines is over and says his goodbyes #it ends when he says like 'i have a garden back home to take care of' credits roll #and then we have an open ending for all the fanfic writers to interpret and fight about #grow as we go #harvey #camellia #comic

[todayisafridaynight]

I’m fairly new to the fandom, but I do have a question if you can answer it! Why do people ship Daigo with Aoki / Masato? I tried looking to see if they’ve interacted before, but couldn’t find anything! Sorry for asking I’m just </3 dumb AND I LOVE YOUR ART OF THEM!!! Nerd looking ahhhhhh

hi ! welcome to the community i hope you're having a lovely time so far and ty for enjoyin my stuff :) no need for apologies it's a very fair question to have :]

i cant speak for everyone (all. ten people into masadai anyway) but Personally To Me i just think the idea of them together is very funny. thats quite literally it im afraid..

#snap chats #//twenty page google doc in the background// ignore that. it's mostly for comedic purposes #might also be my fault idk sorry about that. allegedly. idk ive had like three people tell me they started to ship them cause of me 🧍‍♂️ #@mementoasts is another person who's drawn masadai and whose stuff i love and am inspod by .. i love their disneyland fic sm ... #there was another artist on twitter who posted a neat drawing of them but i cant remember who they were and i didnt bookmark it //screams// #recently there's been ANOTHER masadai artist ive started following on twitter - @wifekiryu. his account's n/s/f/w fyi before you go looking #he has a tumblr too @foxdies. i say cause i realized as much recently vjeaKLGJALKGJ #oh but I GUESS ill get deeper into why. /i/ personally ship masadai or whatever #first off they're opposing factions yet their character alignments Do Not Match their roles. stereotypically anyway #aoki who leads the 'surface' of society and is meant to be an admirable figure and someone 'just' when really. he sucks LMAO #though that's not atypical of politicians but just from a stereotypical This Is A Respectable Individual perspective of his role #daigo on the other hand leads the 'underbelly' of society- yk comprised of dangerous criminals and outcasts and whatnot #yet as we know him daigo's compassionate and considerate of his men- he doesnt treat them like tools like aoki does #if put in a room with the two daigo would be most people's choice of person to hang out with. probably open a trapdoor on aoki tbh #and i think thats really cool and epic i always love that kinda Subverting Expectations thing #theres also the fact they both started off like. edgy/angsty in the franchise and then brush up down the line #masato does a stronger 180. publicly. obviously but its still really funny they both have to get their act together #if you wanna talk about in-text reasons. there really is none LMAO I TELLS YOU masadai is pure crack #but if i wanted to pull a muscle reaching then there's daigo being on aoki's side while everyone else is on arakawa's during the funeral #im lying of course. mitsu was behind him. rgg tryna make me forget mitsu exist .... put him back in y8 .... #and ofc ichi joins that side to even out the seating but moving on another Goofy Reason is arakawa being like #'the chairman and my son are like p much the same age Surely he knows how he thinks :)' #and then i just think daigo being all smarmy about outsmarting aoki is really goofy and im choosing to interpret that as personal #they both also have issues with their dad. s. dad/s/. anyway. #tbh the google doc tag was a joke but i really could sit here and list every dumb reason why i think theyre funny together #like i started going over the tag limit so uhhhh yeah needless to say i have a lot of. dumb reasons 💀💀💀💀 #one day ill use the main text for long rambles like this but todays not that day Point Is my imagination is rampant im afraid #so the short and sweet of it is I Think It's Funny. And They'd Be Terrible Together. Which Is Why It's Funny. #and the unfortunate part is anything i find funny i obsess over for a year so. //gestures to the mountain of bullshit thats my masadai tag/

[icewindandboringhorror]

examining a seemingly normal image only to slowly realize the clear signs of AI generated art.... i know what you are... you cannot hide your true nature from me... go back where you came from... out of my sight with haste, wretched and vile husk

#BEGONE!!! *wizard beam blast leaving a black smoking crater in the middle of the tumblr dashboard* #I think another downside to everyone doing everything on phone apps on shitty tiny screens nowadays is the inability to really see details #of an image and thus its easier to share BLATANTLY fake things like.. even 'good' ai art has pretty obvious tells at this point #but especially MOST of it is not even 'good' and will have details that are clearly off or lines that dont make sense/uneven (like the imag #of a house interior and in the corner there's a cabinet and it has handles as if it has doors that open but there #are no actual doors visible. or both handles are slightly different shapes. So much stuff that looks 'normal' at first glance #but then you can clearly tell it's just added details with no intention or thought behind it. a pattern that starts and then just abruptly #doesn't go anywhere. etc. etc. ) #the same thing with how YEARS ago when I followed more fashion type blogs on tumblr and 'colored hair' was a cool ''''New Thing''' instead #of being the norm now basically. and people would share photos of like ombre hair designs and stuff that were CLEARLY photoshop like #you could LITERally see the coloring outside of the lines. blurs of color that extend past the hair line to the rest of the image #or etc. But people would just share them regardless and comment like 'omg i wish I could do this to my hair!' or 'hair goallzzzz!! i #wonder what salon they went to !!' which would make me want to scream and correct them everytime ( i did not lol) #hhhhhhggh... literally view the image on anything close to a full sized screen and You Will SEe #I don't know why it's such a pet peeve of mine. I think just as always I'm obsessed with the reality and truth of things. most of the thing #that annoy me most about people are situations in which people are misinterpreting/misunderstanding how something works or having a misconc #eption about somehting thats easily provable as false or etc. etc. Even if it's harmless for some random woman on facebook to believe that #this AI generated image of a cat shaped coffee machine is actually a real product she could buy somewhere ... I still urgently #wish I could be like 'IT IS ALL AN ILLUSION. YOU SEE???? ITS NOT REALL!!!!! AAAAA' hjhjnj #Like those AI shoes that went around for a while with 1000000s of comments like 'omg LOVE these where can i get them!?' and it's like YOU #CANT!!! YOU CANT GET THEM!!! THEY DONT EXIST!!! THE EYELETS DONT EVEN LINE UP THE SHOES DONT EVEN #MATCH THE PATTERNS ARE GIBBERISH!! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THEY ARE NOT REAL!??!!' *sobbing in the rain like in some drama movie* #Sorry I'm a pedantic hater who loves truth and accuracy of interpretation and collecting information lol #I think moreso the lacking of context? Like for example I find the enneagram interesting but I nearly ALWAYS preface any talking about it #with ''and I know this is not scientifically accurate it's just an interesting system humans invented to classify ourselve and our traits #and I find it sociologically fascinating the same way I find religion fascinating'. If someone presented personality typing information wit #out that sort of context or was purporting that enneagram types are like 100% solid scientific truth and people should be classified by the #unquestionaingly in daily life or something then.. yeah fuck that. If these images had like disclaimers BIG in the image description somewh #re like 'this is not a real thing it's just an AI generated image I made up' then fine. I still largely disagree with the ethics behind AI #art but at least it's informed. It's the fact that people just post images w/o context or beleive a falsehood about it.. then its aAAAAAA

[kiwibirb1]

gonna write a fic where i kill anne one sec

#sorry i have an urge #i mean i already kinda did it with ROMS but like technically thats open to interpretation yknow #i want sasha to watch the girl she loves fall to the floor and not get up #i want marcy to watch in horror and tear the helmet off her head so she can hold the girl she loves #the girl she killed lying there on the cold ground and quickly becoming just as cold #for them both to sob into an empty castle as the blue gem splutters and alights; the power returned just as the core thought it might #turns out the core was right after all #well fuck i just went and wrote the whole ding dang fic in the tags #amphibia #writing #anne boonchuy #wait let me turn this into a post one sec yall #kiwi kills anne again

[ardenrabbit]

I love your fic - A Long and Slow Recovery. It’s so beautifully written and the emotions felt are so palpable. Just wanted to pass along my thanks for writing it!

Completely separate from the fic though- What are your thoughts on the Xianle trio - their break up and slow rebuilding of friendship in the novel. 😁

Thank you so much!!! ;-; I'm really glad you're enjoying alasr! I'm really proud and excited about it!

Ah I think about this a lot! As in, I think about it a lot to try and decide my thoughts lol. I'm actually rereading the whole novel rn to try and get a feel for everyone, especially the trio. I've been REALLY excited to write them.

Summary: I love them, I'm sad for them, and I wish them well. Rambling to follow:

So my opinion right now is I love them. I think Feng Xin and Mu Qing are really interesting as foils as well as just completely independent characters, and I love that Xie Lian can see them in both of those lights too. Neither Feng Xin nor Mu Qing are really understood or given enough credit by anyone except Xie Lian, and I don't know if any of them know what to do with that. The impression that I've gotten is that Feng Xin and Mu Qing don't even really want to understand each other, and that's really sad, but understandable. Feng Xin's straightforward form of loyalty doesn't translate to Mu Qing, and Mu Qing's fear that no one will ever care to see the best in him makes him preemptively prickly and eager to beat them to the punch, and that does not play well with Feng Xin's earnestness.

(I'm trying to figure out Mu Qing, especially. I like him as a character and want to do him unbiased justice while writing him, but he's such a unique, self-contradictory case lol. I've met people with his kind of defensive cynicism before--the "stop pretending to be a good person" mindset in the face of altruism--and I've always been annoyed with them as much as I pity them, but I like that he's such a realistic character in that way. I'm intimidated by the prospect of writing him but I'm looking forward to it.)

The Xianle trio breakup, to me, just shows exactly the differences in FXMQ's approaches to conflict. Feng Xin stays with Xie Lian as long as he does because it's a simple answer to him: he's Xie Lian's bodyguard and Xie Lian is his friend, so Feng Xin will stay because that's what is both honorable and personally loyal. It's the right thing to do, and it looks and feels right. Mu Qing leaves before Feng Xin does because 1) his mother needs him more and 2) he hopes he can help more by gaining power and resources elsewhere, because what they're already doing isn't working. It's the right thing to do, even when it doesn't look and feel right.

So at that point, Feng Xin displays the kind of loyalty that traditionally gets praised because it's shown in no uncertain terms, even when it's not performed in the most enterprising way. By the more cynical, Feng Xin's approach can be seen as short-sighted, naive, or even pretentious, when he's really just honest and incredibly steadfast. "Loyal to a fault" is canonically used to describe him somewhere. Mu Qing's integrity is easier to doubt by most people because 1) his reasoning can be interpreted as selfish, even when he's sincere and 2) his intentions aren't always purely good! He's a flawed person and his reasons for doing things can include pettiness and selfishness within the greater good intentions, but that doesn't discount the good in them, at least to Xie Lian. Even when Mu Qing is looking at the bigger picture, people can interpret that as him being cold and uncaring about the immediate problem, and he gets angry that he's the only person acknowledging the complexity or futility of the situation. Anyway, they both try their best to help Xie Lian Back Then and refuse to see the merit in what the other is doing. I forget exactly how much Xie Lian acknowledges that they're both trying to help, so, rereading lol. But Xie Lian is definitely Not in a good place and is definitely lashing out at everyone by the end, which I'm sure he feels ashamed of later.

And reconnecting and rebuilding the friendship!! When Xie Lian ascends again, "Fu Yao" and "Nan Feng" are sent to help him and of course their generals don't know about it. And Xie Lian sees through them pretty early and just doesn't mention it because he's a little shit (extremely affectionate), but he knows what they're doing and appreciates it. But FXMQ both feel like they've failed Xie Lian and want to make it up to him, whether he knows about it or not. And they have to work together to do it, as much as they hate it, but at least they recognize that they share that much in their priorities. I think that while it's ultimately hopeful and sweet, there's a lot about their reconnecting that's just straight up tragic. I'm assuming that FXMQ both feel so much shame and regret about what happened and how they left him, and now that they have another chance to help, the literal devil (extremely affectionate) walks in and takes their spot as Xie Lian's protector and right hand. I think Xie Lian still feels awkward around them, too, as much as he still loves them. I am really proud of them for talking it out as much as they do in the end, though. I need to reread some stuff to see how much they reconcile by the end and in the extras, but I remember it being a good prognosis.

I guess also, I think Feng Xin sees Xie Lian as someone he's been proud to serve and call his friend, because he believes in Xie Lian's ideals and good heart. Mu Qing, though, doesn't know what to do with this mixture of gratitude and the resentment that comes with being indebted to someone, especially because Xie Lian is the only person who's really shown that he believes in Mu Qing's potential, good intentions, and worth as a person. The classic "stop trying to be a good person, altruist" thing doesn't work on Xie Lian, because he really just IS that good, and I think that makes Mu Qing want to tear his own hair out as much as it makes him love Xie Lian. MQ and FX's opinions of each other, though, wow?? They're so convinced that the other's intentions are insincere (mq saying fx is holier-than-thou, fx saying mx is selfish), up until they're tested and they have to act together. They're competitive against one another, but they also know that they act well as a united front, so there has to be some grudging respect and extremely grudging trust there. It's funny how the breakup has FXMQ as divided, conflicting forces where in present day in the reunion, they're much more cooperative. Despite their issues, they've grown to speak the same language on some level.

Might have some serious errors in here lol, but I don't really think I have any particularly hot takes on the Xianle3. Again, I'm rereading the novel so I can get this stuff right, but pls forgive me if I'm off-base on something.

#silver-cyn #tgcf #alasr #my writing #oh look it talks #i just want the best for all of them tbh #i'm not gonna say that they're all equally right about everything #but they're trying their best and i like messy characters #i loved fx from the start because i have a soft spot for the honest earnest guys #despite yknow the sexism and honestly being a total dick to mq #but mq grew on me after i got over the cynicism that personally makes me crazy #i read some really great fic interpretations of mq and they helped open my eyes he's so fun and paradoxical and good at ruining his own day #and now i love both of their weirdo asses #i don't like to give characters free passes on their faults tho #thats boring and cheapens them #except hua cheng he's literally never done anything wrong jk not jk