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#i mean the incompetence of it all

rat-presenting · 6 months

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My only wwdits prediction at this point is if they’re gonna double down on having Guillermo stay mortal then the setup for endgame is going to be a kind of Gregor situation where every lifetime from now on Nandor will find Guillermo, they fall in love, stay together until Guillermo keels over from old age or related vampire shenanigans, and then finds him again when he reincarnates.

That or they do the thing someone else mentioned where he does end up a vampire but Nandor just does all the murdering for him and brings him blood and stuff as a parallel to how Guillermo waited on Nandor for years as a familiar or whatever..

#I obviously hope it’ll be the second one but I know the first one is probably closer #I refuse to believe Guillermo is normal enough actually be a human forever #just because he never *technically* killed anyone doesn’t mean his body count is not easily in the thousands by now #honestly at this point I won’t get my hopes up for anything come s6 #but all I can do is PRAY that they stop treating Guillermo like the shitwork familiar because honest to god.#there’s no way that’s what the relationship he has with anyone is anymore #if they go back to weaponizing the status quo I will honestly probably quit watching the fuckimg show #I’ve been watching 4 years of situationship hell where everyone treats the one half of the party like shit it’s really getting old #like the writers surely aren’t so incompetent that they CANT READ THE ROOM and do something with YEARS of buildup #textpost #wwdits #nandermo

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butwhatifidothis · 9 months

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What gets me about GW defenders saying that "Claude siding with Edelgard shows how far he's willing to go to get what he wants, he'll use anyone to further his goals" is that, even if that were accurate to his character... that's not what he does in GW. At all.

Which one of Claude's goals are ever progressed once he sides with Edelgard? And how does siding with Edelgard, specifically, accomplish said goal?

Maybe... killing Rhea? But all of the reasons he says he wants her gone in this game are either completely unproven or blatantly incorrect - there's no proof of the Church forcing arranged marriages, Crests do not force obligations onto those that have them (which Claude himself literally proves), and the Church is helping Dimitri restore Duscur - a foreign nation - meaning they are actively willing to help fulfill Claude's main goal that he came to the officer's academy to achieve.

And... that's it! That is the only possible thing that even POTENTIALLY helps Claude's dreams, and taking a five-second look at it shows that it actually does nothing at all to help anything. But in the meantime? Claude weakens Faerghus through agitating Sreng and invading it himself, forcing Dimitri to fight a three front war; he actively helps Edelgard get herself out of a messy situation, even though not helping her and letting her die would have actually helped him and would have actually been him using her like people keep saying he's trying to do; he and Holst even admit that by the end of the war Edelgard is going to make a vassal state of Leicester after taking the lion's share of Faerghus' territory for themselves, which Leicester can't do anything about because of Adrestia's far stronger military. He is the one saying that! He is the one pointing out that that is going to happen! And yet he just keeps going anyway!

He is the one getting used. Very blatantly, and very extensively. Claude walked himself into a trap and lied to himself into thinking he's the one with the upper hand, which somehow managed to convince a large portion of the fanbase too. There's no gray morality here, there's no cunning being showcased, Claude is just an evil stupid tool

#clyde discourse #doing a read over for what i have for the GW rewrite and just. man.#like. it's hard to even like Clyde as a villain because he is just so incomprehensively incompetent in literally everything he does #once Part 2 hits #like imagine if he helped EdeckyWecky up to the point where she'd ACTUALLY die without his help... and he doesn't give it #he lets her die and lets the Empire crumble without leadership #but Dimitri can't take advantage of that because he still has to deal with Sreng and the Alliance #meanwhile Clyde is sneaking in more and more Almyran forces through Nader manipulating Mr. King of Almyra #until he has enough to take on the weakened Kingdom and force it under submission through the constant pressure he's forcing it under #not through brute force but just through wearing them down to the point where they just can't keep going #and in his zeal to conquer Fodlan he fails to recognize that he's just become Shahid; someone who wants to become king no matter the cost #like imagine it's never said outright but that THIS is how power corrupts once genuinely good people #they're so focused on getting to the end point that they gradually care less and less about how red their path to that end point is #until oops everyone is either dead; too scared/unable to fight back; or are also swept up in the mindset of By Any Means Necessary #THAT'D BE A NEAT VILLAIN. even if it's not *Claude* at all that is a villain i could get behind!#but people keep insisting that 1) Clyde isn't a villain (he is) that 2) he's doing the right thing (he's not)#and that 3) he's in any way compelling (he's just brown Eddy Geddy but stupid)

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is-the-owl-video-cute · 11 months

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Neuralink methods are unsafe at this stage given the animal deaths and shouldn’t be greenlit for human clinical trials. Calling it eugenics because of that is a bit much though.

There are other research projects doing similar, but safer, methods to help paralyzed people though. I hope people try to get on these research lists and don’t turn to musk out of desperation

It isn’t really a reach to call a procedure with over 60% mortality rate being marketed as a miracle cure to the disabled an example of eugenics. Frankly, there is a stronger word I’m tempted to use for it.

I don’t believe Elon Musk is unaware of the dangers. I don’t think any of the high profile scientists he hired are either.

At absolute best faith I can see Musk simply not caring about the risk and just using this as a desperate attempt at making back some money since he lost so much with twitter and SpaceX.

That’s giving him the most benefit of the doubt imaginable.

However, I would not call it overly cynical to suspect that this may be intentional. Is Musk really stupid enough to just think it’ll be fine because he’s the main character? Yeah, that’s plausible. It’s not any less plausible to say there’s an ulterior motive. Not when he rubs elbows with far-right figures often. Not when he’s a billionaire rich on his parents’ bloodied slave money.

I don’t trust a white man who grew up reaping the benefits of apartheid to be a friend to the disabled. I think the goal in this project has less to do with improving quality of life for the disabled and more for making the disabled less inconvenient to their abled caretakers. It’s very much giving 21st century lobotomy.

#Neuralink #eugenics #there is a long history of far-right monsters luring specific demographics to their horrible deaths by promising improved QoL #just saying #I don’t trust that at all #a brain implant attached to the temporal lobe is frightfully dangerous #and I don’t only mean because of the incompetence of the butcher shop surgeons either #if you can control the chip and it’s connected to the internet #then other people can use that chip to control you #again assuming it ever worked

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lains-reality · 9 months

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the hardest i keep trying to remain uninterested towards my thoughts and reaffirm that im awareness only and not the ego the more i feel angry that absolutely nothing is happening, not even feeling peace or fulfillment or anything, probably because i went into nd thinking its the same thing as loa and just wanting to get things but rn im done trying to convince myself that i dont care what my thoughts or my reality is, i dont know what to do about any of this anymore because ive read so much information (including the books ada shared) and now my brain feels fried and cant process shit i have no idea of where to go from here

firstly. take a break.

honestly, i've been thinking about honesty lol. i've realised that a lot of what i've been doing is to see a manifestation or feel love. but i never wanted to admit it. i might not ever have any """evidence""" for why i am pure awareness - my ego wants to understand. but i've moved on from trying to make it understand or convincing it. its perfectly fine as it is. it can walk, it can intelectualise (something that i actually want to stop doing with nd!), it can talk. thats okay with me. i don't want to demand or force anything more of it. i know what happens when i force my mind to do something, its a complete mess. i know that for the manifestations i want, that it requires me not to be a body-mind. it require something more. something timeless, boundless, etc. i cannot demand that from my body or mind. so i've decided to move past them, work with them when needed and soothe them when needed.

doing the inner work, depending on your ego, might be a thing you need to do (in fact i'd say that everyone needs to do it). its hard to just force yourself to disbelieve and detach. especially when forcing is not what you're supposed to do.

if you're in my inbox then you've read my posts, right?

so you see that i've recommended self inquiry before yes? and that i've put up books? you sound like you haven't read my posts? i've been reblogging so much and talked several times about no forcing!!

give yourself a chance. calm down. you're putting so much pressure on the body-mind to see your Self, BUT IT CAN'T, you are not that which you can observe!! you can't observe Self, THATS WHY THE MIND WILL NEVER GET IT! stop trying to force yourself to see your divinity, just appriciate the divinity you see now (you're literally ALIVE, breathing!! look at the world, you as Self created for YOU. Self fell in love with the character so much it forgot it was not it!!)

you're looking for some woo-woo magical experience that forever changes you - these ideas about enlightenment are not it. whatever ideas about enlightenment the mind had, throw it in the bin.

before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. after enlightenment - chop wood, carry water!! you'll be going through the world the same, except in how you see the world.

enlightenment is a destruction. its a destruction in how you see the world and yourself. that's it. in the end, you'll feel peace (as others have said so) but you're not there, are you? you're trying to get rid of ego through ego. stop.

you'll never know Self, until you see it yourself. this is through experiments and practise.

stop reading if its frying you're brain. you're entire ask can be solved by "ok i'm gonna take a break this is too much". please the answer to your questions is not some magical shit! this is why i've said before KEEP IT SIMPLE.

this goes to all anons now (not just you anon!) LEARN HOW TO EMOTIONALLY REGULATE YOURSELF. i might just make a big post on this or something.

reading

starting the journey

i've shared this too many times now

another regular article i share

disbelieve

how to let go of vanessa

i'm sorry more ada posts

another one

read this one

LEAVE VANESSA ALONE

#lainsmail #can you tell i'm holding back tears of anger #you're not incompetent YOU CAN DO IT #i mean this all lovingly anon

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potatobugz · 8 months

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do you think the mess in oshiros hotel is meant to signify that hes been letting his problems pile up until its become too overwhelming to handle.

im thinking about the fact that he's definitely the one who's been making the mess but he doesn't even realize it. he ignores the clutter until it becomes too hard to ignore you know? like when it starts actively blocking the way to the presidential suite. he insists that he and his staff will handle it and that madeline shouldn't clean up his own mess, but he still doesn't do anything about it. does he know that the staff is gone? that it's just him there?

mr oshiro is so hell bent on impressing madeline so that she'll stay in his hotel. he's so in denial of everything. he doesn't even realize he's dead, he still thinks his hotel never got shut down. I think his insistence on her staying is bc he really wants to believe that the hotel is open, and a costumer would affirm that belief. it could also maybe be a mixture of loneliness too. (also, him treating her as a costumer even after she says no is absolutely him being in denial. that man is very unhealthily attached to this hotel,)

and even though it was nice of madeline to clean it up, there's still parts of the hotel she can't fix. the plumbing. the windows. the, hole in the ceiling (oops.) she's not qualified to help him, and that's why I think the chapter ends on a bit of a sour note. madeline is of course not a bad person for wanting to help, the point is that she can't. it is unfortunate but true

anyways mr oshiro is a very good character i like him a regular amount. im normal about that old man

#celeste #celeste game #mr oshiro #oshiro celeste #character analysis #i guess ?#this is my first time making any post like this but i meeded to make it i need 2 talk about hom and his fuckin hotel !!!!!!!#one other thought i have is... i saw a few ppl say that mr oshiro manipulated madeline into cleaning or that he feigned incompetence ?#and i disagree with that. though this might just be me looking at jt w rose tinted glasses bc i do like him a lot #but first of all i dont think he couldve easily cleaned that whole mess himself. i know hes a ghost but like #there was stuff everywhere in the whole hotel.#not to mention he felt guilty when madeline did clean all that stuff up. of course it was also a little bit #because he didnt want to lose her as a customer #but he also obviously felt like that was his responsibility as the owner of the hotel and he felt fuckin bad about it #i could be wrong bc i dont remember everyting he said in that chapter but i dont think he ever asked her to clean either ?#and like yeah i think he can come off a little mean at times tbh #hes obviously going through some stuff. guysm cmon. he is not a bad person. none of these characters are. whevhhwveh #idk. i did my best here. *explodes*#thank you for listening to my insane rambles about peeing in a hot topic i hope u all have a goooood night #rambles #i honestly hope he gets a happy ending somewhat

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e-adlirez · 16 days

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Treasure Seekers 2 go brrrrr

So this sequel... exists :D

Welcome to the second entry in the Treasure Seekers trilogy that I'm gonna ramble about for the next six hours (in me time, in you time it's probably gonna be like thirty minutes or less), if you wanna read it yourself before reading this ramble, here's an Archive copy. Otherwise, enjoy the ride :D

So our story begins with the Thea Sisters locked in a basement in the dark, with Russia's penchant for matches (and the basement's lack of a smoke alarm) coming in clutch. Seems like another vacation's gone awry for them :3 How could it have possibly turned out this way?

Flashback: so the girls are vibing in Moscow, visiting all the cool sights and all that, Pam is wanting to try some Russian cuisine, when they spot this girl that's wearing what appears to be a barrette that used to belong to Aurora's sister Hannah Lane. They follow her a bit, find a THUG JUMPSCARE, follow the girl, Cassidy and co into the building they're heading into, and oh dear door with passcode is in the way. They find this dood Sergei, explain to him the situation, deal with him being like "who is u, and wth are you on about mate" until they hear a scream and oh dear turns out that girl with the barrette is Sergei's sister Irina and she's in trouble.

Sergei opens the door, they go in, walk in on Cassidy, Stan and Max (who I will from now call SM for simplicity) doing their whole thug jumpscare thing and kidnapping Irina in 4K. SM somehow rolls a high enough strength roll (or the girls roll a low enough initiative) that two roughly intimidating guys successfully trap six people into a basement without breaking a sweat get yourself some self-defense classes girls oml, and that's the end of that.

Luke's up to his shenanigans again, and it seems that he's targeted Irina Lenenko for the same reason the girls double-taked at the sight of her barrette: Irina (and Sergei in conjunction) is a descendant of Hannah Lane, and Hannah Lane may or may not have known a thing or two about one of the seven treasures. It's such a shame tho that Irina doesn't wanna spill any of the tea. What's this about a "queen's jewel"?

Oh also Luke has Aurora's third diary. I would like you to pay attention to this detail in particular. Oh and he's keeping Irina ratgrabbed until she tells them what he wants to know from her. Oh naur

Meanwhile the girls infodump all of the TS 1 LANE LOORRREEEE to Sergei in one whole sitting and finally manage to get around to "what the hell does this have to do with my sister". Sergei thinks it's not really possible for Irina to know anything about great-grandma Hannah's involvement with Aurora, but Irina's still in trouble soooo time to solve this nerdy-ass science trivia keypad puzzle to get outa the basement. Irina's nowhere to be found in the lab itself, so they regroup at Sergei's place to use his phone tracker app on his computer.

Bad news, SM dumped Irina's phone somewhere in the lab so the tracker app is useless; good news, while looking for some Lane Lore™ to get some context about the situation, the girls find some Lane Lore™ :D

Turns out Aurora was looking for one of the seven treasures again, y'know just updating her sister on that, who'd moved to Saint Petersburg with her husband Ivan.

Seems like Aurora's quest at the time involved "the queen's jewel", which Aurora said she was 1000% down to ramble about to Hannah, maybe when she's done finding all seven treasures and hiding them from Jan.

I would like to take this moment to remind you that Aurora is a British Amelia Earhart, and if you dunno what that means, look up what Earhart was famous for and then look at this with that given context :']

With that lead, the girls plus Sergei take a ride on presumably the Krasnaya Strela night train to Saint Petersburg, read some Lane Lore on the way, Peter-Griffin upon realizing that they spent the whole night reading AO3 fanfics Aurora's diaries and it's like 2AM now, land in Saint Petersburg, stop by Nevsky Prospekt Street to have some breakfast (I think they went to Venezia?), and discussion.

(For the rest of this review, please assume when I say "the girls", I'm including Sergei because Sergei tags along with them and helps them out in their entire journey. It's okay, Sergei may be biologically male but he is an honorary female in our hearts /j)

Aurora mentioned the queen's jewel in her diary, and when you're in Russia, the first queen that comes to mind is Catherine II, so maybe something relating to her? Some Lane Lore of Aurora taking interest in Catherine II's Amber Room in her palace specifically confirms their theories, sooooooooo it's time to go to the Amber Room to see if Aurora left any clu--

The girls are about to walk out of the Catherine Palace to Peter Griffin in private when SM JUMPSCARE--

So SM is stalkin' around the Catherine Palace looking for something, so the girls stalk them back and follow them out of the palace, into a car (the girls called a separate taxi to follow them), and to a little gray building in the outskirts of the city. They don't follow SM into the building because it might be dangerous, but Irina's scarf lying around near the premises confirms that Irina was in fact there and possibly being held hostage in the building.

The girls do a little tactic I like to call "the Ding Dong Ditch": Pam and Nicky knock on the door, SM answers it, do a little Metal Gear exclamation point "HOW DID YOU GET HERE", Nicky and Pam book it so SM chases them, and that's literally how the other girls plus Sergei sneak into the building to get Irina out. (You dunno how badly I wanted to make a videogame reference for this but I couldn't find anything so here we are--)

With that, the girls plus the Lenenko siblings book it outa there without SM being none the wiser (seriously it doesn't even cross their mind that there are more than two Thea Sisters, that's how dum they are). Irina books a hotel room at a friend's place and gives them some extra Lane Lore that she never told Klawitz despite the interrogations:

Hannah Lane was once visited by Aurora unexpectedly, a little after Hannah and her husband moved to a house near the Ob River, in Siberia. Possible lead :3c? The girls think maybe, so they decide to head on over to the exact address in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

In Siberia, the girls cross the frozen Ob River in Novosibirsk to this abandoned little house, where they find this little note with a riddle that talks about Cleopatra and an emerald she had at one point, and CASSIDY JUMPSCARE--

Cassidy busts in, snatches the note and books it away on her snowmobile before the girls can even react. You may be wondering, how the hell did Cassidy get there and know where they were? The answer is the same as the reason behind the SM jumpscares in Russia and in book 1, and that is Luke.

Luke Von Klawitz is doing a little segment that I like to call: Luke Touch Grass, where it becomes increasingly clear that Luke's spent way too much time on 4Chan (/j but you'll see what I mean). Luke hears about SM's failure and facepalms. Then he calls his friend Petrovski, who has access to the database of all of Russia's airports, for help tracking down "six mice leaving Saint Petersburg". Petrovski gives him results in minutes: the girls and Sergei are leaving Saint Petersburg and heading for Novosibirsk, Siberia (most likely Tolmachevo Airport). With that intel, Klawitz looks into his own database of Aurora Beatrix Lane, finds a picture of Hannah and Aurora together, and uses his own version of Google Lens to figure out the exact coordinates where the picture was taken, which happens to be in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

No this man does not in fact canonically touch grass on the regular, who's asking

Anyway so he sent Cassidy the coords, instructions and Aurora's diary to go, and that's how Cassidy walked in on the girls in that little abandoned hut next to Ob River. Only thing is uh, she dropped her purse on the way out. A purse that just so happened to contain Aurora's diary that Luke gave her.

So the girls scoop that puppy up and assume that the treasure is Cleopatra's emerald, thus they think it's in Egypt.

So the girls go to Egypt :D (29 and a half hour flight there good god no wonder they conked out in the plane--)

The girls read some Lane Lore, something about Aurora finding the treasure and hiding it somewhere in a desert, in an "expanse pure and white" that a star compass will lead to. First thing the girls think of at the desert bit is the White Desert (Sahara el Beyda), specifically a spot near Cleopatra's pool, so they leave the airport (not realizing Cassidy is following them now) and head over to a market to buy some supplies because might I remind you, they initially went to Moscow, Russia for vacation.

While in the market, Pam meets a guy named Omar. Pam tells him a little bit about them going to Cleopatra's pool in Sahara el Beyda, and she finds out that Omar just so happens to be an Archaeology major in Oxford University who's here on his summer vacation and works as a guide for Sahara el Beyda, and is more than down to give the girls a tour. Talk about lucky :D

The next day the girls take the scenic route and after a while make it to Siwa, where Omar books a room in a hotel for them, and the girls find this interesting myth there about Cleopatra that I will summarize here:

Cleopatra was once given a jewel that maxes out the owner's rizz and the effect is supposedly indefinite. Cleopatra liked the jewel so much that she wore it on her crown at all times... until she grew a bit self-conscious about the gem's maxxed rizz effect and how everyone kept eyeing the emerald a second too long for comfort, so she decided to hide away said rizz in a spot where none of her rivals could get to it. Oh and uh Cleopatra wrote up a dedication to Ra that's hella cryptic too.

One long rest later, the girls go to Cleopatra's pool on a donkey cart. Yes, a donkey cart. It was Omar's idea. Speaking of Omar, prepare yourself buddy because the girls have dubiously decided to give you some Lane Lore to chew on. O-oh you like it a lot. A lot a lot. Well okay cool, maybe you can help out, cool.

The girls manage to figure out the riddle in Cleopatra's dedication, find a little stone coffer that has the queen's treasure and-- SM JUMPSCARE

With a donkey as the girls' only escape method and Omar having suddenly disappeared, a scuffle ensues where the girls play hot potato with the box until SM gets their hands on it and opens it, and here we get a very accurate depiction of what SM and the girls found in the box once it was actually opened.

Description: a hand made of salt shaped in an upside-down "ok" symbol, circa 1920s-30s.

The sheer whiplash of this leaves both sides of the conflict losing enough HP that they're all on red-- SM is blaming the girls for this (how dare >:[) and dip. Omar is gone, and all the girls get as compensation is the empty box and a letter from Aurora telling them that they'll know to read the hidden clues. The girls head back feeling very hollow and dead inside, and this is the one time one of the girls questions how the hell did SM know they were at Siwa. I mean they never get any answer to this (kinda), but it is a milestone! They're aware of it now!

Once they get back to Cairo, they ask around and find that Omar's completely up and vanished, and they decide they'll just head back to Moscow since their investigation has come to a dead end. On the way, Pam comments about the falafel she bought being hella salty, which leads Violet to an epiphany that hey, the Sahara isn't the only desert that exists, let alone the only desert known for how white it is (like how Boracay Beach is known for how white and fine its sand is, but it's not the only white sand beach that exists). A quick Google search (and a long flight (35 HOURS CAIRO TO SUCRE???)) leads them to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Nicky reserves a room for them at Hotel Luna Salada (a real place you can book a stay at actually :D), and they make a friend by the name of Adriana, a local waitress in the hotel restaurant. Adriana helps them pick out a dessert, fills them in on some stuff about the Salar since the girls came here 100% out of impulse, and talks about possible itinerary locations to go to, like the Isla de Pescado, Tiwanaku (the "Gate of the Sun"), Lake Titiaca, and Laguna Colorada. Y'know, typical tourist stuff, and Adriana was so kind to show them pictures she took when she visited said places herself! :D

Anyway so while the girls long rest, Luke is mulling about in his base waiting for updates. Someone calls him about the whole Egypt thing, and Luke calls the girls incompetent? Rude, oh and something about the caller being Luke's "secret weapon". Cassidy calls him on a theory she has about the gemstone being in Cleopatra's palace, and since the girls are currently long-resting (which means they aren't doing anything), Luke figures that a little diving trip in Alexandria to search for the gem with Cassidy won't hurt. Besides, he still has his secret weapon.

Oh yeah and he knows the girls are long resting because he has a drone in Bolivia spying on them and showing him their every move. Touch grass, Luke. No, going on a diving trip in Alexandria doesn't count, there's barely any grass there /j

Morning comes in Bolivia, and the girls head out early to search the Salar as much as they can. They look around the flat white desert, eat some late breakfast, toy around with forced perspective camera shenanigans for a bit, and read up on some LANE LOOORREEEEE

So Aurora's been to Pumapunku and Tiwanaku which is cool, she paid a visit to the archaeological site probably and that's really cool. She says something about hiding the queen's treasure in a fish's stomach covered in very fine thorns. Sergei ends up having an epiphany, and that leads the girls to Isla de Pescado, which just so happens to be "Fish Island" in Spanish, and has cacti on it, it's all coming together :D

Oh and the fish drawing Aurora made is coords to the treasure seemingly so that's cool-- OMAR JUMPSCARE

The girls are very surprised to find Omar joining them, and Omar explains that he booked it when SM came over and lost his cellphone as a result. However, he managed to figure out that Aurora's riddle was about salt and not sand, and decided to head on over to Bolivia since he assumed that's where the girls are going. How did he find them? It was just out of pure coincidence, and also the fact that the girls are extremely recognizable. Hm.

Anyway, Paulina plugs the coordinates into her GPS and leads the girls plus Omar to a little cave at the bottom of a little embankment. The girls find that, lo and behold, there's an old tin box containing a bright green emerald!

Meanwhile Luke is not finding anything in Alexandria haha L, LVK L get dunked on Luke, Cassidy girlie that's not a man to simp for find someone else gurl-- oh dear Luke is alerted that the treasure has been found and now he's planning on heading over to Bolivia? Now how could he possibly know that?

In the meantime, I dunno what's up in the air or if it's the Archaeology major speaking in him but Omar's really invested in this treasure, even more so than the girls to the degree that the girls are a little freaked out by it-- RHEA JUMPSCARE-- Paulina calms the big bord down and gets it to not trample Omar please, he's still a friend of theirs. Colette picks up this blue notebook Omar seems to have dropped.

The girls plus Omar head back to the SUVs, and Omar is really trying to persuade the girls that he should bring it back to Cairo. The girls are not jazzed at the idea because Omar bringing it back alone will be too unsafe, y'know with Luke and Cassidy and SM and all. They gotta think about this rationally-- WHOA OKAY OMAR calm your man tits buddy why are you demanding they trust you like you automatically deserve your trust-- ohh that's how Klawitz has known about the girls' whereabouts, Omar was working as a double agent.

So yeah Omar snatches the box from Colette and drives off in his SUV, leaving the girls in the dust. The girls freak out and are feeling that EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, but Colette for some reason is very calm about Omar booking it with the emerald. And that's because SHE HAS IT :D she did a lil' switcheroo so now the emerald's with her while the box is with Omar.

For context about how Colette knew about this, remember the blue notebook Omar dropped? Yeah that notebook was a company LVK notebook, straight from Luke himself. Then after Colette saw it, everything about Omar became incredibly sus, so she performed this precautionary measure.

So now the girls talk to the local authorities about how the whole thing with the emerald is gonna go down, and soon the girls are waiting for a plane back to Moscow.

As for Omar, well, he goes over to Luke's super-fancy hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, and he hands the box to Luke, explicitly stating that he decided he'd let Luke open it before he himself can appreciate it.

Luke opens the box, and here we see an accurate depiction of what Luke sees.

Description: an upside-down "ok" symbol drawn in strawberry pink lip balm, signed Colette [insert last name], circa 2018.

Luke punts the box (prolly with the lip balm still inside it) into the swimming pool, tells Omar to get out, and that's the end of that. Haha Omar L Luke L

The girls head back to Moscow to drop Sergei off when SURPRISE PARTY BY IRINA'S SQUAD :DDD

Then the girls are about to return to Whale Island to presumably Peter Griffin in their dorms, when Colette suggests they make a journal a la Aurora Beatrix Lane, and they do. In a pink notebook because it was Colette's idea so we might as well give her that

And they take a black-and-white group picture of them wearing adventurer clothes like Aurora would've done. The brainrot is real, these girls are mentally ill /j

And that's the book :D

... Honestly it's the most meh out of the trilogy besides the big-brain bits in the middle and the end imo

The writing was so much more stilted in this one, even for Scholastic standards, and everything feels pretty..... kid's book. Even more so than the usual in the book's English translations. I do readings for the books in some of my Discords, and this book did not read well at aaallll. And I haven't even mentioned the typos in the book (they're not a lot, but they exist, and they're kinda egregious :D) and some grammar errors if I'm remembering things correctly. It might just be a translation thing-- I worry a bit for the translator who had to put this together.

Luke's character here is also kinda wonk? For one we see him directly contradict his anti-friendship spiel in TS 1 since he literally greets Petrovski like a friend (maybe it's a "friendship doesn't exist except in 4Chan" thing, I dunno). Then in the middle of the book, he gets... very Disney villain-y. The most egregious example here is the chapter "Lurking in the Shadows", where as you can see

I am confusion?? Luke has been described as a to-the-point brat who hardly cares for the means to his end (unless it will impact his ability to achieve the end) and is so fixated on his goal that he doesn't touch grass. Is this not-touching-grass behavior? Yeah, definitely, but this??? This is too Disney villain???? Why does the man break into an evil cackle in front of Cassidy???? I understood it in book 1 because man thinks he's doing a "You may think you have outsmarted me but I have OUTSMARTED YOUR OUTSMARTING", but this one?? Maybe it's my personal taste, but it's too cartoonish and too... deviated from what we know of him up to this point.

ALSO TWIRLING HIS MUSTACHE? WHAT MUSTACHE IS HE TWIRLING THAT THING IS NOT TWIRL-ABLE

Also time to address the one big plot hole in this book: Aurora's diary.

So in this book there's only one diary, which is infinitely simpler than the two we got in the first book. This diary supposedly contains Aurora's records of her mission in hiding Cleopatra's Rizzmerald, and the details are supposedly vague enough that Luke felt the need to kidnap and interrogate Irina, a Hannah Lane descendant, to fill in the blanks. However, when you look at the contents of the diary itself (which lord knows how many times Luke himself has looked through it), there's hardly any blanks that need to be filled, at least if you're Luke.

The diary itself is mostly in the background-- like I said, not as much Lane Lore here as the previous book, the girls mostly rely on Aurora's letters to Hannah here-- but there's one specific entry the girls read in the latter half of the book that explicitly mentions Pumapunku and Tiwanaku, and how Aurora is there for her mission to hide the emerald. Complete with coordinates hidden in a little drawing! My one question I have for Luke is, why didn't he go straight to Bolivia and started searching there? Why did he go through all the effort of kidnapping Irina, tailing the girls around Sahara el Beyda, letting SM fall for the salt replica gambit, left his base to touch grass and go on a dive with Cassidy in Egypt; all if he could've just gone straight to Bolivia to look for the treasure there? Sure, Aurora did a good job hiding the coordinates in the fish doodle, but someone as observant and as obsessed about the outcome instead of the journey like Luke would rather have sidestepped all the Aurora shenanigans and beelined straight to the goal if he was able to.

Luke hardly has an excuse here because he owned the diary at the start of the book, and most definitely read through it many times (and we know he's the type to do this, see TS 1). The plot hole is plot hole-ing, it seems :/

Maybe it was just an excuse for the girls to get a giant glowing arrow pointing in the direction of the treasure? It certainly feels like it.

Anyway, the things that carry this book and made it memorable when I first read it (and allowed me to ignore the iffy bits) are the gottems and Omar as a character. Aurora setting up a salt replica of the Rizzmerald as a gottem in a time capsule, only to be opened almost a hundred years later to still be as potent as intended when it was made so long ago? That is amazing, like c'mon, pure comedy material.

Even funnier is Colette doing the exact same thing, only with her lip balm. Luke is quaking in his bougie-ass leather boots.

Now for Omar. This may be a hot take of mine here, but Omar's sus-ness is actually at a decent level compared to the girls and what they usually deal with. On one hand, Omar is incredibly suspicious with how incredibly lucky the girls are to find an Archaeology Oxford major working as a Sahara el Beyda tour guide; but on the other hand, the girls had almost the exact same situation with Diego in Mexico (I didn't mention him in the first review, but he came in clutch in TS 1).

The girls met Diego in Merida, Mexico, and he helped them with their research into "the invisible place", which happened to be Uxmal, along the Puuc Route. Diego also just so happened to be a tour-guide-in-training for the Puuc Route, which was the place the girls just so happened to need to go to find Aurora's second journal.

In comparison, the girls meet Omar in Khan El-Khalili while they were looking for supplies for their trip to the Siwa Oasis. It comes up in conversation that the girls are headed to Siwa, and Omar just so happened to be a tour guide for Sahara el Beyda, which was where the Siwa Oasis is, and it just so happened to be where the girls needed to go. When you stack them up together, it made perfect sense that the girls thought they could trust him-- Diego didn't know much about their trip and helped them the best he could (which was a lot), so why wouldn't Omar do the same? He's an Oxford Archaeology major, too, for crying out loud, the girls struck gold in the end!

Gold that was too shiny and too good to be true. Gold that was, in the end, nothing more than pyrite, fool's gold.

Omar is a good case for why you should be careful with who you trust, and when you should start thinking a little bit when you're getting a little too lucky with the people you meet. When the girls got to know him a little more and decided to trust him and tell him the deal with their trip, he got way invested in the gem-- too invested to not be a little bit suspicious. Maybe the girls mistook it for his passion for his archaeology major, maybe they mistook it for something else-- but whatever the case, Omar pulled the cheesecloth over the girls' eyes and really only fell apart near the end, when his alibis and behavior started becoming more and more suspicious; and by then, Omar didn't need to be as inconspicuous, and the girls had gotten to know him too much to readily say to him "okay buddy can you kindly f%ck off, your vibes are not vibing here".

The girls probably should've been suspicious when Omar reappeared in Bolivia out of nowhere, but I guess his alibi was just good enough (and the girls at this point were probably running on adrenaline, caffeine and a brain on 70% capacity at most) to pass the Deception check.

Fr tho there were some bits where the girls should've found him sus but they didn't (him accidentally saying "I did it" when they uncovered the emerald, and also him handling the emerald the way he did), so shrugs. It could be a translation thing, but it could also be something else.

Anyway, kinda meh for a sequel, but it does have its standouts that allow it to somewhat stand on the same level as the first and third books. Kinda.

Hey, at least it's not as bad as Crystal Fairies-- that's the bar of bad-ness I'm setting. It's not as bad as Crystal Fairies and that's what matters--

Also special thanks to @ishmeowwow (it won't let me ping you for some reason bestie <:[) for making the lil' artworks haha

#geronimo stilton #thea sisters #thea stilton #book review #book rambles #book rant #thank you ishmeow for making the gottems for me :D #you came in clutch while my ipad is still dieded thank you bestie <3 #in the book it's just the lip balm but ishmeow decided to go all-out with the gottem gag and i can't be more grateful lmao #same goes with the gemstone in aurora's gottem (it's just the fake tiara plus fake gem) but hey the more salt the merrier :D #book 2 luke is so jarringly different from his other depictions but at the same time #he does not in fact touch grass and he does crack an evil cackle at least once a book so #i dunno how i feel about it . .#on one hand it adds to him not touching grass #but on the other hand it doesn't connect with his “this villain is supposed to make you shnit your pants at how intimidating he is”#he's intimidating because of his connections his ability to basically spy on the entire world and control everything from his base #and y'know he can tell his goons to do whatever and they'll literally wreak havoc to fulfill said requests #he was so intimidating in concept that they had to nerf him with incompetent goons lmao #after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D #like good god i thought a ten hour flight was unbearable and made your body stiff but holy damn #i'm not complaining too much about the timeline tho because this is hilarious and makes the girls look so neurodivergent #“what do you mean we flew a total of 64 hours by plane feels like it's only been a day to m--”#*dies*

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umarthiels · 1 year

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[...] Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so doing, he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of usurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew if so disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further obedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the command. From even the barely hinted imputation of usurpation, and the possible consequences of such a suppressed impression gaining ground, Ahab must of course have been most anxious to protect himself.

LAW TIME!

this is so interesting to me bc it calls back to the fact that ahab doesn't actually own the pequod! he's captaining it and he does own a share in it, but the real owners are peleg and bildad, and on shore he's accountable to them. even though on the sea he is master of the ship, he still answers to the owners, and in derailing the voyage from "hunting whales and making money" to "hunting moby-dick specifically", he is usurping authority! he doesn't (well, in the sense of ownership, which will come up later) actually have the right to do this! and if the crew were to mutiny against him (say, if a certain mate who isn't keen on the quest and prioritizes the commercial interests of the voyage over ahab's goal convinced them), legally they'd be in the right to do it, and arguably it'd be their duty to do it. (nautical law side of tumblr do correct me if i'm wrong) (the idea of whether ahab actually has ultimate authority over the pequod comes up later and it's all very interesting!)

this is extra fun since ahab knows this and is genuinely nervous that the crew might rise up against him. right now starbuck stands alone, and even he gave way to peer pressure in the end! the entire crew is enthusiastic about the quest, but if that wanes and they start to consider it, ahab will be in genuine danger! he can't actually answer to the charge of usurpation, he undeniably did it (within the framework of ownership of the whaling industry ofc) which is something that isn't really obvious in pop culture perceptions of him, he's not just some dictator, he's pragmatic about things!

#whale weekly #ahab #moby dick #fr this is so interesting #and the callbacks to this in later chapters are so fascinating to me #esp in chapter 109 where it's most obvious #any people who know big water law do add onto this #like if ahab were any less charismatic and brilliant and pragmatic he mightve fallen prey to this but he DIDNT #and [REDACTED]#and that's something really interesting bc ishmael mentions how the incompetence/traits of the mates made them unable to stand up to ahab #and given that [REDACTED] iit's !!! to thinka bout ishmael recalling all of this after #also also the EVERYTHING abt ahab not actually owning the ship and being painfully conscious abt that #and how he reframes it in 109 #same energy as 'a king is he who can hold his own'#yeah thingol you say you own all beleriand but maedhros is actualy holding it #yeah bildad and peleg you technically own the pequod but ahab is actually captaining it #ALSO cannot believe i forgot to mention but something something means of production #ahab and the crew are doing the labor (and to be fair they do get shares) but they don't get the shares that the big stakeholders like pele #g and bildad do even though they're the ones doing the grueling labor

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urproblematicfav-arsonk · 1 month

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Alastor: there is literally nothing you can say to make me want to have sex with you

Valentino: wanna see if I can fuck you so hard you get tetanus

Alastor: w-wha....what????

Valentino: Do You Want Me To Fuck You Till You Get Tetanus?

Angel: its true it happened to me once

Alastor: *confused but interested in asexual* ????????

#al suddenly like he figured it out: oh you mean ur gonna stab me!#val: nope #al: THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN #its cuz he has piercings #this is not the flex val thinks it is lol #is this funny #im too incompetent to actually write so this is all i can do #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel valentino #hazbin hotel alastor #valastor #val x alastor

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soldier-poet-king · 3 months

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Anyway yeah mizora is obvs the big bad of wyll's arc, but I am ALSO a card carrying member of the ulder ravengard hate club, my durge would've been fully willing to let that bitch drown in the iron throne quest but wyll would've been upset and the guy has had enough hardship in his life :(

#i still picked all the mean dialogue to drag ulders ass afterward #LIKE YOUR SON IS A GOLDEN BOY HERO. AND THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT HIM #ULDER WHEN I GET YOU #bg3 #TRULY like. shitty dad of the year award #HES ALSO KING OF THE COPS. (FLAMING FISTS). SO LIKE. I HATE U DOUBLE #theyre at best incompetent more realistically deeply corrupt

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admirableadmiranda · 2 years

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*annoys you so you're motivated to write meta about the Jiang sect's restrictive 'freedom'*

Okay, okay I’ll get to it. Apparently this was a lot more popular a thing needed than I realized. I was thinking I’d have to see some more posts on how Yu Ziyuan is the only problem in the sect first before we got there!

But very well, let’s talk about Yunmeng Jiang and how the rot was always there at the core even before Yu Ziyuan showed up. I could say I was confused at how people came around to the idea that it was fine or the best sect before Yu Ziyuan married in and ruined everything and made it into this toxic, classist place where Wei Wuxian struggled and if only he’d lived in his father’s Yunmeng Jiang he would have been perfectly happy and never wanted to move to Gusu, but honestly it’s kinda subtle and especially for us westerners for whom freedom and a lack of restrictions is portrayed as ideal, it can be hard to see.

So here, let’s start off this meta with a bang, let us rip aside the facade of supposed freedom and clever mottos and examine what the book shows us about Lotus Pier and the people within.

Given what we know in story, Yunmeng Jiang was likely never a sect of true freedom and if it once was, it hasn’t been for a long time.

In order to explain what I mean, let’s talk about the founder of the sect and then the scraps of information we get from the sect before Jiang Fengmian’s leadership. There’s not a lot, but what we get is damning to the whole image of Yunmeng Jiang in my opinion.

I will preface this with saying we never find out much about any of the sect leaders who either founded or transformed their sects into clans in universe. It happened at least five hundred years ago when Wen Mao proposed elevating the family above the sect and in some sort of order, everyone followed suit.

The founder of the YunmengJiang Sect, Jiang Chi, was born a rogue cultivator. The ways of the sect were honest and unrestrained.

That is all we get of who they were and the sect’s attitude. Honest and unrestrained we do see in equal measures in the Yunmeng Jiang of today. But there is nothing of equality or of a lack of class boundaries that people ascribe to it.

Jiang Chi is the founder of Yunmeng Jiang, we don’t know exactly when but given that the name is inextricably tied to the clan, it would likely be close to the same time as Wen Mao’s reform. What we know of them is that they were a rogue cultivator who settled in Yunmeng and gave the clan its difficult to translate motto that basically comes to “Know what is impossible to do, then do it anyway.” After that what else we know of the sect is that it keeps its gates open so that the commoners can come in and watch the boys training, it was in some sort of decline even before Yu Ziyuan married in and that Jiang Fengmian was pressured into marrying her. But the cracks are there if you look for them, so let me show you a few examples.

Lotus Pier wasn’t as other-worldly as the other sects’ residences, shutting their doors and refusing to let commoners come within a boundary miles away. The docks right in front of Lotus Pier’s entrance often bustled with vendors selling seed pods, water chestnuts and all kinds of pastries. Runny-nosed children from households nearby could also sneak into Lotus Pier’s fields to watch the cultivators practice their swords. They wouldn’t be scolded even if they got caught, either. They could sometimes even play around with the Jiang Sect’s disciples.

Here is our first description of Lotus Pier itself, which on the surface looks pretty good. They let people come in much closer and the children can even come within the sect to watch the cultivators training without being scolded.

But there is still a thread of exclusion in it. They let people come up to sell just outside of the sect, but there’s no mention about them crossing in. The children can sneak in to watch the cultivators practice and sometimes play with the disciples, but there’s no hint of them being taken in or trained.

Lotus Pier lets the common people see them, but there’s little true interaction or crossing over.

There were only five people within the large hall. In front of everyone was a small, square table, on top of which were a few dishes of food. Head lowered, Wei WuXian only had a few mouthfuls as somebody tugged at the corner of his sleeve. Turning around, he saw Jiang YanLi pass over a small dish. Inside the dish was a dozen peeled lotus seeds, soft and white, fresh and succulent.

Even within the halls itself, there is still a great divide between classes that is more subtly noted. Wei Wuxian is allowed to eat with them, but for a sect that is supposedly more relaxed and not classist aside , why do they have a great hall with only five people eating in it?

Madam Yu scolded, “Of course you’ll go! Or else would your sister go? Look at her, still happily peeling lotus seeds. A-Li, stop peeling them. Who are you peeling them for? You’re the mistress, not somebody’s servant!”

Hearing the word ‘servant’, Wei WuXian didn’t mind much. He had finished all of the lotus seeds in the dish all at once, chewing as the soft, refreshing sweetness filled his mouth. Jiang FengMian, on the other hand, raised his head slightly, “My lady.”

Madam Yu, “What, something I said? Servant? You don’t want to hear the word? Jiang FengMian, let me ask you—this time, do you intend to let him go?”

A lot of other people have gone over all the other text that proves that Wei Wuxian is a servant of the Yunmeng Jiang, but here it is again. Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are close, but it is emphasized that she is the mistress and he is the servant. He is permitted to eat with them, but Jiang Yanli making him some lotus seeds is crossing the line.

Now we could assume that this is all Yu Ziyuan’s influence, but I don’t think so. While she is fierce and assertive, her influence on Yunmeng Jiang is surprisingly minimal for all the noise she makes. She lives in a house alone with other members of her family that she brought from Meishan Yu and her two trusted servants, spends nearly all her time out night hunting and mostly shows up to scream at everyone and leave. What she mostly does is make it louder. It was always there.

Her influence certainly exists in the sect, but she didn’t exactly bring the classism with her. It already existed there with Wei Changze and his reputation, and Jiang Fengmian’s father being interested in arranging a marriage with an old, reputable sect regardless of how his son felt about it. A sect that didn’t care wouldn’t have these details given to us.

“Now, hold on Sangsang,” I can hear you say as you read this, “what about the event with Wang Lingjiao and Madam Yu? Doesn’t that show that it’s her influence that made this happen?” To which I say, no! Not at all. It’s just that the way that servants work in the Jiang sect are a little different from the Wen sect. They are bodyguards and companions to the members of the main family, hence why Wei Wuxian is allowed to eat at the table with them, but it does not equality make.

“After they had finished the tour, Wang LingJiao finally arrived at the main hall. Without anyone’s invitation, she presumed her seat at the head table. She sat for a while. Seeing that nobody was going to serve her, she slammed the table with a frown, demanding, “Where’s the tea?”

Although she was enveloped in lustre, her mannerisms showed no courtesy at all. She acted like a complete buffoon. Having spent the journey with her, everyone was used to seeing this. Madam Yu sat down one seat lower. The wide hems of her robe and sleeves spread out, making her figure appear to be even more slender, her posture even more graceful. JinZhu and YinZhu stood behind her, both wearing light smirks on their faces.

YinZhu replied, “There is no tea. Get it yourself if you want any.”

Wang LingJiao widened her eyes, shocked, “Don’t the Jiang Sect’s servants ever do anything?”

JinZhu, “The Jiang Sect’s servants have more important things to do. Nobody ever needs others to do things like pouring tea. They’re not crippled.”

Wang LingJiao examined them, “Who are you?”

Madam Yu, “My personal maids.”

Wang LingJiao spoke with disdain, “Madam Yu, your Jiang Sect really is outrageous. This can’t be the case. Even maids dare interrupt a conversation in the main hall. Servants like this have their faces slapped in the Wen Sect.”

If this were specifically a trait brought over from Meishan Yu and not something that were baked into the sect to begin with, it would stand out. The scene is two arrogant women taking their preconceived notion of statuses against each other, but there is no doubt in the position of servants and where they stand in Yunmeng Jiang, only what their responsibility is.

The most damning evidence however is most apparent not in Wei Wuxian’s descriptions, but his father’s. And this is consistent throughout the story long before they start calling Wei Wuxian a servant as well.

Wei Changze left the Jiang sect of his own accord before Wei Wuxian was ever born and died as a rogue cultivator who had married the disciple of Baoshan-sanren. By all means that should have been how he was remembered if Yunmeng Jiang really hadn’t had the classism problem before Madam Yu moved in and Wei Wuxian shouldn’t have been equally raised as a servant to Jiang Cheng because Jiang Fengmian had the power to give him status even as a full disciple. In addition, we know from interviews that Jiang Fengmian owes Cangse-sanren a life debt. To take in their son into his family or raise him as a full disciple would be the closest he could get to fulfilling that obligation. Wei Wuxian could have escaped it if Jiang Fengmian were the sort of man I sometimes see him presented as, a perfect man aside from Yu Ziyuan’s changes in the sect who doesn’t

However, even Jiang Fengmian, who does get uncomfortable when Yu Ziyuan shouts servant too much around him, automatically makes him a servant from the beginning, a special playmate for Jiang Cheng. Jiang Fengmian had a personal servant who was close to him as he grew up, someone who he could rely on, and he immediately elects to repeat that. He has a life debt, he supposedly has these morals. But instead he reinforces it and locks Wei Wuxian down into servitude to the Jiang sect and obliges him even at the end of his life to do his duty.

As a wrap up on perspectives, let’s look at this block of text from Poisons.

However, soon afterward, the MeishanYu Sect proposed an alliance through marriage to the YunmengJiang Sect. The leader of the Jiang Sect back then was quite interested, but Jiang FengMian had no such intentions. He didn’t like Yu ZiYuan’s conduct and felt that the two wouldn’t be an appropriate match. He had politely refused the offer a handful of times. However, the MeishanYu Sect set about multiple factors, putting pressure on Jiang FengMian, who was at the time still fairly young and had nothing to lean on. Along with the fact that, not long later, ZangSe SanRen had become cultivation partners with the most loyal servant at Jiang FengMian’s side, Wei ChangZe, and rode off into the sunset, roaming around the world, Jiang FengMian finally gave up.

Although Jiang and Yu were married, they had ever since been a grudging couple. They had always been living apart and held the most disagreeable of conversations. Aside from the strengthening of their sect’s powers, nobody knew what other benefits they had attained.

What we get out of this is that Jiang Fengmian’s father was all for a politically advantageous marriage to a wealthy, old sect, something incongruent with the supposed image of them not caring about status. Nothing actually changes aside from them being married yet not in agreement. But the servants still exist as they did before she married in. Additionally, any claims that Wei Changze might have had status of his own as head disciple or anything like that is roundly defeated by the fact that he is clearly listed as a servant here and will never escape that title even in death.

Yunmeng Jiang is not just a sect in general, it is listed as one of the Five Great Sects. The things they say and the power they wield are accepted and the things they say of the people within or formally of their sect have merit. Jin Guangyao once adopted into Lanling Jin is recognized as a son of the sect for all of the classism surrounding him. Jin Guangyao points out that if Jiang Cheng had stood beside Wei Wuxian, the other sects would have dulled to grumbling and not stood up against them, hence why the division between the two had to be solidified. It stands to reason that were Wei Changze acknowledged as a full fledged, free cultivator, especially before he left the Jiang sect, that would be known. But he is forever a servant in the world’s eyes and that includes the Jiang sect before Yu Ziyuan ever married in. The same thing that damns Wei Wuxian as everyone sees him as rising above his status in a sect that supposedly is supposed to be unrestrained and honest.

They are, they are unrestrained in attitude and honest in their classism.

Wei Wuxian himself never complains about his treatment in Yunmeng Jiang aside from being displeased with the whipping and the only one attacked whenever all the boys are getting into trouble. No matter where he goes, it does act as a barrier, even in Cloud Recesses once the other boys realize that his status prevents them from getting in trouble with him. It’s part of why Lan Wangji accepting punishment alongside him absolutely stuns him and his first reaction is to try and say that Lan Wangji doesn’t deserve it. He knows the narrative, even if he doesn’t actually like it that much.

He has no problem stating that he is a servant, challenging Jiang Cheng on what’s so wrong with it, but it is consistently used to put him down by the world around him, even when he is in that supposed bastion of freedom, Lotus Pier. Just because it has a looser attitude at the seams does not mean that he ever escapes that stranglehold of status no matter where he is and what he does. If it really mattered so little in Yunmeng Jiang, then why is it so well known that he and his father were servants to the sect? It is only once he marries Lan Wangji and their marriage is acknowledged by Gusu Lan that he seems to shake those shackles at last, there is a freedom in his actions post canon only matched by when everyone thought he was Mo Xuanyu and he finally had the ability to breathe.

Very early on, he even has a line that people often seem to forget when talking about how he could act in Yunmeng Jiang, both in people who want to condemn his actions and people who want to say that he was happy in Lotus Pier aside from Madam Yu while he’s gearing up to make a complete mockery of Madam Mo.

“In terms of running wild, Wei Wuxian was definitely a master. In the past, if he wanted to run wild, he would have to keep his status in mind, but now, he was a lunatic anyways, which meant that he could do whatever he wanted to, whichever way he wanted.”

MXTX is big on showing, not telling, but she gives us enough information to be able to make the connections on his status and how ill suited Yunmeng Jiang always was to him. There is a lot of irony, both humorous and dramatic in those early chapters with his statements on how no one would want to marry into Gusu Lan and how he has no need to memorize these rules, but also it’s very clear that he’s having a much better time at the Lectures than he ever was back in Lotus Pier. He is an unrestrained spirit, to be sure, but for all that Yunmeng Jiang professes it in their motto, he and Wei Changze were forever bound by their status even after they both died.

The sect that is initially presented to us as the free sect he should thrive in ties his wings down, the sect built to be honest and unrestrained. But the sect built by an ascetic priest who fell in love is the place where he finally can spread his wings in all their vivid glory, truly free at last.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #yunmeng jiang #jiang sect #jiang fengmian #jiang cheng #canon jiang cheng #yu ziyuan #jiang yanli #mdzs meta #the classism in mdzs setting #the meta I threatened to write before #perhaps once it was the sect that people seemed to think it was #but if that was the case it was much longer ago than it sounds #yu ziyuan didn't break the sect she just revealed what was already there #for all of her attitude she is incompetent in impacting anything on the story #including the sect that definitely had servants that were bound to the sect far more deeply than fandom likes to acknowledge that they were #every single sect is mentioned as having servants #yunmeng jiang is no different #and just because they let people look in doesn't mean they LET them in #if anything it's almost crueler to let them see what they will never be allowed to have #it's still just as barred to the children around lotus pier as it is around jinlintai or cloud recesses #just they get to watch the cultivators practice sometimes and even not get chased away for it

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revolutionarysuicide · 4 months

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honestly the "maths is the most fundamental truth to the universe 🤓" redditors have way more of a valid argument than the "art is what makes you human" losers on here, except you'd never see the former on here because this website thinks it's a cute bimbo trait to be unable to do maths

#i mean if u cant do maths thats fine u dont need to glorify ur own incompetence though lol #plenty of shit i can't do and i don't brag about it i just don't talk about it #also actually i don't think anyone “can't do maths” i think it's learned helplessness and a terrible education system #you can all solve differential equations. take my hand.

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