#its now 4am

[strawberrymilk-sunshine]

#its now 4am #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland #twst #jade leech #twst jade leech #twst jade #not a story

[joys-of-everyday]

Wei Wuxian and the Difficulties of Morality

Wow so I did not realise how much discourse there was around Wei Wuxian and moral greyness. Let me erm… poke around a little because that’s a hobby of mine.

Btw, I usually write about SVSSS. This won’t change. This is a one-off thing (for now).

Firstly, an Anecdote

Fun story, I watched cql and the mdzs donghua with my mum. There were many memorable things that came out of this, but one of the relevant points is an offhanded comment from my mum. She said (translated into English): ‘Wei Wuxian has no face to show Jiang Cheng, because he broke his promise to stay by his side’ (1). For context, my mum grew up in a fairly traditional Asian household. They take their declarations of loyalty seriously (or at least, that is my impression).

I find this interesting, because when it comes to moral judgement, I (who grew up in the west, with a lot of western values) get far more hung up on the things WWX did, rather than some promise he made in his adolescence. Breaking a promise is not ideal, but in my books, doesn’t really count as a huge moral failing.

The point here is not to say anything about the ethics of promise breaking, but to illustrate a point. Different people have different values. Or one person can have conflicting values. There are many scenarios where it’s not possible to say with certainty what is right or wrong. This is moral ambiguity.

(Funnily enough, the issue that my dad took with WWX was the fact he was fiddling around with dead bodies, which was like… the least of my concerns, but then I realised that bodies have a lot of religious significance.)

What even is moral greyness?

There are two possible and equally valid definitions of moral greyness.

1. Characters who are not 100% evil or 100% good

2. Characters who do not fall into the categories of ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Note that definition 2 is a strictly stronger definition than definition 1. It is not that hard to argue that WWX does not fall under definition 2, in that he is somehow overall ‘good’. (I would also argue that MXTX encourages you to not think too hard about these dichotomies, particularly via SVSSS, but that’s a rabbit hole for another day.) It is also not that hard to argue WWX does fall under definition 1. Mainly because it’s quite hard not to breathe without falling under definition 1.

The Two Kinds of Uncertainty  

When it comes to ethical questions, there are two uncertainties you naturally run into. Firstly, uncertainty of the world, which comes from having imperfect information about the situation or consequences of any given action. Secondly, uncertainty around the underlying moral question. Is it okay to sacrifice few for the sake of many? Should we place more value on those close to us in comparison to a stranger?

Humanity has not figured out morality, and certainly not for a lack of trying. Standards change over time. We look at the behaviour of our ancestors just a few hundred years ago with no small amount of repugnance. Most likely, in a few hundred years’ time our descendants will do the same. This isn’t to pass judgement on anything or anybody, but to make an observation that there is nothing you can do in the world that doesn’t inherently come with moral ambiguity, because there is always uncertainty – both of the world and the morals you are applying. And wherever there is moral ambiguity, there is moral greyness (definition 1).

That being said, ‘everything is morally grey’ is not really a helpful statement. There are things that we (society today) generally agree on e.g. ‘killing someone for no reason is bad’ or ‘being nice to people is good’. So the argument I want to posit today is that WWX’s moral greyness goes beyond this in a substantial way.

The Uncertain Character of WWX

The Fundamental Principle of MXTX is that all narrators are unreliable. At the bloodbath of the Nightless City, did WWX kill 5000? 3000? Far fewer? Had WWX acted in a different way, could JYL’s death have been avoided? We’ll never know.

To add to this complexity is subtle shifts in canon depending on the adaptation. WWX tortures Wen Chao pretty brutally in the novel (and even if you hate him, it’s a bit ick). In cql, it ‘fades to black’. In the donghua it’s a nice quick stab. Then there’s all of the fiddling around they did with JGY depending on the adaptations, giving him more or less blame for the events. I’m not sure if ‘novel is the only canon’ is the correct way to go, mainly because adaptation!WWX is interesting to analyse in itself. I won’t explore this too deeply here, but something to keep in mind.

Anyway, I want to argue that WWX is morally grey, through commentary on a few elements of his character.

1. The Horrors of War

WWX does a lot of things that are somewhat eyebrow raising. You know, killing people and stuff. Now it has been pointed out plenty of times that his situation was unusual (it was war!). The moralities surrounding warfare are in itself complicated. A pacifist might argue that war is no excuse for violence, but even without going to such extremes, these days we appreciate that there are some actions that cannot be condoned, even during times of coflict – this is the notion of war crimes.

War crimes are a surprisingly modern thing (people started to care a lot after the atrocities of WWII). Medieval warfare was brutal. Anyway, these include things like ‘torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments’ and ‘wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages’. Note that while killing large numbers of enemy soldiers doesn’t fall under war crimes (although some methods of going about this do, like biological weapons), torture does, so that’s one strike against book!WWX. Now there is subtly in these things, because if you judged people by these standards for anything more than 200 years old, basically everyone is committing war crimes without thinking too hard about it. WWX did do a lot of arguably good things in the Sunshot Campaign (whatever good means in war) – he fought against the tyranny of the Wens and was one of the key things that shifted the tides towards victory. Without him, the world might have looked a lot darker. Whether these ‘goods’ weigh over the ‘bads’ is something to think about.

On a slightly softer note, weapons of mass destructions are another cause of serious discussion. Those involved in the Manhattan Project creating the first atomic bomb weren’t exactly all war criminals (moreover, many of them genuinely believed they were doing what was right and necessary) but the consequences of their actions are what they are. So while WWX made the Yin Tiger Talley as a method of deterrence and assurance, considering the consequences of its use and the potential for future misuse, here lies another moral ambiguity.

2. Intent vs Consequences

It’s fair to say that most of the time, WWX’s intentions were good. Whether it be to protect the weak, to stand up for justice, these are all things we can get behind. The consequences of his actions? Well, JYL is dead, as well as a bunch of other people, and most the Wens didn’t survive anyway. That’s a big oof.

Now most people don’t subscribe to the strongest version of consequentialism which judges whether something is right or wrong by its consequences only. As in, for one, it’s almost impossible to apply in practice because you can’t predict the consequences of your actions at the point at which you chose to do them. Case in point, most of the consequences of WWX’s actions weren’t wholly down to WWX and it’s difficult to say if there was anything at all that he could have done to lead to a better outcome. (Arguably, WWX should have tried harder to negotiate with the rest of the cultivation world instead of being a one-man army against them, but in that case, they might have just mowed down the Wens anyway.)

Then again, I think most people do subscribe to at least a weak form of consequentialism. No matter how good the intentions, no matter how righteous and commendable… if the outcome is bad, it’s hard to label those actions as ‘good’ (play pumps is an example if you want to look into how charities can do more harm than good).

I draw no conclusions here. It’s food for thought.

3. On Conflicting Values and Lose-Lose Scenarios

A lot of the above comes from applying modern ethics to a character in a world largely based on ‘Ancient China’ (the quotation marks from the fact Ancient China is several thousands years old and changes significantly over time). We do this all the time. Hell, people are still reimagining the Three Kingdoms and making commentary on the morality of Cao Cao (155-220). MDZS makes a lot of commentary on modern social issues (the ‘mob mentality’ of MDZS feels like Weibo/twitter lol), so viewing it through a modern lens makes sense.

But let’s put that aside for a second and return to my mum’s comment about WWX’s broken promise. By traditional values, family is important. In Confucianism, the Four Virtues are ‘loyalty’, ‘filial piety’, ‘continence’, and ‘righteousness’. To illustrate just how serious family was, in the conflict between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, Xiang Yu at some point threatened to kill Liu Bang’s father. Then Liu Bang was like ‘we’re sworn brothers, so technically he’s your father too’, and Xiang Yu didn’t kill him, because it would be unfilial to do so. All this is to say, WWX turning his back on his sect and his family was a big deal. Equally, loyalty towards a superior was valued greatly, even towards eyebrow raising superiors.

But Confucianism also teaches the importance of things like ‘righteousness’ and ‘benevolence’. Throughout many dynasties, important people have cared a lot about the grievances of the masses. Bullying the weak and hoarding power unjustly is seen as one of the ultimate evils, a big reason for a leader to lose the Mandate of Heaven, thus becoming unfit to rule. Plenty of subordinates have stood up against the tyranny of their superiors. So WWX standing up to the evils of the Jin clan is highly commendable by these standards too.

Another thing is ‘paying back your benefactors’. In the west, although we do have concepts like ‘owing a life’, I don’t think it’s as strong??? This is also serious business. In the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao spared his enemy general Guan Yu, and later Guan Yu briefly fought for Cao Cao even though he was an enemy, in order to repay this debt. Wen Ning and Wen Qing saved WWX’s life and helped him when he was in need – WWX has a moral obligation to help them in return.

Thus we see WWX between a rock and hard place. Turn away from the Jiangs and he turns away from his family, and from someone he promised his loyalty to. But turn a blind eye to the treatment of the Wens, and he is a not only allowing evil to go unchallenged, but also abandoning his benefactors. The game is rigged. There is no right move here. Morally ambiguity -> moral greyness.

(Note: A lot of the previous two points can also be viewed from a 'traditional' lens. Mohism has been arguing about pacifism and universal love since 400BC. Taoism has many things to say about intervening in world affairs. Life has always been complicated, and while our language/framework may shift, many of the underlying questions remain.)

(Second note: my knowledge of Chinese philosophy is all the stuff I learnt in Saturday school+a few books/youtube videos aka. not a lot. Please call me out if I'm sprouting nonsense.)

Let’s wrap up

Tl;dr WWX is a morally grey character.

And I haven’t even started on what went down at the Nightless City, or how interesting (read: morally sus) his methods of murder were, or his fantastic takes on risk assessment.

Maybe he’s good overall. Maybe he’s a hero. But heroes too can be morally grey. That’s just a part of life.

1. This is really hard to translate actually, and I think the way I’ve written it makes sense but comes across stronger than it was. More literally it was ‘can’t raise his head towards’. It was sort of explaining why JC was giving WWX a lot of shit later on and WWX wasn’t arguing back, more in a sympathetic way rather than a critical way.

As usual, thank you for reading! Comments and criticism appreciated, but I may be significantly slower getting back because my brain is in svsss mode rn :)

#mdzs #mdzs meta #wei wuxian #wei ying #i started writing this at midnight #its now 4am #why do i do this?

[lazarus-james]

My ao3 share button is broken. No idea how this will embed.

#janack #its now 4am #first time #absolutely smut #is this hot? #i dont know #jann is a power bottom is a little bit #jannxjack #jann x jack #car yaoi men - is that the tag #im tired #lazfics

[leftdestiny-posts]

You have to be kidding me rn 😭😭 it's day 4 of me trying to do Nano and I'm already sick???? I am praying its my allergies flaring up but-

#sobbing rn #its now 4am #i will shower and just stay awake #I can mvp this #no cause #next week im going on vacay as well with my fam #if im sick ill actually cry. #AND ITS A HIGH POSSIBILITY TOO CAUSE #FIRST IT WAS MY MUM #AND MY SIS HAS BEEN SICK FOR A WEEK #and i just stayrd at my mums for a few days so #🥲🥲🥲🥲 #i hate it when my nose gets stuffy and i cant breath #/sov #/sob #every damn year. #shiro rambles

[moooo0]

it's 3am so what am I doing instead of sleeping... Manchester derby hunger games simulator of course

Each district has one united tribute and one city tribute, this will comprehensively decide which manchester team is better

Some highlights:

Jadon Sancho and John Stones both die of hunger in the first 2 days

Did they not eat in the capitol?? Like it is impossible to die from hunger in only 2 days I swear

First kill of the games is Pep snapping KDB's neck

Maybe pep saw the pictures of him on holiday with van dijk?

Jack Grealish decapitates Erling Haaland with a sword

thought these two were besties maybe jack was jealous all along, all this city infighting...could never be my team

Bernardo Silva forces Marcus Rashford to kill Kyle Walker or Erik Ten Hag. He decides to kill Kyle Walker.

Marcus would never hurt his dad🥲

Marcus Rashford thinks about winning. David De Gea thinks about home.

this is the point where a twitter dudebro would compare their mentalities and try and make it sound really profound

Marcus Rashford spears Erik Ten Hag in the abdomen.

I spoke to soon, must be rashfords mentality

Jack Grealish hugs a tracker jacker nest, believing it to be a pillow.

Grealish being Grealish, I guess if he can't tell whether a camel is real or not we can't expect him to tell the difference between a evil wasps nest and a pillow

The winner is Marcus Rashford!!

#man united > man city confirmed #whats the fa cup #man united #man city #its now 4am #what am i doing #hunger games simulator

[sualne]

sneaking out

(timeline)

#one piece #monkey d luffy #sir crocodile #nico robin #crocodad au #my art #my comic #described in alt text #its fucking done holy shit. i started working on it the 31/8 (the script that is. at 4am. and later that day watched opla and zoro's intro #is him killing mr7 which was too funny a coincidence!) anyway. i hate windows now.

[0ffisially0ll0]

heard this audio and thought it was the most sun & moon thing EVER so here ya go-

#AAAAGDHDH MOONS BOOT GOT CHIPPED OFFF GRRR #SOME PROPORTIONS ARE WACKY I KNOW I KNOW #but sjjdnfn im too lazy to change em now #its 4am send help #fnaf sb #my art #sundrop #moondrop #fnaf #five nights at freddy's security breach #five nights at freddy's #doodles #fnaf sundrop #fnaf moondrop #fnaf 9 #ollo shitpost

[tamagoneko]

let's go brozone! 🎉

#dreamworks trolls #trolls band together #john dory trolls #spruce trolls #bruce trolls #clay trolls #floyd trolls #branch trolls #bitty b! #brozone #fanart #my art #chibi #cute #tumblr artist #artist on tumbr #doodle #its 4am im going to bed now

[baby-yongbok]

Thinking about the way that Han would deal with you being needy in the middle of the night. How he'd roll over onto his side, eyes half lidded with sleep as he stares at you with a lazy smirk.

"Need me, princess?" The rasp of sleep coating his vocal cords sends a shock straight to your already sensitive clit.

He doesn't touch you right away. He allows the sweet sounds of your begging and the sight of you squirming and squeezing your thighs together to wake him up a bit more before he finally parts your legs, allowing the pads of his fingers to brush right against where you need him most.

"Such a needy baby, aren't you?" Your whines are music to his ears while he teases you. Toying with you just enough to get the reaction he wants, your hips bucking up into his hand desperately while your eyes are screwed shut makes him want to see more of you like this. How desperate can you get?

"How about this, Jagi..." You grab at his wrist as he pulls away from you, a lazy 'tsk' falls from his lips as he licks them. "How about I guide you? Let me teach you how to touch that pretty pussy just like I do, yeah?"

"B-but Ji, I just want you right now."

"You'll have my voice, that'll be enough for you, won't it?" He flashes you that smirk. The one that he uses when he's trying to convince you to do as he says, not that it'll take much convincing anyway.

"I want to see my princess fuck herself for me. You woke me up so I think that it's only fair that you do as I ask, don't you?"

You only offer a whine in response as Jisung props his head up on his hand, lazily watching you as you start to move your fingers back towards your dripping core.

"That's it, baby. Let's play."

(Unedited)

#The sound of Ji's sleepy voice telling me how to touch myself would actually be the best thing in the world right now??? #Its 4am #han x reader #han jisung scenarios #han jisung stray kids #han jisung hard thoughts #han jisung skz #skz han jisung #stray kids #skz #skz imagines #stray kids scenarios #skz x reader #skz smut #stray kids smut #skz scenarios #stray kids hard thoughts #skz hard thoughts #stray kids han jisung #han jisung x reader #jisung x reader #stray kids jisung #stray kids han jisung smut #stray kids han smut #han stray kids

[goingferalapparently]

Based off of @oozblob 's post (post also contains the original image (which is from alpharad's story on Instagram))

#qsmp #qsmp jaiden #qsmp roier #qsmp fanart #shitpost drawing #i saw the post at midnight and told myself id draw it in the morning #its technically morning right now (its 4am on a monday night/tuesday morning) #my hands are shaking and double tapping the keyboard i am Not Well #no shading or whatever just the lines and flat colours because again its 4 in the morning #unrelated but cant wait to wake up and see what happened to q!quackity #its going to be just like that day i woke up and found out there was a new egg that died and qsmp tumblr adopted #i love time zones (+ my shitty sleeping schedule) #sun art #sun qsmp posting

[third-king-of-salmonids]

THUMBS CREATURE DREW ONE OF OUR COWORKERS IN BETWEEN BIG RUN ROUNDS

ITS LARRY FROM MANAGEMENT! HES…PRETTY UNREMARKABLE ACCTUALLY WHAT A WEIRD THING TO DRAW

#ooc: YES ITS JUST LARRY POKEMON LMAO he’s a salmon now #he doesn’t mind though he’s just worried about doing his salmon taxes n shit #splatoon #I have more actual salmon office oc salmons but I had to draw this im sorry xD #splatoon 3 #splatoon salmonid #salmon run #king salmonid #splatoon salmon run #splatoon megalodontia #splatoon 3 salmon run #salmonid #big run #pokemon larry #larry pokemon #quick edit bc I posted this at like 4am and realised it made no sense afterwards lmao

[tiny-chubby-bird]

i just think it's so neat how saitama and genos meeting and living together helped them experience happiness. like, i wouldn't say they're curing each others depression, they still got issues clearly.

but genos was hyperfocused on getting revenge and was like one second away from self destructing if saitama hadn't shown up. he started living a more or less normal life again once he moved in with saitama. he hyperfocused on saitama instead of just getting revenge. he has hobbies now, things he enjoys, even if he mainly just follows saitama and does what he does, i think it's still helpful for his mental health and to get out of that hateful cycle.

meanwhile saitama had a whole internal speech about not feeling anything anymore before meeting genos, and then this young and intense cyborg guy suddenly started following him everywhere and moved in with him. he helps clean and cook and goes grocery shopping with and for saitama. he supports him in everything he does. he adds some excitement and companionship to saitama's life, which had been kinda dull ever since he became so strong.

they both gave each other things to care about and to feel again.

#i'm no good with words and putting my thoughts n feelings into words #but thisll have to do for now #its 4am #but i have a lotta feelings about them #ever since i finally read through the whole monster association and garou thing in the manga #a lot happened during that #saigenos #saitama opm #genos opm

[kibbits]

Hey Anon! I can't tag you, but here's some Break a Leg!AU fluff!

Moon has decided that the grievously injured hero (Y/N slipped and sprained their ankle) is Not Allowed to touch the ground for a while.

Face details, flat colors version, more Y/N lines and sketches under readmore! Done in the @dca-fanart-gallery 's weekly magma hosted by @venomous-qwille !! A great batch this week once more!

#my art #fnaf sb #fnaf dca #fnaf dca au #break a leg!au #magma #fnaf moon #woah its 4am holy shit fdjkldfgjkld #used Qwille's shading tips!! #only now do i realize Y/N's grey is too close to moons and the shirt is too close but OH WELL SLEEP OH GOD THE SUN IS HERE-- #kibsfanart #kibsFnafStuff

[unanottexxx]

odasaku is muscular but has a belly because of beer. he is definitely not skinny-muscular. he is long. he is stronger than he looks. ango's back is hunched unless the times he reminds himself to stand upright. his ass is flat, from sitting too much. he looks skinny but it's more about his figure rather than his weight. dazai is tall for his age, he is slightly underweight. he may be skinny-muscular but the muscles appear only if he clenches his arms too tight. which he does often to show odasaku and ango. he is ridiculously elastic. he grows to be taller than both of them. when odasaku gets to be a writer he gains weight. dazai eats better in ada, so he gains some too.

odasaku remembers to shave when ango mentions it. he also mentions dazai's hair. dazai cuts it himself without paying attention. when he wears his ada coat, ango praises him by saying light colors fit him. dazai invites them to the cafe under agency. ango's glasses got thicker because his vision got worse. he sleeps more though. odasaku feels lighter when he looks at dazai. him and ango are planning to move in together. dazai insists on somewhere near the agency.

when they chose different paths, they thought they'll be seeing each other less but it's the opposite. they meet pretty often. they age together.

#its 4am #me and my alcoholic friends #they get old together #they age together #odasaku visits the agency pretty often #at first it was for dazai but now he seems to get inspired from the atmosphere #i don't know #i have to sleep #bsd #bungo stray dogs #dazai osamu #oda sakunosuke #ango sakaguchi #buraiha trio #bsd buraiha #odango

[meimeikyu]

Hi so ive been thinking (tragedy)

so i dont think dust would use petnames often but i do think hed have like korean nicknames for all of the gang (plus red bcs. yes) and i needed to write them down b4 i forget

general im not korean n dont speak it n this is based off google rabbit holes so may be incorrect yeah 👍

Dust - Tokki (토끼) - Bunny

Horror - Gomdoli (곰돌이) - Cute Bear

Killer - Gil-Nyangi (길냥이) - Street Cat / Stray Cat

Cross - Gangaji (강아지) - Puppy

Nightmare - Mun-eo (문어) - Octopus

Error - Neoguli (너구리) - Raccoon (technically i think its raccoon dog but can be either)

Red - Jindo-gae (진돗개) - Jindo dog (breed of dog!! i thought it was fitting lol)

#i needed to write thjs down before i IMPLODED #its like 4am i should sleep now #goobmight #dust sans #murder sans #horror sans #killer sans #cross sans #nightmare sans #error sans #fell sans #bad sans poly #<-implied #dustard #<also implied #consider. bsp with red #god i need to turn my brain of ok #idc enough to tag all the dust ships but just know. they r all implied #korean may be incorrect bcs. not korean n dont speak it (tho i would learn if i had time) #langues neat #god i really need to sleep #ok. goodnight #my headcanons

[dropitdoeeyes]

Tummy kisses for the soul

[id: a drawing of jonny d’ville kissing marius von raum’s stomach. jonny has light skin, a choppy grown out light brown buzzcut with light brown facial hair. jonny’s wearing a cropped white tank-top. she lays on her stomach and uses one hand to roll up part of marius’ shirt. marius has medium brown skin, dark curly brown hair and facial hair, and a mechanical arm. he’s wearing a light yellow shirt with text that reads: “keep talking, i’m diagnosing you.” and a pair of black shorts. he lays on his back, eyes shut and smiling. the background is entirely grey and shows the outline of a pile of pillows and a blanket. end id.]

#she/her is used for jonny bc. shes so transfem to me. i’m so correct and you love her #god anyways #lost track of time while drawing this and now its nearly 4am. nice. #the mechanisms #the mechs #marius von raum #the mechanisms art #art #holy shit its a des art tag #the mechanisms band #jonny d’ville