I'm Seeing Mysterious Lotus Casebook Being Hyped So Much Because It's Queer Coded And So Similar Yet

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Fang Duobing 1/?

two sides of the same coin

She’s afraid of being considered a monster, and acts chaotic and spunky but is actually extremely vulnerable.

When her fear takes over, she wants to destroy the monster.

She’s afraid of ever encountering a monster, and acts stoic and calm but is actually extremely vulnerable and unstable.

When her fear takes over, she wants to destroy the monster.

They’re actually more similar than we give them credit for.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Jiao Liqiao 1/?

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

MORE PHOTS IN MUH REBLOG

Psst. Don't tell the jolkein rolkein rolkein estate, but this is amazing. DO consider buying a print from the extraordinary artist responsible:

https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/leiaham/

Original Twitter thread with the artist's thoughts and commentary:

(curse tumblrs img resolution, click for better viewing)

here are my illustrations for the rhymin’ zine and the hey judy zine! I’ve been holding onto these for a few years now so i’m excited to get to share them now that copies have been shipped out 💞 thank you to everyone who ordered the zine, i hope you enjoy all our work! these two will always be so special to me

💫⭐️🌟✨💜❤️💙2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣💙❤️💜🎸🎹🎼🌟✨⭐️💫

(i’ll also post the story i wrote a bit later)

I am not immune to sun/moon star crossed doomed lovers <:

The Chinese text is 故景如旧, meaning something like: Over the years, the scenery hasn’t changed. 

As usual, I need to advertise Nirvana in Fire (HANDS DOWN the best drama I’ve ever seen): Watch it here with Eng Subs

It’s an insanely beautiful historical chinese drama! I didn’t think it was possible for a story to be so ingenius until this came along. Prepare a bucket to cry into

Moments in time, preserved through sentiments Twitter | Ko-Fi | Patreon

ARSENIC FOR TEA SPOILERS

(also I haven't read AFT for a while so please excuse any errors)

Stephen Bampton is so nuanced to me because YES he's a murderer, attempted murderer and also was very willing to be complicit in another indirect murder (Lord Wells would have likely been hanged if he'd been arrested) but on the other hand he's a poor, homosexual 17 year old who likely doesn't have a great time at school because of this (remember Hetty saying how she's been secretly darning his socks???) and I'm assuming boys at Eton would have picked on nearly anyone who had a hint of being an outsider. Violence or at the very least ostracization has likely been used against him his whole life and so that's his first resort.

I'm not saying he deserves forgiveness or redemption but maybe some more understanding??? Stephen has been proven to time and time again that adults cannot be trusted - Mr Curtis, obviously, and his father for leaving him and his mother for cheating and then Lady Wells for also cheating, and he also probably felt this way about the police who couldn't catch Mr Curtis the first time round. I'm not saying he was right in what he did, but Stephen could have very possibly thought he was doing Bertie and Daisy a favour by getting rid of their parents and letting Lord Wells take the blame as 'adults can't be trusted'. A lot of what he does seems to be a misguided sense of protection for others and self defence. And he does constantly reiterate to Hazel and Daisy that he's going to keep them safe, that nothing's going to happen to them. Stephen might possibly have also seen how Bertie's parents treat him (reading between the lines, it seems Bertie is mostly ignored and/or seen as a burden child) keeping up this thought process that 'adults can't be trusted'.

The calculated murder almost (ALMOST) makes me want to sympathise with him, as yes Stephen clearly wants to hurt Mr Curtis but then he doesn't want to hurt anyone else? He thinks that when Mr Curtis is out of everyone's lives, not only his but Bertie's too, then things would go back to normal, or at least he wouldn't have to relive the hurt of what Mr Curtis did to his family. However, I do say that it ALMOST makes me want to sympathise with him because in the second half of the book, Stephen gets panicky and resorts to unplanned murder attempts (ie. pushing Lady Wells down the stairs who he thought was Lucy) which screams to me that maybe, not a violent streak as such but definitely an 'angry when fearful' streak was always within Stephen.

In essence, I don't think Stephen murders because he's a cruel person, even though he nears this when pushing someone down the stairs, but murders because he wants to protect Bertie. Ok and yes quite possibly vengeance. As with all the murders, it always goes too far and too deep.