Latest Posts by asathorin - Page 3

Growing up Mormon AND with long hair that I didn’t cut because of pressure from my mom, to me the metaphor here is pretty obvious… you can read it how you want though.

I Am Not Your Asian American Doll: a comic for AAPI Heritage Month 2023

I usually spend a lot of time editing and fine-tuning my comics so that they come across as polite and inoffensive. But honestly, I’m really tired of the way Asian cultures and countries are treated / talked about while Asian people themselves are excluded, and thought it was about time I really let my rage out lol.

id in alt

ok, but that would make it my best birthday ever

⬆️ DO NOT INVITE THIS MAN TO YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY. HE WILL RUIN YOUR SPECIAL DAY FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES.

I love it when people tell me about me because I have no idea who I am

'Mid' autumn festival? I find it quite based actually.

thing that drives me insane about the ouyang/wbx dynamic is that they both think they would do a way better job of being each other. ouyang is like ugh you have an intact male body and you're not even doing anything with it if i was in your position i would be soooo well-respected and masculine and my dad would love me for always doing what he wants. meanwhile wbx is like fuck you i love schemes and plots and being Not A Real Man why are you trying to prove yourself to people who are never going to accept you but also esen loves you and you don't even appreciate it, if he loved me i would be loyal to him forever and never betray him. also they do clearly have some level of respect for one another but they're also physically incapable of being in the same room without calling each other slurs

RAAAAAAGGGGGGDHFJFHGGGGGGGHHDJDJ

cr: danpur

So I watched the Chinese dub of Arcane for the first time...

Unsurprisingly, lines like 'what will it be, man or woman?' were tweaked to remove any gay implications.

What's funny is Caitlyn's brothel girl is straight up flirting with her now? And the audio is loud and clear unlike in English where its hard to tell what they're talking about???

My translation: I've been here several times now, and couldn't find anyone decent*... so when I saw you, it was as if I'd came across treasure!

*or 'good enough' or 'adequate'? hard to translate but you get the gist

Not enjoying A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality :(

For the record, I'm somewhere around 25 episodes into the donghua. I don't know anything about the webnovel; this post is about the donghua.

First off, the writing is weird. The beginning was ok, Han Li gets put in classic main character situations and does main character stuff. It was predictable but enough to get me a little hooked. It however continues being predictable later on and the story is simply linear and uninteresting - often boring. This isn't even the biggest problem - which is the straight up weird and problematic stuff like after Han Li saves her from being raped Chen sexually assaults him??? Hello??? Worst of all, why isn't this painted as a horrible thing to do??? (Fine, I'm exaggerating my own surprise, but that's only because I'm desensitised to Chinese shows doing this by now.) Also when him and that woman (forget her name) are trapped with the monster which they manage to defeat together which magically coerces them - both shown to be unwilling and only into it because of the magic - into having sex??? YES I'VE SEEN THIS STUFF BEFORE TOO BUT IT DOESN'T GET ANY LESS MESSED UP EACH TIME IT HAPPENS! These might be the worst cases but there's also lowkey ableist subtext, hugs without asking consent... the list goes on, and I'm not even far through this donghua.

Not only is the story boring - the characters are too. Characters other than Han Li don't get much of personalities or development, and the few character traits they are shown to have are vague and shallow. They rarely get scenes just by themselves, and when they do, it's not because it's necessary or expected for the plot, or it's used very simply to show their very vague and shallow (and often singular) character trait. There's lots of characters but each only gets their little bit of screentime when Han Li is around - partially due to the linear structure of the story. In particular, the female characters feel poorly written - there aren't that many of them but in addition to my previous complaints about characters in general, they either have no personality or an unrealistic one, they don't have agency and constantly require saving by Han Li (not to mention I think it's clear enought that this is turning out to be a harem donghua, which I just dislike).

Han Li himself is also boring. He has strengths - such as his gardening skills, quick wits and generic carefulness. He's shown to be humble, and also shown to be uninterested in anything romantic or sexual - this is often shown as a positive trait in Chinese media, particularly the latter (which is weird in its own right but I'm not getting into that now... headcanon they're all aspec though). Han Li isn't shown to have any weaknesses, and while he isn't amazing at everything, he's shown to have a large variety of strengths and ultimately he feels very much like a Mary Sue. He doesn't have a personality and everything revolves around him trying to get stronger. He does a lot of helping of other people along the way, making him a moral and agreeable character without any other outstanding traits. He doesn't have particularly strong emotional attachments to anyone, which is fair because it's the natural result of his characterisation, but with the blandness of everything else he's a very boring character. He's a nice guy who's very clever and wants to get more powerful - and that's it.

The animation is alright, mouth movement and occasionally generic movement feels off though. Plus a lot of faces look really similar and facial expressions aren't great - not even with Han Li. The rest of it is fine but nothing mindblowing. The aesthetics and visual designs don't stand out in any way from any other cultivation setting.

The worldbuilding is simple, a very generic cultivation genre world and magic system, but it means with all the above there's really nothing exciting going on with this show.

The two cardinal sins of this show is that it's boring and problematic, and unfortunately both of those are unforgiveable. Maybe watching an animated show simultaneously with your third watch of Arcane isn't the best idea.

Special Tang Fan edition of previously seen memes

瑯琊榜 fanart

Nine People I'd Like to Get to Know Better

Thanks for tagging me @thebansacredbanned! :))

Last Song: I don't remember but probably from the Arcane soundtrack, maybe What Could've Been? On second thought more contenders: possibly Taroko by August Greenwood or Charity's Letter (Two Maiden Ladies) by Nalah Aiden Palmer and August Greenwood. If all of these are wrong then it'll be a c drama ost song.

Favorite Color: Hmm it used to be blue but I don't have one anymore. Too many great colours to pick from

Currently Watching: About to finish a rewatch of Nirvana in Fire 2: The Wind Blows in Changlin. 5 eps into ATLA and 2 eps into Hikaru No Go (c drama adaptation). Also 10+ eps into the Untamed but I;m not sure whether I'm still watching it or not.

Last Movie/Show: Watched Little Women (2019) and Treasure Planet last week so I'm reading Little Women now! I love the Marches (and Laurie) so much :))

Spicy/Savory/Sweet: Probably sweet? Definitely not spicy (apologies to my ancestors) and I like sweet stuff but also I can't handle too much sweetness (and I seem to have a low bar)?

Last Thing You Googled: Christmas novels - making a quiz for a society at uni and I've decided I'll do my section on books, which made me realise I have not read many Christmassy books at all

I'm not sure I know nine people on here... anyways tagging (no obligation to actually do it, etc): @24cardpickup @thatsarealfuckinglegacy @itsyaboi-ray @thelackofsleep @loopslicydanmat @lovesickfolly

shl/tyk sketches from twitter. guess who my favourite character is lol

yanyan my beloved

Honestly, the cringe is worth it. The cringe is necessary. The UK is such a cesspit of growing transphobia and has been getting worse and worse and the biggest family show on air coming out as loud and proud and supportive of trans kids is EVERYTHING.

my part of @shlzine 💞✨💖🌟

pratik telling akarsha about the snail race he won at school 🐌

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 琅琊榜/Nirvana in Fire.

Nirvana in Fire is a 2015 historical series best described as either a complicated succession drama set in the premodern Chinese imperial palace, or the story of a man who didn't die a decade ago and has decided to make it everyone else's problem.

And really, I almost feel silly giving my glib little summary, because Nirvana in Fire is so well-known of a property. It's a classic for a reason, and that reason is that it's legitimately very good. This show is what happens when you adapt a solid story, get a bunch of very talented actors, and throw a huge amount of money at it. It's incredibly popular and highly acclaimed, and it earned all of the hype.

Still, while I bet there are few people adjacent to c-drama stuff who've never heard of Nirvana in Fire, I'm sure there are plenty who haven't watched it. After all, it looks like one of those slow, serious shows with a lot of ponderous talking and no joy. If that's the impression you've been given, I could imagine looking at the 54-episode commitment and saying, I don't need that in my life.

I am here to tell you you're wrong. It is a banger of a show. It's tense. It's funny. It's heartbreaking. It’s exceptionally clever. It’s jaw-droppingly stupid. It’s romantic. It’s tragic. It has smart plots and bizarre subplots. And that's not even touching the thing with the yeti.

So in case you're one of those people who's heard of Nirvana in Fire, but has put off watching it for one reason or another, I'm here with five reasons I think you should try it.

1. Epic Shit

Did you like the Lord of the Rings? More specifically, did you really like the second Peter Jackson film? Great, then you're all set for this.

I guess I could have called this Game of Thrones without the dragons, but that's not actually the vibe at all. Game of Thrones is much more sensational and salacious, with all the blood and butts and what-not. The Tolkien comparison is more apt, I think, because Nirvana in Fire is equally about as wholesome as you can get in a property where dudes are still getting stabbed all the time.

This is a show about vengeance. And yeah, justice for the fallen, sure, that's fine too. But mostly it's about a bunch of good people joining forces to make sure the bastards who did wrong pay, with their lives as necesary.

The problem, though, is that these bastards are incredibly powerful, which means that a pure brute-force approach isn't going to work. Accordingly, this quickly becomes a story about the power of smart teamwork to exact retribution on some people who can (and did!) legally get away with murder -- and our heroes are some of the people with their necks most on the line if anything goes wrong.

Don't let the Middle Earth comparison fool you into thinking this is all epic swordfights. It's not. (I mean, for one thing, as well-funded as this project is, it doesn't have Peter Jackson Money.) The vast majority of the tension in the show comes from dialogue and slow, terrible realizations. The fight scenes are almost a relief from the nail-biting intensity of intimate conversations about getting a letter from somebody's ex-wife or returning a book.

All told, the show has that incredible almost-RPG vibe of going through all the little subquests and cutscenes you find along the way to defeat the final boss. The plot carefully unravels a multi-tendriled mystery told to you by people in incredible costumes. It doesn't get much more epic than that.

(Nirvana in Fire is also a cautionary tale about how you should be very careful with who gets invited to your birthday party.)

2. A chronically ill protagonist

Okay, right in the first episode, it is established that the main character has three whole completely different names and an old nickname. I'm going to call him Mei Changsu for the duration of this rec post, but let the record show that I could just have easily gone with one of the other three.

What you learn in that same first episode is that Mei Changsu used to be a palace insider, the cocky son of a noble family, only now nearly everyone he used to know thinks he's dead. Also, he's not far off from being actually dead -- he has an unspecified terminal condition that's mostly managed, provided he stays in his little mountain hideaway with his handsome doctor bestie and doesn't return to his old stomping ground and start kicking over hornets' nests.

So guess what he's about to do.

I have to make a note of how brilliant the casting is here: Hu Ge is an action actor! He is a kickpuncher of a man! And I think it's great that you can sort of see his frustration, as well as Mei Changsu's, at having to spend the whole series wrapped in countless layers of fabric and/or lying in bed while everyone around him gets to be the badass action heroes.

Mei Changsu's not faking it, either -- he's actually dying. He expends his energy where he thinks it's necessary, and sometimes that means he has to spend the following week in bed. He's constantly frustrated with himself for what he can't do anymore. He's racing a clock, and that clock is his own failing body. If he dies, the only hope anyone here has for justice dies with him.

He gets two love interests that the show treats pretty much equally. One's a lady general who wasn't even a love interest in the book. The other's the handsome prince who was initially going to be his textual romantic partner in same book, until the author hopped genres from danmei to general historical drama. I can't even call this a love triangle, because there's no competition. He just gets a wife and a husband -- in that he gets neither, because circumstances and his own illness keep him distant from them. He lies to both of then about his condition (among other things). He wants to be with them both and knows he can't be with either. And they in turn have to learn to accept what of him they can and can't have.

(Also, Nihuang (her) and Jingyan (him) are both incredibly gorgeous, which is exactly what bisexual genius Mei Changsu deserves.)

Obviously this isn't a perfect representation of life with chronic illness, largely because Mei Changsu is an incredily wealthy man who lives in a universe with what's basically magic medicine. However, I've seen the story's treatment of him and his condition resonate with a lot of chronically ill viewers, so even with the fantasy layer on it, there's definitely something there.

3. Dave

I have already told the story of how Meng Zhi became "Dave," but long story short, he's such a Dave that I legitimately forget his character's real name. He embodies Daveness. He's The Ultimate Dave.

Dave is an excellent fighter, a loyal friend -- and a terrible liar. He's possbly the only straightforward character in the entire show. When he's asked to be duplicitous, he's comically bad at it. Dave will never do a heel turn. I was misled at first by his semi-evil facial hair, but I have seen the error of my ways. Dave is pure lawful good.

And the reason I list Dave as such a selling point is that having a Dave means you always know what's going on. This is because Dave never knows what's going on, and he has no ego about that, so he asks questions, and other characters have to explain to him what just happened, and that is how you figure out what's going on.

It's an incredibly smart move on the drama's part, because some of the (very fun) schemes are so complicated that there's no way for you, the viewer, to understand them just by watching. Without the internal monologues and omniscent narration of a book, the machinations are opaque. You need things explained -- but why would the schemers explain their schemes? Well, Dave needs some exposition, so here you go.

So if you're worried that you might be left feeling stupid by a show where so many sneaky people are hatching so many complex plans, worry not! Like the good man he is, Dave has your back.

4. A Million Amazing Antagonists

If you like bad guys, this is a show for you. This show has brilliant bad guys all the way down. It has bad guys at every turn. It has bad guys for every taste. Welcome to Big Liang's Big Bad Guy Emporium, where we guarantee you'll walk out of here with a bad guy you like, or your money back!

(And yes, this set of pictures is also to say that their costume budget was entirely well-spent.)

Without getting too far into spoilers, I will say that the basic situation underlying the whole series is this: The emperor has done a lot of bad things, and he has enlisted a bunch of people's help in hiding those bad things, so much so that many of those other people have done even more bad things the emperor didn't even know about -- and then everyone has gone to great lengths to cover those up as well. Our protagonists spend the whole series unraveling this colossal shitshow and bringing people to task for their crimes.

So really, if you're going to spend 54 episodes taking down the baddies, they've got to be baddies you love to see taken down. And these are -- in part because all of them have crystal-clear, rock-solid motivations for their actions. Nobody here is a moustache-twirling comic-book-villain baddie. They're all bad for reasons that are very understandable in their individual contexts. And not a single one of them is going to go down without a fight.

5. World's Best Mom

(Sidebar: The fact that four out of five of my reasons to watch the show are individual or groups of characters should be your strongest indicator that this is an intensely character-driven story.)

This is not a Dead Mom Show. Okay, some moms are dead, but mostly this is a Moms Are Alive And Often Cause Problems Show, which is a lot of what makes the palace drama so delicious. But there is one Good Mom who stands out above all the rest: Consort Jing.

Played with perfect grace and devastating politeness by the stunning Liu Mintao, Consort Jing is a skilled doctor and excellent baker who starts the show with a low-level status among the women of the palace. She swallows down all kinds of mistreatment because she's not in a place to oppose it -- and when she can retaliate, it must only be through soft power. She loves her jock son with all her heart, but because of both their relatively poor positions in the hierarchy, she doesn't get to see him all that much. She wants to be an asset to him, while all the time she has to fear becoming a liability.

She is also the smartest person in any room that she's in, unless she's in a room with Mei Changsu, and even then it may be a tie.

There are lots of great characters in the show that I could have highlighted here, and plenty of them are women, but Consort Jing in particular never ceases to impress me. She is trapped in a gilded cage, married to a man who [lengthy list of spoilers that are traumatic to her in particular], and held hostage by how every time she even looks like she's out of line, it puts both her and her boy in danger. She's the most vulnerable of any of our good guys. Kind of like Wang Zhi, she's got to be clever or she's dead.

Consort Jing is not part of Mei Changsu's original plan. She figures out his plan and makes herself part of it -- and entirely remotely, as she and he aren't even in the same room until episode 40 or so. She puts herself in great danger to make sure he succeeds, not because it will necessarily do her any good, but because Jingyan needs him. This woman has been captain of the Mei Changsu/Jingyan ship for like twenty years already.

Oh, and did I mention her outfits?

I love you, Consort Mom.

Are you ready to watch it yet?

Get it on Viki! Get it on YouTube! Get it on YouTube but in a different playlist! (And also maybe get it on Amazon? Not in my region, but maybe in yours.)

I will warn you that it does take off running -- I think I saw someone say it introduces nineteen characters in the first episode? I was worried that I'd be too innundated by situations and flashbacks and names to be able to follow. By the second or third episode, though, I was rolling with it. So if you feel like you're struggling at the beginning, stick with it a bit. See if you don't feel it start to click.

...Man, reading over this post has left me going, oh, but I missed that! and that! and that guy! And yeah, the truth is that there are just so many great things about the show that limiting myself to only five (and being limited to only thirty images) was tough. I'm sure that people reblogging will add their own must-see elements.

Truly, this is a show that deserves its reputation. It may not be for everyone, but if this is the kind of thing that you like, it is a shining example of that thing.

Besides, you have to love a production where everyone was clearly having just a whole lot of fun being big ol' costumed dorks.

okay tumblr I think it’s time I tell you all about rocks chonch, I have given this talk three times and it has given everyone present Much To Think About, I am all about accessible education

very long transcript and photo sources under the cut

Afficher davantage

this scene is bery VERY wenzhou coded

I see a lot of ‘cis’ women say they wish they were androgynous in the way men were or they wish they were pretty in the way men were. This is your sign to go try to do that. You may find you enjoy being an androgynous woman. You may find you no longer identify as a woman. You may find you don’t like androgyny. You will not know until you try. Cut your hair if you’ve always wanted to but have been afraid to. Shop in the men’s section if you’ve been too nervous to. Wear clothing with an androgynous  silhouette. Experiment with binding, take baby steps with compression bras if you want. Wear unisex scents. Live life. Try things you want to try. A lot of cis women do not understand the joys of mens pants and mens deodorant. I think everyone should try both of those things.

A thousand ghosts follow him, but the one who haunts him is not amongst them.

my kitty cat has the biggest prettyest most big beautoful wet eyes i’ve ever seen….. but i know it’s alljust a trick. shes going to bite me

passports…should not expire

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.

Upgraded to Photoshop CC; trying to figure out where everything is.

The screencaps I used were taken from this very convenient REFERENCE SCREENCAPS ALBUM.

Words:

Edward Hirsch, “Self-Portrait” I suppose my left hand and my right hand will be clasped over my chest in the coffin and I’ll be reconciled at last, I’ll be whole again.

Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson, “Winter Song”

琅琊榜 OST: “赤血長殷“ + English translation by @chiyanjun

E.E. Cummings, “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]”

Guess what we're watching.