On Narcissa Malfoy

I STAN SUPPORTIVE FRIENDS

How to train your dragon

Outlast: Whistleblower edition

아쉬우니 이것도 올려봅니다. 망했지만요…

could you pls make three edits of tanya from mortal kombat wearing a reverse bear trap? :0

I'm a huge fan of Mortal Kombat! It's a very fun series, and I'm oddly attached to these stories. So I'm gonna take this time to bring everyone's attention to something amazing. Mortal Kombat 11 Spoilers Below!!

In Mortal Kombat 11, finishing Mileena's arcade mode shows you her special ending. One where she has a baby with Tanya. Mileena being purposefully crafted to be Shao Kahn's and Sindel's daughter- I believe that she would be a cisgendered female (or at least assigned female at birth, if you have different headcanons.) So where did that baby come from?

I think that Tanya is transfem, and she got Mileena pregnant so that they could raise a baby together and be Kombat Moms. Food for thought! This is just my headcanon that's vaguely supported by the game.

support my art ⚫ patreon.com/robinhess 

cedric: HEY HARRY I GOT SOME ADVICE FOR YOU

cedric: TAKE A BATH WITH AN EGG

harry: i have never been more afraid of you than this moment

sydinastan + smiling

Zhanyi and Tianshan, and their respective roles in the story

I’m sure that everyone remembers that 19 days originally started as a story that revolved around Jian Yi and his stoic childhood friend Zhan Zheng Xi, their comedic adventures and that lighthearted yet painful subplot of unrequited love that Jian Yi had been harbouring for years.

So then, what’s the point of introducing Tianshan and giving them no small amount of screentime? Let me play the Captain Obvious for a bit.

The answer is simple: we are meant to compare and contrast these two relationships.

In literature and other media, this technique or a trope is called “Foil”. To put it even simpler, it’s akin to a backdrop against which we are meant to view something. Television, particularly romantic comedies and dramas, often invoke a similar method by providing an “alpha couple” and “beta couple”, with an alpha couple being the main focus. The viewer is meant to compare the romance (and its obstacles) between these two pairings.

Now the peculiarity of 19 days is that with OX storytelling method, we don’t really have a fixed alpha couple anymore: the focus of the story switches between Zhanyi and Tianshan to the point where each becomes an alpha couple for the time being. In other words, they switch from alpha couple to beta couple and vice versa.

Why providing a foil is a good technique? Well for once it serves to underscore the unique traits of each character. By focusing on interactions between two different couples their personalities (habits, verbal manners, behaviours, etc) are brought forth.

With Zhanyi and Tianshan we get two dramatically different relationships with inherently different arcs, so much that, in fact, one might consider them “inversions”.

Zhanyi is a childhood friends-to-lovers kind of story. Their relationship is fairly healthy, based on mutual support that dates back to their kindergarten days. We have the steady love of Jian Yi and his deep emotional attachment to Xixi, who in turn plays the role of the knight in shining armour by always wanting to protect Jian Yi. They share common ground, and while there is/was a subplot of “defrosting” ZZX, their relationship is already going steady.

Tianshan of the other hand started off the shaky ground, with outright hostility and even some violence. Not only they had never interacted before, but they are also different as day and night, or rugs and riches. Their story is about curbing their violent tendencies, finding the good in each other and building trust (which they don’t have from the beginning, unlike Zhanyi). These are the key ideas for this relationship.

What’s more, both couples have different development patterns laid out for them. If Tianshan is about building trust from scratch, Zhanyi is apparently about losing trust and then having to rebuild it.

Why? Let’s look at the very premise of 19 days. From the very beginning, we’re told that Jian Yi disappeared on the second day of high school and had been absent for 3 years. At some point, ZZX asks him about what happened, and so Jian Yi tells him. What’s peculiar is that ZZX reaction to the story of kidnapping is that of disbelief. 

It always seemed strange to me, especially considering the fact that we have seen precedents of kidnapping before and ZZX is well aware of it. The first time, when a shady old man kidnapped Jian Yi, and right now when Jian Yi is told to stay at He Cheng’s place. Both times ZZX is aware of what’s happening, yet in the future, his reaction is similar to hearing the truth from Cassandra. Cassandra’s truth is the trope that implies that nobody believes the one telling the actual truth (named after Cassandra The Prophet from Greek mythology, who was cursed to utter accurate prophecies that no one ever believed). It seems to suggest that ZZX no longer believes Jian Yi. It may also mean that these “kidnapping” attempts had become so frequent, that ZZX doesn’t take them seriously anymore, and thinks that Jian Yi is being a boy who cries “wolves!”. Did the disappearance hurt ZZX? Undoubtedly. Did he think that Jian Yi was pulling a prank or simply pulled a disappearing act? Sure. Future-set chapters seem to be dedicated to ZZX learning to trust this new Jian Yi, and them trying to pick up their relationship from shambles, but right now Zhanyi faces the calm before the storm.

If I were to make schemes for their relationships, it would look like this:

Zhanyi: start > the fall > the rise

Tianshan: start > the rise > the fall

Zhanyi starts off steady and friendly, but then comes “the fall”, i.e. Jian Yi disappearing without a word, which pretty much shatters what they have been building so far. Their goal after his return would be to get back on track and fix everything that went wrong between them. Now, if OX truly planned Tianshan as the inverse of Zhanyi, then their story arc will be a flip of Zhanyi. They start off being enemies, then they’ll slowly build trust, and then, presumably, comes the fall. Not sure what it is yet, but possibly He Tian leaving abroad, which might set them back a bit.

Back to the point. We, as readers, are meant to find contrasts between these two types of relationships and their story arcs. There are also other significant differences that OX supposedly wants to implement. As such, one of the OX latest artworks is a visual metaphor for the intrinsically contradictory natures of these couples. 

OX used dramatically different colour palettes and symbolism here. Where Zhanyi is light and more comedic, Tianshan is darker due to initial violence and drama. Tianshan is marked by black and has this low-key BDSM vibe running, whilst Zhanyi has this angel/priest theme, symbolizing their purity. The illustration is quite a bit representative of sexual vibes of two couples. Tianshan has a bit more physical undertones to their interaction compared to more innocent Zhanyi. It is further accentuated by the future-set specials: whereas Zhanyi share a tender indirect kiss for Xmas, He Tian openly presents Mo with condoms, etc.

I wouldn’t be surprised if – provided OX hints at sexual interaction in future-set chapters – physical intimacy affected their relationships in fundamentally different ways (again, for readers to compare and contrast). For instance, whereas for Zhanyi it would lead to solidifying their bond, for Tianshan it could bring about more complications and further pondering on the thing going on between them.

All of it is absolutely pure speculation that is based on the supposition that thematically OX created these couples as foils to one another. 

All in all, let’s celebrate the diversity. Both relationships are interesting and very fun to compare against one another. There are rises and falls to them. Sometime soon it will be Zhanyi that will plunge into a heartrending drama, and Tianshan would get the calm before the storm.

Press F to Pay your Respects

Aizawa’s reasons: