back from the brink's dedication to yanhui and tianyao being equals in terms of physical strength and power is *chef's kiss* to me. there are very few moments where that's uneven between them 😍😍😍
his kindness! even when he's at his most traumatized and trying to be his most hardhearted, tianyao is kind. and not just passively, but proactively: bringing grandma her tonic, tending to grandma's emotional well-being, connecting with the shebishi who nearly killed him, healing all the yaoguai in the underground city.
his mistrust of cultivators doesn't impact his feelings about regular humans. like, another point in this show's favor for how it handles the racism in its world: it maintains a distinction between humans who are involved in committing institutional harm and those who aren't and, by doing so in the way it does, doesn't pull the "both sides are racist" crap that these stories tend to. basically, tianyao said acab and we love him for that!!!
he's a slow processor, slow to speak, and expresses himself better in writing. the poor man can intake information a lot faster than he can determine what to do with it or say about it. i just relate to these things lmao
tianyao loves by laying himself on the carving board and that makes me insane. i have always been a sucker for a self-sacrificing character and he just does it so fucking well. also he does so much of it without ever expecting that anyone will know????!!!!! in fact very much the opposite??????!!!!! hello?????????????
a more metatextual reason: i love that his arc in the story is about coming back into his inherent softness after having been deeply harmed. he's learned and he's grown and he's not who he was, but his softness was not lost. it remained available to him for when he was ready for it again. i find that to be a really beautiful story
"I just wanted to say that I joined the Flower Bulletin under her name before this. If you do make a profit, please don't forget about her. When I'm not around, she'll be happier if she has money to spend."
i think one of the reasons i dont vibe with a lot of modern "romantic" writing is that there's a notable lack of sweetness or tenderness written between the characters. the most popular tropes for intimacy negotiation between characters in modern romantic novels seem to be based around overcoming their own disdain, distrust, or resentment of the other character. an increasingly lazy, kneejerk "i hate how much i want them" approach to romantic and physical intimacy. true love requires doubt, they tell us. our desires can only be trusted when we douse them in cold hard rationality. no i'm not trying to come for the enemies rivals irritating workplace acquaintances to lovers trope that's so popular (although i'm also deeply bored by that). rather, i think it demonstrates a general jadedness in a genre that's otherwise supposed to be about "wish fulfillment HEA" yet struggles to conceive characters for whom tenderness and all-consuming desire is not a weakness. the irrationality that love can instill in a person is held at arm's length, a toxic impulse that must be adjusted in order to present a "healthy relationship." the overly-emotional lover has been relegated to "dark romance," or their behaviors channeled into specific genre-approved tropes which fit neatly into hetero-dominant relationship expectations. so much of it ends up reading pathos-less to me. in the hands of a talented writer, unhinged tenderness is the most excruciating possible thing to read. we used to have that, you know. we used to be a society.
hi!! sorry if you've been asked this question before, but as someone who wants to be a lawyer, how do you deal with defending people that morally you really don't agree with? thanks!
I get a lot of versions of this question, and I answer it seriously every time, because it’s both important and not important at all. Anyone who asks respectfully gets my whole ass answer.
It’s just not really about that. My job isn’t about defending the idea of hurting someone else. It’s about stopping the state from inflicting further hurt, torture, pain. It’s about pushing back for some fairness against a monumentally stacked system. And it’s about stuff that’s normal human stuff that counts as crime for some reason.
Yeah, it’s hard to do a sex abuse case. Sometimes the images stick around and it bothers me. But honestly? Mostly those cases have real plausible theories of innocence or they’re cases that I will lose because the evidence is there, and the question is not whether the perpetrator will go to jail but how long.
Those cases are so rare, though. I get so much pointless bullshit. Felony of a teen taking mom’s car without permission. Two kids that try to break into a car and get so scared by the alarm that they run away. Trespassing on dad’s house because his new girlfriend wants you to stop coming around. It’s just human stuff, and the violence of the state is not necessary or helpful.
I also reject the idea of punishment completely. The state has a responsibility to stop people from hurting other people again. But inflicting pain doesn’t do it, we know this by now. So I argue for mercy and for real solutions to real problems. I’m here to build a future, not get caught up with doing violence to someone because of the past.
So yeah, sometimes it’s hard, but mostly my conscience is dead clear: I’m not responsible for the crime. The damage has been done. I want to start the healing process, and I want it for everyone involved. When that’s not possible, I just want to tell the authorities they don’t get to just Do What They Want.
The more I do this job, the more I am a genuine pacifist who is against violence in all forms, and actually I don’t see a contradiction between that and what I do for a living. State violence is a pervasive evil that tears apart families, communities, and countries, and it’s far more damaging and awful than any individual crime. The average prosecutor has more blood on their hands than a serial killer, but it’s invisible: people who died in jail, who froze to death on the street, who were shot in a drug deal. Their violence begets violence.
When I get blood on my hands, it’s because I put my hands over the wounds and try to stop the flow. I’m okay with it.
Also: people don’t ask doctors how they can stand to treat bad people. Why ask me?
#i find people have such an inherent misunderstanding of the roles of defense attorneys (understandably but still)#in that most people i talk to seem to be envisioning me personally defending the right of people to commit crimes or that like. Crime Is#Good Actually#‘yeah this person did X but they should never face any consequences ever please and thank you judge’#(and people think this would WORK??? a different tangent on a lack of legal education and cop shows being awful etc)#meanwhile i am simply protecting people’s rights. yes even those people’s#idk i could write my own post but op Gets It and also a prosecutor just filed the DUMBEST motion ive ever seen and i need to respond to that#instead lmao (via @anixit26)
The number of people who respond to my post about how even the guiltiest person in the world deserves rights with "but not [crime I think makes you undeserving of rights]!" is truly insane. People really truly think that being accused of a crime makes you irredeemably evil and protecting the rights of those accused means you are also evil.
SUMMARY: A woman and a stranger meet by chance and together they solidify peace in the realm for generations.
THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Pig-slapping, tragic parental deaths, snow, snobby scholars, found families, erotic cures, fake marriages, genuine love, plucky sisters, clever birds, misguided heirs, bandits, wartime victories, super physical and mental strength, and puppet emperors.
HOT TAKE: This is the kind of show you know you are falling in love with at the same time as everyone else across the globe. The sets? Lived in and worn. The costumes? Practical and comfy. The romance? Slow and well-simmered. The steely looks? Sharp and satisfying.
I'm not sure if it's just me and my expectations, if its a universal opinion, or if it's because this is like a 4-novel series they had to squish into one season, but I did feel the ending was rushed and left me wanting more. Maybe I was just so enamored with the characters that I didn't want my time with them to end so soon? Maybe it was just rushed storytelling.
Regardless, you should watch this immediately. It's exciting, heartwarming, goes down smooth, leaves you wanting your own Marquis of Wu’an all to yourself.
I finally finished the series Pursuit of Jade, and I’ve got to say: it’s my favorite C-drama to date. I laughed so hard, yet also cried like a baby (rarely felt the cost of war like this).
It had some of my favorite characters I’ve seen in a period drama, almost all the women were absolute legends, and the men were variations of devoted puppies with eyes only for the love of their lives (I am biased).
The plot was a bit hard to follow at times, but I mostly managed to piece things together on my own.
My biggest highlight goes to the second couple, Yu Qianqian and Qi Min. I have rarely felt so much empathy for a victim of abuse in any media. Their relationship is such a powerful depiction of toxic love, and I never felt it was romanticized. Even in the “sexy” scenes, all I could feel was my heart aching for Qianqian, who was desperately trying to make the best of her situation at all times.
Even when she didn’t kill him, I could never fault her for it. Despite all the torture he put her through, he also had moments where he treated her well, and he could be truly pitiful at times. Really making me feel the emotional abuse a victim of toxic relationship goes through.
Special mention for the different writing who appear on building all along the serie. Who are never wasted either for information, pointing out irony or straight up humour. Love them.
It’s technically based on a novel, but after seeing the list of changes, and since most of my favorite parts are drama-only, I don’t plan to read it (though some of the worst parts of the drama are also original to the adaptation).
I can't lie, the last episode pissed me off 💀 what do you mean we're spending over 10 minutes on an alternate reality instead of watching them be a family???? We find out they're parents bc he offhandedly says "you're a mother of two" before battle?????
Honestly it's not just the last episode, at this point in the story who gaf about who betrayed who, kill the ministers and back to being a romcom!!!
hello, what is this show you keep reblogging about and is it worth watching? 0.0.
chasing jade aka pursuit of jade aka 逐玉 zhu yu. the official title is pursuit of jade but i have been tagging this as chasing jade for so long (i have been waiting for this show to air for what feels like 83 years ngl) that i am just going to keep doing that.
what: period cdrama // currently airing // we’re on 11 out of 40 eps, roughly 40 mins each
where: iqiyi // wetv // netflix (standard disclaimer that i don’t watch with subs so i don’t speak to the quality of eng subs)
why: excellent, excellent fake married to lovers trope. beautifully shot (this is the same director from blossom), the cast is gorgeous, the humour in this is on point. i'm only 7 eps in and i am enjoying myself so much 😭
this is fan changyu, and her husband mrs fan changyu.
our girl changyu has just recently lost her parents, and is stuck having to make ends meet to bring up her little sister (super cute, 10/10 would do anything for her) - she continues the family business, and becomes a butcher.
while dealing with the bs in her life (which includes inter alia being said to have jinxed her family, dealing with her good-for-nothing ex-fiance and his good-for-nothing mother, having to earn a proper living, feeding the beautiful stray she brought back), fan changyu encounters the next problem:
by law, if there is no male heir in the immediate family, the closest male relative (her gambler uncle) gets to inherit her house - basically a fee tail male sort of rule of inheritance.
enter mrs fan changyu. this is yan zheng aka xie zheng aka marquis of wu'an. goddamn he really does have a nice face
fan changyu rescued him when he was wounded. she housed, nursed and protected him from the authorities - not so that he would marry her, just because she's a kind person. yan zheng learns of her inheritance problem and tells her he'll marry into her family!!
i'm on ep 7 atm because work just got crazy and i am stuck going through discovery and inspection instead of bingeing cdramas, so that's more or less where i am with the plot - i haven't read the source novel so idk what really happens next, i will fix this rec post when i have more of a clue 🥹
some prelim thoughts:
tian xiwei is adorable in this as she is in everything else she is in, i love her and would die for her, this is not news to anyone who knows me, but also!! fan changyu as a character is so so good - like she takes no shit from anybody, and doesn't need a man to save her from anything (except the inheritance stuff). i love how she beat up and then subsequently formed a bond with the thugs who tried to steal the title to her house. she's a little self-conscious about her work as a butcher in front of yan zheng, but ultimately it's how she makes a living and she's not ashamed of that!!
the humour in this is on point - i know that we'll probably move away from this when we get a bit more into the plot and they have to go to war etc, but for now, it's just a really heartwarming show about mr and mrs fan changyu and how they navigate life in the village and shut everyone who says anything bad about each other up.
if this keeps up, it might?? surpass hdu as my favourite show of the year??? i have a soft spot for tian-mei. 🥹
Reading through the Tortall books in publication order is funny because you start with Alanna “the village healing woman taught me all she knew” going off to become a knight, and end with Numair “world’s most powerful mage” as young Arram Draper first learning magic at the Carthaki university. Because of the 40 intervening years and five(?) different series further developing the Tortall universe, the magic system is now SO much more complex.
Arram is learning an elementally-based, heavily theory-dependent form of magic where conceptual power is applied to physical objects or energy constructs. His teachers make him develop skills in non-magical areas like juggling, jewelry making, and gardening so eventually they can safely guide him through complicated applications of magic. In comparison, Alanna complains that Duke Roger is spending too much time on theory in order to prevent her and her peers from learning “actual magic” and becoming his rivals. And then she throws purple light at things until they explode or she passes out!
We also learn from Arram’s misadventures that most of “magic” is creating methods of applying, storing, and accessing power so the user doesn’t drain their own life force and pass out or die. Alanna uses NONE of these techniques; instead, she pulls her magic directly out of her own life force, thinks about what she wants it to do, and hopes she reaches that goal before draining herself. She even (sometimes) factors in the impact of magically draining herself of energy while attempting tasks that require both magical and physical endurance (such as when deciding how much magic to spend warming herself when making her blizzard hike to claim the Dominion Jewel.)
For one thing, this makes Alanna insanely powerful. In In the Hand of The Goddess, she breaks open Roger’s magically locked door (presumably designed by Roger himself– an immensely strong and well-trained sorcerer) by shoving her own magic into it until it MELTS. This builds an Alanna who decided magical theory was useless at age 12 because she has an immense access to magical potential energy, and who never learns the basic life-preserving models of magic usage that are taught in intro-level classes. She doesn’t have an interest in learning more sophisticated forms of magic, except in healing, which she cared about enough to learn non-magically. So when she heals, she uses magic as a guide or a supplement, rather than depending on it and then draining herself.
Since she isn’t attempting complex magic, most of the time the limitations of drawing directly from her own life force doesn’t impact her that much. The things she does magically all have much more efficient alternatives, but they require an understanding of magical theory and ability to store energy that Alanna never learned! If she wants to do larger spells, she just keeps feeding energy into it until it breaks or she does.
The intervening series and Numair’s story makes Alanna’s simultaneously more and less believable. It now makes sense why everyone with even a slight understanding of Alanna’s type of Gift gets angry at times and tells her she’s using magic irresponsibly. (Before, we only understood Alanna’s side of the argument: “Well, I didn’t die and it worked, so calm down.” !!!) The fact that she never actually dies and only rarely is seriously harmed through her own magic use now requires some suspension of disbelief!
I know to some extent that, inevitably, this evolution of the magic in the Tortall means it’s not in the same form it was when Alanna first came out, but this works for me hahaha. Because that is 100% Alanna!
Just because Alanna turned out to be right about Roger’s plans and machinations doesn’t mean he wasn’t like, actually teaching good magical theory. But Alanna would absolutely decide that nothing he could offer would be of value to her and ignore it.
Not to mention she was also still scared of her magic at that point and like… maybe no wonder??? If she’s sitting on stores of it like that.
Stubborn, bullheaded Alanna TO A FAULT. LOVEEEE
But it all makes that last graphic like sooo 10000% valid. Numair must pull his hair out when Alanna really gets going with her magic LMAOO
honestly no book romance meet-cute will top what Tamora Pierce wrote for Daine and Numair.
Numair: has been trapped in hawk shape because he was drugged during a spy mission then panic-transformed into a hawk and is now so zonked out of his mind he has forgotten he can transform back into a human
Daine: gets surreptitiously called into this tent by the King’s Champion because she’s the only one who can talk to animals and asked if she can please speak to this fucked-up hawk, so she does, and then he transforms into a naked human man and everyone says, thank you Daine, that’s all, please leave now
after Fan Changyu reassures her sister that she will be okay, Yan Zheng returns to check on her.
she knows that we need a moment, so gotta distract the little one with a task: bowl of warm water!
NEW THING NOTED: Yan Zheng puts down the medicine and for a quick moment moves to help Changning with the bowl and ugh my heart.
WE ALONE!!!!!!!
immediate intimacy, he's touching her, seeing if she is okay. asking if anything hurts, is she uncomfortable, does her head still bother her?
Now you think, heidi we know you love hands, is that it??
while i do love that moment, its THIS: her saying look if you had killed someone, went to prison, (cough cough LEFT US cough cough), my head would hurt. so stop that.
HE IS BEFUDDLED. GOBSMACKED.
I don't know if this is the first time anyone has said this to him, it has to be at minimum since his parents died, so its been YEARS. And oh my god it's all over his face.
I had to put a second screen grab a moment later because the MICROEXPRESSIONS, he is sooo ugh. Zhang Linghe the actor you are!
He's TEARING UP! THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
I am unwell.
and of course we have to hit the hug. he needs the connection to her! her physical presence.
the quick tear wipe, boy you ain't SLICK. and he is just rubbing her back and I will not survive this.
she asks him to promise her that he won't get into trouble.
and you see on his face when he's like oh, I can't promise that. and it's so hard for him not to immediately give what she wants.
he chooses his words so carefully here.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine."
and she accepts it, I feel she knows in her gut she won't get more than that. so I appreciate her just nodding. But also the tear falling on her face only when he says that? diabolical choice.
something i'm enjoying in the early eps of pursuit of jade is yan zheng in the upper rooms, looking like a beautiful attic wife. pushing out the window shutters, gazing down below at changyu and her life and being so So normal. he's resting up and healing and immediately marrying himself into the family the first chance he gets. he's just an ordinary (bloody, battered) guy she found in the woods. who absolutely will stab and torture anyone at the slightest inclination that they'll make trouble for the fan family. no crazy eyes here. he's just puttering around the house in long draping robes, blood splattered and gently folorn looking. an utterly normal average guy
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