[girl in a low cut top voice] i just dont know what it is but everyone is being sooo nice to me today….[grows grave and guarded] they’re conspiring against my reign and they think me a fool
Super big fan of the way the Nie Mingjue severed head Empathy segment of the book opens with a hard cut to his decapitation of Wen Xu, and the description of how Wen Xu's body was immediately thereafter torn limb from limb and systematically desecrated by Nie Mingjue's allies, and the head put up on a spike.
Because I think it really centers one of the key narrative tensions around the characters' life choices, and the question of the very definition of 'crime.' And how it's a contextualized process, rather than a hardcoded binary of actions that are okay and actions that aren't.
It maybe wasn't good to do that to Wen Xu's corpse, but it was war after all, so it's also not a big deal and the cultivators involved don't carry any lasting culpability, even though it wasn't even useful to the war effort to do that.
There's no need to figure out who it was exactly, and attach a stigma to them for vengeful corpse desecration.
But Jin Guangyao having done the very same thing to Nie Mingjue that Nie Mingjue did and allowed to be done to Wen Xu--well that's bad, right? Because it's not war, now. Because it's politics and personal relationships, and the rules for those are different. It's different.
And Jin Guangyao is like, is it though? No. That's bullshit you all tell yourselves. Lines drawn in water, to make sure you're always in the right and anyone else who resorts to violence is wrong.
The rules aren't ever different. Some of us are always at war.
Which is simultaneously the mindset that makes him a dangerous untrustworthy person who makes everyone around him less safe, and He Has A Point Tho.
All of which juxtaposes really interestingly with Wei Wuxian, who in the two phases of his Terrifying Necromancer era did exactly the same things under what were, to him, about the same circumstances (i.e. people he loved had been killed on a pretext that he'd started it, by people who self-professedly weren't going to stop until they'd taken everything he had left) but when it was war he was a hero (albeit controversial), and when it wasn't war anymore he was a criminal, unforgivable, had to be put down.
Still 'killing people and corpse desecration.' By the same person, using the same methods, with almost the same motives. And all it took to take him across the line from 'basically like when Nie Mingjue did it' to 'basically like when Jin Guangyao will do it' is an alteration in the story being told.
nothing has surprised me less than the part of the Count The Rice behind the scenes that showed all the grants having conversations with each other using nothing but the word "grant" like they were pokemon
I did get my cosplay done on time, with three days to spare actually! Though the last three days were spent making the gift Franz, bc according to wikipedia this year is Girl Genius' 25th anniversary, and since in wedding anniversaries 25 is for silver, the professors need someone to guard their precious metals!
I also asked Phil a ton of questions, which I will put under the cut bc this is already kinda long:
What are all the Muses' titles? i actually got him to write it all down for me since my notetaking wasnt fast enough so here:
[*note: I double checked this with Kaja on stream, this is an error. Orotine is the muse of geometry which also encompasses relationships as stated in entertainment in londinium. so Prende's domain is still a bit of a mystery]
2. Is Higgs having a good time in Skifander? Yes.
Me, disappointed: "Aw I thought maybe they had put him in a skimpy outfit and tossed him in a gladiator arena."
Phil: "Who says that's not his idea of a good time?"
3. Is Zulenna a Valois? unclear but probably not, though she is probably related on Tarvek's mom's side of the family, she's definitely a second or third cousin at least. [and we will see her again!]
4. How did Martellus end up apprenticed to Vapnoodle? Martellus' true passion is mad zoology, and he really just needs to give this whole thing up and start that boutique pet shop; he'd be much happier but his family wanted him to get into the business. either way, Martellus doesnt do things halfway and Vapnoodle is really good at what he does.
5. What character do you think changed the most from their original concept? Klaus. he was originally a cadaverous, skrunkly, prof. moriarty type who dies at the end of book one; but that wasnt working so Kaja said he used to have all these adventures with the heterodyne boys, he should be strong.
6. How tall is Zantabraxus? around 6'5".
7. Who did Bill and Barry kill within two minutes of being sworn in? That was just a joke, it actually took them closer to a whole day. They really didnt like a lot of what the town had been. They made it clear they didnt like the monsters [particularily those who helped the old Heterodynes]. Most monsters are just trying to get by but some are the "I'm hungry, pass me another baby" type. This type didn't usually last long because while the old Heterodynes didn't encourage this but didn't stop it either, the townsfolk whose babies were eaten didnt put up with it.
8. Will we find out what happened to General Zadipok? Yes.
9. There have been some jokes about jägers eating people; has that ever actually happened? It happened sometimes in the old days but not in the last hundred years.
10. What's Vole doing right now? He is still in the valley, in the ring labs trying to figure out where he belongs. The next time we'll see him is when he gets hauled up in front of the generals to answer to them [HELLO??????].
11. Will we ever find out what's up with the polar lords? Probably not, as it's not really relevant to the story they're telling.
amandla
baratheonpilled
prguitarman
