@dayumdaughter - Tumblr Blog

*reads discourse in favour of reblogging* yeah that makes sense *reads discourse that mentions that you can't control audiences* yeah that makes sense *reads discourse that this site would stop functioning without reblogging* yeah that makes sense *reads discourse that there is no right or wrong way to engage with content* yeah that makes sense *reads discourse-

geffjoldblums

u will never catch me using the blaze function I will churn out my no note flop posts w pride

#wish i had your confidence king i have already used it twice #once to prove a point (didn't prove anything) and once for spreading hornyness (did spread hornyness)#do i have any regrets?#Nah

deliciouswastelandgoddess

Anatomy of a Soft Cliff-hanger - The Genius of Alchemy of Souls' Season 1 Ending

[A case study of film-making techniques]

Cliff-hangers have been a prominent plot device of all sorts story-telling medium since... well....since humans have been telling stories, Although the use of the term "cliff-hanger" has been attributed to late 19th century, the concept itself has always existed. If you have been paying attention to the how television is being produced in the last couple of decades, you will notice a rise in one particular type of cliff-hangers: the unconfirmed death. This is a subset of a larger group of cliff-hangers, that everyone likes to call - An Unanswered Question.

A popular example of this is Jon Snow's death in Game Thrones Season 5, finale. In recent years consistently this plot device been dangled in front of audiences in a way that provokes emotional investment in a particular character's (or even the actor's, which is a whole other discussion) fate rather than any investment in the entire narrative of the story.

Jon Snow's death was a hard cliff-hanger where an end of an episode or a season is always at an extreme climactic high, with a clear cut, specific question for the audiences to be emotionally invested in: Will Jon Snow live? This isn't a bad thing in and on itself, but it does get boring after a while. Alchemy of Souls, on the other hand ended its first Season on a soft cliff-hanger.

Allow me to explain.

The ending was high on emotions, actions and drastic change in character dynamics, everything you would expect from a season end cliff-hanger but if this show was directed like Game of Thrones, it would probably end on this scene:

With Jang Uk dead, Naksu/MuDeok on the run, Jin ChoYeon hunting her and all of Songrim grieving for Jang Uk's death. The showrunners would have left it at that and the major question for the audiences to ponder would have been: Will Jang Uk live? But the show decided to take a different, and in my opinion a cleverer, path. They let the narrative move beyond the absolute climactic high to a sort of an emotional plateau, from a point where it would have been a hard cliff-hanger to a soft cliff-hanger.

There is no more question of whether or not Jang Uk will live, because they already showed us that he survived. There is no question of whether Naksu will live or not because they showed us two weird women saving her from drowning as well. We know all the players in the game, we know where everyone is, emotionally and physically. We could also guess at almost everyone's motivations and goals at this point. The board is set, the story is in full motion. There are no more specific or narrow questions for the audiences to wonder about, only abstract ones, primary of which is: What happens now? Which, in case you hadn't noticed, is a much harder question to answer simply because of how broad its scope is, and therefore, also a very fun one.

A soft cliff-hanger allows the audiences to indulge in rich meta analysis and theories which are wide in variety. The anticipation is built not through shock but through indulging in genuine wonder and curiosity. A soft cliff-hanger also allows for the showrunners the opportunity to softly subvert audience expectations, again not through cheap plot twists but through intelligent and detailed plot progression.

Its not a perfect show. The world building is all over the place, the magic system makes no sense, etc. But despite all its flaws, Alchemy of Souls delivered a solidly intriguing ending with little to no gimmicks and that is its genius. I cannot wait for Season 2.

killjo-q

The Reverened Daughter

#wish i could be a goth weirdo like her #harrow nonagesimus #the locked tomb

perihelions-crew

god but at the first breakfast, where Magnus introduces himself to her, it really fucking gets me that she’s too nervous and unfamiliar with meeting anybody that she doesn’t even shake his hand. she’s not refusing to, its not an unfamiliar gesture she can’t interpret, she just freezes because she’s literally never been in this situation before. and what does he do? he knocks on the table instead so he’s not awkwardly retracting his hand and apologizes if he’s overstepped a custom.

she loudly shoves her chair back, stands up, and nods at him because what else is she to do, and he’s so excited that he starts nodding really enthusiastically back before he remembers he’s trying to be polite. like, even with the face paint and sunglasses, its clear that gideon and harrow are both young, only a few years older then the Fourth who he’s shepherding around and taking care of. of course he welcomes her the second he gets a chance, of course he’s relieved that he didn’t fuck up their introduction that he clearly intended to be comforting

#ahaha i'll just be over there in the corner with my 5th house feels again #no no i am not crying i just have *sob* allergies *sob* *sob*#no no i dont *need* a hug but I won't say no to one ahaha #ahaha sorry about ruining your shirt with my tears and snot its these damn allergies #the locked tomb #the fifth house #magnus bane #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #gideon the ninth

memewhore

redfagdiver

the accuracy is SENDING ME

yeetlegay

Not for nothing, the representation of Porsche’s bisexuality means a lot to me as a bi person who didn’t figure out my identity until my early 20s. The journey that he goes through in the first half of the show, from a presumed straight man to a bisexual man in love with another man, is written and acted with so much empathy and grace. Porsche’s feelings about his identity and presentation of self are allowed to be confused, hesitant, and complicated without him being homophobic or misogynistic. The result is a more subtle arc of self-discovery, but such an important one. Porsche may not have deep-rooted internal prejudices but he still exists within oppressive structures that shape all our lives whether we want them to or not. Even though he doesn’t deny or dislike his feelings for Kinn, he does quietly struggle sometimes with the discomfort of being queer in a world that sees queer as “other.”

I think part of why this hits so hard is Apo himself. Now I don’t really follow the actors very closely and I try hard to separate the art from the artist, so I don’t want to place too much weight on this. But I do think Apo really brings a particular level of empathy and nuance to Porsche’s identity that deserves appreciation. Apo has spoken a number of times about how much he struggled with homophobic treatment in the Thai film/TV industry through the course of his career. He was often asked invasive questions about his sexuality, made fun of for the way he dresses and presents himself, and demeaned for being feminine or not masculine enough. It seems to have been a key factor in his decision to leave the industry (and even Thailand) entirely.

To be clear, he’s never made any public statement about his sexuality or gender identity, and it’s no one’s business to presume or ask about how he identifies. The problem was that, regardless of how he actually identified, homophobia had a big impact on him personally and professionally. Homophobia (along with all other forms of hate and violence) doesn’t hurt just queer people—it hurts everyone, because it confines and regulates people’s lives/bodies, and punishes deviations, big and small, from the norm.

Apo has some pretty incredible gender vibes to be honest. Something about his mannerisms, his face, his fashion choices, his presentation, just strikes keen envy in my nonbinary bisexual heart lol. And he brings that nuance into Porsche’s character so beautifully. Porsche gets to be tender as he is tough, someone who cares for his loved ones and shows affection without being demeaned for it. He’s allowed to be this strong, tall, muscular guy without it being prescriptive of his internal feelings and personality and how he presents in his voice and mannerisms. No one (least of all him) is policing his body and gender in the way queer people, particularly queer men, so often deal with. He gets to just be.

The freedom in that, for me at least, feels like a revelation. I feel loved when I watch Porsche, because his journey as a bisexual man isn’t rooted in his own repression or external prejudice. Even when he identified as straight, he didn’t behave or present in a way that was engineered to convey heterosexuality or even masculinity. He was already comfortable in his skin, and figuring out his sexuality was more of an internal journey than one centered on his body and how the world perceives it.

Obviously there’s nothing wrong with identity crises/questions/discoveries that do involve repression or homophobia (mine certainly does, thanks Catholic school 🙃). But I think it’s really neat that Porsche’s arc doesn’t, because it brings up questions that often get buried under the avalanche of homophobic/misogynistic/transphobic shit that unfortunately we so often have to wade through to come to our own queer identities. And that’s why I mentioned Apo’s experience, because I really think that as someone who’s had such a hard time in the industry in the past—precisely because he does step outside rigid gender norms—he really gets how homophobia shapes a person’s understanding of their own body. And consciously or unconsciously, he created in Porsche a character who could be free, for fucking once, of that heavy weight around his neck.

So basically, I hope he knows how much that means to a lot of people, not just me. And I hope that playing Porsche has given him some amount of comfort or healing or validation. He gave homophobia and misogyny a massive middle finger through this character, and I hope that and his continued outspokenness about his experience make everyone think twice before policing people’s gender and bodies.

#op i am so happy to see you happy!!!#kinnporsche #kinnporche the series #bisexuality #lgbtq #apo nattawin

deliciouswastelandgoddess

Waking up with your boyfriend cuddling you

Banana Fish (2018) / Kinnporsche the Series (2022)

beautifulbutdoomed

@minhyukornot 👀👀👀

but still I think kimchay are more like asheiji

dayumdaughter

They actually are! But when made this post their cuddling scene hadn’t really happened

#kimchay #kinnporche the series #kinnporsche #banana fish

nattaphum

Mile and Apo x KINNPORSCHE world tour 2022

dayumdaughter

oooooo Apo’s jacket is baaaaaad but whoever did is hairstyle and makeup is a genius its 11/10

#kinnporsche the series #kinnporsche

pyrogothnerd-deactivated2025071

Can we just talk about how “Goth Anime Legs Uncle” IS A FAMOUS ARTIST AND AUTHOR, BUT HIS NIECE OR NEPHEW NEVER THOUGHT TO BRING THAT UP?! No no no, you have a famous artist/author for an uncle, but screw that, here’s his goth phase.

Think about it: This guy is known on Tumblr for his goth phase, but not his actual freaking work, even though we’re all familiar with his work!

EDIT: YES, I GET IT FOLKS, IT WASN’T A PHASE! HE IS CLEARLY STILL GOTH! I MISSPOKE!

godlessondheimite

fluffmugger

#so did they miss the part where gatsby ends up floating dead in a pool and all the miserable deaths in wuthering heights#or did they miss that because there weren’t any chapters titled In Which The Sinners Are Punished For Their Errors#like. even if you require explicit moral instruction from literature it’s pretty hard to miss the comeuppance in those.

pennie-dreadful

“What I assume my teachers were trying to teach me”

doctorbluesmanreturns

Huck Finn is about a white Southern boy who was raised to believe that freeing slaves is a sin that would send you directly to hell who forges a familial bond with a runaway slave and chooses to free him and thereby in his mind lose his salvation because he refuses to believe that his best friend and surrogate father is less of a man just because he’s black. Yes it features what we now consider racial slurs but this is a book written only 20 years after people were literally fighting to be allowed to keep other human beings as property, we cannot expect people from the 1880s to exactly conform with the social mores of 2020, and more to the point if we ourselves had been raised during that time period there’s very little doubt that we would also hold most if not all of the prevalent views of the time because actual history isn’t like period novels written now where the heroes are perfect 21st century social justice crusaders and the villains are all as racist and sexist as humanly possible. Change happens slowly and ignoring the radical statement that we’re all human beings that Twain wrote at a time when segregation and racial tensions were still hugely prevalent just because he wrote using the language of his time period is short-sighted and foolhardy to the highest degree.

mikkeneko

I’m really kind of alarmed at the rise in the past few years of the “and we do condemn! wholeheartedly!” discourse around historical figures. it seems like people have somehow boomeranged between “morals were different in the past, therefore nobody in the past can ever be held accountable for ANY wrongs” to “morals are universal and timeless, and anything done wrong by today’s standards in the past is ABSOLUTELY unforgiveable” so completely, because social media 2.0 is profoundly allergic to nuance

please try this on for size:

there have always been, in past times as today, a range of people in every society, some of whom were even then fighting for a more just and compassionate accord with their fellow man and some of whom let their greeds and hatreds rule them to the worst allowable excesses. the goal of classics and history education is to teach you enough context to discern between the two, not only in the past but in the present

three--rings

My mind just boggles at the “There’s Racism In That Book” argument. Yes, there is racism in that book, because that book is ABOUT RACISM. The message is that it is BAD.

My high school English teacher, who was a viciously brilliant woman, used to say that when people banned Huck Finn they said it was about the language, but it was really the message they were trying to ban, the subversive deconstruction of (religious) authority and white supremacy.

lyricwritesprose

Huckleberry Finn can actually be seen as a powerful case study in trying to do social justice when you have absolutely no tools for it, right down to vocabulary. And in that respect, it’s a heroic tale, because Huck—with absolutely no good examples besides Jim, who he has been taught to see as subhuman, with no guidance, with everyone telling him that doing the right thing will literally damn him, with a vocabulary that’s full of hate speech—he turns around and says, “I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to participate in this system. If that means I go to Hell, so be it. Going to Hell now.”

(I used to read a blogger who insisted that “All right, I’ll go to Hell,” from Huckleberry Finn is the most pure and perfect prayer in the canon of American literature. Meaning, as I understand it, that the decision to do the right thing in the face of eternal damnation is the most holy decision one can make, and if God Himself is not proud of the poor mixed-up kid, then God Himself is not worth much more than a “Get thee behind me,” and the rest of us should be lining up to go to Hell too. Worth noting that this person identified as an evangelical Christian, not because he was in line with what current American evangelicals believe, but because “they can change their name, I’m not changing mine.” Interesting guy. Sorry for the long parenthetical.)

Anyway, the point of Huck Finn, as far as I can tell, is that you can still choose to do good in utter darkness, with no guidance and no help and none of the right words.

And when you put it like that, it’s no wonder that a lot of people on Tumblr—people who prioritize words over every other form of social justice—find it threatening and hard to comprehend.

This is why it’s important to learn how to analyze media, a skill we are apparently losing.

While Huck Finn, for example, absolutely and obviously carries a moral message, not all stories do, because not every story is supposed to teach you something, nor will every story hold your hand and gently walk you to an easy conclusion.

monjustmon

I am so frustrated by the “if media portrays something, it’s saying it’s ok” and “if you enjoy a piece of medoa which portrays something negative, then you’re bad” mentality. Just pls. Stop. That’s not how stories work.

fierceawakening

“I used to read a blogger who insisted that “All right, I’ll go to Hell,” from Huckleberry Finn is the most pure and perfect prayer in the canon of American literature. Meaning, as I understand it, that the decision to do the right thing in the face of eternal damnation is the most holy decision one can make, and if God Himself is not proud of the poor mixed-up kid, then God Himself is not worth much more than a “Get thee behind me,” and the rest of us should be lining up to go to Hell too.”

This right here.

If “you should be willing to sacrifice everything, including your soul, to protect your friends when everyone around wants your help hurting them” stops becoming a moral lesson because someone says the n-word, I think people are… a little TOO impressed with the power of hate speech.

Hate speech is a terrible thing, but it’s not witchcraft. It has the power we grant to it.

If you want to say “I know what the point was, but I couldn’t get past seeing that word typed out,” feel free, but please don’t say “typing that word out nullifies the point,” as that is not how anything works.