mostly here for the gifs

sir these are my emotional support gifs • the untamed • etc

[ellorgast]

The thing that I think really sets Murderbot apart from a lot of other robot media (particularly mainstream entries like the I, Robot movie) is that bots and constructs aren't a uniquely oppressed class, and humans aren't a uniquely privileged one. A lot of robot media rings a bit hollow because it portrays humans as all living a lavish, comfortable lifestyle, free from the burden of physical labor or control by their corporate overlords, and it's like. I think if the rise of generative AI has proven anything, it's that corporations and billionaires have absolutely no interest in making life easier for anybody, but will gleefully use new technology to make life infinitely worse if it means an extra buck in their pocket.

We are shown over and over again throughout the Murderbot Diaries that humans are mistreated just as badly as (or sometimes, in MB's own opinion, even worse than) bots and constructs. We see humans stripped of their rights, reduced to corporate assets to be bought and sold, sent into suicidal situations, abandoned and discarded as things. We see humans trapped in multigenerational labor contracts -- people born into an indentured servitude that requires them to pay back their food and lodging to the same company that will not let them leave.

None of these are hypothetical scenarios. These are all things that happen to real people in our world today.

And that is a huge part of why it resonates so much. The overarching theme of "capitalism is hell" actually means something because it isn't only applied to the fictional dynamic of bots vs humans. The theme is constantly reiterated through the humans themselves.

And that's also why it's so important that MB demonstrates empathy for and solidarity with humans who are themselves victims of the system. Because ultimately, that's one of the main things the series is about. It's about what it's like to be simultaneously a product, and victim, of a corporate hellscape.

That theme simply can't work if the humans aren't also forced to navigate that issue. If the story can't acknowledge that right now, in our own world, there are humans facing these same problems, and that these human rights matter quite a bit.

[icyolive]

when you're really enjoying a modern au and they hit you with the most unhinged fashion-backward im-14-and-this-is-deephot cringe date night outfits. in detail.

[moleshow]

[dragonselkie]

wei ying 100% would start using the “I’m hanguang-jun’s husband” excuse to get away with stuff post-canon like before he had such a bad reputation, and pre-reincarnation he was feared, and now he’s at a market stall and bats his eyelashes like “but my husband is the hanguang-jun” and gets free food for it and he thinks it’s so funny

he’s at a conference and some annoying cultivators are making trouble cause they don’t recognize wei ying and wei ying (very loudly) goes “do you know who I’m married to?” and of course lan zhan appears out of nowhere immediately. wei ying has never been more smug

wei ying is a troublemaker at heart, and he loves to rub it in peoples faces that they can’t do anything about it anymore! his husband will come help him! haha!

[helpmeimblorboing]

Kinda fascinatingly how objectively fucked the Jiang home situation was. Like, you have this situation where "everyone knows" that Sect Leader Jiang loves Wei Wuxian so much and favours him over his actual son, INCLUDING his son, and. No. He does not.

You know what the last thing Jiang Fengmian, the man who supposedly "loves Wei Wuxian like a son" says to Wei Wuxian ? "A-Ying... look after A-Cheng". That's it. Not a goodbye, not a "take care of yourself", nada. Just instructions. Jiang Cheng gets "A-Cheng. Be well". Wei Wuxian gets told to ensure that

You know who else did pretty much the exact same thing, five pages ago ? Yu Ziyuan, who tells Wei Wuxian that "even in death, you have to keep [Jiang Cheng] safe"

I cannot stress enough that this is fundamentally the same interaction. Sure, Yu Ziyuan is infinitely harsher with her words and more abusive with her actions, but her last actions are an exact replica of her husband's - they comfort Jiang Cheng like parents, because they ARE his parents, and then they order Wei Wuxian to protect their son.

And that's why I'll never buy the idea that Jiang Fengmian loved Wei Wuxian more than he did his own son. He may have LIKED Wei Wuxian more, but that was because he LOVED the man Wei Wuxian reminded him of - his father Wei Changze. And he may not LIKE Jiang Cheng, for being more akin to Madam Yu than Fengmian, but it's undeniable that he loves him

And the real fucked part ? Wei Wuxian KNOWS this. He KNOWS that he's second-best !! He's accepted that !! You know who DOESN'T know that ? Jiang Cheng. Madam Yu. To a certain extent, I believe even Jiang Fengmian himself.

And also, this might be painfully old news by now, but also... Zidian unravelling itself when Jiang Fengmian touched it ? Both because it was obeying Yu Ziyuan's command to keep the boys safe - and to a certain extent she considered her husband's vicinity safety - and because she trusted him enough to make him one of Zidian's masters too ? Right after we see that Jiang Fengmian went out of his way to repair Madam Yu's hairpin for her ? This, after so many pages of everyone - including Madam Yu herself - insisting that the two hated each other ? Ugh

[valtsv]

fanfic titles be like “we have not touched the stars (nor are we forgiven)” and then you look at the tags & the first one is “anal fisting”

[greencephalopod]

rewatching Love Between Fairy and Devil and I think it really works that if you're going to have the male lead be in the dark dangerous alpha fuck prince model to have his love interest just be like a useless tamagachi (affectionate) that who is one missed feeding away from dying at any given moment.

I appreciate the writers figuring out that the power differential between THE MOON SUPREME and anyone is going to be so uncomfortably large even if the female lead eventually gets the power up that they're like what if she's a sad therapy plant that he has to water for most of the show until he gets sunk cost fallacy into becoming a plant dad? Flawless concept.

[asterrisms]

as a pink lover. The ""universal""" hatred of the color pink by young girls is due to the heavy expectation of femininity forced on them. It is an expression of frustration at gender roles. It is not internalized misogyny. No you will not inevitably start liking pink as an adult and if you do that is not healing your inner divine feminine or whatever we're saying now. Its a color. 😁👍

[alyona11]

I see everyone is hyped about Hua Cheng carrying Xie Lian in the new audio drama trailer. But can I suggest you Xie Lian carrying Hua Cheng?

[solastalgiart]

📸 | snapshot

xie lian soft-launches his bf hua cheng and the internet loses it

[mxtxfanatic]

It’s so weird reading fanfics from oldest to newest and literally seeing when authors go from relying on the text to write to relying on the fandom to write. Stories about Mu Qing and Feng Xin seeking out Xie Lian in attempts to mend their friendship that ends in eventual apologies from the duo turn into stories about how Xie Lian is hurting without his friends and must apologize to them for “how he treated them.” Stories about Xie Lian’s wacky adventures during his 800 years of banishment turn into Xie Lian gripped by fear that “maybe he is the plague god” and that’s why “he stayed everyone from everyone.” Hell, stories about Xie Lian’s cooking connecting him to his mother become him actually believing he’s a good cook and being hurt that others don’t like his food. Watching hualian fics go from Xie Lian being a well-adjusted character who loves life, loves his husband, and is entirely sure of himself to a character riddled with bullshit anxieties and insecurities that one would know didn’t exist if they were using the source material as the source of their fic and not viral fandom posts is just a very sad experience.

[criminalizegolf]

> read library book

> it's good

Thank you library

[fiercestpurpose]

> read library book

> it's bad

Thank you library for saving me from buying it :)

[bat-incooking-school]

Bare with me on this one

I find it hard to believe that Hua Cheng was hiding his motivations for challenging those gods. Like sure he didn't announce his reasoning (most likely to avoid implicating Xie Lian in his nonsense) but it probably wasn't all that hard to figure out either. And while he wouldn't be running around with a sign that says "from Xianle" taped to his back, things like his favorite philosophies to bring up during the debates or the style of his clothing would probably make that an easy thing to figure out (Alternatively everyone could just see who might have a reason to hate those 35 specific gods. List probably isn't all that long)

Au where heaven drags Xie Lian back up there to either a) demand to know why one of his citizens is doing this bullshit and did he order it, or b) demand that he take care of the problem somehow

[bat-incooking-school]

Pei Ming: Listen, I know a lot about desperate slut behavior-

Ling Wen: Congratulations on cultivating self-awareness

Pei Ming: -And this is a textbook case.

Mu Qing: What kind of sluts have you been hanging around?

Feng Xin: Desperate ones. Pay attention

Pei Ming: Back to my point! Maybe we can get this Hua Cheng to leave if we find the scrap collector and point the ghost in the right direction

[overthinkingmoth]

Ling Wen: your highness we called you here so that you tell your boyfriend to calm down

Xie Lian: my what.

Ling Wen: Crimson Rain sought flower...? the man who's been causing hell trying to avenge you...?

Xie Lian: I have never heard of this guy in my life

[bat-incooking-school]

Lol

Pei Ming (owner of the second largest collection of brain cells in heaven): None the less, this might be a task only you can accomplish. This ghost has a unique blade-

Xie Lian: 👀

Pei Ming: And possesses great skill-

Xie Lian: 😮

Pei Ming: And he has yet to be beaten

Xie Lian: 😳 Yeah I'll see what I can do

Feng Xin: How did you do that!?

Ling Wen: Dianxia is a former martial god who has not had a spar in decades. It hardly takes a genius

[dillytaunt]

Hua Cheng is Actually a God.

Just because he rejected heaven, doesn’t mean he rejected godhood. What he rejected was Jun Wu’s reign. And since he never gave that psycho a chance to shackle him, he couldn’t be considered anything less than a god. He passed the heavenly tribulation.

His first few believers were the people he sacrificed his eyeball for. Then, his first order of business was to slap 33 gods out of their posts and nab their followers. 2 birds, one stone.. or.. 33 birds?

The reason Jun Wu left him alone was probs not only because of his power (this dude was a Supreme Ghost King and an actual fricken God) but because Hua Cheng knew heaven was a scam. Hua Cheng was walking proof that Jun Wu was a fraud. Proof that Jun Wu’s “laws” weren’t divine laws.

What god was he? God of Luck, probably. Seems legit that the cosmic order would see fit to add a God of Luck since a God of Misfortune suddenly manifested due to belief

Speculative: You have to worship the God of Luck and the God of Misfortune together since if you only pray to the god of luck he won’t listen, and if you only pray to the god of misfortune.. well.. results may vary.

[lautakwah]

i think what really sets me off is that poetry, literature, and calligraphy were not only masculine pastimes to have (+ the scholar class was male-only, famously), nie huaisang focusing so much on them is reminiscent of chinese dynastic succession struggles. in the past, unambitious siblings would throw themselves into the arts, poetry, music, etc, while eschewing politics and power plays so their siblings who DID have ambitions for the throne wouldnt kill them. having martial and military power made you a threat, and with how the cultivation world at the time looked geopolitically, it was crucial for him not to attract too much attention (esp with what type of cultivation qinghe nie is known for). it's such a small detail but makes perfect sense, especially taking into account how he is meant to be a frivolous second young master and not the heir like his brother (where such a sentiment would be much more frowned upon). there is sm nuance to his character but western fans see his fans and how he has no idea how to pick up a sword and go "ok hes the effeminate limp wristed artist lol"

[rabbitcrimes]

can not stop thinking about the emergency room wangxian modern AU meet cute. Wei Wuxian has gotten something stuck up his ass, Lan Wangji has somehow gotten himself (minorly!) stabbed, they meet in the waiting room while Lan Wangji bleeds gently into his dress shirt, Wei Wuxian will not tell Lan Wangji why he's in the ER until Jiang Cheng comes over with like 4 bags of hot cheetos and an iced tea and says, to Lan Wangji, "do not talk to this man he has a tide pen stuck in his ass" and Lan Wangji says, politely, "I can't imagine that's large enough to have been worth it" and Jiang Cheng spills iced tea all down his front

[mxtxfanatic]

Where did the idea of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian being brothers come from? Is it some mistranslation from the novel? How'd it become so rampant in the mdzs community? I feel like most fandom treat them like brothers nowadays, I can't find a single post or fanart on my recommendation board that doesn't say they're brothers 😭

I think it mostly appeared from cql fandom bleedover, because the drama creates “yunmeng siblings” to fill in for the lack of wangxian. People who only read the book in order to understand cql’s jank plot structure then began to argue that the cql canon was the same as novel canon (or superior to, depending on the individual’s breed of arrogance). It only really became as popular as it did because a few big accounts got a hold of it, made cutesy art, fics, and memes about it, dogpiled anyone who said it wasn’t canon, and then when it stopped being fun for them, left mdzs to terrorize someone else’s fandom, so if you’re not finding an “origin point,” it might just be that the originator is long gone. Now people cling to it because of their own personal attachment to the idea rather than because there’s proof, and the situation has since escalated to the translator of the official English mdzs—who had already been called out for mistranslating certain parts of the text relating to Jiang characters and their relationships to Wei Wuxian—going on their professional-facing twitter to peddle the idea that Wei Wuxian was indeed actually, verifiably adopted into the Jiang Clan, blocking anyone who pointed out that this was factually untrue and a gross abuse of authority as a translator to spread.