Who do you think the enemy is?

I love videogames, books and animals.

[juneiper-art]

thinking about how people are drawing fanart of expedition 33 where there's happier times and better endings, which is actually what the game is about in terms of the power of art to process feelings and it's getting to me a bit

[vivilanlu]

Most of the mischaracterization Riza suffers from wouldn’t be nearly as popular if people actually understood why she follows Roy and it isn’t just love and loyalty.

One of the main reasons she stays by his side is because she sees herself as the guardian of flame alchemy. She’s trying to make sure of two things: 1. no one ever gets their hands on it again. and 2. the only person who can use it never misuses it again. That’s why she follows him. She has to. She’s watching the weapon she helped create.

And she has to keep him alive not only because he’s the one with the political power (meaning he’s her only real way to make sure the trials happen), but because he has to live long enough to atone for what he did with flame alchemy. The power SHE gave him.

From Riza’s point of view, every crime Mustang commits is hers too. Every time flame alchemy is used to kill that blood is on her hands too. Every person he killed is someone she killed by proxy.

She’s not just guarding him. She’s sharing his guilt. It’s like she’s trying to atone for her own sins, but he has to atone too so she can atone through him.

I think this Hannibal quote fits them really well: “You and I have begun to blur. Every crime of yours feels like one I’m guilty of.” Like yeah she obviously loves him. But reducing their relationship to just that completely flattens what’s actually going on.

[lladmie]

I think a lot of people don't realize just how well Jinshi understands Maomao. He's the first person to recognize that there's some spark within her. Long before she becomes consciously aware of it herself, he notices subtle shifts in the way she reacts to him and the contradictions between what she says and what she actually feels. He's desperate to pursue it and ignite a fire.

That's why he keeps pushing her at the beginning. Later, he realizes that this approach isn't the right one, and that's when he begins to mature emotionally, but there's a reason behind his persistence.

[snow124-art]

Some flowers for you

[lladmie]

A (maybe) not very popular opinion about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's ending. Major spoilers of the ending(s) ahead.

I've seen people discuss all sorts of interpretations when it comes to Clair Obscur's endings. Some focus on Maelle's and Verso's happiness, others on the power of creation and the responsibilities that come with it. Some debate how many lives are truly lost depending on which ending you choose.

But when I watched both endings and finally stepped back to look at the story as a whole everything screamed "Verso's Canvas is a metaphor for escapism".

Verso's Canvas plays the role art plays in real life. It's incredibly common for artists to use their work as a way to escape reality, especially when reality is painful. Art becomes a place where you can live the life you were never able to have, preserve what you've lost, or simply process emotions that would otherwise be unbearable. There's a reason artists are so often portrayed as troubled souls: some of the most meaningful art comes from humanity's darkest and most vulnerable places.

The game doesn't condemn the desire to seek refuge in the world you've created. On the contrary, it understands why someone would want to stay there. Leaving behind a place that gave you comfort, and one that you built yourself above that is painful. But what the story argues is that, while stepping away from that cherished place hurts, choosing to remain there forever is ultimately even more painful.

And that also limits your art.

Both endings convey this perfectly.

[user1159]

I HATE Jinshi from apothecary Diaries.

I feel like everytime he’s on Screen he like borderline assaults MaoMao.

In the first season he is shown to love making MaoMao uncomfortable or icked out which is just genuinely not okay.

And he’s also on multiple occasions FORCED MaoMao to have to stay in a situation with him that she clearly is trying to get out of.

I feel like it’s also important to state how in the first season MaoMao thought he was a eunach, which just makes all the “flirty” shit he pulled just gross bc of the information imbalance.

He also has an obsession with MaoMaos chastity which MaoMao has noticed which is just weird

And calling her “that girl” is just dehumanizing in a small way

I had an argument with someone about this and they said “it’s okay bc she’s right where she wants to be” (bc they end up together in the book from what I know) which just grosses me out bc it doesn’t excuse his disgusting behavior and she like is screamingly obvious about the fact that she doesn’t want to be in the situations he puts her in.

My opinion is that it’s never okay to make a person feel uncomfortable or unsafe on purpose, and it’s never okay to force someone into staying by blocking their exit.

He just really grosses me out and I NEED to know that I’m not the only one 😭.

[lladmie]

You may like it or not—I’m not going to judge your tastes—but characters in fiction are typically written with a specific objective or motivation. It starts with who they are, how they interact, and how those interactions shape their development.

Maomao is a girl who grew up in a brothel, and whose mother's life was ultimately destroyed because of... love. From the very beginning, she states that she doesn't believe herself capable of any kind of love. That includes friendship (which she only begins to understand later) and above all romantic love. As a reader or viewer, you're meant to realize that she isn't actually incapable of love. Rather, this belief is the result of one of her childhood traumas. Every interaction involving romance—especially those with Jinshi, since he's the one in love with her—makes Maomao deeply uncomfortable because it forces her to confront something she's spent her whole life rejecting.

Jinshi has a very different kind of trauma. It begins in childhood, when the toys he loved were repeatedly taken away from him because he had a tendency to become overly attached to them. As a result, his response is almost the complete opposite of Maomao's: he clings to the things and people he treasures. On top of that, Jinshi has several problems with his beauty and almost never had a genuine interaction or relationship.

The reason Jinshi and Maomao work so well is that they're meant to challenge each other and help each other grow. Jinshi constantly pushes Maomao out of her emotional comfort zone, forcing her to face feelings she'd rather ignore. At the same time, Maomao helps Jinshi recognize when his behavior crosses the line and teaches him that affection cannot be forced.

(It is also important to remember that neither of them knows what love really is. It's easy to forget that because we grow up surrounded by movies, books, and stories about love and relationships. We receive at least some form of emotional education through school, family, or simply by having access to the internet. Maomao and Jinshi have none of that. They live in a society where marriage is primarily about status and producing heirs, where women are expected to bear children for men who often have multiple wives or concubines. This is actually discussed in the novel!)

That said, I'd like to address your points:

Both Maomao and Jinshi make each other uncomfortable. In fact, that's often how they tease one another. Their relationship has always revolved around provoking actions and reactions. (And yes, there are moments where Jinshi crosses the line and forces romantic interactions, which is actually a plot point! The problem is that I often see people immediately calling him out for rape - Jinshi! Rape! - and, honestly, after almost 50 episodes with Jinshi being one of the central characters you should have a pretty good grasp of his personality, his flaws, and the intentions behind his action at least!)

What difference would it make if Jinshi were actually a eunuch? Minor novel spoiler: Jinshi was once almost raped by a eunuch, so the issue has never been about whether someone is castrated or not. Maomao is most definitely aware of this.

Jinshi is not obsessed with Maomao's chastity. There are two instances where he talks about it: 1) during the Shi Clan rebellion where he's really worried about her and the possibility that they raped her, and 2) when she was working as a courtesian, and it's only natural that he struggles with the thought of her being involved with someone else. Maomao consistently misinterpret his questions because she refuses to believe he has feelings for her (we already talked about her trauma)

Within the context of the story, it's actually far more weird for Jinshi to call Maomao by her given name. It's a matter of language and culture. Addressing someone by their first name is a very intimate gesture, and doing so would openly reveal that he has a personal attachment to her. As the head of the Inner Court, he is expected to remain impartial, while Maomao is merely a servant. Showing favoritism would be highly inappropriate. That's precisely why he's embarrassed to call her "Maomao"—because, from his perspective, doing so is almost a confession of his feelings.

[gabbiecasso]

Parents

[shuravf]

Maomao is back!

(and Jinshi too I guess)

[remy-frenchrat]

majimako the hetero ship that's so tragic it feels gay

[lladmie]

I recently joined another discussion about the LN5 epilogue, and honestly, I'm not ready for the anime to make it popular.

What frustrates me isn't just the wave of people labeling Jinshi as the Worst™ person ever, but also the opposite — those who reduce the entire scene to just "BDSM". (Suprise, suprise, the world isn't black and white.)

It has become a convenient excuse to strip Jinshi of any real accountability. Jinshi makes mistakes, too. Reacting the way he does when Maomao keeps pretending nothing is happening isn't out of character for him since he is 1) a powerful man, spoiled and childish and 2) young, frustrated and inexperienced.

Neither Jinshi nor Maomao truly understands what love is. They've never seen it, and no one has ever explained it to them. And I challenge you to try to always remain composed while someone keeps feigning ignorance the way Maomao does.

One of Jinshi's greatest qualities is that he listens, and he learns. The reason their dynamic evolves — and the reason Maomao will eventually be able to confront her emotional wall — is precisely because Jinshi never stops learning.

Reducing that scene to "abuse" or "kinky fanservice" completely misses how crucial it is for both Jinshi and Maomao's character arcs.

[cokalee]

Sherlock and her Watson

[augustinamiaumiau]

If you don’t understand why it is important for Maomao and Jinshi to end up together, then you don’t fully understand Maomao’s character. Maomao’s character arc is built in such a way that accepting a relationship with Jinshi is a necessity for it to work.

It takes so long for them to be together because a main character’s arc resolution has to happen at the end of the story (which Natsu originally intended to be volume 12).

Maomao starts the story believing in the anti-theme, essentially the opposite of the main theme:

“To be loved, even just for a little while—that’s a wonderful thing. You almost… start to think it means there’s a place you belong.”

—Chue’s line to Maomao

This is what Maomao ultimately needs to understand. Because of her ghost (an often traumatic event that gives a character their main flaw or incorrect worldview) so in her case not receiving love as a baby, Maomao grows up overly reliant on logic and repressing her emotions. This emotional repression is the anti-theme.

A few examples:

She can’t admit to Jinshi that she wants to help Xiaolan because Xiaolan is her friend.

She refers to Luomen as her mentor rather than her father figure in front of Jinshi.

This flaw creates her want, which we see in her goal: to maintain her life exactly as it is. At the beginning of the story, she has no plans to make friends, find a partner, or form new relationships. She is comfortable with the relationships she has always had with her sister and her father because they don’t challenge her emotional repression. And this is why she runs away about any clue related to Jinshi’s real identity, because she doesn’t want their dynamic to change.

For this type of character, who has a maintenance goal rather than an active one, there need to be other forces or characters who drive the plot. That’s why the story begins with her being kidnapped, and why Jinshi takes more plot-changing actions than she does.

However, what a character wants is not necessarily what they need. Jinshi already believes in the theme, which is why his main goal is to be with Maomao. But while his goal is correct, the way he goes about it is flawed. Jinshi needs to learn to be less possessive, which ties into another theme of the story: autonomy.

Jinshi’s possessiveness is rooted in his own ghost, having the toys he loved as a child taken away from him. As a result, he clings too tightly to the things and people he cares about.

This is why Maomao and Jinshi complement each other. Throughout the story, Jinshi challenges Maomao to open up emotionally, while Maomao’s emotional repression forces Jinshi to unlearn his possessive behavior. In other words, if Maomao were like many other girls who are immediately smitten with Jinshi, he would never have learned to let go. And if Jinshi were not so possessive and stubborn in his pursuit of her, Maomao would never truly open up emotionally, something that Joka herself acknowledges.

„Maomao, you’re very fortunate. This person is clearly very persistent, extremely stubborn, doesn’t know when to quit—”

„Gee, he sounds like a real catch,” Pairin interjected, but Joka ignored her.

“—and is good enough that even you were willing to let him win.”

In volume 12, Maomao is willing to give up her want: to maintain her life the way it is, for her need: to be with Jinshi, even though he is still the Moon Prince and, as she strongly suspects and later confirms in volume 13, the Emperor’s son. In other words, choosing Jinshi means abandoning the emotional safety of maintaining her old, controlled life and accepting love, belonging, and the complications that come with them.

In volume 15, Jinshi is willing to give up his want: to be with Maomao, for his need: learning to let go by prioritizing Maomao’s autonomy over his own desire.

Maomao moves toward connection by surrendering control while Jinshi moves toward healthy love by surrendering control.

[augustinamiaumiau]

Because someone expanded on Jinshi’s childhood trauma in the reblogs, I think it’s only fair to do the same for Maomao.

The reason Maomao’s biggest emotional blockage must be resolved through her love interest is not because the story prioritizes romantic love over platonic or familial love, but because Maomao’s core emotional barrier is specifically romantic and sexual in nature.

She is the product of a love that ended tragically and grew up in an environment where intimacy is treated as a loveless commodity, used by courtesans to survive and, hopefully, escape the brothel, and by men to take pleasure while exploiting a misogynistic system to their advantage through abuse.

One of Maomao’s earliest mysteries back home is also among the darkest and most tragic: a wealthy man repeatedly gives courtesans false promises of freedom, only to discard them once they are no longer useful to him. This ultimately leads to at least one courtesan taking her own life.

Maomao herself is also a victim of multiple attempted sexual assaults and was forced by the woman who breastfed her, and whom she considers a sister, to learn how to kiss.

Jinshi, meanwhile, grew up in a strikingly similar environment. He became the manager of the Rear Palace at just thirteen and was involved in his brother’s love life from a young age: learning his tastes in women, preparing bedchambers, and being used to identify unfaithful consorts. He, too, was nearly sexually assaulted multiple times and learned early on to weaponize his beauty to manipulate others.

“She was finally back in the red-light district for which she had pined all those months in the rear palace, but deep down they were the same place. Both were gardens and cages. Everyone in them was trapped, being poisoned by the atmosphere.”

— Volume 1

Both Maomao and Jinshi were raised in deeply misogynistic, highly sexualized environments, which ultimately led them to reject that world. Maomao does not want to become a courtesan like her sister, and Jinshi does not want to have a harem like his “brother.”

As a result, Maomao grew up believing that love and sexual relationships only benefit men:

“The courtesans had a saying: once you know it, it’s hell.

But the men, too, had a saying: to know it was exactly why they went there.

That word—that simple four-letter word with its o and its e—was sometimes called vulgar, sometimes treated as nothing more than a game. But some people said it was impossible to live without it.”

— Volume 5

[worldof-p]

[deadsprout]

i dont want to be in a fandom that critisizes the choices of fictional characters like they are human beings. i want to see THEORY and ANALYSIS and STORY STRUCTURE and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!! I WANT PARALLELS AND MOTIFS AND VISUAL CUES!!! They're not REAL they are TOOLS so stop acting like they are people who made bad choices and should be punished. of course they made bad choices!!! that shit is funny and cool to watch!!

[h0estar]

jinshi becoming the emperor is a popular ending that some fans want. however, while i do see the appeal, i'm still actively against it, and the reasons most fans give for why he shouldn't become emperor feel a bit lacking.

it's always:

he's insecure

he's horrible at delegating tasks

he's too kind, and the emperor's role would force him to act against his morals, and the weight of it all would eventually kill him emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically.

BUT i have yet to see anyone else bring up jinshi's line in LN 13, where he explicitly states that the reason he is not interested in the throne is because he does not want to be in a position where NO ONE CAN STAND BESIDE HIM—not even the empress.

while most of the listed reasons are correct, i feel this one holds the most importance. not just because it came directly from jinshi himself, but because it speaks to who he is as a character and person. it's not solely because he dislikes the heavy responsibility that comes with ruling a nation, or he feels like he's lacking in many areas, but because he has a bleeding heart that longs for nothing more than a real, genuine connection with people all his life.

i once read in a reddit thread where someone made a distinction between the current emperor and jinshi. they said, ‘one is the son of heaven and the other is just a man.’ that sentence has stuck with me ever since.

jinshi is someone who has longed to be seen all his life. not as a celestial nymph or a heavenly being, but just a man—a human being who can be scarred, wounded, bruised, brought low, and show weakness. an emperor's position does not—cannot—allow any of that.

he works well when he's actively involved with the people he wants to help; he thrives when he sees his beloved apothecary getting to do what she loves, and he has no issues getting mocked and insulted if it means helping people in any way he can.

i just feel like jinshi has so much love to give. let him walk with the people he cares for deeply! let him be imperfect like everyone else! don't place him somewhere so high up, not even the love of his life can reach him.

i hope the author knows how to conclude his character, given how deliberately she's been writing him. jinshi is undoubtedly a great leader, but i don't think he will ever become a great emperor.

[tomochingus-moved-courtmartialm]

i bought the fma perfect guidebook today and this part of the cover is so cute i had to redraw it

[mywifeisgoromajima]