#*explaining

[greekschist]

okay an ask for an ask- rank the characters from Journey to the West + explanations

1. sun wukong

you knew i was going to put him first. i knew i was going to put him first. he’s impulsive, way too immortal, way too powerful, and is basically a nuclear bomb waiting to explode. but the way he behaves is so interesting and human, as he’s meant to be, even more so as the journey goes! (also he’s so funny.) wukong acts how we would act, especially because he’s an allegory for the mind.

after getting kicked out of the squad, he returns to find his home in shambles and ends up storming the residence of the monster enslaving his monkeys, rescuing them and partying like crazy afterwards. which is how we would behave if we had all these built up emotions and issues! wukong takes his anger out on the demon kidnapping his people and then chooses to forget about everything else in favor of having fun because it’s easier to party than to face your emotions.

2. sha wujing

he’s a nice guy!! and probably the only one with consistently functioning brain cells!! he’s smart, determined, mentally aware, kind, albeit a little naive. he genuinely cares about the journey and his friends and does his part in rescuing tang sanzang. he understands the importance of the trip and tries to keep everyone on track but he still understands the need to occasionally have some fun. wujing’s innocence literally is shown by how easily he trusts others, he’s a good dude, okay? it’s a shame how little he’s discussed.

3. (?) guanyin

i put a question mark because i cant decide where guanyin, sha wujing, and bai longma should go. but i like her! guanyin is mostly popularized as feminine (transfem specifically, she was born as a prince) but i’ve learned that she’s traditionally nonbinary so i’m going to refer to them as she/they for now. uh yeah, they’re super cool and a big help on the jttw. also i love when she and wukong gear up to kick ass together while they banter along the way. what a duo.

3. bai longma

it’s a shame how little HE’S discussed. easily the most underdeveloped member of the group, to the point that the author basically forgets his existence every time sanzang is kidnapped. he’s a fucking dragon, he could have solved multiple issues just by turning back into a dragon but nooooooo. but he’s a constant on the journey and when he DOES do something, he tries his best. it’s not his fault for being ignored! he’s doing the best he can and i support him.

4. tang sanzang

he’s a model buddhist and a kind hearted person but he’s basically useless. even the horse carried sanzang on his back the whole time but sanzang just basically got captured the entire journey. nice dude and very law abiding but that’s not going to get him too far on a road filled with demons.

5. zhu wuneng

literally the cause of 75% of their problems. the allegory for the worst traits of mankind. i think this was pretty obvious. (i do think he’s relatable and funny but he just fucks up too much shit that he could have most definitely prevented if not for his base desires.)

[shrimp-colours]

So you know how Destiel keeps going canon? Biden keep winning the presidency.

[blazeball]

(jessica art by fairchart on twitter) this is all thats been going through my mind since i listened to the musical two days ago

[IMG ID:  An edit of the "wow! cool robot" meme where the Transformer is replaced with a picture of Jessica Telephone from Blaseball: the Musical. Facing the picture of Jessica is a cartoon person's head saying, "Wow!! hot Jessica". Text is being "shot" going over the head, which reads, "Sebastian was constantly overshadowed by his twin and struggled with abandonment issues after she left him for the spotlight". END ID]

[spookuns-moved]

500/1000 words minimum reached ✌️

[anghraine]

I’m going to fucking scream if I hear about coastal elite states one more goddamn time

Yes, I live in an Official Coastal Elite State. Oregon, even! I’m less than thirty miles outside of Portland, a city of godless liberals that is currently rioting against Trump.

...and I’m in a rural, conservative county, like most counties in Oregon

But maybe all this shows is that Oregon is not that Coastal Elite? Something like New York—

Look.

Even for those of us huddled in liberal coastal enclaves, rural communities are not some distant world. They’re right here. And for plenty of us?

Our dislike isn’t because they’re alien. It’s because we’re from them and got the hell out. Not just social values, either, though those can be plenty soul-killing. But I was born in eastern Oregon, okay? My family left because my dad’s business degree couldn’t get us anything when there were NO JOBS. We wanted a bit more from life than a shitty single-wide in the desert, God forbid.

That’s not everyone’s background. But jfc, I am so tired of this narrative of Middle America vs coastal states detached from Real Life. The blue state/red state divide is not, fundamentally, Urban States vs Rural States. All the states are both. The difference is in how urbanized they are, how much they’re dominated by cities.

In Oregon, 60% of the population lives in the Portland area. Portland’s county, Multnomah, is currently going 76% HRC to 17% Trump. In Pennsylvania, Hillary won Philadelphia by an even more enormous margin (82-15), but it’s still not enough to offset her losses elsewhere in the state. In Georgia, Atlanta is heavily liberal—not enough to carry the state, but the day is probably coming. 

Certainly there are variations in local culture, there are regional loyalties, there are more or less pressing issues depending on the make-up of the state. Lots of factors at play here. But the greatest divide is so clearly urban/rural. Portlanders don’t need to go to Arkansas to understand the lives of Trump voters. We can just go down Highway 30.