Every now and then I’m reminded of just how strong Xie Lian is; and not only physically. Emotionally, empathetically, he’s on a completely different level than any other character, even for MXTX works.
This is the guy who fell from the heavens while attempting to save his people. Who died over and over again, who was buried alive, stabbed and starving, and ready to break, ready to take the whole world down… and with one person’s kindness, a single action of humanity, didn’t. He’s a walking disaster of bad luck.. that he chose to be as penance for his near revolt. He acts humble to the rest of the heavenly officials even though, as Hua Cheng points out, he by no means should; he’s easily well worth more than the rest altogether.
Basically you have this humble little guy who has smarts and skills beyond reason, who has seen shit you would not believe, and he’s still a sweetheart more worried about the welfare of everyone else around him than his own.
Thank goodness Hua Cheng found him so someone can give him the hugs he deserves.
Misogyny in the story of Project Moon (Lobotomy Corporation)
LONG POST MANY IMAGES
Go Visit its post and give it support for the great overview of the topic if able!
[ID: Post going over the themes of misogyny in Lobotomy Corporation:
(image 1):Ultimately the difference between Ayin's treatment of Angela and Carmen lies in the concept of intentional misogyny, assertion of power, and the goal to demean and belittle; verses what I like to call unintentional misogyny, the way men might engage in behaviours harmful to the women they value, purely because misogyny is so deeply rooted in society and culture that men themselves don't even realise how damaging their actions truly are.
(image 2): Angela is repeatedly refused humanity and beaten into submission by a person who was supposed to love her, whom she was supposed to trust. She has no say in her life, her behaviour, her attire, her own body doesn't belong to her and nor does anything else in the corporation, apart from the twisted satisfaction and feeling of superiority she draws from her suffering.
(image 3): opening a bracket, here; {They say women in high positions of power tend to behave like men, and you can see that shine true with Angela, both in Lobotomy Corporation and in Library of Ruina.
In Lcorp, her mistreatment and belittlement of the sephirot, aside from its necessity for hte script, is also carried out by Angela's desire to gain some semblence of control over her life, as Second in command, the next highest authority in the facility.
In the library, her demand that all the librarians bow down to her does not seem to register in her mind as something unjust, yet, to an extent, she's treating them in much the same way Ayin treated her, expecting obedience and lashing out when that's not what she gets. }
(image 4): Ayin means to make Angela feel lesser, to drill the idea through her skull that she doesn't deserve comfort, doesn't deserve kindness and doesn't deserve humane treatment, be she isn't human and never will be. He pins his own mistakes onto her; she's his failed experiment, not the person he wanted her to be not a person he tries to get to know and, maybe, love. Not a person at all.
Her beauty is superficial, her attempts to crawl closer to humanity just to appease him don't move him at all, and he never treats her like an equal because to him, she isn't one. He refuses to take accountability of his own shortcomings and instead projects everything onto Angela; if only she were better; If only she were more human, more to his liking, he wouldn't act like this. Excuses, but petty ones.
(image 5): Angela has no way to voice her complaints. She has nowhere to run and nobody to turn to, and Ayin holds so much power over her that safety and physical or mental integrity aren't guaranteed should she try to act out. He made her and he can unmake her.
She has no choice but to fall in line, the sarcasm and passive aggressiveness sprinkled across her monologues her one and only outlet to express her distaste semi directly.
(image 6): I want to get into character design and the concept of "the ideal woman", briefly. Angela's design in Lobotomy Corporation, from her outfit to her body type and the way she holds herself, it's all stereotypically more feminine than what we see of Carmen, and whether that was intentional by the devs or not, it still adds to her themes of objectification, and the idea that women are valued more for their appearance rather than a personality they're often not allowed to let blossom and show through. The curves of her body are accentuated and her clothes and shoes are significant;y more tight fitting and impractical than Carmen's (which also restricts freedom of movement, unlike Carmen's more loose, comfortable choice of outfit, you can't run in a pencil skirt and heels). Interestingly, this is one of the very first things that Angela points out to you: "I was created with attractiveness to the largest number of people in mind", in much simpler terms: "I am an object". Created to look a specific way for a specific reason and allowed no authority over how her own body would look, how she would be perceived by others. She knows she was intended to be eye candy, if not more, but she's powerless to change it .
(Image 7): Carmen is different. Carmen is beloved and held in high regard by friends and co-workers alike. She's perfect and knowledgeable and can never do wrong, Carmen is basically god.
Except she isn't. Carmen is a woman.
(Image 8): Here's where the accidental disregard for women's feelings come into play; with Angela, Ayin intends to hurt. With Carmen, he does so without realising. We know very little of Carmen, and most of it isn't even her own word, but rather the words of others, of people who adored and looked up to her and never understood that she was just as flawed and fragile as hte rest of humanity, until it was far too late. She's not allowed to be much of a person; She feels more like the concept of righteousness, of benevolence and perfection condensed into a singular being. People don't acknowledge the woman underneath the façade. Who is that woman anyway? Do any of us really know Carmen? Ayin loved her like she was his light, his only reason for existing, forgetting, perhaps, along teh way, that there was more to her than she let on, if only he cared to peel back the layers she hid her true self behind.
(image 9): Could she truly have been herself around him, fully, when he loved her like a god? Its frustrating, because she makes an effort to reach out; "I've got the weakest heart of all", an admission of fragility, one that still went ignored in her time of utmost need. No one believed she would do it. They trusted Carmen do be their unfaltering beacon but one person cannot become the sun, and the higher you raise them in your attempt to deify, the harder they'll fall. Ayin was the only person that could have helped Carmen, had he taken notice of her mental collapse, but he waited too long, had too much faith in his almost god-like perception of a woman who was just as mortal as he was, if not even more so. Because Carmen wasn't some unreachable star whose light would never fade, yet the research teams (Giovanni and Ayin in particular) near reverence of her as one, putting a disproportionate amount of responsibility on her shoulder and hailing her as the city's brilliant saviour, ultimately asphyxiated her silently until she reached a point of no return.
(image 10): That trope of the bright eyed girl who will come to lift you out of your depressive stupor; I think Carmen is intended to play on this fantasy a lot of men have, of a woman swooping into their life to fix them and dedicating all of her light to brighten up their world while they make minuscule if not non-existent efforts to understand or console her. Manic pixie dream girls aren't presented as people, they're presented as objects of affection and adoration, Lobotomy Corporation just explores the human side of one such woman.
I don't mean for this to come across as me bashing Ayin. I don't think he's the devil incarnate, he's just. A man.
It’s so strange for me, that some anti Alex blogs are cheering on any Lewis and Kim news, so Charles and Alex (acc them attention seekers) are loosing the Ferrari pr game and nobody will be interested in them in the paddock. IMO, as much as Charles curates his (and his familiy’s) public image, I don’t think this is attention seeking. I think he measured exactly how much he shows about the wedding. TBH I don’t give a damn about kk in the paddock or anywhere. I hate this lh8 hype everywhere.
If anyone is hyping up Kim K appearing in the paddock they seriously need to do some self reflection 💀 You are on the wrong side, boo boos, the wronnngggg side.
And I cannot imagine actually caring about a non-celeb wag enough to be crafting these narratives. Weird behavior imo.
