your abstract concept fucking bit me
Obsessed with how, in addition to being generally stunning, this illustration makes Wwx finding the sword inside the Xuanwu look like the world’s most fucked up version of the sword in the stone
one of the things i love about young royals is that the s1 tagline being “love or duty” leads you to believe this is going to be like all of the other cliche royal/commoner modern romances where the journey ends with wilhelm realizing he can have both
but then the show is actually an interrogation of how the protagonist cannot maintain his role within the monarchy and have a healthy relationship because no one can be a fully realized individual within a hierarchical colonial institution AND coming into queerness is a stepping stone to the self realization that ultimately frees him AND it is actually the antagonist who gets trapped within the monarchy (while also losing love) proving that upholding the power of the ruling class is a narrative punishment instead of a reward… perfect show
what is going on behind those eyes
I’M JUST TRYING TO PLAY MY SILLY LITTLE GAME
One underrated aspect of MDZS is that usually when you have a love story where one of the lovers die, the lover who is alive is responsible for the dead person to come back to life. Think of princesses whose tears are life-giving, or princes who deliver the true love's kiss, or quests to the underworld seeking one's beloved. MDZS, though? LWJ is all but irrelevant when it comes to WWX's resurrection. So much so that even CQL, which plays up all romance tropes they possibly can, keeps that irrelevance