Wei Wuxian 🤝 Cale Henituse

I am but Sisyphus, pushing the boulder uphill, hoping for respite, damned by my own hubris. (I’m taking three (3) writing interviews courses and I have no one to blame but myself.)

big fan of characters whose first and greatest indicator of something being deeply wrong with them is how chill they are and how quickly they rebound

me, starting d gray man and seeing Allen: what a nice, polite young man :)

me, seeing Allen gamble: what a… nice?… polite young man :)

me, seeing Allen get into arguments and fight with Kanda and Cross: what a… nice?… polite?… young man :)

me, finding out more about the 14th situation: what a… nice?… polite?… young?… man :)

I can’t remember if it was in any of the extras, but I desperately want to know what mortals thought of the whole situation after Xie Lian’s third ascension.

like the heavenly emperor was overthrown. An ancient curse/plague descended upon a city and was prevented by the same god who was blamed for it the last time. The heavens soared across the sky, pursued by a giant statue of that same god.

Did they ever find out how utterly insane Jun Wu was? Did they learn about how he sabotaged the Prince who Please the Gods into becoming the god of misfortune?

The plays must have gone crazy in the few years after. Either they knew some stuff and that’s wild enough on its own, or they came up with some shit that had to be equally batshit.

Tragic Villain Rant (ig???)

so, this is my first post (no idea what I’m doing), but I just kinda want to vent/rant about tragic/sympathetic villains.

obviously, when looking at villains and analyzing, taking into account motivations and past traumas that lead up to their current actions is vital! It can change the message behind a story, the impact on characters within the narrative itself, etc. And there’s nothing wrong with liking a villain (regardless of redeemable qualities) and finding aspects sympathetic!

that being said, I just get so frustrated sometimes when all I see about a villain is their tragic backstory. What about the implications and consequences? The aftermath? I know people who like these characters usually don’t actually ignore/excuse the terrible things they do, but still.

might get some hate (if anyone sees this, which is doubtful), but this is somewhat specifically about Sephiroth and Shen Jiu, though there are others

personally, I’m not the biggest fan of modern aus (the more distance from real life the better lmao), but in particular the significant traumas of the characters don’t always translate well (which… maybe the point actually). But seeing how the author does is always interesting! that said, here’s how the closest I can think of for a dgm modern au:

Allen: if you cut out the whole past self and possession situation, up until the Order, it’s pretty one to one. As a child, he had a limb difference and was trafficked. He met Mana and Allen the dog, the dog died, the place he was trafficked to burns(? maybe attacked and he was spared out of pity?) Due to the trauma of the incident, Mana gets worse, thinks Allen is Allen the dog and then they live on the streets until Mana’s death. Occasionally Mana mistakes him for Nea to keep that aspect of the trauma. Allen is attacked shortly after, survives, and is eventually taken in by Cross (and his debts). He gets a few stalkers or already has them and finds out later.

Lenalee: once again, the fighting is a bit tricky for a plain old modern au, but I can make some things work! After her parents died in an attack, she was adopted out of China into England to an abusive family. Eventually Komui was able to get custody of her… I’m unsure/doubtful he would actually be able to do this with the systems in place, so maybe foster care would work better?

Kanda: A cult??? I guess? And Alma died setting a fire maybe? Unless you want unethical government experiments in your modern au!

Lavi: … I don’t know about this one. A very emotionally distant family that shamed any expression of emotion or connection as weakness? But it doesn’t have quite the same implications, I think.

Miranda: Pretty easy! She’s still miserable and can’t keep a job. Poor Miranda.

Alistar: A bigoted, isolated small town? Very tough on this one. Maybe such a small town that superstition still runs strong and he was run out of town during a series of disappearances (actually caused by his girlfriend, Eliade).

Timothy: Pretty much the same. Abusive father who was eventually jailed for thieving, the orphanage where he lived had money trouble and he started stealing himself. Not sure where the trauma from the orphanage being attacked could fit in.

Mana: A crime family/mafia?? His brother (for reasons we aren’t sure of yet) went on a rampage and managed to take out most of the family, forcing Mana to kill him.

Link: he and his siblings/friends from the streets are adopted by a corrupt government official.

I enjoy this so very much because I’ve already been making jokes that Allen is somehow his own father in such a convoluted way.

Like his adoptive father is Mana, whose brother is Nea. Nea is possessing Allen, thus inhabiting the same body and making it not only his, but also his uncles body; you might think this is where it ends. But Mana and Nea are two halves of the same individual. So Allen is possessed by half of his adoptive father’s soul. Thus he is his own father.

If I integrate this new, fresh theory, I can now joke that Allen is both his own biological and adoptive father.

If past!Allen and past!Lavi got orbed to make Allen, does that make them Allen's biological parents? Since Bookman is past!Lavi's father, does that make him Allen's grandfather?

everyone (but especially Cross and Mother) watching Allen Walker

a pet peeve I have in media is when the writer(s) try to write a strong female character and instead the just write a masculine woman. Of course woman can be masculine and strong (together and separately), but often I don’t feel like they write women who are masculine, they try to write a strong women and they can only conceive masculinity as strength. Also, I’m not sure if I’m phrasing this poorly, but it doesn’t always strike me that they write masculinity in the way a woman (or maybe a genderqueer person, though I haven’t had the pleasure of reading many original media featuring these characters prominently) might experience/express it.

one thing I appreciate about Xena as I’m rewatching it as an adult is that it feels like they’re women who have masculine traits/are masculine. Like, even beyond the fighting aspect, Xena often sits in stereotypically masculine way and takes charge/fulfills roles that are shown to be taken by men within the world they occupy. Additionally, I know that later, Gabrielle is joked to be “father” to Xena’s daughter, but I’m not that far yet, so I don’t know how far that’s taken.

idk, it just feels different to me. If anyone else has input/polite pushback I’d appreciate it/conversation! Or any other pieces of media that do this/explore women’s masculinity/gender expression/afab exploration of masculinity.