“The Company Training Room…We Used To Sneak In There For Fun, When The 2nds Were Out…”

MDZS is about love. Not about romance.

Not to be fake deep but Wei WuXian’s “always remember human kindness, always forget bad things they’ve done to you” is one of the most powerful messages I’ve read in a long time. It’s not new, it’s not original but it doesn’t matter because now and forever, we’ll always need stories about love. And WWX is so good; he’s unbelievably good, illogically good, he’s good despite everything and everyone. His every decision is motivated by the purest, the kindest love. 

Honestly, if someone asked me what is MDZS about, I could go into details and try to explain its original plot full of twists, but I could also say it’s a story about love. I know what you think - “But Soshi, MDZS is a romance, it’s supposed to be about love. You didn’t discovered a new America”… The truth is no, not every romance is about love. Making your character declare sentimental confessions and kiss in the rain is not showing feelings. Compare to the pretty epic intrigues and plot twists, WWX and LWJ’s love story is anything but epic. Yeah, they have some big and dramatic scenes like fighting with the turtle or “come back to Gusu with me”, I can’t deny, but much more often their relationship is so down to earth and boring: they study together, they sleep together, they eat together, they travel together, hey drink together. WWX undresses LWJ when he’s drunk. LWJ carries WWX when he doesn’t feel well. And when they fight, instead of covering each other with their own bodies and screaming names, WWX and LWJ go separate ways, saying that they’ll meet later because everything is going to be all right. It’s so anticlimactic. It’s so normal. It’s so tender. Soft. And it doesn’t happen often, but when I am reading about them, I really fall in love with their love and think that I would like someone to love me as much as they love each other. Despite their fails and flaws - come on, this relationship is far from being perfect. Is there anything more beautiful than loving for imperfection? 

But this is all just a drop in the sea of love. WWX and LWJ’s love - romantic love - helps them keep going. Carry one. And take care of so many more people. Now I’m going to cry but MDZS is a romance story where romantic love is never ever portrayed as bigger than other kinds of feelings. It’s a story about friendships, siblings, parents and children, about born family, about made families, about human relationships and being good to everyone, because we never know what other people have gone through. It’s about Wei WuXian and Wen Ning and how some words, unimportant to us, may mean the world to someone else (or hurt, like during WWX and JL’s first meeting), how we should always smile because we never know when we’re going to change someone’s day. Good things are coming back, we can find love in a place we would never expected it to be. It’s a story about Jiang Cheng and how people wither without love. In the end, under the layers of complicated plans and difficult schemes, those characters are so simple. They just wanna feel loved. And if we had more people like the Lan brothers, if we were loved for who we are and not for who we are supposed to be, then we would have more WWX and less Jin Guangyao.

You know what I also appreciate, in some bitter sense? That the author doesn’t pretend everything is going to be fine and if you’re good, people will be good in return. Evil gives birth to evil. But evil things happen to good people. Even when they don’t deserve it. You can do everything, but someone will still stab you in the back. Life is brutal, full of loses, full of pain and tears. No matter how much you try, you’ll always face hate. And this life is worth living. That’s Wei WuXian’s message: happiness is a choice. It’s easy to present some happy-go-lucky epicure singing “don’t worry, be happy” but WWX is so beautiful because it’s not portrayed as something easy. Being happy is a hard work and requires too much effort… but in the end it’s worthwhile. Because you choose; to look at someone who stayed, to enjoy the meal, to drink, to laugh when you want to cry, to try, again and again and again. (Sorry, I became emotional writing it. That’s what good literature does to you) Still, it’s so hard to let go and never mourn what is gone but WXX makes a decision that he wants to focus on small things. I wrote about it before - WWX and LWJ’s love is built on little moments. It’s amazing: WWX’s name is repeated by mouths of the most important people, his actions affect politics and change the whole world! He’s the perfect chosen one! The most powerful! And yet… his reward in not a kingdom, or fame, or gold, or even being someone special. The only thing that matters is sleeping in peace, drinking good alcohol and enjoying music. This is why WWX does it. This is love. 

MDZS message is universal. Maybe it’s hard to imagine that we have an adopted brother for whom we sold our soul. But we can decide that children playing with their kites are enough to smile… or that we need position, money and respect to feel truly happy. Because you know… it’s all a matter of decisions. Sometimes we need a reminder that the smallest things are good enough to keep us alive.

unpopular opinion: the eragon books are unique and creative

like sure, they’re a bit derivative of Tolkien and the first book reads like it was written by a 16 year old, but they also have some absolutely fantastic and unique concepts and scenes that have stuck with me to this day, despite me having read them when I was 14 (okay yeah I’m affected by nostalgia but who cares?!?!) Like hear me out: Angela and her grumpy talking cat??? The little girl who Eragon accidentally curses to feel the pain of others?? Nasuada in the trial of the knives?? Safira crashing through the giant stained glass window?? Murtagh’s lengthy redemption arc??? THE FACT THAT THE ORCS ARE A WELL-DEVELOPED SPECIES and Eragon allies with them eventually?? The Heart of Hearts?? That scene where Eragon forges his sword?? Eragon’s cousin becoming a war general?? The entirety of the dragonriders??? Have I mentioned Nasuada and Murtagh who are still some of my favorite characters from literature??? So. Fucking. Great. And Unique. The Inheritance Cycle doesn’t deserve the hate it gets and I will absolutely fight you over this.

During a conversation with my manager this morning, she mentioned that her manager– the district manager– had told her that “We want people who are passionate about our products. We don’t want people working here if they’re doing it for the money.”

To which the manager (internally, because she doesn’t want to be fired), went “you’ve got to be fucking shitting me.”

Here’s the thing: it is totally possible to do a job for the passion and not be obsessively thinking about the money every minute of every day. In fact, there have been economic studies regarding that very thing.

You know when it starts?

When the employee in question is making $50-75k per year.*

That’s the starting point of financial security. That’s the point when you’re fairly secure that you’re going to have rent, food, and basic living expenses covered. 

I’ve worked a lot of jobs over the years. A lot. I saw the same working as a freelancer– when I charged lower rates, my clients treated me like shit and acted like they were doing me a favor; when I charged more, they respected me as a professional. A newspaper that started out paying me above market wage also treated me very kindly, because they started with the assumption that I was a human being who needs to eat.

In my experience, the employers that insist that your job be your “passion” are also the ones that pay you nothing and treat you like garbage. It’s exactly like abusive people, who tell you that you would put up with their abuse if you “loved them enough”. It’s a way of convincing the victim that they’re responsible for their own mistreatment, which is absolutely fucked up.

Here’s my advice to you:

It is absolutely okay to take a job that doesn’t pay you what you deserve–  you’ve got to eat, after all. But don’t think for a second that you have a responsibility to that job. If you see something available that pays better and treats you better, take it and don’t look back. Don’t waste an ounce of sympathy for employers who try to convince you that passion is an acceptable substitute for survival. 

Lawlu Mermaid AU: Headcanons

Law gets captured by fisherman and ends up in an aquarium where he’s tested and experimented on. 

Luffy has full access to the facility because his grandpa runs the place. He usually plays with the fishes and swims with the dolphins.

They meet because Law escapes from his tank and is need in water due to being out too long. Luffy drags him in a secret room where he places him in an underwater tube.

They become friends, well, Law doesn’t trust him automatically. Luffy proves it to him that he’s trustworthy.

Luffy helps Law escape by putting him in a barrel. He fooled everyone.

When Law finally gets back in the ocean, he ends up coming back, hoping to see Luffy again. He was smitten with him.

Luffy sees Law again and swims with him. Law wants to be with him so bad, but he can’t live on land. 

Law gets captured for a second time. But this time it was by Luffy, in another facility. Underwater. Luffy had asked his grandpa for a big favor.

Luffy now runs a facility below where he can be with Law and do research on marine animals. Law can go in and out as he pleases, while still being with Luffy.

*about to go into a dangerous situation*

A: Do you trust me?

B: No.

A: I'll take that as a yes.

WHY EVERY WRITER SHOULD READ FABLEHAVEN

It’s not because the writing is flawless because, let’s face it, Mull is wonderful at many things but he has no voice or style.

BUT

EVERY. WRITER. CAN. LEARN. FROM. HIS. VILLAINS.

Name one perfect villain. Voldemort? His weakness was arrogance and also breakable items. Galbatorix? Boring. The Ring of Sauron? Is that even a thing? Idk but it’s boring as well. Darth Vader?? Wasn’t he actually a good guy gone wrong? Idk guys I don’t watch these movies sorry.

BUT THE SPHINX

Fucking flawless villain.

He plotted and schemed for millenia. Literally. He was patient and cunning and always about fifty steps ahead of his enemies. He had no weaknesses.

Best of all, his ultimate plan was not to rule the world or achieve immortality or whatever. It was just to make the world a better place, and honestly, it might have worked. He had a whole system set up in advance, he had everything prepared to control the demons. The scariest part? He was so NOT power hungry that he was 100% willing to put his plan down and walk away if the demons were not willing to cooperate. After /thousands/ of years of preparation, he was totally fine with doing that. Because he wasn’t crazy. He was totally logical, totally reasonable. It’s almost terrifying how cunning and intelligent he was.

And he didn’t even hold anything against his enemies. He respected them, he never underestimated them. He played to their strengths and weaknesses perfectly so he could get exactly what he needed from them. They didn’t even realize that they had. (*cough*the dragon betrayal*cough*) and he promised amnesty to them should his plan ever come to fruition. He wanted them on his side and he totally understood that they never would be.

In fact, the only thing that caused his downfall was something he would not have had an iota of control over. I don’t want to give too many spoilers because ~read the books~ but if it weren’t for a betrayal that he never could have seen coming because it was literally in the makings for longer than he’d been alive, his plan would have totally succeeded. He had ALL the cards and he didn’t let his guard down even then. And once the betrayal happened, he joined forces with his enemies to bring down the demons.

The good guys NEVER would have succeeded without the Sphinx.

That’s. What. Makes. Him. A. Perfect. Villain.

Mom: Why can't you just trust me?

Me: trust isn't the issue one the table here.

Mom:then why can't we watch tv together?

Me: cuz you're as straight as a pencil and I'm too gay to function.

Mom: I thought you were ace!

Me: I still think girls are cuter than guys!

Okay I’m still not over Dead Apple

Sorry if it has already been said before, but I was thinking A LOT about one parallel.

It is situated at the beginning and in the end of the movie.

Two scenes paralleling each other perfectly. But at the beginning we can 100% agree that Dazai came here to commemorate his friend, and in the end of the movie… most of us couldn’t agree with Atsushi’s words because our opinions on Dazai can vary. Because everyone of us sees him differently, and so do other Bungou Stray Dogs characters. Mostly, they hate him for what he’s done. For his actions that broke people’s souls. For everything that still itches inside Dazai’s heart.

Dazai by himself thinks that he’s evil. And yes, he’s made lots of things that make him (and us) think so.

But Atsushi doesn’t have the same opinion.

Even knowing that Dazai has done lots and lots of bad things in his life, Atsushi still thinks of him as a good person.

And I think that this parallel shows us real Dazai. Because even if he himself doesn’t think so, he changes. Slowly, painfully, overstepping his past mistakes and accepting himself, but he changes. He’s still manipulative and he’s still doing everything to get what he needs even if it means he should injure somebody.

But Atsushi still sees a good person in him despite everything Dazai did and does. Atsushi, one of the few people, believes in him and in his kindness. Atsushi CAN see through his masks and CAN understand Dazai, so both of his phrases – at the beginning and in the end – are true. He’s confused because it’s obvious that Dazai came to the grave with a certain purpose and it’s obvious that Dazai has opportunity to be good.

And Dazai is shocked. He has not so many people who have seen through him so deeply and who have believed in him so sincerely.

Dazai is not an angel. He’s kind of devilish sometimes, sadistic, pain in his soul makes him want to end all of it. He hates pain. He hates the process of living. He hates himself. He can’t end it.

But when there are people like Atsushi around him, who believe in him despite of everything, he still can manage. Dazai still has a chance to become a better person, even if it’s not what he’s used to. And Atsushi several times showed that he’s here to save him.

Just like Dazai ones saved Atsushi.

I have more of these headcanons if anyone wants me to write them out. Give me a push and I will go gladly into that dark night.