GGaD » Cosmic Dim. (V. XVIII), You're Correct but You're Not Right

GalaxianExplosion · June 27, 2021 19:52:18

Okay, so normally, I try to be tolerant of what others ship. That's exclusive of problematic ships, like those between close blood relations (siblings...and more that I don't feel like specifying, exactly), between a person and another person when at least one of them would be uncomfortable being in a relationship (whether in general or because they aren't interested in the other person), for those where the relationship involves violence, and things like that. But generally, I don't really care what people ship, y'know?
That was kinda my stance for Yali Shanda x Li. I personally couldn't fathom ever shipping them, or even friendshipping them, but I thought maybe the part of the fandom interpreted plot in a way or something that would make the ship work. The ship slightly irked me, I'm not going to lie, maybe because Li's one of my favorite characters, and generally if any ship regarding my favorite characters implies their unhappiness in any part of it, I'm more prone to having a negative opinion on it. But, like, whatever, right? Can't judge before I actually know what's going on.
Except today I actually went about exploring parts of the fandom that ship Li and Yali Shanda, and now the ship has lost what respect I had for it.
Why? Because the ship is, first and foremost, without speaking of all the problems it has, rooted in just the two of them looking similar/both looking handsome and having acted similar before. Of course, both of them "looking handsome" would mean that if that were the case for any relationship between them, then that'd be infatuation, not a freaking relationship. And of course, I would argue that Li's far from someone who would look at someone and come to form a "relationship" with them based on how they look. I'd even go as far to argue that Yali Shanda wasn't and isn't that sort of person himself.
Then onto the problems. I saw things scattered throughout the people revolving around this ship (it's called "Yali," with "li" in the latter part being Li's Li instead of Yali Shanda's "li") that were extremely problematic. One of the details I can remember is them going, "That's the first time Yali Shanda was violent against Li!" while treating it like a good thing, like "one-case domestic" violence is okay or whatever. Like, one, it's not just him hitting Li, it's him spearing Li through the gut with a spear. Figuratively, in a sense, but technically, doing so is mental torture. So no, it's not okay, and above all, that's not romantic. Second, to add onto that, that wasn't the "first time." Before that, Yali Shanda had literally been trying to pressure Li to disappear, the equivalent of trying to make Li just cease to exist. That's pretty violent if you ask me (': . And even for the more neutral viewpoints I saw, like "Li is kinda being dumb, he shouldn't be provoking Yali Shanda," like bruh, he's almost gone existentially??? He can't wait or else he literally won't be able to do anything??? What are y'all saying??? Part of Chinese culture is extremely bad in that it sometimes normalizes domestic violence, with men who hit women less than other men being better. But in my view, both of those hypothetical men would be trash. Same goes for women who hit men, women who hit women, men who hit men--the concept's inclusive of all genders. It's not okay to be violent towards someone, and even less so when it's being violent towards someone who's supposed to be extremely special. And when a ship revolves around a pair of people where at least one of them has clearly been subjected to violence by the other in canon, that's extremely problematic and unacceptable.

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 27, 2021 20:05:29

I personally dislike imposing romantic/sexual orientations on fictional characters who don't belong to oneself, mostly because I feel like it's unlikely that anyone outside of the author really understand the character in that way. Of course, if inferences are made based on evidence, it's not like I'm against it--and even without evidence, I do understand why people do it. So when I say that "I don't think Li really is interested in romance at the moment," I'm not saying that I think he's aromantic, or asexual, or cisromantic/cissexual, or bisexual/biromantic, or whatever. I'm just saying that the story hasn't shown him ever really wanting to find someone, and so I presume that he probably doesn't have the interest in finding a special someone at the moment at least. Same goes for Yali Shanda--it doesn't seem like either of them have an interest in that and probably just have better things to do at the moment than trying to be a part of a couple.
And technically, this isn't all that important of a fact in terms of the "Yali" ship I was discussing above, but it does kinda play into me being skeptical of any ships involving Li.

I gotta say, though, I do fervently dislike when interactions of any type between two characters are just interpreted to be romance-y. And when this type of extremely straightforward (not in a good way) interpretation runs rampant surrounding a ship, it's a red flag to me personally.
Like, y'know, I would've felt better if I saw people being like "Noooo, Yali Shanda's being a jerk to Li! Why did he spear him?" or even "Nooooo authors, let Yali Shanda remain his kind, unviolent self! Why would you have him do that! That's OOC!" but nope, they're actually like "Awwww, Yali Shanda's being domineering ;)" like bruh. ...

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 27, 2021 23:14:52

Lol and I didn't post the rest of what I wanted to talk about. Yay?

Many spoilers for CYXY3000H, but at this point I remain unconvinced anyone else will read it, and I am even more unconvinced that anyone really cares. So the warning is here and I just...go on, I guess.

I know neither of these would be the most plausible (I misspelled "plausible" so many times, y'all don't even now. "Plausiple" sjfuiodufjso) in terms of what's canon. What is probably more likely in that aspect would be Li literally just being a soulless vessel for Yali Shanda, who's technically destined to fuse with his former self at some point. I mean, that's pretty much what Yamanla says. But I don't want to think of Li as someone without a soul, especially when Yali Shanda has acted like such a bastard and still has yet to redeem himself from his actions/antihero status. I don't want him to be fusing with someone like that. So I think of alternative theories.

Really, I feel like CYXY3000H has a lot of potential, especially when it comes to worldbuilding and character development for its major antagonist, who is supposedly Yali Shanda. But the most recent chapter had the character dev fall straight on its face. Yali Shanda didn't redeem himself, Li seemed OOC, there was no explanation for the two of them. I expected flashbacks at least to make the "self-sacrifice" more emotionally palpable as well as more memorable, and at the very least, to make the "self-sacrifice" seem justified for both of them. But nope. I don't usually like to be so harsh on criticism, but it was extremely anticlimactic and made even me raise both eyebrows, sit back in my chair, and sigh in my own sort of defeat.
But defeat only lasts a while (at least for me), and I've been trying to churn out ideas. That being said, there are likely holes to both, given that I haven't really reread it through to the important parts yet (as related to Li and Yali Shanda), perhaps fatal holes that make it so I'm dreadfully wrong. But it's fun to think about, and I consider them better than what canon has to offer at the moment as well as certain fan speculations. So here they are, upcoming.

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 27, 2021 23:44:39

Spoiler warning, again.

Starting off is the more interesting theory in terms of direct plot (imo)--the theory that Li is actually Yali Shanda's 分身, but unlike other reincarnations, he's only half a soul and, as such, pretty different from the other reincarnations of Yamanla. Technically, one could argue that he's no longer an incarnation of Yamanla, and instead more like half of Yali Shanda.
This theory mostly derives from some things I said before, like how Yali Shanda has changed a lot since his actual life to his revival now, including in the means to his wanted ends and his personality, which used to resemble Li a lot before. It wouldn't be completely implausible for Li to age and have his personality become a resemblance of what Yali Shanda's personality was in-life--I still wouldn't call Yali Shanda a bastard if his personality were like what Yaoyao saw while in the illusion world.
So, essentially, what the theory is arguing is that Li technically took after half of the roots of Yali Shanda's personality, leaving Yali Shanda with the much more negative aspects. Li is someone who works slightly better in the shadows, who is eccentric but devoted and accepting of human emotions, and who seeks to improve his surroundings and find subtle but efficient solutions to the dark parts of said surroundings. Meanwhile, Yali Shanda is someone who seems to detest working in the shadows, who is outwardly the least eccentric of his group but also extremely dismissive of bonds between people and emotions such as love, and who only has a single-target yearning to improve his surroundings and is willing to take the darkest, most extreme solutions to the dark parts of said surroundings as need be. Both of these men are arguably two of the people most acquainted to work related to the demonic seals of even their time, but they go about it in completely different ways. Whereas Li has also accepted that the ideal circumstance of the seals being abolished cannot be accomplished, he sees many means to make sure that those with the demonic seals will not harm and destroy what and who is around them, and so he would rather take those actions. He sees merit in letting those with the seals, specifically Windsky, know what they are capable of becoming, and in the process he offers his help to them. Meanwhile, Yali Shanda takes a much more fatalistic approach. He sees no advantage in letting those with the seals see what he "sees" them as being capable of doing and destroying, and instead he chooses the solution that he believes is best for everyone else--killing those with the seals without any sense of regret from himself.
Would Li develop Yali Shanda's current views if he witnessed one with the demonic seal, like Windsky, bring on a scene of mass destruction and innocent deaths? Maybe. I'm not saying it's impossible. But that also wouldn't negate the theory--because maybe Li's current views are those of past Yali Shanda's, or maybe current Yali Shanda's views are only out of the result of the split. It's interesting to me, to say the least, but like I said, that wouldn't invalidate the claims I'm making here, necessarily.
All of this is intriguing in my opinion because the essence of the theory is that Yali Shanda has been left almost nothing except for a thin shell of his former motives and plans, which is tragic, to say the least. The theory, of course, presumes that Yali Shanda was indeed much more like Li than current him is--because current him isn't like Li in most aspects. It could even be said "if not all," and it would not be much of a stretch. But the theory here guesses that Yali Shanda was wary of the demonic seal's power but not an extremist. He instead wished to work more in the shadows to get rid of the power without having to destroy those with the seals, or something like that. In general, the plan was more long-term and did not require so much deception and violence as his current plan. Now, however, the parts of his personality that created that plan--the caring, the slight idealism, and the tendency to stay away from violence--are gone, replaced by only flashbacks to his past dreams of creating a beautiful homeland, scorn towards the caring and love demonstrated by who he calls his vessel, extreme realism, and no hesitation to conduct and manipulate violence as he sees fit.

It's interesting and quite appealing to me, but here I can say one of the biggest holes to this theory. And that theory is centered very strongly around Lameer.
I'm not saying, of course, that the theory entirely dies because of Lameer. There are many aspects, such as Lameer being a bastard (possibly more of one than when he and Yali Shanda were both alive at the same time), the authors kinda forgetting characterization details (sorry authors), et cetera. But here's the thing.
Lameer seems completely accustomed to how Yali Shanda is now. And that would be, if the theory is true, very strange.
Y'know why? Because he's technically the only point of comparison for who Yali Shanda is. Everyone else who knew Yali Shanda personally while he was actually alive are now dead. Not that many of them would be veritable witnesses. Presumably, those who knew him best would be the K members of COUR, and between those, we'd have the guy who killed him, the guy who was a very dumb major antagonist (and survived around 100 chapters out of luck), and the guy who knew of the truth behind Yali Shanda's death and thus was poisoned by the guy who killed Yali Shanda for a very, very long time.
Okay, that was kinda a joke. Obviously, Charliman (the guy who knew of the truth behind Yali Shanda's death and thus was poisoned by the guy who killed Yali Shanda for a very, very long time) would technically, supposedly be the most veritable witness as to Yali Shanda's past and now. But he's dead. So.
Back to Lameer, lol.
One would think that if present Yali Shanda and past Yali Shanda are extremely different, Lameer would be very startled by current him, no? But he doesn't really have such reaction.
For instance, if Yali Shanda didn't do things in the past like eerily reference the deaths of their comrades, then present him doing that would logically err Lameer away from doing his stupid things more than it actually did, right? But nope, Lameer just sweatdropped and then laughed at Yali Shanda for being boring and farcical right afterwards. And then he almost immediately went on to bomb Earth. Sooo...that isn't exactly indicative of Yali Shanda being different, or being all that good at scaring even his own morally questionable subordinates thoroughly, to be perfectly honest.
It's not an entirely implausible theory, but it probably needs something like a re-reading to find its holes. Overall, however, I find it somewhat compelling, and if not that, it's pretty charming to me.

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 28, 2021 00:10:32

Will start explaining the second theory some other day. Rn I don't wanna risk depleting all writing inspiration, since I need it to plan.

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 28, 2021 03:31:29

Finished the first part of the event, lol.
Kagetora is at level 79 and that irks me.

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 01:39:26

Why do soup makers have to make soap look that delicious

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 02:19:10

Yeah, so they are making Huyao Xiao Hongniang's Yuehong arc a TV series, essentially.
I'm trying to be positive on it but like, lol, oh no, biases.
To be fair, I know almost no one from China's actors list. I would say "even less than American actors," but I also don't know any from America. Those who I do know kinda have bad impressions from me because they usually are people who are supposed to be good-looking (and don't look good at all for me), and when they are good-looking even in my standards, it seems they exchanged all theatrical abilities for those looks. Which is, uh...oof.
The reason why I'm bringing up this is because all the actors for this upcoming series are famous, and so by bringing up the above, I mean that I don't exactly trust popularity. But I don't mean to say that good looks are what makes up me watching a series, or that people with good looks can't also have acting abilities.
I'm probably way too negative on actors, but I feel like I can kinda blame the way I read emotions on this. Maybe some people are trying but I'm like "Uh no (: what was that."
To be fair, though, as an actor, you gotta at least be able to act like the character, right? I mean, it's not like I've never had a good opinion on anything that has to do with real people. It's just that I've only really been immersed in works from the 20th century. Like all the Chinese classics (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West), Star Wars...uh, yeah.
I haven't heard of any of the actors, but I'll have to ask my mom and look more into what they've already done.

Meanwhile, I wonder which will be out first--this TV series, or the donghua for CYXY3000H?

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 11:33:42

Looking more into it because I don't have a life, ig.
Well, I'm seeing more negativity now. Apparently beloved donghua have very much been destroyed by real-people films already (which is also why I was very negative on it when I just heard about the entire thing with Huyao Xiao Hongniang). fdjsikuof Generally, I've seen that fandoms are not very happy when it comes to hearing that real people will be performing for donghua.
I did watch a portion from Tengxun where they discussed it, and it's not going to be one arc--it's gonna be three arcs. Those three arcs being: Yuehong, Wangquan, and Zhuye, which are all fan-favorites, so if they mess up even one of them, there is going to be huge backlash, lol. And ig if one gets messed up, the other two arcs are gonna get bashed as well.
Ngl, looking forward to seeing who they put in for Susu. She seems like one of the hardest characters to act, one being she's a kid, and with all her backstory...yeahhhh.

-Galaxian-

Russet · June 29, 2021 12:12:34

GalaxianExplosion wrote:
Apparently beloved donghua have very much been destroyed by real-people films already

Destroyed? How? I get the live action adaptations are bad but how do they “destroy” the donghua?

Last edited by Russet (June 29, 2021 12:13:00)

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 12:28:23

As in they're so bad they also destroy the reputation of the source material, including both donghua and manhua
Kinda like Tokyo Ghoul but worse

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 12:38:53

Three of the 6 main characters have apparently been casted
My mom's opinion of them are "He'll probably do well!", "Well at least he doesn't look like a toad while acting (explanation: bad actors tend to do the thing where they forget to blink and move in a very static way, which us two compare to toads, sorry toads)", and "Ugh"

Honghong, Wangquan Fugui, and Dongfang Huaizhu have yet to be casted

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 13:03:56

If nothing else, I am looking forward to the scenery xD, and also the Zhuye arc owo
Please at least cast a good actor for the female lead there lol there's a really bad habit going on nowadays with people casting one good main and one bad main lol

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 13:24:39

Lol I never actually listened to character themes from Undertale
Anyways now I listened to a few of them and jfisdjfoj Papyrus' theme sounds really mischievous xD or, like, in general, not serious at all.
Good theme xD

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 17:08:20

Used a single pull and asked for Ushi
I got Ushi
I just need one more Ushi for NP 5
I can't say I'm entirely atheist because I believe in the gacha gods :3

-Galaxian-

Russet · June 29, 2021 18:04:01

GalaxianExplosion wrote:
Used a single pull and asked for Ushi
I got Ushi
I just need one more Ushi for NP 5
I can't say I'm entirely atheist because I believe in the gacha gods :3

-Galaxian-

Praise RNGesus

GalaxianExplosion · June 29, 2021 18:46:06

xD no praise for now, but I'll thank the Throne for sure

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · June 30, 2021 20:27:47

Stolen off Reddit, so obviously not mine
The description was regarding how Mori is in Gudaguda 2021

GalaxianExplosion · July 1, 2021 21:56:24

Just realized that if in UBW Abridged, Archer bluffed that he was a king, then he would be mistaken for the bastardous king in the story Ganjiang & Moxie lol

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 1, 2021 22:49:42

I keep thinking of songs I like, and while I can sing them, sometimes I wanna listen to them
And then I realize I forgot their titles (:

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 1, 2021 22:50:57

Also I grew a lot within one night lol, good sleep is apparently the way to go
Yet sometimes I feel like going to bed later idk probably not a good thing
The trick is to set unreasonable expectations so that my actions fulfill (somewhat) the true expectations
That would be funny if my expectations were "Sleep at 9" and I instead end up sleeping 4 hours later xD

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 1, 2021 22:55:39

Okay but growth where you can clearly remember not being able to see over something the night before and now being able to see over it is pretty awesome ngl
Also it keeps feeling like I'm not drinking enough water when I drink plenty,,, yay summer
I'm also eating meals at reasonable times now lol (excluding meals that I miss due to zzzzz)

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 1, 2021 22:58:26

I can't even tell that the poinsettia plant is a poinsettia since the iconic red flowers are completely lacking from existence atm but honestly I'm just happy with things being alive
This is also why I cannot have pets

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 2, 2021 02:11:37

Woooo Ushi got to half a million damage!! 520K+ NP damage.
The conditions for this being achieved:
-Both attack buffs from her and Nagetora (level one from Nagetora, level 5 for her iirc) active
-Quick buff + quick crit buff from singular Skadi (level 10) active
-Defense down for enemy (level 10) from same Skadi active
-200% charge for her NP
-Ushi is at level 4 NP and at level 80 (Grailed) I don't know her precise attack and HP values but technically those shouldn't be too important so :shrug:
-Oh yeah and class advantage lol

This is awesome xD yayy
Go Ushi xD
I was 100% being excessive on this damage btw the enemy was only like 210K health and lol overkill

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 2, 2021 15:30:14

Oh I'm stupid, which CE did I use on her
I know it wasn't Heaven's Feel or Black Grail
Was it the 15% NP strength damage boost one? I think? Maybe
I shall check later, if I remember

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 2, 2021 16:31:35

Spiders need to stop crawling on me lol, what if I was afraid of 'em? Then instead of flicking them off each time they'd die, and that's not good

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 2, 2021 16:58:09

Lol what if instead of his entire "You two have a love purer than those of many humans" reason, Wangquan Baye just didn't kill Du Furen & her husband because "I ship them"

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 2, 2021 18:01:48

For some reason F/GO Lu Bu gives me the feeling that every roar means some variation of "Frick you" and "NO"

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 2, 2021 18:37:59

Oof SCOTUS-supported voting restrictions (':

-Galaxian-

GalaxianExplosion · July 3, 2021 12:37:32

I don't know whether

Li

is dead or not and at this point I'm afraid to know
I would guess he technically isn't but I don't wanna get hopes up :')

-Galaxian-