The answer to your problems is self-discipline

when it comes to subtext-only couples (romantic couples in TV/film that are not explicitly canon), there many reasons that these ships can very appealing to watch and can be compelling & fulfillingly romantic for the viewer, despite no overt sexual contact and no out-loud declaration of a relationship....

but one of the biggest draws for me is all of the effort put into communicating what cannot be said. all of the work put into saying without words or an on screen kiss, we are in love! You as the viewer need to be made to FEEL that love. There are no shortcuts or easy way out. They can't just tell without showing.

When a writer, an actor believes in that unspoken love and build it into their performance, when people work together to create a subtext ship, when they put thought into it and pay attention to all the details.... 👌👌👌👌

This can apply to many ships that aren't permitted explicit canon expression (including het ships that aren't Approved™ but the actors and script writer believe in)... but of course what comes most to my mind lately are the censored chinese gay dramas and how the creative team is putting their whole pussy into it like SIR. WOW. THE DEDICATION TO ROMANCEEEE

The Spirealm is the latest example where I keep thinking holy shit, the devil works hard but these actors are working harder. They are so fucking good at portraying a love story without saying it's a love story. It's like The Untamed for me all over again.

It's how everyone is working together: the writer included those beats & that allusion, the actor used that microexpression & body language, the director used that blocking and created the space for it, the editor included all the right shots and pauses on the actor's attraction/affection/love so it isn't lost in the shuffle of the plot. It's a symphony of a ship that's performed in concert.

This is something every quality romantic drama needs to include, but when you're working with subtext it's 50x harder and takes so much more care & consideration.

In a way, Hephaestion son of Amyntor was an icon of the younger members of Alexander’s army. We don’t know when Hephaestion was born but it is believed that he was Alexander’s contemporary. If that is the case, he left Macedon not long after his twentieth birthday and spent the rest of his life – the next eleven or so years – fighting and resting, fighting and resting, fighting and resting until one day in Ecbatana late in 324 B.C. he died following a short illness. Hephaestion never had time to dwell upon his share of Alexander’s riches; he never had time to settle into his wealth and power, to use it for good or ill, or to wake up in the morning and decide to do nothing. His whole adult life was work and service. In Hephaestion we see the experience of the younger Macedonian soldiers who left their homeland with Alexander and who also died before they could return to their families with the fruits of their labours. Those soldiers, and Hephaestion, lived very full lives but not complete ones. They had everything, and nothing. That is sad. What makes it tragic is that the perpetual nature of Alexander’s quest for glory denied them the ability to love without a care in the world – surely the greatest kind of love. And in so far as Hephaestion was denied this ability, so was Alexander. From that point of view, maybe death and the chance to walk hand-in-hand through the endless fields of Elysium was the best thing to ever happen to them.

can't stop thinking about the iliad having the first lines "sing, goddess, of achilles's rage". his fatal anger, black and incalculable, and the goddess isn't singing of his prideful anger, the one that spurns agamemnon, no. it is the all-consuming rage of someone whose own actions cost them everything they hold dear. can't stop thinking of the fact that you can interpret the iliad without achilles loving patroclus but if you do, you lose every major theme of the iliad. can't stop thinking about the fact that achilles was meant to be invulnerable, but the entire point of the iliad is that invulnerability only exists if one is an island and achilles was not. achilles's rage that silenced the gods, rage that reads so flat without the context that it is also anguish and it is also grief and it is also guilt. doesn't matter how but the goddess can only sing of achilles's rage when you know that achilles loved his friend. in whatever way.

PLEASE HAVE SOME RESPECT FOR OUR RELIGIOUS TEXTS.

They’re not mere pieces of literature for you to write whatever you want about them without understanding it properly. To us, they are holy texts connected deeply to our culture and history.

PLEASE DO NOT MOCK OUR GODS.

PLEASE DO NOT DENY OUR HISTORY.

PLEASE DO NOT INTERPOLATE OUR VEDAS.

They are sacred to us.

Do people really not see the love and time people pour into writing and making art about the said texts as deeply respectful?

"Mere pieces of literature". Do they think literature is mudane? Stories hold value. Be they divine or mortal.

Why is their idea of the divine untouchable? Even the gods themselves took human forms.

Why must they insist on flattening their own culture and history in this incredibly narrow and prescriptive way? Our traditions were oral before they were ever penned. Each storyteller through millennia has touched, shaped and molded these stories in their own way. The rigidity and insistence on there being the "one right version" is the actual deviation from history here.

- Mod S

lovers

I turn 30 next month so here’s what I learned in my 20s:

—don’t work for startups, they’re always one ‘innovative idea’ away adding ‘sell your kidneys on the black market’ to your job description.

—keeping a collection of basic OTC medicine on you will save your life one day. I recommend Advil, Imodium, and TUMS.

—those little single-use glasses cleaning wipes are 1000% worth the money

—overly self-depreciating jokes just make people uncomfortable, wean yourself off of them

—you can buy dehydrated mini marshmallows in bulk online and they’re a godsend for hot cocoa

—people don’t care if you have fidget toys on your desk they just want to play with them

—try to go to bed BEFORE the existential ennui kicks in

Also drink water and eat a plant

This is all GREAT. I turned 40 last week, so permit me to add what I learned in my 30s:

I turn 50 this year. what I have learned in my 40s:

Just turned 60 and let me say:

This is too tempting…, so, I’m 74, and: don’t fund startups

Please keep stretching and exercise enough NOT to need an elaborate strategy to get up from the floor. IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE

Say bye to your employer as early as you possibly can, unless you really love your job. You won’t be sorry.

Keep doing the annual checkups 🙏🏼

Enjoy that fucking hobby you’ve acquired in your 50, or find something new. Do try new things & adventures.

CANDLED

varadha's motive.

so, it was obvious that varadha closing his eyes was a very particular action that carried a specific significance of him accepting what was happening, but i didn't completely understand the exact reason, within the cinematic context.

the fact that varadha had to stand and watch, as women were disrespected and treated in such a gruesome way, must be something he's deeply ashamed of.

with the way things were, and even though he had no fear of his own death, he did not have the means nor the power to defend anybody, especially when doing so would guarantee his brother's and everyone else's death

everytime they were asked to fold their hands, varadha bodily complied – they all did – but he obviously never did it with the intent the gesture was meant to have: deference to vishnu and the man's actions.

he always looked up at the girls who were taken, not closing his eyes to the barbarity of this ritual in the slightest:

but when deva walks ahead, varadha can finally close his eyes, and keep his hands folded in true deference to deva, because he knows, if deva steps up, justice will be enacted.

he cannot absolve himself of the sin of witnessing what has been happening to the women, but he can finally mean it when he keeps his arms crossed and looks away.

he can finally accept the events unfolding in front of him, knowing that deva will make sure those atrocities never happen again.

A Goodbye

Not beta read or anything. Literally the most self indulgent thing ive ever written. enjoy. inspired by @rambheem-is-real 's nsfw posts that got the horny wheels working.

Pairing: Varadeva

NSFW

Khansaar, 2010

There it was. Laid out in front of them like an animal's carcass.

Love had never been easy for Varadha. Love had always been an enemy, a weakness and every other attribute that tainted that word. It ate away at him like a disease and spit him back out like phlegm. When love did not want him, it made him its weapon.

So he looked at its corpse. Beaten, ragged and dirty, as it was meant to be. He was the one who had ended its life, so why was he feeling like a gaping hole had been made in his heart?

And why did love look so alive in his eyes? Why did it writhe and dance and reach out and pull Varadha towards him? Why did it seem to want to live when he kept killing it? Why couldn't it just go?

"Varadha," said Deva.

"Go." A piece of his heart turned to stone as he said that.

"Varadha, listen-"

"Get out. If I ever see your face again, I'll put your head on a spike and hang it at Khansaar's doors. Go."

Well, it had achieved what he wanted it to. That writhing love stopped its dance in Deva's eyes. In its remains, all that was left was a rising anger.

Good. At least he would go out of this world in the wake of that love. No death would be more respectable.

But Varadha knew Deva more than he knew himself. That anger, so familiar to him, cooled down, replaced with another emotion

It wracked him to his bones.

Don't leave me, he wanted to say. I love you. Love me back. Please.

But he stood his ground.

Deva turned around, and walked out of the room. The entire place descended into silence. No one spoke a word. The sun set.

Varadharaja Mannar became King.

A normal day at Club Sunshine

Big scary yakuza man, y'all

Scenes From A Marriage | 💏🏻 HONEYMOONERS Felix & Oliver · dir. Emerald Fennell · Saltburn (2023)

just ishman sharing wardrobe

losing a final is heartbreaking. but losing a final when your team dominated the entire tournament, won every single match, broke records, stayed on top of the table and entered the finals with a smashing 10/10 win is next level traumatizing :( this is breaking me like nothing 

idc if this is late (I was processing the loss okay!?) but all of this. we had a dream run throughout this WC, but one bad day is all it took to fucking crush the hopes of lifting our third trophy.

australia is not a better team that us, they just played better that day. they walked into the stadium like they'd already won the match. i think we somewhere succumbed to the pressure of playing a historically more successful side in the finals.

but i've made my peace with it. i sincerely congratulate our team for playing some of the best cricket i've seen in my life. well done, boys!