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Dianxiawanning - Lu - Tumblr Blog
So some thoughts on the whole 攻/受 top/bottom thing with Guardian
I’ve wanted to write about this for a long time but everything about this topic in my brain was too scattered for me to put it into words properly. Also, I am definitely not the most qualified to speak on the issue because of both the matter itself and because I haven’t finished reading the novel– so pleaseee bear with me as I try to convey the thoughts and experiences I gathered while watching Guardian. [am i making it sound too serious? it’s not lol] Also decided to finally do it after reading a q&a from the babe @andwebegin here –> (x)
[Terms: 攻- top, the more assertive person in the relationship. 受- bottom, the more passive one]
So about the whole Weilan or Lanwei situation, I do find it funny that a lot of us foreign watchers ship opposite of canon lol, while much of the Chinese fandom is extremely insistent on the fact that Shen Wei is 攻top, and Zhao Yunlan is 受bottom, because that is the way the original author, Priest, wrote them to be. But I think for me and for most of us, we didn’t read the novel before watching the TV show. and I, upon watching, had immediately saw them as 互攻互受 which means they can be both with no definite distinctions. But like what @andwebegin mentioned, Zhao Yunlan from the drama definitely did come off to me as the more assertive type– probably to many of yall too, taking into account the AO3 fics, Shen Wei did get more assertive after his identity was revealed, but hey for me I was like It’s even more fitting that they switch????
A lot of the Chinese fandom itself had thought that ZYL was 攻 and SW was 受 too lol until it was revealed in the novel [side comment the author is known for not being explicit and using fade to black, so the moment of truth for the readers was apparently the morning after lol]. I’m only about a fourth of the way through the novel, but [and spoilers!!!] we know fairly early on that Shen Wei has loved and yearned for Kun Lun/Zhao Yunlan for five thousand years, watching from a distance as Kun Lun reincarnates again and again until fate finally pulled them together. My interpretation so far is that however much SW loved ZYL, that’s how hard he had to restrain himself. The more he restrained himself, the more SW yearned for ZYL. You can imagine the intensity of the love SW has for him by the time they officially meet, making him more aggressive when their feelings finally collide. Now many Chinese readers, while being so deadset on having a clear top or bottom [which I’ll talk about later], do enjoy the stereotype-breaking where the more extroverted and aggressive ZYL (who thinks he’s 攻) is the bottom, while the caring, introverted, and reserved SW is the top. But I haven’t really gotten to those parts in the novel and watching the drama…. ehhhh I tried but I really can’t see anything but the in-between DX
What I’ve noticed about Chinese bl works is that people, both creators and consumers, are extremely adamant on making it clear who is 攻 and who is 受. This is to me pretty different from western pairings I’ve seen where creators usually keep it in discretion. I agree with what @andwebegin wrote, that “just like how gender can be fluid, sexual roles are not definitive and set in stone.” I’ve read an article which explained that bl incorporates those labels in order to flesh out differences in characters, and they are of course separate from real life. But that’s what puzzles me, how in most bl’s characters need to be clearly defined as either 攻 or 受, and that their personalities need to match those labels accordingly. That is definitely not to say that I have a problem with it, unless it gets too aggressive, and I know it doesn’t apply to all bl. In all, it’s just something I noticed and feel puzzled about so I wanted to share it.
In terms of the aggressiveness, that’s the whole being extremely deadset deal where I’ve seen people being criticized for shipping Lanwei since “SW is the top and ZYL is the bottom, that’s canon and that’s the way it is, you should respect the author” Like ???so that means all canon-divergence works/AUs are disrespecting the original author? Not only are people entitled to their own opinions on what to ship, but the TV show is an adaptation after all, and is fundamentally different from the novel [heh]. The actors themselves have said that they had combined aspects of the novel with the script and their own interpretations, thus creating characters that are different from the books. I think it’s only fair that we can interpret drama!ZYL and drama!SW how we would like to as well.
Anyways, that’s just my two cents on this. >.<
[Bonus: here’s the art for the Guardian audio drama and yo okay like if I look at it that way I could see it 😂😂😂]
One time Jerma said he thought hatsune miku was 7-8 feet tall and now that's all I can think about.
Imagine giant animatronic miku. Made large so she can be seen on stage. She is tended to by her many stagehands. Huzzah.
Out my fuckin’ mind Goin’ for your throats like I’m a rabid canine I don’t fuck with many, I don’t like to play nice Call me Sub-Zero how I leave ‘em all on ice Lethal with the rifle 40/40 shoot precise Always feel like I’m the black sheep But don’t count me out 'cause I swear to god I’ll be the next thing You pussies always tryna jack the wave that’s popping Gotta stay one step ahead that’s why I’m re-inventing
My favourite gay movie to rewatch in pride month: Plata Quemada (2000)
gifs are not mine
PLATA QUEMADA (2000) dir. Marcelo Piñeyro Argentina, 1965. Romantic partners Nene and Angel and their partner in crime Cuervo are bank robbers who flee to Uruguay after a large-scale hold-up that turns bloody, but when Angel is hurt the three must lay low until he recovers. To get back to Argentina, the group must first wait for Fontana, the brains behind the robbery, to arrange for passports, but it doesn’t take long for the forced procimity and the ever-present fear of discovery to gnaw away at their minds. Based on a real story. (link in title)
No because, Art is a mediocre tennis player with 6 grand slams who knows that at some level he has only got them because Tashi has pushed him and coached him to that level of excellence. At the same time he feels responsible for living a career for both of them while knowing that if Patrick hadn't fucked things up he wouldn't have ever achieved what he did.Patrick has oodles of talent but has to deal with the fact that despite winning Tashi fairly he lost her due to his pride. You know he's thinking that 'if she was my coach I would have double the number of grand slams that Art does'. But if Tashi hadn't had that injury that day would either of them even have had the chance to have her as their coach? No. Both he and Art would have faded into mediocrity but probably remained friends despite it all. And don't get me started on Tashi. She knows that if it wasn't for her injury she would have probably won 15 grand slams by now and would never have considered stopping but she's reduced to just being the wife! Just being the coach! Just being content with being a hot girl who will be won by the guy who plays the best tennis!! And she has to somehow make herself feel okay with that. So no. She can't genuinely be okay with Art stopping but at the end of the day it's not her decision to make because he's the professional tennis player not her. It's not just about one of them winning or the sacrifice it takes. It's about disappointment, bitterness, the underlying inferiority complex, being manipulative enough to achieve your goals through different means and the inherent homoeroticism of having a best friend from the age of 12 who is the only one worth beating for you after playing 13 years of tennis. Anyway I'm chewing on glass rn. Challengers you'll always be famous
i think we are all forgetting something when we talk about how toxic patrick, tashi, and art are — or when we decide one is “worse” than the other. they all have moments of seeing right through it, seeing each other’s toxic behavior for what it is, and STILL want and need each other in this possessive, envious, visceral way.
1. in the way beginning, tashi is clearly flirting more with art than patrick, and patrick is visibly annoyed. art sees right through it and even challenges him like “okay, let’s leave”, and has this little smirk on his face because he knows patrick won’t give up on tashi.
2. tashi immediately sees the visible tension and love between art and patrick, and literally orchestrates their first kiss. she sees right through their repression, and even calls herself a “home-wrecker” but still entangles herself with them, especially patrick because he’s clearly the better tennis player at that point and that is tash’s ONLY true love. tennis. that’s what she desires most in him, and patrick knows that. he even calls her out on it in the dorm room scene. but they have this mirroring fire in each other that neither of them can give up, not until patrick breaks the balance and bails — tashi’s injury is literally a metaphor for the balance shattering between all three of them when patrick leaves her.
3. before this, patrick sees right through art trying to break them up, and even admires that quality — maybe even feels smug and flattered because art is jealous and feels left out from both tashi and patrick. patrick has known this all along, we saw it in the “tick-serve” scene, where he even swears to tashi he won’t tell anyone but he still tells art, who is desperate to feel a part of them and patrick wants that, too — even keeps that close intimacy with art that we see in the churro scene (swoon swoon swoon).
4. haven’t you noticed that arts desire to be great is only ever tied up in patrick and tashi? how he needs to beat patrick to win tashis affection, how he needs to win in tennis so that tashi can live through him, how he lives up to his potential in the ending only because tashi and patrick push him to it, in their little fucked up ways? he knows this — he even admits that he’s playing for tashi, that he knows she’s living through him. he even admits he’s playing a fucked up little game with patrick when they’re in the sauna. yet he still does it. again, he knows what’s happening, sees right through them — still does it, still loves them.
5. when tashi calls patrick to come pick her up he knows it’s not just to tell him to throw the match — and despite how she battles him about it, they still have sex in the car, because he already knows. he’s so fully aware of her and her game and he’s so willing to be caught up in it, the same as art.
just some examples of how they all have moments of clarity and agency and yet they still choose to be entangled in one another because they’re all fucked up in their own, individual ways, and they’re all living through each other for their own specific needs. arts is to be seen as worthy, as great, but only through their gaze. tashis is to have the career that was stolen from her. patricks is truly to be in love and in lust with both of them, because we even see that from the beginning that tashis love alone will never satiate him; it has to be arts love, too. that scene in the sauna when he thinks he’s lost it from art is the most sad and fucked up we ever even see patrick. on top of tashi asking him to throw the game — he’s so defensive of arts feelings.
in short this is an actual love triangle (and i would go as far as to see it as a polyship). you can’t erase one without the whole thing unraveling, and you can’t say one character was the “worst” without picking apart the motivations and pointing to the fact that their bad behavior was never a secret or left unchecked.
even at the end, patrick signals to art that he slept with tashi — art knows and they still have that intimate completion at the end, all three of them. art living up to his potential and embracing patrick fully (id argue this could even be a metaphor for embracing his bisexuality), patrick having both tashi and arts affection again, and tashi playing a phenomenal tennis match through her little white boys — in such a visceral, emotional way that she cries out like she did in the beginning and the last frame is her smiling.
in a fucked up way, they all get what they wanted out of each other.
because they all love and hate each other to varying degrees like patrick loves tennis and tashi and art but art the most and art loves tennis and patrick but he loves tashi the most and tashi loves tennis the most but none of them can have the thing they want most so they use one another to get closer to it and in the aftermath end up resenting each other for what could have been
