Hello Anon!
In general, it’s a little hard for me to find Jun Wu’s care sincere despite his claims since he was clearly more taken with the idea of Xie Lian rather than who he truly was as a person 😬
In Xie Lian, Jun Wu believed he found a kindred spirit, someone so much like his younger self, which sparked his desire to have Xie Lian as his heir while he positioned himself as a mentor there to guide him, both as Emperor Jun Wu and White No-Face. As Jun Wu, he does successfully obtain Xie Lian’s utmost respect and a willingness to be led by him, but that doesn’t mean much since his divine alter ego’s perfection is hollow. He wants someone to love him and never leave even when confronted with his worst side, hence why he mostly tries to “recruit” him in the form of his destructive alter ego White No-Face.
I mainly see Jun Wu’s feelings as a self-centered obsession driven by his own loneliness. He longs to connect with Xie Lian because he believes him to be the only one who can empathize with the pain he’s been repressing all this time. He so desperately clings onto the hopes he has projected onto Xie Lian that he’s willing to endure 800 years of trying and failing to get him on his side.
But of course, the big issue is that empathy is a two-way street and Jun Wu utterly fails on his side. He who has been traumatized by his past became a hardened manipulator who values control above all. Things like trust, honesty and communication, everything needed to form a healthy bond, have long been thrown into the pits of Mount Tonglu.
As expected of Xie Lian’s shadow archetype and Hua Cheng’s foil, White No-Face instead seeks to groom Xie Lian into the image he has of him by worsening his despair while making himself out to be the only one who understands him. He tries to deliberately instill within Xie Lian a sense of dependence. Ultimately, it’s all gaslighting designed to make the “happy” friendship in his head come true. Jun Wu wants to be fully accepted but the abandonment of his former best friends + not receiving any help when he most needed it left him unable to trust or open up to anyone, so he can only rely on power and control, which naturally fails to get him what he most desires.
Jun Wu was once a tragic victim who fell into the abyss due to circumstances beyond his control. He can’t bear to ever experience that again…That’s why he decided to go from victim of fate to enforcer of fate by becoming the Emperor that created the current dynasty of Heaven by force and deliberately shaped the course of Xie Lian’s life. In being Emperor, he represents “heaven’s will” and that power is what lets him control other people’s lives as the one who can impose “fates” onto them.
That now brings me to examine the theme of fate and the father-son dynamic that factor significantly into Xie Lian and Jun Wu’s relationship…
Keep reading
Okay, I take back my original “how I wanted TUA to end” that I made a week ago and instead I want this:
The siblings realise the world keeps ending because they’re all in the same timeline. So in order to distribute the marigold, and save the end of the world, they all have to sacrifice being a family and never see each other again.
It ends with each sibling one by one (Lila and deigo come as a pair, I don’t make the rules) as they board the subway, each to their very own timeline in which the other family members don’t exist.
It’s heartbreaking, and for a family that were split and torn at the beginning of the series, the choice being made for them is even more heartbreaking because they’re a family now more than ever. But as they board the subway, we see a montage of them all in their HAPPY timelines, the beats of “I think we’re alone now” start playing and we realise, while the Hargreeves siblings finally have their happy ending, they are in fact, alone now. Cut to black. Cue BTS images.
Hard cut to Klaus talking to the girl on the bicycle
Klaus: “Did we save the world or screw it up again?”
Bicycle God: “You were never the problem”
She holds up an action figure of Reginald and crushes it in her bare hands. Marigold lights emerge from it. Golden light envelops everything
Hard cut to Klaus waking up in bed. He is wearing pajamas covered in marigolds.Street noise can be heard from outside.
(From offscreen) “You okay, Hon?”
Klaus looks over and Dave is cooking breakfast in their flat
Klaus: “Yeah, just had a weird dream.”
Looks out the window and sees an empty lot where the Hargreeves mansion should be.
Klaus: “Wasn’t there a building there?”
(Naïve Melody by the Talking Heads begins to play over a montage)
Diego and Lila Are wrangling their kids into the camper van. One of the kids gives Lila a picture of her family in a field of bunch of orange flowers (marigolds)
Luther is stripping and the obsessed lady in the crowd is Sloan. He has a marigold in his mouth. He takes it out and gives it to her.
Viktor is playing the violin with Harlon. Sissy is setting the table. She sets a bouquet of marigold into a center vase.
Allison is gardening while Clare and Ray play in the yard. She is planting Marigolds.
Five is teaching at some university. An older woman comes in. “Dolores” he says as she kisses him.
Jennifer serves Ben at the dinner. Closeup on her pouring coffee. He has a Durango flower tattoo that says “Jennifer” and she had a marigold tattoo that says “Ben”
Cut back to Klaus staring out the Window
Dave: No, been an empty lot as long as I can remember
Klaus, smiles: Yeah, I don’t know why I thought that
Camera Zooms out from the window as music continues
Reginald, voiceover: And that is how our unlikely heroes manage to create one timeline where everything was fine.
BTS footage plays with the final credits 
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
I cast: curse of the eldest (can’t ask for help)
Judy I. Lin, Song of the Six Realms/Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh/Yah Yah Schofield, How to Make a Vase/Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation/Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment/ Derek Walcott, Sea Canes/Clay McLeod, Whisper Down the Lane/ Kentaro Miura, Berzerk/ Mike Mignola, Hellboy
I will say that I think it's genuinely hilarious that often in propping up another robin there's this concept that gets floated that Dick had it comparatively easy which is wild for multiple reasons but the primary issue for me is that, at base, ignoring everything that happened to him and the things that he had to deal with, a 4th grader went so hard and was so dedicated to bringing justice and hope to the world that to this day if u have an 'R' on your chest in the DCU it's an instant stamp of quality. Like yes they all brought something interesting to Robin but only one of them had to build the house and he did it from a booster seat
Nightwing as a flying fish mermaid, in honour of Mermay, because I am every shade of nerdy
Vince: Ok, kids, We’ll be working around the Safe Haven today, so split into groups of two
Thomas: Rock, paper, siccor, winner gets Newt!
Newt:
Thomas and Minho: *doing rock, papaer, siccor*
Based on a true story
Please i need people to understand that the tragedy of robins is that their parents did love them.
Dick’s parents love him they didn’t want to leave him. Jason’s parents loved him, they didn’t want to be trapped in poverty and crime. Steph’s mother loved her, she didn’t think Steph would get caught up in her husband’s schemes. Tim’s parents loved him, they never meant for him to be as alone as he was. Cass’s father loved her, he wanted her to be as strong as she could be. Damian’s mother loved him, she was raising him in impossible circumstances. Duke’s parents loved him, they never planned to get caught up in the attack.
And yes, these situations are different. Duke and Dick’s parents were good people, Steph mom and Jason’s dad are sometimes depicted as abusive but at other times shown to be struggling with their circumstances. Tim’s parents and Damian’s mom were good people who should never have been parents. Cass’s dad was a bad person who shouldn’t have been a parent. With Cass, there ended up being abuse, and with Damian too because one way or another Talia or the league’s training and general way of life would’ve harmed Damian, and some depictions of Tim’s parents imply severe neglect. But deep beneath that, despite the circumstances and even the failure of the people themselves, they did love their children, and were trying in their own way.
Just like Bruce loves his children, and why I’m sort of against the terrible father depiction. Because I think he’s traumatized and his knowledge of parenting would give him a poor subconscious fathering ability, but CONSCIOUSLY he loves his children, and he would try. That’s the difference. All the robins were loved, but they all lost their parents anyway. And they all will be loved again, because even is he fails, Bruce loves them too, and he is trying to do right by them. He’s trying to make sure none of their stories are tragedies.
ben hargreeves going from a silly side character who’s presence was completely dependent on another character to the key that makes up the final season of the show is truly the perfect representation of the power of fan service. like yeah. take the funny ghost that everyone loves and make sure that he’s at the center of the entire plot. why wouldn’t you give the people what they want?
Arina - 20s - She/Her - Pan - Honestly just random reposts - Fandoms - Hannibal, The Umbrella Academy, DC, X-Men, Doctor Who, Kpop, Random Manhwas
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