I'm whatever that currently has a grip on me...

“only after having met you did I rediscover that it’s such a simple thing to be happy.”

“to some, the mere existence of a certain person in this world is, in itself, hope.”

“there was a period of time in my life that wasn’t easy, and during that time, I’d constantly think that, should someone witness the me who rolled in the dirt, unable to get up, yet still love me for who I was, that’d be great.”

“If I could, I would have you use me as your stepping stone, the bridge you burn after crossing, the corpse bones you need to trample to climb up, the sinner who deserved the butchering of a million knives. but I know you wouldn’t allow it.”

“something like a genuine heart is made to be trampled.”

“to watch with your own eyes your beloved be trampled and ridiculed while unable to do anything - that’s the worst suffering in the world.”

“to me, the one basking in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. what matters is you, and not the state of you.”

“those who have known each other for decades can become strangers in a day. we met by chance and we may part by chance. if we like each other, then we shall continue to meet; if we don’t, then we shall part. there’s no banquet in the world that doesn’t come to an end, so I’ll say what I want to say.”

“I will fight for what I don’t have. I will change fates I don’t possess. my fate is up to me, not the heavens!”

“I might not be able to decide whether the road is easy or not, but whether I walk it is entirely up to me.”

[Video link for mobile.]

However, while capturing the personhood of queer people; Danmei also captures the queerness of people because none of these stories would work if the characters weren’t gay/queer

Wei Wuxian’s absolute buffoonery of misunderstanding Lan Zhan’s feelings in a decade long telephone game in which neither of them open their damn mouth would never work in a non-queer story because between a man and a woman romance would be the natural assumption of everyone around them and therefore wouldn’t leave space for confusion. The misunderstanding of their romance is so closely tied to the plot succession that the plot would be… non existent without it

In TGCF Xie Lian and Hua Cheng’s absolute aspirational love is literally in the backseat and front seat of the story. Not too different from a classic hero’s journey but instead of the hero being one person, it’s two people. They are so intertwined with eo that they become one character and witness a lot of the story together. Witness being a very interesting word choice. Their queerness doesn’t drive the story but replacing one of them with a woman would dampen the effect— it’d remove the uncertainty, the confusion from everyone around them, the genuine slow burn of the romance. There’s also this idea of Hua Cheng falling in love with Xie Lian so far separated from concepts such as gender or whatever which wouldn’t have been hammered home in a straight romance where those conversations aren’t always had between the audience and the story

And Erha.. well obviously. Half of Chu Wanning’s “this is so inappropriate” spiral wouldn’t exist if he was a woman. And, the idea of Mo Ran being a “cut sleeve” builds up the under current of his character being so far dismissed by society because he’s seen as immoral. Which just wouldn’t serve to the same effect if he was into exclusively women because so was every other character.

Not saying thank you

Bonus:

And here's what it says on the page for the rubber duck (and all the other pages I've managed to glare at long enough, save for Uriel's, who gets her own text*)... The layout is a bit strange and there are helpful repetitions of the phrases, so this how I think it's supposed to go:

"Through the loving command of God in Her infinite wisdom and delight in creation, Alpha Centauri, one of the most magnificent constellations in the heavens was brought into being. She entrusted its formation to one of Her most beloved angels, a servant of radiant skill and devotion. The angel was charged with weaving light and harmony into a masterpiece that would forever testify to the majesty of the divine."

I was not prepared to feel many of the feelings of the finale, but I was also most certainly not prepared to read praises of Crowley like this when I just wanted to peek at how you define a rubber duck 😭

Mission accomplished. 😏

Good Omens 3 SPOILER!