galadhir

Watched 1000 years of yearning last night and absolutely loved the first three quarters of it. It's a djinn story with wonderful costume and settings in which a professor of narrative finds a djinn in a bottle. She is of course narratively aware enough to know that wishing always goes wrong in all the stories, and suspects that the Djinn is a trickster who will ruin her life too.

Meanwhile the Djinn tells her what it's like being a djinn, being constantly imprisoned in a bottle and unable to get humans to set him free by making their third wish.

All of which I very much enjoyed, while I'm waiting for them to come up with a solution that will leave both of them free and happy.

And then instead of that she wishes that he would fall in love with her, and it isn't until he's dying of all the EM radiation in modern human life that she sets him free - and even then she doesn't even complete the three wishes. And the moment she comes up with this 'I wish for a love like that,' wish it's like a bucket of cold water in my face and the movie has 100% lost me in a single move.

1. because she's gone this whole time as a happily independent woman with no strong desire for romance or companionship, so it doesn't suit her character at all
2. because (as far as this greyromantic asexual is concerned) there was no build up of romance or attraction between the two of them to this point - it comes right out of left field
3. because it's an absolute violation of his rights as a sentient person. It's an absolutely fucking awful thing to do to a person - to command them to fall in love with you when they can't say no. Am I supposed to think of this as a love story? After he's already spent several thousand years imprisoned and desperate for someone human to give him his freedom?

Am I supposed to think it's a good thing that she reluctantly lets him go at the end when he's dying? I mean yes, I suppose it's better than letting him die, but honestly.

Anyway... I suppose by this stage I should be aware that the movie industry knows nothing about consent. Or I am missing some nuance of neurotypical understanding that means it's not as bad as I think. But still.

Recommendation - watch the first three quarters of the movie and then come up with your own wish for her to make. We can solve this with fanfiction.

Galadhir has finished Visitation. Nobody liked that.

(This is a lie. I liked it, so I'm glad to have written it, and I'll enjoy having it there to read again once I've had time to forget it a little.)

Visitation by Galadhir

In which Lan Xichen, in seclusion, experiences a moment of consolation, makes his mind up about some things and comes out swinging.

Because you know Jin Guangyao did not save him just for him to waste away in heartbroken regret.