I love this community so much this cracked me up

I think my favorite shenanigan that the leverage gang pulls is when they discover that a mark has some entirely tangential fixation and they immediately latch on to the opportunity to nettle him in a devastatingly laser-targeted way. not even related to the con just for personal fulfillment.

like oh, you’ve spent weeks obsessing over what type of wood to use for your new house? whoopsies! looks like somebody just canceled your custom flooring order! gosh, how weird is that?

oh, you’re really attached to the moniker you use to strike fear in your victims & colleagues? hope you don’t mind if we get your associates to start mocking it for the entire episode and ensure it gets written down wrong in your FBI files.

you slap your name on every invention you steal because you’re obsessed with name recognition? well parker’s going to invent six new ways to mispronounce it and make sure everybody you speak to gets it wrong for the (very short) remainder of your career.

they truly are just psychologically tormenting people for the hell of it and I love that for them

I can't help but notice the increasing population of princesses on this site, leaving one extremely important ecological niche underfilled: the sinister royal advisor.

The time of the treacherous vizier is nigh.

Now some people might try to tell you that a princess shouldn't take advice from someone with "treacherous" right there in their job title, but you mustn't listen to the bleating of sheep, Your Highness. The fools are just jealous that I've chosen the best and most special princess of all to serve. They're envious of your beauty and your wisdom and the loyalty you command from even someone like me, and they wish only to tear you down.

One day on the job as treacherous vizier and the princesses are already offering free orchiectomies in a bid to entice me to their side. This proves their wisdom and grace.

Wang Zhuocheng | The Journey of Chong Zi

Lotus Pier

MDZS left it a little open to interpretation on the extent of destruction of Lotus Pier when the Wens came and I notice that many downplay this event because they say the Wens set up supervisory offices but what about it? Colonization in itself is a violent act. I don't think MXTX has to go into detail on the violent aspects of it. Since they took over Lotus Pier, they are not going to have the people of lotus pier control businesses or have their cultural landmarks standing. They probably tore it all down so that the Wen can establish their own interests in the land and control trade which will be done through their own people. Additionally, if they are going to be using the buildings, it is obvious they killed the people who occupied it and destroyed documents and items in the building and replaced it with their own. People are displaced from their own homes, the treasury and many people's homes were probably looted because war is expensive. Places of learning were probably torn down because the Wen soldiers believed their ways were superior. Additionally, some people may have fled elsewhere and might not have the means to move back to Lotus Pier after. The political backing the Yunmeng Jiang had is lost because what power do they have as a sect that was conquered. Jiang Cheng is at the mercy of the Jins even if his sister is married into their family. He relies on the good will of the sects to get back to the previous trades and businesses up and running. Even with disciples joining the sect, he will need to train them before they can be trusted to be on their own. Recovering from colonization is a painful process and it should not be undermined in any setting.

Yes this, it annoys the hell out of me when I see "Lotus Pjer wasn't burned, the buildings were standing!" Because sure they were, but everything in these buildings was either looted or destroyed and the people were dead.

Lotus Pier was the centre of the sect - logically, that was where they were running things from, which means all the economic and political power of the region was placed there. And people who ran it were murdered because that's how colonization works. You remove people who were there to put your own in their place.

I have a whole thing about considering the local economics of Jianghu and why the Jiang were targeted so harshly by the Wen. Because once you remove the magical flying swords, this is just an economic expansion gone wild.

i'm engaging in the ancient tradition of pretending there's an ancient tradition to engage in

the word economy on this guy

Straight guys who use tumblr are the funniest people ever literally how did you end up here

Dei hire

collapses in your arms princess style after casting the biggest evil most fucked up spell you've literally every seen

"What made you follow your mutual" I don't know. I don't remember anything. In my mind we were mutuals at birth. Since the dawn of time. The start of the earth's spin