losangelou

[losangelou]

socceraid: 💙

[losangelou]

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[losangelou]

I’m like 99% sure that Louis, Zayn, Niall and Harry stayed away from each other in public on purpose today. They all know what would happen if the four of them stood next to each other and a picture of all four of them was taken. People were calling it “the reunion we never wished for” even before we knew there’d be a funeral attended by all of them. Would you call your grandpa’s funeral a “family reunion”? Probably not. This was never a “1D reunion”, always Liam’s funeral. So, by staying away from each other, they could make sure no one could get the picture everyone wanted. Which is so smart to protect themselves and Liam’s funeral. Because today wasn’t about One Direction. It was about Liam, who was part of Oke Direction, but so much more. A father. A son. A brother. A boyfriend. A friend. This was the best they could do for everyone including Liam. Not be seen together in public at his funeral to keep this about him. Imagine if paps got the high selling picture they wanted today - this isn’t something anyone could possibly wanted to be the lasting thing of this.

[losangelou]

zayn saved the band by leaving.

let's be honest. he took the hit when he left. he lost so many of his fans then. but you know what he did?

he showed the boys that there was life after one direction.

he showed them that the hell they were enduring was escapable. that they could make it out and still sing and write songs and be happy.

if they'd really been as happy as they seemed to us, they would've come back after the hiatus. they promised us 18 months. its been 9 years.

im sure they loved us with all their hearts. that they enjoyed their time together as a band, as brothers. however, they were exploited and taken advantage of every step of the way.

now, liam's passing is the fucking culmination of the hell they endured. you can't argue with me that the liam of 2011 was SO SO FULL OF LIFE. he had so much promise. you just knew this boy was gonna go places.

but somehow, along the way, his light dimmed. that wasn't the liam we knew. we all subconsiously could see it. that liam hurt so much that he hurt a lot of people. that liam could've done better. that liam should've been given the chance to make amends.

but the young boy that was so full of life, he didnt deserve any of this. he deserved to have been kept safe and away from the shit that could destroy him.

the boys should have been protected and maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't have to endure this devastating loss. maybe, just maybe, liam would still be alive.

i'd take an unending hiatus over this loss any day.

[losangelou]

Louis has been to more funerals than anyone should have to in a lifetime.

[losangelou]

I keep having this one agonizing thought.

Unless you were really into British pop music-based television, the introduction to One Direction for almost everybody in the world was "What Makes You Beautiful" - and those opening lines, no matter how memed or overplayed they became during that nostalgic autumn of 2011 - are Liam's vocals.

Whether you ended up being a stan with posters all over your walls who cried in your middle school bathroom when Zayn left or you were someone that got swept up in pop culture hatred and called them annoying or overrated - that song was likely the first impression One Direction ever left on you.

That means Liam is the first thing the world ever heard of One Direction as a group, so for him to be the first thing to leave, truly permanently leave the world behind, makes the gaping hole feel that much larger.

[losangelou]

By the way one direction inspired an entire generation of young teens to become artists, readers, writers, musicians, animators. 14 year olds were hacking into security cameras. Do you genuinely understand how hard that is? I literally have a tech degree and i still view hacking as too complicated. 14 year olds were in literal stem to watch one direction buy a bottle of shampoo. They have genuinely altered the courses of so many people's lives in terms of careers and long term hobbies. It was never just the music. I literally started reading by reading fanfiction. I am now a very active reader of many genres. I got a fucking tech degree because i wanted to see how it was done. Like its so unbelievably crazy. And they were massively bullied by the media and the rest of the world. They were ridiculed by the music industry. They were the biggest boyband on the planet and the only one that went as global as they did and they had them parody their own song 3 seperate times. They were never nominated for grammys as a group. They were genuinely never taken seriously and they changed the courses of young womens lives.

[losangelou]

I have soooooo much I want to write about Doctor Odyssey and if I keep waiting for the perfect moment to write something PROPERLY GOOD AND COMPREHENSIVE then I’m simply going to explode. So instead I’m going to write a messy little post on my phone when half asleep and try to keep it to one main topic.

Yeah yeah the throuple had a threesome (and I’m foaming at the mouth over it) but can we talk about the THEMES!!!!

This show is for crazy people (me specifically). Once again, I have a lot to say, but for now let me just focus on the wedding episode itself. That threesome is informed by the context of the rest of the episode in a way I simply CANNOT get over.

Let’s look at our passengers: the bride, groom, and best man. We find out all of them are being unfaithful to each other in various ways, miserable in their silence and unhealthy relationship dynamics. They all went to school together and were once close, but things went wrong somewhere along the way. The best man’s speech implies he has feelings for the groom, the groom is a sex addict who’s had multiple partners (possibly the best man included) because he feels trapped in a lie, and the bride and best man are having sex with each other. And none of them are communicating about it, and the groom who had preexisting mental health struggles commits suicide.

What happens to the three of them is a tragedy and it is absolutely a result of heteronormative monogamous culture. That culture was passed down from the bride’s mother to her too by example and societal influence.

I’m not exaggerating. It’s not subtle!!! At all!!! Everything explodes for those passengers because monogamy and repressing bisexuality wasn’t working for them.

They’re a dark mirror and cautionary tale. (Bonus points for how Avery’s sad backstory is that she was betrayed by her longtime friend / brief husband who cheated on her with a mutual friend as well, which is why she’s definitely hesitant about love now.)

By comparison, Avery and Max and Tristan have been avoiding some similar big pitfalls: they know they’re into each other and it’s not a secret, rivalries keep being squashed with effort, and no one is pressuring anyone to choose (so far).

This is what our beloved main characters have on their minds before what follows. And again, let’s not even get to the sex part yet… THE BUCKET LISTS!!! I’m losing my Goddamn marbles!!! The way all 3 of their lists intersect? Holy shit. Off the top of my head: Max and Tristan want to fall in love and have kids, Avery and Max want to see the world, Tristan and Avery have niche interests outside of medicine that they want to explore more… We were given itemized lists to show how the 3 of them balance and round each other out perfectly.

It’s not about any 2 of them because it won’t work with just any 2. It’s ALL THREE — just like all the framing and blocking of shots is consistently all 3, they walked down the wedding aisle all 3 together, the first sex scene for any of them that WE as the audience see on screen is all 3 of them together, a “bad threesome” is defined as 2 people getting too wrapped up in each other and the 3rd being an accidental outsider, we often see that if one duo gets a couple-y moment then the other duos get similar moments later as well, etc etc. Sorry. Let me not continue the summary list here and now so I don’t get too sidetracked but there’s A LOT.

But like, my current point? That wedding episode is a goldmine and the threesome explicitly happening doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Far from it. The themes are themeing in the whole show, of course, which is part of what I want to write about elsewhere at some point too: this show is repeatedly very deliberate about making sure heterosexuality or monogamy aren’t framed as the default or only correct options, and queerness is sprinkled everywhere. But this wedding episode specifically… the themes were nearly the ONLY PLOT. Nothing else — it’s basically only that, and it’s very focused. The failures of monogamy are on full display. And that’s why and how we get an explicit threesome right after it, which will lead us into how things will continue to develop for our trio.

Now, as for why the threesome happens so relatively quickly? My hot take on that is that general audiences can be stupid and so the creators wanted to put the throuple explicitly on screen fairly early to get people to start Noticing. Show them how the characters need to be together… and that sets us up for the possible angst and tension to follow as they have to accept it emotionally for themselves too. Now, as an audience member, you’ll more strongly know what to root for. You’ll know what’s right because you’ve seen it and you’ll want them to get back to that place, come what may. (If you’re not a puritan.)

It’s so fucking good. Insane silly show for insane people. Are we seeing the vision??? I need everyone to lock in.

This ramble is probably a disaster and I apologize for that but ohhhh man I had to put SOME words down so I wouldn’t explode. Suffice it to say I’m having a ball up in this bitch and I cannot believe this show exists. I couldn’t believe my eyes and my brain cells in the pilot, and I REALLY can’t believe them now.

What a time to be alive!!!!!! Polycule “love fest” on a cruise ship, baby!!! The world needs more love, all kinds of love, as the Captain says!!!! Onward to gay week!!!! LET’S SEE THOSE BI MEN KISS

[losangelou]

This is the money Marge. Reblog for good fortune

[losangelou]

buzz cut liam appreciation post

[losangelou]

alec’s love confessions but it’s actually karaoke of what makes you beautiful

[losangelou]

Survivors of domestic abuse need no fault divorce. I had one to get out of my abusive marriage!

[losangelou]

can i hang with you guys for a bit? ben's being so boring.

[losangelou]

3rd summer in a row we’ve had a louis and steve aoki reunion! ☺️

16/6/22 — 2/7/23 — 8/8/24

[losangelou]

Only 73 days to go 🥳

[losangelou]

they were just normal guys but terrible terrible dancers