#And even when you have never read one or watch a movie/episode based on them you still know who these heroes are

[whimsimarion]

I swear to God, as an European, I was completely and utterly shocked when I found out that certain popular bds, like Asterix, Tintin and Lucky Luke, were pretty much obscure in the American continent. 😳

[weareuniqueandimportant]

WE'RE WATCHING WAKANDA FOREVER... WE'RE 1 HOUR IN BUT I MUST SAY... I STOPPED PAYING ATTENTION A WHILE AGO...

THIS POST MIGHT GET GLITCHED DUE TO THEIR LENGTH AND SUREFIRE WOKENESS... DETAILS THAT CAUSE THEM TO BE ERASED ABUSIVELY EVILLY NASTILLY ON PURPOSE OUT OF POLITICAL PROPAGANDA BY THE ABUSER CALLED TUMBLR... THEREFORE.. I WILL EDIT THIS IN BITS...

OKAY... WE WATCHED AN ANIME PORN THAT WAS TRANSPHOBIC... THAT WAS 2 WOMAN BUT... THE OTHER ONE IS TRANS LIKELY BY A TRANSPHOBIC CREATOR... WE GET TYPICAL TRANSPHOBIC DIALOGUE... SEXISM... QUEERPHOBIA... ABOUT CONSTRUCTS... THE CISSIE WAS ITEMIZED INSANE... CRAZY... SHE WASN'T... YUCKIES... ALL THIS AT A TRANS CHARACTER... WHAT A NASTY FETISH THE CREATOR HAS... WE REMEMBERED... THAT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER... TO ACKNOWLEDGE... I REMEMBER MORE... ONCE AGAIN FORGOTTEN ONCE AGAIN WHAT WE USED TO KNOW... BECAUSE NOBODY WILL EVER UNDERSTAND... WE WILL ALWAYS BE ABUSED... WE HAVE NO HOPE EVER GETTING MARRIED AND HAVING CHILDREN OUR LIVES PURPOSE OR TRANSITIONING AS OURSELVES... THIS IS FACTUAL... WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN... NOBODY WILL EVER UNDERSTAND... WE WATCHED ANOTHER ONE... TERRIBLE...

THEY CAN'T DIE... BUT I HAVE NO ENERGY... THERE IS NO POINT... THEY'RE DYING... FLEEING... THIS CAN'T HAPPEN... I LOVE YOU... OUR SHARED EMOTIONS... OUR TRAUMA... OUR PROGRESSIVE EXISTANCE WITHOUT AN EQUAL NOBODY WILL EVER COMPARE TO GIVING US NL POINT IN LIFE... WE'RE ALIVE FOR NO REASON... BECAUSE WE CARE UNLIKE ANYONE ELSE... THERE IS NOBODY ELSE THAT CARES ON THIS PLANET... WE WOULD BE ABUSED BY ANYONE AND EVERYONE IF THEIR CHILDREN... ONLY WE CAN HAVE THEM FOR THIS REASON... ASWELL AS THE TOOL NEVER OUR EQUAL THAT WILL GIVE THEM FOR US... BECAUSE AN EQUAL WOULD HAVE SAVED US ALREADY... IF EXISTED... THEY WOULD'VE PREVENTED EVERYTHING WE HAVE EVER BEEN TROUGH... THEY WOULD HAVE GIVEN US AN ACTUAL COMMUNITY THAN THE EVIL ABUSER WASTE THIS SITE ONLY HAS... WE WILL NEVER BE SAVED WE WILL NEVER TRANSITION LIFE IS POINTLESS WE ARE ABUSED ALWAYS HARMED ALWAYS HURT ALWAYS LIKE JUST WHEN SOMEONE HURT US SOMEONE WHO WASN'T SUPPOSED TO... ONCE AGAIN... AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN AND AGAIN A LOOP WE'RE ALWAYS STUCK IN!! BASIC NEEDS WE'RE BORN WITH ALWAYS DENIED ALWAYS ABUSED ALWAYS NEGLECTED JUST LIKE RIGHT NOW!! NOBODY IS QUALIFIED NO THERAPIST NOBODY OF SUCH KIND THEM ONLY ABUSERS THAT HAVE ONLY HURT US IN THE PAST WITH AN AGENDA FAR MORE EVIL THEM BASED IN EVIL BIGOTRIES... ANYONE OUTSIDE... SHOULD BE YOUR THERAPIST... FUCK THIS... DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU'RE A BIGOT... AND NO BIGOT IS ALLOWED TO INTERACT WITH THIS POST ONLY 2 PEOPLE 1 OUR EQUAL THAT WILL NEVER EXIST OUTSIDE OF OUR BRAIN 2 OUR LOVERS OUR CHEERLEADERS THOSE CUTIES THAT FOLLOW US... DESPERATE FOR OUR ATTENTION... HUNGRY... AWW... DON'T WORRY MY LITTLE FOLLOWER... HERE'S ANOTHER LOVELY POST YOUR FAVORITE: RIGHT...? HERE YOU GO <3!!

IF BLACK PANTHER WAS A TRANS WOMAN THAT IS AUTISM AND ADHD WAKANDA WOULD HAVE ABUSED HER SHE WOULD'VE NEVER BECOME A HERO SHE WOULD'VE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO IF SHE WAS RADQUEER FEMINIST COMMUNIST ANARCHIST WE ARE DESPISED WE ARE HATED... SAME WAY IRONMAN... SPIDERMAN... CAPTAIN AMERICA... ALL WITH THEIR SEXIST WRITTEN GIRLFRIENDS... DAMSELS IN DISTESS AT BEST A SIDE CHARACTER NEVER AN EQUAL... PEOPLE WITH DEAD PARENTS WITHOUT FAMILY WITHOUT COMMUNITY WITHOUT LOVE PREACHING ABOUT LOVE TO US... THAT DON'T THINK WHAT IS GOOD PREACHING ABOUT IDEOLOGY THAT ABUSES US... THEM ALL ABUSERS THAT WOULD ONLY HARM US... US WATCHING THEIR MOVIES... THINGS COULD'VE BEEN DIFFERENT... US ONLY LEARNING WE'RE UNLOVABLE AS THE TRUE LESSON OVER AND OVER... DOESN'T MATTER WHAT SERIES WHAT GENRE... THE QUESTION IS WHAT FAKE EMOTIONS THEY CAN MAKE US FEEL FOR A LITTLE MOMENT UNTIL REALITY HITS BACK IN... IF THIS IS DEPRESSION WE ARE DEPRESSED FOR A REASON WE ARE MEANT TO BE DEPRESSED WE ALWAYS WERE MEANT TO BE... WE ARE ABUSED WE HAVEN'T TRANSITIONED WE NEVER WILL WE'RE EVERYTHING ELSE LISTED... THIS WORLD IS THE PROBLEM WE NEVER COULD BE... BLAME US YOU'RE TO BLAME THAT IS YOU EVERYTHING IS WRONG WITH BECAUSE YOU COULD'VE PREVENTED THIS AND YOU DON'T ACCEPT US ONCE WE'RE BROKEN DESPITE ONLY DOING WHAT IS RIGHT EVERYONE ELSE ONLY BROKEN INSTEAD... THAT IS THEM THAT ALWAYS MADE EVERYTHING GO THIS WAY... THEM TO WHO THAT IS NORMAL TO SEE THIS AND IGNORE... ABUSERS... WITHOUT A RIGHT NO PREACH ABOUT ANYTHING... THIS... IDEOLOGY... ONLY A WAY TO TELL US WE DESERVE TO BE ABUSED WE DESERVED EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED ON US THAT IS JUSTIFIED TO KILL US AND EVERYONE ELSE IS JUSTIFIED TO HURT US... US UNCARED FOR UNLOVED FOREVER...

I DON'T FEEL LIKE...

IRONMAN AS A TRANS WOMAN THAT IS EVERYTHING WE ARE WOULD'VE BEEN EPIC AND THE RIGHT WAY TO GO... GIVE HER EVERYTHING THERE SHOULD BE... MAKE HER EVERYTHING GOOD THERE IS... NO GOOD PERSON WOULD BE WHAT IRONMAN IS IN REAL LIFE... CONSERVATIVES LOVE HIM FOR A REASON... NOBODY PROGRESSIVE WOULD...

LOVE OF THUNDER WILL EASILY BE THE BEST THOR WE WILL WATCH THEM SOON TOO THE REASON WOKE CONTENT EASY AS THAT... MARVEL WILL NEVER ACCEPT EVERYTHING WOKE THERE IS... THERE IS NOTHING LEFTIST ABOUT THEM COMICS ARE AS BAD AS THEY WERE IN THE 80S WITH THE SAME PROBLEMS AS ARE MOVIES EVERYTHING IS... EVERYTHING IS EVIL AND HARMFULL :)...

THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN TALK ABOUT WHILE BURIED UNDER SUCH FEELINGS OF EVIL... ONLY SOMEONE THAT CAN FIX EVERYTHING CAN SAVE US... BUT NOBODY LIKE THAT IS OUT THERE... OTHERWISE... THEY WOULD'VE ALREADY COME... WE WOULD'VE SEEN THEM... WE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABUSED ALL THOSE TIMES... NOTHING BAD WOULD'VE EVER HAPPENED TO US...

CULTURE WILL ALWAYS BE EVIL... THAT IS RACIST TO EVEN WHEN DRAWING A BLACK PERSON PUTTING HIM IN TRIBE OUTFITS FROM 6000 MILLION YEARS AGO... ISN'T THIS JUST MAKING THEM TARZAN ANYWAYS...? NOTHING'S ACTUALLY CHANGED... THE SAME WAY THEY WOULDN'T ACCEPT US... THEY HATE EVERYTHING AGAINST THEIR CONSERVATIVE ABUSER CULTURE AND THEIR STANCE IS TO NEVER EVOLVE TO ALWAYS STAY THE SAME...

AT THE SAME TIME ALL THE OTHER HEROES HAVE NO FAMILY HAVE NO FRIENDS... THEY'RE REJECTS HATED BY EVERYONE... THAT JUDGE OTHER PEOPLE LIKE THEM BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T BECOME WHAT OPPRESSESS THEM AND DOESN'T DO SHIT TO FIX WHAT CAUSED EVERYTHING BAD ON THEM THEY CAUSE ASWELL...

THERE WAS 1 EMOTIONAL MOMENT IN THIS ONE THAT WAS FIRE... WHEN HIS WIFE WHO'S NOW A WIDOW STRIPS THAT ONE WOMAN FROM HER POWER... VERY GOOD SCENE... VERY EMOTIONAL... ONE OF THE BEST MARVEL HAS... THE BEGGINING ASWELL WAS GOOD... AFTER THAT IS WHEN THINGS GOT BORING...

I LIKE THE CONNECTIONS EVERYONE HAS OR DID... ALL THOSE OTHER HEROES AREN'T CARED ABOUT BY THEIR COMMUNITIES... IF CAPTAIN AMERICA WAS TRULY CARED ABOUT... HIS ARMY WOULD'VE FOUND AND SAVED HIM OR THEY WOULD'VE FROZEN THEMSELVES TOO... NOBODY CARED ABOUT HIM... EVERYONE'S DEAD... HE HAS NO REASON TO BE A HERO ANYMORE... HE SHOULDN'T BE... HE'S AN ABUSER GARBAGE WASTE... EITHER HE'S BAD WHICH HE IS EITHER WAY OR THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE FOR HIM TO BE LIKE THIS. SIMPLE AS THAT. IRONMAN IS THE SAME WAY... BESIDES... HE PEAKS AS A FATHER... SHOULD'VE JUST BEEN HIS DAUGHTER'S FATHER FROM THE BEGGINING... THEM DUAL PROTAGONIST... A BETTER MOVIE THAN IRONMAN 1. WHAT THAT MOVIE SHOULD'VE ALREADY BEEN.

AS SHOULD'VE HIM BEEN INSTEAD TRANS... HIS GIRLFRIEND MORE THAN HIS GIRLFRIEND... WITH BADASS FAMILY LORE... ALL COMPLEX ARE RELEVANT... ALL EXPLORED AND INTERESTING...

HIS VILLAINS... ASS... ALL OF THEM...

THANOS... ASS.. BLACK WIDOW... SEXIST... LOKI... ALWAYS A TERRIBLE CHARACTER... THOR... WORTHLESS UNTIL LOVE OF THUNDER...

CAPTAIN MARVEL A CHARACTER THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN ALREADY IN PHASE ONE... ALL THIS WOKE CONTENT AND MORE THE WOKEST CONTENT MARVEL WILL NEVER DO PART OF THEM THE SAME...

SIMPLE AS THAT... NOW ABOUT THAT ANIME PORN...

HE WAS JUST A PATHETIC LOSER MAN... THAT RPED HIS MOTHER AND SISTER... HIS MOTHER'S RPE IS JUSTIFIED AND SHE BECOMES A RPIST TOO... AND THEY RPE HIS SISTER TOGETHER... HIS FATHER IS THERE WITH THEM... THEM ALL SINCE LYING TO HIM AND HAVING SEX BEHIND HIS BACK... THEY DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT HIM... WHY THE FUCK IS HE HERE...? WHY THE FUCK DID HE MARRY THESE PEOPLE...? THE WOMAN NOTHING BUT SEXIST JUNK CONTENT FOR PATHETIC LOSER MAN THE REAL VILLAIN... HIM THAT DOESN'T SHOW EMOTIONS BECAUSE THAT WOULD BREAK THIS MASCULINITY... THAT HAS NO ANYTHING... NO PERSONALITY NO CHARACTER DESIGN... WHO'S FACE YOU BARELY SEE... EVIL SERIES... THIS PORNO MADE JUST TO TELL US WE DON'T MATTER... TRANSPHOBIC EVIL... ERASE US YOU'RE A BIGOT... BORING... THE WAY SHE JUST TURNED ON HER AND BECAME A RPIST... IS THIS AN ATTEMPT AT AN ARC...? TRY HARDER... BIGOT...

MEANWHILE THE OTHER ONE... CASUALLY TRANSPHOBIC... TELLING US WE'RE HATED AND OTHER EVIL THINGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN... BETTER CHARACTERS... MAKES THE ASSINESS WORSE... NOTHING BUT ANOTHER DEEPLY PERSONAL ATTEMPT AT HURTING US THAT WORKS... HER FACE TOO HIDDEN... HER GIRLFRIEND MADE INTO SEXIST JUICE... NO TRANS WOMAN WOULD DO THIS... NONE... ONLY A BIGOT WOULD GASSLIGHT US... WE CONTROL OURSELVES... WE ARE AMAZING WE ARE POWERFULL... NOBODY CAN DESTROY US... ONLY A BIGOT WOULD COME AFTER US...

IRONMAN MUST'VE MET A MILLION TRANS PEOPLE HE'S HURT... NOTHING HEROIC ABOUT THIS... HE WOULD ABUSE HIS CHILD THAT IS AUTISM... JUST LIKE WE WERE ABUSED AND ARE EVERY SINGLE DAY...

SPIDERMAN IS SO ASS MILES WILL WAIT A COUPLE DECADES BEFORE APPEARING... THAT IS A YIKES... VERY EVERYTHING...

THIS MOVIE IS FIRE BECAUSE SO MANY STORY RELEVANT WOMAN... TERRIBLE THE WIDOW IS THE ANTAGONIST THE LEAST IMPORTANT CHARACTER... AGAIN... REPEATING THE COMIC UNIMPORTANT GIRLFRIEND CHARACTER...

HULK IS FACTUALLY ASS AND BIGOTED... JUSTIFYING EVERY SINGLE ABUSE THOSE WITH DID US WITH OSDD EXPERIENCE... JUSTIFYING EVERY SINGLE ABUSE CRAZY PEOPLE EXPERIENCE... HE WANTS MENTAL HOSPITAL... THIS IS JUSTIFIED... BIGOTED... EVIL... SANIST... ABLEIST... GARBAGE... NO BLACK CHARACTER RACIST... NO LGBT QUEERPHOBIC... ESPECIALLY TRANSPHOBIC... JUST ANOTHER SEXIST GIRLFRIEND SEXISM... PARAPHOBIA... EVERYTHING ELSE BIGOTED FROM THEIR COMPLETE ERASURE AND MORE... I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS... WE NEVER TRULY FORGOT ABOUT ALL THIS... WE ARE AMAZING... WE ARE ABSOLUTE... ALWAYS WILL BE...

THAT IS BIGOTED TO DO A REPRESENTATION AND DO THEM BADLY... THIS MOVIE IS RACIST... BLACK PEOPLE ARE LITERALLY TARZAN WHEN YOU THINK... CRAZY...

EVERY OTHER MOVIE THEY'RE ALL THE SAME... THE MARVELS WILL ALWAYS BE THE BEST... THIS ONE IS CLOSE TBH... LOVE OF THUNDER WILL LIKELY BE NEAR ASWELL... THAT WILL BE SOON... NOW... WE MUST FINISH THIS MOVIE AND ADD IN HASHTAGS...

[imintoomanyfandomscuzihaveadhd]

Random ass spider headcanons that are in my maladaptive daydream

Warning: Not proof read, Cussing, probably OOC, acro ace kiri, mentions of AOT,

First and foremost FUCK HIS FOSTER FAMILY UNCLE NORM RAISED SPIDER 😤

His pain tolerance is through the roof. Like he fell out of a tree and was confused on why Lo’ak was freaking out, he looked down and was like “oh my leg’s broke”

He also like never gets sick but when he does it’s bad

Poor baby got abandonment and anger issues 😭

Probably projecting but he’s got ADHD. It was worse when he was little but he still has his hyper manic episodes

This boy radiates so much heat it’s not even funny

HE CAN SING 😩 AND PLAY THE GUITAR 😫

However he can’t dance worth shit💀 all he can do is a awkward shuffle

Projecting (again) but he tries to take care of his hair but gives up really easily. Like he will have a solid hair routine for like a week and just forgets about it instantly

subconsciously brings samples back to the lab.

This poor boy is touch starved please give him a hug

Most of the young Na’vi kids love him despite their parents distaste

Secretly watches his parents video diaries but pretends like he never wants to see them especially his dads

Him and norm watch old anime and superhero movies that was saved on drives

His hair grows hella fast

He’s a very fast learner

He knows Spanish definitely can and will cuss anybody who doesn’t understand it out

Lyle: “SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT HE’S SAYING I DONT SPEAK TACO BELL”

Lopez:😭🤣

Has crazy ass sleepwalking spells. Like everyone in the lab literally couldn’t find him. Norm decided he would go avatar to look for spider outside and spider was dead ass asleep in the pod💀

He also sleeps like a rock like the whole lab could get blown away and he would still be sleeping

Morning boi. Like why is he up at 5:30am eating breakfast watching old Pokémon reruns on a Wednesday 🤨

His room is a disaster

Steals avatar/recom clothes

Norm: “Spider, give me back my shirt it’s like 6x your size”

Spider, who looks like a toddler cuz the shirt is so big: “So? You just jealous I look hotter than you in it🙄”

I feel like there’s random period where spider will just wonder off into the forest when he’s not feeling mentally well. And it’s ok because he got the ewya armor

Like he’s found his own secret caves and groves to go to when he’s upset or just wants to be alone

Him and loak once stole the Navi equivalent to alcohol, got drunk and Jake beat their ass

Helps teach Navi kids English

Him, loak, kiri, havin waifu talk after spider showed them the wonderful world of anime

Lo’ak: “historia is top tier”

Spider: “man fuck historia have you seen ANNIE AND MIKASA 😩”What can I say man loves him a strong woman

Kiri: “acro ace vibing with hange”

Boy’s oblivious as hell

omeone will flirt with him and 3 day later while he’s chilling in the lab he’ll go: “HOLY SHIT……THEY WERE FLIRTING WITH ME-”

The waifu one was based off these videos here

@hyperfixatedfandomer @naavispider @today-or-tumble

[david-talks-sw]

No, George Lucas is not a "traitor"

You may have seen angry tweets and thumbnails such as these, in the last few days.

Context - Disney is going through a proxy battle, and George Lucas sent out a statement that read as follows:

So immediately, all the grifting influencers who based their entire platform around the narrative that "Kathleen Kennedy & Disney betrayed Lucas' legacy" banded together and agreed that the new line was:

"Fuck George Lucas, he betrayed us and betrayed himself. Lucas sided with his own abusers!"

Here's why this line of thought is absolutely childish and uninformed.

1- Get real, he's a shareholder, of course he'll say this.

I don't need to expand on this, do I?

He owns stock. Someone threatens your money, you defend the money. The question becomes: why does he think that sticking with Disney CEO Bob Iger will result in more profit than siding with?

Variety theorizes that it may be because Nelson Peltz has admitted that he has no media experience. 

And if that's the case? I'm not surprised at all, because...

2- George has always hated amateur studio execs

The following is me simplifying a lot... but George's relationship with studios has never been a good one.

When he was working at American Zoetrope, with Francis Ford Coppola, they were commissioned to adapt George's short film into a feature, THX-1138. The studio execs didn't like it and forced Francis to refund them the money (which is why he agreed to direct The Godfather, to get out of debt).

Moving on to American Graffiti (1973). When George writes Graffiti, he shops it around to studios and they all essentially told him to go fuck himself.

"American Graffiti went around to every single studio twice and they all said, "It's not a movie, there's no story, and there are no movie stars in it." And Star Wars— it was, "What in the world is this? Wookiees and robots? I don't get it." [...] It'd be hard to make a movie [like American Graffiti or Star Wars] today in the system because all these middle management people get in there and interfere in the process. I think that's much worse for filmmakers than it's ever been in the past." - Star Wars Insider #43, 1999

Except Universal. But throughout the process they're being irritants.

They object to the title because they don't know what it means.

The president is convinced it's a bad movie to a point where when he sees audiences cheer for it in test screenings, he argues they're paid actors.

They force Lucas to trim 5 minutes out of the film. Why? Just because.

This approach the studio execs were taking comes from the fact that none of them were artists. At this point in time, studios had been and were being bought by corporations who thought they could make a quick buck in the movie business.

Eg: Warner Bros wasn't run by the Warner brothers anymore. Paramount was now a subsidiary of Gulf+Western.

So when he's receiving notes, they're coming from - you guessed it - amateurs who think they know what they're talking about, but in reality have no clue. They did market research and think they know everything.

This subject is covered in The Offer (2022), a series about the making of The Godfather (reeeeally good show, I watched it twice).

In this scene, for example, you have a studio exec with no artistic sense whatsoever trying to tell Coppola which poster he should go with, and you get the idea of what I mean.

(Fun fact, a young George Lucas even makes a cameo in the pilot episode, in Coppola's office.)

George also went into this subject during his 2015 interview with Charlie Rose.

It's a 4-minute clip, so here's the relevant bit:

"[Big corporations are] known for being risk averse. And movies are not risk averse. Every single movie is a risk, a big risk, like... The movie business is exactly like professional gambling... except you hire the gambler. You use some crazy kid with long hair, you give him $100 million and you say "go to the tables and come back with $500 million." That is a risk! Now, the studios have been going to think of it that way, they say: "well, maybe if we told him that he couldn't bet on red, maybe if we told him because we did market research and we've realized that red wasn't" -- so they tried minimize their risk. [...] They're basically corporate types. They think-- some of the worst things happens when they think they know how to do it, then they start making decisions that ensure it's not going to work. " - Charlie Rose, CBS This Morning, 2015

Now, ironically, this is the same interview in which he compared Disney to "white slavers", but clearly he was still smarting from his own ideas for the Sequels having been ignored.

But considering how little a fuck he gave about those Star Wars films once they came out and how often he visits the now visits sets of like Ahsoka and The Mandalorian, I think he's over it.

Again, this doesn't align with some Star Wars influencers' narrative that "he's fuming, he hates these movies, he feels betrayed and angry!" But if you ask me, he likely couldn't care less, and dubbing Disney his "abusers" is giving them waaay too much credit.

He made his movies, told the story he needed to tell and is now probably just enjoying his retirement, raising his daughter and putting together his museum, part of which is possible because of the money Disney keeps generating for him, as an investor.

So it doesn't surprise me one bit that George Lucas, of all people, to side with the Devil he knows rather than the amateur exec, because the latter is a painful road he knows all too well.

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Since you're familiar with tokusatsu actors and their journeys into BL, what kinds of careers historically have tokusatsu actors had as they start to get more credits and mature?

Thank you for the ask! This is a great question. It’s something I’ve been curious about for a while, as you know.

I never get tired of this gif of Seto Toshiki (a Kamen Rider alum with two BLs under his belt) eating cake. (It's from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, which he starred in with Iijima Hiroki of Our Dining Table fame.)

Oh, I should probably say at the outset that I'm talking about the suit transformation type of tokusatsu shows here. Technically the category is broader and also includes kaiju movies, but I'm focusing here on the kind of tokusatsu series in which human characters (or human-like ones) transform into masked heroes. I think that's what you had in mind, Ben, and it's the type of tokusatsu that tends to overlap with the BL world.

Another thing you'll notice is that I'm mostly going to talk about men here. Tokusatsu has been making some progress as a genre when it comes to gender equity, but it still has a long way to go. And since most of the progress that has happened, like the increase in female Riders, has been in the last few years, the actors who played those characters haven't had much of a subsequent career yet.

Now, to your question.

Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a way to really look at this systematically. So, definitely take my conclusions with a grain of salt. (If anyone reading this knows more about this or has thoughts about how to get more/better info, I'd love to hear them.) The main source of information I have--aside from just soaking stuff up from watching tokusatsu shows and reading toku fans' tumblrs, of course--is looking at toku actors’ entries on MDL and seeing how many roles they’ve gotten, if they’re “guest,” “support,” or “main” roles, and trying to find out about the type of shows and movies they’re in.

One of the biggest weaknesses to this approach as an American viewer is that it's usually hard for me to tell what constitutes a popular or prestigious series or film even if I go to the listings for specific shows/films. I should also note that one thing that biases my “data” (to use the term loosely) is the fact that I’m more likely to look up this information about actors I like. Well, occasionally I’ll also look at info on some sample of actors out of curiosity, like a bunch of lead Ultraman actors’ subsequent careers or something like that. But it's usually more random.

A little background. As you're aware, tokusatsu roles often go to younger actors who don't have much previous experience. They tend to function both as a way of getting a foothold in the industry (building a resume, starting a fanbase, etc.) and as a way of learning on the job. Part of the reason they work so well in this regard is that they have long seasons. Ultraman seasons are typically around 25 episodes long, which is pretty long compared to many shows in Japan, but Kamen Rider and Super Sentai seasons are usually around 50 episodes long. This means two things: a toku part gets you a lot more of the aforementioned work experience than you'd get in other genres, and it provides a solid year of consistent work with additional work to follow (particularly hard to come by in Japan's entertainment industry, from what I understand). The additional work is substantial, too. There are typically post-series TV movies and touring live shows and there are often guest spots on other series in your franchise.

When it comes to landing other roles, as in other types of media, it makes a big difference what type of role you had. This is stating the obvious, I know, but there are some specific ways this works with tokusatsu series, and it relates to who ends up in BLs and in what capacity. So, all of the big three tokusatsu franchises are pretty ensemble-based but they still have distinct leads and some degree of a hierarchy of roles. Ultraman has the strongest leads, Kamen Rider has lead/title Riders and secondary (and often tertiary) Riders, and Super Sentai shows are especially ensemble-y (the word sentai basically means "squad," after all) but they always have some kind of group leader.

When I look up subsequent work by tokusatsu actors who had sizable roles in their toku series--lead roles, or other parts that are what MDL would call "main" roles--what I see most often is a lot of supporting and guest roles in a variety of TV shows and some films. You can usually find a smattering of lead roles as well, but if you look closely they may turn out to be smaller productions (but not always). When it comes to the number/frequency of credits, there's a lot of variation but an average case would be 2-3 such credits per year. Like I mentioned above, it's hard for me to tell how desirable/prestigious/well-paying those guest and supporting roles are. But they don't usually seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel or anything. So, yeah. Lots of these actors have different paths, but this is what I see most frequently.

Given how challenging it is to make a career out of acting in Japan, this is nothing to sneeze at. Despite its relative influence, the Japanese entertainment industry is still comparatively small, and there are only so many opportunities. In that context, regularly getting guest and supporting gigs constitutes a pretty uncommon level of success.

Could these folks support themselves on this amount of work? I often see just a few credits per year, so maybe not. But when I like a one of these actors enough to follow them on socials, it usually seems like they are supplementing those parts with other stuff like stage plays, toku fan appearances, modeling gigs, or other types of performance including music. Even with these different sources of income, some probably still can't live on their entertainment industry pay alone. But it appears that some can.

So that's the most common thing. One less common outcome is leaning really hard into being a tokusatsu actor for life. It's not typical to get significant roles in multiple toku shows, but it does happen. And some actors manage to play the same character in a lot of post-series movies, miniseries, etc. stretching out for years after their actual series. For example, Tsuruno Takeshi, who played Ultraman Dyna's human host Shin Asuka, has been in ten different Ultraman things including his main series, a short series, a lot of TV movies, and a special. Dyna aired in 1997, and his last appearance as Asuka was fairly recent, in 2016. That's almost a 20-year span. Yet Tsuruno has never had a non-Ultraman main character part. (Though this is partly because he seems to have focused more on his music career and related variety show type things post-Dyna.) There are even some actors who are tokusatsu superfans whose whole career plan is centered on the genre from the get-go.

For those who are looking to branch out, there are a lot of trajectories. So I'll try to talk about some of them through a few examples.

Takeda Kouhei

You probably knew I was going to bring him up. On Kamen Rider Kiva, Takeda's character was important but not the lead (he played the main character's father in the 1980s, in a timeline that ran parallel to the present day one). That was in 2008, when he was 22. Nine years later, in 2017, he was in Kamen Rider Build, in which he was the "tertiary" Rider. This character was a potato farmer-turned-antihero. As tertiary Riders go, he was pretty popular. But Takeda seemed to be mostly hovering at a certain level at that point. Then Old Fashion Cupcake happened. It's significant that he went from playing supporting characters (albeit important ones) to a lead character in OFC. It's also helpful that OFC came out at a point when the prestige of BLs was on the rise. It seems like Takeda has had more consistent and larger parts since then. The difference isn't night and day or anything, but it's observable.

If you look at Takeda's Build costars, Inukai Atsuhiro and Akaso Eiji, here’s what you'll find. Akaso has a similar trajectory to Takeda's only somewhat steeper. His role on Build (the secondary Rider) was a bit bigger, he seemed to get slightly bigger roles overall after Build, and Cherry Magic gave him a significant boost from there. Inukai had a bigger upswing early on followed by slower growth that still had him outstripping both Akaso and Takeda. From what I can tell, his “data” more closely resembles that of Yamada Yuki, who I’ll talk about in a second, though they have different niches.

Suda Masaki

Suda Masaki was only 16 when he played the main rider in Kamen Rider W in 2009, which is unusually young. (W has a unique premise where two different people inhabit the same Rider, so Suda played a lead rider but so did his costar Kiriyama Renn.) From what I can tell, he seems to have had a pretty organic path to larger and larger roles while varying genres and styles quite a bit. At this point he's definitely a very respected actor. (One interesting bit of trivia: Hagiwara Riku has said Suda is his biggest acting role model.) He's won two Japan Academy Film Prizes and been nominated three more times. I don't know of a more successful ex-tokusatsu lead. Actually, I looked him up for this post to fill in some details and found out for the first time that he also has a pretty successful career as a jpop musician. It's almost annoying that he's that talented in yet another area.

I don't see any indication that Suda has ever played a queer character, though he has definitely done some pretty bromantic stuff. He did kiss a man once in a drama series, but it was for plot reasons and was 100% played for laughs in a gross way. He also played a gender nonconforming character in the 2014 live action version of Princess Jellyfish. (Another bit of trivia: when another live action adaptation of Princess Jellyfish was released in 2018, the same character was played by another former lead Rider, Seto Koji from Kiva.) I wouldn't put it past Suda to play a queer character, if it was for a highbrow movie or something analogous to what Nishijima Hidetoshi has done in What Did You Eat Yesterday?, but I'm also not holding my breath.

Yamada Yuki

A less extreme case. Yamada was on Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. He was the blue member of the team, a soldier-turned-pirate. It may have helped Yamada along later on that Gokaiger is an especially popular Sentai series. Post-Gokaiger, Yamada didn't have any sort of big breakout role that I can find. It just seems like fairly soon after Gokaiger, he started having significant roles in TV dramas and has pretty much continued from there, with some upward momentum but no huge changes. When he was in a drama with Akaso Eiji recently, his part was first billed and a smidge bigger. Yamada's trend line seemed to have a biggish upward swing early and then just a slight slope from there. But I just saw him in something different: he plays the younger member of the minesweeper crew in Godzilla Minus One. I wonder if that will mark any sort of shift for him.

Yamada hasn't played any queer characters as far as I can tell. His Sentai role was shippy as hell, though. It's a tradition among Sentai shows that subtext-level queer ships happen between the red and blue team members, and that's exactly what happened in Gokaiger. Sometimes the subtext pretty much became text. If magazine images from that time are any indication, their relationship seems to have been a promotional angle for the show. There's even one where they seem to be in some kind of high school AU that looks like it's straight out of a BL.

what about women?

I tried looking up a few women I know from tokusatsu roles while I was looking up these and other dudes. Some of them were still in the business, at least. Some were getting the same trickle of guest and supporting parts a lot of men do after a tokusatsu show. A few had a slightly bigger trickle. But many of them seemed to have disappeared from the public eye entirely. Not only are women underrepresented in tokusatsu, and not only are their roles often relatively small and two-dimensional, but it doesn't seem like they get even a slight career boost after these roles.

It's possible this will change for some of the actors who got bigger, more interesting toku roles in recent years. Here's hoping!

The changing relationship between tokusatsu and BL

The relationship between tokusatsu and BL has been changing as BL gains more prestige, like I alluded to when I talked about Takeda Kouhei. There was a time when they seemed to be pretty analogous in terms of how hard it was to get a role and how effective they were as rungs on a career ladder. If you went from being a tokusatsu side character to a BL lead (like Takeda), that was a step up, but only because you were shifting from a supporting spot to a lead one. Tokusatsu leads usually didn't usually do BL or, when they did, only played straight supporting roles. I think it was seen as a lateral move. But now, BL is becoming a very established next step after tokusatsu. It's like BL has moved up in status so that the consensus is that it's above tokusatsu on the ladder, but just by a little bit. It's also kind of an organic transition since we're seeing more queer ships in tokusatsu that, while they mostly happen on a subtext level, are close to being canon (and in some cases, arguably already are). It occurred to me while I was writing this that there's also another type of role that is in a similar zone of accessibility and prestige to both tokusatsu and BL. It's a franchise, not a genre, but with so many movies and such huge casts it almost functions like a genre for the purpose of this discussion. I'm talking about the High&Low movies. If you're a fan of tokusatsu or BL, you'll see actors you know in every High&Low movie and if you're a fan of both, you'll see tons.

Case in point: Here's our ol’ pal Yamada Yuki. He's in quite a few High&Low installments. If only he’d do a BL and complete the trifecta! The only person I know of offhand who’s done a tokusatsu show, a BL, and a High&Low role is Takeda. I bet there are others, though.

the new (?) prestige tokusatsu

There's another piece to this I should probably point out as well. In recent years there have been some more high-budget, prestigious takes on existing tokusatsu properties. First, Anno Hideaki, who's best known for the Evangelion anime series/films, put out three live action features that are new, well-financed takes on three big tokusatsu properties: Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider.

Last year there was also a Kamen Rider series geared toward adults that had higher-than-usual production values called Kamen Rider Black Sun. It did that “you can tell our show is for adults because it's all gritty and grimdark" thing, which I'm not a fan of. But it definitely had its points.

Really distinguished actors starred in both the Shin movies and Black Sun, including Nishijima Hidetoshi, who's about as distinguished as it gets. Nishijima was in both Shin Ultraman (in an important supporting role) and Black Sun (as a co-protagonist--and he's the biggest highlight of the series). So these are examples of toku media that are too prestigious to be a springboard into the industry for most actors.

This seems to be a new phenomenon, though I could be wrong about that. I don’t expect the trend will continue at this pace (after all, so much of it is attributable to Anno alone and I don't think he'll continue down this path indefinitely), but I bet some other shows/movies in this vein will come out sooner or later.

Here’s Nishijima doing a henshin sequence. He does these moves with such commitment. Is there anything he can't do?

before tokusatsu

As I was writing this, it got me thinking about what actors do before their tokusatsu roles as well as after. It's not uncommon for toku roles to be someone's debut, but that's not really the norm. Even when it is, most of those actors were doing something in the realm of performing or modeling beforehand. I don't usually look at this sort of information as much as I do later roles when I'm investigating toku actors I like. So I looked up some people to try to get a sense of where the actors tend to have done before their toku parts.

There's one starting point that a whole bunch of tokusatsu leads share: winning the Junon Super Boy Contest. When I first saw references to it, I thought, OK, this is some kind of national talent contest. I guess there are probably lots of them. But when I looked for others, I didn't see anything come up. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places or using the right search terms. But I think maybe this contest might be pretty unique in Japan.

It's run by a magazine called Junon and, well, if I describe how it works it's going to sound really familiar to you and anyone else who's seen Utsukushii Kare, because it's pretty much exactly the contest Kiyoi participates in. Like, if it's not what Nagira Yuu was thinking of when she wrote that part of the UK novel, I'll eat my shoe.

A ton of tokusatsu leads won, placed in, or made it to the finals of that contest. The Tokupedia fan wiki even has its own page dedicated to the contest with links to various winners' toku characters. The majority of Junon Super Boy contestants who ended up in a toku series went to Kamen Rider, but there are some Sentai dudes as well and at least one Ultraman lead.

So I guess if Kiyoi had won that contest, he probably would have ended up on Kamen Rider or something. Weird.

Inukai Atsuhiro and Iijima Hiroki both won that contest. Those are the only two Junon Boys (that's what people call the contest winners) who became tokusatsu actors and were on a BL that I know of right off the top of my head. But it seems likely that there are other toku-and-BL or just BL actors who won, placed, or made it to the finals of this contest.

Other dudes who ended up on tokusatsu shows started out in other ways. Some were simply signed to agencies as actors. There's a fair number of them who were in idol groups. (Though when an idol/ex-idol is looking for a gig as a transition into acting, BLs seem to be a more popular choice.) Some mostly did modeling prior to their toku series. Some already had quite a few acting credits, though usually not very big ones. Although he's a Junon Super Boy winner, Inukai had eight other acting credits before Kamen Rider. Takeda had the same number, and he started young--his first credit is for a TV show that came out when he was 10 (though it took another six years to get a second).

I also looked up some women who've had prominent roles in tokusatsu shows, including more recent ones. The most frequent things I found when I looked for information on their pre-toku careers were that they had been models or idols (or both). It's also not uncommon for women in toku roles to be former or present gravure models--basically models who pose in bikinis or comparably revealing outfits.

The coolest thing I found was that Imoto Ayaka, who played Igarashi Sakura/Kamen Rider Jeanne, was an award-winning ballet dancer. Which is not only incredibly cool but makes a lot of sense in terms of preparation for a tokusatsu hero role.

I mean, just check out this henshin.

Well, this has gotten ridiculously long. Sorry about that. I may have gotten a little carried away. But thanks again for the question.

And now, I have something to write for @wen-kexing-apologist...

[irisbleufic]

Of all the bullshit I never expected to be back on with the same intensity of October through December of 2000, Beetlejuice was not it. But I finally got to see the musical yesterday, and the part of me that has adored all 94 episodes of the animated series from the moment I started watching them on ABC Saturday mornings in 1989 just fucking flared—this fond, awful tightness in my chest. It’s the first TV show I ever imprinted on; it’s been with me since childhood. Surreal.

About 4 years into watching the cartoon, I finally saw the live-action movie that the cartoon was based on. I hated it, because it was so malevolent and empty compared to the incredible world-building characters in the animated series. Serious shout-outs to Stephen Ouimette and Alyson Court for all that stunning, hilarious, and often moving voicework.

Now, okay, I need to go back to 2000 again to make this all make sense. I’d watched the show from 1989 until whenever the 4th season ended. It wasn’t until I was in my first semester of college, newly transplanted to New England, that I found a couple folks within my program who had loved the show growing up, too. I ordered all of the episodes on VHS. It was difficult to track them all down in 2000, and it was expensive. But I pulled it off, and we had Friday night watch parties for weeks over the month of October. But that is not where this ends.

I was in the process of winding down the writing I’d been doing on Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow for the entirety of my senior year of high school. Suddenly, I’m in college and watching this fucking cartoon and thinking, there is so much heart in this. How the fuck is there so much heart. I haven’t seen two characters this wholesome codependent in, well, ever. I went looking for forums and mailing lists devoted to the cartoon. I found a mailing list. There were a handful of artists drawing amazing fancomics on there, and they were like, what do you do? Oh. I write. And they were like: do you understand how desperately some of us have wanted fic, but just can’t find it?

That is the wrong thing to say to me when I’m on a downward spiral of realizing I’m not going to escape a fandom without getting myself into a project so long that it’s all I’ll be doing for fucking months on end. If you’re one of the people who knew me back then, you know what I did for those four months in the fall/winter of 2000. I wrote a novel. Sure, I came close to failing a couple of classes, but it was the first time I understood exactly what I was capable of building as a fanwriter. Maybe even as a real writer.

“Time Will Tell” was hosted on a friend’s Angelfire site for a handful of years. People found it via LiveJournal, too, because I linked it there. I put it on AO3 somewhere circa 2012 and took it down again in 2017 because I didn’t feel there was enough interest in it, and also, my 19-year-old editorial foibles and typos were aspects I wanted to amend in it.

The musical took more inspiration from the cartoon than the film. I’m stunned and grateful for that. I found the “Time Will Tell” file buried pretty deep in my Gmail folders. I’ve been reading it since the drive home last night. I just can’t believe there’s now enough of a fandom for me to consider finally polishing it and getting it back online. It’s one of my two oldest surviving pieces of writing.

Anyway, sorry for the Gotham fic delays that I’d been trying to get a handle on. Now that the semester’s over, I feel that getting this thing I wrote twenty-three years ago back to the light of day is the best use of my time for a couple weeks.

If you’re one of the people who read “Time Will Tell” back in the day, thank you. I don’t know how many people out there still remember it beyond maybe ten or so friends I’m still in contact with all these years later. I’m sorry it disappeared for a while.

[writtenbymisunderstoodnerds]

Why won't you tell them? (Preath x Reader)

Based on this request. Hopefully it's what you were looking for!

Another request completed! I'm slowly working my way through them. This is not edited. Hope you enjoy :)

Warnings: Slight mentions of feelings of worthlessness and not being enough.

Words: 2.2K

"When did this relationship become all about you two? Where's my say in this? Relationships are about compromise and working together, but I guess maybe we're not in a real relationship seeing as there is no compromise, it's all about you two and I get no say."

"Y/n-"

"No, I know you are scared, but you're not even willing to start by telling our family or friends. Do you have any idea how it makes me feel to have my girlfriends not want even a single person to know about us? Do you even realise how worthless and not enough it makes me feel? It feels like you don't care about me or my feelings, like you're ashamed of me, like I'm just a dirty little secret for you to keep hidden away."

I grabbed my bags, heading for the door. Christen and Tobin quickly followed, stopping in front of me before I could leave, "Wait, where are you going? We can work through this."

"My cab is here. I'm away filming for the next month remember? Take this time to figure out what you want and we'll talk when I get back. See you in a few weeks."

They looked like they wanted to say more, but sighed and told me they loved me instead. I didn't want to leave on bad terms, but at this point there wasn't much else to be said. We had been going in circles for weeks now and I honestly couldn't keep doing it. I loved them beyond words, I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else, but I was tired. I was tired of feeling like they were ashamed of me, that our relationship only existed within the walls of our apartment. Hopefully, the time apart would make something change. Even if it wasn't a good change, which I was really hoping it wouldn't be, it had to be better than living with the constant self-doubt and questioning about them and our relationship. 

I stepped around them, stopping just before the stairs. Even if we were fighting, I still needed them to know I loved them. You never know what's going to happen or when the last time you'll see someone is, "I love you too."

---

I hadn't had the chance to read the script for this episode before I got to set. When I finally read it, it was like a punch to the gut. The whole show centered around a couple that was in a secret relationship, one wanted to tell people, but the other wasn't ready. This episode was centered around a fight about it. All it did was remind me about the fight we had before I left, about the uncertainty of our relationship. The only upside to this was it would give me a chance to express my feelings while also making the acting look more real. 

The whole filming of the scene was painful, more often than not leaving me crying myself to sleep at night. I hadn't heard from Christen or Tobin since I left. I missed them like crazy, I was miserable, but we needed space from each other, they needed space to figure out what they really wanted. There had been countless times that I wanted to message them, to just forget about this whole thing so we could go back to how we were. I knew I couldn't though. 

Filming went by quickly and before I knew it the episode was airing. I never watched the movies or tv shows I was in, but I knew Christen and Tobin did. Even without watching it, I knew my emotions were on full display. There had been countless comments from people who watched the show. Most seemed to be focused around the fight scene. It was the scene where I had almost lost control of my emotions completely. The tears and emotion in my voice was real, the scene having taken me back to our fight. The fans had picked up on that with multiple comments along the lines of 'There's no way that acting was fake, the emotions were too real' and 'Something tells me that there were real emotions behind that, who would ever hurt someone as wonderful as Y/n?'. 

Part of me hoped that this would make Christen and Tobin realize just how much they were hurting me. That maybe it would make them a bit more willing to compromise. As much as I wanted the world to know, I would just be happy with our families or friends knowing. Hell, I would just be happy with them acknowledging my point of view and trying to come up with a starting point we were all happy with. As much as I didn't want to admit it, if nothing changed when I went home then I don't think I could stay. Their love and my love for them wasn't enough to outweigh the pain they were causing. 

Christen and Tobin's POV

It had been almost a month since Y/n had left for filming. We hadn't talked since she left, wanting to give her space, but we were also terrified. Maybe she would talk to us and decide that we were done. In a way, not talking to her meant nothing bad could happen yet. We missed her like crazy though, since the start of our relationship we had never gone this long without talking. In a way it was a wake up call. We got a glimpse into what life would be like with Y/n and it was not something we ever wanted or wanted to even experience again. The fear had overtaken us for so long, it was hard to break out of that. Even now without Y/n, it was hard, but now it was clear that something had to change.

We watched every episode Y/n was in. She had come so far since we first met and we were insanely proud of her. What we didn't expect was the episode to be so close to our current reality. The hurt, sadness, anger and tiredness was so real. It hit us hard, like a punch to the gut. We were hurting the women we loved because we were too scared to even tell one person about us. It didn't help that most of the comments were about how real her emotions were, even coming from the team who adored Y/n. Everyone could see something was wrong. Everyone could see the pain radiating off her. Something had to change because if it didn't then we would lose her for good. That thought alone was a thousand times worse than the idea of what people would think of our relationship. 

"We can't let her slip away from us, we can't lose her."

We didn't know when Y/n was coming back, we didn't even know if she was going to come back home when she landed. It took a good five minutes to write the message, but it was time to bite the bullet and just do it. 

Christen: I know we haven't talked since you left and we're sorry. These last few weeks without you or talking to you were absolute hell. We wanted to give you space, not contact you if it wasn't something you wanted right now. 

Tobin: We love you so much Y/n, we are so far from ashamed of you and we're sorry we made you feel like we were. You're not just some secret we want to keep, we want to shout our love for you from the rooftops, but we let fear get in the way. Things are going to change, we swear.

Christen: I know we hurt you and that's something we will regret it for the rest of our lives. We don't actually know when you're back or if you were planning to come home, but please come home when you land, we need to have a proper conversation about this. 

Y/n: I love you too. I'm back tonight, see you then.

"We're doing it, we're telling everyone. The only opinions of our relationship that actually matter are ours. That's something we should have realised a long time ago before we hurt Y/n."

"Let's do it. Let's announce it right now."

We didn't spend much time finding the picture we wanted to use. It was our favourite picture of the three of us. We were cuddled up on the couch, Y/n with a huge grin as we kissed her cheeks. The fear was overwhelming as we typed out the caption, but we pushed through. This was something we were determined to do, no matter how terrifying it was. 

Y/n's POV

I was waiting at the airport with one of my costars, scrolling tiktok to kill time when I was brought back by her practically yelling at me. "What the fuck Y/n?"

My hands went up in surrender, utterly confused as to what was happening, "What did I do?"

She turned her phone around, showing me two separate Instagram stories of pretty much the same thing. It was a selfie of Tobin, Christen and I cuddled up on the couch, both of them kissing my cheeks. Tobin's was captioned, 'A month is too long to be without you, we can't wait for you to get home <3 <3'. While Christens was captioned, 'I can't wait to be in your arms again, hurry home because a month is too long <3 <3'

I felt my heart speed up as I realised what this meant. They had just announced to the whole world that we were together. Without me being there, without talking to me, they had told everyone. They had broken through their fear. A part of me felt guilty though. What if I had pushed them into something they weren't actually ready for? I never wanted to force them into something they really weren't ready for, I just wanted them to actually consider it. I couldn't help but worry that they'll start to resent me for it. "Oh yeah, that. Surprise I guess."

"They're cute. How did you manage to get not one, but two beautiful women to date you when I can barely get one? That's just not fair."

I laughed, genuinely laughed for the first time in over a month, "Beats me, but I'm not complaining."

My phone started blowing up, I muted the notifications, not wanting to deal with it right now. I snapped a quick selfie, showing my luggage in the background before uploading it. 'Hurrying home to you <3'. Then I quickly messaged them so they knew I had seen it and that I loved them. 

Y/n: I can't believe you did that, you didn't have to jump straight to the whole world, but I appreciate it. I love you both so much, I've missed you so much and can't wait to see you. My plane lands at 6, I'll see you at home <3

Before I could even get in the door, a body slammed into me, arms wrapping tightly around me. Christens perfume filled my senses as I melted into her arms. I hadn't even realised how much I had missed them until now. Every time I was away, I missed them, but after not speaking to them for a month, it was like ten times worse. Tears prickled my eyes as I held her tighter, only pulling away to connect our lips in a slow, soft, lingering kiss. Everything I had been missing and craving since I left. The tears were fully falling as I pulled away, taking Tobin's hand and pulling her into a hug. I sunk into it, holding her just as tight as Christen. Our kiss was slightly more wet and salty due to the tears, but just as amazing. Being back with them was like a weight had been lifted. Things had been tense for quite a while, but now I felt the familiar sense of peace that I only ever experienced with them. 

We finally made our way inside, the tears were wiped from my cheeks as Tobin kissed my forehead, "Don't cry baby."

"I just missed you both so much. Let's not go a month without talking again. You're not going to start hating me are you? For making you tell everyone?"

"No. That will never happen, that could never happen. We love you Y/n."

Christen wrapped her arms around my waist, a light kiss being placed against my jaw, "You didn't make us do it, we chose to, we wanted to. You gave us the push we needed to do it, but you didn't make us. We're sorry for how much we were hurting you. We're sorry we ever made you feel like you were worthless and not enough, or that we didn't care. You mean the world to us Y/n, there is no one in this world that is better for us than you, there is no one in this world that we want and love more than you."

"We will never forgive ourselves for what we put you through, but we will do whatever it takes to make it up to you, to rebuild whatever trust or anything we have broken."

I pulled them down onto the couch, enjoying the feeling of having them cuddles against me again, "Yes you hurt me and yes I questioned our relationship, but you didn't break any trust or anything. You don't have anything to make up to me, you already have. You did the thing that terrified you, for me. So please don't beat yourself up for what happened. It happened, we've acknowledged it and now we're putting it behind us and dealing with whatever comes next together."

[putschki1969]

2024/07/10 Blog post by Wakana おしゃべりガーデン第11回目‼️〜とにかくたくさんお喋りしました〜

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Talk Garden Vol.11‼️〜I Talked a Lot〜

Vol 11 of Wakana' Chat's Talk Garden has been uploaded!! ＼(^o^)／This time, I asked you to submit all sorts of questions for me😊I wanted to read as many of your messages as possible so the episode turned out really long…😅💦I know it's probably a hassle to listen to the entire thing but please bear with me, take your time and listen to the podcast whenever you feel like it🤗✨

Here is the "Silk Nightcap" I mentioned in the podcast (looks surreal doesn't it?😂) I think it fits quite well *laughs* The back looks like this. You can tuck away and protect your long hair😆

And here's some info about my summer skin care! I didn't answer the question properly during the podcast so I thought it would be best to show you everything here😂In summer, I tend to prefer skin care products that are a little lighter than the ones I use in winter, but I don't want to change my routine completely.😊All these items are from Korean brands…🤣Aside from chaging the lotion I use for my facial device, the lineup is pretty much the same as in winter. However, since the UV rays are strong during this time of year, I use a lot more cosmetics with whitening agents. I use the same nighttime serums all year round, one with vitamin C, another one with retinol. I use the one with retinol on days when I've been exposed to too much air conditioning, and the one with vitamin C on days when I've been exposed to UV rays. I have various morning serums…not just the ones you see here, there are about four types that I use depending on my mood. One product that's different in summer is my cream, I use the tube in the back on the right side at night. In the morning, I use the tube in the back on the left side as a good base for my makeup. By the way, my tone-up serum is the tube next to my morning cream. I love the brand "Serendi Beauty", but unfortunately, their products have been sold out for a while and I can't buy them anywhere😭It's not featured here but their lotion in particular is seriously the best…!!

I also use face masks in the morning and at night, the same ones I use in winter 😊Here's my starting lineup for facial masks✨Once again, I've increased my stock of whitening products! And of course I also want something that is very moisturising! I aim to feel well hydrated from the inside. That way, even if I do my makeup with a matte finish, my face won't dry out all day 😊💓

Well, since I have some spare time… I'll briefly try to answer a few of the remaining questions! (^^)

Q. Do you mind spoilers? For shows, movies, novels, manga, games, setlists, anything? A. I don't like spoilers for weekly shows that I look forward to watching. I am very fascinated by anything horror-related but I think it's too scare so I can't really watch it. That's why I always read all the spoilers *laughs* Also, I'm such a beginner at games so I watch a lot of walkthrough videos of good players to help me get past difficult parts.

Q. Do you receive all of our letters and presents? A. Yes! I've received all of them, including every single letter😊 Thank you as always…✨ Speaking of which, I once received some hair oil which made my hair super smooth and silky so I bought some for myself!! !

Q. Are you okay with heights? A. I'm not that bad at heights but I feel like the glass floor of Tokyo Tower is pretty scary😇 Also, I've never been on one but the Ferris wheel carriages with glass floors look pretty scary too😇

Q. What are some recommended spots in Yokohama? A. The sea and the night view around the Red Brick Warehouse are beautiful!! !

Q. Have you ever had a pet before? A. When I still lived at home with my parents we had a dog🐕 When I started living alone, I had a goldfish🐟 (My little goldfish Buu-chan has passed away and gone to heaven a long time ago (;_;)🐟✨)

Q. Even though my message was read during the last episode, the present hasn't arrived yet. When will it arrive? A. Please forgive me, I'm always so slow at making my postcards for you. I will try my best to have them delivered by the beginning of the next month! I'm sorry for making you all anxious, wondering if the postcard got lost in the mail… 😱 Please wait patiently~ (I'm even more sorry that last month's presents were super late… 💦)

I want to answer even more of your questions but I'm going to stop here before it gets out of hand 😅If you have any other questions, please send them to me~

The next talk theme for the episode on August 10th will be "What kind of pillow do you use?/What is everyone's pillow situation?" Additionally, you can continue to send random questions you'd like to ask me! ＼＼\٩( 'ω' )و //／／The deadline is July 31st!! ! Please send in as many messages as you can!! ! 💌

Well then, everyone! This Saturday I am performing at the summer event “AirTrip presents Everyday’s Omatsuri 2024”! See you at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse~♪＼(^o^)／♪

Until next time~☆( '▽')/

＊＊＊Wakana＊＊＊

Wakana’s Talk Garden #11

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Episode #11 »»—— CLICK ME 🎁 CLICK ME ——«« ・Anything you’d like to ask Wakana/Anything you’d like Wakana to talk about

One fan asked about Wakana's time as a gospel choir member and whether she remembered liking any particular songs or singers. While she doesn't have a lot of memories, she recalls three specific songs => "This Little Light of Mine", "Seasons of Love" and "It's Raining Men". Loved that we got a few snippets of her singing some lines of each song. I honestly wouldn't mind if she released another cover album with all sorts of Western/American music

For next month’s episode which is scheduled to air on August 10th, the following two topics have been chosen:

・ What kind of pillow do you use?/What's your pillow situation? ・Anything you’d like to ask Wakana/Anything you’d like Wakana to talk about

The submission deadline is 07/31.

Everyday’s Omatsuri Merchandise

Two original items have been revealed as live goods for Wakana's upcoming appearance at the summer event "Everyday's Omatsuri"! One is a t-shirt and the other is a muffler towel. You can order both in Wakana's Official Online Shop! Preorder period ends on July 12! Shipping is scheduled for the end of July. (Source) (Instagram post by Wakana)

Title: “AirTrip presents Everyday’s Omatsuri 2024” Date and time:July 13, 2024 Open 18:30 / Start 19:00 Venue: Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse Performers: RYTHEM・Wakana Official site: http://omatsuridays.jp/

2024/07/11 Instagram post by Wakana

Today I had a rehearsal for the summer event “Everyday’s Omatsuri 2024”which will take place this Saturday 🤗✨ Here I am together with the two members of RYTHEM and Takebe-san! Say Cheese 📸YUI-san and YUKA-san were so cute and dazzling…😍💓I'm excited because I think it's going to be a fantastic peformance✨I hope everyone will come and have a great time~🧚💕(Source)

[hacked-by-jake]

SPOILERS

Alright I have way too many thoughts and emotions so there ain't no way I'm gonna be able to organize everything into a nice sentence but I still gotta get it out 🤣🤣

First off, my notes app with some of my thoughts I wrote down while playing (in chronological order):

Where's Jake?

No premium?

Why and where is nymos

Why are we playing candy crush instead of hacking

Again: Where's Jake, he prob sees our chats and knows whats happening (hopefully)

The characters seem like an almost identical reflection to duskwood

What happened to Richy, please don't die on me 😩

Where's the others

We're now paying to see the secret chats

Why's this game taking so much of my money

Ash really be making me cry about Jake again 🥴

Eric be throwing himself at us when I still want to stay loyal to my hacker boy 💀

The ending: I KNEW MY BABY WAS ALIVE I LOVE HIM, I DEMAND HE TALKS TO US NEOW 👹

AND ALAN I MISSED HIM TOO MWAH MWAH

Rant 1:

The money milking makes me sick and don't even get me started on the ai 🫡 I spent 17 bucks today, halfway through the first episode and already out of all the materials I bought. It's disgusting how Everbyte has completely flipped and is practically scamming their players. Based on the prices, it's almost 3 dollars to view one picture 🙄 I would be more than happy to buy a premium package like duskwood for $20 or even 30 but $17 for not even half an episode is a crime 😭😭

Rant 2:

It's crazy how long this game took and yet it's way worse than duskwood. I was expecting a few additions, not subtractions.

Rant 3:

There is no way to see previous media and calls like in duskwood and no chat history like they promised. I never would've thought it was possible, but these mini games are way worse than duskwoods. And I realized how childish it all looks, I hate how we get no explanation for anything we're doing in the game.

Conclusion:

I'm pissed but seeing the anonymous mask gave me life. I need to go replay duskwood to cleanse myself of moonvale 😮‍💨

Pahahaha you're really killing me with your thoughts, I love your humor so much. 😭

I really should also start to write down my first thoughts while playing but I fear I will write down something to every little sentence I read. xD

But it's so true, where's Nymos? Give us Nymos back! My emotional bond with this unreal little dude is huge so I seriously need him. It's literally a program but it's a he you can't change my mind because I imagine Nymos as Jake best friend who's exactly like Jarvis from Marvel. (Sorry if you don't know it but then I really recommend you to watch the Iron Man movies. (Actually all marvel movies but we're talking about Jarvis here so you best see or more like hear him in Iron Man)

Btw my headcanon is that Nymos is not just any program but also an AI. So and now I will expand the headcanon and say Nymos is an AI that is against AI art and nobody can stop me, hehe.

The Candy Crush comparison makes me laugh every time and it hurts me because it’s true. xD

The thing with the characters being identical with the Duskwood characters... It's a hard topic in my eyes.

Some people say it way too early to judge this. And it's true. We didn't saw much now. But I do think we can already judge them a bit by what we saw. And when we compare it with how the Duskwood characters were in the first episode, I do think you can see that there's not much yet, sadly.

Like, we had Thomas, the idiot in love with problems to take criticism. We had Jessy the hanger-on that were clinging to Dan but then decided to change sides. We had the funny sunny boy Richy. The pretty cold acting Cleo. We had bitchy Lilly and of course we had the grumpy and unfriendly Dan. They all acted pretty strong from second one, in my eyes.

But I somehow absolutely don't think the Moonvale characters are like the Duskwood characters. Because well, I really think they need stronger personalities.

We have Eric who's a pretty normal guy and even though he tripped twice in one episode he's not at all like Thomas.

We have Ash who's like a very, veeery light version of Jessy and Lilly, in my eyes. Somehow kind but somehow absolutely not trustworthy.

We have Violet who's just.. there sometimes. Even the drunken police chief is more expressive.

Well and Charlie is.. Somehow like Richy and in my eyes has the strongest personality so far.

Oh and not to forget Brian who wasn't even there. Lol.

So yeah, I understand both points but I might see it a bit differently.

"Why's this game taking so much of my money" had me on my knees, laughing and crying at the same time because it's almost funny what Everbyte did and it's just as sad.

During my first playthrough I was also like: Someone give me a crucifix I need to get rid of Eric as soon as possible.

But while replaying I just had to see what happens if you decide to get closer with Eric and I swear it didn't disappoint me. It was hilarious and truly, I want this with Jake. I need such a chat with Jake! Everbyte, please!

I mean, I'm not flirting with Eric because I think he's hot or anything. Sadly, his character isn't interesting to me in this sense. (I need the mysterious guys xD) But I just had to try it and I mean, who knows if it will be important later. It's manipulative, I know, but don't judge me. And also, there's still this little hope for a jealous Jake. *ahem* Sorry, I promise I still feel bad for flirting with someone else. 😩

But gosh, the side story end. It was worth all the wait, really. I said before, I don’t forget about the negative things because of it but I'm just a silly, lonely, disappointed girl in love with a fictional hacker, let me have this adrenaline boost!

And yes, I was so happy when I saw Alan's body cam. I immediately knew what that means but at first I was just so happy to "see" Alan as well. I really like this guy, I can't stop myself.

About rant 1: I love the comparison with "So expensive is a picture" it is just as true and actually shows again how incredible it all is. I’ve said my opinion many times now, and I still want to protect Everbyte and give them a little empathy. But it's sadly just true.

I had a thought about that (what you said in rant 2) before and wanted to make a post about it later. So I hope it's okay if I get to it later.

Rant 3: This is actually one of the things that botherse the most. We can't rewatch calls, videos and pictures. The chats are disappearing and are gone forever. And they told us it will be different and that's so annoying. Not being able to see it in the app is just bothering for me. And yeah, that they broke the "promise" is as well. We all were so happy about the chat thing and now...

I actually like the look of Moonvale even if I would prefer something much darker. Especially with the mini games. The background is AI, of course, so. It would look much better with a real background.

And the damn mini games... I loved the ones in Duskwood so much. I really did. It was so much fun and I was one of the people who found them very easy.

But now the Moonvale mini games. By lord. Even though they're much easier for me in my replay, the first time I was actually this close to throwing my phone against the wall. I mean, I even went to sleep at some point and finished the game the next day! Everyone who follows me since duskwood knows I would rather shave my head than that. But they're just pain. And I seriously hope Everbyte will make them a bit easier or give us moves! Because this was often the biggest issue for me. Not enough moves. But they want you to buy gems so... 😒

Your conclusion sound good. I'm definitely planning to replay Duskwood as well. If I want or not. I have to. I need the comforting atmosphere and my emotional support hacker.

So I would say, see you in Duskwood, my detective friend. 🫡

No, jokes aside. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me and us. As I said, I love your humor and the way to describe the things. And I really enjoyed answering it. 💚

I hope you could calm down a bit as well. I definitely needed some days before I could see it more clearly.

And as always a huge pleasure to see you here again. 💚😌

[teamfreewill56-blog]

you reposted the chapter of the kimetsu gakuen "breath of flame" and made a comment that Kyojuro is depicted canonically correctly here. what do you think about his characterization in all the other chapters of the school au? does his image exactly correspond to the canon? I'm really interested in your opinion, because you understand Kyojuro better than anyone else and are a real expert in interpreting this character. ;^;

Thank you that's really sweet! I'm flattered that you are wanting my opinion and thank you for calling me an expert thats such high praise!

I haven't read all of the chapters, (only Vol.1 and Vol. 2 are currently available on kindle where I am) so this may have something to do with it---but up until this point all the other chapters I've seen floating around Tumblr I feel are canonically inaccurate. It doesn't exactly correspond, it felt like they picked a couple of his traits and then just went nuts.

Which I mean it is an AU and its for humor so I usually don't critique too harshly because its for fun etc etc. But they did Kyojuro so dirty and it makes me not want to read the school au chapters honestly. Everyone else is still relatively canon accurate but him they just...I dunno but I hate it.

Every chapter with Kyojuro involves him getting food, making food or trying to eat something that is for sure bad for him and the other Hashira-Teachers chiding him for it. It feels like the people working on these chapters saw the Mugen Train anime-only episode and the first like 15 minutes of the movie and decided they knew Kyojuro's personality based just on those. And didn't watch or read anything else with him in it. I mean my hell we got the shortest amount of time with this character and they decide to give him a food gag almost every time? Like really? Ya'll being lazy and they clearly did not understand why we all love Kyojuro so much.

In Mugen Train after Tanjiro sees Kyojuro eating does Kyojuro talk or bring up food with Tanjiro during any of that first conversation before they fall asleep? NOPE. During the entire movie there is not a single time-- even when he's eating the bento--that he says or does anything to indicate he is food obsessed. Conversation in his dreams? NOPE. Waking up and finding the boys and giving orders? NOPE. Throughout the whole movie, nothing. It's almost like gasp Kyojuro having a big appetite is just a tiny miscellaneous detail!

His Gaiden right when he gets introduced Senjuro says "I made you some sweets how about a rest?" You know who rushes to him and the food? MITSURI. And behind her Kyojuro is going "Hey! We aren't done yet!" And absolutely no hate to Mitsuri because I adore her and I love her big appetite and her obsession with food but she is the one obsessed with food, in canon she is the one who often talks about it, not Kyojuro. But we don't see it at all in the high school AU.

There are moments in Gaiden, Mugen Train Drama CD etc where Kyojuro is shown mostly being around people when eating but he's clearly enjoying their company and being with them, not focused on the food. Even in the anime only episode which is food heavy, he uses it to navigate around the people he has to interact with--and my only complaint really is him being upset about Slasher stepping on the bento box while he's got his claws in a guy's shoulder. Because Kyojuro cares about people and their safety most and that victim would have been his only concern not the bento.

The very first time Kyojuro is in the High School AU he orders pizza and has it delivered to the school because he was craving it--even though he knows there's rules against deliveries for safety reasons. "I never do anything for myself and always put everyone else, especially their safety first" Kyojuro Rengoku would never do this. Shinobu tells the boys the reason for the rule is to keep dangerous people from trying to sneak into the school and there is no way Kyojuro would risk that, like none. And then Sanemi tells him to "control his urges".

...Ya'll joking right?

Not only is that a horrible way to phrase that especially towards this cinnamon roll man (urges to purchase food you're craving is not that bad anyway if at all...) but Kyojuro is always in control and has never once given into urges or even his emotions other than happy?? Even with Akaza pissing him off he didn't lose control of himself and Upper Moon 3 was attacking his core beliefs. But even then like, I didn't find this particular part of the conversation to be funny although that's the intention but that could just be me.

He wouldn't sneak into the home ec room to make food either, although its unclear if its actually sneaking or if its just "sneaking" to Haganezuka. Either way if he's getting chased for something he supposedly did wrong he's not going to run he's going to confront it and try to resolve it.

There are things that I feel are accurate, at least a little bit. When Kyojuro isn't being food obsessed but is focused on helping his students I feel like we're closer to canon. He does always try to help students who come to him with a problem and he commits to helping them just as he does in canon with his job.

He helps the butterfly sisters try to figure out a solution to creating medicines for their club (but his solution is food when he could have given them historical references/places to look to get ideas from and help them brainstorm from there).

He recognizes how badly the boys wanted pizza and so found a way to get them pizza and made it for them.

I haven't read the full comic but I've seen a little section of Kyojuro helping Sanemi and Obanai get in the way of a pot of spilled Tonjiro so it didn't get on a student. But beyond that to me it just doesn't feel like Kyojuro. The marshmallow one does because he gives real advice and insight about a topic when he talks about it with Senjuro, he teaches the boys about the sun and fire (this hints to me that he should have been able to help the Butterfly girls on a level beyond let's make foods that we know are healthy), when Senjuro realizes that the food in his drawing is more like a marshmallow than sweet potato Kyojuro chimes in with insight "Good idea, come to think about it I also like roasting sweet potato with marshmallow too!"---giving Senjuro additional reassurance that hey the way he colored it does actually fit something Kyojuro would do. The boys get hungry so okay let's feed you lads.

When the lightning starts a fire he immediately goes for the fire extinguisher and then jumps outside and puts it out and all his dialogue here is spot on although I'm not sure I believe Kyojuro would miss a part of the fire. If anything he'd probably offer to just make them a fire after putting one out but maybe that's just me.

[annerbhp]

So I think you’ve written some of my fav HP fanfic ever like ever ever and I see you’ve been obsessing over the untamed lately. Is there anything similar narratively that drew you to it or another reason why you’d recommend someone watch the untamed?

Thanks so much! That is very kind of you to say, and REALLY nice of you to give me a chance to blather on about The Untamed!

You know, sometimes I just think the right piece of media comes along at the right moment and just hits all the right buttons. I swear I can never see it coming until it does.

Part of the reason I started watching The Untamed in the first place was because I kept seeing random posts about it and I was looking for something to distract me. It was still during the most isolated time period of COVID. I'd also found that my attention span and ability to focus on one thing at a time was severely challenging at the time? Like I couldn't even watch TV without also playing a game on my phone or doom-scrolling. So when I started The Untamed looking for something to watch, the fact it was in a foreign language and I had to read subtitles like...fixed this for me? It allowed me to fully focus on something for the first time in a long time. I also really like the formats of Chinese dramas in general, in that they are long (50 episodes in this case) enough to get really invested in the characters and character arcs, but are filmed at the same time with a complete plot from beginning to end. It's just so much nicer than the American TV show format of "here's a season, maybe you'll get another, maybe not, maybe the plot will wildly change, maybe we'll keep upping the ante and randomly kill people off when actors get different jobs." So the combo of subtitles and format really appealed to me.

But as for why The Untamed in particular is great, well, there's a lot of reasons!

It's a world that has magic, which I always find fascinating. This fantasy setting is based off Chinese Daoist traditions.

It has the theme of young people forced into war far too young. (Sometimes it feels like the show is actually three different genres in turn: high school hijinks, gritty war movie, and a murder mystery caper, and each one is awesome.)

Which kind of leads to another of my favorite things: the character arcs. I love a show with thoughtful character growth and change over time and this one does that really well.

There are so many characters to love, all with their own drives and interests. I can't say this show does overly well by its female characters when it comes to plot, but when it comes to character development, they are all fully fleshed out and have their own drives and none of them exist to just be a love interest, which is nice!

There are Jane Austen-levels of romantic longing. Like, the show is based off a novel that is explicitly gay, and I do mean explicit. Yet thanks to censorship, everything is subtext that is played so well by the actors and clearly very carefully put in place by the creators of the show through music and things like framing and glances and symbolism and hand touches, did I mention the LONGING GAZES? They know what they are doing. This show is so romantic, I can't even get over it, especially since it could never really be explicitly stated, even though it totally is!! (I am such a sucker for romance.)

There is also absolutely beautiful music, cinematography, and costuming.

Phenomenal acting, even when some of the CGI is laughably bad, and most people playing instruments don't look at all like they are actually playing.

This show has tragedy and humor and highly competent people and complicated evil and historical trauma and a complete denial of black and white thinking. It never holds back from exploring the ways society can fail us and we can fail ourselves. And how we can still find ways forward.

Also, the show has some jaw-dropping plot reveals that I just did not see coming, though maybe other people did. It was one of those, "WAIT A MINUTE" moments when the moment the show ended I was determined to watch all 50 episodes again immediately with my new understanding. I love media that can pull that off.

Look, the opening scene is literally the main character falling to their death off a cliff and you get to spend the rest of the series trying to figure out how that happened and where the world goes from there. It's beautiful!

If you do try to watch it, the first episode or two is SO CONFUSING, and that's fine, just go with it. By episode 10 if you are not completely sucked in, then maybe it's just not for you. We get some non-linear story telling approaches that are so effective.

Also, not really a "why is the show so great" or anything, but the fandom for this show is so active and HUGE. Like, there are currently over 43,000 fics on AO3 for the main pairing in this fandom alone. You'll be reading for ages. Some of them are the best fics I've ever read.

Hmmm. I think I'll go read some Olympics AUs.

[emilybeemartin]

Hi! I just wanted to say I loooove your Sharpe art. I've never watched the movies, so I have quite different visions of characters since it's all based on my interpretations of them from the books, but it's so great seeing art of these characters! Teresa in particular, she's one of my fav characters alongside Patrick, Hogan and Nairn.

Thank you!! I agree, I had really different visions of them when I read the books before watching the show. Daragh O'Malley is great in the role, but I pictured Pat totally different. And of course the description of Sharpe in the early books is as a dark-haired Londoner, but now Cornwell has retrofitted the recent ones to account for a Yorkshire accent. There's a handful of the audiobooks read by Rupert Farley, and man, when he spits that Sheffield "bastard!" you'd think it was Sean.

The good* thing about most of the side characters like Hogan and Nairn and even Wellington is that if one actor doesn't fit your mental image, chances are high they'll be replaced the following season, because the actors kept getting severely ill from contaminated food and water. They were filming in Crimea right after the collapse of the Soviet Union and there was almost no reliable infrastructure, so everybody got sick, and if they didn't get sick, they got hurt from poorly-managed practical effects. So even though Brian Cox is perfect as Hogan, he's only there for two (I think?) episodes, to be followed by a revolving door of other spymasters. And then of course our favorite heroine gets fridged, but that's a canon event so we can only weep quietly for hours every night.

*not actually good, quite bad in fact

[stackslip]

you're inspiring me to rewatch 2003, it was my favorite between the two when i watched them but I forgot most of it in the decade since. also you're good at highlighting exactly how mangahood doesn't work. I actually watch 2003 before reading the manga and I remember thinking the ending of

it's really fucking frustrating to me that people basically closed ranks around Brotherhood as the 'real one' and dismiss 2003 as a regrettable mistake/error in the One True Canon. I've always really loved that 2003 and Brotherhood diverge it's such a unique collection of art

also I want to rewatch the two sequel movies (Milo's and conquerer of Shamballah) god I love bleak writing

i have never watched the second movie but i remember really enjoying conquerors of shamballah. granted, i was like, 14 then lol. there was a lot that i didn't catch in fma 2003's themes at the time, but same as you, i watched it before i read the manga (and i finished the manga before watching brotherhood) and i remember even then i was disappointed by some of its aspects. then in my early 20s i was like well manga/brotherhood is better bc it's better executed (as like. a mid shounen lmao) and bc it has greedling (i do still love greedling, if only bc i looove body sharing as a trope), but i still thought 2003 had lots of good aspects and couldn't understand how people went from "fullmetal alchemist is one of the best animes ever" to "fma 2003 was a mistake and all bad and stupid actually and its female characters suck compared to mangahood which has MUCH better female characters" (i was thoroughly unimpressed by fma's base female characters. loved mei and lan fan but come on they were hardly given so much depth). not to mention how disappointed the manga version of the homonculi were. like i remember when sloth in the manga was first introduced being SO disappointed.

in retrospect, i think mangahood's status as The Best Animanga Of All Time when even at the time i liked it most i found it..... decent to good at best, and quite overrated, has made me sour on it quite a lot. like it felt impossible to talk about anything i disliked about it bc despite having such a highly praised status, people get irrationally angry and defensive over any criticism of the manga or brotherhood's themes and story. they'll either claim its depiction of genocide and fascism is really good, or when you criticize it they'll go "well it's a shounen, why are you criticizing it for being a shounen!" (i think shounen can do and engage with these themes thoughtfully! and i think if you're gonna use these themes and depict genocide so viscerally you got a duty to do it right to the end or at least TRY to do so). it's when i started rewatching clips of 2003 and being really impressed by the clips, and how much they held up if not actually blew brotherhood out of the water. and it's also my own maturing in terms of politics and understanding of fiction that made me even more open to what 2003 was doing even though i remembered it did fail in some aspects! like, i don't think as a 14 year old i much understood the nazi thing, and as a young adult i was like "eh that was a bit weird" but it's in the past few years in my criticizing of what brotherhood and the manga fuck up that i suddenly realized "oh. 2003 was actually saying the quiet part out loud instead of using this as an aesthetic for its world!"

i was unsure how much 2003 would hold up on a rewatch tbh, and there ARE clunky if not bad parts. making human barry the butcher a serial killer who dresses as a woman to get his victims is............ a choice. it's very typical 90s/2000s transmisogyny and even though it's only one episode it left a real bitter taste in my mouth. the anime filler episodes are not nearly as strong as the main plot episodes (even when they have anime-only content!), though i appreciate the effort to make them thematically relevant to the series and make many of the anime-only characters direct parallels to ed and al. they clearly saved the animation budget for important parts, and it suffers in some episodes (i am fine with that, i watched lots of mid 2000s anime who had the same issue. not everyone can use its budget allocation and limitations like rgu). i don't like the end of the one episode where the tomboy kid suddenly becomes feminine at the end bc she's happy now lmao.

but from episode 1, it's already so much more committed to some of the themes and ideas that harakawa evoked as flavour or background but barely dug into. she was making a fun action shounen with a large, lovable cast, and that's..... fine. it's just not interesting to me, at least outside of greedling's whole thing. it's got SUCH a melancholy feeling to it, it feels like it's digging into the literal guts of arakawa's world and characters. i also actually really appreciate that while it keeps touches of humor, it wayyyyy tones down the gags that are there every four pages or so--arakawa can make it work in the manga, but in brotherhood it's near unbearable how you can't one one serious scene without someone doing something goofy.

i will say, a little thing that i REALLY in 2003 like that's pretty personal is the way the alchemical circles are drawn and used. this might sound weird, but the way i learned about fma's existence was when i was i think 9-10 years old and bought a french anime magazine, and it had a whole part on fma 2003 including a two page spreader detailing the alchemical circles and their uses. it was my first ever impression of fma and i loved the look and feeling of them. there was something occult and dark about the way they were presented in that magazine that coloured my experiences when i watched the anime on a fan page in 244p max with terrible fansubs

[clairedaring]

/surprise leap out from your screen! Hahahha!

Yo Claire, first! I gotta say, I didn't expect to read BL meta essays when I followed your blog, but now that it's part of my dashboard, I like it! I'm not familiar with BL culture and stuff (the only BL stuff I really like is this Japanese manga named The Summer Hikaru Died, and even then I'm more sucked in by it being of the horror genre with interesting philosophical explorations), so these essays are so interesting to read!

And another thing! This post about the highest-grossing GDH movies mentioned The Medium (which I liked!), and that reminded me: I need Thai horror recommendations!

I don't know if you're into it, but maybe some of your friends do? And they can give me some good stuff? It's been so long since I've watched Thai horror—I grew up with that shit, man. I figured that someone who watches a lot of Thai media probably knows quite some newer Thai horror films I can watch on a weekend or something. Thanks!

(P.S. I realize I still have so many thoughts about สาธุ. I'm rewatching it when I have the time and realized there are still more details I forgot from the first viewing. A lot of them is embodied by the actors so well! I hope to find the time to write some essays/rambles about those things these days! Honestly... this is the only thing I can contribute to the สาธุ/The Believers tag 🫡🥲)

Hiiii Lyn! You are always welcome in my humble inbox.

You cannot imagine my happiness knowing you will soon fill he สาธุ/The Believers tag with insightful metas/essays. No pressure though but I am now indeed impatiently waiting for more สาธุ posts.

Aw, I'm so happy to hear that you've enjoyed the BL metas I've put on your dash even though queer love series are not usually ones you would watch because they're mostly romance based. ಥ_ಥ

Okay now onto the main part of my answer. Even though romance and comedy are indeed my favorite genres of series, as an enthusiast and follower of Thai actors and their works, it is inevitable to come across horror works (films or series) starring my favorite actors. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of horor (i'm a huge scaredycat), the genre has never stopped me from watching works of my favorite actors before -> I've definitely watched more horror media than I wanted to (┬┬﹏┬┬). I'll separate my recommendations into two part: one for series and one for films.

Thai Horror Anthology Series Recommendations

1. Girl From Nowhere Season 1 & 2 (2018 -2021)

Synopsis: A mysterious, clever girl named Nanno transfers to different schools, exposing the lies and misdeeds of the students and faculty at every turn.

Thoughts: although it would qualify more as thriller than a horror, girl from nowhere offers sharp commentaries about violence, sexual assault, bullying and various social issues. The series is more like an anthology with each episodes presenting a different story. The way my jaw dropped when I found out that the storylines in the episodes are inspired by actual real news reports/stories. Watching both seasons, you may feel that S1 is less budgeted than S2 which is true because S1 wasn't funded by Netflix Thailand. After picking S1 for streaming, Netflix decided to invest in a S2 for GFN and the cinematography for S2 is just immaculate.

2. After Dark (2020)

Synopsis: When the night falls, humans are more of a threat. Composed of 4 interlinked horror stories:

"Blind Date": Pink, a dating app addict, meets Q, a mysterious handsome guy. They establish a deep connection that ends up with Pink having a strange pregnancy which haunts her until the end.

“Requiem of the Adolescent”: Lada, a nurse hired with a vast amount of money to take care of Her Serene Highness Srisaang. Her terrors awake when her patient abnormally gets better.

“Death Channel”: Off and Boat, a successful youtuber and an idol team up to create a paranormal activity channel that has been sponsored by an anonymous user, they never know what is waiting.

"Into the Hole”: Chai, a charismatic person is a one-night stand expert in hopes to record a sex tape to earn a dime. Then he meets Dao, a charming woman. His mischievous behavior continues, but this time it would not be as easy as before.

Thoughts: it's gory, gross, raw, rough and scary as hell. some of the most visually traumatic series i've ever watched. incredible acting performances.

3. Angkhan Khlumpong The Series (2021)

Sypnosis: It is made based on ghost stories that people called and shared on the "Angkhan Khlumpong" radio program.

Thoughts: Episode 5 'Imaginary Friend' is scary as hell. All the episodes are quite scary in general. The stories rely a lot on jumpscares but Thailand is really good at making scary ghosts, the makeup team is always going all the way.

Note: Netflix Thailand is producing the sequel series Terror Tuesday: Extreme (2024), which comes out in 10 days (August 20). Netflix Thailand has never really disappointed with their budget so I'm pretty sure it'll be spooky.

Thai Horror Films Recommendations

1. Hoon Payon (2023)

Synopsis: Tham searches for his brother Te in order to deliver the news of their parents' passing. Te is ordained as a monk at a temple on Don Sing Tham Island. On arrival, Tham meets Jes, the grandson of the former abbot. Jes makes hoon payon, enchanted effigies of the dead. Tham learns of a rumour that Te vanished after murdering the abbot. Tham doesn't buy the story nor does he respect the villagers' strange reverence for the sculpture of Pho Pu Sing Tham. Though his appearance is unsettling to Tham, Pho Pu Sing Tham is said to protect them. Soon, a girl goes missing, a wild predator roams the island, a vengeful ghost is rampant and worse yet, the figure of Pho Pu Sing Tham is destroyed. The enraged villagers prepare to curse and hunt down the unknown culprit.

Thoughts: I watched this for Up Poompat who plays Te and I was genuinely shocked by his performance. Not scary enough as old Thai movies but still very thrilling.

2. Shutter (2004)

Synopsis: Tun, a young photographer, and his girlfriend, Jane, were driving home after drinking with friends, when suddenly they crash into a girl that was walking in the street. Panicking, Tun tells his girlfriend to run away. The next day, Tun discovers mysterious shadows in his photographs, and his girlfriend start seeing strange things in his house.

Thoughts: This is a classic Thai horror film and arguably the best horror film Tong Banjong (the director of The Medium) has ever directed. Director Tong's forte is really horror so please don't mind that the next 3 recommended films are all from him. They are truly THE classic horror films of Thailand.

3. Alone (2007)

Synopsis: Conjoined twins Ploy and Pim are very close until Pim meets a boy named Wee, causing her to decide to separate from Ploy. The surgery is performed but Ploy does not survive. Years later, Pim and Wee are living together in South Korea when Pim suddenly has to return home to take care of her mother after she has a seizure. While back home, Pim is haunted by a ghost from her past.

Thoughts: I really don't know what Director Tong is lacing in his horror films but they're always keeping me on the edge of my seat and most of the time my hands glued to my eyes 😭

4. Phobia (2008)

Synopsis: A horror movie anthology containing 4 stories-Loneliness: a woman confined to her apartment starts to receive texts from a stranger, Deadly Charm: a group of high school delinquents get cursed by a student that they bullied, The Man in the Middle: Four friends go on a camping/rafting trip that turns out far differently then they had planned, The Last Flight: A flight attendant has to accompany the body of a princess, the wife of her lover.

Thoughts: Another horror classic from GTH studio. I can't remember the details to all these stories but I can assure you when I was closing my eyes through half of this film because of how scared I was. I wanna say it's because I was young when I watched it but I'm sure I'd still be keeping my eyes close shut if I watch it again.

5. Phobia 2 (2009)

Synopsis: A horror omnibus consisting of five stories - Novice: a teenager takes refuge at a Buddhist sanctuary after committing a crime, Ward: a biker has to stay overnight in a hospital room with a strange man after an accident, Backpackers: a Japanese couple hitchhikes across Thailand until; they accept a ride from the wrong person, Salvage: karma visits woman who has successful business fixing up cars that were involved in fatal accidents, In The End: the movie crew working on a horror sequel experience a night of real fear.

Thoughts: They're all scary but I think the scariest segment is 'In The End'. I would say this is one of those rare occasions where the sequel outdid its predecessor Phobia.

6. Sick Nurses (2007)

Synopsis: A group of sexy nurses who harvest organs are haunted by the vengeful spirit of one of their dead patients.

Thoughts: this is more slasher than horror but i remember watching this when i was younger and i was scared as heck. I don't even dare to search up the trailer to embed here.

Bonus: 'not purely horror, only has creepy elements but deserves a honorable mention on this list because it's super underrated' film

Malila: The Farewell Flower (2017) dir. Nuchy Anucha Boonyawatana

Synopsis: Former lovers Shane and Pich reunite and try to heal the wounds of their past. Shane is haunted by the tragic death of his daughter, while Pich suffers a grave illness. As death approaches, Pich dedicates his remaining time to making Bai Sri, a ceremonial ornament. Meanwhile, Shane decides to become a Buddhist monk until one night at a graveyard, he encounters his lover in another form.

Thoughts: not horror but i think this film is the first that pops into my head while watching The Medium. Similar feels in their portrayal of Thai rural village lifestyle and Buddhism being a big part of both stories.

You may notice that most of these horror films from GTH Studio share similar directors, screenwriters or other creative staffs with The Medium. And that's because GDH 559 is basically the successsor of GTH Studio (which got dissolved in 2015). I've always a big fan of GDH films and I do try to watch as much GDH/GTH works as possible, but horror is really not my forte so I can only offer you these humble recommendations. I hope you'll enjoy at least one among the ones in this list.

[itspdameronthings]

Rooms And Sleeping Positions

Summary: Here is my theory from the ask i put in @rhoorl's box. About the Tf boys rooms,and sleeping positions. maybe just maybe there are others think @rhoorl, me and others thought the same way. Without further adue...

Person can tell alot about someone by The way a bedroom looks. From furniture to the decor. To the colors. So.. let's explore the bedrooms of Delta Force.

Ironhead Miller: 

Nothing special to say about the room. It's simple. Well organized. Few pics of family ,Santi,and Frankie. Neutral painted walls. Green colored sheets,and duvet. Even his favorite childhood blanket from home. Feels safe when he has a breakdown from his nightmares. Few pillows litter his bed. Next to a window is his favorite chair. Oh how much he loves it. Sits in there while he reads his endless books that he collected through the years. Although there is something missing. Someone to help him get through his mental ,and emotional state. Someone to love him. To keep him safe. On a gloomy, rainy day. He is reading a childhood book to ease his mind. Window opened slightly. Wind blowing the cutrians. Getting lost in the book, he didn't know a certain pair of soft hands on his shoulder," Thought you might need some company. I know how this weather makes you feel. " Putting the book. Pulls his guardian angel to his lap. Kiss her temple," Glade you are here my Cherry. Everytime your here. Brightens up my room. Also my very soul. " Cherry does her very best to tend to his needs. By staying over a lot. Before long. Some of her personal stuff appears in his drawers. For an event Will has another episode. 

Few rooms down is Benny's. His style reminds him of his love of sports from his youth. One wall hangs his first pair of gloves given by the love of his life. Next wall hangs a wall hanging of the farmhouse him and Will grew up in. On the nightstand is a picture of him and his baby. His soulmate. Oh how he missed her. Lays in his large bed with black sheets and red comforter. He rairly used since he never gets cold. He uses a light blanket. On another wall he has a mounted TV . Where he watches movies ,and sports. He too loves to read. Has a bookcase filled with books . Nothing military mind you. Not in his space where he wants to forget about that shit. On one nightstand lies a journal. Filled with thoughts from what he has been thinking about to his baby girl. Memories of their time together. 

Since he retired from fighting. He put his  soul in other passion . Singing. On this night  Benny sits on his windowsill strumming on his guitar.Singing softly. Till angelic voice joined him. Trying not to tear up. His love is here. Everything is good in his world. 

Santiago Garcia

Among the boys on the force Santiago Garcia's space is unlike the others. Blackout curtains on all of the windows. 800 count hotel sheets on his bed. Loads of pillows. Especially a body pillow he cuddles when he sleeps. As for personal touches? Not much. Few of his family members ( whom he doesn't talk about much.) Frankie knows why since they grew up together. Other pictures are some places he visited. That didn't cause him to have any bad memories. On his nightstand is a digital picture frame that stores private pictures of him and his special someone. He looks at it so he can rest. Waiting for her return. 

Frankie Morales

If anyone enters Frankie's room can tell he is a pilot. From the pictures to colors.just simple. Like he is now. Unlike he was before. One thing he has in common with Santi is the curtains. He needs to have his room dark so he can sleep. Manuals fills his bookcase. Also some books based on movies he has seen. He too has a pic of a special someone. His daughter who he gets to see from time to time. Bed is so simple the others tease him about it. He doesn't care it's comfortable. 

Sleep positions: 

All of them have weird sleeping positions. Had to do with their Army days. Now? Lets just say it can annoy them to no end. To something strange. 

William Miller: 

He is a side sleeper. Does he stay in one place? Nope! He tosses and turns on nights he has a nightmare. That's why he lays there. Looking up at the ceiling. Thinking about what bothered him. Reason why  he can't sleep through the night. 

Benny Miller: 

Oh the baby of the group. Can find him in different positions. From sleeping on his back to being sprawled out like a starfish. Usually happens after a hard workout. Off chance he has a nightmare? He is on his side clutching a pillow. Pretending it's someone there. 

Santiago Garcia: 

Oh he is all over the place. Different positions throughout the night. Starts out on his side. Then on his stomach.then sprawled out clutching his pillow. One thing though. He hates to sleep on his back.Why? Had to do that after his knee surgery ( yes he had to get one) . Being comfortable is so important to him. Says he needs to catch up on lost sleep. On a rainy day he would sleep the day away. 

Frankie Morales 

Side sleeper without a freaking doubt. Hardly moves . Unless he is having a bad dream where he is either in the middle of the bed, or leaning on the edge. Once he almost fell out of bed when he tried to reach for his phone. When he is in a deep sleep? Nothing can wake him unless someone yells in his ear.

[haljathefangirlcat]

Now that you mention it, the Volsung-Nibelung-Dietrich cycle would make a good sitcom if you just focused on the zanier parts. The Nibelung siblings Gullrond, Gunther, Gernot, Giselher, Kriemhild, and (maybe) Hagen, with all their pals. Nephews Dankwart and Patavrid; Gunther's incredibly athletic girlfriend Brynhild and her dog and horse; the Nibelungs' best pal and Brynhild's ex Sigurd, who would be the man you wished your man could be if not his moments of random philosophizing or idiotic life decisions despite knowing what was going to happen; Hagen's best pals, Volker the musician and Walther the nerd; local businessman Rudiger and his sweet, cutesy young daughter; socially maladjusted Dietrich and his gang of pals, who always pop up during hangouts despite nobody inviting them... With less murder and more mayhem, it sure would make a good show!

You know, one thing I will always be irrationally sad about when it comes to the Sigurd/Siegfried cycle and related legends is that... it just never gets any of the wacky, zany, "how tf did you even come up that" adaptations and reimaginings Arthuriana keeps getting.

I mean, sure, you do have adaptations with some humor in it, and different ways to mesh Norse and Continental and even Wagnerian elements, and very different perspectives on the same characters. But Arthuriana really has anything and everything from Disney movies to anime and manga to Monty Python movies and musicals to kids' cartoons to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and all its parodies to Young!Arthur/Young!Merlin Slashy Bromance shows to irriverent French sitcoms to loosely-inspired queer YA romance novels to a few recurring and even main characters in "all stories are true" fantasy series like Once Upon a Time or The Librarians. There's even those collector's edition Merlin & Morgana Barbies that were making the rounds on here a while ago!

Meanwhile, the wackiest, less "serious" stuff our Nibelungs get are:

The brief Siegfried & Fafnir cameo in the Mara and the Firebringer movie, where the main mythological figures are actually Loki and Sigyn (can't really say anything about the books, as I haven't read them)

A weird Hungarian (?? iirc??) comedy movie where Siegfried has a talking piglet as his animal companion for some reason and Kriemhild really doesn't like him but she apparently can't just tell him to get lost and stop courting her so she orders Hagen to drive him away from Worms and kill him, which I've only ever managed to "watch" in bits and pieces

The comedic operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen, which I've never managed to find anything about that wasn't in German, so I'm not even really sure what it's actually about

The 70s porn movie The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried, which... tbh, I'd rather stick to fanworks on the nsfw side of things, if the alternative is Siegfried with a pornstache

A Modern/High School AU fantasy romance self-pub I once found where, from what I remember of the summary and excerpt I read, Brunhild is a Mean Girl/Queen Bee who tries to steal Siegfried away from Kriemhild and Hagen is Kriemhild's shitty jealous ex-boyfriend (nothing against High School AUs, or romance novels, or alternative takes on the Kriemhild/Siegfried/Brunhild love triangle, or Hagen/Kriemhild as a ship... but tbh, I'd rather see all those elements handled in vastly different ways XDD)

A couple of old Italian Disney comicbook parodies featuring Donald Duck and his family (but those were mostly Wagner-based, iirc, and then again, an amazing thing about Italian Disney comics is that they will parody literally everything under the sun from the Divine Comedy to Twilight)

... Siegfried (or Sigurd?) showing up in one of the Fate anime series? Or novels? Or games? Not sure. I've only ever watched like two episodes of the Fate/Stay Night anime and then dropped it because I didn't like the normal guy protagonist always rushing to protect his (secretly Fem!King Arthur) supernatural sworn knight just because she was a girl

And... that's it, I think.

And on the one hand, I get it. With Arthuriana, you have adventurous romances and ridiculous (affectionate) quests and so many different bizarre canons and twists on them that even that cartoon where Morgan Le Fay sends an American football team back in time to Camelot (I think that was the plot, at least????) is just another "you know, this might as well happen" situation. I suppose that, at least by comparison, the Nibelungensage & All Adjacent Stuff may appear more grounded and less easy to play with and bring in whatever strange, unlikely new direction you want. Plus, tragic events like Sigurd/Siegfried's death, Brynhild/Brunhild being tricked into marrying a man she doesn't want, and Gudrun/Kriemhild's revenge, or even Dietrich's exile, are just central to it, so that's kind of a downer already, I guess.

... on the other hand, King Arthur's tale literally ends with him and his son killing each other at the end of a bloody civil war. And it's not like anyone's ever had any problem merrily ignoring THAT part to, idk, have everyone in the story be cats.

All this to say, I'd watch the hell out of a Modern AU Nibelung sitcom. Or even just a Nibelung sitcom set in the Middle Ages, or Late Antiquity, or a vague mishmash of the two. The dream for that would be a Galavant-style show with musical numbers and a lot of scenes poking fun at epic and heroic tropes, ngl.

Actually, let's be real: I wouldn't just watch it, I'd probably write fic and make gifs and fanvids for it!