#Century of Love Episode 1 review

[afabstract]

Century of Love Episodes 1-2 Review

San's 100-year wait for his lost love is filled with unexpected twists and magical suprises in the Thai series "Century of Love" starring Daou Pittaya Saechua & Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol.

If you believed in reincarnation, how long do you think you could wait for the love of your life to be reborn after an untimely demise? San, the protagonist of the Thai romantic-fantasy series “Century of Love” (original title: ปาฏิหาริย์รักร้อยปี/Patihan Rak Roi Pi), waits almost 100 years to see his deceased lover Wat be reincarnated. A magical stone allows him to retain his youth for a…

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Must you, Japan? has become Thank You, Japan

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

BL OLYMPICS! Week 3

This is my last week of passing out metals in various sporting events, as part of the weekly updates.

Aug 2024 Week 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Century of Love (Weds Gaga) eps 9-10fin - There were a lot more unnecessary dramatic speeches than there was practical medical aid being administered. Very extra, boys. I wonder how long it took them to get that "birds meet hug" shot? Meanwhile, great grandpa‘s attitude that he knows best in every way is thoroughly annoying, and yet absolutely appropriate to his age. My great gramps (RIP), had he had the body of a 20-year-old, would behave in exactly the same self-righteous know-it-all way. The doctor is great. I would like him to get his own romance please? What happens when you are the villain in someone else's reincarnation story? There's a whole fanfic there. And yes I cried. I am a sap for this kinda thing.

Final thoughts:

This is a great little show about a young man who fell in love with a pretty girl 100 years ago, and when she died in his arms, he was cursed to live until he could meet her reborn self. Only this time around, she’s reborn into the body of a man. I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and shizz. I like this pair (it’s not DaouOffroad’s fault I didn’t enjoy most of their first series.) Daou’s wushu is pretty snazzy and we got a fun meet cute. (Erm... Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?) Plus this is a very PRETTY show. Despite some ham handed comedy moments, this ultimately has more in common with something like I Feel You Linger in the Air meets First Love Again, then (as one might expect) Until We Meet Again or The Director Who Buys Me Dinner. The leads turned in great performances, although Daou outclassed everybody else on that screen. It’s a good story and a great BL. I’m not sure this is going in my rewatch rotation, but I can’t find any major faults with it beyond a certain level of camp that is sadly endemic to lackorns. Also I’m going to give it credit as the kind of BL that one could safely recommend to lovers of melodrama and historical romance, without having to qualify it as “good for a BL.” It was, to put it succinctly, simply a VERY ENJOYABLE show. 

Under those auspices I really can’t give it anything less than a 9/10. 

Bronze in Fencing

My Love Mix-Up Th (Fri YT) ep 10 of 12 - It’s cute. They were cute. I enjoyed it a lot. I talk quite a bit about why they're using nai as a you pronoun here:

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Fri iQIYI) ep 6 of 8 - Honestly the side couple is truly stellar in this show. I wasn’t sure about them at first but now I absolutely love them. Not sure how they are going to resolve such intense dislike (from JJ) by the end of the series. But I’m interested to see them try.

Meanwhile, there isn’t anything else airing right now that makes me laugh as much as the behind-the-scenes from this show. Highly recommended.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) eps 1-2 of 12 - Oh it is so much fun. I’m particularly delighted that our musician is a drummer and I don’t have to listen to him sing... I hope. I’ve been waiting for Big to lead a BL forever. I’m disposed to enjoy this. We can all be confident in one thing, the kisses are going to be great. I like the side couple too, very indulgent daddy. While I am disturbed by the tortoise in the tiny tank, I love the extrovert friendship group. They remind me of my own college crew. It is a cute premise, but I will need them to actually be together in the same room, looking longingly at each other a smooching within the next couple of episodes.

YouTube served me both episodes 1 & 2, and I don’t think it was meant to. So this may be next week's review as well.

The Trainee (Sun YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - I wasn’t wild about this ep or where this show is going. But I enjoyed the language play. 

Gold in Linguistic Gymnastics

(my new favorite sport)

Sunset X Vibes (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - Wow. Sam admitted it just out loud like that! Right after a betrayal? Balls on that boy. Worked on Yo tho. Too well, actually. I wish Yo had made him suffer and dragged him over the coals for a while. But I guess Yo really really likes him back. Meanwhile, the GL side plot also moved quite rapidly. A lot happened in this episode.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 4 of 12 - Them ALL jumping into the water was totally ridiculous. It’s still a little slow, because it is a pulp, but I’m rather enjoying it.

Knock Knock Boys (Thurs Gaga) ep 12fin - Almond and Latte were cute. The breakfast with the four of them was funny. I did laugh a lot. Almond getting "first time" advice from his two resident gay dads (or at least trying to) was super sweet. Also I got a lot of smiley kisses. Nice final ep.

Ultimately how do I feel about this show?

A story about 4 boys of differing personalities who end up living together and pair up, falling in love. Slow moving and waffling, with some artificially generated family drama makes this a classic Thai pulp except that in general it's a smiley kiss of a show. It had plenty of good qualities like great communication and sexual rep (including toys, first time, safe sex, and sexual identities). The heat levels were on point and well executed, and the performances were good. It’s just that the script and the directing were lackluster, rendering it ultimately forgettable. Still, fine on a rainy afternoon with some camomile tea or whatever. 7/10 

Love Sea (Sun iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - I’m getting some sort of PTSD from this show, It is making me feel like I’m the problem. Trash watch

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Cosmetic Playlover (Japan Tues Gaga) eps 1-2 of 8 - Anyone surprised by this jump in the standings? Yeah, probubly not. Anygay... this show is GREAT. Warped af but great. Lemme try to explain.

I actually said out loud during ep 1, "Well this is boundary pushing." By which I mean mine and everybody elses. But it’s Japan, *checks watch* it’s about time they turned out something edging into unpalatable and kinky. And because it’s Japan, I’m more forgiving than I would be were this show nested in the clumsy hands of say... Thailand. So actually this being me, and me being of questionable taste, I’m enjoying this show a lot.

You want me to list the ways? Sure.

Younger seme with grabby hands.

The younger one identified the elder gay as his personal property and it’s now: single motivation, on target, against all odds.

Uke cares about his work and not much else.

Seme cares about the uke and not much else.

Uke is gonna make this boy WORK for it.

That one particularly Japanese style of obsession that I actually adore.

Passes the sniff test!

I’m being reminded of that KBL Love Mate. Which I believe I enjoyed but no one else did. For exactly this set of tropes. Only Japan is better suited to handle them. For me this is a case of:

Must you,Japan? = Oh yes? Well, thank you very much, Japan.  

I Hear the Sunspot AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 8 of 10 - enter the evil girl character. Yawn.

Takara's Treasure AKA Takara No Vidro (Japan Mon Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - It is what it is. 

It's airing but...

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 2 of 12 - I did not catch ep 2 before they took it down from USA YT. I don’t know why it’s down. Either they got a deal for distribution off YouTube or there’s some sort of scandal. Frankly, I wasn't particularly impressed with ep 1 so I’m not rabid to find wherever it’s gone or why. Still, perhaps someone will let us know the sitch in a comment? It's a me problem. I'm figuring it out.

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - OMG a uni student who looks too young and a... COP. GAH. The subversion and kink of it all. Why can't I find it? Do I have to go grey?

4 Minutes (Thai Netflix/Grey) - A rich boy at uni suddenly gains the supernatural power to see four minutes into the future. I have a source, but I've decided to hold off and binge if it ends okay, since it's only 8 eps. I depend upon y'all to tell me if it's safe.

Meet You at the Blossom (China) - it's your funeral (or, more likely, one of the main characters'). You can argue but... statistics. You know my feelings on this matter. MY BLOG, remember?

In case you missed it

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer IS COMING IN SEPTEMBER!!!! (Yeah this is gonna sit here until then)

Next Week Looks Like This:

Ooo, nice spread.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming This Month!

8/12 First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) 12 eps - About a singer with stage fright and his timid fan stars Charles (H4 the puppy one) and Michael Chang (the youngster in My Tooth Your Love), plus side couple featuring a Thai actor Jame (Koh in Gen Y) and Liu Min Ting (of Guardian fame). What a damn tean. I can't wait. With thier powers combined!

8/13 Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues YT) 10 eps - supposedly Jinlo with air this on their YT channel. Stars August (Love Sick) so I'm excited despite Jinlo's poor reputation. From the trailer it looks like it's following the original pretty closely... just Thai style. GIMMEEEEE!!!!

8/16 The Last Time (Thai Fri YT) ? eps - Convoluted story of loss and possible reincarnation or something.

8/22 The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) 12 eps - announced in 2023 this one has a high school set stepbrothers trope and is reputed to be high heat. From Taiwan! It's made for me. Based on a novel Mou Mou from the Your Name Engraved Herein folks, so it could go dark. Still, I'm very excited.

8/22 The Paradise of Thorns (Thai movie) theater release - Jeff Satur is back but this does not look like a BL (the gay lover's death is the inciting event). More in Goodbye Mother vein. Looks dark and dramatic. He opposite and extremely well known actor Toey Pongsakorn who has never done gay before.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Linguistic flirting trope! One of my all time favorites. FANTASTIC. (I did keep hearing Gun yelling Papiiiiiii! in my head tho.)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

[thelibraryghost]

A Young Person's Introduction to Early 20th-Century Western Fashion

am i hip with the kids yet

General information Dotschkal, Janna. "1920's." FOUND. October 21, 2016. English Heritage. "Fashion Through History: Episode 3 – 1930s." YouTube. April 16, 2023. Rudolph, Nicole. "The History of Standardized Sizes in Womens Fashion and Why They FAILED." YouTube. May 16, 2021. Vintagebursche. "100 Years of Classic Menswear - and what we can learn from each decade." YouTube. February 29, 2020. Zebrowska, Karolina. "1920s Fashion Is Not What You Think It Is." YouTube. May 20, 2018.

Accessories Cox, Abby. "Flappers, Y2K, & Capitalism are Why Women "Don't" Have Pockets." YouTube. January 12, 2023. Cox, Abby. "The Disappointing Truth On Why We Don't Wear Hats Anymore..." YouTube. December 18, 2022. Rudolph, Nicole. "The History of the Iconic Cloche Hat: Making 1920s Fashion." YouTube. September 18, 2022. Rudolph, Nicole. "When Hats were Illegal: Sewing a Goth Edwardian Hat." YouTube. February 21, 2021. Sheehan, Sarah. "Neo-Egyptomania." PatternVault. December 31, 2022. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Why Did We Stop Wearing Hats?" YouTube. April 28, 2020.

Cosmetics Banner, Bernadette. "Making and Testing a Victorian Skincare Routine." YouTube. April 8, 2023. English Heritage. "1930s Makeup Tutorial | History Inspired | Feat. Amber Butchart and Rebecca Butterworth." YouTube. December 18, 2018. Holland, Evangeline. "On How to Be Lovely." Edwardian Promenade. April 15, 2010. Rudolph, Nicole. "The Controversial History of Color Season Analysis." YouTube. November 4, 2023.

Fabrics Rudolph, Nicole. "The History of Elastic." YouTube. July 4, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "Wearing Overalls to Boycott Fashion Greedflation? Weird History of 1920." YouTube. March 16, 2024.

Gowns and formal wear Banner, Bernadette. "I Redesigned Mary Poppins' Jolly Holiday Dress Based on REAL Edwardian Lingerie Gowns." YouTube. February 20, 2021. Banner, Bernadette. "I Remade Mary Poppins’ Dress to be Actually Edwardian." YouTube. July 9, 2022. Cox, Abby. "Alexander McQueen & the Patriarchy Problem in Modern Fashion." YouTube. October 20, 2023. Cox, Abby. "What Makes a Gown Haute Couture (like House of Worth) in Victorian and Edwardian Eras?" YouTube. September 19, 2021. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "An Edwardian Woman's Fashion Evolution." YouTube. June 4, 2022. Oakes, Leimomi. "Terminology: what is a lingerie dress or lingerie frock? (and blouse, and skirt)." The Dreamstress. July 21, 2018. Rudolph, Nicole. "Stop Idolizing Coco Chanel: a shocking history of theft." YouTube. January 13, 2024. Rudolph, Nicole. "The Truth about the Fringed Flapper: Making 1920s Evening Dresses." YouTube. November 6, 2022. Vintagebursche. "1920s Theme Party - How to dress." YouTube. December 9, 2023. Zebrowska, Karolina. "1920s Fashion Encyclopedia, Pt 1: Daywear." YouTube. November 27, 2019.

Hair care and styling Banner, Bernadette. "I Tried Following a Real Edwardian Hair Care Routine." YouTube. May 12, 2020. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "Getting Dressed in the Edwardian Era / Gibson Girl Hairstyle Tutorial." YouTube. June 12, 2020. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "Titanic-era Hair Tutorial // Getting Dressed in the 1910's." YouTube.September 4, 2020. SnappyDragon. "Historical hair myths debunked : How often should you wash your hair—daily shampoo or no shampoo?" YouTube. August 12, 2022. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Weird Edwardian Beauty Tips." YouTube. February 11, 2017.

Laundry and starching Banner, Bernadette. "Ok but how did the Edwardians WASH these dresses?" YouTube. August 3, 2022.

Outerwear Cox, Abby. "Athleisure: Destroying Fashion & the Environment." YouTube. January 18, 2024. Rudolph, Nicole. "150 years of Masc Women causing a Moral Panic." YouTube. June 17, 2023. Rudolph, Nicole. "The History of Jeans, T-shirts, and Hoodies: Time Travel 101." YouTube. March 20, 2022. Zebrowska, Karolina. "SPRING/SUMMER FASHION TRENDS REVIEW but it's 1936 (ft. original fabric samples!)." YouTube. April 22, 2022.

Shoes Rudolph, Nicole. "I Made Witchy Edwardian Shoes by Hand!" YouTube. March 14, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "Making 100 year old Comfy Slippers: Free Pattern!" YouTube. December 30, 2023. Rudolph, Nicole. "The Myth of Tiny Feet "Back Then"." YouTube. September 26, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "The True History of Stiletto Heels : the battle between Ferragamo and Dior." YouTube. August 26, 2023. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Why Is No One Talking About 1930s Shoes?" YouTube. September 15, 2020.

Undergarments Banner, Bernadette. "1903 Patented Bustle Pad Reconstruction." YouTube. June 8, 2019. Banner, Bernadette. "Achieving That Classic Edwardian Shape: Reconstructing a 1902 Bust Bodice." YouTube. April 16, 2020. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "So What are Guimpes Anyway? // Examining Antique Edwardian Guimpes." YouTube. August 21, 2020. Lady Rebecca Fashions. "They Wore Corsets in the 1920's?!" YouTube. January 29, 2022. Rudolph, Nicole. "Did Brassieres End the Corset?" YouTube. February 28, 2021. Rudolph, Nicole. "Dressing in Edwardian Clothing: Undergarments and Layers of 1907." YouTube. November 1, 2020. Rudolph, Nicole. "How Flappers got their Figure: the 1920s Silhouette." YouTube. July 10, 2022. SnappyDragon. "How pin-up photos fooled dress history : the making and marketing of lingerie pictures." YouTube. April 1, 2023.

[yeswegetityoulovepodcasts]

Audio Drama Recs and Reviews

The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality. If you ever wanted to get an unhealthy emotional attachment to the AI and anxiety - this one is for you. The first season seems like a collection of stories about supernatural objects in the museum. In later seasons we get a pretty high stakes plot with many cliffhangers + stories about the objects. Also has no romance as a major plot and it rarely appears in the stories so as an aro I love this one.

Hello From the Hallowoods. Well this one is very queer to the point of neopronouns and genderfluidity queer. Great Age range representation. Also very anti capitalist. There are many (no seriously like MANY) characters, engaging plot and one narrator with a very soothing voice telling us a story about humanity last days, demons, ghosts, libraries and revenants. Personally I feel like it has a very 1-world contry point of view but the pros outweigh the cons.

The Wrong Station. If you are not a fan of overarching plots and need good quality horror content this one is for you. It's a horror anthology podcast - every episode has a different setting though there are some connections between the names my favs are set in the past (esp. Alternative Italy or Byzantine) but is also has some pretty decent midwesrern gothic and future horror episodes.

The Silt Verses. This one is about gods and those that have to deal with them. About the world where ideal rules over the material and the entities made of those ideas are hungry gods. Not as hungry as the system that exploits those ideas though. The most terrifying thing about this podcast is how small the difference is between this world and ours is. This one is made by I Am in Eskew authors so give it a try if you need a good existential and relatable horror. Also has the great aroace feral old woman as one of the characters and I love her with all my heart.

True Tales of the Illuminati This one is a short comedy telling about shenanigans in the Illuminati organization and all the ways they fuck their shit up. First two seasons are set in the Ancient Egypt - 3rd in the 20th century America. If you want something light hearted, short and similar to the Parks and Recreation - try this one. If you want more audio drama workplace comedy go and listen to the New Ages.

Life with Althaar - sci-fi podcast/workplace comedy about a space station + awkward alien roommate who wants to be friends with a human. It uses word gentlebeings, okay?! I loved the first 2 seasons but the 3 season wasn't updated in a year, so i am waiting if it's come back. This is essentially my comfort podcast so i do hope it comes back to us.

[scepterno]

Total Drama 2023 season 2 post finale thoughts

this

was the sweetest and most wholesome thing total drama has ever given us in the series. i almost teared up LMFAO

ok now onto my very basic review:

it was alright.

the raynebow enjoyer in me was JUMPING FOR JOY all season. they gave us so many amazing moments between the hockey bros and their boyfriend..... THE MUSIC MONTAGE?? THE RAJ SENDOFF?? BOWIE AND RAJ IN THE FINALE TOGETHER????? WAYNE FEEDING RAJ IN BED IN HIS PAJAMAS???????? HIS BIGGEST FEAR BEING RAJ ON A DIFFERENT TEAM BUT GETTING OVER IT BECAUSE THEY'LL BE BEST FRIENDS NO MATTER WHAT FOREVER???????????????????????????????????????????

also that quick juliwayne line about marriage LOL. so adorable.

ok shipper lenses off now

caleb and priya actually really grew on me as characters, and i loved them by the end. HOWEVER. that being said. holy fuck. they did not deserve the amount of screentime they got. well. i dunno. it was just so fucking drawn out. holy moly.

damien?

my boy.

im so sorry damien. you got robbed (literally). you also got the worst elimination by far. CUT FROM HALF THE EPISODE, JUST TO BE ELIMINATED FOR priya and caleb to yet again hog more screentime. wow. disappointment of the century.

ummm what else. well. congrats to mkulia fans. julia now has a lovely lesbian haircut for you to make fanart of! i liked their friendship a lot.

SNOW OWLS HOOT HOOT BITCHES YEEHAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WE FUCKIN WON BOYS HOCKEY BROS FOREVAAAAAAAA

overall this season was kinda sucky. SUPER DUPER inconsistent writing nonstop every episode. it's like they forgot everything from season 1 or misremembered things. like why everyone trusted julia over bowie. and then trusted julia again. and again. or chase not eating the pizza instead of zee.

CHASE LOVES PIZZA, YOU MONSTERS. LET HIM EAT IT.

aight that was fun hopefully we get a new cast for next season

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, June 18

Faith: Finally decided to tie me up, huh? I always knew you weren't really a one-Slayer guy. Angel: I'm sorry about the chains. It's not that I don't trust you... Actually, it *is* that I don't trust you. Faith: The thing with Xander; I know what it looked like, but we were just playing. Angel: And he forgot the safety word. Is that it? Faith: Safety words are for wusses.

~~Buffy Episode #49: "Consequences"~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Tease (Angel/Darla, unrated, multiple xovers) by rhodrymavelyne

Home Is Where the Heart Is (Ensemble, E, SPN xover) by

Quitting Us No More (Buffy/Spike, T) by VeroNyxK84

[Chaptered Fiction]

Highlands and Tropical Islands Ch. 10 (Buffy/Faith, M) by

Three's a Crowd Ch. 4/8 (Jenny/Giles, G) by HAL1500

Devil Inside Ch. 2/? (Buffy/Willow, M) by Xyex

In Case You Haven't Noticed... Ch. 19/? (Buffy/Giles, E) by Sdhuskerfan

Ghostsforge's 21st Century Spangel Challenges 586/? (Spike/Angel, unrated) by Ghostsforge

Casts Shadows Ch. 1/? (Ensemble, T) by arcanedreamer

hit rewind Ch. 60/? (Buffy/Spike, M) by untiljanuary

In the Company of Witches and Slayers: Ch. 71/200 (Willow/Tara, E) by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer)

The Degradation of Duality [Series Part 2], Chapter 4-5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Ragini

Maclay Down, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Soulburnt

The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 114 (Buffy/Spike, T) by the_big_bad

The Devil's Trill, Chapter 12 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Murray

Boyfrenemy, Chapter 11-13 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Lady Emma

Morning Stretches, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, E) by CheekyKitten

Carnival , Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Alyot

Indirect Sunlight Only, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, T) by scratchmeout

Bruises, Chapter 23-24 (Buffy/Spike, E) by hulettwyo

Ever After, Chapter 3-6 (Buffy/Spike, T) by Desicat

Love Lives Here, Chapter 77 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Passion4Spike

Something Lost Something Found, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Safire

The Truth Shall Set You Free, Chapter 1–17 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Geliot99

A Piercing Glance, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, M) by Girlytek

Smoky Darkness, Take Me, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, M) by bruskiboo

The Slayer's New Hope Ch. 15 (Ensemble, G, SG-1 xover) by Buffyworldbuilder

Old Fashioned Romance Ch. 11 (Xander, E, MCU xover) by calikocat

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:End of the World: Zippo Photo shoot (Buffy/Spike) by Dynamite

Artwork:Dexter: Devil's Dance illustration (Faith) by DJSpaceInvader

Artwork:ChiBangel #15 (Buffy/Angel) by MamaBewear

Artwork:Spike & Riley by margueritedaisies

Manip:Much Ado About Xander () by revello-drive-1630

Manip:Cheerleader () by revello-drive-1630

Video: Angel & Cordelia | Let Her Go by Jordan McLaren

[Reviews & Recaps]

Chosen by andthesunwillalwaysshine

PODCAST: BTVS 518 - Intervention by Another Buffy Podcast

[Community Announcements]

Tuesday Prompts: Poem Titles by comment_fic

[Fandom Discussions]

it really is nuts by moistvonlipwig

Wesley going to break Faith out of prison by nicnacsnonsense

An important thing to keep in mind by nicnacsnonsense

You know, I think Angel could have spun the “I only eat evil people now” thing so Darla would have accepted it. by nicnacsnonsense

Kudos to Angel for the growth implied by the soul removal spell in AtS s4. by nicnacsnonsense

DARLA SPIKED HERSELF by momsforroadhead

there’s a whole additional level of deranged going on by nicnacsnonsense

You know how when Wesley shows up in s1 of AtS he’s doing that whole rogue demon hunter thing by nicnacsnonsense

i hate to say it i hope i don’t sound rude but i think maybe buffy summers should stop sleeping with vampires by joe-spookyy

One thing that they did right was portrayal about how hard it to integrate into the scooby gang by there-are-many-ways-to-smile

Let’s be real all of Buffy romantic relationships are horrible. by there-are-many-ways-to-smile

by there-are-many-ways-to-smile

TOP 5 fav spuffy moments since they became canon in no particular order by andthesunwillalwaysshine

two people walking next to each other SHOULD NOT HAVE THIS EFFECT ON ME by raisedbythetv89

i’ve always loved buffy x spike by idknikkip

So I was talking to a friend about binge-watching Buffy/Angel by ladymirdan

I don’t think Olivia shows up, (at least as like her actual self), after Hush. by finalgirl1984

Dopplegangland could’ve been a great episode for Willow to bond with Faith actually. by theredpharaoah

Faith has a completely different relationship with violence than Buffy. by theredpharaoah

YOUR TAGS ON THE SPIKE WILLOW TARA SET by sspoike

My Top 100 Ships (#56: Buffy/Giles) by echoes-fandoms

btvs casting clea duvall to play the unpopular girl by lesbianmarrow

just hit I Only Have Eyes For You on our Buffy rewatch by antiquery

Watching Angel S2 alongside Buffy S5 is extremely overrated by AndHerSymbols

Anyone else miss the well timed scream in the first 3 season intros? by AxelNoir

Do you wish we could have seen Buffy, Faith and Kendra in a scene together? by IntelligentPumpkin74

The deeper I get into Angel, the less I like Wesley by KuzyBeCackling

Favorite Willow and Giles moment? by Tytthetha

Who created the spell which doesn’t allow Vampires to enter without permission? by AegeanAzure

People who never watched Angel, please do it. by kindaweird0

How many men watch buffy? by Bpd_embroiderer18

How was it like to watch Buffy come back from the dead when it was airing? by brwitch

Which group or entity was most frustrating as a concept? by InfiniteMehdiLove

I still can’t get over it that they pulled the plug after AtS season 5 by SneakoGonzales

Does Whedon just hate Charisma?? by EuphoricNebula1947

Anyone else find the quality of stunt actors horrendous but hilarious? by Drm5145

Favorite moment between the Summer Sisters? by Tytthetha

Can anyone tell me why these fellas needed 7 hearts? by Soulless--Plague

Just Watched “Passion” Wow! by Organic_Individual52

End of my re-watch. by SharpieD85

Finding Reference Picture by Mysterious-Angle8457

I don't actually hate Xander... here's why by Weary_Tap_8299

even tho i ship spike/buffy, drusilla/darla these two were so iconic by melaniemoth13

Season 7 contradiction? by Kammym1021

SMG stunt double by Kammym1021

Faith, and how the Buffyverse treats redemptions by jogaforacont

"Helpless"; Watcher's Council. by Big-Restaurant-2766

What would Cordelia be like if she magically got the slayer powers instead of Faith? by Eagles56

Examples of teen dialogue written by middle-aged adults by Tuxedo_Mark

Buffy should have let him blow his head off by Wutanghang

Was Faith from a religious background? by IntelligentPumpkin74

Xander's reasoning in OMWF by sxlor

The Actors that Played the Potential Slayers by Tuxedo_Mark

What are Alyson Hannigan and Amber Benson saying here? by Background-Neat-8906

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PUBLICATION: 32 Times Angel Proved Buffy Should Have Picked Him by Cinemablend

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Join the editor team :)

[eardefenders]

For the ask game: ✨🕵️‍♂️🎧

✨ - Favorite one-off character?

Victor Trevor right now, but I'm anticipating that to become Irene when we get there.

🕵️‍♂️ - First adaption/version that got you into Sherlock Holmes media?

Hm this is an interesting one for me. Because I definitely adored The Great Mouse Detective when I was a kid (I wanted to change my name to Basil there for a minute), but I don't think I really knew that it was a Sherlock Holmes thing. And I did read some of the stories when I was a kid, but I thought they were god awful boring back then. I also remember vaguely enjoying the Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century when it aired on tv lol. I also saw both RDJ Sherlock Holmes movies in theaters, but I went to those out of a love for RDJ, not necessarily Sherlock Holmes (though I do hold a soft spot for that adaption).

However, I was unemployed and didn't have a television, when my friend asked if I wanted to see a new show called Sherlock. I remember we sat on the floor of my apartment and watched it on a laptop sat on a dining chair in the summer of 2012. It was hot and I fell in love immediately with the BBC Sherlock adaption. And then my friend made me wait a WEEK between each episode that was out at the time. 6 WEEKS to get through series 1 and 2 lol.

So I think I've always loved Sherlock Holmes in some way or another, but the full on brain rot didn't hit until BBC Sherlock. And now here we are lol.

🎧 - What other podcasts have you listened to/recommend?

What's hilarious is I don't like True Crime genre stuff and I don't really like fiction either, so Sherlock & Co is really an outlier for me.

That said I highly recommend the following podcasts:

5 to 4 - They tear the supreme court and their shit decisions over the last century to shreds and they're hilarious while they do it.

Maintenance Phase - I fucking adore Aubrey Gordon. This whole podcast is filled with good researched information about diet culture myths and the lies we're told to encourage fatphobia.

You're Wrong About - Sarah Marshall gives wonderfully researched debunkings of popular events in the last 50 or so years and helps shed some light on the way we've culturally twisted things to fit a certain (often bigoted) perspective.

Thinking Like a Lawyer - They review everyday situations from a legal perspective. Very fun imo.

If Books Could Kill - Mike and Peter debunk those junk science and self-help books you find at the airport and they're usually pretty funny while they do it.

[cromulentbookreview]

Fun with Fungi!

Huh, what's this? *cleans away dust* oh, yeah, this blog is still a thing. I probably should've written more reviews, but...

I mean, I could come up with an excuse, but I'm too lazy. Just as I am too lazy to continually update this book review blog that nobody reads. I mean, I just wrote a review *consults calendar* uh. In 2022. Dang, I have been lazy. Oh well.

I'm like a rug on valium, I'm talking lazy.

And by that, I mean: let's have a dual review of the Sworn Soldier series: What Moves the Dead and its sequel, What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher!

Those covers, man. They're awesome, but at the same time: poor bun bun. Poor horsie.

So technically, what I'm doing here is not one but two reviews. So I'm actually being really, really productive right now and not lazy in the slightest.

This is a legitimately true story, I swear. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...by which I mean, four or five years back or so, I'd never heard of T. Kingfisher / Ursula Vernon in my life until I got into a fight with her on Twitter* on whether or not the fruit of the hazel tree should be referred to as Filberts or Hazelnuts.

For the record, I am firmly team hazelnut. I mean, they're nuts from a hazel tree. Hazel+nuts = hazelnuts. Who in their right mind wants to eat something called a filbert? But, terminology varies as T. Kingfisher is firmly on team filbert. My parents also call them filberts on occasion which is weird to me as we live in an area lousy with hazelnut farms.

Mmmm, Hazelnuts...

Anyway! I had no idea who this person was but I got into a tongue-in-cheek gif fight on Twitter with them regarding hazelnut v. filbert. Feeling bad that I got into a fight with a random person online on their hazel tree fruit name preferences, I went to their profile, saw they were an author, looked up their books and bought the two books of the Clocktaur Wars series. I tore through them, and continued on, reading all of the World of the White Rat series (I just saw that we're getting a new one in January and I might have let out a bit of a fangirl screech), and the absolutely delightful A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Minor Mage. So far, every single one of T. Kingfisher's books that I've read has been awesome. Nettle & Bone? Amazing. Thornhedge? I'm a very slow reader, but I devoured it in an afternoon.

T. Kingfisher writes amazing fantasy novels and I absolutely love them. She also writes horror. Which is where I hit a brick wall because I'm a baby who doesn't handle horror well. I don't like horror movies. I don't often read horror books. Because the world is scary enough without ghosts and poltergeists and demons and jump scares. Also I watched The Ring when I was 12 and it scared the shit out of me. Anyway! Oddly enough, I've always found myself drawn to horror-type stories. I mean, horror fits so well in fantasy and sci-fi (looking at you, Doctor Who episodes that gave me nightmares). As an adult, I've found myself more and more willing to dip my toe into horror fiction. Season 1 of The Terror, one of my favorite-ever TV series is considered horror (maybe because it's not jump-scare scary, it's existentially scary. Also it's set in the past. Also it's got dudes-on-boats, my favorite genre). Part of me really, really likes horror stories set in the past - no horror like 18th/19th/Early 20th century horror, amirite?

Right?

Well, whatever, I just like horror to be ye olde timey horror, OK? Like Crimson Peak, The Witch, The Death of Jane Lawrence, Mexican Gothic, The Woman in Black, The Hacienda, Vampires of El Norte, The Hunger ... spooky-scary Gothic-y-Romantic-y-type stories that have a historical element to them. Those are awesome. I'm slowly - very slowly! - getting myself to read more contemporary horror stories. I understand that The Twisted Ones and A House With Good Bones are really, really good, but....what can I say, I'm a wuss. And contemporary stories aren't really my jam. I read to get away from the contemporary world, damn it!

(Me, too scared to read contemporary horror but not too scared to listen to 900,000 true crime podcasts).

Right, where were we?

Oh, yeah. The review(s). I'm starting to understand why no one ever read this blog and why I let myself be lazy.

-

In What Moves The Dead we meet Alex Easton, a Gallacian ex-soldier on their way to visit their old friends, the Ushers, at their delipidated estate in the rural countryside of Ruravia. Alex had word that Madeline Usher was dying, and they wanted to be there for Madeline and her brother, Roderick. Roderick had been a fellow soldier with Alex back in the day and -

Wait a minute, Roderick and Madeline Usher? Delipidated mansion? Unspecified 19th century middle of nowhere...

Yep, this story is, indeed, a retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, and it does a much better job than certain series you might find on Netflix.

Moving on:

Alex, Roderick and Madeline were childhood friends, and Roderick and Alex even fought together back in the day. Alex is a "sworn soldier" - something unique to their home country of Gallacia, a small, backwater country located somewhere between Bulgaria, Hungaria and that other -Garia, a vaguely Central/Eastern European nation with a language somehow structurally worse than Finnish, Hungarian and Icelandic combined. The Gallacian language has seven sets of pronouns: there's one set used only when referring to God, a set used to refer to children before puberty, one set specifically for inanimate objects...and, as the Gallacians are a fierce warrior people (though they're not exactly great at it), there's a special pronoun set just for soldiers.

So, in Gallacia, anyone, regardless of gender, can waltz up to the nearest military recruitment post, declare themselves a soldier, and be given a sword and a new set of pronouns within the hour. Hence the term "sworn soldier."

Anyway!

Prior to arriving at the House of Usher, Alex encounters an Englishwoman, Miss Eugenia Potter, a mycologist studying the local mushrooms, and there are some gnarly-looking (and smelling!) mushrooms. In fact, the whole landscape around Usher House seems...off. Everything seems dead or dying. Random hares will stand up and just stare right at you.

And not in a cute way, either.

As if the landscape weren't bad enough, once Alex gets to the Usher House, Roderick himself barely resembles the soldier Alex once knew. His skin has gone bone-white and he's as thin as a skeleton. He seems terrified by something but can't quite articulate what. Madeline is still alive, but in bad shape. Not even Roderick's friend Denton, an American doctor, can say what is wrong with her and Roderick (Catalepsy? Anemia? Hysteria? Roomis Igloomis? Who knows?). Denton and Alex immediately figure it's something to do with their environment - the house is both rotting and falling apart around them - but Roderick insists that Madeline can't leave, and if she can't leave, he won't leave.

Determined to find out what's happening to their friends, Alex resolves to stay. But things in the House of Usher are starting to get weird. For one thing, Madeline sleepwalks far more than a dying woman should, speaking in a strange, child-like voice, there's a lake outside that seems to pulse and shine with odd lights, there's a legion of undead hares wandering around and, seriously, what is up with those mushrooms??? With the help of Denton, Miss Potter, and their trusty batman, Angus, Alex must figure out what the hell is going on with the House of Usher...before whatever it is starts to spread.

What Moves The Dead is short and sweet and the perfect book to read when it's cold and dreary outside - and definitely not one you want to read before eating a giant bowl of mushroom risotto. If you're looking for a fantastic, spooky-type read that reads like if Edgar Allan Poe and The Last of Us joined forces with an army of undead bunnies.

But!

Luckily for all of us, Alex Easton's adventures don't stop with the events at the House of Usher.

It's late in the autumn and poor Alex would much rather be in Paris. Unfortunately, Angus has successfully guilt-tripped them into a trip to Alex's family's old hunting lodge back in the Old Country, aka Gallacia. Nothing like good old Gallacia in the winter where everything is damp, cold, cold, and, you guessed it! Damp.

But the redoubtable British mycologist Miss Eugenia Potter wishes to study some Gallacian mushrooms, and Angus, who is absolutely sweet on her, pretty much voluntold Alex to come along to act as Miss Potter's translator and use their hunting lodge as a home base.

So instead of a beautiful late Autumn/Winter in Paris, Alex is stuck back home.

*Sigh* looks nice, doesn't it?

As much as Alex sulks at the thought of spending several weeks back home, it's not like they're going to say no to Angus and Miss Potter. Not after everything they went through with the Usher House *shudder*.

Unfortunately, when Angus and Alex arrive at the lodge to help get it ready for Miss Potter's arrival, the caretaker, Codrin, is nowhere to be found. A quick trip to the nearby village reveals that Codrin has been dead for the past two months. But the locals are being very cagey about what killed him - Codrin's daughter is very insistent that it was just a lung infection, nothing else, no further questions, goodbye.

Finding a replacement for Codrin proves difficult, as it seems none of the villagers want to go near the lodge because there's a rumor that Codrin wasn't killed by inflammation of the lungs, but by a creature called a Moroi - a woman who sits on your chest and quite literally steals your breath. And the rumor is, a Moroi has taken up residence at the Hunting Lodge.

Yikes.

After some effort, Alex manages to hire a new housekeeper: the ill-tempered Widow Botezatu, who brings her grandson Bors along with her. The Widow immediately hates Alex, thinking them a wastrel, but Bors is nice enough. Miss Potter arrives, complete with terrible Gallacian phrasebook, but it soon becomes clear things aren't quite right at the Lodge. Alex begins to experience strange dreams - dreams in which a woman is kneeling on their chest because, yep, the Moroi is very real, and it can get to you in your dreams, just like Groundskeeper Willie in Treehouse of Horror VI.

Which is to say like Freddie Kruger, but still.

When it becomes clear that the Moroi is after the residents of the lodge, it's up to Alex, Angus and Miss Potter to figure out how to defeat a creature that can infiltrate your dreams.

What Feasts at Night is just as creepy, eerie and atmospheric as What Moves the Dead - there is plenty of non-fungal body horror and, mercifully, no zombie bun buns. Kingfisher is fantastic at capturing the terror of having your ability to breathe taken from you, and of the dread of having to fight something you can't grasp while awake. How she manages to pack so much into two short novels, I have no idea.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone in the mood for some short, sweet spooky horror.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who gets easily queasy, someone in the middle of eating a nice mushroom risotto, someone who really, really, really loves bunnies being alive and living their best lives, anyone who might wake up in the middle of the night with their cat on their chest staring directly into their eyes...

RELEASE DATE FOR WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT: February 13, 2024

RATING FOR BOTH: 5/5

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SWORN SOLDIER BOOKS: Chigori

*

[bumirang]

wait rohans a waterbender? since when?????

Since I made it up? I dunno, I like the idea. I doubt they'll go that direction in canon (unless they HIRE ME to make some damn COMICS)

Rohan being an airbender is boring to me. It's totally expected, practically makes the kid a non-entity. It's much more interesting to make him something else and explore what that means for the family dynamic. That (likely) means non-bender or waterbender, though earthbender is a possibility since Pema's from the Earth Kingdom. I'm just going to assume that Katara wasn't bullshitting when she touched Pema's preggo belly in the very first episode and said the baby would be a bender. She just got the element wrong. It was a safe bet!

First off, it'd raise some questions about how bending is passed down. Based on what we've seen in canon, it's easy to assume that a bender only passes down their own element to their offspring, with it either manifesting or staying dormant, possibly for multiple generations. But what if it's more complicated than that? Tenzin may style himself as Mr. #1 Air Nomad, but his mother's element and culture are part of him, too, right? With the different nations intermarrying more than ever before, it creates the potential for any type of bending to pop up in any part of the world, which has many fun worldbuilding implications. It'd also make a lot of sense, considering how the new airbenders pop up the way they do. They may all have had airbenders somewhere in their ancestry, with that potential lying dormant for centuries or even millennia until it was finally activated by Harmonic Convergence. I know this isn't a groundbreaking fan theory, but whatever.

Anyway, back to Rohan.

The discovery that Rohan's a waterbender would be a surprise, maybe even a shock, and it'd give the Kataang clan a new point of conflict and introspection, particularly for Tenzin. He'd have to grapple with his kneejerk reaction being denial, followed by disappointment. Then comes the doubt...

Why does he suddenly feel more distant from Rohan? He reviews his own interactions with the boy, both before and after the discovery. Does he treat him differently now? Should he? Of course he doesn't love his son any less, but it changes their relationship, or seems like it must. Is it fair to bring him up like an Air Nomad, the way his siblings were raised? Would it be better to introduce him to more Water Tribe traditions? He realizes how little he valued his mother's culture compared to his father's. It's not that he doesn't care, but...

Is this how Aang felt about Bumi and Kya, before he was born? How did he come to terms with that? Did he feel this same ache? And knowing now how alienated Bumi and Kya felt from their Air Nomad heritage for so long, how can he stop himself from making the same mistakes? What does this mean for the future of his people? Can Rohan be an Air Nomad but not a member of the Air Nation? Is such a thing possible?

He sees himself reflected in his son's innocent, trusting eyes, his own expression one of confusion and fear. He's lost again. Nothing in his readings of Air Nomad wisdom or his memories of Aang tell him what he should do, and he's too ashamed to admit his conflicted feelings.

Finally, Tenzin's head explodes.

Plus, hey, it's a great excuse to bring Auntie Kya around for lots of fun waterbending lessons! Both she and Bumi get to say "toldja so" to Tenzin once he admits his struggle over his relationship with Rohan and what that made him finally truly understand about their childhoods, about what it meant for all three of them to be children of the last airbender.

Meanwhile, Rohan's just being this precocious kid—a lot like his sister Jinora—inventing whole new ways of bending water like it's no big deal, and all the adults are too tied up in knots to even notice. His siblings notice, though, and help him figure himself out. He's a true Cloudbaby, a perfect cinnamon roll.

In the end, they do work it all out, and the whole family is closer than ever before... until Meelo announces he's joining the United Forces and all hell breaks loose.

[marley-manson]

okay the full review in a pros and cons list lol

pros:

uh my ship canon. i win, motherfuckers. fuckin 15 year old me was right this whole time, as always, but it's nice to see it acknowledged for once.

the confession scene also just kicked ass tbh

i gotta admire the cheekiness of the back and forth hesitant phrasing of their relationship, eg crowley referring to '...us' and aziraphale's 'i need you!' 'we can be together' etc until finally crowley just runs back to kiss him

and you know aziraphale was about to say 'i love you' before cutting himself off <3

touching his lips after too <3

the reasons for the break up felt reasonable to me and justified with the season's flashbacks to crowley questioning things and aziraphale's resistance

some pretty funny jokes, i laughed outloud a few times

michael sheen and david tennant do have excellent chemistry

never gonna say no to side lesbians even if they were incredibly bland

i think the way it was structured like a fanfic was a pro honestly lol. the plot sucked, i don't care about it, so it's nice that the story itself also doesn't care

amnesiac gabriel was endearing

crowley not kiling goats was cute

ty tennant was in it for about a minute and spent that minute hitting on aziraphale and it was fucking bonkers

no het

like i think job and his wife may have literally been the sole exception including like references to offscreen spouses lmao, i'm v impressed, and if this is penance for last season then i forgive.

i thought it was cute that gaiman incorporated the song he wanted for season 1 into this season as a plot point

beelzebub's new actor was so much better. and the flies were somehow kinda cute, i'll give the gabriel/beelzebub ship that.

good old fashioned lover boy. we all wanted it, they gave it to us, i appreciate it

here's my review: gay enough

cons:

mostly sucked as like, a narrative

tennant's fucking performance as crowley was so annoying, he or the director doubled down on what i hated last season and stripped him of all the endearing humanizing aspects of his performance and the result was like watching donald duck screaming for 6 episodes

the chemistry was still there but the actual pining kiiiiinda wasn't, actually lol. oh they referred to it in scripted moments, jokes, parallels, and straightforward statements, but they didn't... show it, particularly. until the confession nothing even approaches the tenderness and emotion of like any of their season 1 scenes, let alone the car scene or the bus stop scene or the ritz or the french revolution rescue or the blitz or eden etc etc. and david tennant did not say one word in that cute hopeful pining tone

to be honest after watching the whole show this is the most disappointing part. like the car scene??? could i not get a sequel to that? let crowley be tender!!!!

i think the reason we don't get scenes like that, other than perhaps uncomfortable restraint due to acknowledging the romance textually, is that they went from crowley practically begging aziraphale to cave and fuck him for centuries to crowley now angry repressed and needing a push to say anything, which also felt wrong to me, like iffy fanfic characterization

it was bad enough that i was nervous they were going to depict neither as actually aware of their feelings. thankfully they did not, and it still feels like crowley has been pining for a thousand years and they've both been aware but dancing around it, with the way the confession was phrased. that should be a pro, actually.

also yk all the obvious things. dumb jokes, a lot of bad acting (i feel like the director is at fault though tbf), not into the twee tone in general for the most part, a lot of scenes that were way too drawn out, utterly nonsensical narrative, characters doing things for no reason other than convenience constantly (why do the lesbians stay to help fight the demons? because their characters are more important and need more screen time), 0 stakes wrt heaven and hell because they're all so wholly ineffectual as antagonists and neither crowley nor aziraphale ever gave a shit about their threats, etc etc

oh lol nina sosanya being cast again as a brand new character, no relation to sister mary loquacious. it's not a big con since i like her and was happy to see her again, but it did feel lazy lol. at least give me the identical twin cousin explanation

was crowley living out of his car a joke bc they don't have the set from last season? did god not restore his flat like the bookshop? what's up with that? and how much time has passed since last season anyway? why didn't he get a new flat? why is he living in his car? what's going on?

nightingale references at the end felt tacked on and awkward to me tbh

ohhhhh raphael!crowley's very obviously hinted at and i hate that headcanon :/

crowley's kinda hilariously gary stuish honestly, making me really miss the book and even season 1 where he was like, yk, fucking incompetent sometimes. here he's lounging on couches without a care while being threatened by heaven and hell multiple times, pulling off perfect shots with no practice, waltzing into heaven without a second thought, bluffing demons easily and successfully, etc. and that's in addition to being right about everything and also being raphael like what happened to my dumbass low-level loser fave who fucked up the apocalypse by accident and lived in terror of phone calls from hell???

heaven and hell are "toxic" lol? that phrasing is so awkward, and like, i'd say minimizing but i guess tbf they didn't pose much of a threat in this season. but still c'mon, why you describing 2 murderous doomsday cults/cold warring governments as toxic like they're your annoying ex? especially after the running gag about nina's shitty girlfriend constantly therapy speaking at her condescendingly lol. how about 'hey remember how they worked together to try to kill us last season?'

oh gabriel/beelzebub of course lol, whatever happened to neil gaiman being unable to read fanfic or even people's headcanon posts for fear of accidentally plagiarizing ideas? bring back the separation between fandom and creator stat, fandom has way too much influence here and fandom fucking sucks

a little petty but honestly the kiss could've been good, yk? there's no reason it had to be bad, they could've just given into it for a bit for a hopeful romantic moment before aziraphale freaks and pulls away. like can i get 2 dudes to kiss with tongue at some point on my television here?

needs more queen

[pandasmagorica]

Intro/tracking post

Last updated September 24, 2024.

Older queer white cis dude in California, pronoun he.

Love music.

Enjoy QL, mostly Thai, mostly series.

Here to read and comment on posts. Lack of posting does not represent non-engagment with a series. Reblogging represents engagement, not (necessarily) agreement with a post. Non-reblogging may (or may not) reflect an accessibility issue with the original post or that there is some other reason I don't want it on my blog (even if I like or agree with it).

If a series puts me off in the first episode, I will often abandon it, sometimes within the first few minutes. I'm less likely to abandon midway. If I'm considering abandoning a series I've otherwise liked up to that point, I'll often read the reviews on MDL or look up posts on the series, at risk of getting spoilers, to decide whether to go on with it (and it's gone both ways).

Not a fan of spoilers, but recognize it as a risk of engaging so I don't (usually) spoiler-shame. Please don't put them in comments to me, if you would be so kind.

Okay with sad endings if they're earned or otherwise inevitable.

Incomplete watchlist (which I will update from time to time):

Top Shows (in order as best I can, ask me on another day and stuff might move):

Until We Meet Again and everything I like better than Until We Meet Again. Expands as needed.

Not Me (best QL series ever for plot, acting, cinematography, and music, content warning for violence) (1 re-watch)

Bad Buddy (lots of fun, new discoveries on every re-watch) (3 re-watches)

Knock Knock Boys (episode 1 notes with mature content) (episode 3-6 notes without) (sex positive romantic comedy)

He's Coming to Me (heartwarming, delightful coming-of-age work. I didn't care for the library raid part and skipped it once on rewatch and there seemed to me to be some inconsistencies with the ghost rules.) (3 re-watches)

Cherry Magic (Japanese version, delightful, looking forward to the Thai remake if they ever settle the rights issues)

To Sir With Love (could get me to try lakorns)

Semantic Error (enemies to lovers comedy that hits all the right notes)

A Tale of a Thousand Stars (fine series, not sure why I haven't rewatched it, need to rewatch after Our Skyy 2)

55:15 Never Too Late (not QL but has a QL subplot, notable for having an older semi-out gay character) (1 re-watch)

Gaya Sa Pelicula (Like in the Movies) (odd couple thrown together, fall in love, hit limits

Eternal Yesterday (re-watch episode notes) (not usually into high school QL but the plot got me and it blew me away, achingly sad throughout) (1 re-watch)

Until We Meet Again (fine contrast between the ghosts of the past and the world of today, deep story, but has a few problematic scenes that I cringe at, theme music got repetitive; content warning for suicide) (2 or 3 re-watches)

Much as I love them, I don't automatically recommend every one of them to everyone. The right rec for the right person!

In progress

The Eighth Sense (on possible hold as I consider a trope I don't love)

Cherry Magic (Thai) (on apparently long-term hold pending rights issues)

I Promised You the Moon (but not actively watching)

Considering

Okay, this is a really long list and I'm probably not going to watch all of them, but a fan's gotta dream, right?

Although I Love You, and You?

Boys Be Brave

Ex-Morning

Happenstance

The Heart Killers

Leap Day

Living With Him

Mama Gogo

Midnight Motel

My Strawberry Film

Old Fashioned Cupcake

Oh! Boarding House

1000 Years Old

The Player

The Rebound

Revamp

Shadow (although probably not)

Stay Still

ThamePo

Tokyo in April Is...

25:00 in Akasaka

Unknown (to binge)

Us

First episode watched but not committed to

Our Dining Table

Also Completed:

A Cut Above (in alphabetical order):

Near misses for my top list, bubbling under that line. Highly recommended.

Anti-Reset (episode notes) (speculative fiction on the future of AI, in a robot and a human who fall in love, quite emotional)

Century of Love (episode notes) (a 120-year-old man learns to let go of the past and find his future with a young man he meets by chance who might be that loved one from the past after all, content warning for violence)

Formula 17 (campy and fun) (2 or 3 rewatches)

4 Minutes (review) (avant-garde metaphysical exploration of regret and renewal)

History 3: Trapped (very funny and enjoyable

I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama (feel-good comedy)

The Great Doctor (episode notes) (not QL) (medical/historical/time travel mashup, content warning for violence and gory medical stuff)

Kiseki: Dear to Me (watch notes) (top notch crime drama with a lot of humor - content warning for violence - includes an older gay couple) (1 rewatch)

Lovely Writer (very meta about the QL industry and quite funny)

The Miracle of Teddy Bear (episode notes) (magical and bittersweet; includes an elderly gay couple)

Moonlight Chicken (touching and fun)

Once Again (touching time travel, sad throughout) (1 rewatch)

180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us (intelligent and a good watch, melancholy, feels very much like a stage play)

The Sign (deeply flawed but wild and enthralling deep dive into northeastern Thai mythology disguised as a cop series - content warning for violence - yeah, it's a mess but it's a glorious mess)

10 Years Ticket (episode notes) (crime drama about two warring families, bittersweet ending - not QL, but there's a QL subplot)

3 Will Be Free (review link) (wild ride with great twists, content warning for violence, yeah I'd call it QL)

Unknown (review link) (found family, found love - content warning for violence, unrelated "brothers")

The Warp Effect (not QL, but some queer characters)

and a fanfic:

What's in Your Head (Bad Buddy zombie fic) (content warning for violence, requires AO3 login)

Others I enjoyed (in alpha order):

I enjoyed these enough to be happy I watched them, but not enough to consider them classics and in no danger of breaching my top 10.

Be My Favorite (fun time-travel fantasy with a strong political viewpoint and good twists, one of the mains is a bit hard to take)

Bed Friend (not sure enjoyed is the right word, has some triggers, but worth seeing, loved the cat role-play)

Bite Fight (so bad it's good; horror comedy)

The Boy Foretold By the Stars (fun, sweet comedy)

Choco Milkshake (fun, touching pet fantasy)

Cupid's Last Wish (fun body-swap plot, insane amount of food and landscape porn, rural settings, content warning for gross cow veterinary scene)

Dark Blue Kiss (pretty good, creepy interloper)

Dear Tenant (enjoyed isn't the right word, and had to pause and walk away from it partway for a major cry, but an excellent film)

DNA Says I Love You (review link) (sweet, sad, interesting gender minority rep)

The End of the World With You (mix of SF and fantasy, good story and relationships)

Eternal Summer (Taiwanese film about youth discovering their identity - bisexual love triangle - well done if a bit melancholy)

First Love Again (A slave and a woman in Goreyo fall in love, but the slave is killed for it. Two reincarnations later, they are two men in modern-day Seoul. Oh, and there's a spirit who used to be a cat guiding the former slave through his wish to be loved. Good balance between romantic comedy and drama.)

Ghost Host, Ghost House (nice supernatural treatment)

Gift Shop for People You Hate (not QL but has two minor gay characters making guest appearances, one evil and one harmless) (horror, with a very dark sense of humor) (this one doesn't show an English title on YouTube, but if you search YouTube under that name you'll find it) (1 rewatch)

Jack O'Frost (melancholy and sweet)

The Man Who Defies the World of BL (very funny after watching several series and becoming aware of the tropes)

The Man Who Defies the World of BL season 2 (okay, maybe a joke can go on long enough)

Me, My Husband and My Husband's Boyfriend (bittersweet poly-ish story)

Midnight Museum (not QL but has a major bromance that could go full QL if there's ever a sequel) (a mess, but a glorious mess)

Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss (quite enjoyable)

My Ride (enjoyable comedy with dramatic moments - includes an older gay couple)

Naked Dining (good fun, lots of misunderstandings and food porn)

Neverland (web series from India, well done and too brief)

Our Dating Sim (fun series about the courage to correct your mistakes from the past, set in the video game workplace - a few cringe moments, but generally a very kind series)

Rainbow Prince (campy and fun, not enough songs for something that's supposed to be a musical, you have to be okay with cheesy)

Rak Diao (funny, very silly, very sitcom, although the harassment jokes got old fast and didn't stop)

Sleep With Me (review link) (sweet lesbian romance, kinda slow for such short episodes, great disability rep)

Something in My Room (the abridged-episode version) (good, not great, ghost story)

Stay By My Side (review link) (fun ghost story version of Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss)

Tale of the Lost Boys (movie) (friendship story between a visiting straight Filipino and a gay Taiwanese aboriginal in Taiwan, heartwarming story)

Tinted with You (a way too short, fun time travel fantasy involving a painting and a mystical art lover that bring an art student together with an ancient deposed prince)

Twilight Kiss aka Suk Suk (fine, bittersweet Hong Kong film about an affair between two older heterosexually married men who are actually closeted gay men)

Twins (Thai pulp, fun, not too deep, some poop humor)

Wandee Goodday (a smart, sex-positive comedy with some missteps)

What Six Survivors Told (quick review) (zombie comedy, not QL but a bi character and same sex attractions, strong female characters, very funny)

Your Name Engraved Herein (not sure enjoyed is the right word but it's fine work)

Zero Photography (from Magic of Zero) (most entertaining product promotion vehicle I've seen in QL, even better than Pran & Pat's product placements in Bad Buddy)

Torn about:

These all had some kind of major issue that prevents me from recommending them.

Fish Upon the Sky (appalled at the racism/punch-down humor in episode 4, otherwise loved its play with form)

Last Twilight (entrancing series, but the characters didn't grow, the ending was poorly set up - needed a few more episodes - and it ultimately fumbled on disability rep)

Mr. Cinderella (nearly abandoned this one because of a supporting toxic character, but kept with it after reading a post about the traditional Vietnamese story it was tracking)

Secret Crush on You (cringed for the first half, considered dropping it, read the defense by trans reviewers, watched the rest, and suddenly it got really good)

Together With Me (mix of great content and really problematic content)

Lukewarm:

I'm more glad than not that I watched these but in retrospect would have been okay if I had missed them:

Bagan Beginning (Not-bad early Myanmar foray into QL, lots of food and antiquity porn, content warning for violence in the last episode)

Color Rush (interesting concept, just okay)

Enchanté (not as bad as people say it is, but also just okay)

Gay OK Bangkok and Gay OK Bangkok 2 (definitely gay and, er, okay)

Nitiman (okay enough)

Only Friends (episode notes) (a sex farce with too much toxic behavior for my taste and a last episode choice that left a bad taste in my mouth)

Our Skyy 2 Bad Buddy x Thousand Stars (counting the four episodes as one series even though they have different names, didn't love this but didn't hate it either, very pale compared to the original two separate series)

Our Skyy 2 Vice Versa (was just okay with a really bad idea at the base of its plot)

Star & Sky: Star in My Mind (not great, not bad)

The Tasty Florida (cute enough, just so-so)

Vice Versa (brief notes) (good concept, product placements became way too intrusive for my full enjoyment)

Ones I wish I could watch:

I only watch legit sources, both so the creators get money for it and to reduce the hacking risks that watching gray presents.

Triage (I don't have a Thai phone number to log in to AISPlay, and even if I did not sure if it would have English subtitles)

Manner of Death (I need a WeTV subscription and will check that out) (thank you to @lurkingteapot for this info)

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Peach of Time (supernatural plot) (supposedly I can watch this on WeTV using VPN but I'm not yet ready to make the leap to VPN)

Series I abandoned:

23.5, despite my pledge to watch it, very late (episode 11, mid-part-2/4) because of what I call the punching bag trope that just showed up

Accomplishment of Fundoshi Bartender (episode 2 when he screamed offstage about not dating married men - I know this series isn't intended to be realistic but I still need the other characters to react to his behavior - this series has gotten entirely too silly for me)

Candy Colored Paradox (bored by episode 2 or 3)

Cooking Crush (a few minutes into episode 1 [2/4] as it is getting way too silly for me, plus we're going to have to put up with hazing/bullying as comedy - at least they had some new sound effects)

Cutie Pie (hated the infantilizing, left by episode 3 or 4)

I Told Sunset About You (left in episode 1, not loving the high school content)

Love by Chance (had someone fall on top of someone else in the first 30 seconds, left immediately)

Love Stage (apparently without most of the music - I'm guessing there's rights issues - but I abandoned it after 2 episodes because one of the lead's acting felt flat and I didn't enjoy the humor)

Lucky My Love (first segment didn't engage me)

Meow Ears Up (lost interest in the first episode with the fangirls in the store incident)

Monster Next Door (I'm finding the visual effects painful)

My Secret Love (first segment didn't engage me)

One Room Angel (dropped after episode 3 because it's so depressing; open to returning if it cheers up)

Playboyy (a new record - I got scared away by the content warning before the episode even started - however, based on various posts I might reconsider in for a binge watch once it's over)

SOTUS (not a fan of hazing)

Star & Sky: Sky in Your Heart (abandoned around the time of the outhouse incident)

Theory of Love (abandoned when nearly at the beginning Gun's character was crying in the shower)

VIP Only (failed to engage me in the first episode)

Un-favorite tropes:

Falling on someone

Heavy seme/uke dynamic

Northern rural Thai loan sharks

Evil ex

Boss/Employee

Stuff that I've written as opposed to reblogged I've tagged #pandasmagorica so I can find them easier.

[lmelodie]

The Santa Clauses Season 2

It's here! And I have access to it, and all of my drably splintery thoughts on the first two episodes.

As an FYI, all my reviews are gonna be hella spoilery so I'll be doing all the reviewing under read mores and under the tags #TSCS spoilers and #Review2

Oh boy unsolicited thoughts HERE WE GO!

Episode 1:

I gotta say, Fluffy is not a bad character in this so far. Christmas Churros are a gold mine and I'm surprised no one has tried to capitalize on that yet.

Scott immediately assuming that Carol was going to kill Gary says a lot about the both of them and their dynamic that I wish was consistent. I love the idea that Carol is down for murder, keep that in cowards!

I have zero idea why Scott is so uptight about Riley keeping this secret when you literally gave EVERYONE IN THE WORLD MAGIC SNOW GLOBES. Nobody here is doing a good job of keeping any of this secret! No one!

And not the North Pole having a Gaslighting Department. Thats, just actually so funny to me. And you bet your sweet ass that Jack frequents that department, he might be employed there!

And once again to reiterate, these songs breaks are just NOT it. As someone who usually love musicals! The songs are mid at most and are just shoehorned into the most random places. Idk, still not vibing.

But Betty and Noel? STILL TOP TIER. I'll talk about them more in a bit, but they are literally perfect. The Blueprint. Betty and Noel get no notes from me. They made cardboard cutouts of each other's faces, like come on! They're cute as SHIT.

Mad Santa lore? Its aight. I appreciate the franchise trying to carve out its own lore after more than 15 years of inactivity. Its decent lore! For the world that it exists in at least. It's just not my personal cup of tea, and I don't see myself utilizing it in my own stories. But I appreciate that it is there.

And you cannot tell me that Jack hasn't tried to team up with Mad Santa before. It just seems like something he would do to, noticing that there was a Santa getting a bad rep and he could feasibly swoop in and break down the institution.

I wanna imagine he went up to him like, so I've heard you've been trying to subjugate a people. Here's my resume, I am all for murder, I do work well with gnomes, consider me. And then he got promptly ghosted.

Episode 2:

Bro the training vest is made out of St. Nicks robe?? What ISNT made out of that robe??? Isn't that like...an important artifact? I would assume it would be if it has that much Christmas magic in it. Why do we keep cutting it up and using it to make things? Is there any of it left?? Does it regenerate its own fabric??? None of these questions will ever be provided answers, I'm sure.

YO ITS MY BOY CUPID!!! LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!!

Fucking LOVE Cupid! He's just as great as I remember! And because he had so little screen time, he didn't get too butchered!

And I like how he lists only specific Legends that are concerned with the succession. Implying in universe that Father Time and Tooth either think Cal is a good choice, or simply don't give a shit. And i love that for them.

But Cupid does list Sandy, EB and Mother Nature as people who do care. And we already know that were gonna get confirmed Sandy and EB cameos later, so I'm gonna CROSS MY FINGERS SO HARD for a possible Mother Nature cameo at some point. I just want her to lay down the LAW that's all I ask!

Let's how about, leave the puberty topic, out of this series entirely? Wish that whole miscommunication. DIDNT happen.

But we do have WITCH SANDRA!! This was the only possible choice for her, go off queen! Lucy and Sandra with the clasping hands meme: Teenage Girl with Magic Witch Powers. This was the best possible turn for her character, love that for you babe!

As I suspected, Befana in these episodes is a peach yet again. Fucking love Befana, no notes for her either, she's always great.

BUT LET'S TALK ABOUT NOEL AND BETTY!? and how they gave them the most romantic, whirlwind love story of the century? How they met was so FUCKING CUTE! Romeo and Juliet can pack it up! Because THEY are just better!

Betty really took one look at Noel and went, Tee hee, giggle, twirls hair, kicks feet. And I love that for her!

[jacerys-velaryon]

Thank you for the nightmares 1899

As someone who loved Dark, I knew I would want to watch Baran bo Odars and Jantje Friese's new project the moment I've heard about it and it's title 1899 was anmoncend. 1899 had to take place at the end of the 19th century, which would make the setting different to Dark, even if the series would become as dark as their first series was but interesting for sure as well.

So when yesterday the first season was released I've tried to find the time to watch it and I did - I binged it in one day, with much needed breaks and it was definitely worth it!

I don't want to go much into detail here plot wise, cause I don't want to spoil anybody and being spoiled would ruin the experience of watching the series, so in case you plan to watch the series,.don't visit the tag without being careful not getting spoiled and don't watch/read any reviews apart from the spoiler free ones.

I only watched the trailer and teasers before yesterday and yes, I got it all wrong. This series has so many twits and turns, it's unbelievable but as unbelievable as it is, that someone was able to write such a complex series (a hopefully 1st season of at least 3, I think they are planing two more) a second time after Dark.

It's utterly captivating, even though it has some lows, in episode 2 and 3 for me, parts in which I didn't felt too interested in the characters as much as I have hoped after episode 1.

Why did I feel that way?

I'm not a 100% sure, however I think given the fact that the story takes place on a ship, they tried to introduce too many characters at the same time with their backstories, although or nevertheless we still didn't found out enough about them to like them and care for them more. At least I didn't. Also, in comparison to Dark and other series I usually use to watch this series seem to have less likeable characters - that's all I'm going to say cause I really don't want to spoil any of you.

It changed after episode 4 and the more time passed by, the more mysterious and mind blowing it became.

For me very shocking at times, why I had to deal with some nightmares last night.

Nightmares in which I was dreaming about the series and its plot, the many twists it made and how much it was playing games with my mind. For example whenever I was believing that I've finally understood something, it turned out that I was either wrong or I must have missed something because what I thought happened, or was the reason for some of the characters actions couldn't be the reason why.

So yes, I like this series very much - thank God - cause I really wanted to like it and for 2 episodes I wasn't 100% sure I was, but then...

I still need some re-watching.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, April 20th

Wesley: *What* are you doing!?! This book is twelve centuries old! Harmony: Okay. So it's not like I messed up a new one.

~~Disharmony~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Do You Want to Play a Game? by NotASlayer (Anya & Dawn, T)

Freedom by Enigmatist (Angel, not rated)

[Text chat between Buffybot and Anya] by scooby-group-texts (not rated)

Angel kisses Cordy back in Parting Gifts and it changes everything by vampandvisiongirl (not rated)

[Chaptered Fiction]

With Arms Wide Open, Chapter 32 by jaybird023 (Buffy/Giles, E)

Thirty-ish Days (and Thirty-ish Years), Chapter 27 by Dynapink (Buffy/Giles, T)

A Reincarnation in Sunnydale, Chapter 37 by DracoRim98 (Buffy/Angel, M)

Gemini, Chapter 6 by BuildMeUpButtercup_x (Buffy/Angel, M)

Wish Granted, Chapter 8 by faewm (Anyanka, Harry Potter crossover, T)

An odd Couple of grumpy old Brits, Chapter 13 by julikobold (Giles & Spike, T)

Rebehold the Stars (Love from the Other Side of the Apocalypse), Chapter 13 by asokatanos (Emryslin) (Buffy/Spike, T)

Raven, Chapter 12 by sparrow2000 (Xander & Spike, G)

Greatest Love Story Postlude, Chapter 14 by FalseGinger (Angel/Spike, M)

With Sprinkles, Chapter 40 by dogbertcarroll, Narsil (Xander, multiple crossovers, M)

The Stars to Hold Our Destiny, Chapter 12 by Hermione2be (Buffy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover, G)

You’re my always, Chapter 5 (complete!) by ronanceisrxmance (Willow/Tara, T)

Object of Affection, Chapter 2 by felixsfishnets (Xander/Spike, E)

Highlands and Tropical Islands, Chapter 2 by QuillBard (Buffy/Faith, M)

The Scoobies and The Party, Chapter 2 by StrangerThings_Writer011 (Scoobies, Stranger Things crossover, G)

She's in Parties, Chapter 1 by betweenfactandbreakfast (Spike/Drusilla, E)

Surviving Together, Chapter 18 by ionlylikebadboys (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Love Lives Here, Chapter 51 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Meow, Chapter 5 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Afterburn: In The Dark, Chapter 2 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

What Love Looks Like, Chapter 2 by DeamonQueen (Buffy/Spike, R)

Going Astral, Chapter 1 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, R)

Out For A Walk... Bitch, Chapters 14-15 by MaggieLaFey (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Early One Morning, Chapter 34 by all choseny (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Lie to Me, Chapter 24 by In Mortal (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Cradle of Love, Chapters 2-3 by Lilacsandorangeblossoms (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Buffy ensemble, Buffy & Angel by Hippano (worksafe)

Artwork: Dusk Summers by isevery0nehereverystoned (worksafe)

Artwork: Same robin and nikki doodles by aa-arttss (worksafe)

Artwork: Buffy by deathoftheartist (worksafe)

Comic: Willow vs Ulquiorra Page 4 written by MattanzaMFedora & illustrated by RichCass on DeviantArt by MattanzaMafiaFedora (worksafe)

Fanvid: Cordelia&Angel | The 1 by 1SnoWhiteQueen1

Fanvid: Faith & Angel || Slayer and Vampire [Bring me back to life] by Charmed 567

Fanvid: Giles/Buffy - When you find me by Kiss The Librarian

Fanvid: I Wanna Be Your Slave | Buffy & Spike by Werepaca

[Reviews & Recaps]

Video: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 Review! (Spoilers!) by SundayScariesReview

Video: Doublemeat Palace-Slayer Sunday by Jane Talks Buffy

Podcast: Episode 26: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Discussion Part 1 by Friends Talking Nerdy

Podcast: Help S7 E4 Buffy and the Art of Story Podcast by Lisa M. Lilly

Podcast: Language in Buffy the Vampire Slayer by A Girl, A Guy and A Buffy Podcast

[Recs]

Vid rec: Final Hour (tribute video) [old version/2011] by Narvinek recced by I_want_to_believe_99

[Fandom Discussions]

Season 5 literally could have given us insane lilah and wesley divorce by all-seeing-ifer

Buffy Summers for the character asks by laufire

Angel btvs for the character ask game by laufire

Character breakdown: Cordelia Chase by nicnacsnonsense

the scene where Faith in Buffy’s body seduces and has sex with Riley by nicnacsnonsense

They have Cassie tell the audience/Spike that Buffy will tell him she loves him by raisedbythetv89

The First's Plan by NoShip

Rewatch thoughts and questions continued by multiple posters

Why Giles wants Spike dead continued by multiple posters

Spike and the first continued by multiple posters

What is something you dislike about your favorite character? by The Whirlwind

How would you 'fix' Angelus on Angel? by ethihoff

What was the original plan for [AtS] Season 4? by CuriousHedgehog636

Why are they still SINGING??? by Syn_33

How come Superstar be better rated than Beer Bad? by lua121

Lindsey and Faith parallel by IntelligentPumpkin74

Xander and his need for a woman by Iluthradanar

[1/22] What's your favorite episode 1 across all seasons? by jonaskoelker

Watching Buffy for the first time - what makes the slayer special? by UltimateEel

Are slayers genetic?? by Grocery-Full

Rewatching as an adult [Giles in OMWF] by MiniKb

This Year's Girl - Why did Buffy come crushing through the window? by brwitch

If you could skip only ONE episode per whole rewatch, which one would it be and why? by DistributionRight620

what are answers from Buffy [things in canon you pretend are not] by Independent-Rise2480

What are some of the worst line-reads in the series? by To55ursalad

Man I really miss Doyle, I wonder how different the show would've been if he had still stayed on for it by AxelNoir

Things you noticed upon rewatch that you missed before (non-verbal only) by dragonsrawesomesauce

Video: Why Did Joyce Have To Get A Brain Tumor In Season 5 Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer? by CrasHNburN

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Sarah Gailey on "The Vampire Slayer" and more! by Open World Chat

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[kuwdora]

Top 5 Most Underrated SF shows/movies you think everyone should watch and why

Top five most underrated SF shows/movies you think everyone should watch, and why :) --from destina

Okay a million years ago (more like 2 and a half months) destina asked me about my top 5 most underrated SF shows/movies I think everyone should watch. I have three shows and two films that I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years and I'll try to break down why I'm loving them.

This gets kind of long so I'll put it under a cut. The shows/films include: Moonhaven (AMC), Avenue 5 (HBO), Humans (AMC/BBC), Life (2017) and Prospect (2018).

Moonhaven is a new AMC show (1 season, 6 episodes) that is rather high concept on the sociological side of the scifi spectrum. They’ve built a utopia on the moon, guided by an AI that has spent a century learning from the human colony there in order to learn how to build better technology and solve the environmental/social ills on earth. This colony of humans have been cut off from the Earth and they’re about to send their first batch of humans and tech back to the planet when there’s a Murder that happens.

The main character is Bella Sway who is a cargo pilot/smuggler and who is also a war vet of sorts who gets accused of committing a crime while she’s on the moon and there’s a lot of mystery/intrigue to unravel.

Now this is very very serious and interesting set-up but what the trailers for this show did not highlight is how strange and wacky the character dynamics are. Because you’ve had a socially isolated human colony (Mooners) now interacting with a bunch of Earthers and— it’s hilarious and strange and eerie. Most of the time the Earther characters are baffled as fuck by the mooners who sound like they’re in a group therapy session that’s performing on stage. The mooners have high emotional IQs and love art and culture and are so touchy feely that the contrast with the hardened Earthers is amazing.

The show also is filmed in Ireland so you get to see some new filming locations that you don’t ordinarily catch in genre shows. AND of course has Dominic Monaghan who looks like he’s having the time of his life.

Emma McDonald plays Bella Sway and she brings such an incredible amount of nuance and depth to her character that 6 episodes just haven’t been enough for me and I’m really excited to see more. I try not to get my hopes up with new scifi shows these days because it’s too easy to get my heart broken but I have REALLY enjoyed this show. It’s doing a lot of interesting thematic exploration about nature vs nurture and the role of technology in people’s lives and how different groups of people see the purpose of technology differently.

It has SO MUCH WORLDBUILDING - including polyamory and partner dynamics within a family, fascinating birth/death rituals that have evolved on the moon, and some rather questionable ways mooners have altered child-rearing responsibilities to circumvent tribalism and prevent violence in their society.

What the trailer and reviews for this show mostly fail to capture is also just how fucking funny and strange the cultural differences are between the Mooners/Earthers. The Mooners LOVE to dance out their feelings.

There’s a conspiracy plotline that I’m not sure how it’s going to shake out but I��m really gnashing my teeth happily on these characters, the worldbuilding, and the technology.

Avenue 5 is an HBO scifi/comedy (2 seasons, somewhat cancelled but maybe not cancelled according to some sources, seems to be a bit of a Schrödinger Cancellation) I am not sure I really recommend for most people because it is hilarious in that dark satire kind of way that not everyone wants to stomach (for good reasons). It’s by the same fellow who wrote/produced Veep so the humor is dark. I described Ave 5 as looking at our current dystopia through an un-funhouse mirror and laughing in horror.

The premise of the show is a space cruise gets thrown off course and it’s going to take years to get back to earth and the ship is full of tourists and incompetent people running the ship. It also features Ethan Phillips playing an obnoxious Martian astronaut character in a GIANT NOD to the hilarity of Star Trek Voyager.

The biggest (and most delightful) surprise of the show is Hugh Laurie’s character is queer and poly (he had two partners back on Earth). The show veers into shenanigans throuple territory (that I 100% need to write some fic for because the show is reasonably cancelled and I need MORE).

This show has some of the most hilarious and obscene dialogue that I’ve heard in years. I love it and have watched every episode several times because humanity is terrible and I kind of like laughing at their pain and awfulness rather than the real world. It’s extremely self-aware and has Lenora Crichlow (of Being Human UK!!!!) and Hugh Laurie being ABSOLUTE TOP OF THEIR FUCKING GAME.

Humans (UK) is the AMC/BBC take on the Swedish show with the same name. On the surface this is a “we’ve created robots to do all of our work for us” premise (they’re called Synths here) and features a Colin Morgan as a scruffy fellow on-the-run with his fellow Synths that he was raised with as a child because his dad programmed the Synths with intelligence. This also has GEMMA CHAN!!!!!! As one of the main leads and she is EXQUISITE as Mia.

I watched and loved the original Swedish version but the British version did a fantastic job of building the family dynamics. It follows the Hawkins family who purchases a new Synth (Mia) and Mia has had her memory temporarily wiped to be in hiding so she doesn’t know who she is yet. The mystery in the beginning season is great but in the later seasons it really builds out the Hawkins mother/daughter relationship as well as letting Laura use her legal background to explore what kind of autonomy and protection she could advocate for Mia and her Synth family.

Mattie is a teenager who has an interest in programming and she’s adrift like many others her age who are facing a future with little job prospects and just getting yanked around by the world- and I just loved her arc in the show so much, especially as she gets involved with helping Mia and her family.

Colin Morgan is really great, too but I really fell in love with Gemma Chan’s depiction of Mia who slowly learns who she is and then is trying to find and keep her family safe while also protecting the Hawkins who are trying to help her.

I found this to be a very solid show — and one that I wish I had vidded already — with great character arcs and was very mindful in the way it was exploring these age-old questions about personhood and outsourcing work to machines and how you treat these machines.

Life (2017) is a horror/thriller film inside a sci-fi setting. Scientists on the International Space station find a new life form that they picked up from Mars to study and Things Go Bad. Pretty great cast- Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare along with — for some reason — Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds.

The life-and-death tension and anxiety of being trapped with something scary in the vacuum of space is spectacular. Really enjoyable film.

Prospect (2018) is hands down one of my favorite indie scifi films. Low-budget, INCREDIBLE ACTING, masterful storytelling. The stakes are emotionally and physically high for our characters and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.

The premise is a girl and her dad (Jay Duplass) go to a remote alien moon to try to mine some minerals to make it rich and start a new life. They get a contract that goes tits up in a bad way and end up face to face with the locals and scoundrels. INCLUDING PEDRO PASCAL. Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher are the fucking stars of this and absolutely captivating. And yes this is part of the Pedro Pascal Multiverse Dad Canon so put it on your list to watch if you need more Dad Pascal.

This movie is INTENSE and raw and absolutely 10000% highest recommendation from me. The writing, the characters- the acting. The set/wardrobe design. A+++++

Everything about this movie is so detailed and internally consistent in a way that makes me wriggle with so much fucking joy.

I even trawled through YouTube to try and find out more about it and fell in love with a behind the scenes featurette. They filmed dust motes in a basement and transposed the dust over the outdoor scenes of the alien planet rather than doing CGI for it. And the work they spent designing the space suits is so great, too.

[the-celluloid-correspondent]

The Crown Season 6 Part 1 Review

The life of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, until the early 21st century. 

Netflix’s acclaimed drama, The Crown, has begun to end its reign as it enters its final season. After a mixed fifth season, The Crown had to regain some of its audience in the final season. And the question of whether it would stick its landing began to ponder everyone's minds. Sadly, this will not be the case based on the first half of this concluding season. The Crown has sadly fallen into a melodrama soap opera, a sad shadow of its former self driven by character and history.

Since Season 4, the series has slowly pivoted its focus from the late Queen Elizabeth II to the late Princess Diana of Wales.  Now in its’ final season, the series is entirely about The People’s Princess, and the Royal Family have become side characters in their show. Thus, causing The Crown to fall into the same traps as the press did in the 80s and 90s, as it becomes infatuated with the Late Princess. We follow Diana in the final weeks of her life stretched out over four episodes. For four straight hours, we watch Diana being abused by the media and paparazzi. This abuse was putting a horrible taste in my mouth as I was begging for the show to get on with the inevitable tragedy.  Hollywood's obsession with Princess Diana by not letting her rest in peace is disgusting at this point. 

Then when her tragic passing finally arrives, the series handles it well for the most part. I was moved by the grief being expressed towards the late Princess. Dominic West gives an Emmy-worthy performance here with the grief and regret he can put forth. The internal conflict of regret is portrayed masterfully and the cry he gives is haunting. The same can be said for Salim Daw. Then it is ruined by that scene. No matter what the series was between a rock and a hard place when handling her death, and the series was handling it incredibly well, then the ghost scenes arrived. Now I understand that Diana’s ghost is meant to be a reference to King Henry VIII seeing the ghost of his former wives. However, the series completely misunderstands why Henry is seeing those ghosts. King Henry VIII saw those ghosts as they forever reminded him of the foul deeds and abuse he gave out to them. If The Crown would have taken this approach, then this would have worked perfectly. To see Royal Family members look in horror realizing the abuse they have to Diana and have them apologize profusely to her silent ghost would have been a masterful portrayal of grief and regret. Yet, the series decides to have Diana say how much she loves them and how grateful she is to have them as family. I’m not going to lie, but that put a bad taste in my mouth. At least they had shown the now King Charles some kind of regret for how he treated Diana. 

Overall, now a particularly strong start for the final season of The Crown. It has become a shadow of its former self as it has lost focus of what the series is truly about. It’s not a soap opera about the Royal Family, but a character study of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. We shall see if the series can find itself again in its final six episodes.