#Earnest Teenage Cringe

[doverstar]

every year around this time I rewatch Julie and the Phantoms, and every year I am reminded how much heart this little tween show about grief and hope has

[canisonicscrewyou]

she’s insane she’s a wet cat of a human being she’s got daddy and mommy issues up to here she’s pathetic she’s everything she’s a breakthrough case she’s in hiding she’s forever mourning she’s a mom she’s got trauma she doesn’t even know how to find a therapist for she loves her friends and she secretly loves attention and if one things for certain she’s never stepping foot inside of the TARDIS ever again (a lie)

[unionizedwizard]

underrated part of the early DT MSQ was

• finding out that the super epic trailer solo fight in a super epic ancient temple against a supervillain two-headed mamool ja while everyone else was out there enjoying their vacation was actually the wol equivalent of having a piña colada on the beach

• because said two-headed mamool ja is actually an honest-to-gods hero and also the literal king and he invited you to a friendly duel because he's got the Mamool Ja zoomies and can tell you've got the wol zoomies as well (or. nyaswell. for our miqo'te and hrothgar wols)

• the whole thing acted as the somehow non-creepy equivalent of conservative dads wearing shirts that go like "whatever you do to my daughter i will do to you. act wisely"

• directly followed by a very earnest "what do you think of my daughter so far. shes a bit cringe right? but i believe in her" and "please protect and guide her well" speech combo

• which was interrupted by said daughter, very angry at both her dad and you for secretly fighting behind her back (peak teenager moment) in a way that suggested (especially considering the ongoing "dueling as a metaphor for sex") she was actually doing her utmost to not go

at the wol to their face

AND HOW COULD I FORGET

• learning like three weeks later that estinien not only did the same thing, at the king's behest, but that he was paid for his services (😏) and so generously at that that even estinien "it's only one hair tie, alphinaud. what could it possibly cost? 9,800 gil?" varlineau thought it was A Lot. while all we got was a parent-teacher conference post-sexually charged nonlethal duel

12/10 funniest duty ever

[ventique18]

- Not Malleus, sort of rant because of another game I'm playing -

I feel a massive, MASSIVE cringe when all of an otome game's cast is made entirely of rich, powerful, smart, handsome, godly perfect men who for some reason at the tender of 20 are already at the top of the world and the best in their fields. The only difference between them are some quirky personality tropes but remove that and they're basically dolls from the same mold. I know it's just blatant pandering for self-inserts and OC ships to drive revenue, but it feels like they're suggesting that regular people are unlovable. That somehow women (or people who like men) are incapable of being attracted to and caring for, idk, a guy who works as a teacher and makes the best of his regular life. A florist who names his bouquets after you. A cook who, though tired from work, would make delicious dishes to greet you when you come back home.

I know this sounds silly given my ultimate bias is exactly what I stated above, but in TWST, the rich powerful smart men are a minority. There are three guys out of 22 who are explicitly considered by the entire cast to be universally handsome. Most are just regular dudes trying to live their mundane lives. And I appreciate that. A lot of players appreciate that and love them for all their plainness and flaws.

Or idk maybe stepping out of my teenager years just completely changed me. But GOD I was waiting for some guy who has nothing much to give but his earnest love and kindness. 😭

[withhertea]

tales from february <3

hello witches!

i’ve been on some adventures since we last spoke, but i just got back to my little london flat and felt the urge to sit on my sofa, make myself a cup of tea and update you all on my travels.

i don’t think i’ve gone this long without playing a show for you guys in quite some time, and i’m definitely missing feeling so connected to you all! however, i also think its been so good for me to get a little distance from maisie the singer, and be maisie the friend/ sister/ daughter/ girlfriend/ human person for a little while, and i’ve really been enjoying keeping a little more of myself to myself. i grew up online, having a youtube channel from the age of 15, so letting people into my life has always felt somewhat normal, if anything, exciting and interesting and empowering. i remember moving into my first proper london house share (girls house for the girls who get it) and feeling so thrilled at the idea of showing you all the terrible meals i was making, my desperate attempt at decorating the place from the awful red sofas we dragged off the street to the budget fairy lights strung from every available fixture. it was as coming of age as anything will ever be, and i have such fond memories of baking cookies in the kitchen with the girls and filming every single minute of it, so convinced it was interesting and important. and it was, interesting and important. all girlhood is.

if you were around back then, you will remember the release parties, the baking sagas, the nights out, the secret language exposés i used to film. i loved doing it, but i think over the last few years, there’s been a direct correlation in how the more i started sharing of myself in my music, the less i wanted to share of myself through social media. my second album was a real turning point in how i wrote music – it had always been fairly autobiographical, but there was always a liberal dose of fantasy/ fiction mixed in too. i grew up writing constantly, which required an unending pool of inspiration, so i got good at putting myself within other universes and writing inside other people’s shoes. the music i made during my teenage years was full of the melting of the real and unreal, and truly only i will ever know what was what! however i think i hit my early twenties, went through a couple heartbreaks, and discovered the true utter joy in putting my life into forever song. the chronicling means that what was once a fleeting memory, can become something permanent, something lasting, something important, which was all i ever really wanted. the good witch was a pure version of this, a breakup and a year of my young adult life distilled into 15 songs that i’m still ferociously proud of, and now consider the benchmark for the amount of honest i want to give you guys; my next album, title *redacted*, i hope will continue that.

anyway, in conclusion, i feel that i have withdrawn a little the last couple months, and i guess i wanted to talk about why. i think whilst i’ve been in the thick of writing this album, i needed some space and time to get to that honest part of myself, so whilst i might not have been on your screens, rest assured i have been working everyday on getting back to them! full transparency in my writing for me requires a cocoon like energy in my day to day, but i hope when the music comes out you feel it is worth it. i’m working on secret plans all the time, all with the intention of letting you guys know the real me, as increasingly – and without being cringe and earnest – that is my favourite maisie peters, and the one that i want to share the most.

in other news! i went to america! two slightly rainy, intense, formative weeks in la working on the album, and four sickly days in nashville where i meant to go to let loose and have fun, and ended up just getting deathly ill and mostly sleeping on cate’s bathroom floor! let’s start with la…

for all my deep englishness, i do find la charming – it might be all the joan and eve i’ve consumed (like every sensible 21 year old girl should), but i do love it’s shabby glamour, its beautiful light, its ridiculousness. the music there is also just so good, as it always has been, and although i find its energy intense, and the lack of ability to walk downright evil, i do think that as a music city you can’t find many better. this was a real two week dedicated block to make movement on the album in its final stretch – and i think i did it! that doesn’t mean it always felt easy and obvious (real progress maybe never does feel like this whilst you’re in the thick of the progress itself, something i’m learning), so i’m grateful to that time for teaching me a lot, and to the people i worked with out there who also played a massive hand in that. time will tell what that trip means for the record, but it was a deeply educational, inspiring time in eagle rock and west hollywood, and if i could tell me at 14 what i was up to there, she’d probably fall over. in a good way.

have a lyric i worked on whilst out there, as a little treat:

vultures dressed up like white horses crooks and good guys all distorted i thought if i’m honest, my cards were never gonna turn

<333333

nashville was as i said, mostly full of puking, so i’ll leave to your imagination. however, it was amazing to be back with roommate cate who lives out there and who i miss dearly – life has changed so much for both of us, and whilst i wish i could still knock on her bedroom door and ask her if she wants to have gnocchi for dinner, i know she is thriving in the wild west, and it is the most fun getting to visit her. even if all we did was go to costco, watch matthew mcconnoughey films and gossip, it was still one of my favourite trips yet. i didnt watch the superbowl due to severe nausea, but maybe the real superbowl was the friendship we made along the way. puke.

since being home, i’ve been to one hot yoga class i actually enjoyed (!!), been on a valentines date night for the first time in my life (!!), bought a matching smeg baby pink toaster and kettle (the most happiness i have felt since heelys as a child), started making tentative album track listings (!!), and waltzed my way through london’s freezing temperatures. i love being home, i love this city, i love my life here, and sitting on the sofa writing this mailer, listening to the washing machine hum makes me feel so grateful for all the little things. it is, and will always be, the greatest privilege of my life getting to play my music for a living, but it has also been the biggest treat getting to make a life i love that’s not on four wheels. however, i am still a road dog at heart, and being at home has me daydreaming of playing shows again; picturing the setlists and the stages and the memories together, and i’m itching to get going. the thought of having a whole new universe for us to throw ourselves into has me grinning ear to ear, and i hope that it can be sooner rather than later.

lets wrap this up with some recommendations as per usual, and then i shall have to love you and leave you :’)

i started the tv show industry on my flight out to la, and by the time i was home i had finished the entire thing. obsessed is not strong enough a word. s4 now please

in la i went to a thai restaurant called the night market numerous times, and the coffee shop coffee memes, both in silverlake. silly name for the latter, but wonderful vibes and i highly recommend both

i devoured on all fours by miranda july. DEVOURED. one of my favourite reads in recent history, and it has truly stuck with me in a way that not many things do

those dishmatic sponges for washing up, we just restocked and for those girls who like a frequent clean (it is me, i am those girls) these things really do the lords work

those little chocolate chip cookies from trader joes in the tub, i brought some back with me and everyone who had one asked what drugs were inside them. true story

ok love u all to the moon!!!

mais x

p.s i’m having strong thoughts about cutting off all my hair… if i chase this bliss… you heard it here first …

[syrupsyche]

I would love to hear about the teacher au exr holiday shenanigans for the ask game 😌 they're my favourite guys

hehehe of course!! 🫶

One thing I wanna emphasize in the fic is just how ANNOYING exR are together. They would have only been dating for a month or so, but they would also have had 4 years of relationship buildup behind them already, so surely they'd be comfortable enough to argue like an old married couple. And one thing I love about their canon dynamic is that they both give as good as they get; if they want to, they will absolutely bicker until the cows come home.

And so this poor student's outsider POV will have to suffer through these two idiots' weirdest conversations and arguments and try to find something romantic within that 😭 but at least he has his friends to lament with:

Yes, this fic will also be part text-fic, because the concept has always been so fun to me (and I've never really written one before!), and what better way is there to emphasize the earnest cringeness of 15-year-old teenagers than via a group chat?

Thank you so much for the ask Em 🥹❤️

[biblicallyaccuratepigeons]

IT'S PROBABLY EITHER CRINGE OR JUST SO EXPECTED ATP THAT IT FEELS LIKE "tshh... yeah..." AND PERHAPS EVEN CLICHE BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK I AM ALL OF ME IS RHYTHMICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY SUCH A COOL SONG AND IT MAKES ME FEEL KINDA INFERIOR AND I HOPE TO SOMEDAY BE ABLE TO SING IT IN THE KIND OF EARNEST THAT A TEENAGER DISCOVERING REBELLION CAN

[bigassbowlingballhead]

“I can’t watch Heartstopper”: In Defence of Queer Cringe

“Cringe” is a term that comes up often; nearly anything can be labeled as cringey—a pop song, a text from an ex, or anything associated with Katy Perry. This dismissive label typically reflects discomfort with earnestness or vulnerability, especially in a media landscape that leans toward irony and detachment. I've also noticed it being used in discussions about the 2022 Netflix show ‘Heartstopper’. The thing is, Heartstopper is cringey, it’s a television show about teenagers in love, it’s going to elicit some eye-rolls—the overt sweetness, dreamy visuals and earnest storytelling—this “cringe” is not just an aesthetic choice, it’s a vital part of a broader cultural conversation. But so, what? Isn’t there a place for earnestness in storytelling, especially in a genre often fraught with angst and tragedy? 

Heartstopper follows Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), the kind, shy, and funny protagonist you’d expect from a popular young adult novel. He navigates Year 10, then 11, and finally Sixth Form with the support of his friends, family, and, most importantly, his perfect book boyfriend, Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). When people label Heartstopper as “cringe,” it often comes from a place of skepticism. They roll their eyes at Charlie and Nick’s heartfelt declarations of love, at the large, supportive friend group that all seem to fall under the rainbow umbrella and criticize the storytelling as unrealistic. Yet, in 2024, while no one claims that homophobia has been completely eradicated, it’s important to remember that this show depicts two middle-class English boys in love. It’s hardly a gritty topic.

The real issue is that queer narratives, especially those aimed at younger audiences, tend to be held to a higher standard than their heterosexual counterparts. We’ve watched countless seasons of shows like One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars, filled with melodrama, outrageous plot twists, and questionable acting. Yet those shows are given a pass because they fit familiar teen drama tropes, while queer stories face scrutiny for not being “serious” enough.

For many older queer viewers, Heartstopper acts as a healing balm; it’s not just refreshing—it’s revolutionary. The show beautifully captures the sweetness of young love and the journey of self-discovery, presenting a reality that many have longed for but rarely encountered in mainstream media. In this context, the moments deemed "cringe" become acts of rebellion, challenging the idea that queer narratives must always be rooted in trauma or tragedy.

So, while Heartstopper may be cringey, it’s essential to recognize the significance of it. It speaks to a generation craving them kind of representation that acknowledges joy alongside struggle. We shouldn’t hold queer narratives to a higher standard of seriousness while allowing their straight counterparts to thrive in melodrama and absurdity.

Fun fact, for this post, I asked some Tumblr users (yes, Tumblr still exists, don’t worry about it), what they think of the cringe label, and they responded with a resounding: “yes, and?”

SCREAM THAT KATY PERRY LINE IS SO HFDKSFHKSDLFHDKL

this is great!!! I hope you get an A

[dioptre-hertz]

presenting to you my Hideo Kojima vs Hirohiko Araki horseshoe theory.

these two guys are completely divergent in terms of how they approach politics and philosophy, but converge in that they both have a deeply honest, charmingly self-indulgent willingness to just create whatever seems Badass to them in a very teenage boy sort of way.

both of them will, with complete sincerity and not a hint of irony or doubt, present you with some absolutely batshit insane character design that a less confident writer would worry is "cringe". kojima will give you a character who wears the V for vendetta mask, takes it off and has Joker makeup underneath, and then starts blasting robots with lightning bolts from his electric guitar. araki will give you a guy named Vanilla Ice whose special power is that he can swallow his own entire body to become invisible. kojima will tell you that the guy who drinks blood and can walk on water, hypnotize people and survive being shot repeatedly is called Vamp not on account of his apparent vampirism, but because he's bisexual. araki will have his protagonist save the day by transforming a brick into a venomous snake that lived its whole life inside a poison cloud and thus contains a virus vaccine.

but kojima's work is deeply, profoundly political in intent. he has a Grand Theory of Everything and is so eager to tell you about war, society, life and death that he is almost incoherently earnest. araki, on the other hand, thinks about politics so little that he has barely stopped to ask himself what a "nazi" even is.

kojima has witnessed the grand truths of the universe, and needs to share them with you. araki has witnessed haute couture fashion magazines. but their shared sincerity and utter willingness to write outrageous things, simply because it strikes them as cool, somehow brings them close together.

[riacte]

Re: Dearly Beloved in-universe fandom, it struck me that I have somehow never mentioned in-universe superhero/villain/whatever fanart despite fanart being such a core (and more importantly visible) component of fandom. (While mentioning fanfiction, subreddits, touching on fancams and ASMR roleplays etc etc) And I guess it makes sense because this is text, I don't really know they look like, and it's hard to describe visuals given the format I've constrained myself to. But I also feel like this blind spot has to do with other fandom-related meta lol. (Self indulgent and long rambling)

1. Superheroes/villains are classified as "real people". In real life fandoms, while there's fanart of famous real people (actors in movies, singers, Kpop groups, athletes, F1 drivers, etc), there's less fanart compared to fanart of characters (anime, video games, books, etc). I assume this is because you need to have a certain level of skill to capture a real person's likeliness nicely. And real people may feel offended upon seeing "bad" fanart of themselves, whereas fictional people can't feel offended.

But superheroes/villains are masked and often wear helmets for safety. So you don't need the skill to draw their real life faces. Their suits are probably visually distinctive which makes it fun to draw (and cosplay!).

2. Superheroes/villains aren't just famous real people. There's a political connotation, in which it could be dangerous to support villains and people may not like heroes because they're like fantasy cops with powers. Especially in this context in which the government controls the heroes, there's whole system to raise heroes from children, there's censorship and conspiracies. Bringing to the third point:

3. Fanart is a very visual. (No shit, Sherlock.) Okay, in the sense people outside of the fandom are more likely to encounter fanart. It's also a publicly liked form of fandom, in comparison to fanfiction. I guess edits and cosplay are also liked and respected, but probably less common than fanart. (Insert something about my positionality as a fan of MCYT who writes fanfic, something about MCYT loving fanart and including it in their videos, commissioning artists, whereas fanfic (rightfully and thankfully imo) stays underground) So people who write hero RPF are already seen as "weirdos" and "the corner of the Internet you shouldn't see". It's not taken seriously. But if someone posted hero fanart on Twitter, normies would see this as liking / endorsement of said hero, whereas fanfiction would not get this kind of visibility. (And is shunned upon probably no matter what you write because fanfiction is generalised is "weird thing Wattpad teenage girls do when they want to bang a famous person".)

3.1. Back to the MCYT fandom thing. Heroes/villains can be compared to MCYT since they look different on and off camera (with and without their suits, like Minecraft skins and designs), they use different names for their different identities, and they put on a public persona. Similarly, I can imagine heroes finding fanart of their hero persona flattering and occasionally engaging with it on Twitter. (Whereas fanfiction stays underground.)

3.2. So I loveeee parodying the "cringe" Wattpad fics, not because I want to make fun of them, but because it's enjoyable to write without restraint. (And it's funny.) I think the general style is so unapologetically fun (and nostalgic). I have a lot of things to say about Wattpad (in defence of its users!), but it mostly boils down to young people being excited and earnest. I know a lot of people hate Wattpad, especially its RPF. I find it fascinating. Because someone (often tweens) had to be motivated to write that, someone had to have the passion to do it, and they'll do it badly (knowingly or not), because writing as a hobby is supposed to be fun! It's the essence of it! And it's the "bad" kind of fanfiction that I want to pay respect to. The kind that people look upon with disdain. The kind YouTubers make fun of. Because more often than not it's a thirteen year old being silly/stupid and it's mean to make fun of kids earnestly trying to make something.

Anyways in the universe, fanfiction sites become a place to store government censored conspiracies/theories because they fly under the radar compared to Reddit and Youtube.

4. I always felt I wanted to write the story instead of Tweetgen-ing it. Maybe it felt more "serious". And mimicing social media with text/HTML is easier than graphics. Now I feel like the utter lack of visuals in a social media fic (when social media is extremely visual, almost obnoxiously so) makes me focus on text itself— dialogue, transcripts, usernames, Tumblr tagging, YouTube comments, notices about subreddits being taken down, to-do lists, "confirm to delete" text boxes. In-universe fanfiction (both the Wattpad and Ao3 type) is taken seriously in the sense it helps with storytelling— it shows differing attitudes to events and public figures. It shows what type of perception is popular.

Anyways. I'm not sure this is interesting and I'm probably rambling inside my head. I guess I do love fanfiction as an art form. And I do admire and respect the earnest writers and readers on Wattpad. I still occasionally wake up to like 30 comments on a Wattpad fic from 4 years ago. I'm glad people still read it lmao.

[booksandpaperss]

kind of obsessed with the fact you've slowly gotten more blatant with heartstopper hate lmfao😭 it's like. fine to me it's cute but NOTHING SERIOUS IS EVER GOING ON so I gotta be in a really specific mood for it I still haven't watched s2. definitely couldn't be a fixation. and everyone fucking loves it it's the best thing since sliced bread and I'm like. why tho. and then any critique of it is sorta dumbed down to "oh you just don't like how sweet it is but teenagers deserve sweet romance" like ok but why's it gotta be boring though. and too healthy like beyond normal levels of healthy. like this is missing even the usual human levels of miscommunication. and it gets resolved too easy. sorry this was supposed to cut off 4 sentences ago I'm realizing now in your inbox that I apparently have beef with heartstopper

LKSSJJSJS LISTEN listen. I don’t even hate it. truly. I even genuinely enjoyed myself during the nick and Charlie parts bc that’s the part that thought is actually put into. I just hate how much everyone loves it so blindly

honestly my biggest beef with it is that it’s marketed and treated as the most genuine and diverse groundbreaking queer storyline there is when that’s literally so far from true and it really really shows ppls true colors when they think this bc the sapphics and POC are literal props it’s actually absurd for a show that’s supposed to be a safe space for queer ppl

and god do I hate that part of the reason it’s so popular is bc it portrays these queer teenagers as never having a single, physical thought in their entire life. there was this whole plot centered around one single hickey that Charlie had??? and something abt the physical attraction portion of it all, which they did try to show btw, felt disingenuous to me. and I know that’s why it’s so palatable to a mainstream audience and it pisses me off and again it just doesn’t feel genuine. which is ironically one of the main arguments against heartstopper criticism: “it’s not cringe it’s just earnest” when yeah maybe it’s Trying to be earnest but when u look at it from more than a surface level lens it’s not rlly succeeding

and I know the aroace storyline in season 2 with Isaac resonated with a lot of people and I think that’s wonderful, and I actually do think that was something that was done well, but how can you have a storyline around asexuality when you don’t show the contrast in how it is being an allosexual queer person. there was a whole lot of romantic attraction going on but even more tip toeing around the sexual attraction aspect. and I don’t expect it to be like sex education for example in terms of the focus on sex obv , but the lack of acknowledgment of that aspect of the queer experience paired with how much the uwu wholesomeness of it all is played up rlly rubs me the wrong way. once again: it feels dishonest

I was actually talking about this with one of my mutuals the other day and they pointed out that it is very plain that alice olseman did not consult a single queer man in the writers room. and if someone can prove this wrong be my guest but I rlly don’t think the whole physical attraction component would have been done so badly had an actual queer man been on the team. feels kind of like back in summer 2022 when byler shippers would literally shun and harass anyone who even implied that Will’s feelings for Mike probably included physical attraction meanwhile Noah Schnapp himself was making jokes about it bc he’s an actual gay teenager.

not gonna even get into right now how Tara and darcy felt even more like props this season than in the last one and I didn’t even like watching their scenes bc the writing itself felt performative. that’s a whole other post.

and man, wouldn’t it have been so nice if there had actually been people of color in that writers room. On a purely surface level heartstopper has a very diverse cast but once again, peel away even one layer and you realize it’s a bunch of tokenism, which brings me full circle back to my original point: you can’t say it’s peak representation and diversity when it’s whitewashed as hell and doesn’t gaf abt sapphics despite literally being written by one. guess she chose her whiteness over her queerness even when writing a queer story which wowwww sooooo original.

okayyyy anyways did NOT mean to write a whole essay but u discovering ur own beef reminded me of mine lmaooo

all of this was to say that basically I’m not gonna pretend I didn’t enjoy myself during parts of the show, and I don’t wanna shame ppl for liking it that is not at all what I’m trying to do here, it has its own place in queer media and if a show like this came out in like 2010 it would be groundbreaking despite its issues (but again it’s literally 2023 do fucking better) , but I take issue with people treating it like something it’s not and with the amount of love it gets I feel like I have to be really loud about my criticism of it, especially bc usually the criticism of the show that gets any attention isn’t even slandering it for the right reasons and like. if ur gonna hate on something queer and popular do it right

oh and heartstopper writers? maybe try speaking with an actual teenager once in your life before writing their dialogue they do not fucking communicate that well

okay I’m done now finally 🫡

[partywithponies]

Being a Star Trek fan often means picking your favourite ship when you're an earnest overeager cringe teenager and standing my your choice unrelentingly until the day you die.

Personally I picked T'Pura, because I have the strongest willpower on the planet and will invent an entire ship lore out of a single scene. The space wives ever.

[listedbuilding]

omgg a week ago was the one year anniversary of me originally coming up with my favourite story i've ever thought of 😁 cringe earnestness under the cut you know how it is

uhmmm ummm my two sweet animals angelina and maisie yay.

i just can't even look at them it's simply too much... TBH i am very proud of the story i've written for them and i think it's some of my best work but i really only have some intense google doc outlines to show for it rn so you just have to trust me when i say they mean a lot to me.. i do really want to actually make something out of the chapter outlines one day but it'd have to be at a time in my life when i have more genuine free time 😭😭 i did start making comic pages for them but truthfully it just takes so long it's such a commitment LOL

AGGHH idk it is just simply in my nature to come up with fictional cats to imbue with every emotion i have ever experienced. to put it in short their story basically takes place over the course of a year in their lives in which the two of them lived together in a house in this small seaside town which belonged to maisie's late great aunt and was just sort of left in a state after her death. and it goes back and forth chapter by chapter between their adult lives in the course of this year and their childhood/teenage memories together as friends throughout the years and 🤓To be honest i spent a lot of time making it all add up and make sense to me and it's about love and it's about grief and it's about every single human relationship and experience i've ever had projected onto these cats who both love each other very much. and there's a lot more to the story of course but it doesn't really matter because the point isn't that it's really sensical or good to any one else the point is that It means a lot to meeeee😁

it's also just fun because i feel like i fell way out of the swing of making up stories like i used to when i was like 12 and then i came up with these guys and it really knocked me back into my insanity.

drawing above👆by chunkysoup22 on here not mee. but it's one of my favourite images to look at :)

Well anyways what everrr dont look at me (trips and dies)

[crispy-ghee]

Godzilla Minus One is probably literally the best movie I've seen all year, I can't stop thinking about it. It's got all the good Godzilla Destroys shit set pieces that people probably go in expecting, but at its heart it's a melodrama about Post War Japan, Survivor's Guilt, PTSD, and questions the ideas we (but also largely the Japanese people) have about "Heroic Sacrifice," the value we and the people with power put in "life," and the strength behind choosing to live.

I don't know if it's still in theaters since it's supposed to have a limited run, but it's beautiful, and I wept, and if you can see it, you should see it.

Unless you're someone who can't handle some really earnest melodrama, then stay the fuck out of the theater. I had a bad experience w/ teenagers and people who just couldn't handle scenes like that w/out feeling like they had to undercut it by making sure you Loudly Knew that they had Ironic Emotional Detachment and thought a man loudly weeping about feeling like he should've died was Cringe.

Hollywood Godzilla movies haven't been as successful in understanding that the Human Drama is the main compelling focus in Godzilla movies, and they've fallen short in making you care about characters at times. It's about the spectacle. Which can be fun! I enjoy a big dumb movie as much as the rest of us, but I feel like a lot of general audiences have been conditioned to have those moments undermined and undercut w/ irony and jokes.

That isn't what it is here. It's a fantastic movie. Let a man cry about his trauma w/out feeling you gotta laugh loudly about it. I am a movie talker sometimes, but you don't gotta MST3K your way through everything just because a feeling makes you uncomfortable. I know we aren't used to MELODRAMAAA here but...just...let it be.

[annabelle--cane]

make peace with your teenage self and your earnest but unpracticed art and the photos you thought you looked cool in and the jokes that didn't land and the opinions you hadn't yet worked through and the ugly coping mechanisms you cobbled together in a panic. shame is a useless source of pain, a pool of ice water deep in your gut that'll have you thinking the only way to warm up is to set people on fire like they're your own personal self-effigies. it's not a random fifteen year old's fault that you cringe thinking about when you were too enthusiastic about that anime you liked in eighth grade.

[stormbreaker101]

star and mark 1, 18, 24, and 30 :3c ?

1) What is their song?

I'll admit, because they're relatively minor characters compared to my other OCs, I don't have songs tbat are definitively Theirs yet. I do have general music genres for them, though! Star is primarily characterized by upbeat EDM stuff, and also memes. I'm tempted to say Nyan Cat but that's primarily bc of stellar friendship with Basil.

Mark would be characterized by stuff that's hardcore but also earnest. Like that one meme of 'when you're happy you vibe to the melody, when you're sad you understand the lyrics' /j

18) Are they afraid of anything?

Star fears loss and loose ends. It's part of why she's a necromancer. Studying death both in terms of the Magic and of the nonmagical practices people have surrounding death gives her a sense of security, and helps her face that fear. Her studies and her love for others help her metaphorically 'fill in' space left behind by those she loses.

Mark's fears also center around death, but unlike Star he hasn't found a way to cope. He fears the endtimes. He The monsters that eat away at the Spiral, and that he'll be the next course on the meal unless he sides with the people who promise him protection. After all, he is such a small thing compared to the entire Spiral, there's no way he can survive alone. The question becomes... who offers him that protection, and how?

24) Favorite color?

Star's favorite color is bright neon pink! It's loud and attention-grabbing and spunky and so scene!

Mark's favorite color is probably green. Green has always been a shorthand for security. The trees that provide shade from Skull Island's blistering sun, the uniform he and his peers wear, the dense spring and summer forests around his new home.

30) What is your favorite thing about your oc?

My favorite thing about Star is that stel's such an unapologetic character. She's a distillation of early 2010s alt/scene/random XD energy, and that spunk is never called into question or used to make her seem less mature. I get to embody the vibe of "I may be cringe but I am free" to such an earnest extent that it ceases to even feel cringe. It's kinda inspirational, like... maybe one day I can be as confident of who I am to be similarly camp and over the top, in my own way.

My favorite thing about Mark is that he's pathetic. He gets to be just some guy in my AU, slowly deradicalized from the Schismists as he learns to live despite the Spiral feeling all "end of the world"-y already. He gets a community, he gets to grow, he gets to be a stupid teenager who participates in a fight club and quote vines and attempts the cinnamon challenge. Saved from his canon fate of being so twisted by propaganda and a rivalry that he becomes god. He can just be a silly little guy.

(Questions list here)