#I AM THE TARGET AUDIENCE 4 THIS POST

[kulai]

AGREED.

Enid should have heart-shaped sunglasses next season

[deus-ex-mona]

c (dawg) o m i n g s o o n

[abosamisblog]

Help me and my family escape this raging war in order to survive.

I have been married to Amal Mahmoud for thirteen years, and we have four children: Sami, Mohammad, Sarah, and Saad. We are from Palestine, specifically the Gaza Strip, which has been under siege for over eighteen years.

Now, we no longer have a home, and my family lives in a refugee school in the Al-Zaytoun area of northern Gaza, while I live in a tent in Deir al-Balah. I haven't seen my children or my wife for over eight months.

My children and wife are suffering from continuous bombing, lack of resources to live in peace, and a shortage of food and water. Here, I am enduring severe psychological and physical pressures due to my inability to be with them and meet their needs.

I ask anyone who reads my story to look upon us with compassion and help me raise even a small amount of money so that we can leave this country and find a safe place to live. We seek a country that offers us safety and a decent life, far from wars, genocide, and lack of security. We need shelter, food, water, education, and healthcare for me and my family.

My previous account was verified by many people, but unfortunately, it was banned, and I had to create a new account. Please share my new account and help my family reach a larger audience for support and assistance.

Thank you

🕊️🌹

My account vetted by @90-ghost

and vetted by

@northgazaupdates

Vetted link 🖇️

My old account// @eyadeyadsblog

My old post//

Note:27/7/2024:

I was sitting with my 4-year-old son, Saad, in a displacement school in Deir al-Balah when the school was targeted by four rockets. I was injured in my leg, while my son suffered injuries all over his body and, unfortunately, lost his sight later. During the attack, I lost my mobile phone and all the data on it. I created a new account on Tumblr and ask anyone who reads my story to help me share it.

[th3swarm]

im so brave putting sourceposting as my tag for $cp stuff . fictive things or whatever (????accidental system related stuff in tags oops)

[mexashepot]

Concept: “Veiled Isis” from PI but it’s choreographed by Kat Burns.

[lilislegacy]

Okay, I’m so gonna get hate for this. And it will probably get about 4 notes. This is, by far, the most opinionated thing I have ever posted on here. If you can’t tolerate criticism towards Rick Riordan, the books, or the TV show, please keep scrolling. My goal is NOT to change your mind or start arguments.

I also want to preface this by saying that I love and respect Rick Riordan (even if I disagree with him on things and don’t like some of his choices) and fully acknowledge that he has the right to do whatever the hell he pleases with his own series. I also want to say that I love Annabeth Chase (both the book and tv show version) with my entire being and you will never find me being an Annabeth hater. She’s my girl.

We good? Okay cool. So here’s the thing: I’ve seen a lot of people on here saying things like “If you didn’t like the books, you just don’t know how to have fun,” and “The new book haters are just mad that they aren’t the target audience anymore,” and (my personal favorite) “Nothing in the books has changed, only the readers have.”

And while I see your points, and I respect you, allow me to show you something. Because of the 10 picture limit, I am only going to focus on one specific change: Annabeth’s view of Percy.

WOTTG: Annabeth is surprised to be comforted by Percy

Past Books: Percy is constantly comforting Annabeth

WOTTG: Annabeth is shocked when Percy is smart

Past Books: Annabeth often points out that Percy is intelligent

WOTTG: Annabeth thinks Percy can’t do anything on his own, and Rick communicates that Annabeth is always saving his ass

Past Books: Percy is ALWAYS watching her back, and saving her ass just as much (and Annabeth admits that)

I could put a hundred quotes in here. I could go on and on and on. But I can’t, and I won’t.

My problem with this new book is NOT that it is more goofy than serious. My problem is NOT that little things have changed. My problem is NOT that it’s just for fun. My problem is NOT that it’s much more childish. (And by the way, I’ve read PJO and HOO as an adult, so it’s not like I was a child when I read everything else and am now an adult reading the new ones.) I really did like and enjoy many parts of this book.

My problem is that the characters (especially Annabeth) have flat out changed—in bad ways—and we have no choice but to accept it as canon. My problem is that Rick, while trying to merge his books with his new TV show project, is changing the entire personalities and past behaviors/ tendencies of the characters.

I loved Chalice of the Gods. You know why? It was fun, goofy, and showed the characters that we know and love being happy and adorable. I strongly dislike Wrath of the Triple Godess because the characters—no matter how adorable and happy they might be—are no longer the ones we know and love.

My problem is that Rick Riordan fully admitted that he no longer considers the old book characters when he writes the new books. He is now purposefully incorporating his own personal mixture of the book characters and tv characters and writing those versions instead. Because of his desire to change and transform the series, I doubt he’s even read the original PJO or HOO books in years, which is why everything is so inconsistent. The old book characters—the ones who made the series what it was—are gone. And that is not my opinion. Rick fully admits that he doesn’t imagine them when he writes anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the tv show actors. I adore Walker and Leah and Aryan with my whole heart, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. But the fact is: they will never be exactly like the book characters. It’s impossible for actors to become the words on a page. They’re their own unique version! And likewise, you cannot turn actors into print. It doesn’t work! And why would you try? The books versions were perfect as they were. And the disney kids need to make the characters their own. The two versions can exist side by side, equally as wonderful, and still be gloriously different. We should celebrate the uniqueness of both. But instead, Rick is attempting to merge them into one. And in my opinion, it’s just hurting them both. And I’m gonna get real brave by saying this, but do you want my honest prediction? If he keeps doing what he’s doing now, the TV show is going to get cancelled and the books are going to turn into a joke. I so, so badly hope that this doesn’t happen! I have loved Rick and PJO for many, many years. I badly want both to thrive. But what is going on right now… it is not working, no matter how much we all want it to. And speaking as someone who knows people in the TV/Film industry, I am sadly not the only one who thinks the show is gonna flop. Which is devastating, because Rick Riordan deserves a redemption on the big screen, and the incredible actors deserve to bring this series to life in a new way.

I am not trying to force my opinions onto anybody. You are welcome to disagree with me and move on. I am not saying that I’m right and you’re wrong. If you disagree, that’s okay. If you agree but you don’t have a problem with it, that’s okay. In fact if other people have literally no issues, that makes me somewhat happy. And if you loved the book, I’m honestly so stoked for you. Feel free to just keep on scrolling, my friend.

But me? I’m sad. I’m really, really freaking sad. And I’m a little angry too, even if I don’t have a right to be. I can’t help it because I’m only human. But this is how I—and a lot of other people—feel. And you know what? That’s okay too. Because the fact of the matter is:

Annabeth isn’t the same Annabeth anymore. And Percy isn’t the same Percy anymore. And it’s not because they went through trauma, or because time has passed. It’s because Rick Riordan doesn’t have any interest in writing those versions of them anymore. And I think the comparisons between the old and the new show that fact pretty clearly.

[libraford]

(I have permission to share this.)

Text- from Walking Distance Brewing Company

Happy Pride month! We are here another year to celebrate Pride with you! Thank you for your love and support through a difficult year of slander and harassment. Your support has not just kept us afloat but has made us thrive! Our inclusive community isn’t here just for Pride - we’re here all year. It's not always easy being inclusive in town. The library, community organizations, and yes, even Walking Distance have been targets. In this post, we're going to discuss the attacks against the library and against us. Last June, the library had a pride book display [1]. On July 3rd, (now ex) city councilmember Deb Groat wrote an email to the library at the request of the Union Faith Family Coalition [2]. In this email, she wrote: “I am deeply offended by explicitly sexual material on display in the children’s section of our library. Shame on you and your staff for pandering to any social agenda in displaying reading material to children.” [3] Later on in the email she wrote: “The library may well want to pass a levy in the future, or have input in a community TIF.” [3] On November 27, 2023 - Deb Groat was joined by city councilmember Mark Reams in voting for a TIF that would divert money away from the library for 30 years. Luckily, the extension did not pass. [4] According to Union County Faith Family Coalition’s founder, Mark Reams is a member. [2] Deb Groat and Mark Reams vote together to divert money from the library. Let’s move on to us. In June 2023, we had a drag show. On July 8th, Mark Reams’ wife, Leslie Reams posted on Facebook calling Walking Distance “Little Epstein Island” [5] joining in the same rhetoric spread by the Union County Faith Family Coalition, who nicknamed us, “Walking Distance Grooming Co.” Additionally, on April 15th, 2024 - while on-shift at her job, Leslie Reams called us a “den of depravity bar [that] preys on children,” and called our bartenders and customers, “pedophiles” and “drunks.” Let’s be clear. Leslie Reams, the members of the Union County Faith Family Coalition, and their followers have never called law enforcement (to our knowledge) - something we would expect and want to happen if pedophilia was happening. Law enforcement has never been called, we suspect that even they know that it’s not true. We have heard many rumors, as bad as, “Walking Distance is full of pedophiles” to more innocuous rumors that hurt our reputation. Our guess is that the same people who don’t believe we’re pedophiles, but want to demonize queerness, also know their audience and are able to tone it back to do the damage they can. We saw sales dips directly following Leslie Reams’ statements. We have heard city council members echoing similar rumors. Last summer, we had around 10 citations against the owner’s house and the business from the city and council - none of these citations asked us to remedy anything (except for the one about mowing…oops), and in fact there were instances when the local officials said that we were doing everything right, but they are only reaching out to us because they had so many calls. The year prior, Walking Distance and the owner's house had 0 citations. We’ll never know exactly how much business we lost due to the slander against us. We do know, we lost a lot. Similarly, we’ll never know exactly how much the support of our community has meant. We do know, it meant a whole lot. The support has kept us afloat, and with time, it's made us thrive. We know that we have survived to see another June. And we are ready to celebrate it, in the face of the hate. There would be no pride with no hate. Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday for drag BINGO; Saturday for drag brunch; and also visit us on Saturday during Marysville Pride. We have more Pride events this week and month, keep your eyes peeled! And even if it's not a pride related event, we are always inclusive. Oh, and there's a city council meeting next Monday, June 10th at 7PM.

[/text]

Here's some photos of the extremely offensive library display:

They haven't given a call to action yet.

So anyways, that's what's happening in a nearby town. Marysville's pride event is this weekend and if you'd like to show up for local queers its going to be a very fun time.

I'm thinking of grabbing some of my local gays and giving them our patronage, of course. Its somewhat unrealistic to ask strangers on the internet to do take a hike all the way to Ohio for drag bingo.

So I think I would just like to call attention to it- if this is happening in our area, its probably happening in yours too. If you were thinking of attending a drag show but were on the fence about it, I think you should. They're a fun time.

Being involved in the queer community can be as simple as attending a drag show. Or going to a silly queer-focused event. Or supporting a queer-owned business. Every little bit of support for your queer community counts!

[ohnoitstbskyen]

100 songs to get to know me

I posted this image over on the bluesky, and it got like 100 likes, so now here we are. I was going to write them all up here, but Tumblr imposes a 10 video limit on embeds per post which I find infuriating.

So! You can read the first ten entries here, but you can read the entire list here: https://tbskyen.bearblog.dev/100-songs-to-get-to-know-me/

1. ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me

I genuinely don't quite know if my enjoyment of ABBA is something I came by honestly, or something which is simply genetically engineered into my Scandinavian soul. I remember hearing my mom blasting their songs on the home stereo in my childhood, and the association has put permanent nostalgia blinders on me for all of ABBA's greatest hits. Still, I think the beat is undeniable and the mournful tone of the chorus adds some real melancholy to the dramatic plea at the core of the song.

2. Afenginn - Oestrogenmanipuleret Basilisk

Afenginn describe themselves as "bastard etno-punk" which is probably as good a description as you're going to get. There's a lot of klezmer and eastern European folk influences here, but what is more important about Afenginn's best songs is that they go hard as f*ck and it's an absolute blast to dance to them at a show. They played this the first time I saw them live, and the rhythm comes back every time I hear it again. Good times!

3. Afenginn - Ralli in D Minor

With 100 slots to fill, I am giving myself permission to allocate two slots to Afenginn, and for the same reason. Ralli in D Minor is less of a dance tune to me, and more of a headbanger, but with a sufficiently loud subwoofer and a game crowd, you could f*ing mosh to this.

4. Anamanaguchi - Prom Night

I discovered Anamanaguchi as the composers of the title track to the Nerdist podcast back in the day, and being unfamiliar with the concept of chiptunes, I was drawn in initially by the sheer novelty of hearing the squeaks and bloops of my gaming childhood employed towards rock tunes and combined with "real" instruments.

Beyond the gimmick, though, Anamanaguchi won me over fully with the Scott Pilgrim game soundtrack, and then 2013's Endless Fantasy, where the gimmick of chiptune nostalgia noise (at least for me) finally coalesced into something that felt entirely like its own thing. Plus I'm a sucker for exactly this kind of bright dance pop, and Bianca Raquel's vocals here are a perfect match for the tone of the music.

5. Jennifer Hudson - Memory

2019s Cats is a fascinating fucking disaster. Tom Hooper is the worst director of musicals in my living memory, the abuse of the VFX staff extended beyond brutal crunch and absurd challenge imposed by a director who had no idea what the hell he was asking them to do all the way into an astonishingly arrogant and condescending joke from Rebel Wilson and James Corden at the expense of workers who were the last people at fault for the disaster that the movie became (look in the fucking mirror, Wilson and Corden, your performances were rancid).

Still, the silver lining of Cats is we got to hear Jennifer Hudson shake the world on its foundations with her rendition of Memory. I don't give a shit what anyone says, this performance is transcendent and no amount of institutional failure can dim its quality.

6. Annette Bjergfeldt - Min Bærende Bjælke

Annette is one of my mother's oldest friends, and a prolific singer-songwriter now turned author. I've been going to her concerts since I was a little child, and while I am absolutely not the target audience for any of it, it has stuck with me as part of my musical vocabulary deep into adulthood.

She has experimented with brass band accompaniment a few times, but for my money, nothing quite comes close to the floating, optimistic vibe of Min Bærende Bjælke. It sounds like a very particular kind of lasting romance, which of course is also what the lyrics are about.

7. Hozier - Blood Upon the Snow

We'll get more than one Hozier song on this list, but Blood Upon the Snow stands out to me as a song which easily transcends the videogame soundtrack promotional tie-in nature of its conception. Bear McCreary's hurdy gurdy and lyrics about surviving through adversity by holding on to existence with your teeth and nails... yeah, it hits with me. There's something real in that.

"The trees deny themselves nothing that makes them grow, no rainfall, no sunshine, no blood upon the snow." Something about that feels real.

8. The Beatles - Something

idk if I really need to write anything about George Harrison's most famous love song that hasn't been written more extensively by a million dad-rock enthusiasts before me.

I will say, this is one of the few songs I listen to regularly that justify the expensive audiophile headphones I invest in. There's a LOT to hear on a good, lossless, original mix of this song, if you're the kind of pervert who gets off to listening to a song a hundred times to focus on different parts of the soundscape. (it's me, I am the pervert)

9. Blink-182 - Adam's Song

I discovered a lot of my music taste as a young man from extremely low-resolution AMVs that my friend used to download off sketchy file-sharing sites. Blink-182 entered my musical lexicon through the one above, specifically, piggybacking off of my teenage love of Dragon Ball.

I never really grokked what the lyrics were actually about, until relistening to the song years later, but something about the minor-key wail of the thing really sat with my angsty teenage soul and has stuck with me ever since. I cannot listen to this song without that music video playing in my head, the song will forever belong to Vegeta.

There's remastered versions of this AMV out there, apparently, but if it's not 144p with tinny audio, it's just not right. That's not what the song is supposed to sound like, not to me.

10. Blink-182 - Miss You

Blink-182 is one of those bands I discovered via anime AMVs and listened to obsessively for a period as a teenager (The Offspring will show up later on this list), and then fell entirely out of touch with for years until discovering much later in life that they did, in fact, keep releasing music. I Miss You from their self-titled 2003 album felt, when I discovered it sometime in the early 2010s, like a much more mature and interesting sound from a band which had gotten stuck associated with my adolescent superpower kung-fu fantasies which I was, at the time, feeling a bit embarrassed about.

The song had a resurgence on TikTok a little while ago as a meme template, which made me listen to the albums again, and rediscover yet again that Blink-182 is, in fact, still putting out albums.

---

The rest of the list is here: https://tbskyen.bearblog.dev/100-songs-to-get-to-know-me/

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Sunday, President Biden announced he will not seek a second term and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his pick to become the Democratic Party’s nominee. In the immediate aftermath, Harris' donations surged, and major Democratic officials rallied behind her. Republican influencers, however, seemed unprepared for a primary line of attack, initially conflating Harris’ potential presidency with the Biden administration’s policies. By evening, they appeared to have settled on a familiar but often unsuccessful tactic: focusing on pronouns and accessibility.

Within moments, several right-wing accounts posted the same video from 2022: a video of Vice President Harris sitting at a table and addressing a group of people, where she introduces herself by listing her pronouns and describing her clothing. She says, “Good afternoon, I want to welcome these leaders for coming in and having this very important discussion about some of the most pressing issues of our time. I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit.”

The event was attended by a room full of disability rights leaders. According to White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg, who stated that he was the print pooler at the event, “she was talking to a room of disability activists, including people who are/were blind.” Using descriptive terms to indicate who you are, your appearance, and what you are doing is a common technique to improve accessibility for audience members who may be blind. The Disability Visibility Project says of the practice, “A self-description provides information about a person that non-blind people passively glean. This includes identity characteristics such as skin color, gender identity, hair length and texture, wardrobe, and more.” Within hours, however, conservative accounts began pushing the video as their first major line of attack on the likely nominee. Anti-LGBTQ+ influencer Chaya Raichik posted it on her Libs of TikTok account, highlighting the footage. RNC Research, a collaborative social media account for the Republican National Committee and Team Trump, also spotlighted the video. Elon Musk quoted it, stating, “imagine 4 years of this…” Conservative influencer Wall Street Silver added, “Do we really want more of this woke junk?”

[...] The criticism to the line of attack is well-founded. Conservatives have attempted to target Democratic politicians over accessibility, transgender people, and other issues they deem to be “woke issues” for nearly four years, with little success to show for it.

The right-wing faux outrage machine’s attacks on Kamala Harris for using pronouns to address participants during a July 2022 meeting is a bit wack and a tool to push anti-trans and anti-”woke” fodder.

[airenyah]

(thanks for the tag @gillianthecat)

hey anon!

since i was tagged i'm just gonna share my own experience as someone who's first language is not in fact english (i'm a native german speaker). but before i do, just a quick heads up it's almost 3am over here and so this might not be all that coherent... (and also, this will be long)

anyway, anon, i feel your struggle. i feel your struggle very much

(putting the rest of my stories, explanations, and tips under a read more to avoid clogging people's dashes)

part 1 - my personal, very specific struggle

for me, that struggle is very specific, however. you see, i recently finished drama school. and since i'm austrian, i went to a drama school right here in austria where all my classes were in german which means all my classes were in german. and you know what, there's actually a whoooole lot i could say about bl when it comes to acting! but i don't. why? because i just don't have to words for it, not in english

for example, in bad buddy episode 4 there is this moment where ink fixes pat's hair and i absolutely ADORE that moment for acting reasons but i can't really share it on here because how do i talk about spielrichtungen in english? there's also this thing people are saying about ohm, which is that he's got chemistry with everyone, and i could actually tell you exactly why that is and what he's really good at EXCEPT no i can't, because how do i say "anspielen" in english?

with some terms my teacher mentioned i do know how to get the point across in english, for example the word "vordenken": i can just translate that as "to think ahead" and it will make sense in english, but then there are other things like a sentence such as "er zergeht diesen satz" which seems a little impossible

and there are so many terms and concepts that i want to talk about, but i can't, because i don't know how to say "aktionen setzen" in english. or how to talk about "brüche", "fallhöhen" or "gedanken/bilder setzen" in english. i probably could talk about "senden" in english, but i don't know if the word "to send" makes sense in that context to an english speaker. and there's so much more...

so how do i deal with this problem? unfortunately the answer is: i just don't talk about these things on here

however, i'm lucky! because my mom also went to drama school and my mom also knows how to talk about acting in german and my mom also watches asian drama and actually watches bl with me. so my solution to this is... instead of talking about these things on here in english i just talk about them in german with one specific person!

so i guess one advice i can give you is... if you feel overwhelmed sharing your thoughts in english, try to find at least one bl-loving friend who speaks your native language where you can let all your thoughts out. even if it's frustrating not being able to share your thoughts with the entire fandom, having at least one person as an outlet really does help in my experience

part 2 - general fangirling(gn) in english

ok so i've just talked about my very specific struggle with very specific technical terms. so how about talking about your favorite show in a more general sense?

alright, so if you go onto my blog you'll see that i ramble a LOT. especially in the tags. i've even written one or the other meta post (not many -- you can still count them on one single hand lol)

but you see, i wasn't good at that in the beginning either! what's the big secret? practice makes perfect! you gotta start at some point, only then you can get better

for example, when i was 16 i definitely couldn't talk about my own thoughts and feelings about tv shows very well, especially not in english. but i spent my entire late teen years reading tons and tons of spn/destiel meta on here. and then i slowly started sharing my own thoughts more and more, using the words and phrases i'd been seeing for years

just reading isn't enough. you'll build up a big passive vocabulary that way, which is a fantastic start! but if you really want to be able to share your own thoughts you actually have to turn that passive vocabulary into active vocabulary. and you do that by actively using the words and phrases

and it's difficult, it really is (personally i think turning passive vocabulary into active vocabulary is one of the hardest things about language learning). but the more you actively share your thoughts, the more you practice, the better you'll get!! i'm 25 now and i can spend ages rambling on a topic (case in point, just look at this post oops), but it was a long and difficult road. but i did it, because i kept trying

the main point that i'm trying to make here is: you have to turn sharing your thoughts into a habit, because the more you do it the more it will become second nature and you'll start doing it automatically. (as a teenager i was very bad at pointing out what i liked or disliked about a media. i actively had to train myself to do it. and it's the same thing when it comes to sharing you thoughts in english - practice practice practice, that's the important thing)

part 3 - more tips

however, i get that it's intimidating to just put your thoughts out there from one day to the other...

→ so my tip is: start small!

but how? here are some ideas:

share your thoughts in the tags

if you see a gifset, in the tags just say what you think about it, what you think about that moment/scene/parallel/etc. if it's too overwhelming then just write a single sentence! if you don't know how to share details then just share your thoughts in a more general way! it doesn't really matter, as long as you share something (and you'll see, over the years that something will turn into more and more

2. find a friend - create a save space

another thing you can do is, find a friend (or more) that you trust! talk to them in private, share your thoughts with them in private. it's a save space and you get to practice expressing your thoughts in english without a big audience watching you. i've made the experience that having at least one trusted person takes away some of the anxiety of being judged

→ another tip that i have is: don't give a fuck

if you're worried about not making sense, make a point of just not caring about it! remember, this is tumblr. no one is writing any actual papers or reviews to be published anywhere

many people just type out their thoughts as they're spilling out of their heads. a big chunk of thoughts on here are written as people are half delerious either from an emotional high after an intense episode or because they're writing down their thoughts at an ungodly hour (hi. it's 3:30 am now). do you think these people worry about being coherent? no, they don't. they just want to get their thoughts out somehow. in what way literally doesn't matter, as long as they're out. i can promise you, a whole chunk of posts definitely aren't even proof-read (this one for sure isn't haha)

also, a big number of people are english 2nd language speakers themselves! we get it. we know how difficult it is to share your thoughts in a foreign language. i promise you, most people won't judge you for your mistakes, in fact, most people will be delighted that they get to read what you have to say at all (and if anyone is being and asshole about this, then they're the problem, not you)

also,another very important thought: don't write for other people, write for yourself!! that's how i do it with most of my posts as well... i'm my own main target audience because i can't predict if anyone's even going to read my thoughts or care about them. so who the fuck cares if they're making sense if they're making sense to me? that's really what matters at the end of the day

→ lastly: share as much as you are able to

i've already mentioned this earlier, but actually i think this is important so i want to put it as it's own thing. as i've said, if you don't know how to say something in detail then for the time being just share as much as you can! the details will come with practice and experience

another thing you can do is to try and find other words. try to describe the concept. for example, i don't know how to say "er zergeht den satz" in english, but i can say "he ruins the effect of the line by saying it while walking in that exact moment". i may not know how to effectively translate the word "zergehen" in english but i can describe what i mean by it in many words

the dictionary is also your friend, and you can also look at other people's posts and check what words and phrases other people use to bring certain points across (seing how other people write/talk about a specific topic is actually a real thing professional translators/interpreters do and is referred to as "looking for parallel texts". which is something i should do for acting terms. i should read up on acting in english so i can finally learn the terms, but i've just been lazy so far hahaha)

i promise i'm done now

anon, as you can see this is the perfect example: this post is super long, it's only semi-coherent, there is barely any structure, it's not really thought out... it's just my thoughts spilling out into the post as they come to me

i don't even know if you're even reading this far, but to be honest, i don't care! i want to share my thoughts anyway, because now at least my thoughts are out there, for anyone to interact and to add on to. if you have indeed read up until here and if my thoughts did help you, then i'm very delighted!!!! but at the end of the day this is the internet and i'm just here to scream into a void, really...

i think i was indeed asking for advice so thank you for getting it despite my confusing way of asking! i believe i'm in a situation where i want to share my thoughts but 1. i can't seem to put them in order or make them make sense 2. english is not my first language and even though i can understand it and i usually use it online rather easily i struggle with translating the more analytical thoughts from my head to english, if that makes any sense. sometimes i get very overwhelmed too because of all the shows i'm watching (i'm really gonna have to put some of them on hold), not even commenting, just watching, so i can only imagine how overwhelmed i'll be if i decided to actually post about them

the thing you said about choosing one or two shows to talk about is pretty interesting and i think it is a good idea, i'll probably do that in the future if i can even choose the ones i wanna dissect publicly

tbh i have to think about if i really wanna do it because like i say i'm pretty happy just reading all your thoughts, so well put, and reblogging some pretty gifsets. it's just that sometimes i feel like there's so much in my head -too much- and i need to write it down or it'll explode, the thoughts pile up and it gets busy, am i making any sense?

the notes app is my best friend, not just for this but in life in general

thank you for listening to me and giving me such a thoughtful answer, you were never meant to be a lurker this is your element

you're welcome! thanks for writing back. I'm glad the advice was wanted.

I would say to your first point, tumblr is probably one of the safest places to let go of the need to make sense. people ramble inchoherently on here all the time. and you can always edit things later, or delete them later, and make them unrebloggable so they don't escape your control. so, no pressure to try, but if you did want to, this is pretty good place to experiment with it.

As to the second point, I am mono-lingual so I have no direct experience with it myself, but I know there are many people on here writing about BL in English as a second/third/etc language. Perhaps one of them will see this and chime in with any thoughts?

Mine are mostly an echo of the first point - this is not a place where you need to make perfect sense. And, although English dominates BL tumblr (at least from what I have seen from my English speaking corner), you can always choose to write in your first language, just to get the thoughts out of your head and out there. there may even be other speakers of it who are interested in reading your thoughts on BL. I have google translated posts in other languages before, I'm sure other people have as well.

And of course, reading and reblogging gifsets is always a wonderful use of tumblr.

But yes, there is something about writing it all down that clears up space, like releasing a pressure valve. So I can certainly see the appeal.

thank you 😊

edit: anon - look at the comments for some great advice from other people. (thanks you all!)

[wolsalwastaken]

Friendly reminder that reblogging my posts with hate for what I’m doing not only gives me free engagement but promotes me. Whatever irks you so much about me hosting a fun community event, I’m not sure, especially since I’m working within canon limitations! If you’re the type of person who feels the need to personally share my content to make fun of it or tell me to stop, thanks for the sentiment, but I’ll pass.

While I’m sorry your stellar sense of humor didn’t appreciate a funny joke, it wasn’t targeting your audience! Anyways, wanna be clear on the fact that I am not upset or angry or hurt or whatever by these replies. They just give me something to laugh at, and free engagement. Keep it up if you want, because I don’t care, but I really think you should take a moment to reflect on yourself on why you feel personally attacked at someone drawing the cat devil in short shorts. Here, accept my YouTube apology video!

Regardless of whether you despise or love my work, any engagement helps me in the algorithm and spreads my art. So, I give my thanks to all of those supporting my art, intentional or not.

…

Ok ok, jokes aside, seriously thank you guys for all the support on the FHN event! Really didn’t actually think anyone would participate, but lo and behold, here we are! I’ve genuinely really enjoyed looking at all of your amazing art (you guys are so talented btw wtf???). Wanted to acknowledge all the talented participants, and I hope to see more! Thank you all for your artwork, I’ve gotten lots of giggles, because you guys are as funny as you are talented artists.

Now, wanna clarify, my above statement on haters isn’t vague posting any 1 person, I’ve had a few people do this, but wanted to mention it because it’s honestly hilarious. If you see anyone doing it don’t harass them obviously, but don’t harass or shame others for drawing this stuff either! Kindness goes both ways.

I also wanna say, just in general, wow you guys are so nice. Like genuinely. The amount of amazingly kind people I’ve had reblog + comment on my art who genuinely enjoyed it is like… crazy. I’m not used to getting much positive feedback on my art, and like I wanna sincerely say I really appreciate it. It makes my day, like really. You guys are so accepting and nice to newcomers and it’s just really nice to see! Ending the sappiness here, I hope you continue to enjoy my art!

Leaving on that note, here’s a compilation of the wonderful people who have submitted their art thus far (in order of submission time), be sure to give them some love because they deserve it! (Imo the posts aren’t getting even half the attention they deserve- really there are some incredibly artists)

More to come soon, as this challenge is never ending!

1. @tectonicatomic

2. @eckodrawsgoobers

3. @rataartista

4. @donutfloats

5. @abyssal-enby

6. @ciaosonounapersonalol

7. @/Shadow (certified gay)

8. @a-peachie

9. @multifandommadnessblog

10. @theskeleton117

11. @calamaricollie

12. @adairtrashart

13. @woodlandwildfolk

14. @itsartlee

15. @of-fallen-gods-cotl

16. @rainy-intel

Edit: just realized all the hate is literally slut shaming Narinder omg…

[justydrawz]

HE'S BALD ‼️‼️ {he's sad ]: } ANYWAYS I'M ACTUALLY FR WORKING ON THE COMIC buttt I'm like a bit lazzzzyyyy BUT I AM I SWEAR I AM WORKING ON IT <3 Ima explain a few things under the cut

1. Pw chapters will be posted probably every 2-3 weeks

2. For asks involving the characters, the characters knowledge follows the chapters they are in so for example, if I just released chapters 68 and they make a pie, you would be able to ask about the pie ‼️

3. PW is NOT really targeting towards a younger audience and gets dark EXTREMELY QUICKLY I'm not really afraid to touch on sensitive topics

4. SOBS IN I'M SORRY IF THE ART STYLE OF PW IS NOT CONSISTENT ‼️‼️ I try to make it consistent I really do 😔 but yk yk I'm a newbir artist

5. I DUNNO WHERE IMA POST IT YET! most likely on webtoon‼️‼️

[anthonyzoxide]

Rating and Reviewing the Mean Gills team name options

(This is unfinished but it’s been in my drafts for 3 months so I’m just going to impulse-post it now)

-Mean Gills: The best name, naturally, being the one that they went with and all. So much potential for reference humour, rolls off the tongue... If you wanted to analyze it story-wise 'gills' could foreshadow the ocean mutations that both of the gills (Another plus: 'Mean Gills' allowing me to use 'gills' as a replacement for 'girls') start to get throughout the series. And the 'Mean' part could foreshadow all those times they murder people in cold blood on purpose? It does bother me how little they actually reference Mean Girls across Limited Life, if at all, with how much potential there was- But that's a complaint unrelated from the name itself, so I won't count it as effecting the rating. 10/10

-Coral Kids: Sounds cute, and I like (or rather prefer) how it was worked into their area being called the Coral Isles. Though in the lore monologues, this would probably be even harder to take seriously when referenced than 'Mean Gills'. 7/10

-H2-Bros: When pronouncing this name out loud, it either has an awkward pause or is automatically said too quickly to process the joke- And, additionally, in retrospect I quite understand how one of the deciding factors between this and Mean Gills was not perpetuating the same masculine energy of the Bad Boys. Not a fan, but wouldn't have been particularly upset if they went with this. 4/10

-Santa's Little Kelpers: For how summer-coded Limited Life comes across as, this totally feels like the wrong kind of seasonal. In particular, the Mean Gills always felt tropical to me- Would've been a ton of tonal whiplash if they were named this. Also brings to mind a certain song, which I'm not convinced is a positive. Also, introducing Santa's Little Kelpers to the Life Series means adding Santa to the Life Series, and I don't want to know where the pipeline of lore additions would go from there. 2/10

-Sons of Beaches: I feel as though this is either a reference to a band that I haven't heard of, or there for the soundalike to a certain curse word. Assuming that it's the latter, I don't believe that joke would've had much staying power- It's catchy, however. 3/10

-Big Buoys: Had to look up what a buoy was after mispelling it in 3 different ways when making the list of Mean Gills names. I now hold a vendetta against this name. Also sounds quite a lot like the Bad Boys, and I'm not sure I could've taken whatever kind of feud would arise there if the two groups were name-destined rivals. 1/10

-LGB-sea: Not a bad name, but I've got quite extensive nitpicks. The use of an acronym makes you think of BEST and TIES, but neither gill has a name that starts with L, G, or B, so it feels peculiar if you don't recognize the pun at first (Which I did not). Even if you dissasociate it from the prior context of those other acronym team names, it feels as though it would be a trio name so that there can be a person for each letter (and then tying them all together with the shared theme of 'sea'), and out of the Life Series players there aren't any lesbians to be the L, so that'd be tricky to work around. Also, I feel like it should be 'LGB-sea Community' instead of just LGB-sea, but I'm assuming this would be thought of quickly if it was what they went with, so I won't count it as a complaint. With all of that nitpicking out of the way, I do think the pun is quite funny. I dunno. A rather mixed 5/10

-The Shell-dons(?): I'm not even sure I heard this one right despite rewinding it many times. 1/10

-Beauty and the Beach: This name implies that only one of the Mean Gills is 'the beauty', and I do not believe in pitting two beautiful gills against each other in such a manner. I am also definitely not the target audience for Disney references- Though this would have potential as the name of someone's royal AU Mean Gills fanfiction. That'd be pretty cool. Though the writer must specify which one of them is the beauty, to the other's dismay. And where the beach is in relations to their castle or whatever. 2/10

-Damp Dudes: No. No. This is very unpleasant. Reading it feels like stepping in a large puddle and getting water into your sock. I don't wish to dwell on this one. 0/10. Maybe even -1/10 on a bad day.

-Puddle Pals: This, however, is quite cute! The Puddle Pals sound like a group of silly whimsical fellas from a cartoon, and the Mean Gills would work quite well as that kind of dynamic if they were in a series where they did not have to withstand The Horrors (as is the way of the Life Series). While the 'D' illiteration in Damp Dudes made it sound more uncomfortable, the 'P' illiteration makes Puddle Pals sound catchy and rhythmic. I approve. 7/10

-Mean Shells: ...I'm glad, at least, that this got reworked into the final name of Mean Gills. It sounds awkward, and the reference isn't apparent upon reading it.

-Sal-men: I forgot to review the Sal men🙁 Post over. Go home

[pinksoullesswench]

How To Live like in 2014 Tumblr Peak Era?

I feel like I am qualified to speak about it since I was 15 years old at that time, and I was the main target audience. I made a list of things I remembered we did to feel cool.

1. You had to have a flower backpack for Back To School

I remember I owned a blue one, and I was so proud to wear it to school.

2. Half Up and Half Downs!

It-Girls were inspired by Ariana Grande and Zoella and this type of hairstyle, and I remember the half up half down with the high ponytail had me in chokehold even tho it seriously required hair extensions lol

3. Phone case/ phone background with palm trees

You were cool if you had palm trees on your phone background or phone case. I believe everyone wanted to live in a vibe of summer in LA even though I lived in Germany it did not matter. It HAD to feel like LA

4. Mason Jars for food!

If you were to bring oatmeal or a salad to school to eat it during lunch you had to have it in a Mason jar, ok?

5. Water bottle with fruits

I remember how the fruits eventually would dissolve and the water would be not the tastiest especially if you added bunch of cucumber but it was about how pretty it looked, you had to make photos with it. Also your water bottle had to have this cylindrical shape!

Ok so that's the end of the post for now. I will do more soon but that's the beginning. Hopefully it helped those who try to live their 2014 lives or those who would like to relive it but already forgot most of it.

[physalian]

An Obnoxiously Long Final Captive Prince Review

So I pissed off a fandom I thought was dead. Fun times.

The post that did it was written after an obscenely long travel day, after election week. I was already in a sour mood and that absolutely colored my review.

Could the review have waited? Well, yeah, but I don’t run a fandom blog and my last few posts about the CP fandom got like, 4 notes each. I was not expecting a response at all, certainly not the one I got, and I was venting and tired and did not plan out my argument very well.

Which, in all honesty, the backlash was constructive criticism of my thoughts on it by and large, and agreement with a few of my grievances, until it wasn't. I read a book that wasn’t written for me, didn’t like the themes written on the tin, complained about it, and got blasted for complaining about exactly what I asked for.

So, yeah, they’re mad. I get why.

Thing is.

My relationship with this series, and why I kept reading it even though I knew I wasn’t going to like how it ended, started way back when, when I found a fanfic for a fandom I adore heavily inspired by the events of this book (of which I had no idea existed at the time). Characters who weren’t canonically together fit into this foreign plot line extremely well. I read book 2 so fast because I thought I knew how it would end, given the similarities ripped straight from the page already in the works.

I kept reading because I was attached to my perception of this story, a story I already read nearly beat for beat with slightly different characters, and then went and disappointed myself. Is that CP’s fault? Nope. You can’t un-read things though, and I liked the fanfic’s take on the storyline better than the OG. Not CP’s fault.

Concerning the “why did you read this if it contains shit you hate, don’t like don’t read”.

Whenever I see a character in a situation like “I can have sex, or I can save my life/make the rational choice/do the right thing” and they pick sex, and suffer for it, I have zero sympathy. Damen was very smart, but he thought with his dick way too much for my tastes. Such is the tragedy of characters in romances, of which, I do not read. I only read CP because it was gay. If it was a straight romance I would not have gone near it.

But it stopped being just a romance novel in book 2.

That’s why I kept reading. I read book 1 out of morbid curiosity and almost put it down a dozen different times because both MCs were awful to each other. I hated Laurent for being a little abusive shit, I hated all the kinky sex, I hated how Laurent got away with every little thing he did, hated all the gratuitous assault, but I liked the characters. I wanted to see how they’d evolve and I could look the other way and skim for important details and appreciate the bits of the story I liked and by that point, the plot was eerily familiar and I wanted to see how far the similarities would go. By book 2 they felt above the tropes they started with, more refined and self-aware.

So let me try to make it clear: If this series had been simply three straight books of romanticized sex slaves with a hint of fantasy and the potential for great characters never realized, I would have been like “well this was terrible in a good way. It accomplished exactly what it set out to do.” I wouldn’t have kept reading it and wouldn’t have been at all attached to the characters I did like because then it really wouldn’t have been for me.

So while I’m not the target audience for the kinky smut and what I think is a long list of concerning tropes, I am very much the target audience for everything else. That’s what I stayed for, that’s why I kept reading, and that’s why I was so disappointed when the greatness of book 2 did not last all the way through to the end of book 3.

That was the TLDR.

—

Then I started book 2 and book 2 blew book 1 out of the water. It was so much better in every way. The characters suddenly had depth, the author flexed her skills hard on the scope of grand battles, made an amazingly clever character, had so many twists and turns and excellent tension and pacing and so much growth for the “enemies to lovers” plotline. Yes, thanks to that fanfic, I knew what would happen, but I read it anyway because I wanted to see exactly how she’d do it.

Unfortunately.

Book 2 set my expectations too high.

Gone were the excessive non-con kinks of book 1. I thought they were going in a new direction. The issues I had, with the sex slaves and the pedophilia, looked like they were going to be addressed—and Damen did say he would outlaw slavery.

But I kept waiting for things that never came. I didn’t hate Kastor because he was a bastard. I hate the vilifying of bastards. I felt horrible for this dude because his entire character was “the bastard idiot puppet of Jokaste”. He had nothing, no dialogue, no scenes, until he showed up in the 11th hour for a swordfight and then died. Of course he became a villain! Dude was the crown prince for… 9 years? I think? And then his perfect little brother shows up, gets granted his inheritance, and all he’s known for is being “the bastard”. Fuck yeah, he did some shady shit wanting attention and to right his world that went so wrong. I’m not justifying his actions at all, the punishments he doled out absolutely did not fit the crime, but boy do I understand why he did what he did.

Which, would not have happened if the world he lived in didn’t hate bastards so much. The book I read gave me no explanation, so I was left to draw my own conclusions. I read a book that inexplicably hated bastards, with a bastard villain firstborn son whose throne was stolen from him, and my first thought was "well maybe you should have been a little nicer to Kastor and we wouldn't be here, bigots".

Damen did not hate him, no. Damen loved his brother. Kastor ended up being a more symbolic threat than a legitimate character, but I guess I have sympathy for the devil.

The Regent, too felt much more symbolic than a real character. He doesn’t even have a name (similar to “The King” in TOG). He was fine and his machinations were felt across the battlefield even without him present. I have no issues with his existence. When I called the pedophilia lampshading—that’s totally on me I mixed up my trope terminology, sorry, again I was exhausted when I wrote it and I'm leaving the original post up for transparency—what I meant to say was this:

It didn’t bother me that the author wanted to vilify child sex slavery and included it to do so, and I appreciated how she made it clear these kids are manipulated and taken advantage of across every character it happened to. I just don’t think it was necessary to include, the way it was included. The Regent is a despicable person enough, adding being a pedo on top of all his other heinous crimes felt like, in a book dripping with noncon kinks, it was included for the sake of dressing these fictional kids up like prostitutes for the audience who likes to read that stuff. And I didn’t like how much of it factored into the overall plot. I didn’t like the undertone of “this is messed up but it’s okay if you secretly enjoy it” concerning Nicaise and the underage pets. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, absolutely.

However. Nicaise’s situation was not in the summary. I just checked it on Amazon. I would not have read this book if “by the way there’s child sex slaves in here” was clearly advertised. Adult sex-slaves, fine. Nicaise will never not bother me. This wasn’t a fanfic on AO3 that had a bunch of tags I could see and scroll past. I know how to avoid Dead Doves on AO3.

Even if it was necessary for the Laurent/Regent reveal, I think a story like The Magicians handled it much better? Similar scenario: childhood victim of abuse, perpetrator who the heroes initially look up to revealed for what he is, but there’s a way to include difficult themes without parading them around in silks and gold jewelry and I already made a post about it. At least in the TV adaptation of Magicians, what it showed you was the horror, the revulsion of what was happening to this future villain. Not for a second were the writers like “mmm, but it’s hot though” and that was a very kinky show.

Morbid curiosity got me through the Govart “wrestling match” too but this post is long enough.

But, book 1 was very clearly a kink fest, so, whatever.

Book 2 was so divorced from all the kink I fooled myself into thinking we'd turned a new and healthier leaf. I really, really did not like that Damen lied his way into Laurent’s bed.

Laurent didn’t tie him down or drug him or force himself onto Damen. Damen could have left that night in Ravenel. He could have said stop at any time, he knew Laurent was a good manipulator by that point. He could have even said no until Laurent had to force him or really be obvious, if only to the reader, that he was being manipulative, and the whole tone of the scene would have been wildly different.

Nobody cares, but in the fanfic version of that exact scene, the “Damen stand-in” has a crippling self-esteem problem and canonically thinks he doesn’t deserve to live for murdering his father to stop a genocide of his people. He’s lying about who he is, still, but that scene is rife with “I love him and I know he’ll never forgive me, so I’m going to let him use me and maybe selfishly enjoy it just a little bit” but it’s not at all his conquest of his lover. He makes sure he hurts when he doesn’t have to, to punish himself. All he cares about is that his lover has a good time because he feels awful for lying. When the "I knew all along" reveal does come, his lover reads that much more like an asshole, which he very much is.

Damen is not that character. I don’t know, maybe if he’d bottomed? Had any sense of “I am taking advantage of Laurent, this is not good”? It was played like they were on equal footing, but they were both lying to each other. Laurent was playing games and Damen was playing a caricature. Laurent could have easily become the clear-cut villain and Damen the naive victim, if Damen wasn't so damn eager to fuck him. It wasn’t romantic to me, it was off-putting.

The other thing that I was hoping for: For someone as smart as Laurent, did it never cross his mind that the Regent might find a way to tell Damen what happened between them? Laurent didn’t tell Damen before the trial, didn’t have any conversation before the book ended. Even if he would have hated having to be that vulnerable, I figured he’d fear Damen finding out from his uncle more. It would be such an easy thing for the Regent to exploit a la “you might have him now but I had him first”.

Shocked, actually, that the Regent did not do this, but it seemed like, though the “big reveal” was never actually addressed, Pacat was counting on the reader having figured it out, which I did way back in book 1. But because it ended up mattering so little to the overall plot and Laurent said absolutely nothing because a chapter later the book was over… why bother with this detail at all? What was it all leading up to? Why was it here? I knew the Regent was a scumbag. Have him murder Laurent’s puppy for the same effect.

It just felt. Unnecessary.

It also felt like there was a missing chapter at the end, because the last thing I wanted that never happened was just, addressing all the shit they did to each other. Laurent never had to answer for the flogging, for the assault, or for his own “I knew all along”. Nor did the “oh my fuck you killed my brother and my father” have much time to digest before the Regent was dead and the book was over. Missed potential, I guess?

—

When I said I liked Laurent, that did not mean I was a Laurent apologist. I like him like I like Maven Calore and Lelouch vi Britannia—he’s a magnificent bastard and I understand him perfectly.

With all of that said.

Yeah, I liked the series overall. I’d read it again. Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone I know, but there’s only one series I spend this much time writing about that I absolutely loathe and that’s Throne of Glass—another book that did not fully advertise what was within its pages. Like I said, book 2 was fantastic, poor communication between characters aside.

Book 3 was… lesser. It was a very long parade of “oh… that’s not what I thought was going to happen. I guess this is fine?” Not on the macro scale of expecting a huge fantasy battle, but on the smaller scale of Laurent being outed instead of telling Damen himself when they’d come so far and he trusted Damen so much, Kastor being a non-entity, a few too many “suddenly!” plot twists, and these two fucking instead of talking.

Other small issues being that with so many side characters of the same role and rank, I kept getting them mixed up. I knew who Jord and Nikandros were, but half the time I forgot who was Veretian and who was Akielon in the smaller group of 12, and line them all up in fanart and I’d have no idea who’s who.

The other other thing is that I thought the derivative worldbuilding was a bit lazy at times? I was a bit disappointed at how uncreative Akielos was. Vere was fantasy France but way less obvious than Akielos being fantasy Greece. Like, you can use the same cadence for your fantasy names as an existing language, but maybe get a bit more creative than changing "Delphi" to "Delpha"?

It’s a fantasy setting, you’re allowed to make shit up and get wild with a combination of cultures and lexicons. I liked that they weren’t all White, to be clear, but I read fantasy for fantasy.

Last thing I’ll say: I should not need supplemental reading material to understand why a book was written the way that it was. If I’d watched the TV show and fans were like “but in the book!” that’d be one thing. I interpreted what was on the page of the book I had, and if explanations and important context were missing, then they were missing. Death of the author. The additional context does help, but unfortunately it wasn’t actually in the book. What am I supposed to do?

So for the last time because I’m tired of upsetting this fandom and this is the last I’ll say to draw their attention, good or bad:

I had expectations for a book that this was not and was never going to be and I can’t blame it for not being the story I wanted to read. When it got good, I held it to high standards, and it fell short. That is all.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Ranting about the old Netflix Marvel shows:

Looking back at the original NMCU as a whole, while I think the general consensus is that this side of the MCU fell off when “Iron Fist” premiered, I think the real issue is more complicated then that. I think that the Netflix shows started off strong, but couldn’t implement their long-term plans for their side of the universe due to mismanagement/lack of collaboration. Oddly enough, the NMCU sorta reflects the current issues with Phases 4 and 5 of the mainstream MCU.

When you look at the shows overall, it feels like a bunch of creators were given free reign with these characters, and it shows. All of them had their own distinct identity, as well as what audience they were targeting. The problems started occurring when the shows had to start connecting.

I can’t say this for sure, but it really feels like no one was put in a Kevin Feige-like position to direct the overall journey. Instead, it feels like Jeph Loeb and Marvel Television (which was its own thing before being absorbed by Marvel Studios) just sorta mandated that the shows need to have a big crossover event. It made sense, especially since the Arrowverse was pulling this off as an annual thing with their shows. While it sounds good on paper, I feel like none of the teams behind each show were in sync with each other:

1) Daredevil didn’t really find a good way to balance the needs of the show and the needs of the crossover. Rewatch season 2 and you’ll notice that while the Punisher storyline feels more thought-out, the Elektra storyline feels jumbled and incomplete. In fact, the first 4 episodes are focused on Frank, and then all of a sudden, Elektra is pushed into the story. I can’t prove this but it feels like the original idea was to focus on Frank Castle, but then Elektra had to be introduced in order to set up “The Defenders”. Which was premiering the following year.

2) Jessica Jones didn’t even bother building up into “The Defenders”.

3) Neither did “Luke Cage”.

4) Although I have a ton of separate issues with “Iron Fist”, I do feel sorry for the production team. This show had the unfortunate burden of having to introduce its hero while also doing most of the build-up for the crossover. To make matters worse, if you read up on the behind-the-scenes development, you would know that the show was rushed out. Finn Jones was literally learning the fight choreography minutes before filming.

I have this funny feeling that Marvel Television set up the schedule for each show and refused to change it. Given more time, Netflix could’ve made it work. I can easily imagine the Elektra storyline being its own season of “Daredevil”, “Jessica Jones” and “Luke Cage” each having a season focused on the Hand, and “Iron Fist” being given more breathing room to introduce Danny Rand before diving into the crossover.

But let’s say Marvel Television didn’t want to make people wait that long for a crossover. Then they still failed to move the storyline of the shows in a way that could naturally lead into “The Defenders”. You’re telling me Jessica and Luke couldn’t have at least had a 1-2 episode subplot about the Hand? Or that the Daredevil team couldn’t have introduced Frank Castle later on in order to prioritize Elektra, who is arguably the most important character in the crossover? “Iron Fist”, while not a good show, at least tried to lead into the crossover.

(Side note: Just as a reminder, a common problem people had with the NMCU was that each season was too long at 13 episodes and that the shows didn’t have enough story to squeeze in. Jessica and Luke could’ve definitely worked in a 1-2 episode Hand stand-alone subplot to offset these issues)

I don’t mean for this post to take away from any of these shows. I still am fond of the NMCU. But looking back at it, I can’t help but feel that they were mismanaged. Good on their own, but since they had a crossover miniseries set up, there needed to be stronger collaboration between each show. Or, at least move the damn crossover if the shows weren’t ready for one.