#I feel like that's turning around tho!

[kdramaxoxo]

What are some of your favorite dramas from this year so far?

Are there any specific ones you're looking forward to?

Oooh this is a great question! I feel like we were in a k-drama draught for a while so my list might be a little short.

My Favorite K-dramas in Jan-July 2023:

The Eighth Sense: A queer romance drama (debatable if it's a bl) that was a huge breath of fresh air! it felt like an indie drama and the character development, filming style and intimacy was soooo amazing.

See You In My 19th Life: This drama has all of the tropes I like and the destiny romance I live for. Shin Hye Sun is a godess and the secondary couples will also tug at your heart strings!! It hasn't finished yet but I'm too into it to take this back!

Crash Course in Romance: This romance between an uptight grump and a lovely ray of sunshine was so good!! The slice of life elements and the comfort healing were everything. The end was highly flawed but I still feel like it was worth the watch.

Our Dating Sim: A super cute and fluffy bl with a fun video game twist. It had me giggling and was just a cute short drama.

Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938: This is the first 2nd season drama that I enjoyed more than the first season! It's only 12 episodes long, which i think helped it feel less baggy AND the main romance was between our favorite half fox Lee Rang and a mermaid!! If you didn't like season one though, don't bother with season two. If you DID it feels so nice to see all of your favorite characters again.

Hit The Spot: This drama was wild yall! Two close friends sub for a sex podcast where different people write in and tell their stories, which are woven into the leads own romance lives. I loved it so much even if some of the parts were totally ridiculous. I still think parts of it were sponsored by a vibrator company lol. Heads up it's literally rated R with sex scenes, though I found the scenes much funnier than I probably should.

Upcoming K-Dramas I'm looking forward to (a.k.a featuring actors I love ;-)

Mask Girl: This is a comedy thriller but honestly I'm just going to watch it because Nana is in it lol. It could go either way but there are some solid people in it.

Destined With You: I love fantasy romances and this one has rowoon (haru i miss you!!!). It's about a romance revolved around a 300 year old forbidden book.

Carry Sun Jae And Run (air date unknown) Byun Woo Seok and Kim Hye Yoon (extraordinary you!) are cast in a time slip fantasy romance drama (I love my fantasy dramas so I'm vibing with this!)

The Trunk: (air date unknown) Gong Yoo (!!!) is going to be in a contract relationship drama with Seo Hyun Jin. He's excellent at romance and comedy so I hope it has all of those elements. We NEED rom coms!

Cashero (air date unknown): Junho is back and this time he's a superhero! This king wants to try every type of role on the planet and I'm here for it. We all know I'll watch it even if it sucks.

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[fridgrave2-0]

hehe ghost-turbo haunting felix au

turbo is connected to the last piece of his code in the whole arcade - a trophy he gifted to felix in mid 80s as a symbol of him genuinely caring about their relationships on par with being the best racer. felix also gave him one of his medals and both kept their gifts next to other rewards, but when roadblasters and turbotime were unplugged, the medal was gone with everything else

now, after burning in cola-lava turbo is basically dead, but scraps of his code still were intertwined with the trophy (after all, it was his first winner's cup, but felix never knew about it), giving turbo an opportunity to exist as a shadow incapable of interacting with anything and anyone besides felix, who kept the trophy even after the roadblasters incident

also I went crazy in tags, feel free to check them out

[daeyumi]

💫🌟 There Flowed Forth (Consecration of the Self) ☀️✨

[Cycle of the Stars au]

[chrliekclly]

[tomaturtles]

can i play with your hair in a bro way. sit in my lap in a bro way

(Happy Shinkawo Day!)

[liorlen]

mon amour, danse et danse, on se tourne autour

[its-your-mind]

*deep breath in*

the fears 👏 have always 👏 been (in one way or another) 👏 parallel 👏 to 👏 desire 👏

let me explain.

so many of the statements given by actual avatars center around some sort of need that was met by their entity. Lots of them even had a positive relationship with the fear that drove them.

Jane Prentiss is an excellent example - the Corruption has always been about a form of toxic and possessive love, but she personally has a deep desire to be “fully consumed by what loves her,” and finds a perverse joy and relief at allowing herself to be a home

Jude Perry is another - she fucking loved watching people’s lives be utterly destroyed. The Desolation only offered her a power of destruction on a grander scale, and then gave her a more intense rush of joy as she did its work. When she tells Jon that he needs to feed the Eye before it feeds on him, it’s almost as an afterthought; she was happily feeding the Desolation long before it burned her into a new existence.

Simon Fairchild. Every time that old loose bag of bones wanders into the picture, he is having a fucking EXCELLENT time playing with the Vast. He loves showing people their own insignificance, and he loves luring them into situations where he can throw them into the void as he smiles and waves.

Peter Lukas (hell, the whole Lukas family (except Evan. RIP Evan.)) hated. people. all he wanted was for them all to go away, to leave him alone. The Lonely only fulfilled that desire.

Daisy, Trevor, and Julia, all devoted to hunting those things they deemed monstrous.

Melanie, holding tight to that bullet in her leg because on some level, she wanted it. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like it fit right alongside the anger and spite that drove her to success.

Annabelle Cane first encountered the Web when she was a child, running away from home in order to tug on her parents’ heartstrings in just the right way to have them wrapped around her little finger. Later on she volunteered to be the subject of an ESP study. Hell, she’s the one who dangled the “Is it really You that wants this?” question over Jon’s head in S4.

And that brings us to Jon, beloved Jarchivist, the Voice that Opened the Door. Ever since he was a child targeted by the Web, he was looking for answers. He joined the Magnus Institute’s Research Department looking for them, he stalked his coworkers in search for them, he broke into Gertrude’s flat and laptop out of desperation for them. And when he realized that all he had to do was Ask to get truthful answers to his questions? It was only natural for him to jump at that opportunity.

Elias told S3 Jon that he did want this, that he chose it, that at every crossroads he kept pushing onwards, and the inner turmoil that caused was one of the focal points for Jon’s character through the rest of the podcast.

There’s a certain line of thinking in many circles about the power of the Devil: he’s not able to create anything new. All he’s able to do is twist and warp that which was already present, making it something ugly and profane while still maintaining the facade of something desirable.

Jon didn’t choose the Eye. But he did wander into its realm of power, exhibiting exactly the qualities it was most capable of hijacking and warping to its own ends. Jon didn’t choose the Apocalypse. But Jonah picked at him little by little, pointing him towards each Fear individually. Jon didn’t want to release the Fears. But the Web tugged on his strings just so and laid a pretty trail for him to follow until he reached its desired conclusion.

Jon didn’t choose ultimate power, or omniscience, or even his own role as Head Archivist. But he said “yes” to the right (wrong?) orders and kept on pushing for the right (wrong?) answers. He wanted to succeed at the work he had been assigned. He wanted to protect his friends. He wanted to rescue them when they were lost. He wanted to prevent the apocalypse, to save the world. He wanted to know why he was still alive, when so many had died right in front of him.

The Great Wheel of Evil Color that is the Entities might not fit as neatly into categories in this universe - maybe there was no Robert Smirke trying to impose strict categories on emotional experiences, or maybe the ways they manifest in the world has turned on its head (goodness knows many of them have been showcased and blended in some very fun and new and horrifying ways so far) - but their fundamental foundations seem to be the same. Hell, in episode one we learned that there had been enough individual incidents to create a distinction between “dolls, watching” and “dolls, human skin.”

Smirke’s Fourteen isn’t going to be relevant as common parlance, RQ said that already, but I don’t think that means the Fears themselves (and their Dream Logic-based rules) are different - I think it means that the levels of understanding, language used, and personal connections among people “in the know” are going to be entirely unfamiliar

[rebouks]

Previous // Next

Oscar: So… [Robin sighed dramatically; he could’ve guessed where this was going even if he wasn’t privy to his father’s thoughts] Oscar: What’re you gonna do, sue me for not believing you? Robin: [snorts] He’s not bothering me, dad. Oscar: So, why don’t you talk to him-.. or anyone else at school for that matter. Robin: People don’t usually care what you’re saying, they’re just waiting for their turn to talk. Oscar: C’mon, not everyone’s like that. Robin: Okay.. but what if they don’t like what you say? Like, I say something and they think – oh, that was weird – and then I’m like, wow I wish I hadn’t said that and it’s super awkward and cringe. [Robin fiddled with his fingers, intent on convincing Oscar that anxiety was the culprit. It was easier than explaining the truth; that he could barely think straight amongst everyone else’s thoughts, that couldn’t be arsed, didn’t see the point, found people boring, yada yada] Oscar: Y’know people don’t usually think that whilst you’re talking, right? It’s mostly in our own heads. Robin: Okay, dad. Oscar: Wow, can’t imagine where you get that sarcasm from… Robin: ‘Course not… They do though-.. think that, y’know. Oscar: I think that’s just the social anxiety talking, spud. Robin: And? Oscar: And, you’ve gotta work on your fear-… Robin: It’s not a fear, it’s a fact. [Oscar rolled his eyes as Robin sloped off; it was like arguing with himself] Oscar: Robin… Robin: See, you didn’t like my response so.. point proven, huh? [Robin hovered by the doorframe, wearing a smirk so similar to his own that Oscar couldn’t help but chuckle fondly] Oscar: Tch, get outta here! Robin: Love you, byeeeee. Oscar: [snort laughs] Love you too, bud.

[sysig]

Two big softies(?) (Patreon)

[bacchuschucklefuck]

love thinking kipperlilly spends her afterlife looking for lucy in a familiar forest

[ineed-to-sleep]

Funny how all it takes is a couple of conversations with a cis straight man about gender to make me go "yup I'm definitely not cis"

[starwarsanthropology]

Some rough besany and ordo from my sketchbook because i think they are neat!

When Besany first got to know Ordo, he was impersonating one of her friends; between that and her career I don't think she'd have a lot of implicit trust in him. I don't think she'd have a lot of implicit trust in anybody.

And Ordo's trust issues are a whole other can of worms; he really truly only feels he can rely on himself and his family.

I don't think either of them can just let themselves trust one another; I think its an active, affirmed, ongoing choice. Their instinct is to mistrust, but they choose to have faith in each other. "I will put myself at your mercy because I want to let you uphold that trust."

I just can't see them growing closer except through continuous leaps of faith, and intentional vulnerability, and I actually really like that for both of them.

[silusvesuius]

this tree from my new drawing looking goated afffffff 👑👑

[antiquepearlss]

There is not a single human in existence that can convince me that Hugo and Eugene don’t end up becoming brothers.

They hate each other at first, which is understandable because Eugene is Eugene and Hugo keeps antagonizing him (and Gene isn’t over the piano incident yet.)

But after awhile, and maybe after one life changing and life threatening adventure where they bond, Eugene adopts him as a second little brother.

They still hate eachother, but it’s a playful hatred.

Hugo still antagonizes him though, but it is not nearly as malicious and Eugene no longer wants to strangle him or put him in the stocks and throw moldy tomatoes at him.

[vimbry]

"likes don't do anything" they do

"there's no algorithm" there is

"well nobody uses the for you tab" I do

"reblog all art and fics you see" there's no thought put into that. if this does work on people, then it's just pity engagement borne out of guilt rather than genuine interest, which is arguably worse than having none, because it's totally hollow.