#I haven’t even finished the episode yet and I’m already obsessed

[thisisbeefjerky]

Oh my god I’m watching Detour why is Mulder being so fruity

Scully holding tray of drinks/cheese: Since you won’t be making it to the conference

Mulder:

Mmmm!

✨💖PARTAY💖✨

[noelwho]

Ultimate Chronological Order Imodna Playlist!!!

Hello! I feel like I have to introduce myself ‘cause I’m barely on Tumblr. I’m still learning how to use it, I posted a couple of fanarts and they went really well, so I want to try and make myself a spot in here. My name is Noel (they/them) and I’m a big fan of Critical Role. I started watching a few months ago, with Exandria Unlimited. Once I was done I went ahead and started Campaign 3. I’m currently on episode 49 (I know, I have a lot ahead yet). I also watched the first season of Candela Obscura and a couple of One-Shots.

Today I’m here to talk about the Lesbian Southern Gothic Witches. Earlier this week I started to obsess over a playlist. An Imodna playlist, to be more specific. It started with me listening to one I found on spotify (I will credit below because it’s been a huge inspiration for this project) and I got the urge to make my own. At the beginning it was something chill, something normal…until it was not. Over the course of the last 3 days I haven’t thought about or listened to anything else. I got the idea of making the playlist in chronological order and I started to take it very seriously. I divided their history in 10 different chapters and assigned each song to the correct time period. At first it was just gonna be into chapters, but then I started to put them in order inside the chapters too, and it became very personal. For real, this playlist has been the one and only thing I wanted to talk about for days. Last night I finally finished it. I’ve played it for run tests several times and I think it’s finally ready to see the light (kinda feels like the project of my life even though I only spent a few days working on it).

After all this brainrot it didn’t feel right to just tweet a link to the playlist, I wanted the world to know everything that went through my head in the process of making this. I also don’t have many people around who care about Critical Role, and I thought it was a good opportunity to connect with the fandom. So all of this took me here, to tumblr. All of a sudden it became very clear that this was the perfect place to set my baby free.

There’s some things I wanna make clear before you start reading, the first being the classic: english is not my first language. Sounds like a joke at this point but for real, it’s very likely that this thing is full of grammatical mistakes and I want to apologize in advance (specially about the in/on/at situation, I’ve been having lots of trouble with those for some reason) This is also the first time I do something like this so it may not be perfect. The second thing is that this will obviously be filled with spoilers. In fact I actually haven’t even got to The Scene, I saw it around on Tumblr and Twitter (impossible to avoid that spoiler, but I don’t really care). I’m aware that there’s a lot of Imodna moments that I haven’t seen yet, but I couldn't wait to start this playlist. I don’t know if the episodes I have left to watch will translate into new chapters or into new songs for the chapters I already have but either way, I will keep this post and the playlist updated.

With that being said, welcome to this ride through an unhinged mind. Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy!

The tether scene is one of my favorite ones. I love that metaphor with a passion. That’s why I chose this name for the playlist. With the photo I wanted to make an allusion to the red thread myth given that Laudna herself carries around a spool of red string. I even edited the picture so the hands on the right are slightly gray like Laudna’s.

There’s not just one specific vibe to this playlist, but I find it to be a very calming one, with the exception of some specific moments that we will talk about later. I tried to avoid strong and distracting beats so I could keep it a little ethereal. Lots of acoustic guitar (which I love). I’m not going to talk about every single song because some of them have pretty obvious meanings. Usually the songs aren't a 100% match, but they do have a part to it that speaks to me and to the story on a certain level.

× Imogen and Laudna’s separate lifes ×

At the beginning of the journey that is this playlist, I wanted to introduce the characters. Intertwining their songs, we get to know Imogen and Laudna’s pasts, before they have each other to face the terrors of being witches in a world that doesn’t quite understand them.

Delilah - Florence + The Machine (Laudna)

I sometimes wonder if Marisha has ever listened to this song, because oh my fucking god. I wanted to start the playlist with Abbey, I didn’t because with the intertwining I couldn’t make it fit, but this one is a very good start as well. This song shows perfectly how it must have been being brought back by Delilah and having that power all of a sudden.

Abbey - Mitski (Imogen)

Matilda - Harry Styles (Laudna)

Imogen - Nick Mulvey (Imogen)

Laudna's lullaby - Ginny Di (Laudna)

Time comes in roses - Bess Atwell (Imogen)

The Tradition - Halsey (Laudna)

Burn it down - Daughter (Imogen)

There’s several songs from this album on this playlist. It couldn’t fit better. It reflects perfectly the moment Imogen started to develop her powers. It even refers directly to the way she parts ways with her town (which doesn’t happen for a few chapters but still I felt this one belonged here). Her fear of being a disappointment, her father becoming absent, the feeling of being cursed. It’s all here.

The hanging tree - The hunger games (Laudna)

Still I wait - Anna Leone (Both)

Even with everything they had to go through, they both still wait and cling to hope.

× Imogen and Laudna meet ×

Finally, their paths cross. They experience the feeling of warmth for the first time in a long time. They both feel the need to keep the other one close and begin to appreciate the little things in life, learning how to be taken care of. Goodbye loneliness.

Season of the Witch - Lana Del Rey

I'd like to walk around in your mind - Vashti Bunyan

How important is this song knowing what Imogen can do…

Comfortable Silence - Bella Porter

Without you without them - Boygenius

A hole in the earth - Daughter

That Moon Song - Gregory Alan Isakov

Love brought weight - Old Sea Brigade

That distant shore - Steven Universe

Sick of losing soulmates - Natalie Dawn

I Hear a Symphony - Cody Fry

Sidelines - Phoebe Bridgers

The bug collector - Haley Heyderickx

Sometimes I feel that it’s always Laudna taking care of Imogen, as if she didn't have anything on her own plate. It can't be easy to live with a voice in your head and paranoia. This song shows how Imogen is there to hold Laudna too when it becomes too much.

Look up - Joy Oladokun

If the last one was an Imogen’s POV, this one is totally a Laudna’s POV. Her and her silly little pep talks. “You’re so capable”.

Daylight - Taylor Swift

I love the idea of them learning that life can be good if you find someone to share it with. This song encapsulates that perfectly.

Spell - Dora Jar

I wanted this one to be the last one of the chapter because it introduces the idea of leaving together.

× Imogen and Laudna run away together ×

“Would you run away with me?” They learn what it’s like to have a home that’s not a place, but something entirely new. The past still follows but they’re no longer crushed by it, because they don’t have to sustain it on their own.

Departure - Daughter

Second child, restless child - The Oh Hellos

Just the two of us - Grover Washington, Jr.

I really like to imagine Imodna slice of life scenes when I listen to this song.

Dandelion Wine - Gregory Alan Isakov

Homesick - Dwara, Khotton Palm

Graceland Too - Phoebe Bridgers

When I realized how much of a Laudna's POV this song is, I almost cried.

Telepath - Manchester Orchestra

I really really like Manchester Orchestra, it's one of my favorite bands. I never let go of the chance of spreading them around, and this one is the best song they have. Laudna's POV for sure.

everything i wanted - Billie Eilish

With songs like this one and Intertwined, I wanted to introduce the idea that even though they're definitely better off now that they left the town, that doesn't instantly solve all of their problems. As I said before, the past follows, but they're no longer alone with it.

Savior Complex - Phoebe Bridgers

Intertwined - Dodie

Nothing else matters - Phoebe Bridgers

As long as they're together, nothing else matters.

× You lied ×

Even though I only have a few songs for this precise moment of the story, I thought that it was very important to include their first fight. The gem is broken and Imogen feels betrayed. Laudna is left abandoned and thinks she deserves to be punished for Delilah’s wrongs. We explore jealousy for the first time.

Witches - Daughter

The silence at the end of this instrumental song represents the loneliness that Laudna felt when Imogen left her alone after her incident with Delilah

Landfill - Daughter

There are two possible ways of reading into this one. This is in my opinion a Laudna's POV. She could either be talking to Imogen, expressing her deep rooted desire for a punishment for what she’s done; or to Delilah, alluding to the attachment she has to her own powers (that at least as far as she knows are there because of Briarwood) opposed to the hatred she feels for her and for herself for wanting those powers (this is a theme that they explore later on future chapters)

Are you okay? - Winnetka Bowling League

Afterglow - Taylor Swift

The archer - Taylor Swift

× Laudna’s death ×

Otohan Thull relentlessly kills three members of Bells Hells. A coin is flipped and Laudna is gone, again. What awaits beyond the afterlife? Perhaps a little girl, a monster and a tree.

DVD menu - Phoebe Bridgers

If death’s not exactly DVD menu by Phoebe Bridgers, then someone tell me what’s like because I can’t imagine otherwise. I freaking love how this song connects with Daffodil.

Daffodil - Florence + The Machine

Death with dignity - Sufjan Stevens

Bells in Santa Fe - Halsey

I like to imagine that Laudna didn't appear in Nightmarish Whitestone immediately. Up until this point, she's in a limbo, accepting her own death. Bells in Santa Fe marks the moment she sets foot in that Upside-down kind of world. The constant repetition of “All of this is temporary” is like a mantra for her, the only hope she has of getting through it with her sanity intact is believing that this will also end and she will finally find peace.

Willow Tree March - The paper kiss

Hard times - Ethel Cain

Tether me - Galleaux

With this song and the next one, I wanted to express desperation. We don't get to know in the series how she feels throughout all of this, but I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been. There's a point where anyone would have started begging for help.

Matilda - alt-J

× Imogen’s grief ×

“Is she your favorite?”. Imogen feels deeply guilty for what happened. The possibility of bringing Laudna back is the only thing that’s keeping her from losing it completely. All the regrets, all the words she wishes she said before, all the times she didn’t approached her when she wanted to, come afloat. Grief, disassociation and sorrow.

Words - Storefront Church, Phoebe Bridgers

This song is meant to represent the exact moment of Imogen floating and losing control, with Otohan in her head pushing her to let go.

Goner - Twenty One Pilots

No other song in existence can express better the moment Imogen realize Laudna's gone for good.

Lanterns lit - Son Lux

True Faith - Ashley Johnson

Hurt for me - SYML

Carry you - Novo Amor

My love - Florence + The Machine

Lucky for you - Novo Amor, Gia Margaret

Killer + the sound - Phoebe Bridgers, Noah Gundersen

Should have known better - Sufjan Stevens

Ya'aburnee - Halsey

Show you a body - Haley Heyderickx

Imogen (even Laura) loses hope for a moment during the ritual they do for bringing Laudna back. The end of this song summarize this repeating a lyric over and over (you can clearly see through this playlist how much I love repetition).

× Back together ×

After Bells Hells confront Delilah at the Upside-down-Whitestone of Laudna’s nightmares, Pike manages to bring her back to life. Imogen and her are back hand by hand, and nothing can ever tear them apart again. Here’s where I think something awakes inside them, but they are far from realizing it.

I am the Antichrist to you - Kishi Bashi

Like an angel “fallen from the sky with grace”, Laudna’s back on Imogen’s arms.

Darling - Halsey

This love (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift

Now that you're home - Manchester Orchestra

Lose you again - Manchester Orchestra

Halloween - Phoebe Bridgers

But not kiss - Fayer Webster

Like I said, something changes after this. What they’ve been through is not nothing. This song is here to show that something is born deep inside them, on their subconscious far from their reach yet

× Back to Gelvaan ×

Same as with the “You lied” chapter, I felt that this one was important even though I just have one song for it. It just matches perfectly. Imogen and Laudna visit Imogen’s hometown and the place where they met, searching for answers. Old wounds, some closure and an emotionally absent father.

My tears ricochet - Taylor Swift

× Tethered ×

In this chapter the platonic bond is peaking. It takes place right before The Unraveling, giving in to the “Can I kiss you?” phase and becoming romantic. They’ve been through hell and back just to stay together. This is my personal favorite bit of the playlist, everything is extremely intense but not yet explicit.

Tethered - Sleeping at last

I Will - Mitski

Anchor - Alli X

Don't let them see you cry - Manchester Orchestra

Crosses - José González

Quietly - Manchester Orchestra

Francesca - Hozier

Moon song - Phoebe Bridgers

Capital Karma - Manchester Orchestra

Everywhere, everything - Noah Kahan

In a week - Hozier

Monster - King Princess

j's lullaby (darlin' i'd wait for you) - Delaney Bailey

I will follow you into the dark - Miya Folick

I wouldn't ask you - Clairo

× Can I kiss you? ×

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. The beggining of something new, the next and most logical step of this journey. The platonic becomes romantic and they get to truly explore the feelings they always had, and some novel ones. This is the moment I know less about, but I’ve used my imagination and my own headcanons.

Can I - Genevieve Stokes

I debated a lot whether to put this one at the end of the last chapter or the beginning of this one because I don't know how relevant Laudna's death is up to this point, and there's a huge reference to this in this song. I know for a fact that the Delilah’s plot is not over and things will change, but I couldn't resist the urge to put it in here, given the name of the song and its obvious connection to the chapter.

We'll never have sex - Leith Ross

Wading in Waist-high Water - Fleet Foxes

This is the last time - The National

All my ghosts - Lizzy McAlpine

Prière pour la nuit - Barbara Pravi, November Ultra

Chewing Cotton Wool - The Japanese House

Bandages - Rachel Bobbitt

This is it, this is The Ultimate Chronological Order Imodna Playlist. I don't know if I'm the first one doing this, probably not, I don't know if this has any value to anyone beyond myself, but I had a hell of a lot of fun. If only one person were to read this till the end I would be more than satisfied.

I’ll link here the playlist that started all of this. Massive respect for this person whoever it is, I took lots of the songs from here

Infinite thanks to anyone who gets here or saves my playlist, feel free to respond with any song that you think adds to the story!! Something tells me this isn't the end of my Imodna brainrot so,,,, more things could be on their way (a fanfic, perhaps?).

No idea how to end this so… long live Lesbian Southern Gothic Witches!!!

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 20th August ✨

I must admit that I dedicated A LOT of listening hours this week to the new Hozier album (which is incredible omg) but I still had some great audio drama listening!

🌲@hellofromthehallowoods (129) What a fun break from episode convention! I’ve been highly suspicious of Nimbus from the start, and I feel vindicated that he’s not a normal cat as well as relieved that he doesn’t seem to be overtly malicious. I can’t relate to Nikignik’s dislike of felines, but it did really make me chuckle when it was revealed that all indescribables fear cats… Buddy, you can fear something without reviling it! Ough and the look-in on Jackie HURT MY FEELINGS so bad!! I can’t cope with sad dogs 🥺

🦀 @thesiltverses (30) TSV is back, babey!!! The sound design at the start of the episode was phenomenal, I loved the way they weaved music in with the sound effects in such a fluid way (the river sure does rise!) And oh man, Faulkner, you fucking idiot. They know!! They all know!!! It is such a delight to hear some of my favourite VAs doing their amazing work again. Méabh de Brún has absolutely annihilated me already. I’m obsessed with this discovery that the Trawlerman appears to still favour Carpenter while the Caring Maiden seems to slip away the more Carpenter seeks her. I should have started a S3 bingo because I was hoping so badly that Carpenter would join up with Hayward and Paige!! This season is going to be amazing. I’m so ready. 

📻 @monstrousagonies (108) Mab!! The queen returns! I am ever so slightly skeptical that Apocacorp is all bluster . . . I just feel like, even if that is the case, they’re not going away without more of a fight . . . 

🌒 @monkeymanproductions Moonbase Theta, Out (finale part 1) OHHHHH SHIT!!! It’s all kicking off on the moon!!!!! I love Alex’s sweet, sincere hopefulness in: ‘We’ve been through the end of so many things but we’re still here’ 💙 Isn’t that just it! I don’t want to give away the major spoiler because the ep only just dropped but oooohhhh my god! I was wondering if this might happen and wrote the idea off. This changes everything!! 

🎙 Welcome To Night Vale (232) HELL YES. I have been waiting literal YEARS to get into this business with the Desert Otherworld and its impact on my favourite scientist and the impact of both on my favourite community radio show host. My popcorn is ready, let’s get into it!!! 🍿

🤴I finished season one of InCo by @itmeblog! This is micro-scifi at its best and if you’re a fan of extensive single-person casts, InCo does it remarkably!! I'm really looking forward to seeing how the story develops!

🧬 Regina Prime (6) OOF I think this is one of the most intense episodes we’ve had yet! The acting was amazing in this one, Jess pulled out a full Youtuber apology and managed to keep that edge in her voice to give you the prickling sensation that something isn’t quite right. 

 💫 Wolf 359 (48) Ugh what an absolute mind fuck! I’ve been tying myself in knots trying to work out how I would personally react and cope if faced with a scenario where one of my friends is not the person I knew but is otherwise indistinguishable from them. And I just don’t know!

🎩 @ethicstownpod (8) AAH!! Ethics finale!!! This show has been a wild ride from start to finish and WOW what an ending!! I really don’t want to give anything away to people who haven’t listened yet but I’m almost ashamed that I didn’t see this coming and if you haven’t listened to Ethics you really really need to!!! 

🥾@doyoucopypod (6) More questions than answers from this episode of Do You Copy! What does Reese know?! What doesn’t like you listening?? What doesn’t like you listening?!??! 

🐬 More spectacularly odd @patterspod P Files! It’s fun to hear the obvious mistake being made and I’m really looking forward to Ryan facing the consequences of certain actions….

I hope everyone has a lovely week!

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 12-14 author notes

Hi hello and welcome to yet another ramble about Fragments C: I’m doing these regularly because there’s so much I wanna say about my idiots, and I like looking back and appreciating the work I’ve done.

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

I haven’t commented on any of the ShB episodes yet, so here we go. Chapter 2 is estimated to last for over a year real-time, it correlates to the msq events up to Amity. The name honestly I’m not too proud of, I didn’t wanna spend too much brain juice on it :’> But the cover.....

Obligatory ShB spoiler warning!

- Investigating each other. They’ve become completely new people since ARR.

- Despite what he thinks of himself, our lord and savior Crystal Exarch has the ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ grandeur ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆.

- Vivi’s self-image is similar, he doesn’t see himself as anything grand no it’s not a height joke but Exarch rapidly grows in his eyes as he learns about him.

- He sports an outfit I once doodled and found cute, I’m just being cheeky about his newfound obsession.

- He also appears fragile to Exarch, who’s literally seen a world where he died being this young. Exarch wants to protect him, to say the least.

- Vivi’s perceived helplessness and lack of agency in ShB, although it’s nothing he hasn’t already been through in his other WoL misadventures.

- The Light, of course the wicked white surrounding them.

Episode 12 I’m proud of writing-wise, but not art-wise. Turns out the Ocular is a bigger bitch to draw/paint than I’d anticipated, and, although I’ve mostly figured it out by now (having just released episode 16 for patrons), the colors and light in the episode 12 will forever stick out like a sore thumb to me, probably until I find the time to redraw it. Same goes for the Scions, learning to draw a whole bunch of new characters over a week (roughly, an episode takes 7~14 days to complete), well, I should’ve taken a bigger break and practiced some more.

I’d even apply the ugly word “crunch” to this episode. But ah, the best page wasn’t crunched, hell started breaking loose a bit later. Yeah I don’t work in order, usually I do the most important frames first.

A bit of a sidetrack: even though I sometimes find myself wanting for more time between episodes, I don’t think I can afford making the releases even more sparse, current 2-week cycle ensures that this story WILL reach its finale in some distant 2028 if not later, I’m not kidding, it might take even longer and I’ve only been working on the script for a year. The broad strokes are complete, but I indulge in adding more sweet nonsense here and there. Or sometimes a raw af dialogue pops up in my head and MUST be included in some chapter. In other words, help, this behemoth keeps growing.

Personally I’m loyal to my fandoms, and not in a rush to finish the comic, but my mmo experience bangs on that nothing lasts forever: I don’t know where the xiv community would be in 5+ years from now, and I need A LOT of people supporting me, allowing me to work on this full time. So I’d rather keep a steady pace while it’s still possible.

As I get more xp in painting backgrounds and learn all the ShB character designs, it should become easier for me. Currently I’m fumbling through a new field, so please bear with me :’D

Back to the main topic: I came up with and scrapped at least 2 ideas of the transition between ARR and ShB, the timeskip was always planned, but Vivi needed some more introduction still. Current iteration of Exarch “interviewing” the Scions seems the most fun and creative to me.

Also, tea parties with Urianger and Feo Ul :> They’re his only two friends in my hc, Urianger he purposely revealed himself to, and Feo Ul, merely being a soul in a sparkly shell, can see Exarch’s soul as well, hoods are useless. All while they’re somewhat reliable, truly the paragon of pixies who wouldn’t randomly spill his secrets (probably).

Vivi’s a mirror. Every single one of us is, to some degree. We react and adapt to the way the others treat us, and so does Vivi. Unintentionally, of course. It’s a natural “passive trait”. All the Scions except Urianger (for the same reason he managed to trick the pixies, he’s just a special smartass) see their reflections in Vivi, direct or warped.

Y’shtola is basically this:

Can’t promise equal amounts of screentime for all the Scions, but the twins and Thancred are the closest to Vivi, you’ll definitely see more of them.

He’s 26 now, which is still rather young by the elezen standards, and he’s way too tired (tm) probably like most WoLs at this point in time.

Maybe not of life itself, but he’s definitely sick of the Source and all its inhabitants. For all he cares, this place can go to hells.

His state just so happens to be perfect for the isekai love story that awaits him. How did he get there? I know, you’ll have to stick around until I deem it appropriate to drop some flashback episodes. I’m leery of loredumping too early on: firstly, you current readers will get more invested over time, therefore have more fun learning about him at a later point; secondly, I’m personally not a fan of tragic backstories right in yo face, before the main story gets a chance to breathe. And, mind you, Vivi’s past isn’t even THAT tragic, just, well.. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes \o/

In this episode I wanted to show his practical approach to things. He may possess an Echo, Blessing, soul stone and whatnot else, but gotta stick a good ol’ dagger in a boot just in case. He��s a doubter, just a tiny bit paranoid.

Also he has The Chair (tm) where he dumps clothes on. His room in the Rising Stones looks vague for now because we indeed don’t return there for years in real time, I don’t need to spend my energy on designing this room in detail just yet.

Most items don’t hold any special meaning, he simply prepares for a journey into the unknown. Well, there’s the journal he dumps his cringy thoughts in, and doodles sometimes. The trinket he holds here is a Princess Ai easter egg:

I talked about Vivi’s character influences and inspirations here if you haven’t seen yet C:

Exarch’s glorious meltdown does a good job averting eyes from Feo Ul being right there in the beginning of the episode 14, but yeah they’re present not for no reason :>

Mentally he’s still in the msq cutscene.

Gotta mention that there’s no amnesia, insanity, or other sad brain fuckery ever in this comic. Vivi’s head’s made of dense and sturdy stuff x’D

Just a meme I made because I had to :>

There isn’t much Deep Meaning in this episode, the visuals speak for themselves, and I’m DAMN PROUD of them.

We don’t see Exarch in this moment ingame, so I took my creative liberty to illustrate the range of emotions he goes through in like 5 minutes before finally rushing out to meet his hero in person, forgetting that he can teleport at will (yet another hc of mine) anywhere in the Tower’s vicinity, and doing so on foot.

That’s it for now, thank you for reading this and enjoying Fragments C:

[charthanry]

Liberating the Talented Mr. Gu

This is my first non-Bad Buddy post so feel free to scroll past. For I’m about to wax poetic (at length) on my latest obsession. Will attempt to keep this relatively spoiler free.

I just finished binge-watching My Liberation Notes and my ladies and my misters, this drama made me feel big, ginormous emotions. Feelings so large that they’re threatening to burst out of me if I don’t let them out. 

You know that feeling of consuming media and already missing it even though you’re still in the middle of experiencing it? Like, your heart is subconsciously preparing you for being without it. You want the episodes to both slow down so that you can savor while also wanting to find out what happens next. How seeing the opening credits envelops you like a warm embrace signaling that you’ve arrived home. This was one of those dramas for me. I haven’t felt this way since Bad Buddy ended, over a year ago. And not for nothing, but BBS inspired this entire Tumblr into existence so…. yeah.

This slice-of-life, character-driven, nearly-plotless drama was scripted for introverts like me. It trudges on at a snail’s pace with its audience urging it to hurry along and do something (insert meme of stick person poking at that thing to c’mon and do something interesting already). It puts the slow in slow burn, making all other slow burns feel like you were hit over the head at first impact. It’s sloooooowww. The characters walk slowly, they eat slowly, pour shots of soju slowly. Slow is the name of the game. Why hurry when you have no where else to be? Having said all this, what fueled my obsession was the show’s execution. Because oh boy, did this show execute.

I’ve never watched a drama quite like this one. Where the director lets a scene simply exist and breathe. Where the silence between characters is more revealing than the dialogue itself. The loudest parts in this drama were the quiet moments where the characters aren’t even looking at each other. How brave of the director to let the silence exist rather than fill it just because. The direction here is both evident yet clearly understated.

Bravo also to the incredible cinematography. Dull colors and muted tones set the atmosphere because this drama was an entire MOOD. We have close ups of subway hand hold straps, we see condensation sweating off of glassware, we feel the seasonal changes as the chill of impending winter seeps into the bones of the characters. We hear the gravel underneath plodding feet and the sliding of doors open and shut when a character reaches their destination. Who knew that the sound of two bottles of soju clinking against each other while inside a black plastic bag can be both deafening and most welcoming. How characters come together for a meal and all that can be heard is the scraping of utensils and chewing. The silence is palpable as everyone is just trying to get through a meal while fighting individual battles of brokenness.

This drama is a visual and audio feast.

The scenery is its own, living and breathing entity. We have a countryside village with fields of greens and uneven pathways of dirt that take our characters away and back home again. Rinse and repeat. We have strong gusts of wind rustling through the trees and ruffling the sheets and garments hanging dry on makeshift clotheslines. The sounds of cloyingly humid nights where you can just hear how muggy and hot it is—all of this juxtaposed by the noise and brightness of Seoul, the supposed defining mecca for success in life. 

The countless unpacking of delicious metaphors left to viewer interpretation. Underlining that the best stories are still ones that are shown and not told. How a pack of wild, roaming dogs are metaphors for freedom and imprisonment. How the subway serves as the division between the land of the living and those merely surviving. How the buzzing of an incoming text is a long held lifeline.

But more than any of this? This drama gave us the talented Mr. Gu portrayed by the incomparable Son Soek Koo.

I first discovered SSK years ago in the Korean adaptation of Suits where he played David Kim, an extremely intelligent rival lawyer and antagonist for the main lead. Think Moriarty to Sherlock but in the legal field. His guest role arc was only three episodes long but he was so magnetic and spoke perfect, impeccable English (kinda rare in kdrama-land, at least enough so that it's noticeable when it's spoken well). Fluent English that was delivered with such swagger that I quickly became a fan. It didn't hurt that the man knew how to don a fitted suit.

I next watched him in Designated Survivor: 60 Days where he played Cha Young Jin, senior advisor to the designated acting president, a meatier role that saw him on the good side of the fight. And in watching him passionately urge and support President Park's will to run the country, I learned how versatile SSK could be. Magnetic enough to take over the screen while also willingly staying in the background for others to shine.

And then along came Mr. Gu.

Mr. Gu, the neighborhood alcoholic who is shrouded in mystery. A man of very few words, but with an expressive face that conveys tomes of meaning you can’t wait to decipher. He portrays a lonely soul with hints of a dark and dangerous past. He never apologizes for who he is and even tells people: I’m a bad guy, you won’t like me when you find out what kind of person I am. Only to be met with: I don’t care. I accept you entirely.

He’s not a pretty boy by Korean standards, but there’s no denying the charisma and swagger that SSK (and Mr. Gu by portrayal) reeks. Honestly, everything about SSK is pretty average. Average height, average build, average looks—let’s be real. BUT the way he carries himself in this role… he dials the sexiness to a boiling point. Looks are fleeting…but presence? Presence can’t be denied. Both scruffy and clean shaven, Mr. Gu oozes presence. 

How does he make dirt and sweat look so damn delectable? How does he look so sexy in a sweat-soaked, oversized shirt that desperately needs laundering and an immediate introduction to an ironing board, while also filling out a cable knit sweater and an overcoat like nobody’s business? How does one look so desirable dressed like a homeless man (actual words a character on the show used to describe Mr. Gu). And damn, can this man lean on things—against a subway railing, beside a car, against a building, walking up a dark, hilly path. Body language that is an entire character, one that tells its own story. The lean while delivering his rare, lopsided smile is a true sight to behold. It’s beautiful.

And why did I watch this show hoping for glimpses of Mr. Gu in Pat’s sleeveless tees and jean short cut offs? Because arms. And calves. And a face so delicious that I yearn to slap the confident smirk right off of it. I could make a home for myself inside his cheek dimple. Dimples that rival only Nanon’s. Excuse me as I find a tissue to wipe my drool.

Make no mistake about it—when Mr. Gu is on the screen it’s impossible for me to look anywhere else. He is that mesmerizing. I grew so attached to his character that when Mr. Gu’s past indeed catches up to him, I fervently watched with bated breath hoping he comes out of the other side unscathed.

This show is not perfect. No show ever is. But for me, it does come close. I give it a resounding 9.5/10. The same rating I gave BBS, coincidentally.

I know I talked at length about SSK and his Mr. Gu, but this show features an ensemble cast of massively talented folks who all excel at micro-expressions. It’s Kim Ji Won’s most mature and impressive role to date. It’s Lee Min Ki in his least Lee Min-Ki-est role. It’s Lee El churning out a sympathetic and realistic character who yearns for love while realizing she's her own obstacle at obtaining it. It’s about the entire Yeom family existing alongside each other without ever truly talking or listening to one another. And still yet, it's in seeing each other for who we are and less of who we want the other to be. It's the idea of escaping and running from a past that we can never truly leave behind.

As much as I’ve touted the show, I understand that it’s not for everyone. The slow pacing can be off putting. There are parts that can be a slog to get through (it never was for me for what that’s worth). Some may even drop it for lack of moving plot, but man…. the journey is so wholly satisfying simply because it’s entirely relatable. These people are my people, my fellow introverts who are trudging through life one day at a time, piecing together small moments of happiness to offset their loneliness. It’s in the measurement of self-worth and finding your place in society. It’s discovering and accepting that you’re lovable.

It all speaks to me so much that after the end credits rolled, I immediately clicked replay on episode one. I never do that. Not even for Bad Buddy did I do that with such immediacy and need.

In an interview, SSK referred to playing Mr. Gu as possibly his role of a lifetime. He urged viewers to pay attention when watching, for it might just change their life. It certainly did mine. I'm jealous of any of you who are still reading that have yet to experience this extraordinary drama. If you decide to give My Liberation Notes a go, consider yourself warned, you might just catch some very big feelings along the way.

[icebluecyanide]

Alex Rider pre-S03E08 Thoughts

Because I once again had a full night to sleep on the episodes and obsess over them, here’s some more thoughts before I watch the finale:

I had a sudden ‘one fear’ meme moment when I realised that maybe Yassen did actually know about John already, but Julia didn’t know that he knew when she told him about it. Like, maybe he’s just not obsessed about revenge and still considered John his friend despite John being a secret agent. I guess there could be another reveal next episode, though gosh this story has already been complicated enough what with them spreading the reveals out. I suppose it doesn’t make too much of a difference for Yassen if he’s determined not to be emotional about it, but I’m not a fan of how it would mean he lied to Alex about his dad dying.

I think that if you join a secret criminal organisation, they should at least take your phone away and isolate you from your friends

Thinking about that ep where the data scientist dies and Smithers says something about the cover story being that it’s a car accident and that she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. Which is an Ian reference of course, but ironically, in the show what they told Alex was that Ian was speeding.

I’m fascinated by how they moved the John was a spy reveal closer. In the book it was sort of strangely added on at the end there, but I did like Alex acting like his dad without realising it and how he actually ended up disillusioned with John in the book before Mrs Jones tells him the truth. Loved the Father’s son thing in the show a lot tho, but I do wonder what Alex thinks Mrs Rothman wants from him. Like, he doesn’t know about the nanoparticles yet, but he has to know that she wants him dead, right?

We haven’t actually heard the names Cossack and Hunter yet (or at least I didn’t), so I guess maybe they left those out. I guess they were always sort of just there so we wouldn’t know it was Yassen and Alex’s unnamed dad in the Eagle Strike prologue, since I don’t think either of the names were mentioned in Scorpia the book, but still a shame.

Also I haven’t finished the show yet, but I do prefer the book when it comes to everything around Mrs Jones’s assassination and the immediate aftermath and Blunt’s interrogation. The show is not mean enough to Alex sometimes, and refuses to seriously engage with the idea that Alex joined Scorpia and planned to kill her.

I hope Julia Rothman gets her ‘give me your gun’ moment where she shoots one of the guards with his own weapon.

Interesting how even Blunt didn’t know about who set the bomb on the plane, but makes sense with them thinking Scorpia was done for and destroyed.

What if there’s a stand off with Nile and Alex and Yassen like in the John/Yassen flashback? No idea how it would work exactly, but it would be cool. Yassen can save Alex’s life!

[booksandabeer]

Thank you for tagging me, @somanywords. I love doing these! 💛😘💛

last song: Christine and the Queens - Tears can be so soft

last show: Transatlantic - finally finished it last week and really enjoyed it. (Fictionalized versions of) Max Ernst, Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, et al., and a bunch of sexy queer spies/diplomats/resistance fighters hanging out at a dilapidated French Château in 1940, while they're waiting to get out of Europe? It's like someone made a show just for me!

last movie: Air. It’s an entertaining, very competently made movie with a great soundtrack (seriously, what kind of music budget did they have for this?). But in the end, it's a movie about a shoe. At the climax, Matt Damon gives a big rousing speech, and every second of it I could tell I’m supposed to be very moved and inspired by it, but, honestly, I had to laugh. Because, again, it’s about a corporation, it's about a shoe, it's about rich people getting even richer (the actual interesting part, how the Air Jordan deal opened up a whole new business model for student athletes is treated as an afterthought). So. The production design and set decoration are fantastic, Ben Affleck is very funny (and wears great costumes) and Viola Davis—as always—transcends the material she's given. Still. It's a movie about a shoe.

currently watching: Yellowjackets. Haven't seen the latest episode yet, but I'm very much looking forward to watching it tonight.

currently reading: Sadly, not much. I have like 10 books on my nightstand but…yeah. Bit of fic here and there (mostly re-reads or shorter works), but I haven’t really had the time for anything longer, which is also why haven't posted any rec lists lately. 😿 Hey, but did read 90 pages of a study called "Google vs the Library" for work today. Does that count?😬

current obsession: Steve, Bucky, SteveandBucky, as always. Also, the works of William Eggleston, for reasons...

I'm always so late with these things, so I have no idea who's already done it. So please anybody who wants to, I love hearing about the things you enjoy! Also, no pressure-tagging: @burninblood, @tessabennet, @elliquinn, @thisonesatellite, and @voylitscope.

[the1975attheirverybest]

Saw a tweet that said ATVB was feeding Matty content and now SATVB is him talking about that and becoming the man that content intended for him to be and i’m OBSESSED. He also liked a tweet about The 1975 (BFIAFL) lyrics that set up ATVB/SATVB and ugh it’s all so perfect.

I do think it’s giving him a little too much credit because I highly doubt ATVB ➡️ ATPOAIM ➡️ SATVB was the plan from the get go, but I think it’s super clever. So many of the complaints I’ve seen from fans have to do with how unorganized all of this is and the change in ideas, but I feel like they all connect? Obviously we haven’t seen the new show yet, but I don’t think it’s as messy as it seems.

Oh I doubt it’s messy at all! Okay, so the last time that I talked about something similar people started dragging me and being like “matty isn’t that deep” and “he’s not Taylor Swift” (as if she has a monopoly on caring about the art that she’s producing?) so disclaimer: this is just my opinion. Let me live ffs. If you disagree that’s fine. I respect your opinion. No need to be nasty.

SO, yeah I think that the second show (i.e. SATVB) might have initiated from 2 separate things: 1. The initial reaction to the tour being great but then post-podcast (even before Taylor) shit going negative and then 2. That author writing a book about parasocial relationships roughly around the same time that Brad Troemel started being interested in the topic too.

So, like, Matty started to think about his persona and how he would do things differently to better reflect what he wanted, especially in light of things going negative in Feb. and him always being a fan of Troemel (he was already thinking about Troemel’s work when he wrote the original ATVB) the moment felt right. He had this other avenue to explore if he collabed with Troemel, so he decided to do it.

I think what happened was, after he decided to do the new SATVB, he came up with the idea for ATPOAIM as a sort of “transition” in between. Because, remember that atpoaim was filmed right before SNL. And the podcast happened in early Feb I think. So, the timeline lines up: backlash, idea for new show, need for atpoaim as a transition into new show.

Like, I’ve been thinking that they filmed more atpoaim episodes and just never released them either cuz matty changed his mind or they never finished them or whatever the reason may be….but like these days I’m wondering if the first half was supposed to end with the SATVB announcement and then the second half will come back once SATVB kicks off?

I think that’s what’s going on. But again it’s just a guess based on how things are being rolled out and him deleting his Instagram right after the very first atpoaim being posted and stuff. Like I don’t think this entire thing was planned in October 2022 when BFIAFL came out, but I think as soon as he felt like evolving the ideas, he started to plan for the whole thing. And, yeah, it’s Matty. He cares about the little details so much. So of course he’s been thinking it through this whole time and of course he’s going to reference his own lyrics. That’s what he has always done. But again, I could be wrong. Just my take.

[fairy-writes]

SO this is a day late; whoops, I meant to post this on New Years' Eve

I did this last year and wanted to do it again! So here’s a list that no one asked for of the top 10 anime series I watched this year, including two honorable mentions. They are ranked from (in my opinion) best to worst!

Animes I Watched This Year: 

Arcane: League of Legends

IDK if this counts as an anime, but I love it so much that I’m including it anyway. 

Literally my favorite animated show of all time. 

It beats out Moriarty the Patriot, Demon Slayer, all of the animes. 

People who have been following me since my Arcane obsession began know of my love for Viktor.

He’s my favorite and deserves the world. 

But the show is stunning; every shot is amazing, the music is astounding, and everything about it is breathtaking!

Jujutsu Kaisen 0

Ok, I saw this in theaters, and I wanted to cry because it’s so beautiful. 

I already owned the manga and had read it, and the fact that I love the movie more than the manga is something to consider.

There was never a boring moment in the movie, all the characters were memorable (with the exception of very few), and I absolutely adore Yuta.

Like, I already loved Geto because of that flashback arc we had in the manga, but Yuta beat him, he beat Gojo, and he beat everyone in the entire anime as my favorite except for maybe Inumaki.

This was truly Yuta’s movie, and I can’t wait for season 2!

Demon Slayer Season 2

THIS SHOW BLEW MY EXPECTATIONS OUT OF THE WATER

The CGI used was absolutely amazing. THIS IS HOW CGI SHOULD BE USED PEOPLE TAKE NOTES

Uzui is actually my favorite Hashira, save for Iguro (my least favorite is Rengoku, don’t come for me) so seeing a season dedicated to him was great.

I own all the manga, and this was one of my favorite arcs, so seeing it animated was like a birthday present. 

Bungou Stray Dogs: WAN!

THIS SHOW IS SO CUTE, BUT ALSO MADE ME CRY WTF

Like episode 10? Had me pretty much bawling my eyes out

I also watched it in dub which was also a treat. I really like the BSD dub, and this was no exception.

Someone, please talk about it with me.

Like I can’t.

I need someone to cry with.

Spy x Family

Normally slice-of-life shows aren’t my thing. 

But this one is the exception! 

This show is so fun, so colorful, and so just utterly amazing that I can’t help but want to rewatch it a bunch!

I don’t have any complaints about it. It’s just at number 5 cause I love the other shows more. 

Chainsaw Man

So I’m collecting the manga right now. 

I already read it online and remember pretty much none of it. 

This is what I get for reading it during finals week lmao

But the show is so cool!

It helps refresh my memory of what happens and every moment (save for the first kiss) is animated so beautifully!

They use CGI really well, with very few moments looking awkward or just out of pace. 

This is only down at the halfway mark because it hasn’t gotten to my favorite part of the manga yet, so I can’t accurately judge how much I’ll love my favorite parts.

The Case Study of Vanitas Season 2

THIS IS SUCH A PRETTY SHOW

The only reason it’s down this far is because I didn’t actually finish season 2. 

I didn’t even see the final fight between everyone and the Beast of Gevaudan, or however you spell it

So I really can’t judge this show until I finish the entire thing, haha

Blue Exorcist

I’M ONLY ON EPISODE THREE AND HAVEN’T SEEN IT SINCE 2014 DON’T COME FOR ME

I’m watching it in English Dub, and I think this is the only role that I actually like Bryce Papenbrook in. Anything else, and he just comes across as slightly annoying, but I really like him as Rin!

But this show is such a nostalgia trip. It’s great to rewatch, and the animation holds up really well!

Also, the opening is one of my favorites. I absolutely adore it. 

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

This one is so bizarre, but I still really enjoy it. 

Like the premise is so cool, and the animation is great!

It just fell kind of flat. 

They just needed more episodes to really explore everything they wanted to, but overall, 7/10 would recommend it to someone looking for a short but fun watch!

High Rise Invasion

I’m not even done with episode 1, but I already really enjoy the guy with the sniper rifle. I think he’s called Sniper Mask?

Anyway, the whole bit at the beginning of that one cop or whatever trying to make the main girl take off her clothes wasn’t the best. 

It is part of what brought it down to number ten.

The other part is just that I haven’t finished it. 

I’m noticing a trend with my watching habits, lol

Honorable Mentions

Sk8 the Infinity

Literally, the only thing beating this out of my top ten list is Adam. 

I actually had this idea of writing a story of a detective from America coming to Japan and arresting him because that was hilarious to me, and he didn’t deserve the ending he got. 

He deserved much worse, and no one can change my mind. 

Millionaire Detective: Balance Unlimited

Oh. My. Gosh. This show was SO BORING

I CANNOT

I WAS DYING

The first couple of episodes were really fun and jazzy and whatever, but by the end, I was doing literally everything I could just not to watch it. 

[dollwrites]

Omg please tell me what episodes you’ve watched so far so I don’t accidentally spoil anything! Lol I’m so afraid of saying something and then you being like I haven’t gotten that far yet 🤨

So with the conceding thing nyra was crazy to ask alicent for help right after daemon killed aegons son 😭 and the fact that she thought alicent had any power at all, like girl she can’t do a damn thing her kids don’t like her and don’t listen to her lol.

Rhaenys and her dragon were so beautiful omg. I have a huge crush on rhaenys honestly, she deserved so much better than corlys and in the beginning i liked corlys i thought they were couple goals but he just reminded me that men are trash tbh. Like of course he cheated on her, basically all the men in this show cheat 🙄 that’s another point to aemond tbh, he doesn’t fuck minors and is loyal to one woman lmaoo.

I’m crying turn your attention to the other one LMAO 😭 yeah I hate Jace’s ass, almost as much as I hated Luke. Like you bitches tormented aemond for not having a dragon then decided to 4v1 him because he finally got a dragon??? And then the fact that years later Luke decided to AGAIN bully aemond and laugh at him at the dinner after aemond was literally minding his business not doing anything 🙄 he was either brave or stupid for that because HOW are you going to look at him fighting in the courtyard literally winning against crispin, and see the psychotic look in his eye and just the overall psycho vibe he has and be like yeah… I’m gonna provoke him. It was so funny to me though when Jace punched him and aemond didn’t even flinch, literally smiled as he was getting punched, and then didn’t even put down his wine and only used one hand to push him to the ground like a little bitch 🤭 Jace needs to go now too, im so sick of seeing him on my screen

So with the dragons! They are fireproof to some extent but not completely fire resistant. The older a dragon gets the stronger and more fire resistant their scales get. And the older they get the hotter their fire gets. So with meleys she’s an older dragon, not nearly as old as vhagar, but she’s one of the older ones probably around 70? So she would be less affected by fire than sunfyre since sunfyre is about 20-30? Maybe a little older, his age was never specified but he’s a young dragon.

Omg you’re already collecting TikTok’s 👀 listen you don’t wanna get me started on that, I have over 800 TikTok’s saved of aemond, it’s genuinely a problem 🫠 lmao but ive also been collecting them for over two years so they just kinda added up lol.

I’m so glad you’re on the same page as me like you get it 🥲 the amount of “Omg sub aemond!” That came out after season two, and the amount of sub fanfics and stuff 😮‍💨 I mean people can see him like that if they want but I never have and for a little while it was getting harder for me to find dom aemond content lol. Conqueror is the perfect word for it omg 👀 I don’t really see him as giving up control very often.

You are LITERALLY me lol the second I finished watching the first season I was like omg… I need to make every single person in my life watch this with me. So I made my mom watch it with me, then my best friend, then my brother, then another friend of mine. They all know extensive knowledge about house of the dragon and aemond because of me lol. When I made my best friend watch it with me I told her that the absolute love of my life, a guy I was completely obsessed with was in it but didn’t tell her who. So every single time a new man popped up she was like is it him? How about him? And when aemond popped up she went “oh my god that’s the ugliest man I’ve ever seen… yeah it’s him.” LOL my poor pookie 🥲 but she knows me well she immediately knew it was him.

AHHH I’m just about to start episode 8!! IM SAD IM ALMOST DONE WITH IT AND IVE ONLY GOTTEN AEMOND CRUMBS

FIRST I WANNA SAY.. Hugh… big Viking looking daddy… I’m so happy he claimed vermithor !!! But at the same time 🤨 can I be mad about ULF ??? GETTING A DRAGON ??? He was like the biggest loser I was like surely they wouldn’t do oh ok nvm

Omg I didn’t even think about the fact that was right after that’s INSANE also.. Ms Alicent whyy are you chillin in the woods mama I mean honestly same if I could stumble into the woods and never return to civilization I probably would SKSKKS

Yeah i definitely simped for corlys too and his brother lowkey… and I know they couldn’t make more than one faithful man bc it wouldn’t be as realistic 🙄

Jace is actually pissing me off so much with this “lowborn” crap like did he forget that he is also a bastard child? Aemond didn’t get the chance to remind him in this episode so he must’ve forgotten /j BUT LIKE ALSO I won’t often take up for nyra but I will say him throwing a fit over his real dad and basically like looking down on his mother is so eugh— like didn’t nyra and laenor attempt to have babies but laenor could never perform bc of his sexuality I guess she never told jace that but the fact that I know it and I understand the pressure that was put on women in medieval times to pop out as many brats as they could before it inevitably killed them ITS MAKING ME SO MAD ON HER BEHALF like she had to have kids, she was the heir to the throne and needed to have an heir herself so the line didn’t die with her. But also Harwin was a smash tbh he was attractive but he was also just a genuinely good dude

VHAGARRRR I missed her ALL EPISODE LONG and she just now showed up!! I love her, her turkey gobble looking neck is so cute I just want to give her so many kisses !! Also I love how the dragons just sleep all the time LIKE WHEN AEMOND WAS ON VHAGAR WAITING TO GO FIGHT MELEYS she was just Resting ™️ ugh I love and the last scene of episode 7 was so cool, I’m not a nyra fan but the shot of the dragons behind her gave me chills!! This does make me worry about vhagar and aemond though 😣 please be okay pls pls pls

I DID THE SAME WITH MY MOM I WAS LIKE 👉🏻👈🏻 I have a favorite… and she saw him and was like 🤨 yeah I figured 🤨 he looks like a menace SKSKS

[aide-falls]

Hmm you prob already know some of these @chirp-a-chirp 😂

Last song: Fictional Men by Peggy (that song literally is my life 😅)

Last movie: umm no clue lol I’m not much of a movie person

Last show: people’s court I pretty much just throw it on and listen to it while I stock and clean at work (my coworker walked in and he was like what are you watching and I told him and he’s all “what are you? A divorced 40 year old woman” I was like … “no I’m a 27 year old divorced woman thank you very much!” 😂)

Currently watching: peoples court cuz I literally just got home from work and had it on there so finishing the episode before my nap

Currently Reading: Gilbert Route spoilers cuz unfortunately things have been hectic and crazy busy lately so haven’t really had the time to sit and actually read (literally haven’t even been able to start Fenn book 2 yet ☠️)

Current obsession: Jasper and COD Mc hate, Spreading the love for Guy, Toa, Tino, and Lance, and OFC Loving Johann Georg Faust, Sariel Noir, Gilbert Von obsidian, and surprisingly Severus Snape, and lately I’ve been obsessed with making my little cheesecake bunnies

@r-f-a-journalists I tag you!

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better.

Tagged by @seleneastra

Last song: I wanna be adored - The Stone Roses

Last movie: Saptapadi (1961)

Last show: Abbott Elementary S1 ( i was obsessed)

Currently watching: The Last of Us, Abbott Elementary S2

Currently reading: Maurice - E. M. Forster ( rewatched the movie recently and I had to check out the novel)

Current obsession: I've been obsessed with old Uttam Kumar movies recently, I mean you can't blame me, just look at the guy <3

Tagging: @beingdevipdf @deesi-academia @borah @rone-do-please @torivegafromindia @buckley-robin @little-wlw-froggie

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Ice Queendom Recaps: “Red, White, Black, Yellow”

Hello, RWBY fandom! It feels good to be back.

Technically I never left — still answering the occasional ask, just finished up "The Girl in the Tower" recap — but between the extra long hiatus and my continuing obsession with Our Flag Means Death, it feels like I've been out of the RWBY loop for a while. I wanted to start this post with that acknowledgement because I had assumed that's why I didn't realize that Ice Queendom had dropped the first three episodes. Sure, I got an anon asking my opinion of the reboot (AU? Rewrite? We're all a little unclear about that still), but I had thought that was just in preparation for the July 3rd premiere. So imagine my surprise when I did a bit of googling last night — just in case — and found a new trailer, then a three episode sneak peak, but it weirdly wasn’t on First, but it was on Crunchyroll, and (at the time) it was set to drop on YouTube at 1:00pm today, but only for a short period? Some fans had clearly seen the episodes already, yet there wasn't nearly the amount of posting I'd expect for a community-wide, anticipated drop, and official information seemed to be scarce ... but surely my confusion was simply a result of me taking a semi-break from keeping up with all RWBY info, right?

Ehhh...

This is an excerpt from MurderOfBirds’ tweet thread (URL posted at the end of the recap, in case tumblr is still being weird about links) and, if you've been in the RWBY community for any significant length of time, you'll understand my shock that he of all fans was calling RT out like this. To be honest, I don't have much to say beyond, "This is happening"? From what little I've gathered, fans seem to have enjoyed the IQ premiere — or at least, they haven't called for a salt and burning yet — but RT's relative success in that regard doesn't suddenly erase all the other problems surrounding RWBY as a franchise. RTX planning remains a mess, communication about upcoming projects is shoddy at best, RT's company culture is continually under fire, worries about Volume 9 and the upcoming video game haven't disappeared just because we've had little reason to discuss them lately, etc. Regardless of what we think about IQ as a story, it's coming into a tumultuous IP — to put it mildly.

Again, I fully acknowledge that I haven't been actively seeking out every bit of RWBY info lately, but the fact that I, someone who is generally working to keep up with the story, had to suddenly scramble to figure out how and when and why a big chunk of the new installment was releasing now is... not great. And apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way.

That said, let's get into the story proper. In case it's not abundantly obvious by the title, I've decided to keep these recaps separated by episode, despite 1-3 releasing as a single hour of content. You all know I can write enough for each, even with a lot of this plot being repeated. No sense in giving you all a dissertation to wade through lol.

Let's do it!

We begin, as we did originally, with Salem's voice-over telling us how the humanity of today came to be.

(Oh yay, a nice het-centric creation myth. Look, I really wasn't joking about being obsessed with OFMD right now. After months of canonical queer pirates, I'm feeling a little salty towards RWBY's version of queer rep. I won't get over it, sorry, but I promise I won't bitch about it too much.)

(Actually wait, one more point: I saw a post here — which I’ve now lost — where the author didn't seem terribly enthusiastic about IQ, but they said they'd forgive it if Blake and Yang made out in every upcoming scene and like yeah, joke-y posts are jokey-y, I love them, but AS IF. If IQ confirms Bumbleby I'll just straight up die of shock. You all can @ me in the afterlife.)

(But oh god can you IMAGINE if IQ confirmed the fandom's biggest ship before the webseries? Chaos. Calamity. An actual, defensible position for IQ being better. It would be a complete disaster, yeah... but potentially an entertaining one.)

Anyway, back to the plot. We go through a version of our opening speech and, frankly, I don't think the actress playing Salem sounds nearly as menacing as Taylor does. I've always cared more about the characters themselves than the actors playing them, so I don't have any big opinions on the casting here. This is just a little acknowledgement that, had I been watching IQ prior to RWBY, I never would have gone, "Oh, this is our villain" like I did during the webseries’ opening. At least not until the end of the episode when we get the more threatening dialogue. Regardless, the animation more than makes up for that, showing us not merely the paper-like history of humanity, grimm, and the rise of their combat capabilities, but far more visceral images like a man collapsing amidst a field of flames, very nearly succumbing to them. That sells the idea of humanity almost crumbling back to dust.

But then, “The smallest spark of hope brought forth a great light” and humanity discovers capital 'D' Dust, which allows them to maintain and spread civilization despite the grimm. Salem says that it was through their “power and ingenuity” that they secured it and I'm like... really? Because the animation just shows an almost-dead guy stumbling upon a glowing rock in the ground and presumably thinking, "Hey, that might be useful." Not sure there's much power and ingenuity in randomly finding a magic mineral lol.

With the history lesson out of the way, we find Ruby at Summer's grave with... a military-like march soundtrack? It's an intriguing choice and, combined with Ozpin’s introduction + Weiss' AU design, I'm curious to see how much this story will feed into RWBY's (badly managed) anti-military themes. Though introducing our simple soul protagonist with that vibe doesn't seem like a great start...

What is done well is the character work in this scene. Actually, that's something I want to praise about the episode as a whole: IQ is very good (so far) at developing the cast and the world, something it absolutely has over the original RWBY. Remnant feels lived in, the characters' stories are better intertwined — helped by making this episode a combination of the trailers and “Ruby Rose” — and I actually feel like they have internal lives they're living, rather than just existing as archetypal puppets under the Rule of Cool's strings. Sure, RWBY gets better at that as time goes on — I wouldn't care about the early Volumes like I do if the characters didn't feel engaging to me — but IQ nails it right from the start.

Case in point, Ruby isn't just staring at a mysterious grave that was added last minute because hell, why not. She's really talking to Summer, telling her all about how Yang made it into Beacon Academy and that she "always said she wanted to be a huntress." Such a small line of dialogue and yet suddenly Yang’s motivations better align with Ruby's. Rather than being the party girl just out for a good time (the club scene doesn't even make it into this episode, if it shows up at all), Yang always wanted to be a huntress, specifically — just like their mom. It stabilizes Yang's career path and helps sell the idea that one primary, personal conflict is how Ruby will break away from her sister's shadow: she's talking to Summer primarily about her "sis," she wants to be a huntress just like Yang, she's kinda jealous that Yang is already on her way — a nice detail that makes Ruby feel like a legit person with complex emotions — Tai is worried about his youngest standing on her own, and meanwhile Ruby is asking her mom, “What can I do to be more like [Yang]?” Frankly, this scene sells the idea of Yang raising and influencing Ruby far more than the entirety of Volumes 1 and 2 did. We can see how Yang has become the mother figure that Ruby is desperate to emulate, even as she says she also wants to follow in Summer's footsteps. From Yang and Tai talking about Ruby like they're the parents waiting on their wayward child, to the hug where Ruby is positioned more like the child as Yang holds her and looks to Summer —

I feel like the show has visually told me that Yang helped raise Ruby, episodes before we get to that talk with Blake. Sure, they're absolutely still playful sisters — and Yang calls Summer "Mom." No Raven complications just yet — but IQ changes the dynamic slightly, making Yang come across as more mature and, consequentially, more of a mentor figure for Ruby. Yang is someone Ruby needs to eventually step away from in order to forge her own path.

Also, love that they give them the exact same wink. Again, they're close and we can see Ruby mimicking some of Yang's mannerisms:

However, this is perhaps as good a time as any to admit that I don't really like the character designs? Outside of their normal outfits/distinguishing features, of course. I mentioned weeks back that I find their eyes to be creepy as hell and though I realize now that's a visual staple of the creator's... it doesn't change that I think they're creepy lol. Worse, there's something very doll-like about the models that makes my skin crawl. It's not too bad when we've got a fight sequence going on, but when Ruby is just standing there with her unnatural eyes, glossed lips, painted cheeks, kinda shiny skin like she might be made of porcelain...

Yeesh.

I don't know. I'm assuming this is purely a me problem (no doubt born from too many horror movies in my youth) and not every shot is bad! But some definitely make my brain go, "Nope, nope, nope, NOPE" in a very Uncanny Valley kind of way.

I mean sure, the animation quality is undoubtedly better, but original Ruby just looks more... real to me? You know? Does anyone else get that?

Yeah, I can't explain it well. It’s fine. Just don't let IQ!Ruby into my room at night, please.

We cut to Weiss standing before the garden monument — which I've only now realized is kinda weird. Who gives a snowflake wings? —  and she's approached by Klein who is, for all intents and purposes so far, a totally different character. There's no sign of his semblance (no real loss imo) and he's far more formal — deferential — towards Weiss than he’s ever been in the webseries. Gone is the chaotic, buddy-buddy dynamic they had and in its place is the far more common “Play-by-the-rules butler has a soft spot for the young mistress, allowing for a bit of parental love to shine through.” Think Carson with Lady Mary. Or even Alfred with Bruce. Though I’m personally a big fan of this character type—I’m an absolute sucker for love pushing up against class/social expectations/job formalities—this is a case where IQ arguably moves backwards. Rather than introducing a bit of depth like we saw between Ruby and Yang, we’ve reverted to a far simpler setup. Which, I want to emphasize, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think Klein is important enough to necessitate that creativity when being a fond, long-suffering butler serves the story just as well. It’s just an observation that they have stripped him of what made him stand out from the butler crowd.  

He tells Weiss that the “arrangements” have been made and they walk together to the ballroom where her final test is to take place. On the way we spot a day-drinking Willow from behind and the shot reminds me a bit of the comic panels:

and we also run into Whitley, still leaning smugly against the wall like he did in the webseries. This time though I’m reading him through the lens of the kid he is, rather than the scheming, Jacques Jr. that both stories seem to be going for. See: Whitley smirking from the shadows while Weiss walks through beams of beautiful light, finally settling between the pillars in the full sun. It’s not subtle.

This is one of a couple split-screens in our opening episode and though it’s a technique the webseries has made use of recently (think the Team RWBY vs. Ace Ops fight), personally it’s something that I think should be used sparingly. Like here, do we really need to get Klein’s reaction and, in the process, see the awkwardness of Weiss with half a face? Or, in a moment, a shot of her boots?

Next to the contrast of Weiss and Whitley, which actually serves a narrative purpose, these just feel unnecessary. Technique for the sake of technique.

We also get a shot of the family portrait as Weiss passes by. Nothing detailed unless you pause the episode, but it's a glimpse of that supposedly picture-perfect family right before we see it unravel. Whitley questions Weiss’ ability to pass this test, she tells him to just watch her do it, and then we get what I think is a damn solid line:

“I’ve always watched you, my fearless, foolish sisters."

We’ve got the story introducing that there's a third sibling before we see Winter at the test. There’s Whitley's quiet admission that yes, he's been watching them (looking up to them) for, presumably, years. Also an acknowledgement of those complicated emotions tied up in their choice to not just become Huntresses, but to use the career as a means of escaping their father's abuse when he, someone without combat skills, can't follow them. Is it foolish then, or fearless? Depends entirely on whether you have that option to begin with. This is a Whitley who, right from the start, feels like a kid struggling under an inability to follow in his sisters' footsteps, despite how the animation paints him as the shadowy antagonist, with the concept of paths and having to carve out your own tying in nicely with Blake's story.

Weiss arrives at the test where both Winter and Jacques are waiting for her. It puts them on fairly even footing — both watching this dangerous battle with detachment, both taking up the same position on opposite sides of the room — despite the fact that verbally Winter is more supportive of Weiss than Jacques has ever been in his life. Still, that parallel combined with Winter being "too busy" when Weiss leaves for Beacon and her cold approach to training her in the flashback makes this version of Winter seem far less welcoming than the original. “The powerless return to dust. That is the law of this world” she tells Weiss after she fails to defeat all of her summons (as seen in the Volume 5 short) and while that is a very cool line that hints at how Remnant's history has influenced the peoples’ philosophy, it’s also a damn bit more dismissive than Weiss promising to do better and Winter saying only that she hopes she can — she'll need it to escape. I can't imagine this Winter playfully batting Weiss' head and demanding information about the friends she's made.

I do want to emphasize that Weiss' entire story is much clearer for the audience though. We're told exactly who all these people are (at least in relation to one another). We've established that Weiss is undergoing a test to get into Beacon. We have a line about Klein releasing the grimm, right on the heels of our intro explaining wtf grimm are, and oh look, now she's fighting it. All of "Red, White, Black, Yellow" flows together more smoothly than the trailers + "Ruby Rose” do, meaning there's no mad scramble to, say, explain to the community that this is a flashback, Weiss got that scar during her fight—look, there’s a bit of blood—she’s singing on her father’s orders, yeah idk why exactly it’s just a thing she does, mhmm the fight is a test to get into Beacon, etc. I didn’t come into RWBY until Volume 3, but I remember finding old posts that worked to clarify the iffy canon of our trailers (and, indeed, acknowledging that some details like Ruby’s strength against the grimm remain in the realm of “Not canon, actually”) as well as explaining what precisely happened in each. None of that is necessary here. The only thing the scene doesn’t clarify is how a suit of armor is also a grimm, but failing to get into the possession abilities is small potatoes compared to the potential confusion we started out with.

Yet despite the obvious benefits of that clarity, the fight itself is just… fine? Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about it—except, perhaps, the weird glyph sound effects that I personally hate—yet even following much of the original choreography, I didn’t have an emotional investment in this fight like I did the White Trailer. I think a great deal of that comes down to the music. Though I’ve always agreed that the soundtrack is a huge part of RWBY’s personality, I didn’t realize quite how much of the emotion it carried until it was gone. The generic battle music of IQ just can’t compare to hearing

Mirror, mirror

Tell me something,

Who’s the loneliest of all?

…I’m the loneliest of all.

while Weiss is framed in front of the broken moon, expression stony, this epic moment inter-cut with her future self belting this lament, all right before she drives through the knight and lands, perfectly confident in her victory.

IQ!Weiss technically has the same combat beats of the original fight (with the exception of the knight’s sword nearly crushing Klein??), but it’s a completely different vibe. IQ!Weiss feels frantic at the end to me and her getting to coldly demand the Beacon reward from her father is a one-up moment that doesn’t jive with, say, Weiss later trying to muster up a fake smile in the elevator to convince her family that everything’s fine. She feels too confident, like she’s already won against Jacques and RWBY!Weiss’ journey (marred as it was by Volume 8) isn’t even on the table anymore. And, you know, maybe it’s not. Though the changes are subtle so far, this is already a very different version of Weiss. Personally, I prefer the theme of loneliness in the original: Weiss standing as the knight is obliterated behind her, bloody face fading into someone who, despite this victory, is still left standing there, alone on stage, performing for her father. She won the battle, but is still fighting the war.

(Gotta love shots like this though. The size difference! The scale! The seemingly insurmountable challenge!)

With a red leaf that looks a lot like a rose petal flying by—nice—we transition to Blake who is…

…Naruto running with Adam?

alksdfjalsjfa okay, cool.

Their section is pretty similar to the Black Trailer, though this time around Blake’s decision to leave feels like it’s really coming out of left field. I mean, she questions whether they’ll be fighting actual people, but Adam reframes that around Blake’s courage and there’s no visual cue from her that he’s wrong about that. Then we get a seemingly sweet moment where she doesn’t even look at the Atlas soldier behind her, knowing Adam’s got her back

and though she’s clearly not happy about Adam crashing the train when there are people on board, Blake doesn’t have that much of a reaction to it. She just walks over to the next car and severs the connection, leaving the audience with Adam’s supremely awkward line, “Are you betraying me? Betraying the White Fang?”

Easily the worst part of the episode for me 😬 You know you haven’t written a scene well when a character has to spell things out in the most heavy-handed way possible.

To be honest, I’ve always found the Black Trailer to be the weakest of the bunch and I don’t think IQ has succeeded in improving on it. If anything, I think having Blake sneak away while Adam is busy with the mech, only for him and the audience to both realize she’s on a different, separated car works better than… this. I suppose neither version really sells me on the idea that this was a breaking point for Blake and if it wasn’t, why leave now, right in the middle of a mission? Compared to the clarity of our other stories, Blake’s remains lacking in some respects.

We get to Ruby’s Dust shop robbery and, given that we’ve just gone through two of the trailers, I’m a little disappointed that the Red Trailer wasn’t included. Certainly it’s the least plot connected of the four and yes, they’ve done away with Yang’s too, but Ruby taking out a horde of grimm under a shattered moon is the defining image of the franchise—at least for me. It’s not just what IQ decided to cut out though. Like Weiss’ fight sending a very different message thanks to the time spent on clarifying her test and its consequences, the development of Ruby’s character pre-robbery means that we’ve lost the appealing surprise of who she really is. What I mean is, outside of the Red Trailer, the moment Ruby turns—tiny, bright-eyed, sporting headphones and a weapons magazine—is our first introduction to her and that particular image contrasts wonderfully with her kicking that goon to hell and back. I mean sure, we already know how such “surprises” work (especially in a combat webseries. It’s not really a surprise), but I still love the (supposed) shock of this child being cornered, but then turning around and kicking ass.

That doesn’t happen in IQ precisely because the show does a better job of developing Ruby beforehand. We’ve already watched her tell Summer about how she might be getting bad grades, but she’s an expert with weapons. She’s already visited a weapons store before popping into the Dust shop.

She’s already gushed over the weapons magazine and even quoted from it, rather than that existing purely as a background detail for the audience to catch. Hell, we’ve already seen Crescent Rose, at least in its compact state, which makes the robbery “reveal” no longer a reveal at all. There’s no, “Oh cool the vulnerable kid is actually a badass fighter! And she’s got a scythe!!” reaction because the show has established that as a firm part of Ruby’s characterization. We know about Yang and Beacon and Ruby’s long-term combat goals. This

just doesn’t have the same impact anymore.

It’s the same with Zwei. Do I love seeing my favorite pupper right in the first episode? Hell yeah. Have we now lost the opportunity to introduce him through the mail—another iconic RWBY moment? Also yeah.

Which, again, is not automatically a bad thing. This isn’t a case of “Choice A works, but Choice B doesn’t.” Although IQ’s timeline is arguably a more productive way to write a long-term story, in inevitably comparing it to the webseries, I can’t help but notice that we’ve lost a certain absurdity and, well, fun that’s a part of RWBY’s charm.

(That’s an awesome shot though. Love the lighting.)

So Ruby works her way through the goons—a combat sequence I quite enjoyed. Very liberal on the crunchy faces. Looked painful—and Roman runs through most of his original lines. This time he does comment, “Semblance? A Beacon Academy student?” when Ruby busts out the window, which both hints at the fact that semblances might be comparatively rare (remember that Roman doesn’t have one) and, by extension, highlights Ruby’s innate abilities. The fact that Roman assumes she must go to Beacon implies that only someone two years older than her could pull that kind of control off. Ruby, as the talented protagonist, has managed this early.

Roman throws his smoke bomb, runs up the building, Ruby follows him… calls him a thief even though technically he didn’t take any of the Dust with him lol. While they’re on the roof, Tai, Yang, and Zwei arrive on the scene, having grown worried when Ruby failed to return home at a normal time.

(Why is that clock so cool and why don’t I own it.)

Again, IQ does a really great job of fleshing out the world and the characters’ relationships, especially in just 20 minutes. I love that Ruby was out looking for a present for Yang (still bitter we never got to see what she bought her in Volume 6), that Yang and Tai have this conversation about Ruby’s growth, Zwei is being used as a bloodhound to track her, the fact that yeah, of course there are other civilians about and the police were called on scene.

Personally, I think there’s a nostalgic charm to RWBY’s shadow people, but it’s still true to say that animating actual characters responding to situations goes a long way towards making your world feel lived in. 

Also, can I just SHOUT FROM THE ROOFTOPS that Tai is out looking for his daughter? I never cared about his character much until post-Volume 3 when the fandom started dragging him for… well, everything. How dare you make a joke your daughter clearly loved. How dare you tell her the truth in an effort to keep her from losing another limb—or her life. (Which, I will always point out now, happened! Yang stupidly jumped in front of Ruby, just like she stupidly charged Adam, and Neo killed her!! You have a ranged weapon, Yang, oh my god—) How dare you fail to follow one kid while the other is at home with severe depression. How dare you not follow both when [checks notes] you’re not a part of the primary plot. Tai really went the way of Ozpin and Ironwood (pre-Volume 8 Ironwood, anyway) where potential mistakes are declared unforgivable sins and… that’s it. You’re Remnant’s #1 Worst Dad. Sucks to be you.

So hell yeah, good on IQ for reminding everyone that Tai, even an AU Tai, is of course worried sick over his missing kid and will do whatever he can to help her. Double kudos for managing that alongside a slight increase in mom!Yang energy.

Glynda (my beloved) shows up and does her thing. Cinder never comes out to fight them, but we still see her piloting the airship, which is interesting. At least, it is to me given that I’d assumed going into IQ that a lot of the larger plot-lines would be dropped in favor of the new story: the White Fang, Cinder’s lust for power, even Salem herself. Obviously that’s not the case, so now I’m wondering if IQ is like an interlude type story? We get a mostly-the-same Volumes 1-2, then a totally new adventure, then the implication that the characters go back to a version of the original tale with Relics, Maidens, la de da? We’ll have to see.

After Ruby DOESN’T ask for Glynda’s autograph (tragic) and she’s getting her lecture while Tai and Yang wait at the station, Ozpin shows up to… salutes?

That’s a choice.

You know how I was saying that Whitley’s characterization feels more in line with where he’ll end up several Volumes later? Well, Ozpin’s characterization feels more in line with where the show says he ends up several Volumes later… even though they never actually wrote that. Meaning, this is an Ozpin introduction that actually implies an ulterior, morally gray motive. This is a guy that does feel sketchy to me.

Let’s tally the details.

Ozpin arrives at the station—now overtly a police station and not the ambiguous closet of the webseries—and is saluted by everyone there. He doesn’t wave the formality aside with discomfort or anything, but takes it as a given. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that was Ironwood walking into the room.

He still gives Ruby cookies, but this time we see that he didn’t arrive with them. Meaning, he must have made one of the officers scrounge them up which, while still potentially just a nice gesture, feels like it has more potential for manipulation. More “Do the work for me so I can look good to the kid” rather than, “I heard Glynda had you in her clutches and brought cookies from home to soothe that :D”

Ruby never gives her passionate speech about wanting to help people like her parents taught her to and how Beacon is her plan to do that. So although the fandom has long assumed that Ozpin invited her partly due to her Silver Eyes—an assessment I agree with—that motivation feels far more prominent without Ruby overtly wanting to come. At least, she doesn’t tell Ozpin she wants to come. Now, instead of making Ruby’s wish come true (with the added benefit of assisting Ozpin’s war) Ozpin offers a place seemingly out of the blue, still putting some focus on Ruby’s combat skills, far more on those special, Silver Eyes. This feels like a recruitment now, not a benevolent gesture towards a family friend’s kid.

Going off of that, there’s no playful banter between Ozpin and Glynda about Ruby getting in early. This Ozpin has very little of the kind, fatherly energy of the webseries.

Finally, we see Ozpin talking to Tai afterwards and though Tai is quite taken with Ruby getting to skip two years, it’s not like Ozpin is asking his permission here. Sure, sure, we could get into the question of how much agency Remnant kids actually have—Blake’s parents are cool with her going off to Beacon after being missing for a time, no one is looking for Oscar, etc.—but the point is that twice, once before meeting Ruby and once after, Ozpin has the chance to offer Tai this opportunity for his daughter, but very overtly does not. He says that he will be speaking to Ruby. He says that she will be attending Beacon. He’s in control here.

The combination of this creates a far less approachable, more calculating Ozpin. AKA, the kind of Ozpin that RWBY failed to write, but the fandom insists is there in an effort to make the fury in Volume 6+ make sense. I’m not sure how I feel about it? On the one hand yeah, I’m glad to see IQ setting the stage for future reveals. This is an Ozpin who really might be puppeteering this war in a way the cast can be justifiably disgusted by. Yet on the other hand, it doesn’t feel much like Ozpin to me. Though small changes have been made to all the characters, they still feel like themselves (Klein being the exception). Ozpin though… there’s no interest in Ruby’s passion, no teasing Glynda, no intimacy with Tai. Seriously, go back and watch “Ruby Rose.” We’ve got Ozpin’s dad-like concern over Ruby using one of the “most dangerous weapons every designed,” his clear fondness for his “dusty old crow,” offering the cookies only after Ruby has explained herself a bit and her actually eating them (comfortable in his presence/trusting what he gives her), the eye-twitch when she talks with her mouth full, fond smile as Ruby gushes about her uncle, laughing a little at her karate chops, “adorable girl,” the very stern “You want to come to my school?” which forces Ruby to clearly state her own goals and desires (that oh so conveniently align with his), THIS

I mean, Ozpin is a dad. I feel like that’s a very crucial part of his characterization. He’s a romantic who settled down, had kids, does the stupid voices while reading his beloved fairy tales… and then his life went to absolute shit. He’s an exhausted dad who is still fighting because he believes wholeheartedly that the world is worth fighting for. He’s exactly the kind of guy who would bring a talented kid cookies and let her skip two years, all while ensuring her happiness benefits humanity somehow.

This guy feels like a creep—and that’s not just because of the weird doll features.

So good for the fandom, finally has a legitimately suspicious Ozpin to embrace? Yay IQ laying the groundwork for future plot-points? But as my favorite character, I wish we had Ozpin back. Especially since he’s only existed as an extension of Oscar for the past five Volumes, one everyone uses as a punching bag.

Maybe his characterization will change in the upcoming episodes? :(

We near the end of “Red, White, Black, Yellow” with a bit of additional worldbuilding slapped onto the trailer content. Weiss learns from Winter that there are hard rules to their totally-not-magic system—“Your Aura can only take a direct attack once or twice at most. The moment you’re hit, you’re finished”—and that’s reiterated by Glynda to Ruby: “Is your Aura strong enough to stop every bullet they fired?”

Cue me CACKLING at, like, every single RWBY fight ever. Will IQ do what the webseries couldn’t and actually stick to its own rules? We’ll have to see…

Blake is off in a… barn? Some isolated place with a bag of supplies now. She gets her admission notice from Beacon and I have to wonder when she took that exam. Was it before she left Adam, thereby making her leaving him feel a little less random? Was it after her escape and she’s been, what? Just running through grimm infested territory since then, popping into Beacon once for a quick test? Why didn’t she ever go home?? Yeah, there are still aspects that don’t quite add up for me. Regardless, Blake gets teary and says that now she’s really able to follow a “different path.”

Klein sends Weiss off with faith that she’ll carry on the legacy of Master Nicholas Schnee and, after Ruby tells Tai that she’ll make a ton of friends at Beacon (that’s a change in characterization), we finish with them all boarding the same transport. We then get a really lovely moment where both Weiss and Blake stare at their reflection on opposite sides of the ship, mustering up a smile.

Watching OFMD grow as a fandom these last few months, I’ve gotten to see a lot of people question certain fandom trends that have popped up, including asking, “Wait, people ship that?” Ignoring for the moment that you obviously don’t need a reason beyond, “I like it,” we can usually pinpoint why fans end up liking that particular duo (or trio). The important takeaway here is that it doesn’t take much—at ALL—to spark that interest. This moment is a perfect example of that. Blake and Weiss are set up to parallel and contrast one another. One is the rich heiress harming the faunus. The other is the (right now reading as) poor faunus fighting the heiress. They’ve got that Romeo and Juliet potential—two houses not meant to join—and yet we also see, right here, that they’re so much more alike than either will initially believe. They’re separated now, haven’t yet met, are literally on opposite sides of the transport, and yet they both go through the exact same motions of sighing in relief at making it in time, catching sight of themselves in a reflective surface, considering who they are, and then smiling. There’s so much potential there! We in the RWBY fandom know that Bumbleby and White Rose are the two heavy-hitters, but right now Weiss hasn’t met Ruby and Blake hasn’t met Yang. I guarantee that if IQ were its own show and we were waiting a week for the next, totally original episode, fans would be all over Monochrome as the primary ship. It would have sunk its teeth into the community from that alone and even if IQ went the way of RWBY, splitting them up and starting numerous moments of other shipping potential (Weiss slowing coming to care for Ruby, Yang opening up to Blake, etc.) there’s a good chance that Blake/Weiss would have hung on like whoa, just from this moment and a week of theorizing alone. Never doubt the power of fans to imagine up the most epic romances from a single, thematically loaded shot.

We’re given our first glimpses of Jaune (vomiting), Nora (hanging onto Ren), Ren (suffering, but he likes it), and Pyrrha—taking up most of the screen as Salem says that “even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die.”

I can’t go through this again 😭

At least that’s a WAY better introduction for Pyrrha than being Jaune’s background, quirky girl...

And, of course, we end on a close-up of Ruby as Ozpin talks about small sparks and simple souls igniting the most change.

(I’m sorry she looks so creepy here hOW IS THAT NOT A MURDER DOLL??)

So, just to summarize, there's really good character work throughout this episode. Not only are the introductions tighter and better interwoven with Remnant's worldbuilding, but IQ does a decent job of setting up future themes, conflicts, and — if the plot circles back to canon — foreshadowed events like Pyrrha’s death. Basically, this is what happens when you take your story through another draft. This is RWBY with an eye towards what did and didn't work the first time around.

Yet for all that praise... I have to admit that a certain spark is missing. Yes, the animation is so much better, but as said, there's something charming about RWBY's janky movements and shadow people. Yes, the characters' introductions fit more neatly into the story-world now, but it was exciting to get individual action trailers, unsure at first how they would develop into a plot-driven narrative. No, there's no reason to waste time on silly things like Jaune being Vomit Boy, but the lack of stupid humor in this premiere makes me feel like a crucial part of RWBY is missing. There's no disappearing cookies, or Ruby being chill about Yang kicking men out of club windows, or karate chops, or (and this is a real travesty imo) a cringey "Can I have your autograph??" towards Glynda. Maybe it's that we're nearly a decade out from the original air date and tastes have changed, or maybe it's just straight up nostalgia on my part, but for however good IQ is so far, it doesn't feel like it has the same heart that RWBY did — and I don't think it's capable of recreating that. RWBY was a specific storm of Monty + 2013 + the appeal of a group of fans doing something fun in their basement over something objectively "good," and who knows what else thrown into the mysterious pot of success. You literally can't recreate that, especially when so much of RWBY's fanbase are adults now, unable to return to their teenage years — or even just the eight years younger version of themselves if they were adults the first time around — and the headspace of when they first fell in love with the story. That doesn't make IQ bad by any means (and it may well get its own fanbase of first-time viewers). I really enjoyed this first episode... but I enjoyed it in the way I enjoy lots of other well-made, but kinda generic anime. Without it already being a RWBY story and without RWBY having caught my imagination back when it did, I don't think I would have gotten hooked on IQ in the same way. The premier is good, arguably far, FAR better than "Ruby Rose" ever was, and yet, whether due to time, nostalgia, or something else entirely, RWBY still feels like it comes out on top. It’s just got... something that IQ lacks.

Not that it's a competition, of course, though certain members of the fandom seem to believe quite strongly that it should be. More because they’d like a built-in reason to drag anyone with a criticism of IQ/RWBY than because they actually believe two versions of a story can’t co-exist.

But I digress.

With that, we've completed "Red, White, Black, Yellow"! At a measly 6,000 words, no less. (I’m apologizing now for the inevitable typos. It’s past 1:00am now and I can’t read through this again...) As is abundantly obvious, these recaps take a long time to write and this sneak peek has, quite unexpectedly, dropped the equivalent of three weeks worth of RWBY content into my lap all at once. Normally I'd have no problem buckling down to write the next episode, but I have a number of fic commitments at the start of July that I can't afford to ignore. So writing time will be going towards those, first and foremost, with me continuing to work on Ice Queendom on the side. I hope to have the next episode recapped in the next few days — at the latest — but that depends entirely on how kind the writing Gods are to me this week.

So stay tuned and, as always, thanks for reading! <3

MurderOfBirds' Twitter Thread: https://twitter.com/MurderofBirds_/status/1540414268457340928

[hausofmamadas]

SEÑOR DILF-OF-THE-AGES | The Man who never fails to give us a reason, Benjamín Arellano Fèlix

♫ To the tune of Portishead’s Glory Box ♫

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Okkkkkk, so i recently reblogged a masterful vid of Mín and Món to the tune of Portishead’s Glory Box by @mmasalva. Go watch it -> here if you have seen it yet. Forreal watch it , you moops. In my reblog, i gave a too long winded explanation/personal anecdote about why i loved the vid with that specific song sooi much and mentioned that i might still finish cobble together a Mín exclusive edit to the same song (for reasons explained in the OG post.)

Bc literally, 3-4 days prior to seeing mmsalva’s video, i started putting together (what became) this video, yknow gathering all my raw footage n shit. Lo and behold, the day i uploaded everything into Adobe Premium Rush was the same day i found mmsalva’s video. But since i’d already started (and this might be a new thing that i maybe do now? like character appreciate videos for all 4 of my adoring fans), i decided to finish the thing. I included the OG reblog with my boring personal detritus master’s thesis of why i love the song/character combo below if anyone is interested. idk some parts of it are kind of funny or whatever idk (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞

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taglist: @criatividad-e @tinylittleobsessions @cositapreciosa @purplesong1028 @ashlingnarcos @ashlingnarcos @narcolini @bellinitini @kesskirata @carlislecullenisadilf @cherixrosa @artemiseamoon @fleurfatale89 @narcos-narcosmx @narcosmx @thesolotomyhan

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‘ “Glory Box” is an Australian term for a piece of furniture where women store clothes and other items in preparation for marriage.

The song is about a woman who is frustrated by love and ready to give up on her relationship. The lines, “Give me a reason to love you / Give me a reason to be a woman / I just wanna be a woman,” are a plea to her partner, asking that he treat her with equality and respect, especially in the bedroom.’ -> via Songfacts

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Ttrolololool so, gather round, my children, i’m going to tell an amusing story …… aka tune in for another installment of shit no one asked for. On this week’s episode: me over sharing about my private life and how i’ve read way too much into the connection between Portishead’s Glory Box and the place our sweet Benjamín Arellano Félix occupies in the Narcos Mexico fanfic imagination

So.

Watched the show Yellowjackets for the first time maybe 2(ish) weeks ago.

While watching, to my delight, Portishead’s song Glory Box plays at the end of the 2nd episode (also everyone go fucking watch Yellowjackets if you haven’t seen it).

Now, i used to be OBsessed with Portishead in high school and this song was prob an important facet of my BIsexual awakening.

Around the time i started watching the show, my boyfriend and i ended our 5 year long relationship ….. well the first of technically 3 breakups in quick succession …

Long story short, we had, on-the-whole, a wonderful, harmonious relationship like 95% of the time and still love each other. But we got together really young (like 21-22yrs young)

And bc we were stupid young, there are a lot of gendered dynamics and bullshit that we were both subconsciously conditioned to believe about sex and relationships, and in turn that fed some seriously dysfunctional relationship patterns all of which are complicated and boring. HOWMever

In this whole break-up process (sweet fuck has it been a process bc when you live together, basically is like breaking up in slow motion…), i learned that one of the fucked up, sociocultural things that i internalized was that as a sexually liberated woman, i had to be sexually adventurous in the same way and at the same time as my (mostly male) partners.

Otherwise, I wasn’t a “true” feminist, and in fact, would be prudish, immature, slut-shamey, to be any other way, regardless of what I wanted as a person.

And this manifested in sideways, fucked dynamics - namely, him not respecting my boundaries bc i never actually established them bc i didn’t even really know i could, not even bc of him but just bc of ppl generally? but then making me emotionally responsible for his feelings about my boundaries in a way that was lyke uncool.

There were also a lot of internalized misogynistic norms on his end around showing/processing emotions (i.e. i’m a dude, so i shouldn’t feel or express them externally unless it’s anger. but not too angry bc i don’t want to scare ppl -> that kit n kaboodle)

We broke up for more reasons but these were the 2 main areas of conflict.

SO, when i heard this song that i loved in high school, but older and the tiniest (teensiest, tiniest) bit wiser, i had this epiphany …

See, the song gets a lot of flac for being anti-feminist or reinforcing traditional gender norms and taken at face value, a line like “give me a reason to be a woman,” could be interpreted that way, i suppose.

BUT ACTUALLY the entire song is about wanting to be treated like a three-dimensional, sexual autonomous being.

She’s obv pleading with a partner, but she’s also appealing to the world to respect her human desires and especially sexual agency, whether that be wanting to do the sexing all the time or not at all

Instead of viewing her as an object for gratification or an emotional caretaker, instead of viewing her as a woman in this one, very rigid, specific way (exhibit: “for I’ve been a temptress too long”), she’s asking for the world to respect and validate her sexual/intimate boundaries and her personhood.

So, when she says “give me a reason to love you / give me a reason to be a woman,” she’s asking N O T to be relegated to the narrow definition we associate with femininity/being a woman (both born&trans bc this definition is applied to both just in different, albeit comparably fucked, ways) …….. and trans women are fucking women - not even gonna acknowledge attempts at discussion on that shit. nothing. no, no hay nada. Fine if you don’t agree - nottttt the arena for it, not gonna do it. Srsly, i dare you to test my patience with that shit sksksks cause i’m a deranged, emotional wreck rn. So, shut tf up and enjoy the rants&gifs k thx

She’s actually saying, “hey, it’d be cool if you saw me as a person, as the woman i am, allow me to be a full human, respect my boundaries. u do dat….then maybe, my mans, juuuust fucking maybe ………. you can Get. It.”

Because what’s hotter than someone n o t making you a vessel for their own backwards ass, fucked up, emotional & sexual baggage and instead, recognizing and honoring your individual wants, needs, and boundaries, sexual or otherwise, as a person, in a tangible and meaningful way…?

…………………………….. wait for it

…………………………….. wait for it

…………………………….. waaaaait foooooor it

-

FUCKING NOTHING ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-

Which brings me to the whole point of my post…. Our sweet, respectful dilfest Dilf that ever dilfed, honorary DILF of the century, yes, yes that Dilf, así es Benjamín Arellano Félix

Many a headcannon and fanfic has been written about this sweet yung King, all of which i have enthusiastically consumed to the point of genuinely questioning my own sanity along with other Narcos fandom related content

And in so consuming, i noticed the majority of the OG Narcos/Nmx Tumblr fandom all 12 of us seems to have separately yet overwhelmingly concluded that Benjamín Arellano Félix fucks is aftercare king special, wait wut very likely will go down on you for hours not even a single syllable uttered asking you to return the favor… whoops, nope sorry the most generous partner/lover in the entire Narcos universe.

I have a number of primary & secondary sources to which i can refer to, lest any of ye remain unconvinced… there’s this one, also this one, ope! can’t forget about that one, oh and where was that other one, oh here, yes i found it

I can’t begin to speculate what it actually is about the character, just based on what we see on the show, that gives us all this impression.

Yes, he’s a very Not!shit husband to his wife Ruth, a great dad, but it’s a show about the Mexican drug trade, so like, admittedly …the bar isn’t high.

Perhaps it’s Alfonso Dosal’s stunning jawline, cut like the limestone bricks used to construct the pyramids of Giz– do! did i get sidetracked again? so sorry, where was i… performance? I’m still not entirely sure why the consensus came to be. But gorl👏🏼did👏🏼it👏🏼ever👏🏼

So, when i heard the song, and because i’m in the midst of my own personal turmoil, the braincell went straight to Señor Dilf-for-the-Ages, Benjamín

Who’s really just a figurehead/symbol for the like healthy romantic/intimate partner relations that i will require and demand in my next relationship whenever that is particularly if it’s with another dude

I mean i can’t be the only one he represents that for though, right? Cause like, literally everyone who stans OGNarcos/Nmx, even if they’re not heart eyes for that character, have all agreed is the dude out of todos otros pinche morros😂that could and would give us a reason … Or at least, a “reason” in the spirit of what this song is all about

SO BASICALLY RIGHT? I’m like new into making gifs n shit and i hear this song in Yellowjackets, entirely unrelated to Narcos

AND GET THE IDEA TO MAKE A BENJAMIN TRIBUTE VIDEO WITH THIS EXACT SAME FUCKINGGGGG SONG

Like, literally in the middle of editing it …….. only to find out it already exists albeit not Mín exclusive but STILL

and it’s just- okay like, i was lowkey mad at the amount of time i spent when this is 100x better than whatever tf shit i was doing😂

but that is largely overshadowed by feelings of pure, unadulterated joy that this combo exists, just out in the world. Bc it needs to.

And now that i know i’m not the only one who sees that, just feel v seen and heard, which i need now more than ever . Cause aherm, i’m loike g o i n g t h r u a quarter-life crisis thing

Still may do an edit of my own that’s Mín exclusive, we’ll see. -> joke’s on me cuz i did sjsjsjjsjsjsj

[cosmoglaut]

Since I’m watching a lot of ZZH dramas, I thought I would put up links in one place for myself, and for others in case they want to get obsessed with (or, y’know, just normally like to check) this fucking gorgeous man.

WARNING: LONG POST. I don’t want to use Read More cut.

0. Nirvana in Fire (2015) (54 episodes)

This is an obsession that gripped me so badly that I didn’t even liveblog and inflict it upon others. I have already finished this once and am on my rewatch. I was going to put it last because I thought I would list them in the order I have watched, but this deserves to be on top.

I DO NOT GET INTO FICS THAT EASILY and yet, I have already consumed a few!

To be fair, ZZH has a very minor role in this. He plays the younger version of main character Lin Shu. And if you watch it on youtube, his scenes are edited out now  🖕 so I won’t link youtube here.

Main actors in this series are:

Hu Ge  (who I didn’t expect to be get swept by and honestly this much handsomeness in a single person should not be allowed), who plays main character Lin Shu/Mei Chgansu/Su Zhe. Intrigued? GOOD!

Liu Tao who plays Princess Mu Nihuang who is a badass, smart princess.

Wang Kai (just hearteyes all over ok?) who plays Prince Jing, Xiao Jingyan, and has just the kind of chemistry with Lin Shu that my id craves for. (Let me just say, loyalty kink in the series is just off the charts.)

The story is that of revenge, political machinations, love, friendship (or in my case, just ship), with liberal amount of humor sprinkled. If main cast is brilliant, the supporting cast is just as phenomenal. It’s 6 years since the series, and people are still discovering it, getting crayzy over it. So much so that Hu Ge posted a happy 6th anniversary msg on weibo! It already has a sequel NiF 2 (haven’t watched yet), and its triquel was announced recently (I read about that on 15th Oct 2021) slated for 2024.

Even though I wanted to watch it to get my ZZH fills, it didn’t matter that he was in it for a small bit. I have already drowned in it. I have cried, sobbed, laughed, had my heart racing, felt such a dejection on Lin Shu’s behalf, felt utter vindication of him, and finally had my heart ripped out. I know an obsession as they have been long time friends. And this is An Obsession™. 

SO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED ALREADY and come cry with me 😭😭

Available with original scenes on viki Downloads: working torrent 1, working torrent 2, viki subs

For viki subs download, you will be required to join the NiF community. But it’s absolutely worth because the subs that came with the torrent were butchered version of viki subs. I was EDITING AS I WAS REWATCHING, no thanks. Also, viki episodes are a bit low rez, but still good to watch.

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1. Legend of Yunxi (2018) (48 episodes)

Han Yunxi (Ju Jingyi), a daughter of an Imperial doctor is married off to oh-so-stoic-but-oh-so-gorgeous Prince Qin, Long Feiye (ZZH). It’s a marriage both don’t want but are saddled with now. Yunxi, who’s a potions genius, gets embroiled in all kinds of political intrigue due to her association with Prince Qin. Both start respecting each other and fall in love. Although path of love isn’t easy as there’s another suitor who’s trying to win over Yunxi. In terms of tags:

#love triangle #historical drama #superb female characters #gorgeous ZZH #excellent political machinations #BAD ENDING #Alternate ending available

Highly recced 😍 in spite of the fact that I thought the romance angle of the series was bleh (cause I don’t care about love triangle). But the last vertex is Mi Re (Merxat) who’s just too good looking. And uh... gives off vibes of both WWX and WKX in the beginning episodes?

Available on youtube and viki. If you want to download, do that here (hardcoded eng subs)

As a rule of thumb, viki has better subtitles, but youtube has better resolution. YT also has alternate endings. I d/l-ed and watched. Those episodes have viki subs so that’s actually a good thing.

*******************************************************************************************

2. Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion (2020) (40 episodes + 3 spin-off episodes)

Unofficial sequel of LoYX due to its BE. It ACTUALLY mentions the story of Yunxi in this series, like, Yunxi is canon in this verse 😂 People couldn’t get enough of ZZH+Ju Jingyi, so have another cake!

Fu Rong (again Ju Jingyi) accidentally crosses paths with Prince Su, Xu Jin (ZZH), and keeps crossing them again and again. Well, there’s love and then marriage and simultaneously a whole lot of other things happen. Yet again, there’s a love triangle 🙄 which is fairly stupid. In fact, the entire plotline felt all over the place. Also, the cast from LoYX is recycled, so you see same actors (which ok since they’re good.) Some got better deal in this. Absolute must mention are Wang Youshuo who plays the character of Wu Baiqi, an eventual lieutenant under  Prince Su.  He is the love interest of Fu Rong’s older sister Fu Xuan played by frankly unbelievably beautiful Xu Jiaqi (who also has a vital role in LoYX). More than the primary romance of Fu Rong and Prince Su, I loved this secondary one! Wang Youshuo was fantastic! Also, Rong household gave me a strong vibe of Bennet household.

Tbh, if you watch LoYX twice instead of this one, no big loss, but consider this: ZZH smiles and laughs a lot more in this 🥺🥺 And well, his acting is amazing as usual. Isn’t that enough 🥺🥺 Although, given how popular it got, you may like it more than I did. And it actually is very likeable if you don’t expect the plot to hold too tightly! I never felt like I should give up on it.

40 main episodes available on youtube and viki

Spin-offs (or special episodes)

I kid you not, this is a modern reincarnation AU that they ACTUALLY FILMED. Because people STILL couldn’t get enough of ZZH+Ju Jingyi. I am completely onboard with that kind of sentiment. Links:

Special episode 1

Special episode 2

Special episode 3

And because IT’S STILL NOT ENOUGH, HAVE A LAST BITE OF THEIR ROMANCE (what you thought just because I put 3 sp ep in the title, there’ll be only 3? *hmphs at your innocence*)

Special episode 4

#overload of ZZH 💗💗🥴

[staytotheend]

Thanks so much @aleng-neng for the tag!! Oh my goodness there are so many shows I don’t even know where to start😭😭

Watched:

Love In The Air

I think the last show/drama I finished was lita and honestly I will never move on. The plot, characters, actors, just everything blew me away. It’s so sad knowing that each week I won’t have my PayuRain or PrapaiSky with me. The love scenes were brilliant and added a little bit more spice in such an inventive way. There was a mix of everything; love, trauma, flirting, danger, kidnapping, and so much more. The way issues were presented was absolutely amazing and the way they were resolved or focused upon even more so. This show stole my heart!!

On-air shows I’m following:

Between Us

I don’t even know where to start with this one. Win and Team had my heart ever since UWMA came out. I’ve waited years for the drama and can say with confidence I am thoroughly enjoying myself!! There are so many things I love; Win asking in such a loving and patient way for consent, the flirting dynamic between the couple, the way Team deals with his trauma, and honestly everything else. The side couple are adorable!! ABC are hilarious!! I could talk for hours about how much this show has hooked me.

Gap The Series

Ok, I don’t have a lot to say about this drama only because I’m one episode in (I’m so behind!! I really need to catch up😭😭). I have been excited to see how it turns out with the whole boss and employee dynamic. From what I’ve seen so far and the spoilers that I’ve come across the couple seem so cute!! Once I have time I’ll definitely be watching all the episodes that are out so far.

Choco Milk Shake

Going into this show I didn’t know what to expect, but I soon fell in love with all the characters. Both couples were so cute!! I haven’t watched the last two episodes yet😭😭 I don’t think I’ve spoiled much, but I don’t want this drama to finish!! It was pure fluff!!

Watching when the mood strikes:

Big Dragon

I started watching this drama a few weeks ago and binged the first few episodes. The first episode was… something. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole ‘drugging’ thing, but besides that it’s interesting to see where these characters will go. The bodyguards are my actual favourite!! I haven’t finished the series yet, but I so hope they get together!! They’re adorable but also oblivious at the same time😂😂 I took a break from watching for a while, but I can’t wait to get back into it. There’s a lot going on so I have to be in the mood to focus on everything.

Last binge:

Love In The Air

One does not simply watch lita once🤪🤪 I’m seriously obsessed, if I’m ever bored or need a break from other shows I’m immediately searching up my favourite boys.

Rewatching:

Not Me The Series

A while ago I began watching Not Me again. Offgun have a hold on me and the whole plot of the series was brilliant!! I’ve never seen anything like it before. There was also so much cinematic beauty!! A truly inspirational drama that showed love, pain, politics, trauma, and family. Offgun and the other actors did such an amazing job, I’m so proud of them.

Planning to watch:

There are literally so many more dramas I want to watch. First I have to finish the ones I’m already watching, and then I’ll probably start Business Proposal, Ghost House, and War of Y.

Tagging

@dream-thief-forever-amen @lovinglioninacoldcat @tswizzlesfan @fluidsoul31

I’d love to know what you guys are watching😊😊

Reveal Your Watch & Rewatch List

Thanks for the tag @lelephantsnail! (Warning: I will complain)

Watched:

1974: La posesión de Altair (Complaining)

The plot twist was unexpected and not in a good way. The plot? Boring. The characters? Mediocre and one of the four ensemble cast was just there to be exposition. The visuals? I actually like it a lot, one of the better Found Footage Movie for me. The sound effects? Not so much, I feel like it'd be better if they didn't use any at all to ham in the Found Footage immersion of it all.

On-air shows I'm following:

Between Us

If I loved it less I might be able to talk about it more. I love the dynamics between Team and Win very much. The angst is getting too long, get fluffy or get spicy this limbo is making me cry. TulWaan . . . THEY WON ME OVER. Tul's voice going down an octave while Waan cutely glowers, let me at them and I'll smash their lips together.

My School President

Here comes the, so far, consistent dessert of the week. So helpful, when Team is busy getting locked out of Win's door. There is a sincerity to the way this is written and played, charmingly youthful and musical.

The Warp Effect (Mild Complaining)

No one come at me but I'm not the biggest fan of P'Jojo's style *dodge tomatoes* but this one is setting up a tapestry I can't wait to see unravel. What happened with Molly? Could one kiss that the Main Lead didn't even consent on and initiate worth falling out with your friends? There's more than that and I'm all ears and glued eyes. Hoping for a V poly with Kat and Army 🙏

Still, I'm not quiet sure how to approach this to get maximum entertainment and satisfaction.

Gap The Series (Complaining my heart out)

*pulling out my anti-tomato forcefield*

The only thing saving this show is the chemistry between the leads and the novelty of GL.

I'm sorry but Business Proposal did the boss-employee trope the best this year and I couldn't help but compare.

And I can't believe they cut out the second couple in this. DISGRACE! I was looking forward to them. ☹

And I think it's the writing. (It's probably the writing) But I think I only like tsunderes in written and animated mediums, seeing this level of tsundere in live-action is grating.

Watching When The Mood Strikes:

Eternal Yesterday

Watched one ep and knew this is one of those shows that I gotta keep saved up for rainy days.

Big Mouth (Complaining)

Hoping this show picks up by ep 4 if not I'm dropping it. Law School, was a better lawyers/law students kdrama for me. And in terms of political intrigue, there are tons out there that did it better. There hasn't been one character I particularly like so 🤷‍♀️

Last Binge:

Cunk On Earth

Good show. The one line that I kept thinking of and laughing darkly in a way that I shan't and won't examine too closely is, "The Ancient Egyptians believed that the most significant thing you can do in your life was die." (narrated while Cunk stumbles and rolls down desert sand hill).

Rewatching:

Business Proposal

This is one of the better executed show that did a boss-employee dynamic. It occupies the same place in my heart as My School President which are nigh-predictable shows with nothing new but executed so well its entertaining and sincere.

Plan to Watch:

There are too many shows and not enough time. Though, I'd probably watch a fantasy or historical cdrama next.

Tagging

@persephonedevoted @onnasannomiya @athousandbyeol @staytotheend @stonnhuelaan @bespectacled-tea-lover

I wanna know what you guys are watching

[nevernotnotnotting]

im rewatching doctor who with my partner (they’ve never seen it, ive watched up to s9 but haven’t finished it and haven’t watched dw in years- I was obsessed as a teen tho)

we just finished s2 and ive come to the realisation that i hate it. i do not like it. its not enjoyable to me. love and monsters?? are you kidding me?? the fuckin 50s tv one?? the cat hospital?? like there are episodes that i think are objectively good that i just don’t enjoy (impossible planet/satan pit is fascinating, and there’s a lot of interest with the parallel world stuff) but overall i just really really /really/ dislike rose and ten together. don’t like it.

theyre insufferable, they’re not nearly human enough (like dw as a whole does treat a lot of serious stuff without gravity, but this season is atrocious for it - it’s like the second he regenerated ten went ah it’s all fine now!! im over the time war it’s fine (: never mind that his entire planet and species died a year or two ago for him), and everything that they have holding them together seems to be what happened when the doctor was a completely different person (ie before he regenerated). he’s important to her not bc of who he is now but bc of what they went through and who he was before he regenerated, and she’s important to him because she’s his only family since the time war.

they remind me of a couple who’s been married for like 5 years, but they got married while like they were in school or one of them was in the military or something and now that their circumstances have changed the only thing holding them together is the fact that they’re already together. like they love each other- but why? what do they actually love about each other? their history, that’s 95% of it. ive had this opinion for years about them as a ship, but frankly I’m realising this about them as any kind of relationship, platonic or not. i dont like them together and i dont think they’re good together or for each other.

also like- rose is 19 when they meet. she dropped out of school and works in a shop and dates someone she knew growing up. she experiences a lot more and grows up a lot during her time with the doctor, but she’s still at most 21 by the end of s2- she’s still a kid. like developmentally, she’s not full grown yet. she and nine work together bc their relationship is based on understanding that huge power imbalance, which is partly bc of how much older (and less traditionally attractive) nine looks, partly because she’s newer to the tardis, and partly because of how different nine’s attitude is to so much.

idk im glad to be up to s3 for sure. i don’t understand martha hate, i adore her, and i think most of her season is really good. i wish they’d spent less time having her moon (lol) over the doctor, i think it does both of them a real disservice, but she’s a great character and person and i love her arc and the series arc as a whole (i ship ten/john simm master Heavily so this should not be surprising but i do think that it genuinely holds up).

i just, i don’t understand why so many fans love rose/roseten/s2 when to me the whole thing feels like the writers had a really strong vision for s1, finished it, and went ah. didn’t think we’d get this far, have uhhh a werewolf i guess??? and then so many fans have such a negative opinion of martha & s3, when imo that’s when they wrestled the story back into something that’s really very narratively strong. like there’s dodgy bits and bad episodes (i am Not looking forward to lazarus or the pig people lol) but they’re bits and episodes, and even the parts that are dodgy can still be really enjoyable (i love the shakespeare code!! it’s so fun!! someone please either let martha smack bill for being racist, have someone else do it on her behalf, or just don’t put the racism in, but other than that it’s a really enjoyable episode). the daleks episodes are genuinely so good, and the family of blood, and blink???? and everything with the master??? sick as fuck. i love it. im so excited to enjoy the show again lol.