#I see why that's the song they picked for the trailer and like. the iconic scene showcase.

[dbphantom]

Alright the Trigun Stampede OST fucking slaps

I really like the vocals in the jeneora rock resistance, which I did not expect to hear but am totally here for. its so catchy...

[palettepainter]

How to train your dragon Live Action rant

Full disclosure, I've never really cared either or about the live actions, I'd rather they didn't exist but I'm not hugely vocal about it purely because I'd rather just draw or watch the originals. The only thing about remakes that, I guess, interests me are the soundtracks. Since Disney has remade a lot of their old classics made in the 1900's, I am always a little intrigued to see what they do with the songs since they're so iconic. But overall, still not a fan of the remakes, and would pick the originals anyday

But the HTTYD remake...I'm genuinely really pissed off that Dreamworks is now making live action movies. Not only that, but I've been seeing on instagram that there are now HTTYD BOOKS, with illustrations done in the style of the Live Action movie and, I didn't expect this to bother me so much, but it genuinely makes me feel sick and gross that this is happening to HTTYD

Whenever Disney has made a live action remake the internet is so quick to shit on it, and fair enough, why is it Dreamworks gets a pass?? I love HTTYD, the ANIMTED movie, but all I see for the live action movie is praise

I'll be one of the few to say it: This movie isn't that great. While Toothless's live action design is very loyal to the animated design in the original, his big eyed, round stubby design makes him feel off in basically his own movie. When you compared Toothless to the other dragons he looks cutesy-fied, which is likely for marketing, but Toothless in this live action remake just..doesn't feel like a nightfury. He doesn't embody the "unholy offspring of lightning and death itself" that made Toothless from the first movie so mysterious and cool!

I've said this already but Toothless in the original animated movie felt so swift and savage, elegant and fast. In the Live Action he feels too big and clunky, his design looks like he should be plodding along kinda like how a bear would move. He just doesn't feel right

The dragon designs outside of Toothless feel fine they look okay, but if you put them next to Toothless they look like they're from two different movies

The director of the live action is the same director who worked on the animated film, and has said that they're going to remain loyal to the original script. They have literally admitted they're recycling the script from the original movie, slapping some CGI in there, and branding it as a ''New Live Action Version'' - when no, that's not how you make a movie

With the bangers Dreamworks has been pushing out lately like The Wild Robot (though based on a book it is a stunning movie for the emotions it gives you), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and the recently stylized Dogman (which I believe is also based off a book), as well as other amazing movies they've made like Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2, HTTYD 2, The Bad Guys, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Prince of Egypt, Megamind, I could go on...foolish of me to think Dreamworks would be above making the easy choice to create Live Action movies of already perfectly beloved animated movies they've made

I've seen people make complaints about Nico being cast as Astrid, which I don't think is even worth getting upset over, and is also hugely unfair towards the actress when you consider how I have seen NO BODY make this same fuss about the casting for the twins. It's just her that's been getting backlash as far as I know. To clarify, I've never been all that fixated on castings in movies, if an actor can successfully bring a character to life then fair play to them....my main gripe is that the actors also feel off in their performances, mostly Hiccup

Hiccup in the live action movie, based on the trailers, feels more like an angsty teenager. In the original animated movie Hiccup was seen as whimpy, but he had moxy, he was sarcastic at times but he was also a hugely anxious and awkward kid. In the live action, it feels like all his charm has gone

This entire film just feels so...souless and void of passion, the CGI looks great from a technology standpoint, but otherwise? There's no creativity in this film, they're just replaying the animated movie in a different way. And what's saddest is that I KNOW this movie is going to do well, it's HTTYD, I just know it's going to do well at the box office

Which means Dreamworks, especially with the opening of their new HTTYD park, will most definitely try to remake the second and third movie. Which we DON'T NEED

This movie is gross, uncreative, boring, garbage. It's made purely to cash in on nostalgia in an effort to make easy money from fans, branding it as Live Action even though 50% - maybe more - of the movie will be CGI to make it seem more "adult like" because "animation is just for kids" and can't be enjoyed by a wide range of ages

HTTYD the original movie is a heartfelt classic, and as a young kid, was not only the first dreamworks movie I watched that got to me emotionally, but also kicked off my dragon phase. I still had my Toothless action figure I got for my birthday

Live action movies can suck an egg, go watch the animated movie instead to give the finger to whatever shmucks at Dreamworks approved this idea

[pineapple-frostyfruits]

I would like to hear the two hour rant about Jhin 👉👈

O h B o y, I will happily talk about him for AGES.

Are you familiar with music theory? 4/4 time is also referred to as Common Time in the western music lexicon, and I wonder if Jhin is familiar with said concept and/or frustrated by it. Perhaps he is instead satisfied with it being so recognisable.

There are no X/3 bar times, because the 4 revers to Half Notes/Quavers, Eighth Notes/Semi-Quavers, or Sixteenth Notes/Demi-Semi-Quavers. So if Hwei was to have a beat, it would most likely be 3/4 instead, which is a common waltz beat.

The combination between the two would be 12/4, right? 3×4, and then the 4. But no - thats 12 quarter beats that is uncomfortably long. Realistically it would be a 12/8 beat - maintaining those 4 main beats, but each one internally containing a "ONE-and-a TWO-and-a" to maintain that waltz feeling and that same energy throughout.

That combo manages to find the middle ground between both musical ideas, mixing them evenly, whilst also keeping the flow and the energy of either piece.

Why do I mention this? Well, in Jhin's theme, that Violin solo that moves up and down those scales is using triplets to replicate a 12/8 beat in the 4/4 time signature. Jhin's most iconic and recognisable instrument is already within that compromise.

Ray Chen has attempted to play Jhin's Theme (within 30 minutes of seeing it) with the official RIOT score, and in doing so managed to talk about how it is a consistent movement up and down scales, not a hard thing theoretically, but that it is done so fast, and so precise between the constantly changing scales that it is actually difficult.

Which is the same rules applied to the moral/skill of The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Whilst the Devil plays things with inhuman difficulty and can make unique sounds, that means nothing if no one knows what you are playing. By playing something recognisable, and easily identifiable, but by doing it so well and so consistently as to not make a mistake in timing or fingering or ANYTHING - that takes TRUE skill.

There is also a sound effect found in Jhin's theme that I cannot fully identify. It is also found in the Jhin Teaser Trailer "The Mind Of the Virtuoso", much louder and when the blue tendrils of light from his gun are on screen, but still present in the theme on it's own. I have tried for AGES to find what exactly the sound is. It is akin to the sound of a silent whistle, or maybe a chain metal slowly being moved or lowered into china? I cannot find an exact replica of the noise no matter I how to find it.

What is the sound they use for his magic? How is it? How does it relate to Jhin's character and what does it mean that it is there? Is it sharp metal or something against silk? I do not have access to such things so I cannot know - and it drives me insane. What does it mean for his characterisation????

The gun as percussion within his song is much more obvious: Both in what it is and what it represents. Percussion is the hearbeat of the music. That and the base instruments are what drive music forward, what provides the momentum and a pace for the piece as it goes.

The gun is Jhin's own drive, his forward momentum. He lives for his "art" and the new (better than his old knives) medium he has been given to express it. He manages to keep it, and get more resources, by using it - by using it in specific places on specific people. His desire is to push forward, to build up, to lead to his final performance he has mentioned quite a few times. And that is done through the gun - the gun is his drive and his drive is the gun.

If I wanted to rewatch and actually analyse more of these thematics and pick through each part of his music and theme, I very much could - but it is getting late and also my arm is hurting from typing all this out.

So analysis of Key, Chorus, Echoes, Piano as instrumentation, and also how all of this ties into musical stereotype and how music is used to explain characterisation will have to wait until tomorrow or later. I will reblog with it once I get around to it.

Also this is only accounting for two of the several pieces of media he is in, and not even considering HOW said characterisation affects his interactions or place within the story.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Hyperspecific poll time!!

Here's a bunch of things from movies/shows that traumatized me as a kid... and I need you to know I'm not american so some of these things might be like. Well not so familiar with the general public ;) (with the general public I mean non-europeans and/or non-swedes). BUT, obviously I grew up with some more "mainstream" things too that traumatized me.

So let's go!

*It's a 2 second clip and they CUT BACK TO IT SEVERAL TIMES DURING THE AUGUSTUS GLOOP SONG AND THIS IS WHY I CANNOT SEE THE SCENE NORMALLY BECAUSE I GET FUCKING JUMPSCARED EVERY TIME SERIOUSLY I'VE TRIED TO WATCH IT AND EXPOSE MYSELF TO IT AND I JUST CAN'T. AND IT'S SO SAD IT'S SUCH A BOP OF A SONG AND THE OOMPA LOOMPAS HAVE AN ICONIC CHOREOGRAPHY AND I CAN'T WATCH IT PROPERLY BECAUSE AT ANY SECOND HIM SHAKING IN THE PIPE POPS UP AND I GET JUMPSCARED

**I wasn't scared, more REALLY uncomfortable and it's been stuck in my brain every since I saw it and gives me the ick. And this is a Dan Schneider show and it's interesting that THIS was the thing that traumatized me

***THE HOTEL ONLY HAS 16 FLOORS... THERE IS NO 17TH FLOOR. AND WHEN ELOISE DISCOVERS IT, EVERYONE ELSE JUST DITCHES HER AND SHE'S ALL ALONE IN THE DARKNESS AND SHE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN SCARED BUT I WAS. I GOT NIGHTMARES.

****A kid was gonna visit something called an "apple grandma" (this is how they translated this in the swedish dub so idk), but they go to the wrong apartment and has to hide around the house as this man comes looking for them and YELLING and it felt so scary knowing what would happen if they got caught. Like it felt like a life or death situation (probably because they shot it from the kids perspective), but I have also not seen this since I was literally 5 because it stopped airing after that

***** Pippi had this magical power in the 1969 series where she could mimic other voices perfectly, and the most scary voice was the deep man voice. In this episode, she sat in her tree, and then the camera panned to the mannequin hand that she stole earlier in the episode, waving from the little hole inside, and the DEEPEST MAN VOICE said "goodbye, thanks for today". Freaked me out so much.

[alathan13]

The Little Mermaid Live Action

I’m so freaking prepared for this movie and it’s not even funny!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve watched the trailer so many times since the full trailer was released.

The original Little Mermaid movie was and is still one of my all time favorite Disney movies. And now just seeing in come to life is amazing. I can already tell you I’m gonna be in tears probably halfway through the movie.

There are probably a million reasons why I’m so excited but I’m only going to talk about my top 3.

Halle Bailey: She such a beautiful woman and a wonderful singer. I heard her singing only a few times before, but when I really heard her voice was during the Disney World 50th Anniversary and she sang “Can You Feel Love Tonight” and she has such a beautiful singing voice. I also read this article somewhere online about Jodi Benson (the original Ariel) and her opinion about Halle playing Ariel. Jodi Benson has been very supportive of Halle as she plays Ariel and was there when Halle received backlash about her playing Ariel. So, Jodi Benson talked about how it doesn’t matter who you are, what you look, or where your from, it’s about the spirit of the character is what’s important. I 100% agree with her. Halle Bailey is going to do a wonderful job by bring one of the most iconic Disney princesses to life.

2. The Music and New Songs: Can we just take a moment and talk about Lin-Manuel Miranda?!?! As everyone should know, he wrote the Broadway musicals “In The Heights” and “Hamilton” and has also written music for other Disney movies like “Encanto” and “Moana”. Lin-Manuel is also a big Disney fan and he also named his son after Sebastian in the little mermaid. And now he gets to work with Alan Menken (the original music composer) and he was the one who inspired Lin-Manuel to compose music. He basically gets to work with his hero and that’s amazing!!!! I’ve also read somewhere that Lin-Manuel might be Chef Louis in the movie.

Ok, now the music. We all have to admit that the original soundtrack slaps!!!! They are classics and masterpieces. I can’t wait to listen to it again in the live action. I have a feeling some of the songs might be a tad different from the original, but that doesn’t bother me. The have done the same thing in all the other Disney live action movies and I love those movies.

I’m really excited to hear these new songs in the movie. As I said earlier, Lin-Manuel Miranda got up work with Alan Menken and wrote 4 new songs. Can’t wait to hear them and listen to them like a million times once the soundtrack comes out.

3. The Actors: Besides Halle Bailey as Ariel, I think they did an amazing job with the cast. I mean, you could have picked better than these actors and actresses to play these roles.

Awkwafina as Scuttle: If you didn’t know who she is, Awkwafina was in “Jumamji: The Next Level” and “Chang-Shi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. She is a really funny actress and always makes me laugh. I think she will make a great Scuttle.

Daveed Diggs as Sebastian: I think everyone had a feeling that he would play Sebastian before the trailer even came out. He was in “Hamilton” with Lin-Manuel Miranda and also rapped a whole bunch in the musical. I read somewhere that he might rap in the movie and that makes me happy. He honestly fits the role of Sebastian perfectly.

Melissa McCarthy as Ursula: Just like Awkwafina, Melissa McCarthy also makes me laugh as well. She was in the movie “Life of the Party” and Netflix “Thunder Force”. I’m excited to see her bring out her inner diva while playing Ursula.

Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric: First of all, he is extremely cute and hot. When I first saw him I was like blushing like crazy. Also, he was in “A Dog’s Way Home” and the tv show “World On Fire”. I’m excited to see him play Prince Eric. Another thing to point out is that Prince Eric was my Disney Prince crush when I was little and that crush it starting up again.

Those are my top 3 reasons why I am excited about the Live Action Little Mermaid. I won’t be able to wait any longer as it approaches theaters.

[miniar]

So Apparently Diablo IV is coming in a perfect display of Blizzard's ongoing downfall.

Blizzard Entertainment went and fucked up a while back by banning a Hearthstone tournament champion from competing because he voiced support for Hong Kong protesters in an interview and since then things have only gotten worse.

Diablo 1 and 2 were iconic games along with the warcraft and starcraft series. For a long time these games were praised and loved as reliable good fun and the blizzard servers that let you play with people around the world were... well.. they existed and were perfectly serviceable.

The games ofc would connect to blizzard net by default so when that whole thing was discontinued that was simply that.

Then World of Warcraft happened, and a popular cash cow that was. It fast became the most played MMO around. I played it.

Of course, when you reach late game content it was all a tedious grind requiring multiple hours of multiple days of commitment to attend, and you were required to have the correct gear and correct stats and correct skills to be permitted to attend, and so any individuality or desire to do anything but this meant you might as well be playing a single player game if it wasn't for the (usually toxic) chat.

When Diablo 3 came out, many of us old timers bought it and played it. It had references to the old stories and it was a good time. Fun even. It had it's flaws, ofc, but there are some lines from that game that still play in my head when the situation is about right.

I had no idea Diablo 4 was in the works. To be fair, I'm not paying as much attention as some do, but given how big the Diablo franchise was, it came as a complete surprise to see it suggested in my Steam queue. A tiny nostalgic spark went off in my head and I wondered what direction they'd take the story from where it left off, what kind of heroes would be called, whether maybe I should pick it up and play necromancer again, my go to "bring your own army" build dreamily dancing in the far back of my old goth mind.

And the video trailer gave me absolutely no information what so ever. It was a popular song (you should see me in a crown) playing over the unimpressive "reveal" of a succubus-esque form followed by shots of mid combat chaos.

And nothing else.

Nothing.

No interesting characters, no indication of what the class options are going to be, no suggestion as to what the story is, or why, or anything remotely interesting.

Just, "check out this sexy boss we made, also here's some combat".

It REEKS of half-assed cash-grab mediocrity, at best.

And that's the thing. In the last decade or so, Blizzard's slowly but surely becoming known for shit customer service, product decline, and absolute lack of anything remotely resembling a spark of creativity.

Diablo 4 looks like a knock-off diablo phone game.

Blizzard, by the way, created a phone game, and instead of reworking their earlier games and porting them to a phone where a younger generation could experience the iconic franchise for what made it popular and older players could come back and bask in nostalgia, they built a boring, superficial mess.

And just to make it worse, just like their shitty phone game, it looks like Diablo 4 is gonna force you to be connected to the internet.

And you know, I'm annoyed, because these games were in the stack of things that made playing a game something I enjoyed doing. The stories, the characters, the challenge, it was all a good time. And now we're getting the "sad wankfest" versions from what used to be a pretty good game dev company.

It's like finding they've replaced one of your favorite fruits in the supermarket with an artificially flavored wax version that isn't actually for "eating" but you can chew and spit out pieces of it for the "experience" of what it might be like to eat a fruit as interpreted by a person who's only experience with said fruit was a picture and a third hand description of the flavor.

If you've never had an apple in your life, sure, maybe this'll be a good time for you, but for the love of all that is holy, please, there are better options out there, some of them are even free.

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: Worst Films of 2024

Ya know, its a skill that I have in avoiding the absolute scum that Hollywood produces each year. I can tell from the trailers or even the little reels on Instagram what type of film its gonna be. Once you see the cracks and over all tone of the film, you know the right time to clutch your wallet. Luckily, I've only had to suffer through 3 films this year and they range from overly bloated storylines that take you out of the film in just one sequence to just down right insulting the audience. If you want to read my complete review of each film, just click the title. So without anymore stalling, here's my picks for the worst films of the 2024.

Starting off......

Argylle: With a stellar cast like this and a great filmmaker, you would think that this sometimes zanny take on a spy story would be good fun. It started off that way and I was enjoying the spoofy nature of it and the many twists and turns it took me on. When it finally got to the point of all this, I realized that I've seen it a thousand times before and its execution was just not at the clever level of storytelling it tried to be. Bryce Dallas Howard is a magnificent actress, but I feel for the most part she was horribly miss cast as Elly Conway. I dug her emotional reactions and sometimes hilarious outburst as bullets started to fly around her, but towards the end during an impossible skating scene, the film completely lost me. I was more invested in the fictional story of Henry Cavill's Argylle than her. Sam Rockwell did the most heavy lifting with his immeasurable amount of charm as Aidan Wilde. This was just a lot of wasted potential that should've stayed in the fun spy spoof avenue it was in the start. Oh and Mr. Vaughn, stop trying mix everything into your Kingsman universe. It doesn't work!

Moana 2: It pains me to say this because I really enjoyed the first film. It was one of the best Disney animated films in a very long time. It was gorgeous to witness and had one of the best soundtracks since the Disney's Tarzan. The classic coming of age story was actually fun and explorative of not only the titular character, but of the sea and her people. That's why we loved the first film. Well, the quality of animation is still intact, but the story and soundtrack wasn't nearly at the level of excellence the original was. Halfway through I was already dreading hearing any of Moana's new crew speak or sing and the adventure this time was just not really worth it. It didn't feel earned by the end and the music suffered from not having Lin-Manuel Miranda at the writing helm. Beyond was the only true standout song performed by the amazing Auliʻi Cravalho who does another great job as Moana. After hearing the original idea of making this a streaming movie and not the quality of the first film, I hope whomever is in charge sees this and realizes the massive mistake this was and get us back to the greatness the first film was.

And now for the biggest turd Hollywood shat out into cinemas. My pick for the worst films of 2024 is none other than.....

Joker: Folie à Deux: There are many sayings that derive from the "Quit while you're ahead" qoute that should be heard more often. Its a shame that it wasn't screamed loud enough here. The first Joker was a brilliant deep dive into a version of the iconic Prince of Crime and delivered a more grounded and relatable story of pain, societal degradation and mental health. There were so many layers explored in Arthur's psyche and it was all done so well. He became what society has made him and he accepted it. This film unravels all of that and tries to re-wrap it in a torn and scrunched up version of a superior story we've already seen before. I enjoyed the musical aspect of the songs being in his head and how they express his feelings, but that's all. Everything else was truly pointless by the end of the film as we don't really get a payoff. Joaquin Phoenix still delivers an outstanding performance regardless of the material and I liked Lady Gaga's portrayal of the super fan that this Harley Quinn was. In the end, it was something that not only ripped away the brilliant legacy the first film created, but also was a massive stain on the good will that DC had (at the time) created. What an absolute abomination of a film.

That's it folks and thank Christ! That is my list of the worst films of 2024! Let's hope 2025 learns from the horrible mistakes that 2024 made and doesn't repeat them. Thanks for reading!

[cha-ra-nui]

2024 Retrospective

Part 5: Western media with one anime chameo

And I might as well talk about “Arcane” first, since that's the most recent one. Going into season one, no one expected this to be one of the best seasons of television ever made. And the problem season two had was that it now had to live up to that. It didn’t. If season one is a 10/10 season, then this was 9.5. Its pacing is too fast, but that is really its only issue. The storylines themselves are great, they just needed a bit more time to breathe. It’s only a slight fumble, and if season one hadn’t set the expectations unreasonably high, I doubt people would mind as much. Fortiche also seems perfectly aware of that, and considering this is their first show I’m expecting their future work not to have this issue anymore. It also helped that the animation quality was utterly insane. This is one of the best-looking animated works I’ve ever seen, feature films included, and I can’t praise the artists working on this enough.

Also yeah, the entire Arcane soundtrack goes way too hard, what else is new?

In other news, Riot Games still makes absolutely kick ass music videos. I would’ve preferred a more interesting art style for “Still Here”, but the season trailers seem bound to that pseudo-realistic videogame cutscene CGI. At least this is about as good as a cutscene can look, and it gets stronger with every segment. Besides, the song and animation work beautifully together, we get to see Kindred in a cinematic, and both her and wolf are absolutely gorgeous. They even gave Ashe some fucking clothes. Their worlds song “Heavy is the Crown” is also pretty good. The animation looks great, only problem being that so much focus is put on the band and not the players these videos are supposed to be about. I get it, you got Linkin Park to make an animated video for, but man, give T1 their flowers. Faker might not need them anymore, but the other members sure deserved their moment too. And why pick those champions to represent them, I’m sure there were more iconic picks for Keria than Thresh? We also got the entire back half of Helluva Boss’ second season this year, and I’m mostly happy with what we got. “Full Moon” could’ve used a more significant A-plot; the episode is 80% filler followed by the most significant scene in the entire season, that’s just not great structuring. And I’m not a fan of how needlessly contrived and rushed “Mastermind” was. But overall, I still enjoyed this season. It hits higher highs and lower lows than season one, but as long as the highs it hits are “2 Minutes Notice” I can live with that. And I despise the hatedom this show attracts. Hazbin Hotel too for that matter. The KPop fandom is less toxic than whatever is happening in these show’s tags.

There were a couple of good movies this year too.

The Mononoke movie was finally available on streaming just before the year ended, and its utterly gorgeous. It’s a real shame that no theatre in my area showed it.

But I did catch five films in cinemas this year and liked all of them.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” was a lot more fun than I expected it to be, and it was nice to watch a superhero movie on the big screen in 2024 and actually enjoy it. The last time I watched a MCU movie was also the first time I wanted to walk out of a cinema, so hey, it’s nice that at least Deadpool is still capable of being entertaining.

Then there was Dreamworks’ “The Wild Robot”, a movie I couldn’t wait to see from the day the first trailer dropped. And I’m glad to report that it is good. Visually stunning for sure, and emotionally impactful the way all the best Dreamworks movies are. It’s not as great as I wanted it to be, but I still loved every second of it and have high hopes for the sequel. Maybe Dreamworks is actually back, and “Puss In Boots” wasn’t just a fluke hit.

“Arthur The Great” was the first of two movies I went to see with my family, and it’s a sweet, heartwarming, little film about a dog crossing a jungle to find a home. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, but it’s well made for what it is. It’s also based on the type of true story that sounds too outlandish to be real but somehow is. Would recommend to anyone who likes dogs and is looking for an easy watch to kill an afternoon.

The other movie meanwhile is trying to reinvent the wheel, and it’s neither sweet nor heartwarming nor entertaining nor an easy watch. “The Zone Of Interest” is a case study in how effective sound design can be, and it’s utterly haunting and incredibly hard to stomach. I forced myself through it because I was interested in its sound design specifically, and because I feel like remembering this specific chapter of history is my duty as a German citizen. I felt sick during its entire runtime. This is the type of movie I think everyone should know because it’s important, but not one that is easy to recommend because it is such a hard watch.

And then of course there was “Dune Part 2”. I stopped reading the books somewhere two thirds through “God Emperor Of Dune” because it was just getting uncomfortably weird and convoluted, but even so, and even as a dedicated fantasy fan who never liked sci-fi, I’d list “Dune” and “Dune Messiah” among my favorite books of all time. They are incredible. There were some changes made to the last third of the first book in Denis Villeneuve’s second “Dune” film, but none of them detracted from the experience. This team knew exactly what needed to change to make this behemoth of a nerd bible work on screen, and the movie is excellent. This is what it must have felt like to watch “The Lord Of The Rings” in cinema, a monumental achievement for its genre that will not be measured up to anytime soon, if ever again. The one thing that worries me though is that the changes they made will affect the story of “Dune Messiah”, an adaption of which they’re already working on as of writing. Because I loved this book for many reasons that would not translate well to film. It’s a book were barely anything actually happens, but where a sense of looming doom permeates every page, it’s a brilliant exercise in paranoia. “Dune Messiah” is a character study presented as a tragedy, and I sincerely hope Hollywood allows it to stay that way. Because the ending of this book is probably my favorite part of this entire series, and I would hate to see it changed to appease a movie going public.

[grandmasterwolfeon]

Dear Rebel Pt. 1 🌟🏴

In today's post and my second/third post overall, I shall talk about Erina and how I developed unexpected feelings for her and, in turn, fell in love romantically for the second time in my life, which I didn't think was possible:

The first time I met Erina in this world was at GamesCom 2023, when I was lucky enough to play a bit of Persona 5 Tactica at the Sega/Atlus booth! At the time, I knew of her name after seeing the trailer for P5T on the interwebs and being surprised that the phantom thieves were back for another adventure, but getting to know how she played and seeing her in action, I thought she was really cool, just like Robin, I was in awe, although I didn't have feelings for her at the time because me then didn't know what was coming until she counted down to the days until Tactica was released to the Nintendo Switch on November 17th, 2023. It was then that the day came, but it wasn't until the next day, November 18th, 2023, that I went to my nearest GameStop and picked up Tactica, excited to finally be hands-on with not just a Persona game but something from the P5 series of games, albeit Tactica being a spinoff like Strikers. As I booted up my switch and inserted the cartridge, there was the icon for Persona 5 Tactica right there on my screen. As I excitedly clicked the A button on my right joycon, it loaded, and the song Revolution in Your Heart, sung by Lyn, played as the intro started. I was excited to see my bestest friend Ryuji, but seeing Erina, I said, "Oh, Erina!" as the intro wrapped up and I went to the title screen. I was greeted by Ryuji's voice, and I started up a new game file. As I played through Marie's kingdom, I couldn't help but admire Erina as I remembered the talk of woman crushes with a friend of mine as I mentioned that Erina was being tied with Haru Okumura being my woman crush as she asked me why I explained that she looked so pretty and that I admired her spirit to help the people of her world fight back against Lady Marie and saying that might've ignited something because as the days of me playing Tactica went on, I couldn't stop talking about how pretty Erina was, even saying how much of a badass she was! As we got to the part of Marie's kingdom where Erina got shot by one of her legionnaires, it caught me off guard as I screamed, "ERINA NOOOOO!" Although she turned out alright, it made me worried and a bit sad that happened to her. It was then, jokingly, although my words would've eaten themselves later on, I said, "If I were attracted to woman, Erina turned me gay /j," since I identified as a heteroromantic demisexual at that time, I was questioning my sexuality because of the Rebel Corps Leader, as I said I was in lesbians with her like Scott Pilgrim said to Ramona Flowers.

Link to Part 2 here!:

https://www.tumblr.com/grandmasterwolfeon/737701763196551168/dear-rebel-pt-2?source=share

[harrywritingsbyme]

Pushing Buttons

Loosely Based Off Of This Ask

And This One

A/N: I’d Like to dedicate this to the ICONIC Watermelon Sugar music video🍉🍉 Also, the ending sucks yet again... Enjoy 🙃

Almost 6.8k words

This new era in Harrys music was becoming very frustrating for you. It wasn’t the music, it was the music videos. Most people would be a bit jealous of the fact that Harry had written a few songs about his ex. And sure it stung a little in the beginning, but once you took a step back and realized that it was before you and that it was his experience, you were completely over it. Plus the fact that he wrote a couple songs about you made it sting a lot less. The music videos though, those were a completely different story. You hated the idea of other people getting up close and personal with your boyfriend.

A prime example would be the Lights Up music video. There was no doubt about the fact that he looked really good (like, really good) in that video. You just hated the fact that everyone around him got to not only see how good he looked, but they got to feel him up too. Normally you wouldn’t get jealous but after being on set of that video for the entire day, you were jealous. And you did let Harry know. You decided to wait until the next day to bring it up because you knew how happy he was with everything, and you didn’t want to ruin his excitement for this new era in his music career. When the two of you were in a completely relaxed setting, you gently brung it up and you told him how you felt. 

The way he responded to your feelings made you feel a little silly for the way you were reacting to all of this. As soon as you told Harry that you were feeling a little jealous, he immediately pulled you into him, letting you know that he completely understood how you felt, and that you had nothing to worry about because he was all yours. Despite how utterly adorable he thought you looked when telling him how you felt, he couldn’t help his cock from hardening in his pants. The fact that you didn’t like anyone besides you touching him was beyond sexy to Harry. He didn’t like to see you upset, but it was just something about your possessiveness over him that could turn him on in an instant. Your voice and words were sweet and understanding, but the underlying message of what you were saying was anything but sweet. He couldn’t wrap his head around it, but it was something about that underlying seriousness in that moment that just captivated him. It made him want to show you just how much he was yours. Which is exactly what he did. For the rest of the day until it was time to check out of the hotel, Harry used his mouth, fingers, and cock in ways that were completely unimaginable to the both of you. He wanted to make sure you knew that he was all yours. 

That was only the first thing Harry did to make it up to you though. The next thing he did was something you would have never expected. A few months later, Harry and his team began planning and brainstorming for his final music video for the album. This video just so happened to be for Watermelon Sugar. The song that not only sent shockwaves through not only his fanbase, but through you as well. When you first heard the song, you really liked it. But once he explained the song to you, which was very in depth by the way, you found out that it was not only about you, but how sweet you were. You couldn’t believe that he practically wrote a song about eating you out. That is until you remembered that it was Harry you were talking about. You knew how much he loved having his head nestled between your legs, but writing a song about it was next level. The only thing that could top the song, would be the video for it. Harry didn’t give you many details about the said video. All he told you was that the overall premise of the video was beautiful people on the beach. Which raised many questions in your head. But the fact that Harry wanted you to be in the video was far more questionable. When he told you this, you quickly dropped the final steps of your night routine to immediately address this newfound information.

“What do you mean I’m gonna be in the video?” You try to hold back your laughter, but you couldn’t help it. 

“What’s so funny?” Harry didn’t think anything he said warranted a laughing response. He wasn’t joking when he said that he wanted you in the video. He thought you’d be perfect fit for what he and his team came up with. Plus, you had to be in the video for at least one of the songs that were written about you. It all made perfect sense to him. “I want you to be in the video, simple as that.”

“But why though.” You ask again, trying to make sense of it all. You pull back the covers on your side of the bed before sliding in next to Harry. He closes his book and places it on the bedside table before moving in closer to you.

“I told you that the whole idea of it is beautiful people on the beach, right?” He asks. 

“Mhm”

“And you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. So, it only makes sense for you to be front and center.” He explains to you. 

“It’s amazing how you can say the cheesiest things and make my heart melt at the same time.” 

“Y/n, I’m being serious. I don’t understand why me wanting you to be apart of this is so crazy. If it makes you uncomfortable then I completely understand and if you don’t want to be in the video that’s fine too.” Harry explains further. 

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that being in your music video is a really big part of your work, and I just don’t want to be a distraction or in your way at all.” You calmly explain to him, pushing your fingers through his hair in the process. 

“That’s the last thing you have to worry about. If m’being honest, I’ve done some of my best work when you’re around. And on top of that, I’d love to have my muse right by side.” He reassures.

“Then in that case, I am honored to be apart of this project with you. And I look forward to seeing what you and your team have put together.” You smile at him.

“I think you’re going to like it.” He says before sending you a quick wink. 

~ ~ ~

In the weeks leading up to the video shoot the two of you didn’t talk much, if at all about the video or what you were supposed to be doing. All you knew was beautiful people on the beach. That’s it. Harry left you completely in the dark about everything else. 

Then the long awaited day finally came.

The entire time leading up to the shoot, your stomach was churning. You had no idea what was in store, and you were feeling a combination of nervousness, and excitement for the day. For the entire drive to the beach, you were asking Harry little questions here and there to get some type of information as to what you guys were doing. And with Harry being Harry, you got zero information out of him. 

“I know what y’doing and m’not tellin’ yeh anything.” Harry chuckles at your prying. 

“I bet you gave a full rundown to all the models what they’re going to be doing in all of this.” You say simply. 

“Yes, my team did tell them what they’re going to be doing.” Harry replies.

“So why can’t you extend me the same curtesy Harry Styles.” You say in a serious tone, even though you were trying your hardest to suppress the smile that was creeping up onto your face. 

“It’s not like you’re gonna be makin’ out with anybody or in the nude. It’s gonna be fun, all you have to do is trust me. Can yeh do that?” Harry reasons with you. 

“Fine” you concede. For the rest of the ride to the filming location, you and Harry talked talked about a variety of things. The conversation ranged from Harry talking about his excitement for his upcoming tour, to you talking about possibly getting a puppy to keep you company while Harry was away. And Harry made sure to pay extra attention to everything you said, because he didn’t want to slip up and give you any information about the video. 

When you and Harry finally get to the beach, the both of you are pulled right into his trailer. As soon as you two hit the chairs, there’s someone already working on your hair and makeup while the director of the video is standing in front of you explaining what was going to be happening today. What you gathered from the brief conversation was that you were going to be touching on and feeding Harry, while being fun and flirty. You could do that, right?

“See Harry, thats all you had to say” you turn to Harry, who was currently getting his nails painted a bright orange color. 

“I know, I just wanted it to be a little surprise. Wanted you to naturally release your inner Watermelon Sugar.” He proclaims.

“Harry, do you want this to be on YouTube or pornhub? Because you’re sending me mixed messages right now.” As soon as you say this the entire room bursts into a fit of laughter. 

“Well-“ Harry begins before you quickly cut him off.

“Don’t you even finish that” you quickly interject. 

“Okay fine. But in all seriousness, you’ve got this, you’re gonna do great.” Harry affirms you. 

You sit in the chair a little while longer while the hair stylist and makeup artist finish up on you. Once you’re all done, you go off and change into your outfit and you couldn’t help but look over yourself at least 10 times. You loved the red printed outfit and the way it hugged your body perfectly. You could confidently bet your last dollar that Harry hand picked this for you. It was something about everything from the clothes to the accessories that just screamed you, and was too much your style for Harry to have not picked it out. You also noticed that, the print on your outfit perfectly matched the shade of red that was in one of his looks. You’re broken out of your thoughts when you hear a knock at the door. When you hear that it’s Harry, you quickly open the door for him. 

“Look at you!” Harry admires your figure. You do a little twirl in front of him, and he couldn’t help but give your ass a little tap. 

“Well I guess you should just get it all in, because once we get out there it’s all business. Sorry Styles.” You tell him in a serious tone.

“Not even a little squeeze?” He pouts, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you against him.

“No. And this is exactly what I was afraid of. I’m gonna be a distraction to you, when you need to be working.” You give him a light hearted glare while lightly poking at his chest.

“I promise that I’ll behave.” He pouts back at you. 

“Pinky promise?” You stick your pinky finger up towards Harry. 

“Pinky promise” He wraps his pinky finger around his, sealing his promise to remain professional during the shoot. 

“Your nails are cute” you admire the bright orange polish on his nails.

“Not as cute as you though” he cheekily replies to you.  

“M’gonna keep my eye on you today, because someone needs to keep you in line.” 

“Fine” he whines like a little kid. 

“Good boy” you pucker your lips up at him for a kiss.

“Look who’s being unprofessional now” he points out before pressing his lips onto yours. 

“I will have you know that it’s my job to kiss you”

“So does that mean everyone else can kiss me the way you just did?” Harry knew exactly what button he was pushing when he said this. 

“Nope, absolutely not. If there has to be any type of kisses, cheek kisses only.” You not so playfully request. 

“Someones getting jealous.” he teases. 

“M’not jealous! Would you like me to be?”

“I mean...it is pretty hot when you’re jealous.” He says truthfully. He pulls you tighter against his body, and his hands wander back down to your ass.

“Well, I’m not going to get jealous today, and as much as I’d like continue this, I have to get out there with everyone else.” You pout up at him. 

“Do y’have to? Because you could just stay here with me.” Harry tries to coax you into staying with him a little longer. “If y’want, I can close the door and we could have a quickie right now.” Harry proposes, making sure to quirk his eyebrows suggestively at you. Before you could tell him no again, the director comes into the trailer to let you know that they needed you out there with the other ladies.

“I’ll see you later.” you press a kiss to his lips before walking out of the bathroom and out of Harry’s trailer to the set. You quickly introduce yourself to everyone, but you just introduce yourself as Y/n, not Y/n who is also Harry’s girlfriend. All of the girls you met were really nice, so you had a strong feeling that it was going to be a really good day.

For the next couple of hours, the video shoot is well under way and everything was going great. As the time progressed, you became more relaxed and in your element. You were really getting into it, and you made sure that Harry knew that. You figured that Harry had told the camera crew to get more than a just couple shots of you. So, you decided to make the most out of it and put on a little show for the cameras. You could feel his eyes on you the entire time and you loved every second of  the attention he was giving you. Whenever the camera wasn’t pointed at him, Harry’s eyes were right on you. For almost any other guy in the world, the entire idea of being in the midst of beautiful women would have turned them on immensely. But for Harry, there was only one woman here that he had his sights on. And that was you. Seeing you completely in your element was really messing with him. At first, you were the jealous one, but seeing you welcoming the soft touches from the other girls was starting to get to him. Yes, it was beyond hot to see you like this, but he wanted to be the one touching you. The way you were basking in the sun made the urge for him to run his fingers across your warm and glistening skin grow tremendously. From time to time watched you eat the pieces of fruit, and he could see the juices dripping from the corner of your mouth. And every time he watched you, he just about lost it. Not to mention the fact that you’d simply look over at him and send him the most tantalizing, yet innocent smile in the book. It made him wonder if you were trying to turn him on and make him jealous. 

One of the main reasons why he wanted you here was because he knew how you were a little jealous when he was shooting the Lights Up video, and the last thing he wanted was for you to feel the same way about the video for a song that was all about you. But now, seeing how you were comfortable and completely in your element with everything, Harry decided to give it everything he had. If you could make him jealous, why couldn’t he do the same? Once the director got a couple shots of you and Harry, Harry went right into his plan. He began to lean into all of the touches he received, making sure he had a satisfied smile on his face whenever someone did touch or feed him.

You knew exactly what he was doing. He was trying to make you jealous. Sure you preferred if you were the only one touching Harry, but given the nature of the song and direction they wanted to go in, you were completely fine (at least you thought you were). You did your best to just ignore him, but it was getting harder and harder every time his eyes locked in on yours. You would be the biggest liar if you said that the whole situation with the video wasn’t hot, and that you weren’t a little jealous. The smile that was plastered on his face was the same smile he’d give you when it was just the two of you, and when he was doing what he’d written about in the song. He made sure to send it your way whenever he could, knowing you’d instantly pick up on its familiarity. Harry was doing his absolute best to make you tick, just like you did to him. He could see that he was pushing on the jealous button inside of you, and there was nothing you could do about it. 

At first, neither of you had the goal in mind of pushing each others buttons. But now, that’s all either of you were doing. You were trying to get one another riled up. And by the looks of it, the both of you were doing a pretty good job at it.

When one o’clock rolled around, the director called cut, and told everyone that there was going to be an hour lunch break before you all began filming the last scenes for the video. You were talking to two of the girls you’d met when Harry sneaks up on you from behind and lifts you up in his arms. 

“Harry what are you doing?! Put me down!” You thrash your legs around, trying to get out of his grip, but he only tightens his grip on you. 

“Never!”he playfully yells back. 

“Oh my gosh! Harry, is Y/n your girlfriend?” One of the girls asks you and Harry. When she asks this, Harry puts you back down against the warm sand, and he walks around to face you, bending his knees a little to look you dead in the eyes. 

“Why yes she is. I wonder why she didn’t tell you guys.” He says pointedly, exaggerating every last word. When he says this you couldn’t help but burst out into laughter at how overdramatic he was being. 

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want it to be weird! I didn’t want the vibe to be all tense and stuff. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d be on high alert if I was touching someones boyfriend right in front of them. I know it’s the job, but still.” You reply smartly. 

“That makes sense. I think I’d feel the same if I’m being completely honest. But you don’t give off a weird vibe when it comes to that at all.” When she agrees with you, you whip your head in Harry’s direction with ‘I was right’ written across your face. 

“Perhaps” Harry concedes, if that’s what you want to call it. He one hundred percent understood where you were coming from, he just couldn’t let you know that.

“Well I think that everyone can agree when I say that you two being in a relationship is completely unfair to the rest of us. It’s not fair for two extremely good looking people to be in a relationship.” She says, wagging her finger at you and Harry.

“We are pretty pretty good looking right?” He wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you back into him.

“Perhaps” you tease him, biting back your smile. 

“Well were not going to hold you guys any longer. But it was really nice talking to you Y/n, and we’ll see you two back on set.” The girls say their goodbyes before heading over to the lunch area. Harry then picks you back up, and he runs you both back to his empty trailer.

“Can you please put me back down!?” you thrash around in his arms again, but he just wouldn’t budge. 

“Nope” he says simply, continuing to carry you back to his trailer. He places you back on the ground, and he ushers you up the small set of stairs into before locking the door and pinning you against it.

“Harry, what are you-“ before you could even finish, Harry’s lips are slammed against yours with his body flush against yours. You could feel his bulge pressing against you, and you couldn’t deny how much you were needing him too. The kiss was frenzied and your hands flew to anywhere they could. Your fingers were tangled in his hair and his hands were firmly planted on your hips. When he pulls away, you both feel the pent up need you both had just radiating off of one another, and you both could see it in each others eyes. “You have no idea what you were doing to me out there.” When Harry says this, you couldn’t help but smirk at him. 

“I think I knew exactly what I was going” you simply say, lightly tugging on his hair. You wanted to see just how far you could push.

“So you admit to pushing my buttons” he smirks back, pressing himself further against you.

“Only if you admit to pushing mine.” You bite back.

 “Then I guess we’ll never know.” He says calmly. 

“Oh, I think we already know.” You whisper back, with a big smirk plastered across your face.

“There are so many things I want t’do to your right now.” Harry says bluntly. “Only thing I’m not so sure about is whether or not you can take it.” He was trying to get you just as riled up as he was. During the entire shoot, he couldn’t stop thinking about completely ravishing you. This need came from not only how amazing you looked, but also out of a little bit of jealousy he had acquired. What Harry didn’t know though was that you were just as riled up as he was, and you needed to blow off some steam too.

“I can take whatever you give me” you reply slowly to him. Aside from being jealous at times, you also had a pressure point for what Harry said. He could hear how you were challenging him in your voice and he knew that he had you exactly where he wanted you.

“Well m’not gonna go easy on yeh.” He warns, pinning you tighter between his body and the door. 

“Try me. It’s not like you can go that hard anyway.” Since he was pressing your buttons, it was only fair that you pushed his.

Without saying another word, Harry connects his lips back with yours and the kiss is far more urgent than before. His hands were grabbing onto any part of you that he could. Your hands left his hair and you were now trying to undo his pants. Harry pulls his mouth off of yours and he tightens his grip around your throat. It was his way of establishing his control over you.

“Go take all this off and wait for me.” Harry instructs. He lets go of you throat before pulling you up from the door. On your wobbly legs, you make your way over to the small living area and you fall back against the couch. “Thought I told you to take it all off”

“I am, just give me a minuet.” You softly snap back at him. You stand up from the couch and you peel off the two piece bathing suit, leaving you completely naked in front of him. You sit back down on the couch, waiting for Harry to finish taking off his own clothes. “This carpet is really soft” you mumble to yourself, trying to preoccupy yourself while Harry was getting undressed. You couldn’t understand why he was wearing so many clothes. Yes it was still winter time, but you guys were still in California for goodness sakes. 

“Gonna let me fuck yeh against it?” Harry asks as he takes off his last piece of clothing.

“You wanna fuck me on the floor, how romantic” you reply sarcastically. 

“Look, I know us and if were going to end up there anyway, why not start there. Plus, I need all the space I can get for what m’gonna do to you.” You could hear the cockiness in his voice, and at that point you just wanted to slap that smirk off of his face so bad.

“I’ll be wherever you want me to be.” You decide to play into him having all of the control. Except for the part where you’re being completely sarcastic and doing everything you can to piss him off. You knew how much Harry hated when you didn’t listen to him, so you were going to use that to your advantage. Harry simply nods his head towards carpet and you move down from the couch. Once his clothes are finally off, he comes over to where you’re sitting and he sits back on his calves in front of you with his hard cock on full display. You move in closer to him and you cup his face in your hands before slotting your lips with his. The urgency is still there, but it’s much slower and filled with passion.

Harry’s lips smack against yours, as his hands fall against your hips, pulling your body closer to him. You follow his lead, moving your legs around so that you were in his lap. He turns you both around before lowering you both down against the soft carpet. As he continues to kiss you, his hands move up from your hips to take claim of your breasts. He can hear muffled the moans that were leaving your mouth, and he removes his mouth from yours. He then reattaches his lips to your neck, sucking the skin into his mouth as if his lips were still on yours, and he moves his mouth further down your body, sponging kisses down your neck and collarbone. When he makes it to your chest, he wraps his lips around one of your nipples and he sucks hard on the pebbled skin. You couldn’t keep the moans from falling from your lips, nor could you stop squirming underneath him. Having Harry’s mouth on you would never get old, feeling him sponge wet kisses across your skin was a feeling you couldn’t get enough of. Harry continues to leave a trail of kisses down your body, until he made it between your legs. You spread your legs wider for him and your hands go straight to his hair. He pushes his head right between your legs, pushing his tongue right into your folds. From that point on, the moans only got louder. His hands were pressed against the underside of your thighs, keeping your legs apart for him. He couldn’t help but moan at how good you tasted. His head was nestled between the fleshy part of your thighs, pushing his mouth against you as mush as possible. He was going so deep that his nose was practically digging into your clit. You could hear the wet sounds of his mouth smacking against your pussy. You lift your head up, and your eyes fall onto his. Even though you couldn’t see his mouth, you could see the glint of happiness in his eyes. Harry then pulls his mouth off of you and you can see the bottom half of his face glisten with your juices.

“Fuck” you sigh, before dropping your head back against the carpeted floor. 

“Y’so delicious.” Harry pants in excitement. Whenever he had his mouth on you, he always got a rush. The high he got from you was a high he always needed, it made him keep coming back for more. Harry lowers his head back down between your legs, and before he puts his mouth on you, he spits on your pussy. When you hear and feel him do this, all you could do was moan. What he did made you feel even filthier and you absolutely loved that feeling. Harry pushes two fingers into you, quickly thrusting them in and out of you before attaching his lips to your clit. He could hear your moans getting louder, so to quiet you down, he reaches his free hand up and wraps it around your throat. Your once loud moans are now silenced to a mere gasp and or whimper. He then pulls his mouth off of you and releases his grip from your throat before bringing himself back up to eye level with you. He brings his mouth back down to yours, letting you taste yourself on his tongue before rolling over so that you were on top of him. He moves his hand down to his cock, lining himself up with your wet entrance. When you feel the thick head nudging at your entrance, you begin to slowly sink down onto him. 

“Fuck” you gasp. Your head fell back and your mouth hung open at the way he stretched you out. You move your hips a little so that you could get adjusted to his size, and you could feel Harry’s hips lifting up into yours, pushing his cock deeper into you. So that you wouldn’t collapse on top of him, you plant your hands firmly on his chest for support while he snaps his hips up into yours. You kept your eyes focused on his as he fucked up into you. The sounds of his skin slapping against yours alone was enough to send you both into a complete frenzy. 

“Feel so fuckin’ good” Harry grits through his teeth, continuing to fuck you. When you start to move your hips against his again he stops fucking up into you and he lets you ride him. You lift yourself up, just to drop right back down against him. You continue like this until Harry wraps an arm around your lower back. He lifts himself up with you still in his lap and he pushes his lips back onto yours. His tongue darts right into your mouth, and you then begin to grind your hips back and forth in his lap. You and Harry continue to make out like until you pull away from his mouth. He leans in to give you one last kiss, but you move your face back, causing him to chase after your lips. You let out a small giggle at his attempts to lock his lips against yours, and you give him a quick peck. “Such a tease” he growls through his smile. You never failed to amaze him. Even when you were trying to tick him off and battle for dominance, you still found a way to bring out your playful and innocent side. Harry then lifts you up from his lap and sits you down next to him. “Lay on your side f’me” he instructs. 

You do as he says and he lays behind you so that you both were in the spooning position. Harry closes your legs and pushes them towards your front. He lifts himself up slightly from the floor, and wraps his hand around his shaft. He lines his cock back up with your weepy hole and he slowly pushes into you. 

“Just shove it inside me already” you whine.

“Stop bein’ a little brat” Harry snaps back, giving a quick slap to your ass. His hips then begin to slowly pick up speed.

“Go faster” you slur, lifting yourself up to look behind you. You go to reach behind you towards Harry, but he grabs  onto your wrist and he lightly pushes your upper body back down. He starts to move his hips again, and so do you. You try to push back against him, but he stops all together and pulls out of you. You sit back up and you look behind you to find Harry with his hand wrapped around his cock. “Can I have a kiss?” you mumble out, making sure to send a pout his way. Instead of responding, he leans in and gives you a quick kiss.

“Now will you stop movin’ around and just lay down?” He says to you. You decide to do what he tells you to do and you fall back down agains the soft carpet. He lifts himself up onto his knees and pushes your legs apart before straddling your thigh. “Y’need to start listenin’ t’me” Harry reprimands before pushing into you. “Oh my-fuck” Harry groans behind you. With you in this position, it was light your walls were even tighter around him. He pushes the rest of the way into you and he could hear your cries out to him at how good it felt. Hearing your moans fueled his fire, and made him thrust harder into you.

“Fuck daddy” you cry out to him. You couldn’t help it anymore. As much as you wanted to keep pushing, the way he was fucking you felt so good. So, you let him have all of the control

“That’s right baby” Harry growls, crashing his hips down into yours over and over again. He continues to thrust into you until the tight knot in his stomach becomes even tighter. Harry quickly pulls out of you before pushing at your back so that you were laying face down in front of him. He pulls your hips upwards and he positions himself behind you. He lines himself back up with your hole and you begin to push back against him. “There you go baby.” Harry pants, becoming entranced with the way your ass was moving against him. “Keep fuckin’ yourself baby, s’all yours” Harry continues to chant behind you. 

“S’mine” you slur out to him, continuing to push back against him.

“All yours” he says once more before gripping onto your ass and shoving his cock into you again. 

“Daddy!” You scream out to him. He pins your hips down to stop you from moving and he pistons his hips into you, pushing you both even closer to your releases. “M’gonna cum daddy” you whimper out to him. 

“I wanna watch you when you cum” Harry grunts before stilling his hips and pulling his cock out out you. “Turn over baby” he instructs and gives a swat to your ass. You quickly do as he says and you spread your legs wide for him. “Good girl” he praises you with a proud smile. Before he pushes into you this time, Harry leans down and spits on on your pussy again, making sure to spread it across your folds with his fingers. “Feel good baby?” He smirks down at you when he hears your moans.

“Mhm” you mewl. He finally pushes back into you and he goes right back to slamming his hips into yours. He lowers himself down closer to you and he puts his lips back onto yours, muffling out your cries for him. 

“C’mon baby, I can feel yeh tightenin’ up ‘round me.” Harry slurs above you. He lowers a hand down between you two and he moves his fingers around your clit. The knot became so tight in the pit of your stomach that you felt like you could burst. You even felt your eyes beginning to water, signaling to you that you were extremely close.

“Oh my-“you couldn’t even finish because you were cumming hard around Harry’s cock. And Harry immediately followed suit. When he felt your walls contracting around his cock, his cum began to pour out of him. Once the both of you are done, Harry slowly pulls out of you and falls onto the floor next to you. 

Then the two of you just lay there for the next 5 minuets, still feeling the post orgasm aftershocks. The sex you two had was beyond mind-blowing. It was like the both of you were in post sex comas. 

“Just so y’know, you’re the only one who gives me that watermelon sugar high.” Harry whispers to you out of the blue. “Y’pussy is just-” he begins, pausing midway to find a word that could describe the the addictive area between your legs. “S’magical. Like y’just so good baby, I love it” Harry praises, sliding his hand back between your legs.

“Wow, it’s an honor to know that I have a magical pussy.” You reply, your tone ridden with sarcasm, with a hint of pride at how good Harry said you were. 

“It’s true! The only thing I love more than the sweetness between your legs is you.”

“You blow my mind more than you even know.” You burst out into laughter. “The way you went from talking about my pussy to being all romantic is just...” you continue. 

“M’serious babe” he sits up to turn towards your body, resting against his arm. “I love you so much.” He whispers down to you, poking his bottom lip out as well. 

“I love you too” you whisper back, sending him a soft smile. “And I only push your buttons and get jealous because I love you” you sigh up at him. You lift your hand up towards his face, softly gliding it across his soft skin and pushing back the hairs that fell down into his face.

“So you were jealous and pushing my buttons!” Harry points out, making it seem like he won. 

 “Just a little bit though” you try to downplay what you said.

Harry chuckles at your statement before he brings his face down to yours, slotting his swollen lips against yours. You use your free hand to pull him back on top of you. 

He lays his body against yours and he deepens the kiss, pushing his tongue past your parted lips. You release a content sigh into his mouth when you feel his cock resting against your center. You lower your hand from his waist and you push it between your bodies, and down to his hardening cock. You wrap your hand around his thick shaft and you drag the head of him against your folds.

“Fuck Y/n” he sighs, pulling away from your lips. You lock your eyes with his and you line his cock back up with your entrance before lightly tugging at him to push back into you. Keeping his eyes locked into yours, Harry slowly pushes back into you. 

“Harry” you whimper. Your mouth hangs open as he pushes all the way inside of you. When Harry pushed into you before the both of you were bursting at the seams with sexual tension. Now that you and Harry were calm and in a relaxed state, you could feel everything like before, but times 10.

Now Harry’s head was beginning to spin. He couldn’t believe how beautiful you were all the way around. Not to mention the way your walls were wrapped around him. He just wanted to stay like this forever. 

“Fuck-please move.” You beg. Harry begins to give you slow and deep thrusts, filling you all the way up with his cock. He went so deep inside of you that he could feel the outline of his cock moving inside of you against his stomach. He continues to slowly thrust into you, giving that the both of you wanted to slow things down and just take each other in. But, unfortunately your time alone was coming to an end. Out of nowhere, theres a loud knock on the door from outside. One of the producers was letting you both know that filming wag going to pick back up in 20 minuets. 

“I guess all good things must come to an end” Harry groans into your neck.

“We always have tonight.” Even though you sounded optimistic, you were feeling just like Harry. 

“I guess so” he mumbles before picking his head up from your neck.

“I’ll let you eat me out again if we get up now.” As soon as you say this, Harry perks up and he instantly gets excited.

“Then what are we waiting for!”

Masterlist

[sugarcomatosed]

On Miyuki Inaba and Macross:

I’ve heard nothing but love for wave 2-10 of destruction; but I’ve realized that the scene loses some of its magic for western audience because they don’t know it’s a shout out. 

So today I want to break down for you today the biggest reference in 13 Sentinels you most likely missed out on; Miyuki Inaba, Lynn Minmay and The Super Dimensional Fortess Macross.

Join me under the cut for massive spoilers for Sentinels of course, and a nearly 40 year old anime you’ve never seen.

I think everyone knows Sentinels is chock full of sci-fi shout outs. From War of the Worlds, to Terminator, The Matrix, heck even GroundHog’s day, the list goes on and on. Most western audiences will be able to spot the bulk, so why haven’t you heard of Macross?

Simply put, copyright battles. In 1985, Hamorny Gold stitched together three unrelated animes to create Robotech. One of the anime series involved was Macross and Harmony Gold has kept a tight leash on the copyright preventing the series from ever getting a real proper English release ever since.

...so what is Macross?

Well, in super blunt Wikipedia stolen summaries:

Macross (マクロス, Makurosu, English: /məˈkrɒs/) is a Japanese science fiction mecha anime media franchise/media mix, created by Studio Nue (most prominently mechanical designer Shōji Kawamori) and Artland in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth and the human race after the year 1999, as well as the history of humanoid civilization in the Milky Way. It consists of four TV series, four movies, six OVAs, one light novel, and five manga series, all sponsored by Big West Advertising, in addition to 40 video games set in the Macross universe, 2 crossover games, and a wide variety of physical merchandise.

If you asked me to boil the series down to it’s three staples I’d pick the following three elements. Big robot fights, love triangles and music, usually all interplaying together to make some of the most exciting fight scenes in anime.

The series is going strong in Japan ever since its 1982 release, with the most recent series Macross Delta’s newest film “Absolute Live!!!!!!” getting its first teaser trailer days before I sat down to write this post. It’s insanely big in Japan and you’ve probably seen a half dozen Macross references if you’ve watched a sci-fi anime before. Most likely the signature missile blast.

Sentinels pulls specifically from the 1984 film: the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? The story is largely a shortened version of the first tv series which aired in 82 and is considered in canon a film retelling of the events.

The film focuses on a colony ship adrift through space suddenly being attacked by an alien race called the Zentardi, it’s both a war film and a very quiet drama all tangled up in the three central characters of Hikaru Ichijo, the young pilot, Misa Hayase, one of the bridge officers and then Miss Macross herself; Lynn Minmay.  An idol singer aborad the ship who has during its journey become a huge celebrity after starting as a simple waitress at her family’s restaurant. 

Minmay is considered something of the face of the series and while other characters may never come up again in its extended universe, the story of Lynn Minmay is akin to legend in later entries in the seires. 

When mankind was faced with these invaders, there was one simple thing that managed to send the enemy into disarray, the music of Lynn Minmay shocked the Zentardi who had no concept of culture and music. They end up capturing her and the other two leads during the course of the film and while the others manage to escape; Minmay is trapped behind with the Zentardi.

They eventually ask her to look and exam a relic they’ve kept on board their ship, and Minmay discovers it’s of all things, a song.

So, if isn’t obvious enough by this description alone, Miyuki is modeled after Minmay. It’s not a 1 to 1, but the curls in her hair and the style of her outfit make it even more obvious.

They have a lot of the same general vibes too, Minmay over the course of the film becomes a tragic melancholic figure and a symbol of the war effort against her will. Her sweet dreamy smile and glittering energy become subdued as she faces set back over setback. She remains strong up until a point behind her facade of confidence until she discovers Hikaru now has feelings for Misa. Culminating in the finale of the film where a despair filled Minmay refuses to sing because it all seems pointless.

Miyuki foils this of course with her journey from the plucky Tomi Kisaragi of a prior loop to a ghost in the machine; a somber beautiful figure but a changed person. She only has this role she’s taken on in the end. All she can do to impact the out come of this fight is sing and hope Shu hears her.

In the finale, Minmay is given a wake up call and asked by Hikaru to sing her song and try to save the lives of everyone left aboard the macross. Roused from her despair, Minmay agrees and the final battle is set to the tunes of the song the Zentardi had shown her, now with lyrics Misa had translated. At long last reaching them and halting the conflict.

This is of course, what 2-10 is a direct reference too. Miyuki sings Seaside Vacation until she can’t be heard any longer.

Even if you’ve never seen the film, the clip alone is a treat in itself. It’s a lovely piece of animation 

But Macross’s influences go deeper than just Miyuki and the original Macross. In Macross Plus, the primary idol is the artificial intelligence Sharon Apple. She is also it’s major villian as her AI becomes destabilized during the course of the film.

With the illegal modifications installed in Sharon takes control of the capital of Earth with her music and nearly destroys the city. Miyuki’s character is all Minmay, but her role in the story is a heroic Sharon Apple.

And outside of Miyuki, Macross references and influences can be spotted in Tomi’s story in which she and Nenji are trapped in 2025 and he begins to fall for her mirrors the arc that occurs between Hikaru and Misa after they escape the clutches of the Zentardi. The pair find themselves trapped on a mysterious planet, which turns out to be Earth rampaged by the Zentardi. Misa and Hikaru’s hostility towards each other fades as they try to come to grips with this truth. They spend a long time alone in the ruins and eventually fall in love before eventually being saved by the Macross. Which, is roughly what occurs in Tomi’s story between her and Nenji.

Shu’s story as well, with the minor focus on his confusion of his feelings towards Tomi and Yuki are also arguably a tongue in cheek reference towards the series many Love triangles, which aren’t always true triangles but always remain a corner stone of the series. 

Does Shu actually have feelings towards Tomi? No but she’s showing up everywhere and it’s left him a little out of sorts and plays into the misinformation sentinels feeds you, leading you to think there’s a triangle of some sorts:

Maybe they’re stretches, but considering it was stated in an interview the film was a huge inspiration for the game, I wouldn’t be shocked. I found the interview on twitter back in November but can’t track it down now and I’m v. sad

There’s also the matter of the Protoculture.

The Macross is a massive colony ship, sent out into space with the goal of returning to earth after a long space voyage to insure humanity’s survival, much like the probes the 2188 colony sent out. Misa and Hikaru return to find this was the only thing that’s had prevented humanity from being wiped by the Zentardi.

While on earth, Misa and Hikaru manages to discover a set of ruins of a highly advanced civilization that had created both humanity and the Zentardi. The protoculture.

The logs they manage to Find reveal that their inventions grew too great and they have all but disappeared from the universe, but humanity in the end are aliens as well. The invading Zentardi were just tools used by the Protoculture to wage war on itself and contributed to the death of their people.

The song Minmay sings is a relic of the Protoculture, an ancient highly advanced civilization from thousands of years ago.

Now Hm. Why does that sound familiar? What was it Fluffy said about 2188 and the Deimos code....

They’re obviously not 1-1 references, but Sentinels was such a labor of love that pulled from so many genres it’s nice to see such an iconic series get a well thought out reference. 

I hope this was something of a fun read and gives you a better love of Miyuki and 2-10.

I don’t know if I’d recommend getting into Macross if you liked Sentinels, but if you’re interested send me an ask and I could probably give you a helpful breakdown. I love both series so much and consider them my top two sci-fi! 

[elderbloodlore]

Calanthe was not a racist homicidal tyrant: a useless and bitter rant of someone whose favourite character ever got mercilessly butchered.

WHY ARE YOU WRITING THIS? 

Well, let me give you a little bit of a backstory. I first read the Last Wish and the Sword of Destiny in 2012, when I was 14 years old. I instantly connected with the character of Calanthe, and after her death, it took me nearly a year to be able to pick up the saga itself. Ever since, she remained my favourite fictional character ever. As a little girl in misoginistic Poland, I was so lucky to have her as a role model. Because she fought for herself, she took no shit from anybody, she had love and respect of the people around her, and yet she had such tenderness and kindness about her that many strong woman-trope characters are missing these days, and that is exactly what happened to Calanthe when she was being translated to the screen. In 2015 The Wild Hunt was coming out and there were rumours of Ciri being included, so you can imagine my absolute glee and the hope I was filled with to have some more content with that one woman that meant so much to me growing up. And you can imagine my disappointment when all we got about her were a couple tiny mentions, even though the events of the Wild Hunt happen not even a decade after her death. Then the show by Netflix was announced and, once again, I had super high expectations. I wanted to see the wise, kind, beautiful Queen brought alive. December 2019 rolls in, and my hopes are being steamrolled. So here I am, 22 years old and crying over a fictional character, because one of the best written female characters ever (in my opinion) entered mainstream as a bullish, racist, homicidal tyrant. So let me address the biggest changes the show made to my beloved Calanthe Fiona Riannon, the Lioness of Cintra.

THE LOOKS 

That was obviously the first thing that threw me off. I was quite enthusiastic when the cast was announced, but then as the first promo pictures were released, my enthusiasm was slowly dying down. In the books, Calanthe’s looks are adressed very often: 

 “As before, the queen wore emeralds matching the green of her dress and her eyes. As before, a thin gold crown encircled her ash-gray hair.” Sword of Destiny. 

I tried to convince myself that Jodhi May won’t be a bad Calanthe so hard that I actually made this poor ass EDIT to feed my delusions and cheer myself up. In comparison, HERE is my personal favourite art of Calanthe that I find is the most accurate to the book portrayal. 

Even when the first trailer dropped I was still trying to convince myself that even though she has none of her Elder Blood features or her iconic emerald green, that she wore exclusively in the books, she couldn’t be that bad. Right? Wrong. 

THE DEMEANOR 

This is probably the biggest change. Calanthe was one of the wisest, most gracefully-written characters in the entire saga, and I really hoped to see that on screen. She was quick-witted, calculating, but at the same time caring enough to let her daughter choose her own destiny in the end (even if it was to be with a hedgehog-headed man twice her age). Her smiles were said to always be full of kindness, she was acting very proper and clearly cared about her image. I’m not going to be getting too much into it with my own words, let these examples speak for me:

'Ah, Geralt,' said Calanthe, with a gesture forbidding a servant from refilling her goblet. 'I speak and you remain silent. We're at a feast. We all want to enjoy ourselves. Amuse me. I'm starting to miss your pertinent remarks and perceptive comments. I'd also be pleased to hear a compliment or two, homage or assurance of your obedience. In whichever order you choose.' [...]  'Hochebuz,'  said Calante, looking at Geralt,  'my first battle. Although I fear rousing the indignation and contempt of such a proud witcher, I confess that we were fighting for money. Our enemy was burning villages which paid us levies and we, greedy for our tributes, challenged them on the field. A trivial reason, a trivial battle, a trivial three thousand corpses pecked to pieces by the crows. And look - instead of being ashamed I'm proud as a peacock that songs are sung about me. Even when sung to such awful music' Again she summoned her parody of a smile full of happiness and kindness, and answered the toast raised to her by lifting her own, empty, goblet. Geralt remained silent. The Last Wish.

'Aha,' said Calanthe quietly, clearly pleased. 'And what do you say, Geralt? The girl has taken after her mother. It's even a shame to waste her on that red-haired lout, Crach. The only hope is that the pup might grow into someone with Eist Tuirseach's class. It's the same blood, after all. Are you listening, Geralt? Cintra has to form an alliance with Skellige because the interest of the state demands it. My daughter has to marry the right person. Those are the results you must ensure me.' The Last Wish.

‘Very well then. As queen, I shall convene a council tomorrow. Cintra is not a tyranny. The council will decide whether a dead king's oath is to decide the fate of the successor to the throne. It will decide whether Pavetta and the throne of Cintra are to be given to a stranger, or to act according to the kingdom's interest.'  The Last Wish.

'Pavetta!' Calanthe repeated. 'Answer. Do you choose to leave with this creature?' Pavetta raised her head. 'Yes.' The Force filling the hall echoed her, rumbling hollowly in the arches of the vault. No one, absolutely no one, made the slightest sound. Calanthe very slowly, collapsed into her throne. Her face was completely expressionless. The Last Wish.

Guards, armed with guisarmes and lances, ran in from the entrance. Calanthe, upright and threatening, with an authoritative, abrupt gesture indicated Urcheon to them. Pavetta started to shout, Eist Tuirseach to curse. Everyone jumped up, not quite knowing what to do. ‘Kill him!' shouted the queen. The Last Wish.

CINTRA, RACISM AND MURDERING HER OWN PEOPLE 

In the books, Cintra was often mentioned to be obiding by the rules of the elves: 

‘Dear child,’ said Vesemir gravely, 'don’t let yourself get carried away by your emotions. You were brought up differently, you’ve seen children being brought up in another way. Ciri comes from the south where girls and boys are brought up in the same way, like the elves. She was put on a pony when she was five and when she was eight she was already riding out hunting. She was taught to use a bow, javelin and sword. A bruise is nothing new to Ciri—’ Blood of Elves.

There were many elves and dwarves living peacefully within its borders. Calanthe’s two names - Fiona and Riannon, come from her ancestors that are respectively a quarter and a half elf, and known to be that. Calanthe was the one who taught Ciri that non-humans are not dangerous:

‘I’m not afraid at all!’ Ciri suddenly cried, assuming her little devil face for a moment. ‘And I’m not parrotised! So you’d better watch your step! Nothing can happen to me here. Be sure! I’m not afraid. My grandmamma says that dryads aren’t evil, and my grandmamma is the wisest woman in the world! My grandmamma… My grandmamma says there should be more forests like this one…’ Sword of Destiny.

There was no actual reason nor basis for the showrunners to make her racist and make her murder elves. Having her walk into her own daughter’s birthday party, bathed in elven blood, while she knows that the same blood flows in her own veins, at least partially, was completely unnecessary. Even in the polish version of the show from 2001 Calanthe said: 

RELATIONSHIP WITH GERALT 

This probably hits me the most on personal level, because I feel like Calanthe had a huge impact on Geralt’s growth as a character, and with such a drastic change to their relationship, I’m unsure as to he will now proceed to develop. Calanthe was, in large, one of the first people in the books that treated Geralt as anything more than a mutant. Here are some of my favourite scenes between the two, in comparison with how their relationship was portrayed in the show:

"At times, no, for years at a time, I deluded myself that you might forget. Or that for other reasons you might be prevented from coming. No, I didn't want anything unfortunate to happen to you, but I had to take into consideration the dangerous nature of your profession. It is said that death follows in your footsteps, Geralt of Rivia, but that you never look behind you. Then... when Pavetta... You know already?" "I know," Geralt said, inclining his head. "My sincere condolences..." "No," she interrupted, "it was all long ago. I no longer wear mourning clothes, as you see. I wore them for long enough.” Sword of Destiny.

He slowly pushed the cup on the table so that the clink of silver on malachite would not betray the uncontrollable trembling of his arm. "You don't deny it?" "No." She bent to seize his hand with vigor. "You disappoint me," she said, giggling prettily. "This isn't voluntary," he responded, laughing as well. "How did you guess, Calanthe?" "I did not guess." She did not release his hand. "I said it at random, that's all." They broke out in laughter. Sword of Destiny.

"I will not take it. It is too great a responsibility, one that I refuse to assume. I would not want for this child to speak about you the way... the way I..." "You hate this woman, Geralt?" "My mother? No, Calanthe. I doubt that she was given a choice... or perhaps she had no say? No, she had, you know, enough formulas and elixirs... Choice. There is a sacred and incontestable choice of every woman that must be respected. Emotions are of no importance here. She had the indisputable right to make such a choice. That's what she did. But I think about meeting her, the expression on her face then... it gives me a sort of perverse pleasure, if you understand what I mean." Sword of Destiny.

A rosebush grew next to the gazebo. Geralt plucked a flower, breaking its stem and then knelt, his head bowed, presenting the flower in his hands. "I regret that I did not meet you sooner, white-haired one," she said, accepting the offered rose. "Rise." He rose. "If you change your mind," she went on, sniffing the flower, "if you decide... Return to Cintra. I will wait for you. Your destiny will be waiting for you, as well. Perhaps not advitam aeternam, but for some time, no doubt." "Farewell, Calanthe." "Farewell, witcher. Look after yourself. I... I sometimes feel... in a strange way... that I am seeing you for the last time." "Farewell, my queen." Sword of Destiny.

FALL OF CINTRA AND CALANTHE’S DEATH 

We were robbed of so many epic scenes that truly took away from Calanthe’s millitary accomplishments and showed none of the strength and determination she originally had: 

"The Nilfgaardians dealt the first blow," he began after a moment of silence. "There were thousands. They met with the armies of Cintra in the Marnadal valley. The battle lasted all day: from dawn to dusk. Cintra's troops valiantly resisted before being decimated. The king died, and that's when the queen..." "Calanthe." "Yes. Seeing that her army had succumbed to panic and scattered, she gathered around herself and her standard any who could still fight and formed a line of defense that reached the river, next to the city. All the soldiers who were still able followed." "And Calanthe?" "With a handful of knights, she covered the troops' crossing and defended the rear. They say she fought like a man, plunging into the thick of the battle. She was impaled by pikes when she charged against the Nilfgaardian infantry. She was then evacuated to the city. What's in that flask, Geralt?" "Vodka. Want some?" "Well then, gladly." "Speak. Continue, Dandelion. Tell me everything." "The city wasn't properly defended. There was no headquarters. The defensive walls were empty. The rest of the knights and their families, the princes and the queen, barricaded themselves in the castle. The Nilfgaardians then took the castle after their sorcerers reduced the gate to cinders and burned down the walls. Only the tower, apparently protected by magic, resisted the spells of the Nilfgaardian sorcerers. Even so, the attackers penetrated inside four days later without making camp. The women had killed the children, the boys and girls, and fell upon their own swords or... What's is it, Geralt?" "Continue, Dandelion." "Or... like Calanthe... head first, from the battlement, the very top... It's said that she asked to be... but no-one would agree. So she climbed up to the crenelations and... jumped head first. They say they did horrible things to the corpse afterward. I don't want... What is it?” Sword of Destiny.

I understand that this happened because of limited screen time, probably, but the whole Fall of Cintra had been squeezed into what seemed to be a single day, a crushing defeat for Calanthe’s forces, and probably in some way, punishment for her pride. 

AFTER CALANTHE’S DEATH 

While reading the rest of the saga, these little snipits of people talking about Calanthe, mentioning her, often with respect and reverence, mentioning how her people mourned her and swore revange for her, truly kept me going through. I wished that, at the end, Ciri would find it in herself to return home and liberate it, as back then I had no way to spoil myself the ending. In the books, you can really feel the outrage almost all of Continent feels after the murder of Calanthe: 

[...] Cintra is a symbol. Remember Sodden! If it were not for the massacre of that town and Calanthe's martyrdom, there would not have been such a victory then. The forces were equal — no one counted on our crushing them like that. But our armies threw themselves at their throats like wolves, like rabid dogs, to avenge the Lioness of Cintra. Blood of Elves.

[...] Bear in mind that these men left their homes and families, and fled to Sodden and Brugge, and to Temeria, because they wanted to fight for Cintra, for Calanthe’s blood. They wanted to liberate their country, to drive the invader from Cintra, so that Calanthe’s descendant would regain the throne. Baptism of Fire.

In the show, there is none of that. In fact, people seem to be full of disdain and hatred for her, saying things such as: 

which, in turn, fills me with dread for the upcoming seasons, because I can already feel all the further butchery coming my beloved Queen’s way.

IN CONCLUSION

In all honestly, there is very little the Calanthe from the show has in common with the one from the books, the one I originally fell in love with. Which is not to say that Netflix’s Calanthe is not a great character in her own right, because who doesn’t love a badass sword-wielding Queen, but as a portrayal of the greatest ruler within the Witcher universe, and one of, in my opinion, best written female rules in literature, she falls flat, and that’s what pushed me to write this useless and slightly bitter rant, in hopes to maybe interest more people in the original version of Calanthe and maybe, just maybe, prompt some of you to read the saga or, at the very least, the short stories. 

[tehesunnysbright]

jatp tag game :) i did not proof read this so it’s kind of a mess...

i was tagged by @willexx and @julesdreambox so thanks for the tag 💕💕💕

favorite character: alex mercer... the only right answer ;) (julie is my second favorite though <3)

character you relate to the most: julie molina and ALEX MERCER

top 3 songs: 1. bright, 2. wake up, and 3. i can never decide but rn i’m going to sayyyyyyy ummmmm wow i’m super indecisive ummmmm stand tall but i seriously love them all and can never choose!

favorite episode: episode 6 or 7 i can never choose because both are too iconic!

most iconic lines: we’re all a little crazy, does anyone know the Heimlich cause julie’s choking, i wish i couldn’t see you, ripping off the bandaid, sunset swerve, julie and the fat ones, when she says deep dish is she like talking about pizza, t-shirt size beautiful, making me blush, you got this, wait were those holograms, put me back in coach, ok, don’t ghost me, demon, because i care about you alex, i still would have followed you, we were gonna be legends, your welcome, girls am i right? yeah! no❤️...

best moment: all of them ... ummm julie singing wake up, the speech before stand tall and when julie is in the alley, alex dancing with dirty candy, the locket scene, the chemistry scene, the part where julie finds out who emily is, i still could have followed you, willex meet cute, luke giving julie bright...the list goes on :)! also all the performances (honorable mention: i got the music bc i love that song and it never gets the hype it deserves)

moment that made you cry the most: ok so i know this is technically not in the show but the behind the band episode 3 i think (the one where they record). i cried a lot during bc i just love the show and the cast so much and they’re so inspiring and i just wanna sing and dance and act tooo!!!!! a show moment (i didn’t cry while watching the show don’t kill me ) that made me cry or almost cry would be bright during my many rewatches and also stand tall :)

moment that made you SQUEEEE the most: literally every willex scene ... like all of them ... also edge of great song guitar riff, the part where we find out alex is gay, stand tall, and alex with dirty candy!

favorite ship: ahhhhh i like so many ahhh i’m a multi shipper too so... favorite cannon ship would be willex and favorite non cannon ship would probably be flarrie or lalex or whatever their ship name is but i like all of the ships like reggie/nick is great and underrated goodie. also luke and reggie (i prefer luke to be reggies bi awakening and one sided crush though ) .... anddddd may i present carrie/reggie, ik that kinda comes out of nowhere but i think it would be sooooooooooo cute!

how/why you started the show: i saw a cover of flying solo on tiktok so then i thought why not start this show... then i watched the trailer and didn’t think i would like it (crazy ik especially since i watch the trailer for fun sometimes... 😳) anyways i ended up watching episode 1 and 2 then went to bed and the next day i continued.

why i love the show: the representation. madison reyes having the lead role is so big and important and special to me... especially as a young latina/hispanic girl. seeing her as julie has changed my life completely and madi is such an amazing role model and makes me want to sing and dance and follow my dreams. the story. grief/loss is one of the main themes of the show and it’s something i don’t have a ton of experience with on a large scale (of course i’ve lost things like friends,etc but a parent and life are huge things ) . it was nice to see this topic showcased in a real and authentic way. the friendships. on screen and off screen. i LOVE the friendship between the phantoms as well and with julie and i love julie’s friendship with flynn. it was really refreshing to see these relationships and such strong bonds in a tv show. the cast is super close and so amazing and cute and they are just so so so talented. the music. of course i love the music and musica elements of the show. the songs and performances are so amazing! the whole cast is so talented and make it look so easy ! i feel like i could pick up a guitar and be just as great as charlie and/or jeremy or wail on some drums and replicate the magic that owen creates (which just attests to the talents of the cast). DIRTY CANDY/DIRTY CANDI. savanah, tori and the other dirty candy(i) girls are so talented and the songs slap i don’t care what anyone says. wow and all eyes on me are bops... i’ll say that til the day i die haha also the dancing is so good like pls can i dance like sav!!!!

tags: everyone who is reading this :)

[doitjake]

The music in us - P2

Jake kiszka x reader

warnings: none.

Request: “two rockstars meeting in a festival, and both bands hanging out cause they are both friends with the struts, then jake starts falling in love w this person because of their personality, talent and charisma, they start to match in the second day of camping at the festival and then the bands have to play in the same day, jake tells his feeling and the reader doesn’t know how to react.”

A/N:  sorry it took so long to bring the second part and unfortunately or luckily we will have part three! I hope you guys like it and if you want to see a specific scene in the second part comment here or you can send me a message / question!!

Requests here: https://forms.gle/6uMRSCzFvyR2FgZPA

"Wake up, bitch." I open my eyes and see Ana climbing down from her bed, going straight to mine. Strange, usually Lexa who has the job of waking us up.

I sit up in bed before Ana could reach over and start pulling my covers off. Ana looks satisfied and walks towards Lexa's bed.

"Let me sleep, Ana." Lexa covers her head with the sheets.

Poppy comes out of the bathroom, already with her makeup and hair done. "This is what happens when you spend the night hooking up with a drummer." Poppy stops next to Ana who laughs looking at Lexa.

"Hanging out with WHO?" I finally really wake up and still hit my head on Ana's bed, which is on top of mine.

"Lexa and Danny kissed yesterday at karaoke." Ana speaks excitedly and Poppy continues. "Momma got it off!"

In less than 2 seconds Lexa stands up and appears at Poppy and Ana's side. "Shut the fuck up." I can see her red cheeks as she walks past me to go to the bathroom.

"What about you, honey?" Poppy looks at me arching her eyebrow."You and Jake hm, I felt the tension."

"WE ALL FEEL IT!" Lexa shouts from the bathroom, over the sound of water.

"Why don't you talk more about yesterday, Lexa?" I yell in response, causing her to shut up.

"Did kissing happen?" Ana asks.

"Oh my God people, he just walked me to the bus." Lexa comes out of the bathroom and I walk in right after her. "You guys are watching too many movies." I say already inside the bathroom.Inside I take a quick shower before some of my band mates start complaining.

Back in the room I get my boots and some necklaces and rings to complete my outfit, Poppy comes to me saying that Ana and Lexa are already gone to make it to a concert of some indie band at the festival.

Poppy and I get out of the bus and head towards the stages, which are already starting to get crowded. We pass by the security guards - who for some reason laugh when they see us - showing us our badges to enter the VIP area of one of the stages, which is now occupied by the members of Bloc Party. When we enter we see Luke, Adam, Sam and Josh at one end of the stage.

"Hi girls!" Sam is the first to see us as we approach and am I going crazy or did I really see Poppy blush now?

"Hey guys" Luke offers us each a bottle of beer. Poppy accepts, going to sit on one of the benches below the stage, I nod my head no. "It's not even noon, Luke." I laugh walking over to Poppy. "May I ask why you sat down, dear? We have to be on the big stage in 15 minutes for the Aerosmith show, they're opening."

Poppy's face contorts into a grimace as she looks across the festival to the stage. "You know Y/N, you who are an Aerosmith fan here, you're not going to make your pretty friend walk all this way to see a band I don't even listen to much?" Poppy smiles childishly at me.

"You are the worst friend in the world!" I speak to as I walk past the boys to say goodbye to them.

"I love you too!" Poppy shouts as I am almost at the stage exit.

As I walk to the other stage, I realize how beautiful the festival is. Camping tents circle the lawn, groups of friends take fun pictures lying down, not caring about the grass and a little bit of mud. Food trucks begin to set up their trailers to receive the drunken crowd in need of something solid in their stomachs, Poppy and Ana are included in this crowd. I laugh with thought and only realize that there was someone in front of me when I bump into her as I enter the vip air of the stage.

"I'm sorry." I raise my gaze to the person and am relieved that it is not a stranger who would probably cuss me out. "Oh, hi Jake!" I smile at the man in front of me.

"Hi Y/N." He laughs making room for me to pass. "How are you doing?"

"Well, how about you?"

"Fine too." Jake leans against one of the bars, he's even more handsome in the daylight, shit! "Still feel like you're going to pass out at any moment?" He smiles at me.

"Don't even remind me of that!" I smile too. "And you Sir, you have to promise that even if I faint you won't let anyone take me away from this privileged place." I point to the VIP area we are in, which is less than a meter from the stage.

"Okay, I promise!" Jake laughs and runs his fingers through his bracelets, coming closer to me, to speak something in my ear. "I know the whole festival has probably already seen this, but I think it's only fair to warn you that your badge is backwards." He looks at me amused and waves his own badge.

I look at my badge and see that all the writing and pictures are upside down. I try to turn it over still holding the rope, but I only make it worse, making the badge fall into the grass.

Before I can duck to pick it up, Jake does it for me and he also catches the badge cord around my neck with his own fingers and puts the badge away easily.

"There!"

I look at him and smile at the same time blushing. "Thanks."

Jake shrugs his shoulder smiling.

We both look over our shoulder when we hear familiar voices. Coming towards us are Ana, Gethin and a little behind them Lexa and Danny. Very close.

I laugh at the scene and Jake seems to read my mind and follows me smiling at the 'couple'.

"Cute, huh?" Ana nods to Lexa and Danny, making them both blush.

I pat her arm lightly and turn to Gethin and Danny. "Hi guys."  

"Hey Y/N." The two respond in unison.

Gethin crouches on the floor opening a bale of beer and handing it out to each of us. I get tired of rejecting drinks, so I accept. Before I can open mine, Danny and Gethin are already toasting with their bottles.

I shiver at the whisper right next to my ear. "I said, beer guys."

I turn to Jake smiling at the memory of our first conversation.

The half-computerized voice comes out of the speakers, announcing that soon the band will take the stage. And maybe it's the adrenaline from the concert about to start, but I take courage and approach Jake.

"So, today the girls and I are going to build a bonfire on the lawn behind our bus." I look at him, who has a sideways smile on his face and nods. "Do you want to join us? I mean, you and all the boys too."

"Sure."

We smile at each other and only stop when seconds later, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler enter the stage, being followed by the rest of the band afterwards.

"No fainting, eh." Jake speaks low to me, but loud enough for me to hear over the beginning of 'DREAM ON.'

"No getting me out of here if I faint." I speak would be but can't stand it and follow Jake in laughter as he throws his head back.

And now the show really begins.

I spend the next two hours singing (screaming) all the Aerosmith songs, some hours cuddling with Ana, other times helping Gethin open another bale of beer.

Jake, Ana and Gethin spend the last 4 minutes of the show laughing at me and Lexa, because we were crying of 'I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing' until we saw that Danny was also almost crying and then we were all engaged in the mission of laughing at him.

Definitely one of the best moments of my life.

When the concert of a small alternative band starts, we leave the VIP area and head towards the food trucks. Ok, maybe I am also part of the audience that needs something solid in the belly.

As we sit down on some folding chairs, Josh, Luke, Jed and Adam come towards us. Josh frowns, taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of me.

"Where are Sam and Poppy?"

"Are you guys too drunk and have you forgotten that they were both with you?" I ask laughing and the 4 boys in front of me look even more confused.

"They said they were going to meet you in the VIP area of the big stage." Adam replies.

All ten of us stare at each other's faces. Then Josh can't help himself and lets out a laugh and everyone starts to understand what really happened.

"Wow, two couples in less than a day of festival?" Luke hisses.

Even though I am a few chairs away from Lexa and Danny I can feel them both wanting to hide when we all give them quick glances, my glance is quick but so much so that I miss the scene of the two of them smiling at each other.

When I finish eating everyone is still too busy discussing Poppy and Sam and how they match as a couple.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn to Jake, who has also finished eating.

"We have an hour and a half until the Stones concert and I have half a bottle of Whiskey on the bus." He raises one of his eyebrows with an inviting smile.

"I'm in."

No one seems to care much when we say we're going for a walk around the festival. No one except Ana.

"Hey, Luke, look at the third couple!" She points to me and Jake laughing.

And for the second time in the day I feel all my blood rising to my cheeks. But I still have a little bit of bad bitch attitude left in me, so I yell back. "Only if you and Josh are the fourth." I hear Jake laugh behind me and get up the courage to look back, where I find Guitarist with his hand raised so we can have a high-five.

I slap his hand and look at Ana again and see a unique scene, my cousin embarrassed as Josh winks at her playfully.

Jake and I make our way back to the buses, stopping to look at a stall full of handmade jewelry. I leave with a lanyard with a pendant of James Jamerson's miniature Fender Precision bass and Jake with a leather bracelet, also with a pendant, a miniature Fender Stratocaster, Hendrix's trademark.

We stayed chatting about these iconic instruments until we arrived at his bus door.

"Welcome, Miss." He opens the door for me and I walk past him laughing.

Their bus is not much different from ours, except for the amount of drinks in one corner. But who am I kidding? If it weren't for Lexa, ours would be like this too.

Jake goes over to the corner and says he's going to get the glasses and the bottle and I sit down on the small brown leather sofa.

I pick up a book that was on the little table next to the couch, "Is it yours?" Jake comes over to me holding a bottle of Jack Daniel's and two glasses, one with ice and the other without.

"Yes." Jake sets the glasses down and opens the bottle. "Have you read it?"

I look at the paperback edition of an Edgar Allan Poe book of short stories and nod. "A classic." Jake fills both glasses with the liquid. "The best kind for touring."

Jake smiles and holds out one of the glasses to me. "No ice, right?"

"Right!" I smile at him.

We toast with our glasses and relax on the couch.

"Do you want to hear something?" Jake asks pointing to the small radio on the small table.

I say yes, even though the silence between us is not at all uncomfortable.

I smile when Five By Five by the Stones starts to play.

Jake lays back on the couch smiling as well "Just to get in the mood."

"I get it, Keith Richards's 'fangirl'." I wink at him, getting a laugh in response.

By the time the fifth and final one starts, we are at the end of the bottle.

I look at Jake beside me, his eyes and hands are focused on filling our glasses for the last time. A wavy lock of hair falls across his face, while the rest is tucked behind his shoulders.

And it must be the fault of the damned drink that I take my fingers to this lock and curl it around my finger, making it almost curl when I let go.

Jake looks over his shoulder and laughs anasaly. I pull my fingers out of his hair, embarrassed.

"Sorry, it was kind of irresistible." I give him a nervous smile.

Jake offers me my glass and smiles, "It's okay, Y/N!" He props his glass on the floor and brings his hand up to my hair, curling it in his finger, the same way I did with him.

Jake rests his cheek against the back of the couch and smiles. "Sorry, it was kind of irresistible."

I laugh and stare at the ceiling for a few seconds, but when I turn my gaze back to Jake, he is no longer smiling. But he doesn't look angry or upset. He scans my entire face, until his gaze meets mine again. My hair still curled on his finger.

"Would you be mad if I said I really want to kiss you?" Jake asks and shit I feel time stop and all that silly teenage nervousness come back.

I look at him and Jake looks anxious, waiting for an answer.

"No." I speak low, because for some reason my voice seems to get lost inside me, "I wouldn't be mad."

"And you wouldn't be mad if I actually kissed either?" Jake smiles sideways at me.

Without moving much, I leave my glass on the floor next to his.

"I would be mad if you didn't kiss." I admit smiling at him.

His fingers that were holding a lock of my hair, go to the back of my neck pulling me closer, one of my hands goes to his arm and the other goes through his hair.

And then our lips are together and when I briefly open my mouth, Jake gets the message and begins to explore my entire mouth. One of his hands goes to my waist, looking for support to deepen the kiss.

Neither Jake nor I care when the music stops.

Our breaths are a pleasant sound to both of us now.

His hands slide to the back of my thigh, pulling me onto his lap.

My two hands go to his neck while trying to make as much contact as possible with his mouth. I curse Jake mentally as he separates our kiss, he realizes my disappointment and laughs as he brings his mouth to my neck and I take back all the swearing I did second before.

Just as I am about to start the last buttons on his shirt (the only ones that were buttoned) a noise at the door and voices make me quickly get off Jake's lap.

"There are locks on these buses you know, brother?" We look at Sam who is dying to laugh at the moment.

And when Poppy's head appears through the door I realize that he is not the only one dying of laughter.

[theonethatwatchesalotofshows]

Ranking every Teen Drama I have ever watched

(Updated)

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

+ young Shailene Woodley and Molly Ringwald I guess

- everything else. Even Shailene Woodley's and Molly Ringwald's performances weren't that great because the writing is just oh so bad. The background music is bland and repetative and it sounds like out of some teenager's YouTube chanel. The plotlines are ridiculous and convoluted, which isn't neccessarily such a bad thing, because it is a teen drama show after all, the problem is the show seems to take itself too seriously. Other entries on this list also have ridiculously convoluted plotlines, but I'm ranking them highed because they don't take themselves too seriously and don't claim to be realistic like this show does. Seriously, from the title it suggests like this was going to be a real, uncensored look into high school but it's the furthest thing from it. Not to mention how problematic it is- God forbid someone suggests that a 14-year-old pregnant girl gets an abortion or gives the baby up for adoption without being seen as a terrible and despicable person.

Otp: Marc Molina x a job somewhere far, far away from these kids

Notps: every single pairing on this show

Best moment: literally none

Weirdest moment: "I'm such a whore!" "Well, you're my whore." What were the writers thinking??? Was this supposed to be romantic??

We Children From Zoo Station

+the aesthetic, the casting of Christiane, Detlef and Axel

-this was such a letdown. Honestly I was so hyped for it after seeing the trailer since I've read the book and didn't particularly like the movie- I feel like it's hard to fit all of Christiane's story into 90 minutes. That's why I was so excited about this show. Christiane's story covers so much, so it's easier to make it into a TV show when you don't want to ommit anything and butcher the story. But they somehow managed to do it anyway. They changed so much for no reason and completely erased Christiane's childhood trauma, which was important in the book. Now, I know you can say that it's just a loose adaptation, so it doesn't have to follow the book word for word. But I feel like if you already decided to tell her- a real person's story- you should at least do it authentically. Imo they shouldn't have tried to make the setting vague. It worked with Sex Education because the story of Sex Education is timeless. However, Christiane's story is not timeless. It's a true story set in the 1970s. If they were making a new show from scratch, I would have liked it. But this is an already existing story and they’re supposed to be just retelling it. My last issue is a nit pick but I wish the actresses playing Stella and Babsi were reversed. It just would've fit better.

Otps: all those kids x sobriety

Notp: Christiane x Detlef

Best moment: Christiane's first time in Sound was pretty true to the book

Weirdest moment: when Detlef became a gigolo because he needed money for his dog. Who tf thought of that?

Pretty Little Liars

+ makeup, style, the theme song, the drama and mystery that always kept me guessing, the cliffhangers at the end of each episode that made it so addictive, Emily's coming out story, Hanna and Spencer had some good lines

- the mishandling of some serious issues (namely eating disorders), romantization of student-teacher relationship, the timeline not making much sense, these writers seem to put more thought into the characters' outfits than the storylines

Otps: Emily x Maya, Hanna x Caleb

Notp: Ezria

Best moment: Hanna and Caleb in the shower (the sexual tension was cuttable with a knife)

Weirdest moments: Aria asking Ezra out in the middle of a make-up test (it was supposed to be cute but it was just cringy), Spencer trying to block A's text messages on a laptop, in the middle of a park (what? Spencer, you were supposed to be the smart one!)

One Tree Hill

+ Brooke, the theme song, Chad Michael Murray

- the casual drinking and driving (I mean seriously these kids play a drinking game at a party and then casually hop into a car and drive home??), too much basketball and cheerleading (that's not a bad thing per se but I just don't really care about neither of these things), it just seems too stereotypical and kinda bland?? I couldn't really get into it

Otp: Naley

Notp: Peyton x Nathan

Best moment: Naley by the dock

Weirdest moment: "I guess I'm just a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside a bitch." It's not really a bad moment but a cringy line. I guess the writers though they were being clever but it just sounded bad.

Dawson's Creek

+ the clothes, the 90s aesthetic, the 90s soundtrack, many movie references, Pacey is a sweetheart, Jen is a feminist icon, dealing with mental health issues through Andie (it's rare to see in shows as old as this)

- the slutshaming of Jen really hasn't aged well, the storyline of Pacey being statury raped by his much older teacher was mishandled (it was either treated as scandalous, cool or in Andie’s case somehow shameful), same goes for Jen’s backstory- it was mentioned she was raped at 12 by an older man and then never brought up again, Dawson is the most unlikable protagonist ever and his friendship/relationship with Joey is codependent and possessive, the dialogue is sometimes pretentious and unrealistic, the timeline doesn't really add up- I can never tell what time of the year it's supposed to be, because it looks like it's always fall for some reason. And how did they sophomore year have two homecomings?

Otps: Pacey x Andie, Pacey x Joey (yes, both at the same time)

Notp: Dawson x Joey

Best moments: Jen helping Joey when that jerk was spreading rumours about her and then Jen and Joey locking Abby in the closet together (I love it when they stick together instead of tearing each other down), Pacey and Joey bickering

Weirdest moments: when Joey was upset because Dawson didn’t want to tell her how often he “walks his dog”, when Jen was about to have a treesome at a party and Dawson walked into the room and carried her out despite her kicking and screaming

Glee

+ funny, Sue Sylvester's iconic, great covers and a way to find new songs, the performances are aesthetically pleasing, lgbtq+ representation, tackling of serious issues, coming out story, a father who’s accepting of his son’s sexuality right away despite not really understanding it (it’s so rare to see, that’s why it’s so refreshing), the plotlines are ridiculous but at least the show doesn't take itself too seriously

-as I already said the 1st season was great but after that it just seemed like the writers made up a checklist of hard issues they should tackle and tried to tackle every single one of them while covering every single song and it just fell flat. Prime example- Quinn ending up in a wheelchair getting into a car crash to warn us from drinking and driving, singing I’m Still Standing and then suddenly being able to walk normally after. a few episodes Rachel and Finn got almost all songs, while other characters were criminally underrated and underused (Tina, Quinn, Mercedes). The teachers are questionable to put it mildly. Cringy moments- Finn singing You're Having My Baby to Quinn in front of her parents when it wasn't even his baby! Also no one except of Kurt looks like they could be in high school. And why are these cheerleaders wearing their uniforms 24/7??

Otps: Brittana, Sam x Quinn, Tina x Artie (unpopular opinion, I know), Mr Schue x unemployment

Notp: Quinn x Finn

Best moments: Quinn giving birth to Bohemian Rhapsody

Weirdest moment: Rachel's gross and painfully awkward crush on Mr Schue, Mr Schue joining the Glee club on the stage for a performance of Toxic and girls in the audience cat calling him (Ewww)

Euphoria

+ Zendaya's and Jacob Elordi's performances, tackling of serious issues such as drug addiction and overdose, anxiety and depression, abusive relationships and abortion in a better manner than most (if not all) teen dramas, the aesthetics, makeup and wardrobe, the musical number in the finale, the special episodes giving us insight into the characters' psychology, toxic relationships not being romanticized (which is sadly rare), teenagers sounding like actual real life teens (no "I reject reality" crap)

- lack of comic relief (why so serious all the time), sexualization of teen characters (I know this is something many teen dramas are guilty of but it's the most evident here), too much nudity (I know some of you are going to come at me with: "But it's realistic!" So what? It is realitic that teenagers get naked when they go into shower but does it mean we have to see it?? It seems to me like this show is trying too hard to be "boundary pushing" at times and ends up being scandalous just for the sake of being scandalous), these characters just aren't believable as high school juniors to me (they sound like high schoolers but they certainly don’t act, look or dress that way). There's no reason this show couldn't have been set in college.

Otps: Rue x sobriety, Nate x prison

Notps: Nate x Maddy, Cassie x McKay

Best moments: "You did this to me!" and the musical number in the season 1 finale

Weirdest moment: the fact that Maddy lost her virginity at 14 to a 40-year-old man being mentioned so casually because apparently she was "totally in control". Excuse me what??

Skins

+ style and makeup- each character has a signature trademark (Sid and his beanie, Effy's eyeliner, Cassie's soft eyeshadow), their British accents, I'm pretty sure this is the only teen drama that follows multiple classes, teenage characters being played by actual teen actors, the characters looking like average people you meet in high school and not as if they just walked off the runway, dealing with serious issues such as drug abuse, eating disorder, parental abandonment etc (yes, some people claim the show romanticized it, but I disagree. It's not the show that romanticized it- it's the fans. The show tried to portray the dangers of drugs as well as possible. Think about it- every time characters used drugs it ended in a disaster. In the pilot they thought that Cassie overdosed and ended up crashing a car while rushing into the hospital. In later season Effy hit her friend in the head with a rock because she was having a bad trip. That's not romanticizing drugs.), Effy is iconic and honestly the first episode was enough to get me hooked

- every single teacher being a creep and having a thing for a student at some point, the show can get too dark and unncessarily dramatic at times. Did that many people have to die? Did Chris's death really have to be this graphic? Timeline doesn't really add up- are 8 episodes supposed to cover the whole year? It would've made more sense if there were more episodes in a season.

Otps: Chris x Jal, Emily x Naomi

Notps: Sid x Michelle

Best moment: ooh baby it's a wild world

Weirdest moment: Chris's graphic death

The OC

+ more grounded in reality than many others on this list, the theme song, the love stories, Seth and Summer are funny, the friendships are believable and the whole group has great chemistry

- too many unneccessary fights, Luke is the worst, everyone is way too casual about drunk driving, these parents are WAAAY too chill (I know this can be said about many teen dramas but it's the most obvious here. How did the Roberts and the Coopers let two 16-year-old girls go to Mexico alone?? With no supervision?? What?)

Otps: Seth x Summer, Ryan x Marissa

Notp: Luke x Marissa

Best moments: the “oh no, there’s only one bed” in the Mexico episode, Seth and Summer's first kiss and that kiss at the yacht, Ryan and Marissa's first date by the pool

Weirdest moment: these parents letting their teenage kids go to Mexico alone. It's irresponsible when they're 16 but apparently they let them go there and party every year. What?

Gossip Girl

+ every episode having a clever title, the style, the makeup, the 00s soundtrack, the glamour of it all (it feels like reading a very gossipy magazine!), all the scandals, this show never pretends to portray the realitic teenage experience so it can pretty much be as far-fetched as it wants to and you can’t question it, it gives you a chance to live the fantasy of being super rich, living with a penthouse, riding a limo to school and going to parties in New York City every night

- the final reveal doesn't make any sense, just like with PLL these writers seemed to have put more thought into the outfits and makeup than into the plotlines, romantization of a toxic relationship, having every two straight characters date or hook up at some point, which just felt forced, mishandling of serious issues (Blair's eating disorder, Eric's suicide attempt and Serena and Jenny's sexual assault from the pilot being brought up when it's convenient but not really dealt with and brushed off at other times), sexualization of teen characters

Otps: Dan x Blair, Serena x Nate

Notps: Chuck x Blair

Best moments: the Thanksgiving flashbacks, Blair and Serena running around New York and taking selfies in stolen dresses, Nate and Serena’s first time (although it was better in the books) and then their kiss at the white party, the sheer scandal of "I killed someone", Dan giving Blair a plastic tiara to make her feel like a princess

Weirdest moments: Chuck's father returning from the death and then dying again, by yeeting himself off the roof

Freaks and Geeks

+ probably the most realistic teen drama there is, the characters dress the way I can see actual teens dressing, funny, but also heatbreaking at times, probably the only teen show that included an intersex character, the characters being a little stereotypical but self-aware at least, young James Franco and Jason Segel

- the bullying being a bit too much at times and it's a bit unrealistic that the teachers would do literally nothing about it, too short- I will never understand why this got cancelled

Otps: Daniel x Kim, Lindsay x Nick, Amy x Ken

Notps: Sam x Cindy

Best moments: Sam breaking down at the end of Garage Door, Daniel and Kim getting back together in the rain

Weirdest moment: Cindy doing a 180 and becoming super mean when she started dating Sam.

Gilmore Girls

+ so many movie, literary and music references, the quotable lines (what a great way to learn about new movies, books and bands! It’s so unique for a TV show to make you smarter), the witty banter, the comfort of the first few seasons (it really feels like wrapping a warm blanket around yourself while holding a hot cup of coffee, I can’t explain why, but it’s such a comfort show), the quirky small town with many unique festivals, many entertaining and snappy fights where everyone has a point, characters dealing with real world problems (seriously, how often do you see a storyline about termites? Or a teenager with zit cream on a teen drama show?), this is also one of the few shows where teenagers are shown to have rules and restrictions and curfews (finally some kids growing up with strict parents representation) and doing homework and studying and not just partying and drinking and having sex all the time and that’s so refreshing

- but while it is refreshing to see teenagers waiting to have sex and not doing it behind every corner, the show is kind of sex negative. Every single time a (female) character loses her virginity it ends in a disaster. Even when she loses it after she’s married! It doesn’t make any sense, unless the writers just really hated women. Also slutshaming (”I got the good kid!”) ewww. The money and budget doesn’t make much sense on the show either and the girls seem immune to calories. I know some people might come at me for this with: “But it’s just a show!” but I think it’s harmful to show beautiful, thin women eat nothing but tons of junkfood all the time and never excersize and then fatshame people who do excersize but aren’t fortunate enough to be blessed with amazing Gilmore genes, and then throw around tactless references to eating disorders.

Otps: Lane x Dave, Jess x Rory

Notps: Lane x Zach, Rory x Dean, Lorelai x Christopher

Best moments: Then She Appeared, Rory’s valedictorian speech, Lorelai’s graduation

Weirdest moment: Lorelai and Christopher getting married in Paris at 4am. That’s not how it works in Europe. Do Americans think every single Europian country works like Las Vegas, where you can just get married whenever you decide??

[rochey1010]

I really should have started with this one. This was the S3 trailer. It was first posted a week before S3 began. And to say the fandom went insane is an understatement. Up untill this, Skam France was considered one of the weakest versions. Their S1 and S2 was verbatim OG Skam, and it was part of the contract negotiated. So the team were really stuck. And the views were low, though i think Manon's season had more success. But nothing to what S3 has become. Basically the fans weren't interested, and then word of Maxence possibly being casted as French Even came down a few months before. And Maxence was a popular insta model. So quite a few people knew about him and followed his modelling. Interest began. And then this masterpiece dropped.

And it was not only confirmation that Maxence had been cast and was going to be our French Even but the trailer was a clip too. And a clip of French Even's first day of school. A clip of his first look at his French Isak. This first look was never filmed in OG Skam but dialogued in the Skam S3 book. But the French Team now had a new producer, director, head writer etc. And wanted to start S3 with a bang. And what else could be bigger than Eliott having his 'coup de foudre moment' towards Lucas?

And man this trailer broke social media. It really was a phenomena. The fandom went crazy and were panting and drooling over Eliott. 😍 Moved by the magnitude of the moment we were seeing 😭 intrigued for what was to happen 🤔 and found the song chosen for the trailer to be a banger of a tune 🎶 The song was Coloring - In motion (Range remix) and to this day i love that song and find so much meaning in it's choice to introduce us to Eliott.

So the trailer contents. Ok, so there's a very prison kinda atmosphere as we are now in Eliott's head. This is his first day at his new school. He's come from drama and suffering at his last. And we know just what kind. So the impression you get is that Eliott is anxious, resigned and basically trying to get through this hell (new school, same cycle) and we get all this by his quick hunched walking from the back, and the oppressive type of mood. He just wants to get to where he's going without any kind of attention. As he's walking we pick up on several things that will help us understand the season and the characters; So he walks past Imane and Emma sitting on the wall. Emma is oblivious and Imane looks at Eliott with a knowing look (S4). Then we see Daphne and Alexia. Daphne is buried in her phone with this busy and planning sort of vibe (common room) and Alexia is shocked and intrigued (she finds Eliott new and hot). Eliott ignores them and walks into the school quickly. He has his black hoodie up in that Eliott vulnerable style that tells us it's not a good time for him. The iconic brown bomber jacket, the pansexual ankles out look, and his book bag on his shoulder. He walks down the corridor and who shows up? Lucas and the boy gang. They again give us insight into them and their dynamic. They are animated, chatty, silly and tightknit. Lucas is lost in conversation and not paying attention. He bumps off Eliott and continues on with the gang.

What happens next i love so so much at how Maxence portrays it. Eliott suddenly stops walking but he doesn't turn around just yet. It's like he's taking something in. Like he's felt something and it's woken him from the mundane flat affect he was clearly in. We don't know what Polaris is but it's actually all over the trailer. The feeling Eliott is experiencing is Lucas's light penetrating his dark world. You watch what's happening and you really feel something has shocked life into him again. THEN he turns around and the look he gives Lucas?? I have no words. We already see the natural ability Maxence has to emote through his body language and eye contact. And the way he creates this level of intimacy just using his eyes is crazy. One look and you see it all. And it's why the fans went crazy because we knew what he was feeling. And Maxence portrays it like Eliott is completely taken with Lucas in that moment. That he desires him and is very attracted to him. We even see him look Lucas up and down and then a tiny wry smile comes onto his lips. And already you feel the essence of what Eliott will come to give us e.g. challenging, intense, mischievious, fixated, vulnerable, teasing. And i'll add the romance, tenderness and devotion we later see too. Basically Eliott shows that life changing moment so damn well.

And again more Polaris symbolism before we knew what it was. Eliott turned towards Lucas looking, to Lucas turned towards Eliott not looking. Lucas heading out into the court yard and into the light, to Eliott turning around and continuing on his way down the corridor and into the black. Both met at the threshold and now both head back to their respective worlds. Eliott now aware and literally waiting for his love story. Lucas not aware but metaphorically waiting for his love story.

And then add the song and the great meaning of it. You feel that this is something Eliott is listening to when he bumps into Lucas. And the lyrics say so much:

"Over and over we climb...over and over we fall....and all the time i was standing right here....and where did i go wrong...and how did i get it right....maybe none of it matters right here...we go we go we go we go round....but i know i know i know it's never gonna tear us apart....we go we go we go we go round....there's an empty ocean you're filling up in my heart"

The whole song is Eliott and like a repetitive mantra has started running around his head now he's seen Lucas. And the song is this sexy sultry synth pop number, and honestly a great song to download for your playlist. But yeah, this iconic trailer started it all. It was what put Skam France into the stratosphere and broke it out globally. And 76 million views later for S3, now you see why. 💜

Song: Coloring -In Motion (Range Remix)