#I want to know her side of the story so baaaaad

[duncanor]

Do y'all think we will get Tessla POV in tristamp?

They chose to keep her alive, we see bits of her everywhere. If, like I theorized, her body is hidden somewhere for Conrad to use and experiment on the Guns with.

Could it mean we will get to see her thoughts? After all, we get to see the sisters thoughts in Trimax. Why not her, the very first domino, the first victim in this cycle of misery?

If we do, I hope Wolfwood will be there witness it.

[dsinferno]

Ok so my first post on this side blog for the sole purpose of discussing Jessica’s come back online!

I think personally that Minecraft diaries is coming back (and how I’m hoping she’s trying to build a new fan base for it so it’s successful)

Most likely almost everyone has already seen her video clearing up the rumors about her relationship with Jason, and the future of the channel! ( Linked here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTNLSJPa1/)

Something I wanted to discuss and many people in the fandom/commenters in the video are talking heavily about how Mystreet S7 is going to happen. But I feel the announcement is going to be both “MYST:S7”, but mainly “Minecraft Diaries: Rebirth”

The reason why I say this is because in the video up above she specifically states these couple of line focusing on MCD

1.) “the only time I’ve ever changed my story was when I wrote like the ending of diaries season 2 and fans were really harassing me”

2.) “and that’s why I stopped diaries completely”

3.) “ I’m planning on bringing a series back. This time if you don’t like how I write things. That’s fine!”

These are the main quotes that made my heart drop into my ass out of excitement because omfg. If you can’t tell, this is a very concrete reference to Jessica explicitly saying she won’t be dealing with harassment. The harassment she previously faced while trying to write Minecraft Diaries

(Also quick side note but it literally breaks my heart knowing Jess and Jason moving and never really posting themselves online was most likely due to a stalker. With their kids I can’t imagine how genuinely terrifying it must be but I’m so happy she and her family have the peace of mind of finally being safe)

Jess has been VERY honest in the past about feeling very pressured while writing Minecraft diaries and not being able to consistently post or meet the satisfaction of her audience when it came to publishing diaries. The line “I’m planning on bringing a series back. This time if you don’t like how I write things. That’s fine!” Feels like a very explicit statement that one (of hopefully many. MID I miss you so much I could die) that Minecraft Diaries Rebirth will come back.

The only issue is, how

If you’ve gotten this far your probably know that Aphmaus channel is VERY heavily focused on kids content. I’ve never used kids YouTube but I think her channel is catered specifically for the “for kids”

My theory, based on my watching a video every once in a while. Jessica may have introduced her most beloved characters through her “In Minecraft” format. As a way to garner interest. Even when MCDR premiered , the view count was low

A lot lower than any of her role plays used to be. BUT, her current videos have millions of views.

Personally, my theory is her introduction to her new fanbase (who’s gonna grow up with the series’s just like we did 🥲) is gonna be introduced during vid on. Hopefully promotion of diaries is gonna be huge (AND NOT PLACED ON APHMAU STORIES WHERE ITLL BE LEFT TO DIE) and a whole new fanbase will happen!

Ofc I’m the last person to say I don’t want Mystreet back (even though emerald secret and after was not my fave 💀) because both series and any of her new ones ( my inner demons come back to me please I miss Noi so badly) are some that I really wanna see completed. The series’s mean so much more than I could ever articulate but I digress.

I hope the future has Aphmau back on top of the MCRP game! (I’m so tired of unfinished projects like it’s baaaaad on YouTube 😭)

Hopefully the future of the Aphverse has a completed ending!

[ivomartins]

(HS anon here turning into the SoCN anon for a bit.)

Usually I would go for someone like Livius he's a short king a refuse to accept he's taller than Evthys. Dude is the sweetest in the friendship route like omg they are besties and they have Friendship. Necklaces. 🥺💕

And usually I don't go for the... "Toxic" LI; most of the time they annoy me, not because they are eViL, but because they act like spoiled babies and I can't take them seriously.

But Amen... Ah, Amen. I'm obsessed with this Giant Motherfucker™. He's creepy; he's pathetic; he's awful, him big; he's an asshole; he looks fashionable great in purple, but black/red is not his colour. And absolutely no one in the story likes him except Evthys. And yet he acts like a gentle giant with my girl, and he has the cutest smile like, what the fuck that's illegal. Everything about their relationship is so disturbing and sensual at the same time, I can't help but be intrigued. Like, big boy was holding Evthys' hand and wanted to kiss her fingers and nails, and then next scene he's torturing someone by pulling their nails/fingers. That's just so fucked up and I. Love. It.

And it bothers me that the author, instead of accepting that yeah, dude is a monster. She goes, nooooo but he's bored by torture, he's not that baaaaad. Really? Why does he have a favourite tool then? Make it make sense! He's literally like, oh I gotta get the old and reliable Betty to torture this person hehe.

Also, I'm obsessed with the fact that Amen saw Evthys and he was like "I can fix her". Same, dude, same.

KJFDGKDFHG supreme epistates who? i only know him as Giant Motherfucker™ now

random fangirling i just want to throw out there before i'm forced to revert back to coherent thought: his supreme epistates outfit has rotted my brain and i genuinely consider him the hottest character in the book (after evthys) bc of that outfit alone + his smile is lovely but can we please talk about his SAD FROWN??? and his doubtful expression when he's looking to the side??? or how hot he is when he has his hood pulled up??? PLEASE

but ok see, my thing is... i love all these qualities about amen too and love him as a character but overall i'm just turned off by how sterile his scenes are in their passion like. i get that the attraction between him and evthys is so wild it completely consumes them but ?? where is the intimacy, where is the genuine connection, where is the emotional core that makes their scenes more than just boner-riddled smut lol like... i would really love to know what he loves about evthys aside from her feistiness and bomb ass body. i would love to see them have moments that boil down to something other than wanting to rip the clothes off each other

i mean amen only won me over when things got really candid and intimate between them when he was supporting evthys through her grief (their hurt/comfort deadass made me go insane) and i was really looking forward to seeing them build on that and develop more trust and just get closer beyond a physical sense but everything just keeps boiling down to physical attraction :\ and that's the only reason why livius is a tick above amen for me rn because that bitch was out here literally "bringing the colors back into her life"??? being her rock through everything that's happening??? seeing through evthys' bullshit and truly knowing her as if they've always been close???

like when we do get that shit w amen, we get it good like when he held evthys on the riverbank or when he kept fussing over her health and her skill as a scribe out of genuine concern for her future or when he added that flirty ass comment on her godawful drawing 😭 so i'm desperately manifesting that remy will get her shit together and start giving us more of that instead of boiling everything down to horniness because. i would love to go insane over amen again ngl

[cloudbattrolls]

Cherry Bomb

Takami Estate | Present Night

"Aaakkkkiioooote," Sang Kuusek as he shut the door behind him and sauntered into the employee breakroom.

The lanky yellowblood slid their moonhat down their face and squinted at the bakeneko troll.

"Heard you totally made Glasya eat some dirt."

They sighed. "Close enough."

The squirrel troll pulled their hat over their face and continued to try to take a nap on the worn but still comfortable couch.

"Aw, c'mon, don't you want to brag about it?" He teased. "Must've felt good after how much Viltau pisses you off."

"It felt annoying." The taller troll deadpanned. "I want all these indigos to leave me alone."

Another maroon ducked in, slender and slightly shorter than the ghost handler, with wavy hair and light freckles.

"Well, Espino is trying...whatever he's doing...with the hive staff now." Lathti said with a shrug. "At least he's not yelling or threatening anyone."

"It's all bad, Lathti." Said the muffled voice of the estate's head gardener. "You haven't been here long enough to know."

The rust tilted their head.

"How so?"

"He's a liar and a manipulator."

They blinked.

"Of course. But until we know in what way, why waste energy getting mad at him?"

"Talking sense!" Kuusek said in a boisterously supportive tone, coming over to ruffle his coworker's hair, who neatly ducked away from him. The male maroon looked disappointed.

"Aw, why are you like that?"

Lathti merely smiled at him in a slightly unsettling fashion.

"I told you I don't want my hair touched."

A snort came from under the moonhat.

"Give it up, Kuusek." came Akiote's disdainful tone.

"Man." Complained the cat troll, throwing himself into an armchair and affecting a sulky pose, arms crossed and legs out on its footstool. "Every cute new employee is so cold."

Then he grinned.

"Bet Botani would like it if -"

"Kuusek."

"Yeah, okay, whatever." Muttered the ghost handler, waving a hand with slightly forced casual dismissiveness at the gardener's reprimand.

Lathti merely smiled again, and took a seat near the couch and pointedly not next to the other maroon.

"Botani is doing well." They said in a fond tone. "As long as she doesn't see me and get nervous, she's coming along very nicely with more complex commands for her animals."

Kuusek snickered.

"Down baaaaad."

Lathti ignored him, and Akiote sighed.

"As if you never had a silly crush when you were seven." The yellowblood accused.

"Sure I did." He agreed easily. "It's still funny. I can tell you're older than us too, Lath."

"A little." The other redblood agreed.

Kuusek raised his eyebrows.

"Not a draft dodger, huh?"

They shook their head.

"Only no one seems to know much about you." The bakeneko troll said in a casual tone.

Akiote sat up, taking their moonhat off and glaring at their coworker.

Lathti waved a hand at the squirrel troll, who reluctantly looked to the side instead.

"I can't blame Kuusek for being suspicious." They said. "It's true, I don't talk about myself often. I was...in captivity, let's say. It's not the most exciting story. Probably less than anything anyone could invent." They said with dry amusement.

Akiote and Kuusek both looked appalled, the yellowblood's eyes snapping back to their fellow.

"I...shit." The cat troll said, scratching his neck as his eyes darted around the room. "Sorry."

They shook their head.

"You didn't know. It was less terrible than many trolls have it, to be fair. I wasn't tortured or punished, or forced to do hard labor. It was...lonely." They said simply. "That was the worst part."

"I hope you aren't lonely here, Lathti." Said Akiote gently.

"You're very kind to me." They said, tone gentle and respectful. "It's much better than before."

The yellowblood noted the indirect answer, but nodded instead of pushing.

They paused, ears flicking up.

"Oh! Akiote, do you have those fruits for Kanako? I just need those, then you can nap."

"Sanata does already." They said, lying back down and putting their hat over their face again.

"Perfect, thanks." The maroon chirped, then got up and skipped off.

There was a few moments' pause.

"Weirdo." Kuusek remarked.

"You're one to talk." Muttered Akiote. "Now let me sleep or get out."

"Ah, Kiki, my lips are sealed. Here. I'll go out and guard the door for you."

The yellowblood sighed at their annoying nickname, but was reassured when they heard the rust get up and keep true to his word.

Irritating as he was, the bakeneko troll wasn't all bad, at least.

After a few minutes, the gardener slipped into a light doze, satisfied that they wouldn't be interrupted.

[lediz-watches]

You’re lost, little girl

I really enjoyed Goosebumps. Also Fear Street. What I’m saying is, everyone needs more R.L. Stein in their lives.

I’m liveblogging The Winchesters as a Supernatural!virgin. Please keep my lack of knowledge in mind if you continue...

In episode thoughts:

Bernice is going to get you killed, kid.

Those were some 90s Goosebumps hands, my friends!

DEAN YOUR VOICEOVER IS A CONFLICT TO LAST EPISODE’S. LEARN CONSISTENCY, BOY.

That was some… expositional conversation. “You’re close with them right?” “Yeah, let me reel off facts you totally wouldn’t already know!”

Okay, Mary listening to the truckers is what I think I was looking for in the first episode. I want her to daydream of being a trucker, because it’s familiar and seems easy. Please, episode, follow through?

…This is some 90s Goosebumps monstering, my friends!

Okay, I don’t know why this is bothering me right now, but this is something I always kind of wondered when I heard about the Supernatural premise, right? Where do the Hunters get money from? How do they survive? Dress in nice leather? Live in this gorgeous house?! Who pays for all these good deeds?

Also, Ada still feels dodgy. I feel like she’s planning to steal demon energy for power or something. Bad!Willow energy.

‘So many wayward monsters’ Mary? There’s been two. TWO. And this is your job. WHAT?

Oh kid no, be smarter please.

Kid.

KID.

Goddammit kid.

Betty can join the cast of my cop show. She can be the perfect by-the-book rival to contrast Mary’s off-book practices. Even though she’s easily distracted by John’s supposedly-charming chat. YOU ARE ON THE CLOCK, LADY.

…Mary, sweetie, John has never found you. Carlos found him. You stumbled across him while hunting. Neither of you have earned this dramatic moment.

I do like you in the hat though. Very DramaLlama.

…Yeah Ada’s into some not cool magic. Carlos might be into it, but I think baaaaad vibes.

THAT IS SOME 90s GOOSEBUMPS MONSTER, MY FRIENDS

Subtitles… you suck. ‘Speaking non-English language’, bugger off.

I love Lata’s hair but find it weirdly distracting. I want to plait it. Loose plait. Down the side. Elsa!chic.

WAY TO GO LITTLE GIRL.

Ah. Okay. Yeah, the performative anger was supposed to be performative. Awesome, I like it. I don’t think it was done well, but I do approve of the conceit.

Wait, no. It’s not. She is quitting but hasn’t thought about how? So she wants to quit but – ugh. UGH. I’m confused. I AM CONFUSED.

AGAIN, WAY TO GO LITTLE GIRL.

Why do I feel like I’m supposed to recognise the Rocking Roxy lady? Is she an important character? That felt like a bigger reveal than it was.

Mary’s deal confuses me. Or maybe I just want it to be better than it is. I understand wanting to live the life but hating the way you’re made to live the life because your father’s a controlling boss. I understand hating the life but not seeing a way out of it. But this… this hating the life but being scared of a life beyond it… No, I also understand that but I’m… no, it’s not being done well. She or the show or something is not explaining it well. It’s making me less invested in Mary. That’s annoying, because I want to really like her.

But Lata is intriguing me, in her quiet way. I feel like there’s more to her than we’re seeing, but unlike Ada, she’s definitely more on the side of good. Ada I think is supposed to be that morally grey character, kind of a She-Who-Fights-Monsters deal. Carlos remains fabulous but I don’t know his story yet.

So basically, what I’m saying here is, let’s skip the main storyline and invest in some sidequests, baby! The supporting characters are more interesting.

ONTO CHAPTER FOUR! (or back to chapter one if you care.)

[certified-anakinfucker]

idk much about swtor but i look at ur channel for it like 👀 all the time. swtor for the ask meme 💖

Help you have no idea how hard I laughed trying to type out “eeby deeby” and not immediately say Corso Riggs- BUT ALAS

- blorbo: Call me cheesy for fan content but @ Georgi GS (on YouTube) has a Light-sided Sith Pureblood playing Sith Marauder and man. Man when I tell you I think I fell in love with Xi��thari :notlikerift: I would not be lying. Here’s a link to his master playlist of LS Sith Warrior vids because AAAAAAAAAAAAA — but on that note, looking at my own roster. Methinks that my sniper Darrash Nealev is my current and forever brainrot blorbo because the more I unfold his story the more I (a) make him suffer and (b) make him even cooler!!! It’s a win-win!! Orrrrr we can look at my mercenary Twi’lek dad Unihmawa who immediately adopts Mako because he’s not letting another kid fall into the wrong hands on Hutta the same way he did on Corellia. And the best way he knows to make sure it doesn’t happen is by keeping her close :sniffle:

- scrunkly: oh fuck um. I would have to say Vector Hyllus (Imperial Agent storyline companion) or Vette (Sith Warrior storyline) as far as it goes for NPCs. For my own characters, my Jedi Sage Iminaran is certainly very big and strong and EXTREMELY shaped like a she/he bisexual king so

- scrimblo bimblo: BOY IF I TELL YOU VECTOR SURE IS A SCRIMBLO BIMBLO IF I’VE EVER SEEN ONE but then again I am . largely not apart of the fandom I just sit in the corner with Jesse and Nick and Ollo and Brett and play with my funky little ocs- but “Chance” who is also from the Imperial Agent storyline… he’s got potential. I’ll be nice to this little scrimblo <3

- glup shitto: Chance yet again, Ona Querit or Ta Tigal or Anspi’shel because because because I think they deserve nice lives and second chances and prosperity and and and and and

- poor little meow meow: Malavai Quinn. I haven’t even gotten far enough in the storyline to deal with him but I’ve watched Georgi GS’s playthroughs with Xi’thari and oh my fuck he’s so pathetic. I’m gonna torment him so much.

- horse plinko: Kaliyo Djannis (Imperial Agent storyline companion). Man. She gets on my nerves 98% of the time but I’ll give her credit for introducing me to Anspi’shel, Ta Tigal, “The Menace”/Ona Querit, and probably others I’m missing, because I’m stealing them now >:) uhhhh for other storylines, I already

- eeby deeby: Corso Riggs. Absolutely. 100% go directly to jail do not pass go and do not collect $200. And it’s even funnier because I just KNOW someone out there is gonna be like “oh he’s not that baaaaad” no he absolutely is. He’s a white man w dreads who was sexist to me (my smuggler char, Cathar Darira Tasha, is fem) within the short amount of time I even worked w him aND HE HAD THE NERVE TO COME ON MY SHIP AND SEE MY ACHIEVEMENTS AND ALL OF MY CARGO AND STILL ASK ME “OH DO YOU EVER WANT TO SETTLE DOWN? WHAT’S A PRETTY GIRL LIKE YOU DOING IN THIS BUSINESS? DON’T YOU WANT TO SETTLE DOWN WITH A HUSBAND AND CHILDREN” NO CORSO!!! Darira has enough trying to “win over” her ex wife again whom she was so suddenly reunited with- yes I’m salty abt this

So I’m still!! Very much new to everything and I’m SEEEEEEING so much. I just think very many things. It was so hard not putting like all of the swtor ocs Jesse and I pair off because IT JUST MAKES THE STORYLINES SO COOL WHEN RELATIONSHIPS ARE ADDED YOU KNOW?

[freddyfreebat]

Introducing the cast of Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are

arti­cle tak­en from The Face vol­ume 4 issue 004 

We Are Who We Are follows a group of kids growing up on an Italian army base. The début TV series by Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino is a show unlike any you’ve seen before: a teenage snapshot of fucking and fighting, with all the internal tugs of war that make us who we are. Meet the cast, before the whole world falls for them.

Around 2013, film director Luca Guadagnino met the actor Amy Adams to discuss working together on one of the dozens of projects the director had in the incubator. Adams happened to mention that she’d grown up on a US military base in Vicenza, Italy, which sowed the seed in his mind of telling the story of a micro-America – a petri dish of patriotism – hidden in plain sight in his native country. 

WRWWR is the result – a drone’s‑eye view of American culture which follows six kids and their families living and working on an army base. As their parents (two of whom are played by Chloë Sevigny and Kid Cudi) wade through their own problems, the kids are cut loose to grow up. They straddle a culture that isn’t their own, eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the mess hall while surrounded by some of the world’s best food. They fuck, they sing, they splash one another at the beach and in pools, edging ever closer to discovering who they truly are.

The concept of coming-of-age is one Guadagnino has explored in his films Call Me By Your Name and his remake of Suspiria, but he didn’t just want to tell a story about youth for youth’s sake. It made more sense to place his first HBO series against a backdrop of political turmoil, so he set it during the 2016 US presidential election, creating an eight-part experiment in jingoism.

This is what happens when you tell a European arthouse director to sift through American youth culture, to see a torrid landscape through the eyes of those who have not truly felt its ramifications – young outsiders who don’t even understand themselves yet. We are who we are, Guadagnino proposes simply in the show’s title, but who that is, is up for you to decide.

Jack Dylan Grazer

Age: 17

Character: Fraser is the newcomer on the army base. He loves to stare for much longer than appropriate and can entertain himself just as easily as he can be the class clown.

Sucking on a pregnant Chloë Sevigny’s fingers like they’re pork knuckles might not have been what Jack Dylan Grazer had in mind when he was cast as Fraser, the male lead in WRWWR. Yet it didn’t faze Sevigny at all, who plays his character’s mother. Pre-finger-suck, Grazer could think only of the 1979 Bernardo BertoluccI film La Luna, in which a mother masturbates her own son.

“We were preparing for that scene and it was all I could think about,” he tells me from his Los Angeles bedroom. Five seconds before the cameras started rolling, Guadagnino asked him if he had seen La Luna? ​“I was like, ​‘Oh my God, no way, I was just about to ask you that!’ I swear to God, it was so synchronistic.”

The relationship between Fraser and his mum is ​“beautifully disturbing and gross”, as Grazer puts it. He gets jealous when she dances with a male friend, and brutally slaps her when she doesn’t prepare his meal the way he likes. ​“I felt baaaaad!” Grazer jokes. ​“It was real – a practical slap. Luca was like, ​‘Chloë, do you want to make it a real slap like the Bertolucci movie, or do you want to play it fake?’ Chloë was like, ​‘Let’s do it for real.’”

After each take Grazer would ask, ​“Are you OK, Chloë? Do you want me to get you some ice?”, feeling bad for slapping one of cinema’s most iconic indie actresses. She responded, as you might guess, by shushing him.

When we first meet Fraser in WRWWR he has no friends but shoots lingering stares at a group of young teens who live on his same army base, a group headed up by Britney (Francesca Scorsese). He is ​“universally relatable… the embodiment of questioning who you are”, Grazer says. ​“I was really drawn to how blatant he was in regards to transitioning from childhood to adolescence.”

Grazer has previously been in the films IT and Beautiful Boy (where he played a younger Timothée Chalamet), but this is his best role to date. Fraser short-circuits with awkward energy and walks with a confident gait that suggests – as his new friend Britney says behind his back – ​“he’s got a big one”.

Grazer is, at age 17, the most experienced of the younger set on WRWWR, but he still had to fight to win his part. ​“I auditioned like everyone else. “I hated my audition, I thought it was the worst audition I’d ever done in my life. I walked out and I was like, ​‘Fuck!’ because I wanted to get it so bad. I was in Chicago, and Luca FaceTimed me like, ​‘If you want the part, you can have it.’ I was like, ​‘If I want it?! Yeah! I want it!’”

Part of that audition process required him to answer some personal questions for casting director Carmen Cuba. She asked if he’d ever questioned his sexuality. ​“I was like, ​‘Of course, as every human being should.’ She said, ​‘This show has a lot to do with teenage identity, so are you in touch with that side of yourself? Do you wanna explore it more?’” He did.

As Fraser, Grazer goes to great lengths to keep you hemmed to your seat, talking to real Italian strangers caught on camera, or sticking his fingers in a cake – not because it’s in the script (he did several things without Guadagnino asking), but because it’s who he believes his character is. ​“I don’t act for my fans,” Grazer admits. ​“I act in movies because I want people who don’t even know who I am to be like, ​‘Oh cool. Who’s this guy? He’s good.’”

Before WRWWR Grazer didn’t think much about fashion, but in the show his character loves Raf Simons. To make him more enthused Guadagnino connected him with an unlikely close friend: the streetwear influencer Mike the Ruler. ​“Before, I was like, ​‘Ew, fashion – fucking assholes always trying to show off.’ I talked to Mike and he was like, ​‘Fashion isn’t about showing off how much money I have. It’s the opposite, I’m dressing up for myself, it’s my own artform.’” Just the other day, Grazer says, he stepped out in a skirt, a ​“really obnoxious” yellow sweater, a corduroy vest and a neon sun hat. He likes the fact that people look at him funny.

Grazer loves being the grub twisting in Hollywood’s apple, but more than pleasing his millions of fans or aiming for top-billing, he is taking difficult roles to flex his muscles. ​“I just want to express myself, and if people like that, that’s awesome.”

[mcustorm]

45 M/M Gay Movies, Ranked

The other day I bit the bullet and decided to watch Brokeback Mountain for the first time. All I knew about that movie was that it was basically the CMBYN of yesteryear and somebody got killed with a tire iron. Anyways, so I finish the movie and realize that I’ve seen a *lot* of gay movies, especially in the last couple of years. So here are my rankings according to nothing but my personal preference. I won’t write about all of them, but you can ask about something if I leave it out.

I wish I could give you a rubric for this. The reality is, there are some radically different movies on this list with different tones and intentions. There’s buddy comedies, tearjerkers, small indie features, big theater releases. So trying to rank them all is TUFF.

The Way He Looks - Such a beautiful coming-of-age movie. Maybe the 2nd one I saw on this list? Perfect length, perfect characterization, simple yet compelling, clever. And nothing feels better than reaching a happy ending (for once, because some of these movies’ endings-- SHEESH) that’s been earned. It just hasn’t been topped.

2. God’s Own Country

3. Pride

4. Kanarie - Yea, we don’t talk about this movie enough. It’s one of the most recent that I’ve seen. Beautiful. The way that it references apartheid and the war to reflect the protagonist’s feelings? Flawless.

5. Jongens - The first movie that I saw on this list, gets many a bonus point for that.

6. Moonlight - Yes, I am black. Yes, I understand this movie may be too low. Moonlight kind of scares me. In general, there’s not nearly enough discourse surrounding this one for me. But while it’s not exactly a popcorn-muncher, to me it’s the most personal movie on the list. When I look at Chiron and all that he’s been through, I can’t help but draw parallels to my own story up to this point. It holds a mirror up to me in a way that no other movie on this list does. That makes me uncomfortable.

But it is so poetic. Have you guys seen the script for this? The directing, the SOUNDTRACK, the acting. Phenomenal. 

7. Weekend

8. Call Me By Your Name - Yes, I am aware of people’s beef with this one. Yes, I understand a lot of people may feel this one is overrated. While I do think this one gets worse on rewatch, the truth is, it’s not really *that* overrated because hot take: most (meaning over half) of the movies on this list range somewhere from “just okay” to “painstakingly bad”.

It’s the score, the cinematography, the subtext in most all of the dialogue, the acting, the way that you can smell the apricots through the fucking screen. People who say this movie is a vacation ad are fucking CORRECT. One of my biggest gripes however is that it’s too fucking long. And uh, that age difference...

And Armie Hammer’s a weirdo...

9. Dating Amber* - Dating Amber has one of those “Duh” premises that sounds like it could’ve been done like 30 times before yet I can’t think of any other examples of it. So what you’d think would be a wacky premise actually turns out to be a frankly poignant movie with an emotional story arc for the main two characters.

10. Hello Stranger: The Movie* - This movie, which is the first sequel (sorta) on the list, frankly had no business being as good as it was. Even though the web series is required viewing, I felt the movie fixed like all of the series’ issues: pacing, lack of compelling drama, the awkward quarantine format. The drama and stakes are there without us having to visit Angst City. And the theme and the ending reprise is HEAT.

11. Uncle Frank* -  Uncle Frank is like The Help of gay movies. Like The Help, it’s *overall* a short, sweet and fluffy movie set decades ago. Like The Help, you’ll still come out of it feeling pretty good even though it has some dark moments. Also like The Help, you’ll wonder after the fact if the central white girl absolutely needed to be so...well, central for this story to be told. Bonus points for Paul Bettany and Character Actress Margo Martindale.

12. Brokeback Mountain - Tragic.

13. Moffie - Set during the South African border war, same as Kanarie. You even hear the word “moffie” throughout Kanarie. Anyways, this is a war movie for the gays, and a very intense watch. I liked that it was a much more realistic view of what a soldier endured during that period, and of course on the flip side I thought it was more thorough in its depiction of the rampant racism. I gotta find a good book on this era.

14. A Moment In the Reeds

15. Get Real - Maybe the most out of place movie on the list. I need to rewatch it. I do recall absolutely loving the score, however. Like, I fucks with this:

16. Freier Fall - When I finished Brokeback I was like, “Wait, wasn’t that just Free Fall with extra steps?” And yea, it kinda is. But even discount Brokeback is still pretty good.

17. Beautiful Thing - There are few things to like about this one, the relationship between the two guys, the mother’s love for her son even though it’s not all rainbows, that nice little final scene. I did not care for the dark-skinned woman being portrayed as, you know, the drug abusing, school dropout, gossipy, butt of jokes neighbor. But that guy really looks like Tom Holland tho.

18. Love, Simon - It’s at this point that I move from “Yea, that movie is good, you should watch it!” to “Look, you may like it, you may not.”

19. The 10 Year Plan - This movie is so fucking cheesy that there was cheddar coming though my speakers. But when I think of “Hallmark/Lifetime, but for the gays” this is the crown jewel. There’s some other movies on this list that could’ve taken some notes.

20. The Christmas Setup* - The trend of fluffy-white-gay-cable-network-movie continues and in good form. It’s not deep. It’s not really thought provoking. It’s cute. Fran Drescher is there. You should watch it.

21. Giant Little Ones

22. Hidden Kisses

23. Alex Strangelove - In a unique twist, the emotional core of this one is arguably between Alex and his girlfriend. All that ends up happening, however, is we the viewer keep wanting more Alex/Elliott scenes; those are the most electric in the whole movie. The end result is a hot yet endearing mess.

24. Fair Haven

25. The Thing About Harry - Freeform’s attempt at making a cheesy rom-com for the gays. It’s...okay. I personally feel like the main character’s friend is highkey trifling but it’s whatever.

26. Your Name Engraved Herein* - So I guess I’ve decided I officially hate angst. I mean, I get how it’s often necessary to tell an effective story, but I’m just not here for 2 hour indie angst fests that get passed off as “high art” anymore. I cannot do it. Somehow this is Brokeback’s fault...there just has to be a better way to tell gay stories in the 2020′s. Anyways, the last song was fuego.

27. The Perfect Wedding - Easily the most bizarre movie on this list. It’s so bad, I liked it a lot.

28. Naz and Maalik - The first half of the movie with the two leads just riffing is some pretty great stuff. The back half starts throwing plot developments that are just less than interesting.

29. My Best Friend

30. The Curiosity of Chance

31. Being 17 - Boring. Angsty.

32. And Then We Danced

33. Center of My World - Has some of the most trifling characters EVER. I was so angry. This movie for me has *0* rewatchability.

34. Just Friends

35. 4th Man Out - This movie was basically “a bro/Hangover-style movie, but for the gays.” I absolutely love the intention, but the execution was a little shoddy. One day we’re gonna get a flawless movie that nails what this movie was going for. I hope we remember this movie whenever that day comes.

36. Latter Days - So fucking preachy. 

37. GBF - Another bizarre one, but at least this movie gets how wacky it is.

38. Beach Rats

39. Shelter - I’ve noticed a lot of people like this one. To that I say...yikes. Remember that scene from Family Guy where Peter says he doesn’t care for The Godfather? I did not care for Shelter. It insists upon itself (not really, but still).

40. Handsome Devil

41. Esteros - It’s at this point of the list that we shift from “Movies that are the definition of ‘ight’ “ to “These movies are bad. Bad. BAAAAAD.”

42. Monster Pies

43. Were the World Mine - I couldn’t even finish it. Wanna watch a better musical? Go watch Kanarie. Wanna watch a better Shakespeare adaptation? The Lion King is the movie for you, or even fucking She’s the Man.

44. North Sea Texas - So boring. I actually think this one may need a rewatch, because I swear it shouldn’t have been as terrible as it was.

45. Salvation Army - I have no idea what this movie was going for. I understand that it is autobiographical, however...it simultaneously barely has any plot or character developments. This one has shades of Beach Rats, but it’s significantly worse, and I didn’t even like Beach Rats that much.

So that’s it, thanks if you made it down this far. I guess I’ll update the list as I inevitably watch more of these. I would love movie recommendations! 

[ikenugs]

I decided that, while I've been in this fandom for a considerably decent amount of time, I have never wrote a one-shot or story of any Mystic Messenger characters. Anyways Yoosung is a precious little bean and a cinnamon roll and who I was first attracted to all my first times playing the game. He. Is. Adorable. And thought that, I should do a fantasy I had nearing the end of his route.

Sleepy Times~ Mystic Messenger One-shot

Summary- Basically you are visiting his dorm for the first time and are decidedly staying there for a week and a half. So while making the most of this time, one night you fall asleep beside him and gently wake him up to go brush your teeth.

Pairing- Yoosung x (I always insert my oc's name but feel free to put yourself in the situation) Emi

Genre- Fluff for days

The iconic sound of the Disney laughter drew her from the depths of dreamland. She groaned and pulled the cozy sweater further up her face, and snuggled closer into her arm. Emi's eyelids slowly opened, she was immediately blinded by the flatscreen in front of her, it was playing old Disney reruns. You know in the golden age of Disney, not whatever it has become, with all the iconic tv shows. Beside her she spotted an empty tub of chocolate ice cream, the greasy smell of cheesy deliciousness caught her attention turning her head to the side. There was a singular slice of pizza left in the box, but she felt as though she had a food baby coming soon, she would totally snatch that later though. Pushed to the far side of the wall were stacks of textbooks, with sheets of paper in between the pages, now this wouldn't have been out of the ordinary, as she was a college student herself, if she didn't notice the picture of Rika hung above it (-_-). No way would that snake be in her dorm, so then where......? She hastily looked beside her as she heard a quiet snore. Her gaze instantly became tender as she glanced at the sleeping figure beside her, his blonde locks fell over his eyes and brushed softly against his cheek. Why must he look so peaceful? And so adorable? Emi HAD to get a picture of the cutie next to her, and reached over for her phone, the time read 2:45 a.m., was it really that late?!!!! She quickly took a picture of the snoring babie, ignoring the missed chats in the chatroom.

After spending the past few days with Yoosung, it was apparent he tended to forget to take care of himself properly. He had fallen out of habit around the time of Rika's death, he hadn't had the motivation to do much, not studies, not eat, nothing. Plus her teeth had hurt from her grinding habits, and she needed to brush her teeth. She really didn't want to disturb him but began gently shaking him. "Yoosung~ie~~ Hey, " He groggily looked up at her, and broke into a sweet tired smile. "We need to go brush our teeth~" she whispered and attempted to help him up from their position on the floor. After several minutes they had finally reached the bathroom, his blue toothbrush (and yes I looked on his picture to confirm that his toothbrush was blue >///<) came into view, as it was held in one of those holder things attached to the wall.

Immediately after walking into the bathroom, Emi closed the door behind them, and in response to Yoosung's questioning gaze, explained why she did it. She had always been a secretive, introverted person, and so even doing simple tasks like washing her face or brushing her teeth, she liked the privacy of shutting the door. The only thing that could be heard for a couple of minutes was the noises of sluggish brushing. After spitting out, she began having recollections of the dream she had earlier, it was a sweet one where he gave her a surprise peck while playing LOLOL together. The thought made her blush, but it gave her a few ideas. She idly waited until Yoosung had spit out some toothpaste, and rushed forward. A thud could be heard, his back against the wall, he let out a soft moan and his amethyst eyes widened, if he wasn't awake before, he was wide awake now. She held his arms on either side of him, pinning him to the wall, his toothbrush still in his mouth. By his point his face completely flushed, he was definitely not expecting that. Now their noses were touching and he could feel her breath on his face, though she acted a bit dominant in the situation, Yoosung was the one who finally closed the gap between them, bringing their lips together for a sweet tender kiss. After a few seconds they parted only to stare perplexed at each other, in shock of the cute moment, and Yoosung bashfully smiled her way. Blush still dusting their cheeks.

Even Emi was surprised at the way she had acted, which was most definitely upon her desires. In the flustered moment of realization she quickly turned away, and just to be clear this bathroom was not the biggest, it's a college dorm after all, so this was just calling for catastrophe. In her rush to get away ,her toe, her pinkie toe to be specific, smashed into the sink cabinet. She fell to the floor in embarrassment, as she lacked the capacity in her brain to keep her composure, she felt Yoosung's blue tooth brush under her hands. So she just flopped on the floor for a few moments before pulling herself back up. She made a beeline for the door. And as they walked back to their own little makeshift bed she began whining about the pain, you could see the playful smile on his perfect lips. He couldn't help but laugh, this is something you're meant to cherish, the little moments like these. It wasn't long before they were both laying down on the large blanket placed on the floor, he stared at the ceiling lost deep within his thoughts. Even the small things like this are precious because in what feels like just moments, it would be all gone. The warm times they would look back on, longing, wishing that it could have lasted forever. His smile faltered slightly, at the bittersweet thoughts that pestered him. He turned to her, about to ask her a question, but all thoughts we're lost as he saw the cutest sight before him. She was already passed out on the floor, her delicate facial features all pleasantly eased. His gaze was full of complete love and adoration, as he smiled and watched her chest rise and fall softly. Sure, these moments won't last forever, nothing ever does, but they just have to make the most of it while these sweet times happen. He walked over to a cupboard along his wall and pulled out a fuzzy blanket, walking quietly over to his lover. Yoosung laid it down and tucked her in, gently stroking down her arm. Emi hummed and grabbed his hand in hers and delicately nuzzled into it. His heart felt warm and fuzzy, and he couldn't help but admire her, he loved everything about her. He wanted to cuddle her then and there, and there were plenty of other things he wanted to do with her, but neither were truly ready, and he would never disrespect her boundaries. After a few more moments he lowered himself beside her, a satisfied smile crossing his face. It wasn't long before her soothing steady breaths began lulling him into a peaceful rest. His last thoughts echoed in his head as these. No matter how small, he would cherish these moments, never take her love for granted. Because these sweet moments filled with happiness and true love, will easily be gone, in just a second.

Seven had been slightly dozing off until he heard the sound of shuffling footsteps walking towards the bathroom. Now that got him awake, he was watching their interactions to see if his boy Yoosung would 'actually go for it', of course he had to hack into his dorm room cams to get a full view. He smirked slightly as Emi closed the bathroom door behind her, 'now just what could you two be planning on doing in there?😏' Though, he couldn't see what was going on, a little bit of a con but hey. Shortly after he heard a thud and watched intently, pushing his glasses further up his nose, he was like :0 This would be perfect trolling material, he could just see the teasing now, ah. He waited patiently to hear more, just to confirm of course, but nothing more could be heard, not until they left the bathroom. Neither one looked much different, except the toothpaste on Yoosung's shirt. He heard snitbits of their conversation, "That actually hurt so baaaaad, like it was just my luck to stub my toe so hard against the sink." Yoosung grinned goofily, "Ya, it looked like it hurt, " she punched him playfully on the arm, "Hey! Stop laughing, for all you know my toe could be broken!"

Seven chuckled softly at their childish banter, 'I guess, they really didn't do anything then, ' He was just having those impure thoughts, the thud must've been from her stubbing her toe! (Bad thoughts for a 'holy child of Jesus') As they layed there, he chose to leave, leave those sweet, innocent, intimate moments to the two lovebirds. After logging off of the camera feed, he couldn't help but stare wistfully at the floor, he wanted to feel happy for them, but he was frowning a small bit, why not him? A small tear fell down his cheek.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This idea was actually too adorable, I just love it too much. The ending almost got me there, I was listening to nostalgic songs and it made me feel pretty down. But at the end I actually considered putting 'Just like Rika' or some mention of Rika, just to piss off the vast majority of the population. But he learned in the good ending, so kudos to his growth!

[ihavethoughtsplural]

Blood and Chocolate: An Adaptation in Name Only

Previously:  Section 0 – Introduction, Section 1 – The Book, Section 2 – Adaptation Challenges

Section 3 – The Adaptation

Preface:  The 2007 adaptation of Blood and Chocolate directed by Katja von Garnier and written by Ehren Kruger and Christopher Landon did not receive critical acclaim.  It stands at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a New York Times review by Jeannette Catsoulis called it “uninvolving and cliché-ridden”.  The box office returns were similarly underwhelming, grossing $3.5 million domestically and $6.3 million internationally against a $15 million budget – an $8.7 million loss for a production company used to receiving at least a modest return on investment for other, similar properties. 

(Ahem.)

But, does it have any merit?   It may have failed by the metrics of profitability and critical response, but that does not mean that the film was an entirely, or even partially, failed endeavor.

Summary:  Following a surprisingly faithful Romeo and Juliet plot, the movie Blood and Chocolate centers on Vivian, the werewolf Juliet, an orphan living in Bucharest with her Aunt Astrid, who serves as a rough Nurse analogue.  They are ruled by Gabriel, the Paris, a tyrannical pack leader with romantic designs on Vivian.  The human Romeo, Aiden, is a wandering American artist who encounters Vivian anonymously in an empty church, whereupon he becomes determined to find and court her. Meanwhile, tensions are rising with the Tybalt character, Vivian’s cousin Rafe.  He discovers Vivian and Aiden’s romance, threatens Aiden, and is eventually killed by Aiden in self-defense.

Eventually, Vivian gets poisoned and she and Aiden attempt to escape the city.  She is captured and locked up in Gabriel’s headquarters, where Aiden arrives and rescues her.  In the process, Vivian kills Gabriel.  Afterward, they escape, steal Gabriel’s car, and drive off into the sunset.

Also, there’s a prophecy about Vivian? More on that later.

Themes: The themes of the movie deviate sharply from the themes of the book.  No longer does Vivian struggle with what she wants as opposed to what she needs, because the movie removes any such opposition.   In the movie, as in the book, Vivian wants to be with Aiden, but the movie rearranges the rest of the plot and the characters so that what she no longer needs to accept (and find a partner who also accepts) her dual nature as a werewolf to find happiness and fulfillment. Instead, what the film version of Vivian needs is to get away from her creepy, possessive pack leader and forge her own destiny.  This “need” no longer stands in opposition to her “want”.  On the contrary, the two share a resolution – run away from Bucharest with Aiden. The tension between the human and the animal sides of Vivian’s nature is also reworked.  In the book, she can’t pretend to be human, but she also can’t lose control and give in to her animal side.  She needs to balance both.   The movie, on the other hand, has Vivian definitively choose her human side by choosing Aiden.  Actually, no, it’s not just that she chooses her human side – the movie shows her actively rejecting her werewolf side throughout the movie. And, well, given the way that werewolf society is treating her, I can’t really blame her.  I wouldn’t fight to stay with these people either.  They were ready to pair her off with a man old enough to be her father without her consent.  

Honestly, I wasn’t really wondering why she wanted to leave with Aiden, but more wondering why she hadn’t left already. 

This leads into the theme that was added for the movie: destiny vs. choice.   As a girl from “the line of Kings,” Vivian is destined by a nebulous prophecy to lead the Bucharest pack into the Age of Hope.  Who prophesied this?  If she’s from the line of Kings, why is Gabriel leading the pack?  Does Vivian even fulfill this prophecy?  We never really find out.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for a prophecy storyline.  It just – it has to matter.  And the prophecy in this movie does not matter.  You could cut every mention of it, and nothing substantial would change. One of the biggest mysteries about this movie is why the screenwriters added a prophecy element if they weren’t going to bother to pay it off.

She is also destined (either by the prophecy or because Gabriel says so) to be Gabriel’s next mate, continuing the tradition of the pack leader choosing a new mate every 7 years.  Vivian does not appear to have a choice in the matter.

Throughout the movie, Vivian feels chained by this destiny, leading her to keep Aiden at a distance and warning him away from her.  Aiden, however, ignores her boundaries and her clear wish to be left alone.  He tells her that she needs to ignore her family’s plans for her and make her own choices, mostly because he’s hoping that she’ll chose to date him. In the end, Vivian accepts Aiden’s outlook, choosing to defy Gabriel’s wishes by saving Aiden and escaping Bucharest with him.

Highs: There are two major elements that I like about this movie, and I do honestly like them. I’ve watched this movie a lot, and, no, it’s not just hatewatching.  I genuinely enjoy this movie.

o   The Cast: I really like Agnes Bruckner.  She was great in the slasher movie, Venom, and I think she made an admirable Vivian.  Despite some of the cheesier lines, she turns in a decent performance.  I believed that she felt guilty about her family’s deaths.  I believed that she felt torn between her attraction to Aiden and her duty to her pack. I even believed that moment in the ending where Vivian can’t bring herself to kill Gabriel, despite the threat that he represents.  

Of course, the script ruins that seconds later when she just… shoots him anyway?   Also, and this is a violently American thing to say, but did they have to use the wimpiest sounding gun possible? 

I think that Hugh Dancy as Aiden was the standout performance of the movie.  He portrayed Aiden as playful, sweet, and resourceful, and his switch from sensitive artist to unlikely badass is nicely set up with his story about defending himself against his abusive father.  I also think that he and Bruckner have some decent chemistry.  Say what you will about the romantic fountain montage - they look like they’re genuinely enjoying each other’s company.  

Also, he spends the last half of the movie bruised and slightly bloody, and I don’t mind that at all.

As for the rest of the cast, I think they gave fine performances despite the material that they had to work with. When movies fail, there seems to be an impulse to blame the cast and rip their performances apart – but I won’t. I don’t blame the cast for the commercial and critical failure of this movie – I blame the people who had actual creative control (the producers, director, screenwriters, etc.).

o   The Concept: An ancient dynasty of werewolf leaders extending from primeval Europe into the modern day?  Yes fuckin’ please!  This is exactly the kind of canon expansion that I was craving from the book!   And, okay, yeah.  The book’s version of werewolf society is very different from the movie’s version.  In the book, werewolf packs are moderately sized clusters of families and individuals ruled by an alpha pair.  Other werewolf packs exist, but there doesn’t seem to be any person or group governing werewolf society as a whole.   This would seem to directly contradict the movie’s take on werewolf society, but it doesn’t have to.  The book’s werewolves originated in western Europe, and from there emigrated to the US in the 1600’s.  The movie’s werewolves originated in eastern Europe and stayed there.  There’s no reason why those two groups of werewolves couldn’t have started with or evolved two different social structures leading up to the present day.   In fact, if you can ignore the shared titles and character names, the movie Blood and Chocolate can be viewed as a new story set in the fictional universe established by the book Blood and Chocolate. And that’s how I choose to view this– it lets me get past my nerd rage and enjoy the movie for what it is.

Lows: While I do honestly enjoy this movie, I would be lying if pretended that it was flawless.  Blood and Chocolate didn’t get its reputation by accident.  Here are my thoughts on some of the more egregious missteps. o   The Script:  Okay guys, we need to talk.  I’ve seen people defending this movie, saying that it’s an unfairly maligned gem, and I CAN’T.  Guys, the dialogue.  Have you LISTENED to the dialogue?

Aiden, pleading:  “I’ll take the train, I swear it.  I’m gone.  I’m on that train.”

Rafe:  “I AM THE TRAIN!”

(Boy, WHY are you crouching on the railing like a heterochromatic gremlin?)

Like I said in the last section, I don’t blame the actors for the movie’s failure.  I don’t.  They had no control over this shit.  I do, however, blame the screenwriters; all SIX of them.  This film had SIX separate people working on the script and was still released with Hugh Dancy shouting, “If you cared a goddamn thing about me, you would have left me before we ever met!” 

This is astonishing for its misunderstanding of linear time if for nothing else.  

Seriously, though – Hugh Dancy, cinnamon roll and internet darling, cannot make these lines sound good.  When even the best actor in your movie can’t make it work, you know that the script is baaaaad.

o   The Wolves: Remember the bit about practical effects vs. CGI in the previous post?  Yeah, the filmmakers went hard on the CGI.  It made sense given the relatively small budget to go the CGI route as a money saving maneuver.  However, the director, Katja von Garnier, decided to use the CGI in the most ridiculous way possible.

(🎶 FIGHTING EVIL BY MOONLIGHT! 🎶)

The werewolves jump into the air, turn into an ethereal glow, and emerge as wolves.  While this is not an inherently bad idea (it’s different, and it could, in theory, look cool), the execution was a huge misfire.  Seeing the actors leap forward into a sparkly, pastel shimmer was never anything but ridiculous, and the Sailor Moon aesthetic of it just did not fit with the grungy, realistic look of the rest of the movie.

(Hey, cinematographer: if you want these transformations to fit with the rest of the movie, maybe make the movie LESS F*ING BROWN?) Additionally, the transformed werewolves were simply real wolves.  Listening to Katja von Garnier’s commentary, you come away with the impression that she is suuuuuper proud of getting the cast and crew to work with live animals.  However, the wolves that they used are a bit on the smaller side.

As a result, they didn’t really inspire much fear.  For example; in the scene where Rafe murders the girl he’s been stalking, you see both the girl and the wolf in the same shot, and it absolutely kills the tension. Like, girl - roll up a newspaper and boop him on the nose.

o   Rafe:  The screenwriters desperately wanted Rafe to be menacing, and bless Bryan Dick for trying, but it does not work at all. Rafe in the movie is petulant, sleazy, definitely an asshole, and explicitly a murderer, but I never believed him as a threat.   In the confrontation at the chapel, Hugh Dancy stands half a head taller than Bryan Dick, and while neither of them are exactly musclebound, it’s pretty obvious who would win in a fight.  For me to buy Rafe as a legitimate danger, he needed to be less foppish, more unhinged, and just physically bigger.

(FFS, Vivian is taller than he is!  How is he supposed to be intimidating?)

o   Gabriel: I don’t know who decided to turn the romantic lead of the book into the jealous villain of the movie, but they need to be slapped across the face with a trout.  It’s been over a decade since the movie came out, and I have learned to shrug off most of the bizarre adaptational choices, but this one still just pisses me off.  The evisceration of Gabriel’s character is the biggest betrayal of the source material.  

In the book, Gabriel was a foil to Aiden, and Vivian choosing Gabriel symbolized her acceptance of her dual nature. It meant that she wouldn’t have to compromise her identity to be accepted and loved.   The adaptation could have provided an opportunity to rework Gabriel’s character arc.  It could have cleaned up the age-gap ickiness, removed the non-consensual kiss, nixed the prior relationship with Vivian’s mother and generally made Gabriel as a love interest more palatable for movie audiences. But, whatever.  The filmmakers already threw out the core of the human vs. animal theme from the book, so why not just utterly warp Gabriel while they’re at it?  Plus, the clueless human love interest vs. the lecherous supernatural stalker dynamic worked for Underworld, so it’s going to work here, right?  

The Stuff I’m Choosing Not to Nitpick (in depth):  I just- I don’t know, man.  I used to get really worked up about this stuff, but I don’t really feel like devoting any real analysis to these points.  Take these potshots and do with them what you will.

o   The Parkour: Time has not been kind to parkour.  The filmmakers gambled on it being cool for the long haul, and they lost that wager.  I get that it takes a lot of skill, and I get what the filmmakers were trying to do with it, but it just looks silly. o   The Hunt: I mean, it directly violates the most important werewolf law from the source material, but I’m willing to believe that this ancient werewolf faction in Romania came up with a sanctioned way to hunt humans, so I can forgive this. o   The Eye Thing: The early-mid aughts were really impressed with the power and symbolism of colored contacts, weren’t they?

o   Astrid: They mashed Astrid and Esme’s characters together and called the resulting chimera Vivian’s aunt.  I don’t hate this change as much as I used to. I mostly just wonder why they bothered.  The movie had already changed the book’s storyline so much that neither Astrid nor Esme were necessary for the new plot.  They could have cut this character out entirely and no one would have missed her.

o   The White Wolf:  Of course the main character turns into the only white wolf in the movie.  ‘Cuz symbolism!  

o   The (implied) Sex Scene:  Sure, she’s dying of silver poisoning, you’re both hiding in a decrepit film warehouse and the werewolf mafia is hunting you, but GO AHEAD.  This is the ideal time AND place to bone!

(This woman is clearly DTF.)

Verdict: I want to be really clear on this point – I love this movie.  I mean, let me remind you of my cinematic tastes.

Here’s the thing - there is a difference between movies that are “good” and movies that are “enjoyable”.  Blood and Chocolate is not a “good” movie. The plot is formulaic as hell, the dialogue is laughably inept, and any actual potential it had to do something new and innovative with the werewolf genre was squandered.   Seriously – one of the remarkable things about the book was how it centered a monster story on the monsters and made them sympathetic.  The movie? Turns the monsters back into one-dimensional bad guys.  But, hey, at least they made the transformations maaaaaaagical! That said, Blood and Chocolate is absolutely an “enjoyable” movie.  I have watched this thing dozens of times since it came out, and each time I find something new to amuse me.  The dialogue is hilarious, the special effects miss the mark so badly, and every time you find a new plot hole, an angel gets its wings.  What’s more, it contains enough genuinely good elements to balance out the bad.  It is a delightful example of low camp, and a worthy addition to any “so bad it’s good” film collection.

I’m not alone in that assessment, either. If you look at amateur reviews of the movie, you’ll find a lot of people defending it despite its flaws.  It has an audience!  

So, why didn’t it make more money?  

Next Week:  Section 4 – The Autopsy

[dearheart42regenerated]

hoo boy, okay, this is a baaaaad idea and it’s LONG but I’m doing it anyway because I’m genuinely struggling with this, I don’t have an IRL community to turn to, and I want to hear what other lesbians/wlw think about this beyond my own tiny circle. (for the record I’m not a discourse blog, so pleeeease be gentle and don’t drag me into any super messy debates? the most I want to do is get opinions from different people and learn enough to come to my own private conclusions and move on)

I’m a bby lesbian (and a long-time ace) and the “bi-lesbian” thing upsets me too. but I’ve seen an argument brought up that made me stop and think, and I’m kinda stumped about it. the argument is that we're ALREADY using lesbian as an umbrella term, but only get upset about it when bi women do the same. 

for example...when we see a wlw couple walking down the street or getting married, or two women kissing in a TV show or pictures shown on twitter (much like the cute “sword lesbians” story that’s been circulating), MOST of the time, everyone (including us!) tends to automatically call them “lesbians” or a "lesbian couple” or a “lesbian wedding”, etc...without thinking about what their actual orientations are.

I saw another person bring up an experience where her lesbian gf would joke about them "doing lesbianism babey!" but when she tried to do the same as a bi woman, her gf would get mad at her and say she couldn't do that. the main point of all of this is that there's hypocrisy in play - when lesbians put the "lesbian" label on other women, whether irl or fiction, most people don’t kick up a fuss. but when bi women use the label themselves, suddenly it's bad and lesbophobic/biphobic.

this troubles me because I DO see it happen all the time, both online and in the few irl experiences I’ve had. and I think it's a valid point to make (especially because "sapphic" is barely used irl at all). it feels unfair to use "lesbian" with the same-ish looseness we use "gay", and then draw the line at bi women using it too. (there’s also a very real problem of bi ppl with same-gender partners turning to “Gay And Lesbian” spaces cos they have nowhere else to turn, and getting kicked out for not being a “real gay”. there are tangible real-life layers to this discourse that I don’t want to brush off.)

but at the same time, "lesbian" is the only modern word we have (particularly our only mainstream word) to describe our full, unique experience as women who are exclusively attracted to other women/women-aligned people. bi women already have “bisexual” as their recognizable mainstream term, and they also have “queer”, “wlw”, “sapphic”, etc as further options to fine-tune their identity...so it feels just as unfair to use "lesbian” too, and that’s the main reason why the term “bi-lesbian” personally upsets me right now. 

it’s also upsetting because “bi-lesbian” implies that some lesbians could still be open to men, and we already face so much lesbophobic pressure to create space for men in our identity/attraction because “you never know, you might feel attracted to a man someday! sexuality is always fluid y’know! maybe you’re not really a lesbian!” we get that pressure both from the outside world AND often from the rest of the LGBTQ+ community too. it’s really harmful and painful to deal with, especially for those of us who’ve had to deal with comphet and still do (aka meeeee)

putting the rest under a readmore cos this is getting long lol

I wish "bi lesbians” and their supporters would take that stuff into consideration...and I wish I saw more people caring in general about the lesbians who are hurting from this. 

we’re tired of having the worst assumed of us, of being treated as the “bad guys” by other communities every time we speak up about things that hurt us. statistically, we’re one of the smallest groups in the alphabet soup. we barely even have our own flag, and the creator of our most popular one right now is still facing hate, harassment and being unjustly accused of being a TERF/exclusionist/bigot. 

it feels like morale and pride are so low among us right now. we just want people to care about us, to be mindful of how we feel and what we go through as lesbians, to give us the same support and benefit-of-a-doubt that you so easily give to our other LGBTQ+ siblings. 

aaand now I’m just emotionally venting lol but TL;DR - I want to be fair to both sides of this topic, cos that’s the type of person I am. I want to stick up for my own community, but I also want to be inclusive to questioning/struggling people and a good ally to my bi sisters. so help me figure all this out. how do y’all feel about what I’ve brought up here?

lesbians and bi women: how do you feel about the point that we’re already using “lesbian” as a roughly gay-equivalent umbrella term for the women we see in relationships with other women? why shouldn’t bi women use it that way too? if they shouldn’t, why aren’t we pushing harder for alternatives like “sapphic” to use in those cases and telling each other to stop when one of us uses “lesbian” or “lesbianism” incorrectly for unspecified wlw couples?

pro-bi-lesbian people: asking in genuine confusion here, how is using the term “bi lesbian” any better than using “bihet” or “bi straight”? how is it not feeding into the misconception that bisexuals are just “half-gay half-straight”? and why is it worth holding onto that label when a) “bisexual” is a mainstream term that, by definition, already has room to encompass your experience, b) other more specific words that mean the same/similar thing already exist for you (i.e. “sapphic”), and c) your term of choice hurts lesbians by undermining our definition of ourselves and adding to the cultural pressure we face to make room for hypothetical future men in our sexuality?

also I want to make it very clear that I’m NOT blaming “bi lesbians” for men feeling entitled to seduce/harass us, or insinuating that you contribute to rape culture or anything like that. predatory men will be predatory no matter what words we use, I fully acknowledge that. rather my concern is that anyone can put pressure on us (and all too often do) to make room for men in our orientation, including within the LGBTQ+ community, and “bi lesbian” as a term contributes to that type of lesbophobia.

please be nice, or at least civil, and talk to me. I want to listen and see if your opinions will help me find some clarity in my own. you’re free to message me or reblog this with your takes on these issues, but if you reblog, please focus on talking with me and don’t fight each other. I will delete this if things get ugly or out of hand.

[i-like-cookiez]

Miraculous Gaydybug

Shrunken!Nathaniel x Marc

Miraculous Ladybug g/t...yes. Especially with my gay boys...🥰

Story takes place a day or two after the events of Reverser.

Marc practically threw his front door open. Resizer, the newest akumatized villain's attack had only just begun, and he was already shielding his shrunken classmate from the world in his red hoodie pocket.

Nathaniel had been hit by one of her blasters, shrinking him down. Marc remembered the way Nath had frozen up as he got smaller, eyes growing wider as he watched his classmates begin to loom over him. The way he seemed to look at everyone in a silent, desperate plea for help. After realizing Nathaniel was frozen in shock and fear, Marc has rushed out and scooped the boy up, depositing him into the relative safety of his hoodie pocket. Ladybug ordered Marc to keep him safe while her and Chat Noir dealt with the akuma, and he promised he would.

His fingerless gloved hands were loosely cocooned over the tiny scarlet redheaded boy's body. He could just barely feel the trembling against his hands. Nathaniel was terrified, and rightfully so. First, they'd all watched as Chat was grown to probably half the size of the Eiffel Tower, and then Nathaniel had to feel and see himself grow smaller and smaller. Marc could only imagine the fear he was feeling.

The two boys had been distant past few days, ever since a misunderstanding between them and Marinette has caused Marc to be akumatized, Marc had been confiding in Marinette after his akumatization, worrying that Nathaniel hated him, sure they did that comic book together, but who’s to say that the artist had really been sincere? Marinette had told him that he's probably reading it wrong, and maybe Nathaniel feels guilty, but Marc was sure of his former assumption.

He went up to his bedroom and surveyed his somewhat messy room, ripped and crumpled up pieces of paper from scrapped story ideas he'd written lying all over the floor and his desk. With one swipe of his free arm, he pushed the papers from the desk onto the floor, he could pick them up later. Then, ever so gently, he wrapped his other hand around Nathaniel in a firm but careful manner. He was met with small squeaks of protest, and a lot of struggling, but Marc's hand easily overpowered the shrunken teen. As soon as Nathaniel was removed from the pocket, he went still and silent, eyes screwed shut, refusing to look at the giant boy that had his life in his palm. Marc stared down at him, getting a clear look at him for the first time, in utter awe.

He's so small... Marc thought. So fragile and helpless. Mylène must feel like that because of Chloé, and now her akuma is making it so she can pass that feeling onto others... Nathaniel made a small noise, something between a whimper and a squeak, and Marc's heart almost burst with pity. He gingerly set Nathaniel down on the desk, and crouched down. He noticed that Nathaniel had his eyes squeezed closed, and sighed. Maybe if he gave the little guy some time alone, he'd feel a little better.

"Stay here, alright? I-I'll be right back." Marc said in a hushed voice, trying not to stutter. His pity for his classmate only grew when he saw him flinch at his words. Marc slowly stood up and exited the room quietly. The small boy's terrified form made eyes well up with tears. Nathaniel never truly meant any harm, he'd just been conflicted, always insecure about people humiliating him for his drawings - again, Chloé's fault... - He didn't deserve to feel so vulnerable and powerless. The raven haired boy ambled into the kitchen, getting an idea. He still had some apology macaroons left over from Marinette, he'd tried to refuse them because in the end, neither boy blamed her, but she insisted, and so Marc and Nathaniel had both taken home a box of macaroons.

Marc came back upstairs with a small plate of macaroons. He knocked softly on the doorframe to his room and walked in carefully.

"H-Hey, uh...I brought up some m-macaroons if you're, uh, hungry..." He set the plate down on the bed, and trailed off when he realized he couldn't see Nathaniel on his desk anywhere. "Oh no..." He whispered to himself.

"Um, Nath...? N-Nathaniel?" Marc called out softly, taking a few steps forward. He looked to the ground and froze in his tracks. He could be on the ground! I could've just... Marc shooed off those thoughts, and slipped off his boots, tossing them to the other side of the room, that way he wouldn't accidentally crush his classmate. Marc crouched at the desk again, and listened.

"Nath...please, come out. I-I don't want to hurt you." He said slowly and quietly. No reply. Marc was about to check the floor, when he heard some sniffling from behind his mug of pencils. Marc was about to move the mug away, when he froze.

"N-No! Stop!" A sudden voice cried out. It had been a yell, but it was barely even loud as Nathaniel was so small. Marc retracted his hand, but didn't move away.

"Okay! Okay! I-I'm not gonna move the cup!" Marc promised, "but I'll only keep that promise if you'll talk to me." He coaxed. There was silence for a second, until:

"F-Fine."

Marc managed a small smile. He looked at the cup where Nathaniel was hiding behind. He took a breath and started talking.

"So...How are you holding up, Nath?" He asked in a calm, low tone. Another few seconds of silence.

"E-Everything is huge a-and scary...T-The people, the places, the o-objects...You." Marc physically recoiled. He was scary?

"M-Me? Why...Why am I scary? It's me, Marc! The boy who literally couldn't hurt a fly!" He said in a hushed but raised voice, "you know me, Nathaniel. I'm not scary."

"Y-You're lying..." The tiny boy whimpered, "you j-just want me to feel safe so I'll c-come out, a-and then you'll take your r-r-revenge..." Marc was confused.

"Revenge? Nath, why on earth would I want 'revenge' against you?!" Marc has to stop himself from shouting in disbelief.

"B-Because I'm why you became R-Reverser..."

Oh... Marc thought, everything clicked in his brain and it all made sense. Nathaniel's awkwardness, why he's hiding now, why they haven't been speaking.

He blames himself.

"I-I insulted you...I ripped your notebook - you w-watched me do it! - and I didn't even g-give you a chance to explain yourself..."

"You must hate me."

"No...No Nath, wait-" Marc wanted to reassure his classmate that he didn't hate him. Without thinking, he moved the cup aside, revealing the wide eyed tiny staring back.

"N-No...please stay back...!" Nathaniel squeaked out quietly, scurrying backwards. Marc was slowly inching his hands closer.

"Nath, please...d-don't run. Just let me explain, you don't have to be afraid." Marc looked last Nathaniel and saw that he was running out of room to go back. "Nathaniel, wait!" He said suddenly.

"No! N-No!" Nath's body was in a trembling frenzy. Marc reached out suddenly and Nathaniel jumped back in terror.

"I-I won't let you t-take me-!" Nathaniel was cut off as he backed right off the desk. Marc was quick to act.

"Watch out!" He exclaimed, cupping his hands under his classmate. He felt the small weight of Nathaniel collide into his palms. Marc inhaled sharply as it happened. He watched as Nathaniel sat up slowly and became aware of where he was.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you okay?! Are you hurt?!" Marc began to panic, he gingerly brushed a finger over Nathaniel's limbs to check for any injury.

"I'm...fine?" Nathaniel replied slowly and hesitantly, "are...are you n-not-?"

"Not mad? Of course not." Marc lifted Nathaniel up to eye level, "that wasn't your fault. It was just a misunderstanding. You'd been manipulated and bullied before for your art, and I get it, I have too. And you should know that even though we haven't been talking, I-I had been hoping we would be again, e-eventually. Anyway! I don't blame you for anything, and there's no 'revenge' I want on you. All I want for you is for you to feel safe with me, u-until Ladybug and Chat Noir fix...this." Marc said, using a single finger to move some hair out of Nathaniel's eyes. Nathaniel grabbed onto the finger softly and touched it, feeling the enlarged grooves of skin. Still clutching it, he nervously looked up, tiny turquoise eyes staring up at Marc's giant green ones.

"Th-Thank you." Nathaniel stuttered out. Then he gave his best attempt at a friendly smile while trying to push down his fear. Marc's cheeks went a light shade of pink and he smiled back. His brain was thinking just one thing.

Shoot, that was really cute...how is he so cute?

"U-Um...you're welcome." Marc stammered, cheeks shading into a deeper pink. He walked slowly over to his bed and sat down next to his plate of macaroons. He put his hands onto the bed and let Nathaniel stumble off onto the plushy surface.

"So...are you hungry, or..?" Marc trailed off awkwardly, breaking off a piece of the macaroons and extending it towards Nathaniel. The tiny boy eagerly grabbed it and took a bite. His eyes lit up.

"More of Mari's macaroons! I ran out the same day she gave them to us! They taste so good..." He said in a fake hypnotized voice. Marc smiles fondly at his small friend. Nathaniel looked up from his sweet treat, and saw Marc's face. Now Nathaniel was going his own shade of red.

Marc's kinda cute when you talk to him for a little bit...he's also a pretty good writer, we should make a comic together... Nathaniel thought, then realized what exactly he'd just thought. Both boys ate their macaroons in comfortable silence, each occasionally sneaking a glance at the other and smiling cheekily.

Both of them have it baaaaad...

Good lord I love them so much if you want more of these two in size antics let me knowwww!

[life-is-no-sugarlicking]

Name: Chevy Hawke

Nickname: when he was younger he told everyone his name is ‘Chev’ because he thought the y would make his name girly || Chuckles after he complained to Varric that he never got a fancy nickname || Birdy from Samson.. ||  the Champion (of Kirkwall)? Sometimes just ‘Champ.’ Anyway his title isn’t something he is really proud of so he rather doesn’t get called like that.

Age: 39 at the time of DAI

Height: 183 cm

Race / Class: Human / Mage

Weapon of Choice: The Final Thought. He nearly sold his liver for it but found some other fancy stuff to sell.

Skills: Force Mage / Prefers Fire and Ice Magic

Eyes: Iceblue

Hair: dark brown, in the light redish.

Body type: He is well build like a warrior. He likes to train with Carver, even after his brother joined the templars. Chevy knows how to fight with a Sword, but isn’t really the best in it.

Status Currently: On his way to Weishaupt to take care of the last wardens.

Relationship Status: . taken. Even when it’s uh… complicated. Many red lyrium, many guilt and of course countless dead people doesn’t help to make things easier..

Spouse(s): → Samson: Everything started that he more or less forced Samson to team-up with him to  fix his mistake with Feynriel to save the boys life. Later they talked a lot and Chevy got the feel that Samson wasn’t a bad guy, just someone with bad luck and he decided to help him. Slowley they became friends and then… more. They had many crisis, it wasn’t always something that everyone would call healthy but in the end they found always back to each other. Even after Corypheus. → Tallis: Shameless flirt? Chevy loved the little adventure with her, but in the end the (temporarily) break up with Samson was too fresh for something new.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Gender:  cis male

Family: His father, his mother and his sister died but there are still his little Brother Carver and his uncle Gamlen. The relationship to them is not always the easiest but he loves both of them and they love him. They… .. just have weird ways to show it.

Scars: many scars all over his body - swords hurts. Arrows hurts. bad dogs hurts. dragon hurts very much.  Uuhh.. yeah. But the first thing you can see is his small scar over his eye. it was a training accident with Carver and even when Carver wouldn’t say it, he feels still bad about it. Only because of the magic of their dad he haven’t lost his eyesight.

Physical traits: many people think his eyes look creepy? That’s pretty rude btw. Anyway there isn’t very much to say. He loves to paint himself (and everyone else who is in his near) a red stripe into the face. It’s Mabari-Paint. 

Voice:  he sounds most of the time amused, so people have a hard time to guess if he is serious or not. Chevys voice is warm but a little bit rough.

Clothing: what ever is comfy? He doesn’t like overfancy stuff, even when he has the money for it.

Poor skills: He would be the first one who would accidently kill himself with an arrow? Don’t give him a bow, dudes.

Affiliations: Mages

Enemies: there are still people who are very angry of him because he still supports Anders. They can kiss his ass, tbh. Same to ones who can’t understand that he still stands on Samsons side. 

Neutral Affiliations: Templars. Sure he is a Mage so he should scream “BAAAAAD” but that’s bullshit. Chevy knows there are many good guys under the templars so he can’t see in everyone an enemey.

Religion: He has a hard time to believe anything but would never say something against it

Likes: Mini-Cakes. He loves them. He would die for them. Or at least get badly hurt because dead he can’t eat them. |  Dogs. Small Dogs. Big Dogs. Medium Dogs. Dogdog. He tries to pet them all and that’s maybe one reason why he got bitten so many times. | he likes Taverns. The feeling. The drunk people. The small hope your stupid title will help you to some free beer.. it’s great | Dragons. But they don’t like him :C | Varric Storys. He liked to add things to it, even when he wasn’t there | He loves to spend time with his friends. Being alone isn’t his thing. Maybe the reason why he invites everyone into his home |

Dislikes: like just mentioned above - he hates to be alone. Alone he talks a lot with himself, just to kill the silence | big fights? he is more the peace, flower and cake-type. Especially fights under friends stresses him out a lot | People who can’t deal with their own problems? Probably because he can’t say no and this… brings a lot of problems, tbh | red lyrium. | caves. He gets pretty easy lost in them |

Pets: Potato, his loyal Mabari-Buddy. Chevy loves Potato and Potato loves Chevy. They are such great bros, Varric gets sometimes jealous.

Personality: Chevy Hawke, the guy who is known for his good look and bad jokes – probably mostly for last ones because he seems to never know when he is stepping over a line. Sense of tact was never really his thing but what people count as ‚it’s because he doesn’t care‘ has in reality deeper reasons. After the Death of his father, Chevy was always the protector of his family - if he wanted or not. Pretty much overwhelmed with this new ‚job‘ he learned that humor helped a lot through everything. Now it’s some kind of wall to hide his real feelings because otherwise he wouldn’t be able to stay strong for everyone anymore. This kind of acting is such a big part of life, that he started to believe himself. He is more pessimistic how the first or second look will tell you, but this doesn’t stop him of keep going. Chevy is loyal, loves to explore new fancy things and adventures with his friends. Beside if his sarcasm and stupid jokes he is most of the time a calm guy – getting him really angry is hard work. Believe when I say that people who managed to get him angry, regretted it pretty fast.

Favorite color:  red. The reason for the color of his stripe. :p

Favorite foods: …guess.

Favorite drinks:  the beer of the hanged man. It tastes horrible but the right way of horrible p>

[dyaz-stories]

What was the point of kikyo breaking the seal of the kodoku to give naraku a new body?

This is a great question, anon. One I ask myself a lot (along with “Did she really do that, and if so, why do people not care more about that?”). Thank you for asking it! Going to do my best to explain my point of view on it.

My answer is basically “there was no point”, but I do think it’s a bit more complicated than that.

I tried to make it not anti-Kikyo but it is anyway (and probably more than usual), so putting it under the cut. Also, this answer is long.

I mentioned before that I feel there was a huge shift in direction in the story at some point, and that it mostly, if not entirely, revolved around Kikyo. While I know some other people in the fandom feel Rumiko Takahashi just didn’t know where she was going with that character, I personally was under the impression that we really were going somewhere with her until basically this arc (possibly a few chapters further).

Let’s see what Kikyo’s reasoning is, and how the scene is handled first. Kikyo’s reasoning couldn’t be clearer. Sure, she’s telling it to Naraku, so we could think that she’s lying, but this is it:

Basically, Kikyo wanted to see if there was something going on out there. As you do, when there is a dangerous fucking seal that’s going to give a new body to something that’s probably even more dangerous.

This is extremely telling of where Kikyo is, in terms of her evolution and how she feels about both herself and other people. She does not give a shit about other people’s lives. This is a huge deal for her character. It doesn’t make her a bad character just yet, though it does make her a bad person in my book, but it needs to be taken into account for future writing.

(If she’s lying, considering what she’s telling him, she knew it was him, which, not good either, or she did do it without thinking about it to save Inuyasha and now she’s going along with it so she won’t look stupid, which would be funny, but I’m just going to assume she’s not lying.)

I’ve read the “Kikyo had to care so much for others when she was alive that she’s doing to the opposite now” argument, and, you know, maybe. Doesn’t make me feel any better about her, but I know not everyone feels the same way about that stuff as I do, and it’s perfectly fine.

Naraku’s thought about this is pretty much spot on. The only thing is that Kikyo didn’t know what was behind it (-ish, since apparently she’s not exactly surprised it was Onigumo either). But other than that, giving a powerful body to some creature or at the very least releasing this new demon into the wild? Pff. Why should she care.

But, you know, while I think this is horrible, I could actually be into crazy-murderer-Kikyo. I do think she should have become the villain of the story after all.

So, this was “what was the point” on Kikyo’s side. This is why she did it — ‘cause she just doesn’t care.

Storywise? That’s when it gets bad. Like, baaaaad.

The thing is, Kikyo giving a new body to Naraku / letting Naraku obtain a new body has dreadful consequences for everyone in the story. I’m not even talking about giving him the Jewel, or about when she visits him and she has the possibility to kill him but she doesn’t.

Kikyo giving a new body to Naraku means that, well, he stays alive. It means that Kohaku isn’t free. It means that Miroku is still dying. It means that everyone’s lives, but particularly Inuyasha and Kagome’s, are in danger — like looking for the Jewel isn’t dangerous enough on its own. It also stops Inuyasha from getting closure at least on this front.

And no one ever finds out about it. Naraku doesn’t even use it against them again. He does use the fact that she gave him the Jewel though.

He even says he doesn’t know what she’s thinking about, so clearly it doesn’t bother him to use something that she’s done for a reason he doesn’t understand. But he doesn’t bring up again her giving him a body after Kagome contradicted him three seconds despite knowing he was right because she literally confirms it to him.

Why? Why Rumiko? What was the point? I’m so confused.

(Or maybe I’m wrong and when he says that Kikyo’s actually thinking “oh shit yeah he’s right well going with the flow so no one realizes I fucked up at this point” and then that’s her mindset for the rest of the entire manga)

And like okay, she didn’t really know she was giving him a body, but it’s close enough from the truth for Naraku, of all people, to use it against them, right?

Kikyo doing this, and then trying to murder Kagome was the result of an escalation up until this point. She was consumed by anger and had tried to kill Inuyasha with no regards for who was in her path (meaning she had no problems hurting Kagome to do it), then she gives Naraku a body, and finally, she tries to kill someone who’s completely innocent. She had fallen. That was the point.

I mean — I can’t be sure of course, but that’s really how I interpreted it.

And then nothing.

We’re not going to talk about it ever again, just like we’re not going to talk about the attempted murder, just like Miroku or Sango aren’t going to talk about how Naraku will be even harder to defeat now which sucks for both of them, just like we won’t talk about Kikyo’s part of responsibility in all the later deaths, just like we won’t talk about how her plan wouldn’t even have worked.

So, my final answer is  “there was no point”. There may have been a point when this part of the story was originally written, but the total lack of consequences for Kikyo made it mostly useless. I mean it did bring Naraku back, but that’s it — and that also makes Naraku’s comeback feel cheap, like the author just didn’t want the villain gone just yet. Even if other people have a better interpretation (which is possible, I haven’t read much about this) the complete lack of resolution at least means it loses much of its purpose.

Honestly, with the insistance of Kagome saying Kikyo did this to save Inuyasha

and the shit Kikyo does in the next arc (trying to murder Kagome, being willing to let everyone die) I can only assume that this was a set-up for betrayal and people opening their eyes on who/what Kikyo is now. (I dislike pre-death Kikyo but it’s a consensus in the fandom that she’s better and I think the author intended for us to feel like this as well)

I also think it’s the reason why RT doesn’t bother going the “redemption arc“ way afterwards. Because if she did, she’d have to go back on that shit… And it’s hard, if not impossible, to forgive. (…okay that’s because I hate redemption arcs and I probably wouldn’t forgive it anyway)

This arc is in my opinion the one arc that shouldn’t have been written, the arc that makes the least sense in the entire manga. It’s not even a bad arc, I would say it’s quite a good one: it sets up an interesting Kikyo and interesting possible consequences and growth for several characters. But it doesn’t fit with what happens later.

So, erm, yeah. Sorry if this was all over the place, I’m confused by this too ^^ Hope this helps or at least that this was an interesting read / helped you forge yourself a different opinion.

[alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer]

Ghosts of the Shadow Market Review!

My first book of the Read to Roll challenge is Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, and Robin Wasserman. 

Look at Jem! I love my son!

Here we are at the pond! Fun fact: Cassandra Clare allegedly lives in the town next to mine. I kinda really hate it. 

I actually finished reading this a while ago, but I got caught up with school and the library book is due tomorrow, so I guess we’re doing this review tonight, bitches! 

First: I LOVED this book!! I have my issues with CC and it took me literally took me like 9 months to finish reading QOAAD (which I also enjoyed, I just couldn’t get through) but I FLEW through this book! I think maybe the short story format just fits my brain a bit better. I’m gonna break this down by story:

Cast Long Shadows

Matthew!! My child!! I want to hug you so much!! 

This story stood out to me as particularly hopeless, especially compared to the rest of the stories. It ended in total despair, and I understand Matthew did something VERY VERY BAD but he is a dumb child and dumb 15 year olds do a lot of dumb things so 

I really hope he gets some sort of resolution in TLH

This bitch deserves happiness 

Also he’s defo not straight?? like no straight boi is THAT into oscar wilde

i kinda ship him with thomas

Every Exquisite Thing

SOOO PURE!!!!!

WE STAN SUPPORTIVE PARENTS!!!!!!!!!

This story was like a breath of fresh air compared to the last

It doesn’t really connect to the overarching plot at ALL (every other story does, correct me if I’m wrong) but i’m okay with it because anna lightwood is incredible and deserves all of the respect 

the only bit that kinda not really relates is the talk about tessa’s demon parent? which is lowkey implied to be like... actually satan?? ahhhh????

That last bit with Cecily was just so beautiful. again. 

I TOLD YOU THE BLUE WAISTCOAT WAS THE ONE

I’m just imagining them just in bed one night and one of them was like ‘our daughter hecka gay’ ‘what should we do’ ‘well we gotta buy her a suit that actually fits her obv. she can’t keep walking around in clothes that don’t fit, also they’re gross’ ‘i actually already went to the tailor down the block and made a list of the ones i think she would look best in’ 

I know ariadne broke annas heart but also i feel really bad for her. being a brown lesbian in 2019 is hard enough. she lost her parents and she doesn’t want to lose what she has left. i hope she also gets some sort of closure in TLH. i would be content with her and charlie having a charlotte and henry thing going minus the pining and falling in love. they’re married but it’s just business and they can pursue whomever on the side

also isabelle do you realize that necklace you’re wearing was once owned by queer QUEEN anna lightwood?????

Learn About Loss

this story was a little slow, but very necessary for introducing the lost herondale plot

emilia is so fucking badass 

the last scene with will and jem was so pure and wholesome. i’m so mad that they were robbed of so much time together. 

A Deeper Love

this story was just anxiety

like obv i knew jem wasn’t going to die but the CLIMAX 

can kit pls have some heart to heart with catarina in twp! like she deserves some closure! like she can just tell him some stories and he can understand a bit more of where he comes from

jem deserves all of the hugs 

i just want to scream YOU GET MARRIED! YOU HAVE A CHILD! IT WILL HAPPEN! 

The Wicked Ones

this story was,, uh,, something

i’d say it ties with cast long shadows as the most depressing 

so basically, celine was horribly abused her entire life by the people who should have taken care of her, her trauma was exploited by another abuser so that she too became incredibly manipulative and potentially abusive, and then she killed herself (was murdered?) and her child was ripped from her corpse to be abused throughout his entire childhood as well

it was cute seeing kit’s parents! they were so cute! what happened. 

Son of the Dawn

baby alec! baby izzy! baby jace! baby baby max! 

i’m not a big jace fan, but ugh i just wanted him to get the love that every child deserves! 

i can’t believe raphael santiago was alec lightwood’s sexual awakening

“brother let him see my rack-ariah” 

lily chen deserves the whole goddamn world

jem CARVED WILL’S INITIALS INTO HIS STAFF

FULL HOMO

The Land I Lost

gotta admit that i wasn’t too hype about this one bc i’m kinda tired of all of the malec narratives, but it was cute

“JEM I’D-LOVE-TO-CLIMB-’EM-CARSTAIRS” (this has to be my favorite) 

once again i love lily chen with all my heart and she deserves all of the happiness and none of the shit that the world has given her 

also??? lily breathed, “cortana.” this girl was GAY for CORDELIA CARSTAIRS

BLESS THE COME AND STARE FAMILY

i love how this small child who hates everyone just physically attached himself to alec and would not let go 

cordelia carstairs was lily’s sexual awakening and you can’t change my mind

SLEEP LILY I’LL WATCH THE DOORS alec lightwood being the PAL lily deserves

THAT BITCH! poor matthew. he was still dumb but he was played by some bitch who couldn’t separate her person grudges and an entire race of people

i love how magnus saw this child run into his home with alec nowhere in sight and was like “guess he’s my son now” 

Through Blood, Through Fire

rosemary ;_;

that’s so fucking depressing like you abandoned your family and it bought them like 3 days max 

i think it’s a little weird that tessa now has some of kit’s mother’s memories and is adopting him but also i guess it’s kinda nice? 

both jem and tessa have actually almost died searching for you, kit, and i don’t think either regret a single thing they did to lead themselves to you

jem and tessa are in LOVE and they’re having a BABY

The Lost World

JEM AND TESSA ARE IN LOVE AND THEY’RE HAVING A BABY

ty u really did fuck up didn’t u

but he’s got a pet now so that’s nice

livvy ;_; 

i really hope they find a way to release her in twp 

i don’t think ty wants it, but things will come to a head. she’s not happy as a ghost. 

kit and ty are so fucking dumb just talk to each other!!

it’s so fitting that kit gave them the heron pendant

both in a sense of continuity and in the complexities of his feelings - on one hand it belonged to his mother, someone cared very much about him but on the other, it failed to save her

Forever Fallen

i ship kit with a family that loves him

jem just talks to him and is just internally like ‘wtf has everyone in your life done wrong’ 

jem and tessa: you are WORTHY and DESERVING of LOVE, BITCH! 

i want all of the domestic herondale-carstairs family 

i think i read the scene where jem and tessa put all of their stuff in kit’s room like 10 times it had me so shook 

“WE WANT YOU TO KNOW THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS HOUSE MORE PRECIOUS TO US THAN YOU” 

WE STAN SUPPORTIVE PARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Janus is as annoying as real jace 

lily be safe bby ily this is gonna end baaaaad 

the scene at the end where jem tells kit that where there is love there is no need for gratitude also has me shook bc we’ve been talking about this a lot in my spanish class, about how so many of us are trained to be complacent and to show gratitude for things that should be a given

Overall, I really enjoyed the book even though some parts bored me and I kinda skimmed through. I’m reading Girls of Paper and Fire now, so we’ll see when I finish that! 

[whothefuckiscassandracain]

Batgirl Vol 2 1: Redemption Road (Part I) - Square One

Woohoo! Here we go! Cass gets her own series again! Yeah! Six delicious issues of comic goodness written by A—

…

… … …

Written by Adam Beechen. Oh Lord, help us all…

Whatever excitement I may have had for this goes out the window on the very first page, where we are re-introduced to Beechen’s best friends: character assassination (Cass wanting to kill, this time even despite not being brainwashed and despite having sworn never to kill again) and retcons (apparently Cain was responsible for her brainwashing too, now). We are not even five panels into this and I am already face-palming. The next few pages aren’t any better, because Cass comes across as positively brutal and blood-thirsty here. Also, we welcome back Strangely Literate Cass! Dubious Characterization: 37 Retchcon: 5

The one good thing I can say about this comment, is god bless Alfred, because this man is a treasure and he can tell straight off the bat (pun intended) that something is wrong with her. It is here that we learn that Cass has apparently moved back into the manor and been accepted back into the family just like that. And as much as I love a happy ending, I do have a question: What?! Like, what the actual fuck? Bruce “We do not kill, period, point, blank” Wayne, Bruce “She Is Disturbed” Wayne just lets her move into the manor, which she didn’t even live in before? What?? When? How? Why? There is a story there, Beechen, and it should not be glossed over. Fail.

Cass sneaks back into the Batcave to use Bruce’s supercomputer for research. The plan is to sneak in, get the info, and sneak back out, since she is still feeling extremely guilty over everything she did while under Deathstroke’s control, but Dick finds her and he is very much not pleased that she is here, or that she took over his old team, or that she was out on patrol alone, or… let’s just say he’s not pleased and neither is Cass. On the artistic side, I congratulate the colorist on making Cass complete the set of naturally occurring eye colors by drawing her with grey eyes. She’s now had every color at least once.

The two of them chase-fight each other through the case with Dick giving us the obligatory bullshit backstory about how Cass seemed to be cured of Deathstroke’s influence before, but continued killing (in Titans East and the last few Robin issues). Batman interrupts the fight, telling Dick that she’s part of the family and they should not fight. Dick relents, but not before telling Bruce that she was out alone on patrol and in the Batcave by herself. Cass argues that she cannot just stay cooped in all day and Bruce agrees. Batdad: 51

We now get a two-page of exposition dump from Beechen and, good Lord, it is so much bullshit, I’m actually gonna have to use bullet points here. Let’s go down the list, shall we?

Supposedly, the reason Cass can speak and read now, is because she took speech and ESL courses + tutoring from Alfred during the day. That’s all it took. You know. For the girl whose brain chemistry was confirmed to be working completely differently by Barbara not too long before Beechen took over. Fail. Dubious Characterization 38, Retchcon 6.

Deathstroke drugged her with a rifle dart from a distance and then convinced her to break Cain out of prison, so she could murder him.

Cassandra won leadership of the League of Assassins through trial by combat and killed Nyssa to make sure she remained the undisputed leader. Dubious Characterization: 39

She had the League restore Lynx, who died during War Games, back to life, only so that she could kill her again. Dubious Characterization: 40

She killed Annalea. Dubious Characterization: 41

The pistol Slade had given her to kill Cain with was rigged, because the whole masterplan had been to, and I quote, “open up an assassin shop, with Cassandra as second, and Slade as silent partner”. Retchcon: 7

Cain had trained a bunch of other girls like Cass, but assured her that she was his favorite, and apparently that, plus a bit of residual drug from Slade, was enough to make her work with him in distributing Pheno on the streets of Blüdhaven. Retchcon: 8

Cass killing the pharma company boss in Robin’s series is painted as a good thing here, because it proved that she had escaped from Cain’s control. What. Dubious Characterization: 42 (technically for everyone involved in this, from Batman & Robin to Cass & Cain)

Words fail me in describing how utterly moronic and contrived and just baaaaad all of this writing is. Even worse, in trying – and failing! – to fix Cassandra’s character, Beechen is destroying another one: David Cain. God, I already hate this piece of shit mini-series so much.

As much as it pains me to say it, jerk!Dick might actually have a point here. He is not convinced by any of this bullshit and neither am I, so he heads out to find Cain and his assassin girls before Cass can. Bruce warns Cassandra not to make him regret his trust in her. She takes the notes she took from her investigation and leaves.

The next night, Cass is out on patrol by herself again, pondering her guilt over the murders she committed and how she is unconvinced she’ll ever have a place in the batfam. The second part of this adds another point to the dubious characterization counter, because Cass canonically does not care all that much about her civilian life. She cares about her life as Batgirl. At least she used to and I have seen nothing in the way of convincing character development that would justify this sudden shift. Ghost Of Failures Past: 22 Dubious Characterization: 43

She finds a bunch of dead girls in the basement of the place she is investigating and encounters their killer – a woman in black and red (so obviously evil), whom Cass calls a familiar face. I have a horrible retchcon feeling about this...